#especially since he really does love people i just think with both him and sasuke having six path’s power six paths traveled the world to

[leewritestoomuch]

HII I saw your requests are open and you wanted um. Neji. Reqs. Hi. um.!! Could you write something of him with a reader thats not from a strong clan (They are well known but not for fighting or even field work) and doesn’t have a Kekkei Genkai or anything but is strong regardless,,, wields a sword and is great at fighting physically and all that. She teases him a lot and gets not his nerves but it’s all affectionate! She does get underestimated a lot though. I’ve had this idea sitting in my head ever since I watched naruto,, saw team guy and fell in love they are my roman empire

Neji With an S/O Who Isn’t From a Prominent Clan

Idk if i capitalize titles right tbh. I forget how it’s done honestly. I don’t remember if “With” gets capitalized.

Anyways, thank you so much for your request!

This is a little harsh in the beginning. So WARNING! For asshole genin Neji.

No gender specified, but “beautiful” is used

An uneven number of shinobi graduating from the academy was so oddly unheard of that at first, you ended up training alone with some jonin who took pity on you.

And at first, Neji had said something to his team about that just being the fate of people like you. Destined to be alone and a failure.

No need to give you some chance for a big break in life, this would happen any way you put it.

Neji didn’t ever figure he’d be willing to die for you one day. (Maybe he’s not the character to say this for…)

He dreaded when Gai Sensei introduced you as a new teammate of team 3.

Of course Gai would go through the trouble of taking pity on a wimp like you. He should have expected no less.

Tenten was excited that you wielded a weapon, however.

And Rock Lee was excited to have a new teammate! Not to mention, you were beautiful. He was just a little smitten…

Overtime, he watched you train. And as Tenten marveled over how well off you were in your skills with your ninjato! (A ninjato is a straight sword, if you don’t know. Sasuke uses one)

And in the same way he thinks Rock Lee or Naruto are destined to never make it anywhere, he thinks the same of you.

After the chunin exams and the Konoha crush, he begins to think differently of you. He thinks differently of himself, Rock Lee, and Naruto as well. Even Lady Hinata.

Overall, he becomes more pleasant to be around. And you both start to talk a bit more often.

Soon he fines Lee’s insistence on flirting with you so openly is annoying, and not just because he won’t shut up anymore, but now it’s that he’s jealous.

He’s jealous?

He’s jealous.

And when he watches you fight while on missions, he’s got a different way of looking at you.

Maybe somebody with no Kekkei Genkai and no prominent clan can really make it. Maybe you aren’t destined for failure. Maybe that challenge is just something you can overcome, become stronger.

And you have.

I think being with him would be a classic case of you fell first, he fell harder.

You didn’t fall immediately. You were very sweet, but anybody with a brain knew Neji was a total asshole. Even if you were rather nice to him, you didn’t have eyes for him beyond thinking he was pretty for a guy.

So once he starts to be nicer, you quickly realize he’s not just visually your type. You really like the guy.

It takes him a couple years to fully realize he fell for you.

And a bit longer to realize Lee, as much as he cares for him, is testing his patience asking you out. When will he give up?

So he realizes, if he keeps quiet, are you gonna give in and let Lee have a chance with your heart?

So he ends up asking you out on a date after pulling you off to the side. Making sure you were out of earshot from anybody, especially your team.

You both keep it silent from Tenten, Gai, and Lee. Anybody really. For a while.

He wonders how none of them notice the way you tease him more than the others. The way you’re just a bit too touchy with him. (Tenten noticed, but she keeps her mouth shut for a while)

The way you insist on braiding his hair or tying it up for him before training or something to get it out of his way.

Or just beg him to let you braid it for fun. No real reason.

Usually he rolls his eyes, groans, and says no. Firmly. But he’s not so firm with you.

He looks so pretty with his braided hair. Let’s just say that.

Until finally Neji snaps a little bit at Lee, “When will you realize, y/n has a boyfriend, Lee.”

Lee’s eyes go wide, and he’s visibly upset. But soon his brows just furrow a bit as he exclaims “WAIT, WHO??”

Neji realizes his mistake, but he’s not ashamed of you. So maybe it is time to say something. So he informs Lee, and the rest of the over enthusiastic team, that he is, in fact, your boyfriend.

He’s actually so proud of your skills.

He’s not the type to show you off by PDA, but he will smirk and look all smug when somebody compliments you or you do something awesome.

And when the clan’s branch system gets dismantled, eventually he starts figuring your name would sound real nice with Hyuga as a family name.

[theheirofthesharingan]

Hi there. I am sending this probably silly question because you are one of the few fans of both Sasuke and Itachi that I know, and this has been bugging me since the first time I watched Naruto.

So, Itachi wants Sasuke to be stronger, to kill him and go back to the village as a hero that killed an alleged Konoha traitor. But why does he tell him to kill his closest friend? I understand Itachi wants Sasuke to get the Mangekyou to get stronger, but this would surely make him a criminal in the eyes of Konoha. Also, I think it is unnecessary, since Sasuke could have gotten the Mangekyou after killing Itachi (which didn't happen in the end, but it was a possibility). I understand Itachi wanting to be sure, but still... He was risking way to much here.

It also does not make sense for Edo Tensei Itachi to "scold" Sasuke for being a "criminal" (he was not really scolding, but you get what I mean...) when he himself urged him to commit a way worse crime. So he says "I turned you into a criminal" but, actually, Sasuke never did what Itachi asked. I understand Itachi feels guilty for way more things than he deserves, and indeed he might be responsible for Sasuke leaving the village and going to Orochimaru to gain power for revenge... But anything that happened after Itachi's death was actually Sasuke's own decisions (decisions that came as a result of legit rage against Konoha for committing a genocide, of course).

I know Itachi was a child, traumatised, isolated and under inhumane pressure at the time. In these conditions, it is understandable that he did not make the best decisions, that he was not acting completely logically or thinking totally straight. I am not judging him in the slightest, I just would love to read your views on this.

Thank you and lots of love!

The rules of the Shinobi world are vastly different from those of ours. In the Shinobi world conflict is endless and lives hold different values than they do in ours. You may not face a trial for taking a life, much like you might not get a medal for saving one. Sakumo Hatake, for example, saved the lives of his comrades and ended up being shunned by the village, including the people whose lives he'd saved.

Itachi, after he killed his own parents, was leaving Sasuke in a place that had made him murder his own parents. Hiruzen was a weak shield and Danzo still lived in the village. Itachi wanted Sasuke to get strong, not only to kill him, but also to be able to protect himself in case Danzo made a move against him. An Uchiha, even with a simple Sharigan, was seen with fear. An Uchiha, with Mangekyo, would be formidable. Thinking from Itachi's POV, he was leaving Sasuke in a very hostile place, known for its belligerence towards Uchiha. What was a defenseless child supposed to do in case Danzo's Root came for him and Hiruzen proved useless? It didn't happen, but how would itachi know it wouldn't happen at all? Especially when Danzo did send Sai to kill Sasuke instead of letting a troop also follow them so they could take down Orochimaru, who had actually attacked the village.

Itachi had a flawed perception that as long as Sasuke lived, everything else he went through would be worth it, including his best friend's death. To him, Sasuke's life mattered, not a stranger's who might become his best friend. I believe he changed his mind later on when he met Sasuke and Naruto at the inn. He saw Naruto risking his own life, fighting for Sasuke despite being horrified of Itachi moments ago. It's probably after this that he made his mind to include one more objective to their final battle.

He also understood Sasuke didn't hate him at all. When he says 'you don't have enough hate', it's the truth, because when Sasuke learned Itachi was back and was after Naruto, he rushed to warn Naruto, but all he thought about was Itachi, their final day together before everything went wrong. And then he charged on Itachi, unprepared. We've known Sasuke to be calculative and in control of his emotions almost all the time. He loses it the moment he sees Itachi. Even if itachi tried to ignore him he wouldn't sit back. This wasn't the response of someone who had hate in his heart, but too much of emotional investment.

Yes. Itachi was always risking a lot. Him taking up the mission to annihilating his clan, then leaving Sasuke, and basically everything that followed - all of it was a gamble. Things could go either way. Sasuke had to be safe, for which he had to be protected all the time; but for him to become strong, Sasuke would have to train and practice, maybe go on potentially life threatening missions as well if he wanted to be strong enough to kill Itachi. Itachi's plan was always a double-edged sword. It could go either way.

Itachi blames himself for Sasuke's actions because he controlled a large portion of Sasuke's life. He did it unwillingly, in tears, in guilt, yes, but he did do it. Like I said above, he thought as long as Sasuke was safe it would be worth it. Itachi was somewhat responsible for Sasuke leaving Konoha, but not entirely. After Sasuke wakes up in the hospital, he challenges Naruto, because Naruto had suddenly become so strong. Even then he couldn't defeat Itachi. Then Sasuke, who had lived his whole life for the purpose of killing Itachi, was still no match for him. After Kakashi's pep talk, Sasuke even considers dropping the idea of revenge or at least struggles with it, thinking about Naruto, Sakura, and their bonding. Then Sound Four attack him. The rest is history.

After Itachi's death, while everything that Sasuke does is his own call, his own decisions, they still stem from the life Itachi made him live, and him not finding any closure. Yes, Itachi didn't want Sasuke to know the truth because he knew it would destroy him emotionally, and it happened exactly that way.

Itachi didn't scold Sasuke, he merely accepted where his plans failed. Itachi and Sasuke are very rich characters in terms of psychological depth. I'm no psychology student, but I love to read stuff here and there, and one pattern I've seen in both the brothers is that of 'age regression.'

When trauma impairs your ability to develop full emotional maturity, this is known as arrested psychological development. Trauma can “freeze” your emotional response at the age you experienced it. When you feel or act emotionally younger than your actual age, this is known as age regression.

Taken from this article. There's more to it, but I lifted the important part to answer this ask.

It's very common in how both Itachi and Sasuke respond. Many people say 'Itachi always saw Sasuke as a child to protect instead of a grown up' and he himself says this as Edo Tensei to Sasuke later on. I believe it's because, emotionally, he too never grew up beyond 12-13 and in some ways beyond four. To him he was never above 12 and Sasuke was never older than 7. All of his reactions to his life, however bad and with disastrous outcomes, are out of unresolved PTSD. It's the same with Sasuke and how he responds to his surroundings. Both of them were emotionally 'frozen' in the age they were traumatized. At the age of 12, even though Sasuke is too mature for his age, there's still the longing for his family and he remembers every single detail of his moments with them. Then after learning Itachi's truth too. I believe while he's a grown up now in Boruto, there's a part of him that's frozen in that moment when he found out about Itachi. Since Itachi isn't mentioned in Boruto and Sasuke's feelings for his family aren't the matter of discussion, I don't think I can prove this.

When Itachi saw what he'd made Sasuke - not a criminal or a monster - but a lonely, broken kid, he felt ashamed of himself. He feels so guilty because of his conscience. It's also because he was free from any obligation towards anyone after his death and was very flexible in face of new information that he admitted his wrongs.

Itachi, in fact, never realized what haopened to him was wrong too. His actions weren't spontaneous. On the contrary, they were the outcome of what was done to him. But unlike Sasuke and Kakashi, for instance, he did do many things wrong. Sasuke felt guilty for not being able to save his family, his clan, and then Itachi. Kakashi felt guilty for not being able to save Obito, then Rin. Even if it wasn't their fault. Itachi did a lot of things that were entirely unforgivable and he knew it too. So, his guilt outweighed any desire he might have had to acknowledge his trauma. He defined himself by the horrible things he'd done. Objectively, there would be a lot of nuances that you could consider, but fictional characters can never be objective.

When Hashirama praised Itachi, Itachi would never agree with him. When Sasuke called him perfect, Itachi disagreed with him. When Kabuto called him a genius/exceptional Itachi disagreed with him too.

Itachi felt nothing but regret his entire life, which eventually defined him as a person.

[cartoonrival]

obtio and itachi for the character bingo. actually lets also go with sasuke lets get the whole uchiha family drama in here

ok i did this bingo a while ago w obito but im doing it again because my opinion is more developed since we've now discussed him at length. i think he's fucking annoying and his significance in the final arc is absolutely bizarre and deeply undeserved.

obito's significance in the story should begin and end at kakashi's backstory. like you've talked about, to kakashi, obito is more of a symbol than a person; kakashi was deeply traumatized (understandably) by obito's final moments, and is infinitely plagued with guilt over the person that he was at that time, blaming himself for his friends' deaths even though it wasn't actually his fault. he had no respect for obito until obito's final moments, where he sacrificed himself for kakashi and gifted him HIS EYE, GOUGED FROM ITS SOCKET AND SWAPPED WITH KAKASHI'S, HEALED INTO PLACE BY HIS 12 YEAR OLD TEAMMATE, finally making kakashi understand that looking out for the people you love moreso than the mission itself is honorable, actually. obito represents what kakashi should be and what he was unable to be, a point of failure and something to strive towards and fall short of forever. the horror of obito's death is emblematic of what's wrong with konoha and the ninja system in general-- why was rin, a child, taken prisoner? why was it left up to kakashi and obito, children, to rescue her alone? why were the three of them on the battlefield to begin with, KAKASHI AS THE TEAM LEADER? children gouging their eyes out as parting gifts. obito cared about kakashi from the beginning enough to give him an actual piece of himself, but kakashi couldn't be assed to give him the time of day until the moment obito died (because he was 1) an asshole as a child (love and light!) and 2) also traumatized by his father's SUICIDE (ALSO A BYPRODUCT OF WAR) which shaped his world view in an extremely rigid way), and THIS should haunt him forever. he can grow from it and make new connections and try his damnedest to make up for it, but obito should NOT come back. there is NO REASON for him to come back. he is not even SLIGHTLY an interesting enough character in his own right to justify him coming back, especially not as a MAIN PLAYER IN THE FINAL BATTLE. HUH?

his obsession with rin, a girl who ALSO had zero personality and thus i don't care at all about their relationship with each other, was absolutely bizarre and ridiculous, the way he hung onto it i understand objectively was a symptom of his stunted emotional growth and being a very broken man, but the way this was executed was MISERABLY done, no one cares, shut the fuck up, she didn't even like you (she liked kakashi, for some fucking reason, weird to make that like her only personality trait just for kakashi to not even like her back). like his anger that kakashi didn't protect her is 1) sexist but we know this (she is apparently incapable of protecting herself) and 2) annoying because again, this would serve much better as just another failure notch in kakashi's fuckup belt, but instead this dude comes back at the age of 32 to be like ooououuuugh all i wish is to hold hands with the girl i had a crush on when i was 12 and know nothing about..... SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPP

and obviously the fandom. fucking. KAKASHI/OBITO???? REALLY????? kakashi cares about obito because he was his teammate and a symbol of his personal failures, and obito sacrificed himself for kakashi because he was a kindhearted child and both of them were raised as war machines. how the fuck does that ever ever translate to romantic attraction. ever. what. they weren't even actual friends. why is this so popular. like in what world.... IN WHAT WORLD............

itachi....... itachi............i loveyou......... i mentioned this in a previous post but to me itachi is gen the POSTERCHILD of everything that is so wrong with the political system. he grew up SWALLOWED by it and chewed up and spit back out. his father took him to a battle field when he was like 4 literally just so he'd see what it was like. he was raised as a double agent and brainwashed so seamlessly that by the end he didn't even know whose side he was actually on. absolutely fascinating character and heartbreaking and devastating and horrible. ive never never never seen siblings written as well as kishimoto wrote sasuke and itachi, because LITERALLY WHO CAN GROW ME A NEW BROTHER... itachi loved sasuke more than anything. im convinced that if you dont think he loved sasuke then you weren't watching. obviously, what he did was terribly cruel and he ruined sasuke's entire life and no amount of i love you and im sorry can fix or change that, but he loved him. driven to do something unspeakably horrible by the government officials who had groomed him into a killing machine, setting the fate of his clan and the village and potentially beyond that on his teenaged shoulders, but he had to spare his brother. like itachi is deeply deeply brainwashed by konoha and this is something that he never gets over; he spares sasuke and drives him to hate him because he's afraid what would happen if sasuke crossed konoha, what konoha would do to him, he thinks that maybe he's doing the right thing and protecting the village, maybe, if sasuke grows up strong, stronger than him, no matter what it takes, then maybe he'll fare better than itachi did. but also there needs to be someone left to hate him for it. itachi can't bare to get out where everyone who knew him, who could really really hate him like he deserves to be hated, is dead. its selfish, obviously its fucked. but he needs it and he's terrified.

itachi's manipulation of sasuke's entire life is frankly very very fascinating and horrible to me, the willingness to rewrite and rewrite sasuke's beliefs and control every aspect of what he knows and believes and wants to a desperate attempt to keep him safe and to keep the village that fucked them both over safe. normally i think bringing characters who already got their epic death scene back from the dead cheapens the weight of the original death, but with itachi i actually think his return is sort of critical just because it breaks my heart so fucking bad. sasuke please don't call me perfect. sasuke this is everything i did wrong and im sorry and i love you and im not going to control you anymore. whatever you think is right, ill always love you. like itachi fucked up irrevocably. but man. thats his brother. thats his baby brother. we are fucked. i think given time sasuke will not think as highly of itachi as he does when the story ends and i think this would be a fantastic development to watch, but where things stand and considering how the rug has been pulled out from underneath him about one billion times i think its fully understandable that he has the take that he does by the storys end.

itachi was not a good brother, obviously, christ, but he DID love sasuke and i think what happened to them both is horrific

SASUKEEEEE i love a guy who doesn't know what he is doing or what he wants he just hates himself and his life and is terrified of weakness or connection or love and he gets led around by his nose because he's so full of hate and fear and anger that anyone who can help him direct it LITERALLY FCUKING ANYWHERE is immediately someone he will stand beside, until he changes his mind again. like im going to be sick. HES SO FUCKED. its crazy i think how little im about to write about him bc i think without direction my brain sort of looks just like @#**)#!H@FUIBEW*(#@*(WESDU@* *CWF)*WCF wrt sasuke.

was he right? umm im generally anti-tyranny but he was on the right track. it fucking sucks that kishimoto is so scared of change. im so glad he killed danzo. i fucking hate team taka though that was lame as hell idrk why kishimoto was afraid to just let him walk a lonely road the only road that he has every known and instead had to give him a bunch of tonally dissonant goons. devastating. what the fuck even. "you are the only person left who loves me and that terrifies and unsettles me so badly that i desperately need to kill you so that you'll stop and i'll really be alone" is an absolutely insane and also gay character motivation.

post canon sasuke is i think what makes me the most miserable with him (and im trying to get into this w b2, we'll see how successful i am) because i think its like. wow. what kind of person even are you after spending 7 odd years like how sasuke spent them. who even are you. what are you doing. what are you GOING to do. how do you know you won't change your mind and start hurting people again. how do you know you wont change your mind and start hurting yourself again. youre already hurting yourself. where are you. what is this. why are you alive. you should be dead. you deserve to be dead. you kind of wish you were dead. but also someone loves you and swears on his life that nothing in the world could ever make him stop, and you believe him and its so terrifying being known by yourself and by someone else but maybe things will be okay but maybe they wont and you hope that when the two of you die, its you first, because even though he says he never ever could you know he could get on without you but you have no idea who you'd be without him.

i wont rehash boruto because ive done that already but its critical as well. WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO HIM IM GONNA THROWUP

[thehollowone16]

Hey! Kabuto, 7, 9, 15 and 24 for the character ask game!

Eyyyyy my boy <3

Under the cut cuz I'm a rambly bitch

7. What is something the fandom does with the character that you like?

I love all the jokes, drawings, and metas about the times skip, what he, Orochimaru, and Sasukes life might have been like. What we see is already pretty funny. "It must be Sasuke. He's always grumpy when he first wakes up" (chapter 306).

I also really love what I've seen from the fanfic side. Rabbitprint on ao3 especially has some wonderful character study type fics involving him. The beautiful, poetic fics that focus on the tragedy of his arc contrast with the more upbeat stuff that pokes fun at him.

The metas as well. I have to give a special shout out to all the people on tumblr who do character analysis of him. There's a lot to read into, especially since he rarely says what he's thinking exactly. Smarter minds than mine have done long pieces analyzing him, and it's always a treat to see.

All in all, Kabuto fans are passionate, and I love seeing people passionate about their characters!

9. Could I be roommates with him

Yeah, I can't picture us interacting a whole lot, though. Very, he stays where he is I stay where I am. Idk that we'd give each other reason to dislike each other, but I can't see us being friends either. Just, not a lot of shared connection personality or interests wise.

15. Favorite ship

I view him as aroace. None of his ships really appeal to me either.

I think I once threw out Haku when someone asked, like, both survive, post-war au. Idk I still feel like I'd prefer it to be platonic, though. Idk, I prefer platonic all of his ships.

Out of the relationships he has, I personally find his weird psudo-friendship thing with Naruto the most interesting. I wish we got more of it, but that's a fun space for fan exploration so I'm not too bummed out about it.

24. What character from another media does he remind me of?

Unsurprisingly, Chishiya.

Some spoilers for late Alice in Borderlands and Chishiya's arc.

There's bare bones similarities, like both being intelligent medics who are self-centered and betray the main character while the main character trusted them and even viewed them as a bit of an authority. Both survive their stories, not exactly befriending or ever being the main antagonist to the main boy but serving as a dark reflection of him in some ways.

Late in the series, the line that got me to write Chishiya was "it was like I existed to show just how empty a human can be," (chapter 56) which just emotionally wrecked me. The line also feels very Kabuto.

This might be very rambling and I haven't reread Alice in Borderland recently enough to make a real meta on this. I do see a similar sort of crisis in both characters told from very different angles. Chishiya is far more independent for one, but he also doesn't self reflect in the ways Kabuto sometimes does until the end.

[tamayokny]

my thoughts during my naruto rewatch, part 1:

you say the uchiha are intense with their feelings? look at naruto: he’s extreme 110% of the time. this is especially shown during the land of the waves when naruto emits kurama’s chakra because he thought sasuke was killed.

sakura is an interesting character. at the start of the series, she has the least advantages compared to her teammates, but it’s shown early that she’s quick to analyze, understand, and even adapt to the situation compared to naruto and sasuke. her growth is really cool to watch.besides this, i feel like sakura is a great stand in for the audience--we are more like her than sasuke or naruto. (in terms of being a shinobi.)

additionally, i find it hilarious that anti-sakura folks get pissed based on how sakura constantly smacks naruto around. as if that isn’t a common shounen animanga trope. and that a lot of this type of violence happens in fillers more often.

also, as much as i love naruto, he does deserve to get smacked around by his teammate. his behavior can be inappropriate and she doesn’t know him well enough at this point. i’m sure some of his comments made sakura a bit uncomfortable and she wasn’t sure how to reject him.

i’m also going to defend sakura again: her feelings about naruto may be mixed in the beginning, but she does recognize when her own behavior was uncalled for. she tries to be better and she does become friends with naruto! she cares for him.

sasuke is also fun to watch when you’re familiar with his journey. like, you can see early on that he wasn’t always a menace (said with endearment)--he’s just aloof and moody. however, he has his soft moments with both naruto and sakura. he cares for his teammates; he’ll let sakura hug him while asking about naruto’s wellbeing

also, the way he saved naruto while kakashi was being negligent with his students lmfao

and when he saved konahamaru from kankuro pre-chunin exams. it was also cool how he crushed that people in his hand lol. he is cool.

the land of the waves arc is overall so good, especially since it sets up so much of the shinobi institution in just that arc alone!

zazuba and haku have a special place in my heart. it broke my heart when zazuba said that he couldn’t follow haku in the afterlife as he believed that he wasn’t worthy of residing in a good domain. he didn’t show it in a good sense, but zazuba did care for haku and that was reciporcated

we’re all pissed with how naruto was treated by konoha as a whole. however, when i was watching him drink expired milk in his shoddy apartment, it had me thinking: how are the orphans generally treated? the system for orphans is terrible! i know this gets addressed sometime in shippuden; i don’t remember the details exactly but damn. they way we are shown how problematic konoha’s overall system is so early on in naruto. i love to see it, honestly.

[tamagosandesu]

SSMonth 2022

Title: in these little interactions we had Prompt: crossovers (day 5) Summary: Ever since the day they first met at Hogwarts, they were both captivated by one another. The first time their gazes met, there was this electrifying feeling in between. Who knew it these growing encounters did they find true love? Author’s Notes: So, when I saw day 5 was crossovers, I immediately thought of harry potter. While I’m not really a complete fan of it, I still enjoy the HP movies. I also once saw a smutfic in twitter where sakura was the ravenclaw headmaster and sasuke was the slytherin one and I thought it was such a great idea. This is a very fluffy one since I don’t have the time to thinks about complicated plots. Credits to onemorepineapple on twitter for the inspiration!

__________________________

Ever since the day they first met at Hogwarts, they were both captivated by one another

Sakura was a mudblood, born to a loving muggle couple above average. She had a normal childhood, going into pre-school and learning the same subjects as muggles, unaware of the world of magic that lies beyond their very own world.

That was, of course, until her letter of acceptance arrived from Hogwarts—brought by an old-fashioned looking man, and had her name written, and sealed with a stamp that differs from other. When she saw the Hogwarts name, she tried to look it up whenever she had the free time to roam around the library freely. But none came up. As far as she knows, Hogwarts was a school that doesn’t exist.

At first, she ignored the invitation. And as much as it piqued her interest to know that it was delivered by a man that had a…broom with him, she dropped the issue as if it was nothing, and that it was just another one of those sham mails, she assumed.

But when the mails returned, and seemed to be more persistent than before—almost flooding their mailbox—she finally regarded the letter serious, and finally had the courage to open.

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…?” she reads the name of the school aloud. Witchcraft? Is this some sort of dark propaganda?

She had doubts, high doubts that this is actually a legitimate school that people in at her age go to. Being at a young age, and of course of curios nature, Sakura asks her parents about the matter. Her curiosity only grew when her parents practically gasped so dramatically upon seeing the letter, with such great fascination and wonder that it makes her think for a moment if the school does actually exist.

Her parents later explained to her what this Hogwarts is all about, and the amazing fact that she has a witch’s blood running through her. One of her ancestors were a wizard, and also graduated in this certain school.

Sakura understood this, with an open mind and an understanding soul that she continued her study in Hogwarts, without really knowing what was waiting for her.

Especially about a certain ink-haired man who she has fallen so deeply in love with.

__________________________

They first met at the sorting ceremony, like how every other newcomer did. And yet, at the same time, theirs was entirely different. The first time their gazes met, there was this electrifying feeling that ran through her entire body after seeing such deep, piercing onyx eyes. So fathomless, and yet at the same time it was so, utterly mysterious. The moment she set eyes on him, she couldn’t take her eyes away from his handsome face, chiseled jaw, aristocratic nose, and a purely beautiful being.

He was the very personification of dark, mysterious, and so handsome. He was the complete contrast of her being—a colorful mixture of bubblegum pink, and green eyes that made her stand out like a sore thumb.

Though Sakura thought that it was such a waste that they ended up being sorted into different houses. She was assigned as a Ravenclaw—exceptional wizards and witches that excels in wit, intelligence, and intellect. While the mysterious boy, on the other hand, was a Slytherin—ambitious, clever, and determined beings that are the root of evil most of times, or so she heard.

The first banquet of the year was held right after the sorting ceremony in the Great Hall, that depicts the wonders of magic from the walls, the lights, the roof, even to the food.

Sakura was all new to this, and she knows her eyes are wide right now in amazement and utter interest, and her mouth probably gaping. Everywhere you look was fascinating, even the food was well done.

While that was already so much to take it, little did Sakura know that right there, was only the start of an adventure.

__________________________

Sakura was fifteen when she developed a deep fondness towards medicine. In the muggle world, medicine was modern—created in laboratories, pharmaceuticals, clinically-tested, and underwent many, many processes of experimentation. But in the wizarding world, medicine was peculiar, but much more effective. Honestly, she shouldn’t be surprised about these matters since she knew she’s no longer in the normal world deprived of magic. And yet, every time an herb grew in Hogwarts does its wonders, she can’t help but still be in awe after everything.

It didn’t take long for her fondness towards medicine to grow into a full-fledged love affair, having her devote almost all of her time towards learning all there is to know about certain medications in Hogwarts. She was a Ravenclaw, after all, always craving knowledge, wanting to know, wanting to explore almost everything.

And besides the newfound devotion towards a new hobby-turned-into-passion, she also found love. Never, in Sakura’s life, has she ever looked at a man in deep, profound, and ever-growing attraction that she did with Uchiha Sasuke. The man was growing even more handsome every year, and every time she sees him after their well-deserved break from school, he just grows more and more interesting.

At first she only thought that her inevitable curiosity towards the young boy was nothing but young infatuation—seeing someone so absolutely gorgeous wasn’t a sight she experienced every day at her muggle school. But as she was aging, maturing, and growing-up, she later realized that she developed a genuine liking towards the man.

__________________________

Sakura was seventeen when she and Sasuke have more frequent interactions than before.

The longer she was at Hogwarts, the more responsibility she gets. After being taken under Professor Shizune’s wing—their herbology teacher that also deals with poisons, she gained more tasks to do at school. Instead of going directly to the Ravenclaw tower after school, she now has to run around the hallways to find certain people for certain things, and navigate her way into classrooms to finish certain duties.

Sasuke, on the other hand, became Slytherin’s Quidditch team captain and was also taken personally by the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Orochimaru under his tutelage.

Their interactions were never longer than a few civilized sentences exchanged for either academic’s sake, or formality’s sake. Still, that didn’t become a reason for Sakura to like him less. Because every time they would see each other, whatever time of the day, he’s still so achingly handsome that it’s unfair. Long days of school are stressful, and Sakura’s physical appearance mostly mirrors what she feels inside. If she feels exhausted, her shoulders sag. When she feels mentally stressed, her hair dishevels and stands in an unruly way that it becomes messy.

But with Sasuke, it doesn’t happen. Even if both houses had a long day ahead of them, Sasuke still manages to look effortlessly gorgeous that she practically swoons. Even after being in the air for a long time due to Quidditch matches, he’s still able to look handsome despite being sweaty.

Their interactions aren’t special, or personal. But it’s in those moments that Sakura is able to speak freely to him. And honestly, she’s satisfied.

__________________________

She was eighteen and in her final year in Hogwarts when things between them and Sasuke got more serious.

From simple, short conversations about important matters, to clandestine meet-ups in a more secluded area in the library to talk much longer than before.

It all started when Sakura got lost along her way of looking for the Xylomancy room to give an important message when coincidentally, Sasuke was also there in the same hallway.

“Hey Sasuke,” while they might not be close, they’ve come to an understanding still of allowing each other to drop the honorifics and talk casually to each other. Because after all, they’re just the same age, and plus, their encounters were so frequent it seemed hard to continue being so formal with each other.

The man in question looks at her in acknowledgement, and hums. “What?”

“I seem to be lost…” she shyly confesses, “I was looking for the Xylomancy classroom to pass on and important message, but I can’t find the room.”

“I know where it is,” he responds simple, shrugging.

“Can you help me?” Sakura asks.

“Sure.”

Sasuke takes the lead while Sakura silently followed behind. They’ve had enough encounters to know where each other was comfortable. Sasuke prefers silence more than anything, and Sakura wants nothing more than this young man’s company. So, whenever they’re together, they fall in a routine that’s almost unconsciously natural.

When they finally found the classroom, Sakura heads in and expects Sasuke to leave her alone now after helping her. But she’s somewhat surprised when she saw him leaning at the door, arms crossed that made him look so utterly handsome, staring right at her and waiting patiently for her to come back.

She didn’t question what was his intentions though. Knowing Sasuke, he sort-of has a reputation at school of being anti-social and almost an asshole. But these, for Sakura, are nothing more than mere rumors and wrong notions. Because for her, and whenever she’s with him, he never shows these alleged attitudes towards her.

Walking along the hallway, Sasuke asks her how her day was, making small conversation that seemed so unlikely of him. But she still complied, however, and gladly told him today’s occurrence in her life.

That was the start. From civilized talks, they slowly transitioned out and their conversations turned into more personal, and somewhat trivial things about each other. They would coincidentally meet-up in the library, study together, and sometimes chat away, or play chess against each other. Their dynamic was refreshing in some way—the silent comfort of the library and the ever-so-peaceful ambience of each other’s company was something they both liked, deep down.

Sakura can’t really tell what they are, or if there’s something going on between them. They flirt, (again so unlikely of Sasuke), sometimes she slumbers away at the comfort of his shoulder, they eat lunch together at secluded areas of the school, they meet-up at certain times of the night, and they meld into a routine that isn’t quite normal for people that are considered to be acquaintances, nor friends.

So, they might be more than friends, but she also knows they aren’t above lovers either.

__________________________  

It was graduation night when Sasuke formally asks her to be his girlfriend, and sweetly stole her first ever kiss.

After weeks, and months of having a shift towards their relationship, they grew more comfortable with each other, more than ever. Since both of them still has obligations and responsibilities in the school despite being graduated, they can’t really have all the time for themselves.

So instead, they continue their clandestine meetings late at night, or at lunch to sneak out and eat somewhere else alone with only each other’s company.

There are times when Sakura craves, wants something more than what they have. There are times when she suddenly seeks the comfort of Sasuke’s embrace and warmth at the most random of times, and wished for them to spend more time with each other. It’s not that they’re drifting apart, but because she fears they will.

There are so many more fishes in the sea, and much more appealing woman that could very much catch Sasuke’s attention and leave Sakura for her. Behind her, there are women lining to be his lover, especially that their relationship is so private only a handful of people knows the truth.

Sakura never voices out her concerns, until Sasuke practically had to drag the truth out of her to realize what was wrong, and even to confess to Sakura that he also feels the same a lot of times. Sakura is way too hardworking and driven to notice the number of boys that hounds her. She’s beautiful, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that. The first time he laid eyes on her in the Great Hall, he was so mesmerized by her being that his mind was plagued and easily distracted by pink everywhere for a whole week after seeing her. And besides her otherworldly beauty, she was kind, so charming, and witty that’ll surely attract everyone.

When Sasuke and Sakura started to have common interactions with each other, Sasuke was thankful. Thankful that he’s given the chance to be graced by her beauty, by her charm, despite what she might think she looks like. He’s heard her complain a lot about how exhausted she looks, but he doesn’t see that. What he finds in her is that she’s adorable, so cute when she pouts, when she raises an eyebrow in genuine curiosity, and when she beams at him with a grin so wide it brightens up his whole day.

He started to be attracted, then he started to see her as a woman he potentially likes, up until it came to the point that he dreams of her because of being absolutely smitten with her.

So, when he finally drew courage and took urges to get to know her, he was so satisfied that he finally got her. And he knew he will do anything to keep her.

__________________________

Sakura and Sakura were twenty-five and newly promoted as their respective house’s Headmasters when their relationship was finally known by almost everyone. Slytherin house was now under Sasuke, and Ravenclaw’s new headmaster was now Sakura, and their relationship was the juiciest gossip that was circulating at school.

The big revelations happened after Sasuke was asked if he likes someone while he was drunk, then bluntly blurted out, “I have a girlfriend,” to which promptly surprises everyone. And it seems Sasuke was very, very, drunk because he says that the love of his life was Sakura, a confession that made professors stumble out of their chairs, and the Gryffindor headmaster—Naruto—choke on his drink.

And because of that, both of them are constantly teased whenever they would be seen even only a tad bit close to one another. Literally, whenever Sasuke visits her classroom—she now also teaches herbology and Sasuke teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts—to ask for something about charms, her students would yell and tease her non-stop that only makes Sasuke smirk from her deep embarrassment.

No one really understands how their love works—they could go hours without talking, just sitting right beside each other, a simple glance could be an exchange of a thousand words, and a mere moment beside each other was as precious as a gem for them. But still, no one doubted their affections towards each other were nothing but deep, genuine, and surely mutual.

__________________________

It didn’t take long after that for Sasuke to pop the question with the help of everyone. He made sure his proposal would be magical, much more magical than Hogwarts itself.

First, he led her to their favorite part of Hogwarts—a certain tower where they would sit and look down at the school for hours—disguising it as a date to lure Sakura to it. Next, he had everyone cast spells to create fireworks, spelling out the words will you marry me before Sasuke goes down on one knee and presents a majestic ruby-adorned ring.

And of course, Sakura didn’t hesitate to say yes.

Their life in Hogwarts might not include anything extraordinary like villains trying to raid it or an evil-spawn waging war. But at the very least, it was especially meaningful.

[avengernomore]

I get why some people don’t like Sasuke, especially in Boruto.

...What I don’t get is why some of those people still like Naruto, and think he’s a good parent.

Let’s just recap here.

Sasuke, after the war, went on a long, self-imposed mission, that was basically to exterminate the rest of the Zetsu, so that they wouldn’t be able to plan something like what they did again, and basically remove a huge threat to the world.

In doing so, yes, he was leaving his wife and his daughter alone.

HOWEVER. I have mentioned this quite a few times on here, do you recall how Sakura got Sasuke to marry her in the first place?

STALKING AND CONSTANT HARASSMENT.

While Sarada is innocent in this case, would you really want to stay with a wife who basically pestered you and wore you down until you agreed to marry them?

They do, at the very least, appear to love each other in canon but that can be put down to Kishimoto’s frankly terrible writing, considering he basically undid a bunch of character development for Sakura and made her back into a Sasuke fangirl who has no care for Sasuke’s privacy or personal space.

But yeah, Sasuke does have legit reason to want to be away from Sakura, even though that’s not the point of his mission at all.

Now let’s look at Naruto.

Naruto stays at Konoha (he offered to go with Sasuke but Sasuke said that he was needed in Konoha, knowing that in the not-too-distant future, Naruto would be Hokage. Naruto ended up getting married to Hinata, and having two children. So far, so good.

...Then he became Hokage. And then his family simply became an afterthought, he was like “sweet, I’ve achieved my lifelong dream, fuck my family” and started to neglect them. While in the same village as them.

Yes, Hokage is a busy job, but you’re forgetting that Naruto can, and often does, make clones of himself. Since paperwork is hardly a dangerous job, he could have made a clone, and have that do all the paperwork, or done all the paperwork himself and had a clone spending time with his family.

Remember that Boruto basically ends up in the same sort of situation as Naruto, doing all sorts of pranks to get attention, because Naruto is neglecting him. Despite having living parents, Boruto is neglected by his father to the point of doing pranks, and considering Naruto’s childhood... Naruto really should know better.

Oh, and also, when some random kid shows up, Naruto makes time to train them, rather than, y’know... spending time with his family? Training with Boruto? Y’know, something that would make him a better parent?

So yeah, I’m just saying, they’re both poor parents, but Naruto has both the means and the opportunity to be a good parent... and then he kinda blows it hardcore as soon as he becomes Hokage. As soon as he achieves his dream, he all but abandons his family.

[panharmonium]

this is legitimately one of my top five favorite kakashi scenes.

i love seeing kakashi break the rules in the name of doing the right thing, and this scene especially is particularly satisfying to me, because his moment of defiance here is, to my mind, long overdue.  

one of my eternal frustrations in early naruto is how the leaf village administration gives kakashi the job of caring for a group of super high-needs children and then continually makes that job as difficult for him as possible.  they task him with being solely responsible for the development and well-being of three twelve year-olds - a group that includes naruto (a walking disaster with a god’s power trapped inside his body) and sasuke (a genocide survivor fixated on killing his own brother), BOTH of whom are being hunted by different groups of supercriminals - and then the village keeps getting in kakashi’s way or dropping the ball or actively ordering him to prioritize other things.  

so much of what goes wrong with the kids in this period is the result of other people interfering with kakashi’s work or being negligent or endangering the kids/putting kakashi in impossible positions.  team 7’s first big mission sets the tone for everything that comes after, with someone else’s lie putting kakashi in a situation where he has to single-handedly protect not just the client who deceived him, but the three children who were supposed to be the clients’ other protectors.  and after that, the list just multiplies:

ten anbu operatives can’t manage to protect sasuke’s hospital room from orochimaru’s minions, so kakashi has to do it himself and then whisk sasuke out of the village for a month, leaving naruto in the hands of a substitute and sakura with her parents

genma orders sasuke to chase after gaara when the chunin exams blow up, saying “you’re at chunin level already,” which forces kakashi to immediately dispatch more kids to bring him back, because “ffs NO i do NOT want him out there doing that why the fuck would you tell him to do that?!” 

aoba runs his mouth off about itachi when sasuke is standing RIGHT THERE, instantly undoing all the work kakashi just did to prevent itachi and sasuke from coming anywhere near each other (and thus sending sasuke to that disastrous first encounter, the outcome of which ultimately leads to sasuke’s defection)

jiraiya decides he should let sasuke try to fight itachi himself, “out of respect for the boy’s feelings,” leading to sasuke ending up in a tsukuyomi coma

tsunade orders kakashi to drop his teaching work and leave the village on a mission even though a) he’s just gotten out of his own torture-induced coma and b) sasuke is having a crisis that kakashi is trying to manage

and then when kakashi gets back from that mission and finds out that surprise, all of this meddling has led to a disaster, tsunade tries to order him away AGAIN

but this time - he just says no.

he walks right out of her office.  he turns his back on her.  and there is NOTHING i love more than seeing kakashi embody the philosophy that he’s chosen to adopt as his guiding light: those who break the rules are scum.  but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.

it’s not that he doesn’t understand where tsunade is coming from here.  but he knows she’s wrong.  she’s making her decisions based solely on concerns about the Leaf Village being in a tight spot - feeling like they can’t turn down missions because they’ll appear weak and thus become vulnerable to attack when they’re already operating at half strength.  she sends a group of twelve year-olds to bring sasuke back because supposedly the village can’t spare anyone else, “even if it means letting the sharingan fall into orochimaru’s hands” - but like.  it’s not the sharingan.  it’s a child.  sasuke isn’t just a repository for his hereditary jutsu; he’s not a pair of eyes to be passed around from one wielder to the next.  he’s a human child.  

tsunade doesn’t know sasuke.  she’s new to the situation and doesn’t know enough about it to understand how serious it is.  i don’t even think she was still in the village when the uchiha massacre occurred; the timeline makes it sound like she left long before that.  she doesn’t really understand who sasuke is or how much trouble he’s in - she makes her decision because she feels like her first priority has to be the well-being of the Leaf as a whole, not the individual people who comprise it.  kakashi, though, who a) lives his life by a very different philosophy and b) does understand sasuke’s situation, would not have dealt with the issue like this, and if the village had let him do his job from the beginning, things wouldn’t have gotten to this point in the first place.

kakashi is horrified that tsunade sent a bunch of twelve year-olds out to fight orochimaru’s ninja, and i think he’s also probably angry and/or frustrated about having been ordered out of the village in the first place.  he was dealing with the situation before tsunade sent him away.  he interrupted the fight between sasuke and naruto even though he himself had literally just gotten out of the hospital, and then he continued addressing the issue with sasuke privately (unlike jiraiya’s non-attempt to address it with naruto, when he said he was going to give naruto a talking-to but actually flaked out).  kakashi knew sasuke was struggling, and he was doing all the things a teacher is supposed to do to address it, but then he was ordered away, and even though it was just for two days, it was enough time for everything to go to hell.

if people would just let him do his job - if the administration would let him focus on the task they themselves assigned to him - things would be different.  but everybody wants him to do everything.  they want him to be everywhere.  they want him to protect the nine-tails jinchuriki (who is also kakashi’s dead teacher’s son), and train the last surviving uchiha (which is a task only kakashi and his sharingan can perform), and give equal attention to a third kid, for good measure, and they want him to do it without stepping away from any of his other burdens, all while other people around him constantly frustrate the progress he makes.

so this time, when tsunade tries to send him away, he refuses.  he disobeys her orders and walks out of the room.  he doesn’t care about the rules or what he’s “legally” obligated to do.  he knows what the RIGHT thing to do is, and so he rejects his new mission in favor of rescuing the kids.

i love these moments.  i love when we’re shown so clearly the person kakashi has chosen to be - someone who does what’s right, not just what he’s told.  he made an active choice many years ago to adopt that philosophy, and he’s been living by those new rules ever since.  he's wiser now than he was when he was a child - sometimes you have to break ranks to do the right thing.  sometimes you have to buck the system, even if it means you might face severe personal consequences.

he had one of two choices: either save the mission or his comrades.  of course, according to the law of the village, you cannot abandon a mission.  but to save the life of his comrades, he put the mission on hold.

kakashi may have spent a good chunk of his childhood trying to reject everything the subject of that story stood for, but none of his attempts to harden his heart ever stuck.  he is, in the end, his father’s son.

[poison--ivory]

Neji Hyuga/Uchiha!Reader (Modern au)

Warnings: “Guy talk”, cursing, smoking, kissing, and fem. reader 

Domestic fluff with Neji

(Neji’s pov throughout the story)

Neji would be lying if sex didn’t run through his brain every now and then. It was a normal human habit that a lot of people did, but not him. He did manage to masturbate before, however he felt ashamed each time he dug his hand down his pants. He never liked the mess afterwards either. The pain of cleaning everything that he touched, because in his mind he thought someone might come into his room and see the little Neji’s swimming on his headboard or nightstand. Let’s not get started on the nudey magazine Naruto left at his flat, he only looked at it one time before burning it. The two pages stuck together made his skin crawl just knowing that idiot came all over that paper and gods forbid if you saw it and thought he was like Naruto, just wanking off to any material he can find.

To say it in less words, it was a pretty taboo topic for him. Especially, when his dad and uncle heard he got a girlfriend. The tiny sexual remarks were pretty hard to miss whenever his relationship came up. Small jabs at how when they were younger they were pretty sexually active in college and wouldn’t be surprised if their kids were the same. He knows Hinata is pretty sexually active since Naruto is always talking about their sex life. But, him on the other hand was the complete opposite.

If any of the guys started talking about intercourse he’d get uncomfortable. But, neji was in that type of predicament right now and all he felt like doing in that moment was slap the hell out of Naruto for initiating this conversation.

‘A nice night with the boys’ is what Naruto said. Which usually meant him watching them play video games, eat fatty snacks, play drinking games while Shikamaru gets high in the background. However, the only requirement met were the snacks and left a pretty irritated Shikamaru. 

Naruto and Kiba started with their stories, and Neji had to sit through Naruto's raunchy story of how he fucked Hinata on Sasuke’s dorm bed. The noirette boy sitting next to him smacked him on the back of his head. Kiba’s story consisted of him only receiving blow jobs form random girls on campus, they mostly never wanted to have sex since Shino creeps them out. So, they never stayed after the bj. Shikamaru was next and once he was done talking about his personal experience Kiba was quick to jump into action.

“So, when you and Ino were fucking was it better or worse than what Temari does to you?” Kiba asked.

Shikamaru eyebrows creased together, “Well, Ino was pretty good in bed, but she couldn’t give a blow job to save her life. Temari on the other hand swallowed me whole on the first try.” Neji visibly and internally cringed at the thought of some of your girlfriends doing anything sexual. “Just don’t go blabbing to anyone about what I said. Temari still won’t let me go anywhere near third base hell even second base sometimes.” Shikamaru disappeared in the kitchen, snatching a bag from Choji bundle of snacks.

“I can’t promise.” Kiba yelled. Paying close attention to the other black haired boy in the room. Kiba was quick to turn to Sasuke who in return glared back at the smirking Inuzuka. Scooting closer to the Uchiha a smirk appeared on his face.

“What?” Sasuke said, clear annoyance in his voice.

“C’mon, you and Sakura seem buddy, buddy lately and I’m pretty sure she had a limp walking around campus today. No need to be, so secretive, we all know.”  Glancing over at the noirette teen, Neji could tell he was reaching his limit of stupidity for the day.

“Naruto and Shikamaru told their stories, you could at least give us one, indulge us.” Choji rebuked, looming over the kitchen opening. Shikamaru glanced up from his phone for a split second, before shoving his earphones in.

“Maybe some of us don’t want to talk about their sex life right now.” Sasuke snapped back. Kiba jumped back, yet refused to let up.

“Are you mad that your friends are getting some while you're not, didn’t know you were that petty.” Kiba nudged him, which Sasuke evidently shoved back. “Or are you still hung up on your cousin, (Y/n), shagging Neji.” Black eyes filled with anger, blared at the brunette. Yet, the idiot kept going. “She’s pretty innocent, doncha think, just imagining he-” Kiba was interrupted as both fist of Sasuke and Neji collided into Kiba’s sides. Knocking the brown haired boy further on the couch. Sasuke gave him another harsh hit to the shoulder. 

“Don’t you know when to shut up, Kiba.” Neji glowered.

Neji stood up at this point and as he took his leave Sasuke trailed close behind. They both left the blonde haired boy’s house without hesitation. Reaching for his keys in his back pocket he noticed Sasuke just loitering in the yard. If you found out that he just left Sasuke standing there, he’d never hear the end of it. You were always close with your younger cousin and would go to him whenever you guys argued. Turning back around to face the younger Uchiha he asked, “Do you want a ride home? I don’t really care what you pick, I just don’t want (Y/n) thinking any less of me.”

Scoffing, Sasuke moved to the other side of the car and as Neji unlocked the doors the dark haired man quickly sat in the passenger seat. Pulling off Sasuke spoke up, “Mind if I smoke?” Out of the corner of Neji's eye he could make out the square box being waved back and forth.

“Sure, but roll down the window I don’t my car smelling like smoke. (Y/n) would flip.” Neji nodded his head towards the window, his hand automatically rolling all of the windows in the car down. The sound of a lighter flicking rang under the noise of the engine and soon the smell of cigarettes filled the air.

“She gets pretty upset whenever I do it. I quit smoking for about a year, because she didn’t want to see me get lung cancer. But, I got back into the habit a couple of months ago.” He said, and inhaled the thick smoke that blew from his lips, flying out the window soon after.

“She really cares about you, ya know.” Neji mentioned, yet the man sitting next to him remained silent. Sighing Neji kept his gaze on the road, this is going to be a long car ride.

The rest of the car ride was pretty silent, well it wasn’t really a surprise since both of the men in the car are pretty solitary people. It didn’t take too long for him to drop Sasuke off at his family’s house, not giving Neji a proper ‘thank you’, he settled for a two finger salute as he walked up the stairs. Neji pulled out and headed straight for his place, you and Neji moved in together your senior year of college. He grew accustomed to your habits pretty leisurely, not that he minded them, well maybe he hated the way you did dishes or ate really unhealthy foods. But, he never voiced out loud with you, like how you never told him off for his out of nowhere belching.  

As his car pulled up in the driveway he took notice of your car parked on the street. You always gave him the driveway, he didn’t really complain about it though. He couldn’t help, but pay close attention to the way he nearly skipped several steps to open the front door. Swinging the hard wood wide open Neji slipped his shoes off before adventuring further down the hall. You were usually watching whatever crap you listened to whenever you came home, however you didn’t seem to be in the living room. Feeling worn down, Neji opted to take a quick nap, this day left him feeling heavy. Lead feet trudged up each stair, feeling his feet getting heavier with each step.

Reaching the master bedroom Neji stared down at the curvy figure laying on the bed sheets. (Y/n) laid still on the only sign of life was her soft breathing sounding through the silent room. Laying over Neji sat himself on the comforter, scooching closer to your body. His toned arms pushed under your limbs, bringing you in closer for a soft hug. A kiss planted on your cheek, he finally closed his eyes.

“Love you, (Y/n).” He whispered.

Smiling, you held onto his thick forearms, “I love you, too Neji.”

[pumpkinpaix]

Hello! Feel free not to answer this question if it is in any way too much, but I've been wondering about something concerning the "western" mdzs fandom. Lately, i have seen multiple pieces of fanart that use what is clearly Christian symbolism and sometimes downright iconography in depicting the characters. I'm a european fan, but it still makes me vaguely uneasy. I know that these things are rarely easy to judge. I'm definitely not qualified to do so and was wondering if you have an opinion

Hi there! thank you for your patience and for the interesting question! I’ve been thinking about this since i received this ask because it?? idk, it’s difficult to answer, but it also touches on a a few things that I find really interesting.

the short answer: it’s complicated, and I also don’t know what I feel!

the longer answer:

i think that this question is particularly difficult to answer because of how deeply christianity is tied to the western art and literary canon. so much of what is considered great european art is christian art! If you just take a quick glance at wiki’s page on european art, you can see how inextricable christianity is, and how integral christian iconography has been in the history of european art. If you study western art history, you must study christian imagery and christian canon because it’s just impossible to engage with a lot of the work in a meaningful way without it. that’s just the reality of it.

Christianity, of course, also has a strong presence in european colonial and imperialist history and has been used as a tool of oppression against many peoples and nations, including China. I would be lying if I said I had a good relationship with Christianity--I have always faced it with a deep suspicion because I think it did some very, very real damage, not just to chinese people, but to many cultures and peoples around the world, and that’s not a trauma that can be easily brushed aside or reconciled with.

here is what is also true: my maternal grandmother was devoutly christian. my aunt is devoutly christian. my uncle’s family is devoutly christian. my favorite cousin is devoutly christian. when I attended my cousin’s wedding, he had both a traditional chinese ceremony (tea-serving, bride-fetching, ABSURDLY long reception), and also a christian ceremony in a church. christianity is a really important part of his life, just as it’s important to my uncle’s family, and as it was important to my grandmother. I don’t think it’s my right or place to label them as simply victims of a colonialist past--they’re real people with real agency and choice and beliefs. I think it would be disrespectful to act otherwise.

that doesn’t negate the harm that christianity has done--but it does complicate things. is it inherently a bad thing that they’re christian, due to the political history of the religion and their heritage? that’s... not a question I’m really interested in debating. the fact remains that they are christian, that they are chinese, and that they chose their religion.

so! now here we are with mdzs, a chinese piece of media that is clearly Not christian, but is quickly gaining popularity in euroamerican spaces. people are making fanart! people are making A LOT of fanart! and art is, by nature, intertextual. a lot of the most interesting art (imo) makes deliberate use of that! for example (cyan art nerdery time let’s go), Nikolai Ge’s What is Truth?

I love this painting! it’s notable for its unusual depiction of christ: shabby, unkempt, slouched, in shadow. if you look for other paintings of this scene, christ is usually dignified, elegant, beautiful, melancholy -- there’s something very humanizing and humbling about this depiction, specifically because of the way it contrasts the standard. it’s powerful because we as the audience are expected to be familiar with the iconography of this scene, the story behind it, and its place in the christian canon.

you can make similar comments about Gentileschi’s Judith vs Caravaggio’s, or Manet’s Olympia vs Ingres’ Grande Odalisque -- all of these paintings exist in relation to one another and also to the larger canon (i’m simplifying: you can’t just compare one to another directly in isolation etc etc.) Gauguin’s Jacob Wrestling the Angel is also especially interesting because of how its portrayal of its content contrasts to its predecessors!

or! because i’m really In It now, one of my favorite paintings in the world, Joan of Arc by Bastien-Lepage:

I just!!! gosh, idk, what’s most interesting to me in this painting is the way it seems to hover between movements: the hyperrealistic, neoclassical-esque take on the figure, but the impressionistic brushstrokes of the background AAA gosh i love it so much. it’s really beautiful if you ever get a chance to see it in person at the Met. i’m putting this here both because i personally just really like it and also as an example of how intertextuality isn’t just about content, but also about visual elements.

anyways, sorry most of this is 19thc, that was what i studied the most lol.

(a final note: if you want to read about a really interesting painting that sits in the midst of just a Lot of different works, check out the wiki page on Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, specifically under “Interpretation and Legacy”)

this is all a really long-winded way of getting to this point: if you want to make allusory fanart of mdzs with regards to western art canon, you kind of have to go out of your way to avoid christian imagery/iconography, especially when that’s the lens through which a lot of really intensely emotional art was created. many of my favorite paintings are christian: Vrubel’s Demon, Seated, Perov’s Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, Ge’s Conscience, Judas, Bastien-Lepage’s Joan of Arc, as shown above. that’s not to say there ISN’T plenty of non-christian art -- but christian art is very prominent and impossible to ignore.

so here are a few pieces of fanwork that I’ve seen that are very clearly making allusions to christian imagery:

1. this beautiful pietà nielan by tinynarwhals on twitter

2. a lovely jiang yanli as our lady of tears by @satuwilhelmiina

3. my second gif in this set here, which I will also show below:

i’m only going to talk about mine in depth because well, i know exactly what i was thinking when I put this gif together while I can’t speak for anyone else.

first: the two lines of the song that I wanted to use for lan xichen were “baby, I’m a fighter//in the robes of a saint” because i felt that they fit him very well. of course, just the word “saint” evokes catholicism, even if it’s become so entwined in the english language that it’s taken on a secular meaning as well.

second: when I saw this scene, my immediate thought was just “PIETÀ!!” because LOOK at that composition! lan xichen’s lap! nie mingjue lying perpendicular to it! the light blue/white/silver of lan xichen in contrast to the darker robes of both nie mingjue and meng yao! not just that, but the very cool triangular structure of the image is intensely striking, and Yes, i Do love that it simultaneously ALSO evokes deposition of christ vibes. (baxia as the cross.... god..... is that not the Tightest Shit) does this make meng yao joseph of arimathea? does it make him john the evangelist? both options are equally interesting, I think when viewed in relation to his roles in the story: as a spy in qishan and as nmj’s deputy. maybe he’s both.

anyways, did I do this intentionally? yes, though a lot of it is happy accident/discovered after the fact since I’m relying on CQL to have provided the image. i wanted to draw attention to all of that by superimposing that line over that image! (to be clear: I didn’t expect it to all come through because like. that’s ridiculous. the layers you’d have to go through to get from “pretty lxc gifset” --> “if we cast nie mingjue as a christ figure, what is the interesting commentary we could do on meng yao by casting him as either joseph of arimathea or john the evangelist” are like. ok ur gonna need to work a little harder than slapping a song lyric over an image to achieve an effect like that.)

the point of this is: yes, it’s intentionally christian, yes I did this, yes I am casting these very much non-christian characters into christian roles for this specific visual work -- is this okay?

I obviously thought it was because I made it. but would I feel the same about a work that was written doing something similar? probably not. I think that would make me quite uncomfortable in most situations. but there’s something about visual art that makes it slightly different that I have trouble articulating -- something about how the visual often seeks to illustrate parallels or ideas, whereas writing characters as a different religion can fundamentally change who those characters are, the world they inhabit, etc. in a more... invasive?? way. that’s still not quite right, but I genuinely am not sure how to explain what i mean! I hope the general idea comes across. ><

something else to think about is like, what are pieces I find acceptable and why?

what makes the pieces above that reference christian imagery different than this stunning nieyao piece by @cyandemise after klimt’s kiss? (warnings for like, dead bodies and vague body horror) like i ADORE this piece (PLEASE click for fullview it’s worth it for the quality). it’s incredibly beautiful and evocative and very obviously references a piece of european art. I have no problem with it. why? because it isn’t explicitly christian? it’s still deeply entrenched in western canon. klimt certainly made other pieces that were explicit christian references.

another piece I’d like to invite you all to consider is this incredible naruto fanart of sakura and ino beheading sasuke after caravaggio’s judith. (warnings for beheading, blood, etc. you know.) i also adore this piece! i think it’s very good both technically and conceptually. the reference that it makes has a real power when viewed in relation to the roles of the characters in their original story -- seeing the women that sasuke fucked over and treated so disrespectfully collaborating in his demise Says Something. this is also!! an explicitly christian reference made with non-christian japanese characters. is this okay? does it evoke the same discomfort as seeing mdzs characters being drawn with christian iconography? why or why not?

the point is, I don’t think there’s a neat answer, but I do think there are a lot of interesting issues surrounding cultural erasure/hegemony that are raised by this question. i don’t think there are easy resolutions to any of them either, but I think that it’s a good opportunity to reexamine our own discomfort and try and see where it comes from. all emotions are valid but not all are justified etc. so I try to ask, is it fair? do i apply my criticisms and standards equally? why or why not? does it do real harm, or do i just not like it? what makes one work okay and another not?

i’ve felt that there’s a real danger with the kind of like, deep moral scrutiny of recent years in quashing interesting work in the name of fear. this morality tends to be expressed in black and white, good and bad dichotomies that i really do think stymies meaningful conversation and progress. you’ll often see angry takes that boil down to things like, “POC good, queer people good, white people bad, christianity bad” etc. without a serious critical examination of the actual issues at hand. I feel that these are extraordinarily harmful simplifications that can lead to an increased insularity that isn’t necessarily good for anyone. there’s a fine line between asking people to stay in their lane and cultural gatekeeping sometimes, and I think that it’s something we should be mindful of when we’re engaging in conversations about cultural erasure, appropriation etc.

PERHAPS IT IS OBVIOUS that I have no idea where that line falls LMAO since after all that rambling I have given you basically nothing. but! I hope that you found it interesting at least, and that it gives you a bit more material to think on while you figure out where you stand ahaha.

was this just an excuse to show off cool (fan)art i like? maybe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(ko-fi)

[kishillaa]

SSM21 Day 9: Family

Sasuke is fidgeting beside her, looking anywhere but the person, a few person, before them.

Understand that he won't saying anything else, Sakura bows, which a 3 year old Sarada, who's in Sasuke's hold do as well, "We apologise to be coming over here. My family were chased by enemy and this husband of mine is just too generous to transfer us here." She half teased, half serious telling the family before her their story.

The Uchihas family looks perplexed. Of course they would, someone who looks exactly like their youngest son is standing right before them, holding a toddler, with an oddly pink hair woman beside him.

"May we ask who you are?" The Uchiha Matriarch, Mikoto Uchiha asked.

It would seem better if they didn't tell the family their identity, but then again, this is once in a lifetime opportunity, to be with Sasuke's family. All of them gather in one place, so Sakura do what Sasuke probably wouldn't approve.

She smiles politely before she spoke, "I'm Sakura Uchiha, this is my husband, Sasuke Uchiha. And our daughter, Sarada Uchiha." She introduced. From her peripheral view, Sasuke is throwing a disbelieving look over her while Sarada squeals when her name is mentioned.

It was Itachi who spoke first, "Are you from the future?"

Sakura beamed at him, "Yes, such smart one you are."

Sasuke wished he has another hand that is not too busy holding Sarada to pinch the bridge of his nose for the stunt his wife has just pulled infront of his supposedly dead family.

-

Sitting with the other male members of his family, Sasuke can't seem to calm down as he plays with Sarada's hair to distract himself and occasionally responded to her babbling questions, and glancing at his wife–who is helping Mikoto with lunch, once in a while. He is forever grateful that his father and brother knew he doesn't want to speak.

"Is he like Naruto-oji, or Kakashi-jii chan?"

Sasuke paused at that, looking at his daughter trying to put pieces of puzzle together since her mother's outburst about those people being their family.

"Neither."

Sarada folded her little arms above her chest as she glares at her Papa. And then she shouted at her mother, "Mama! Papa being annoying again."

"Let him be today, Sarada-chan." Her soft voice sounded from the kitchen.

Sarada huffed and then grumbles on Sasuke's lap, "Be nice to Papa today, Sarada-chan. Just today, please." She mimics her mother's voice telling her what to and not do that day while they're visiting Papa's family.

Sasuke's eyes twitched at that, his lips make a frown of its own, "I don't think its nice to mock your mother."

"I dont think its nice to not answer Sarada's questions either." Was Sarada's quick remark.

"I did answer."

Sarada turns around in his lap to face him, "But you didn't give me proper answer, papa."

For one second, Sasuke lift up his gaze to look over his father and brother before quickly avert it away. He sighs, "Fine." He paused to drink his tea, "They're your family. Like Kizashi, and Mebuki. He," He nodded at Itachi, "is pretty much like Naruto," And then he paused, making a face thinking about the knucklehead.

"But Naruto-oji is your friend, Papa."

"It means family too."

"Really? Does that makes Chocho our family?"

Sasuke shrugs, "Sure."

"Inojin too?"

"Of course, Sarada."

The little girl's eyes glinting with excitement before she frowns, "How about Kakashi-jii chan? Is he family too."

Sasuke rolls his eyes thinking back at when he first started being a father, and somehow, betweem managing his job as a hokage, Kakashi was able to give him some of his Icha Icha Paradise tactics on how to start a bond with his new daughter, "No."

"But I like Kakashi-jii chan."

"Kakashi is bad influence. You should stop staying at his place."

"But I like hokage office."

"It's not a place for kids to play around."

"But Kakashi-jii chan said he likes Sarada's company."

Sasuke snorted, "Right, because you stamp for him."

"Kakashi-jii chan likes it when I help him doing hokage work."

"You should not encourage him to be lazy, Sarada. It's his job as the hokage, not you."

Sarada pulls her tongue our at her father, "But Shikamaru-san helped him." She pointed out.

"Shikamaru is his assistant. It's his job."

"I want to be a hokage too."

"You're 3 years old, Sarada."

Sarada nods her head a few times making her glasses fell down a little bit. "Old enough." She said, as she pushes her glasses up.

"She's a wise kid." Sasuke was startled at the voice of his brother, forgetting momentarily where they were.

Decided that it's time for him to speak up, he nodded, "She is."

"How do you transport yourself here, Sasuke?" It's his father. His stern authoritative voice makes Sasuke's raises his head up to look him in the eye.

He mutely uncover his hair over the rinnegan he tried to hide and show the odd 6 tomoe purple colored eye.

The eye makes the two Uchihas gasped in surprised, "It's rinnegan."

Sasuke nodded, "That's right."

Sarada's laughter surrounded the house successfully attract all attention to her. She lifted Sasuke's hair again to see his eyes. It always excite her to watch the mismatched color of her father's eyes.

"Can you do the star eyes, Papa?" She asked.

As if Sarada calls it herself, Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan appears, swirling into 6 pointing stars.

Sarada's giggle intensify before she pulls her father into her small embrace, and then pull away again, staring fondly at his eyes.

"Just how strong are you, little brother?" Itachi asked, amused.

-

"And then Papa killed it!" Sarada exclaimed with exasperation which earned her grandmother's laughter, Itachi's amused smile and an eye twitch from her grandfather.

Sasuke was silent as he watched the scene unfold before him. After they finish lunch, Sakura will help Mikoto clean up and doing the dishes. They will maybe sit for a little while, talking or rather, listening to Sarada babbles about everything she manages.

He, even though quite uncomfortable, is partly content at what had happen today. Both his family, past and future, finally met. He likes how casually Sakura speaks to Mikoto, the way she follows her orders as they cook together, and how she regards both Fugaku and Itachi. He likes how they accept who Sakura is to him, despite the different of clans, hair and eye color.

He especially loves how acceptable his past family is to their precious little Sarada. At such short time, he noticed how frequent his father will glance at the little girl, fondness marred his eyes. Itachi even though so subtle, shows how he enjoys Sarada's non stop talk, amusement danced in his expression, as if saying, you're just like my otouto. His mother is the most obvious out of them all. She already loves Sarada, that is an understatement of the day.

At this short moment of time, Sasuke let his guard down and savour this significantly valuable moment with his family.

He turn to look beside him only to meet with the green eyes of his wife, smiling at him. Sasuke nods as his expression soften before he returns her smile.

[animeyanderelover]

Como seria ser compartilhada por todos os uchihas yandere(indra, madara, obito, itachi, sasuke)

Sorry hun, that doesn’t work with all of them, at least I can’t think of any scenario possible. There’s a huge time gap between all of them, not to mention that we have a few who aren’t willing to share. But I didn’t want to reject this, so I decided to change it a bit and use a few of the Uchiha in here. Tbh, two from whom I think that they would make a great combo.

Request: How would it be if all of the Uchiha shared a darling?

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, stalking, manipulation, sabotage

Itachi and Shisui sharing a darling (non massacre AU)

🍡🍂I really wanted to write about those two so I chose them because I feel like they would make such a great duo. Sorry if this isn’t what you wanted😔. Reason why those two would work so well together is rather simple. Because both of them have such an amazing self-control and so much patience with their darling. Let’s take a deeper look into this, shall we?

🍡🍂If two persons fall for the same person and are Yandere, there are three different ways how to react to this. The first one is trying to get the darling for themselves whilst also trying to kill each other. The second one is where a poly relationship is made, but with a lot of problems since the Yanderes don’t get along. And the last category is where the Yanderes have a very good bond with each other and are willing to share. And with the right Yanderes this can be a blessing for you. And that’s the case with Itachi and Shisui.

🍡🍂They would most likely notice very early on that they share the same attraction to you. An obsession takes time for them so they noticed it in their earliest stages where it didn’t get out of hand too much. And at first I can see then of course as a bit taken aback by that fact, but in the end they would decide that the better one wins, probably even teasing each other a bit about it. But the moment they realized that they lost control over their feelings they would suddenly feel a bit scared of what might happen if they lose control. They don’t want to hurt people without a good reason and for sure don’t want to hurt you and they would also know that the other one feels the same way. So they would form this agreement because they trust each other and because they want to hold each other into check. Because no matter how much they might have control over themself, they still fear that their darker side might slip up.

🍡🍂They most likely tried to forget their feelings or to suppress them for your, their own and other people’s sake. But at one point they won’t be able to push their darker side away and both of them know that.

🍡🍂They’re both geniuses, no doubt about it. And they’ll need that for a reason in here. They’re part of the Uchiha clan and Itachi’s father, Fugaku, is really strict. So I feel like if it comes out that they share you, not to mention how intense they feel for you, it would end in a scandal. Even more if you aren’t even part of the clan. So they have to keep this a secret. I think the only people who would ever find out because both of them decided to tell them are Sasuke and Mikoto. They might be a bit shocked, but at the same time they know how much stress Itachi has to endure and they want him happy, not to mention that they love you and also like Shisui. So they might end up helping the two of them out.

🍡🍂It’s almost scary how easy it’ll be for them to have you figured out after only watching you for a few times. Both of them would choose to watch from time to time from the distance, allowing them to see you act freely. Especially Shisui is very sharp and understands the way humans think and feel in certain situations even better than Itachi does, making it easy for him and Itachi to read you like a open book. And that makes two already very talented manipulative Yanderes even more dangerous. They don’t use manipulation very often, most likely only if they think you’re about to do something reckless, if someone hurts you or if their amazing patience string (for a Yandere that is) wears thin and they’re starting to feel jealous. You will most like not even know how they feel and given their position and the fact that you trust them will give you no reason to suspect it if they give you a friendly advice to stay home or to stay away from this person.

🍡🍂Stalking would be a big thing for those two given that they’re both Anbu. The thing about Shisui and Itachi is that they’re both in a position where others can brush their more warning tendencies, including the stalking, off since both of them have connections after all.

🍡🍂You’re also in a more unique position since both of them are often more busy due to their job as an Anbu. But they try to watch over you as often as possible or to be just near you. They’re both very overprotective after all.

🍡🍂Praise this patience both of them have. You’re allowed to talk to almost everyone you want too as long as they don’t overdo it or you don’t overdo it. Because those two remember everyone’s face who could possess some sort of danger. Be that harming you or eventually possessing the danger of taking you away from them.

🍡🍂A thing to note about those two is their loyalty and devotion for you. It’s known that both of them worked as double spies for the Hokage, proving their unbreaking loyalty to the village. And that’s what will happen with you too. They’re devoted to you. They would never even dare to try to flirt with others and spend much time with you.

🍡🍂They’re pretty much the same, but they’re still a few differences though. I think from both of them Shisui is the more selfish one. If memories serve right he let his teammate die because he was better than him. He refused to give him the medical care he needed, ended in that guy dying. So Shisui is the more jealous one from those two. He still has very high patience, but he’ll lose patience faster than others.

🍡🍂Shisui might also be the one who has higher expectations on his darling than Itachi has. Even more after both of them managed to start a relationship with you. He’s very faithful as mentioned, but also expects the same from you. He’s always watching and will keep a very close eye on you when you’re confronted with a more flirty person. In a relationship Shisui might get the tiniest bit more jealous than before and this would be a test of loyalty for him. Ignore that guy or show him you’re awkward and/or uncomfortable around him and he’s fine. Flirt back and he’ll feel a bit upset. He would never tell you that he saw it unless you really did something that broke his trust in you. But as long as you don’t do this from his side you have a lot more freedom than with many other Yanderes.

🍡🍂Itachi is the more patient Yandere than Shisui is and being the more patient one will hold Shisui back when his patience seems to snap. Itachi is the more selfless Yandere who has a bit more understanding for the situation than Shisui has.

🍡🍂It’s all wonderful with those two as long as they don’t snap. But if that happens than good luck. Because they are dangerous, especially since Shisui’s Mangekyou Sharingan allows him to control people without them even knowing that they’re being controlled. Both are naturally talented and know what they’re doing. It doesn’t happen very often that the darker side of them comes out. It would happen on two occasions. When you break their trust and try to leave them or when someone hurts you.

🍡🍂Cheat on them or try to break up with them and you’ll break their trust, especially if the first possibility happens. As I mentioned, both of them have patience, but I feel like trust, honesty and loyalty would be important for them in a relationship, especially for Shisui. In general they are not willing to hurt you, but Shisui and his Mangekyou Sharingan are a serious threat. You won’t even notice that it’s not your own decision to not leave them and apologize for what you’ve done.

🍡🍂If the latter happens then that person can as well shovel their own grave. It might depend a bit on who that person is. If it’s a villager from the Leaf they might consider not finishing them. The keyword here is might. If they don’t they would be very smart with it, planning everything in the smallest details out. Place, cause of death, reason why, an excuse to where they were at that time. One of them would make the chance to be caught little to not possible. But both? The best of luck to the police force and other Anbu. I can see Itachi taking a bit of advantage of the fact that his father is the head of the police force. Fugaku trusts his son and Itachi would ask in such a casual way that he wouldn’t suspect anything and just answer.

🍡🍂But I also think that keeping this a secret won’t work forever and both of them know this. The fact reminds that they’re part of a clan and there is the high chance that one day the topic marriage will pop up in their families. And then it depends. If you’re not from the clan and/or weak they would start introducing to Itachi and Shisui possible future brides which both of them would reject. If you’re part of the clan and/or very strong and talented then it’s more likely that they’ll bring the suggestion up that you would make a great partner. Problem here would be then that you can only get engaged to one of them and not both. So they also started planning from a very early point on how to handle this, most likely involving the third Hokage in their plans since that man is very open-minded and understanding.

🍡🍂A relationship with both of them might be a bit tiresome because you need to keep it for a very long time a secret. But it could be so much worse if both of them wouldn’t get along with each other. For both it’s important that you’re comfortable with them and as much as their observing can be seen as bad, they’ll always sense when you feel for some reason sad or more depressed and would be always there if you need them.

[ladykissingfish]

The Akatsuki’s Reactions To Thunderstorms

Got the inspiration for this because lately we’ve been having a bunch of storms where I live, like back to back ((in fact it’s pouring outside my window as I type this)) so yenno it got me thinking, how would my favorite Band ‘O Killers™️ react to this situation?

Pein (Nagato) and Konan:

Storms of any kind, especially involving rain, are triggering to both of them. They come from a place where, as their friend Yahiko once put it, is “ALWAYS raining; like this whole village is constantly crying”. Rain to them represents pain, and hunger, and suffering. Konan is actually terrified of thunderstorms; one time when Pein was out, there was a storm and Konan, who usually went to Pein for comfort, was beside herself. Kisame found her curled up and shaking on the floor in the hallway (the one place without any widows to see the lightning) and, without asking questions, he laid beside her and put his arms around her, holding her and gently talking to her until the storm had passed. Pein doesn’t have the same physical reaction as Konan; rather, storms tend to intensify the repressed anger that lives in his chest. Every member of the Akatsuki knows to avoid Pein during a storm, because they know it’ll be the time he’s most likely to hand out difficult missions, or yell at somebody about something they’ve done.

Deidara:

Maybe unsurprisingly, the blonde artist loves storms. The bigger the better, the louder and more destructive, the more “artistic”. Storms bring out the competitiveness of Deidara, who always insists that he can match (or top) a clap of thunder with one of his bombs. Loves to see lightning strike things, and has to be stopped from going outside during storms to see this happen up-close. Since they won’t let him outside, he’ll stay with his face pressed up against the window, his expression the same as a child watching fireworks go off in the night sky. Also exponentially prefers night storms to daytime storms, as he claims the booming and shaking helps him to sleep.

Tobi (Obito):

As Tobi, he acts almost as scared of thunderstorms as Konan, although in a decidedly more goofy and exaggerated way. Hiding under the bed or in the closet, clinging to Deidara, making comments about “monsters in the sky coming to eat us!” As Deidara loves storms, he’s often impatient with Tobi and his irrational fears, giving him long lectures on the wild, untamed beauty of nature. As Obito, he actually finds rain and storms to be quite soothing, especially at night. He likes to sit in his room with his mask off, staring out the windows and letting his mind wander. The constant drumming of water hitting the ground relaxes him like nothing else, and he’ll always sleep better during a storm than any other time. The night after a particularly strong storm was the only time that his Senpai came close to seeing him without a mask on, as “Tobi” fell asleep and stayed sleeping very late into the morning, forcing Deidara to come looking for him. He woke up just seconds before his door burst open, just enough time to slide his mask into place, but still.

Sasori:

Doesn’t really care one way or the other about storms, unless he’s traveling in them. There’s been a few times in the past when he’s been on missions with Deidara, the two have been walking along, and a sudden downpour stopped them in their tracks. Seeking shelter during a storm is always a difficulty, especially to two people trying to remain largely incognito, the way the Akatsuki was supposed to do. Also, his young partner really enjoys the rain, and Sasori has to keep an eye on him, to make sure he’s not sneaking out into it and potentially getting sick. If there’s one thing that Sasori does enjoy about storms, it’s the smell of the air after it rains. He’s tried for years to duplicate this smell into a scent that could be put in a candle or incense, but to no avail.

Kisame:

Wind, WATER, danger — what’s not to love?! If he’s able to leave the hideout, Kisame will seek out the nearest body of water, and go swimming. Rainwater tapping the surface of a lake or river makes all the smaller fish come to the top, making it incredibly easy for Kisame to scoop them up in his jaws. The warmth of the water from the sky also mixes with the natural coolness of running water, creating a delightful sensory experience for the half-shark. Sometimes, however, a “cozy” mood will envelope him and he’ll simply desire staying inside, often curling up with a good book or spending time sipping tea and eating snacks with his partner Itachi. And “snacks” is putting it mildly; for some reason stormy weather always awakens a voracious appetite in Kisame, and he can easily put away the entire house’s weekly supply of food in one sitting ((and Kakuzu knows this, hence why he’ll literally put locks on the cabinets if Kisame is home during a storm)).

Kakuzu:

When Kakuzu hears rain, he hears the sound of money flying out the windows. Every single place that the group has ever used for a hideout has been of the absolute bare-minimum construction, which unfortunately allowed for some of the outside elements to get inside; like snow, and heat, and bugs ... and rain. Water damage is a particularly expensive bitch to fix, and Kakuzu is constantly forced to shell out money from the treasury to reinforce the roof, and/or provide rain gear and supplies for those venturing out on missions during storms. And missions carried out during storms alone are horrible, as they generally slow down speed and productivity, meaning longer times until mission completion and a delay in obtaining the goods or people or (most importantly) money that they were sent to retrieve. The only positive thing that Kakuzu can find to say about storms is that the rain helps the fruits and vegetables in the Akatsuki garden grow, which of course saves money on grocery trips.

Zetsu:

LOVES the rain. Storms make him ridiculously happy, and he likes to go outside and stand directly in a downpour, letting the cleansing water soak into his plantlike skin. Like any blossom, however, he has to be on guard against getting TOO much water into his system. Everybody knows not to bother Zetsu during his “meditation” time in a storm, as he will undoubtedly be standing out there in the nude. Storms also pose an interesting challenge to him, food-wise. Most of the small animals that Zetsu likes to prey on hide or burrow themselves during a loud rain-lashing, making them more difficult (but much more rewarding) for Zetsu to find.

Hidan:

Hidan is constantly seeking ways to test and prove the “limits” of his immortality. He’s “died” and come back from pretty much everything one can think of; stabbing, evisceration, decapitation ... but one thing he’s never done is “come back” from being struck full in the heart by a lightning bolt. So whenever a good storm gets going, Hidan will strip naked, wearing only his metal Jashin necklace, and stand in the rain, daring the lightning to hit him. If this had been anyone else, every Akatsuki member would be breaking their neck rushing outside to drag him back in. But with Hidan, everyone is, well, curious. CAN he withstand lightning? IS he truly immortal? Anyone who’s able will gather at the windows or just inside the front door, to watch the spectacle of Hidan screaming obscenities at the sky and taunting nature ... but unfortunately nothing ever happens. Hidan will just end up coming back inside soaked to the skin, and Kakuzu will yell at him for dripping all over the floor. But Hidan will point out that water is better than the blood he usually leaks, which the others whole-heartedly agree with.

Itachi:

When Itachi was younger, storms used to scare the hell out of him. He could go to his mother for comfort, but only if his father wasn’t home. If he WAS, he’d tell Itachi to toughen up and “be a man, son.” He later came to find out that his little brother Sasuke was the same way; at nighttime Itachi would wake up during a storm and feel a small body burrowed next to his, shaking like a leaf. He’d hold his brother and tell him stories until he fell asleep, and in doing so, learned the first valuable lesson of his life; it’s hard to be brave when you’re alone, but infinitely easier when you have to be brave for the sake of someone else. Now, storms always put him in mind of these long-forgotten moments of sibling tenderness, which in turn makes him sad. To combat this he copies his younger brother by seeking out comfort, mostly in the form of Kisame. Sometimes he’ll also go and spend time with Konan, as he discovered that SHE was afraid of storms, as well. Oftentimes he, Kisame and Konan will stay together, taking turns telling stories until the wild weather has passed. Another lesson: it’s easier to be brave, the more people you have around you trying to be brave as well.

[ohshitmomitsawritingblog]

Yay I found another blog that does headcanons for naruto!! I’m so excited I hope this is an okay ask but can I have headcanons on what it’s like to be sasuke’s twin sister? It’s okay if you don’t want to

You know I was going to delete this but this got my brain cranking along like the rusty little train that it is, so—

What it’s like to be Sasuke’s twin sister?

One word: exhausting

I think having a sister would’ve totally changed the trajectory of Sasuke’s life - that is to say, especially if she survived the massacre, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Sasuke’s twin would’ve been inherently integrated into shinobi life and inundated with expectations of what it is to be a Uchiha without actually being apart of it like her brothers.

Given their parent’s dynamics, I imagine she’s given mostly domestic responsibilities and is expected to carry and represent their nuclear family in civilian settings. There’s no real expectation of her becoming a shinobi, but that’s also because Fugaku probably doesn’t think a lot about his daughter. Given what we see with how he treats Sasuke, I just can’t really fathom him valuing any extra children, but especially the ‘youngest’ girl.

This man does not respect women I’m SORRY.

The misogyny is located in the jowls.

If Sasuke is the spare, his sister is the spare’s spare.

Sasuke both scorns his sister (either for her attempts at training without approval or disapproval, or for her being domestically trained, or both) and loves her greatly.

His sister loves him and scolds him ruthlessly - a trait that sours over their lifetime together, but is fostered by her lack of fear and complete awareness of who she is, who her older brother is, and what her twin brother will be.

Despite Sasuke monopolizing much of his time to training from a young age, there’s always some twin time - they eat lunches together, they wade through ponds in the spring to catch frogs, and take walks in the woods surrounding Konoha.

Often in their younger years, they’ll huddle under covers at night and conspire about the future. Travel, fantastical dreams of being some undefined best at something, their secret wants and needs.

There’s the dynamic before and the dynamic after their clan’s demise: Sasuke intermittently snubbing her yet always coming to her defense like the little sweet little boy he was, and then the mutual, slow divorce of anything either could call closeness.

She activates her sharingan less in a fit of rage and more while driven, blindly, by her own fear. A boot that is not Itachi’s digs into her back with a cruel twist. She gurgles and chokes on her own blood and the world washes out and away and yet is a perfect picture in her mind upon recall.

They can’t speak to each other, and they can’t talk. Nights where either tip toes into the other’s room after a nightmare or sleepless silence are ruined by either finding themselves on the knife’s edge of a gut churning memory. Black eyes and black hair repel them both from seeking out comfort. The familiarity is alienating and painful, disconcerting on good nights, terror-rage inducing on the worst.

She stops cooking. Sasuke learns how to clean. Their only interactions are when he stiffly asks her how to make something or how to fix a torn sleeve. Little questions tailored to the end goal of complete independence. She can’t even snark about how ‘these things aren’t silly now, are they?’. They weren’t, but now they don’t have a mother nor a father nor aunt nor uncle to teach them anything else. They rely on her knowledge because, what else do they have?

They both drown, and they can’t save each other. Both are made more aware of their own suffering by seeing it in their perfect mirror image. The companion they’ve always had since the womb is now a source of agony, and yet the empathy they hold for one another is powerful. It causes them to avoid each other unless they are home or at school. They sit on opposite ends of the classroom. They skip or make meals at odd times to avoid the feeling of waiting, or of playing house with all the important toys having gone missing. It’s a sham they both resent.

They want to go home. They don’t believe in building homes out of other people, let alone each other. So where is home?

His sister starts to cook again when they’re ten years old. She realizes that her brother, who is taller and wider and more muscular than her by then, weighs less than her. She cooks him udon and leaves a note that even if he eats it cold, he still needs to eat.

The bowl is empty and washed the next morning.

His sister becomes a shinobi for many reasons, but mainly, she simply refuses to allow her idiot brothers to play at blood sport while she buries her head in the sand.

There’s also the matters of: her idiot brother and his pride that will inevitably get him murdered, the constant implications that she is only good for marriage, and, eventually, the deep knowledge that she doesn’t want her eyeballs ripped out.

Their early ninja days are spent more or less the same to the ones leading up to it. They’re rarely home, with conflicting schedules and assignments that leave them bone tired when they are.

Slowly, though, her brother changes. He smiles more. He cooked for her, once or twice. He gains weight. Like a murky, undefined shadow, she mimics.

I think they start to reconnect. They don’t since at the sight of each other anymore. Sometimes they even hug. They both have a certain kind of hope that is fragile and newborn, stumbling on fresh legs. They try very hard to be the family they need, for a moment.

Sasuke’s stay in the hospital during the chuunin exams is only a hiccup, a way for her to integrate, even a little, into the world of team seven.

Kakashi-sensei is a strange man, but he’s kind, too. Like her brother, she warms to him quietly. Sasuke seems to trust him, and that’s good enough for her to throw her own sense of trust in the pot.

Of course it all comes tumbling down rather soon after, doesn’t it?

[phoenixyfriend]

Mangekyo Mikoto

Okay, so, concept time:

Due to a coincidence of scheduling and also just Being Pushy About It, Mikoto ends up on Kushina's protection detail during the Kyuubi Attack

Is heavily injured but not fatally so (I'm thinking spinal damage?), and is unable to save Kushina, blames herself, develops Mangekyo as a result.

Due to her heavy injuries in defense of Kushina and Minato, and her development of Mangekyo in response to Kushina's death, people are a little hard-pressed to argue that she or the Uchiha as a clan were responsible for the attack. The Clan Head’s Wife (and I’m in camp ‘Fugaku married into the position, Mikoto was the actual heir and they passed over the role because Fugaku liked paperwork more) nearly died, okay, if an Uchiha was responsible, then it was a rogue.

Ergo: Mikoto gets custody of Naruto, as godmother who is not currently under suspicion of, you know, causing the whole bullshit in the first place.

Having Mangekyo also means she has some argument in place that if the Kyuubi does break free again, she now has the means to stop it from causing widespread damage. (This isn’t common knowledge, but she does leverage it against Hiruzen and the council.)

Mostly this spirals over into: 1. Mikoto has the most powerful eyes in the clan but is also no longer capable of going on missions due to a debilitating spinal injury that has her using a wheelchair most times. 2. Mikoto raising Naruto; Sasuke and Itachi both being VERY protective of their 'little brother' 3. Mikoto having flashbacks to that one 'pretty sure I'm bi, let's find out' affair she had with Kushina before Minato and Fugaku dug up the courage to ask their respective crushes out.

I'm wishy-washy on whether or not the jinchuuriki thing becomes common knowledge because I feel like Mikoto would hate the idea of that info leaking, but I also imagine that she'd be in the hospital for at least a week or two after the incident, and unable to stop whoever shared the info

Consider Itachi being hella protective of Baby Brothers and, also, the utter hellion that Naruto becomes whenever someone (Fugaku) makes the mistake of asking Shisui to watch the kids for an afternoon

"Why doesn't Naruto have our clan name?" "Because I was very close with his mother, and I want to honor her by letting Naruto keep the name of his family by blood. His mother can't be here to raise him, but he can at least have her name."

I have this really solid image in my head of Mikoto in her wheelchair, infant/toddler Naruto standing on her lap to play with her hair as she holds his arms so he doesn't fall, while slightly-bigger-toddler Sasuke is on the floor and clinging to the wheels to stay upright and trying to tap at Naruto's legs because He Wants To Play

Also: Mikoto inviting Kakashi over to see Naruto and whenever someone tries to throw a fit over The Eye Stealer coming by, she just does Pleasant Smile With Mangekyo and then Fugaku has to Freak Out Like Hell because My Darling, Stop Doing That, Your Eyes Are Bleeding And You Will Go Blind Because You Wanted Drama.

Fugaku is an "I cannot stop my wife but I will flutter about uselessly as she damages herself for an intimidation bonus" husband.

Itachi regularly panics because he's five years old and his hands aren't big enough for two infants. It's like the "drunk person presented with puppies" video, except Itachi isn't drunk, he's five and overwhelmed by Baby.

This, except Itachi's problem is that he's like. Three feet tall. - He has to draft Shisui to help. - And then Kakashi because ANBU Hound keeps stalking his house.

I can't decide if Kakashi is more "Oh, is this how people saw me when I was that age? No wonder they all thought I was creepy as hell." or "This is Normal™️." - Probably the latter, he’s like fifteen and traumatized as heck.

This last bit I’m a little unsure of adding so if anyone feels I’m jumping into a topic I’m not qualified to talk about, even with the disclaimers, please let me know and I’ll remove it.

On the topic of transracial* adoption: it’s something that I'd be wary of writing about in too much depth because it's not my lived experience, for all that I can guess at some parts of how it would apply, but for a bulletpoint concept, I feel okay with touching on it.

Naruto is raised by Uchiha, surrounded by Uchiha, culturally an Uchiha... except he will never have Sharingan, he can't really do Katon, he's a chakra powerhouse in a way that screams Uzumaki, and he is visibly not Uchiha. I feel like that's liable to cause some identity issues and imposter syndrome about being part of the family down the line in ways that, say, being adopted by Kakashi wouldn't.

He wouldn't experience the same "Otherness" that he did in canon, but he would experience some Othering. Even with a loving direct family of Scary Murderers who want to protect him, there's only so much they can do. Especially if he starts to feel like their protecting him is just another thing that makes him Other, especially if some of the more distantly related Uchiha Do Not Want Him There.

*To clarify, I’m talking about the original meaning of the term, which is the specific elements of racism and cultural disconnect experienced by adoptees in families of a race that differs from their own, most commonly children of color adopted by white families.

(I believe it’s the most similar term to what 'feeling othered, even unintentionally, by way of being phenotypically distinct from the family and community one has been adopted by' would be in this situation... especially since Kushina was an immigrant? IDK.)

(Obviously, there are a lot of reasons why I wouldn’t want to write about this in too much depth, because applying real-world racial dynamics and situations to a fantasy universe of Naruto’s type is questionable practice. However, this term is still the one that matches up most to what I’m thinking about, so I wanted to give a nod in that direction to address that there are similar experiences in the world that I can’t hope to directly understand.)

[mira--mira]

Hi! I was wondering

How do you think Hashirama and Madara would be in a Road to Ninja version?

I remember once reading a Hashimada fic (which I never finished RIP) that was about Madara appearing in the RTN universe and the 3 things that stucked with me were:

1.- Madara was the first Hokage (something that Madara thought was horrible when he saw his sculpted face on the Hokage mountain 🤣)

And personally I think that it would not have been like that even in the RTN universe because we didn't see his face along with the other faces of Hokages in the movie (Yeah, apparently I'm basing myself on a movie which I'm not even sure if it's canon or not, even though Kishimoto wrote it) and the RTN characters didn't seem to even know who Madara is.

2.- Hashirama having his bowlcut as an adult

And I agree with the Madara from that fanfic, it looks awful on him. Hashirama, babe, I'm sorry but the only ones who can rock that style are Guy Sensei and Rock Lee, I know you just were trying to be cool but it doesn't suite you.

3.- Tobirama was a porn writer

Instead of being a fan of forbidden jutsu and creating justus, he wrote porn novels a la Jiraiya. And I'll hold that headcanon with my dead hands.

The only other fanfic that places the founders in the RTN universe is one where the protagonist is Mito (it's an interesting one-shot that pairs her with Itama 🤔)

She was kind of a shy person 🤔? And so it was Tobirama 🤣 which I found fun.

Hashirama, as the first fanfic I mentioned, was the Tobirama of the place (saddenly Madara wasn't in this fic).

So I would like to know what are your versions of the founders (or only Hashirama and Madara if it is too much) in the RTN universe! And how do you think things would be

Hmm, RTN is an interesting concept to me but, to be honest, I don't think Konoha would exist if a lot of personalities got flipped 😂 I haven't read any RTN fics with the founders, but if you, or anyone else, have links at hand I'd love to check them out 👀

1. Madara

Here's the big one and the crux of why I don't think the village would exist. Typically I characterize Madara as an extremely responsible man who internalizes things when he shouldn't, takes himself way too seriously, is aggressive and abrasive even to people he loves sometimes, but genuinely loves the people closest too him. Reversing this would make a character that slacks off, takes no responsibility, and is completely passive in life and has fleeting attachments to others around him. Assuming he wouldn't die on the battlefield, I could see the RTN "alternate" personality coming about of Madara's being so overpowered and competent that he loses interest and distances himself from things before he can get attached and lose them.

It makes building a village very hard though. (At first I was tempted to go RTN Sasuke route and maybe RTN!Madara is a little more openly flirty than canon!Madara, but the passivity and refusal to take responsibility would be the "core" qualities for me.)

2. Hashirama

Hashirama is a bit weird because he has a lot of surface-level "conflicting" traits in canon. He is optimistic but he pushes beyond his natural attitude and uses it as a mask to hide instead of addressing his feelings. He's mischievous, likes jokes and games, and can be a bit hedonistic with his pleasure but can equally be serious when necessary and will willingly sacrifice for others around him. And simultaneously, Hashirama and Madara are connected by a shared sense of idealism but also anger. Hashirama is a very kind, but extremely angry, man. I think a RTN!Hashirama would share a kind of apathy of RTN!Madara but instead of passivity his lack of anger would manifest as cruelty. Because canon!Hashirama is angry but his anger is usually a righteous kind. I don't think RTN!Hashirama would go out of his way to be cruel, but he doesn't have the empathy of canon!Hashirama, especially to others' suffering. He enjoys fighting just a bit too much and has no qualms about killing. In his mind, he should always come first in any situation and prioritizing (or even considering) others' is effort and him going out of his way to be "nice" and the other should be thankful. Similarly if he feels any negative emotion, he won't bottle it up and swallow it down, he'll immediately address it, usually confrontationally. RTN!Hashirama is as intelligent as his canon counterpart but he doesn't suffer fools and he hates it when people underestimate him. He's pretty proud and vain, tbh.

I really don't think the above would make him the "Tobirama" of RTN verse. To me Hashirama and Tobirama have different core values and perspectives and inverting Hashirama's doesn't make it become Tobirama's, if that makes sense. This one is also wordy bc I immediately knew how RTN!Madara would be RTN!Hashirama is a bit harder to pin down. But I hope it's clear why I have doubts about the village existing...maybe if RTN!Hashirama got it in his mind as a pet project for the hell of it, that he'd be a better leader for the country and not just the Senju alone, and RTN!Madara liked the idea of no responsibility and being able to detach even further than he already was? But that's still kind of grasping for a reason.

3. Hashimada

Equally I think any Hashirama/Madara relationship would be ehhh. They definitely wouldn't have the overwhelming bond of their canon counterparts, and it could be a relationship ripe for unhappiness. The closest I can think of to making the ship work is RTN!Madara would be drawn to Hashirama's absurd level of self-confidence and able to let the casual cruelty slide off instead of getting worked up about it. In a way RTN!Hashirama is stable and predictable. If he's pretty overpowered, there's less of a chance RTN!Madara would lose him, so their relationship isn't deep but it's more or less dependable and Madara knows exactly what he's going to get. In contrast RTN!Hashirama has an audience in the form of RTN!Madara and a partner that's not going to push back against his ideas. RTN!Madara doesn't ask for much and he doesn't complain when RTN!Hashirama puts himself first. He doesn't want, or might not be capable of, the deep emotional bond their canon counterparts have. RTN!Madara wouldn't leave Konoha (if it existed) in the AU, because he doesn't really care. If someone upset RTN!Hashirama and he decided to leave to 'do it right' RTN!Madara would probably follow, maybe out of some loyalty for RTN!Hashirama but mostly because it's what's easiest.

4. Tobirama

The core of Tobirama's character to me is prioritizing logic over emotion and both a conscious and unconscious failure to realize he can't completely eliminate emotion. Tobirama loves his brother, he's curious and has a desire to find out what makes things work and is willing to bend morality to get results if it'll serve a greater good. He's very aware of the unfairness of the world but believes it's an unspoken truth of humanity and can only be mitigated through logical means, but never completely erased. He'll be the sacrificial lamb, the one that works in shadows so his brother can have his utopian dream. Despite everything, he loves his genin, the strongest bonds he has aside from Hashirama, and does try to instill in them lessons he think will help them and lead to peace and stability in the village. He's still influenced by the prejudices of his time and can never find it in him to truly forgive the Uchiha.

A RTN!Tobirama would be a man ruled by emotion. Him writing erotica all day definitely could be one way this manifests lol. But overall he's sensitive and spiritual and can't stand the idea of killing. He and RTN!Hashirama don't get along and he actively tries to avoid his brother. RTN!Tobirama has equally strong principles as canon!Tobirama, but they're pacifist in nature and while he likes his studies, he prefers to be out talking to people and learning from them first hand. He's very naive and can be easily taken advantage of and he has trouble focusing on any one thing for too long. No matter how many times this happens, he never can harden his heart or be overly suspicious of others. RTN!Tobirama would most likely be the one support peace in this AU. He embraces the Uchiha and all the Senjus past enemies with open arms, almost to a foolish degree. It'd be a bad idea if he became hokage in this AU because he's a terrible negotiator and has a bad people-pleasing streak and struggles with long-term tactics. With the exception of RTN!Hashirama, who he considers an aberration who doesn't have a soul, humans at their core all have good intentions at heart.

5. Mito

I characterize Mito as a very level-headed woman. Her marriage to Hashirama is political in nature but they grow to be good friends and she never expected to fall in love and she's glad Hashirama didn't want a traditional wife. Mito is devoted to her community work (she works hands-on with people in the village), she seeks out connections with others and, despite the distance, remains close with her family in Uzushio, constantly writing them letters. She's spiritual and follows the Uzumakis' beliefs (not gonna list this OoT spoiler lol) and studies fuinjutsu in her spare time, something she's done since she was a child. She is willing to sacrifice if it meant protecting something she considered greater than herself, much to her own personal detriment. She loves and is proud of her children and grandchildren, but if she had a choice, she would have chosen to remain childless, she finds her true calling elsewhere.

RTN!Mito, similarly to RTN!Tobirama, is ruled by emotions. She dreams of one day making a good marriage for herself and centers romance and being a mother as her ideal life, but she's extremely picky when it comes picking the perfect husband. RTN!Mito knows how much she's worth and she refuses to settle and will not even entertain the idea of an arranged marriage. She has a hard time forming long-lasting, deep bonds with other people and views starting her own family as the solution to this problem. At times she can be a bit absent-minded and unintentionally selfish, but she's not actively malicious. She blusters a lot and depending on the situation can come off as cold and uncaring, but it's only to hide the depth of her true feelings and loneliness. In this AU she would absolutely refuse to marriage RTN!Hashirama. Nothing on hell or earth, could make her change her mind.

Mito is such a blank-slate character it feels like writing an oc more than a canon character, tbh. And this is something I don't see brought up a lot but a "heart full of love" to combat the kyuubi's hatred to me has never been exclusive to romantic or familial (to children) love. *cough* I want a complex female character who's not vilified for not wanting to have children and/or regretting having them *cough* Mito's "love" was for the people of Konoha and Uzushio. My personal headcanon regarding her and Hashirama's child (I don't think she had more than one) was that she was dedicated to her son, but quickly realized being a mother wasn't her dream or something she even actively liked. The kid was well-cared for and she was dutiful towards him, but Hashirama was the parent that loved and embraced him with his whole heart and it led to some tension between Mito and her son as the kid could tell the difference and neither of them were "wrong" to feel the way they did. This is why Tsunade was shown with Hashirama instead of Mito, he was a lot more present in her life when she was young (instead of Kishi just not having made Mito as a character yet). But after Hashirama and Tsunade's dad died (and then Nawaki), she and Mito grew close but it was definitely more of a friendship or student/mentor relationship rather than a traditional grandmother/granddaughter relationship but both were satisfied with it and loved eachother. Likewise I didn't want RTN!Mito's characterization to be shallow and hit misogynistic undertones with her being an "opposite" to Mito's calm, level-headed, focused on her work/passions characterization.

6. Closing thoughts

#1: Wow this got long #2: I feel conflicted about RTN because it seemed to flip surface-level characteristics instead of deep characterizations, and ignored flaws altogether. The ones above, esp. Hashirama and Madara's, are kind of dark in a way? But that's the only way it makes sense to me...Gai and Lee caring about style and being stylish is a funny joke but if you were to actually poke and prod and say their personalities were inverted, neither of them would be top-notch ninja as we know...unless I'm just completely misremembering RTN because I realize it's been years since I saw it lol. Anyway, hope this was entertaining!