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mikeyelistsukasa · 2 years

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Hanako,Sakura,Teru,Tsukasa & Kou seeing Darling‘s SH scars for the first time

Tw: self harm ofc,scars mentioning,basically dark topic

An:yeah it wasnt requested,i wrote that because…why not?Enjoy NOT PROOF READ

please do not self harm yourself. And im sorry to those who already done it or ho though it. Stay strong and don’t give up. Ily all

You were cleaning the bathroom today because yashiro was sick today and kou had to leave early

Not that you minded. You still have company and that is hanako and those little adorable mokke‘s.

This is a lot better than going home and just lying in bed doing nothing or homework.

„say s/o-chan/kun, how come you agreed to clean the bathroom? Most people would decline it you know, GASP don’t tell me you enjoy my company~“

„Oh sush will ya? Im doing this cause i feel bad for yashiro…but i suppose you are correct about me enjoying your company“

Hanako smirked, happy at the response you gave him

„Now tell me where is the sponge and gloves so that i can start cleaning the toilet“

„Oh!- its over there“

Hanako pointed to the left corner

„I’ll bring them to you :D“

Hanako decided to spare you these 5 steps and decided to bring them to you

But just as he turned around he saw you pulling your sleeves up so that you wont get your sweater dirty

You reached out your hand to take it but before hanako gave it to you he

He noticed scars?

This boy stared in shock at your wrist

„Uhm…hanako? Can you give me the gloves already?“

Suddenly you are being grabbed against dour wrist

„S-S/O YOUR ARM I- WHAT HAPPEND ?!! WHO DID THIS?!?? DOES IT STILL HURT??!!“

It took you a second to understand that he is talking about you scars

„O-oh! I totally forgot i had them“

You laughed a little seeing hanako‘s worried expression

„DONT LAUGH! YOU ARE HURT“

Just before he could go to grab some bandages you gently grabbed his hand

„Pft Hanako…im okay.“

You sat down with the ghost

„Im sorry for laughing i guess heh, your worried expression was pretty cute tho~“

Hanako flushed at that but you could still he his concerned look

„To answer your questions. I self harmed. I did that to myself. And no they do not hurt anymore because i quitted“

You smiled gently hoping it will relax the poor boy for a bit

But i think you only did worse

„Yourself??? Why??? Dont tell me someone forced you to do it to yourself. When did you quit???“

„Geez give me a break dude haha….i had a very hard time back then where i thought doing this is the only way to release stress.i had big family issues at that time but now everything is doing well.and to answer your last question i did about 2 years ago. So again do.not.worry“

Hanako blinked processing every word you just said

„I see“

Suddenly he stands up reaching out a pair of gloves

„Well ready to continue cleaning?~“

You and Sakura were sitting in the broadcasting room enjoying some cup of tea while reading books

„Hm“

„Is there something wrong?“

Sakura asked without taking her eyes from her book

„No not at all. I just got really invested in the book you gave me its very interesting i like it! Thank you by the way“

Sakura smiled to herself hearing that and went back to reading her book

Suddenly instead of reaching her cup, Sakura accidentally spilled her cup of tea with her elbow all over your pretty white gloves

„Ow ow ow ow ow hot hot hot!“

„Oh no dear- im sorry i didnt mean to do that, it was an accident“

You slowly take off the glove

„It’s alright don’t worry hah! Everyone doesn’t mistakes“

Sakura couldn’t help but let a slight sigh of relief hearing that

Thought that relaxed aura she just had disappeared right this instant after seeing your wrist

You stared at her in confusion

„…..S-sakura?“

Sakura stared at your wrist realising those are old scars and coming to a conclusion that you stopped this awful habit

…but just in case-

„You don’t do this anymore. Right?“

„Eh? Oh! Nono don’t worry i quitted. Im okay now :D“

„Understood“

Sakura grabbed gently both of your hands

„I’ll go get you new gloves“

„Oh don’t worry it’s okaaaaaaand she is already on her way„

“Hey s/o.”

You saw Teru sitting next to you

“How come you always wear a sweater under your uniform? I mean its summer. Aren’t you like sweating under there?”

“Ah hello Minamoto-kun. No im not sweating under it. And i wear it because its my favourite sweater! Ofc i wouldn’t wear it if it was that hot for me, i dont like it that much to the point i would sweat under it”

“Well nothing i can do. Also i told you, you can use my first name”

“Yeah yeah okay prince minamoto (¬_¬) “

Boink

“Whaaa what was that for T-T“

“you know exactly why :)“

“say... Wanna go out tomorrow like i dunno swimming? I heard it is going to be very hot tomorrow”

“Hmmm…yeah sure! Im free tomorrow so i don’t mind”

“Great! I’ll meet you there”

And just like that the bell rang and you went your ways

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚍𝚊𝚢 | (• ◡•)|

You were waiting for teru at the beach for about 10 minutes already

“Phew, he sure didn’t lie about it being hot today”

You took off your favourite sweater and wrapped it around your torso(or hips idk)

“S/o!”

“Speak of the devil”

You turn around to see none other than Teru Minamoto

“Hey Min- Teru… well where do you wanna go first?”

“Hm how abouuutttt…some ice cream?”

“Sounds great to me!”

And just like that you guys went to get something to refresh youself

And while you two eat you remembered that you need to apply some sunscreen

“Teruuuuuu~”

“Yeah?”

After teru saw s/o holding the sunscreen he without any hesitation sat down allowing s/o to put suncream on him

“In return I get to put sunscreen on you correct?”

“Hmmmmmm alright alright”

After some minutes s/o finished and took off her clothes revealing herself only in a bikini

Teru slightly blushed after seeing s/o in such clothes but stayed respectful non then less

That is until he saw s/o do a ponytail revealing scars on their shoulders

“S-s/o…”

S/o sat down signalling teru to put the sunscreen on their back

“Teru? Is something wrong?”

“What…happened to your shoulders?”

“O-oh… well you see back when i was *insert younger self* i had fallen into pretty deep rabbit hole after loosing something/someone important to me….”

Teru couldn’t tell if you finished talking or want to add something more

“But…”

S/o shows their left/right arm to show more scars

Woah!How did he not notice them before?

“I was only getting more and more let down with each day. To the point i started to let out my anger on myself”

Teru looked at your expression seeing that you were uncomfortable with the topic so he put the cold sunscream without saying anything on your spine

„C-COLD you jerk!!!!“

„Haha. Im sorry we don’t want you get burned right?…Also promise to quit what you are d-„

„I already have don’t worry, these scars are like from 2-4 years ago“

„Oh! Well if you feel like doing it again let me know and I’ll be there gor you“

„pft You sure are cheesy today“

„Well what can i say? Im spending time with the most beautiful person right now“

„Oh my~“

„S/O S/O S/O S/O S/O S/O S/OOOOOOOOOO“

„Sigh what is it tsukasa.“

„Let’s go find some supernaturals to smash!“

„Heh yeah-no not today im very tired right now“

„Awh :(„

„Don’t give me that look“

:(((((

…

„Fine just not for too long…“

„YAAAAAY“

‚i don’t think we will find a supernatural anyway‘ i thought

When out of nowhere i heard some noise

But that was probably just my imagination

„OHHH A MOKKE“

„W-wait tsukasa don’t run away!….great now im alone“

Suddenly i heart the same noise again but this time it sounded like someone was…growling?

Just as i turned around i saw a big supernatural right behind me

I barely managed to dodge his attack but in the process it ripped off my sleeve

„TSUKASA??!?!?!NOW IS A GREAT TIME TO SMASH A SUPERNATURAL“

You closed your eyes ready to take the supernaturals attack

….but nothing came

In fact you heard some…unpleasant noises

You opened your eyes just to see tsukasa smashing the supernaturals face against the floor

You stood up glad that you didn’t get hurt and went up to tsukasa

„Hey…tsukasa thats enough“

„It hurted you…“

„Hm? No it didn’t don’t worry so lets just g-„

„Your arm“

You looked at your arm confused since you don’t feel any pain on it

„Oh! Tsukasa those scars are old its okay it wasn’t the supernatural that did it!“

„There are others that hurt you?…“

Tsukasa stood up and placed his hands on your shoulders

„Tell me who“

His dark aura made you kinda nervous

„Well how do i explain this to you…the one that caused these scars was me“

„S/o is hurting themselves???!!! (」°ロ°)」 „

„No! I mean- it was a long time ago…so do not worry i am not being hurt and im not hurting myself“

Tsukasa didnt quite fully understand why you did that in the first place but hearing you being safe is all that matterd to him.

„well then…LETS GO FIND MORE TO SMASH“

„NO-„

You and kou had teamed up at school to be partners in cooking class

‚They probably teamed up with me cuz they struggle with cooking‘

‚i teamed up with him to spend more time with him‘

Yeaaaaahhhh cooking sure was something

Honestly he didn’t even notice your scars right away after you rolled up your sleeves

He noticed it when he told you to cut the cucumber

„Ow! Stupid knife(╥_╥)“

„S-s/o are you okay?“

„Yeah just a tiny scar on my finger heh“

„Wait let me see- S/O YOUR AR-„

You quickly put your hand against his mouth

„is everything okay here you two?“

„Y-yes mr. (Teachers name)“

That was close

You shouted with a whispering voice

„What was that you idiot???we almost got in trouble“

„your arm its full of scars!!!!“

„Yeah??? So what“

„What do you mean so what???? I got concerned and-“

„You two! Out.now“

…

„.:…Promise to not tell nii-chan that i got into trouble“

„I promise-„

„OH RIGHT your ar-„

„Sighhhh you still on about that?“

„Ofc! What happened??? Who did this???How did it happen???Does it still hurt??? Should i bring anything????“

You let out a small laugh. You hate to admit it but kou being so worried is so cute to you

„Its alright kou. Those are my old selfharm scars“

„huh- but-but why would you hurt yourself?“

„Sometimes people do harm themselves. Some stay up late. Some stop eating and well…“

You looked at your wrist

„Some people harm themselves physically“

Kou grabbed both of your hands

„I might not have a right to say anything about this but please don’t ever do this again! You matter so much to me…the last thing i want is to see my friend/bf/gf/partner suffer while i dont do anything!!! I will do everything and anything you want just please…“

Hearing that made your eyes form up some tears

„D-don’t cry!!! Did i say something wrong??!!!?“

„Oh kou… i promise. Those are old ones so dont worry I’ve stopped…it’s just…hearing this i-„

You hugged Kou tightly which startled the exorcist

„Thank you“

…

Kou hugged you back tightly

„You’re welcome“

Hope i left you satisfied. Stay safe you all and don’t do stupid stuff

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electrasev5nwrites · 1 year

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Ninja Daily: AIC 24

"Please concentrate. I need you to be as precise as possible."

Sakura tried to neaten her posture, but it was already perfect.

"I didn't know she was following me until she spoke." Sasuke was perfectly professional. His hands probably weren't clammy at all. "I couldn't visually follow the movement she made."

"With Sharingan?"

The Sandaime might have been the slightest bit incredulous.

Sasuke's jaw was a little tenser. "Yes, Sandaime-sama. With the Sharingan." He adjusted his footing every so slightly. "The suspect collided with Gaara-san, and then as far as I could tell, both disappeared."

"Indeed." He tapped his fingers on the desk just once. "Please repeat once more her words, with tone and body language as you remember them."

Sasuke dutifully repeated the conversation for the second time, though this time he neglected to mention that she had mussed his hair afterwards. That was a shame, because it was the best part, as far as she was concerned. Was his hair cute that way?

Was the Sandaime making eye contact with someone behind them? Sakura didn't let herself look. After a moment, the feeling that he wasn't paying them full attention fled when his attention came to rest on her. "You have had the most extensive interactions with Uzumaki-san in Wave, Sakura-chan." She shook, a little. "Please give me your honest impressions of her at the time, not those you formed with new information after returning to Konoha."

She took a shaky breath. "I thought she was intelligent, kind, and reliable. I also thought she was frivolous, self-centered, and socially intense."

"Intense?" The Sandaime raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Sakura remembered the toothy grin that had not fit Aiko-san's image. "At times, she seemed more affectionate to us than was warranted by our brief acquaintance," she said slowly. That wasn't quite it, but she couldn't think of a better way to phrase the oddity that had twinged at her. "Or maybe it was disproportionate investment?" she tried. "She expressed concern for our team's well-being and cohesion that doesn't make sense coming from an unrelated shinobi, and pushed the boundaries of reasonable behavior from the civilian she was portraying."

"Did any particular interaction give you a strong sense that something was unusual?"

She didn't have to think about it long. She'd gone over this in her head more than once, trying to pinpoint anything that would have given away the civilian charade. "The conversations we had the first night," Sakura admitted. "I'm not sure what exactly struck me as so odd. The conversational content was mostly normal- she asked about our families, gave some compliments, and talked about how she knew Tsunami-san." She snuck a glance at Naruto. He was looking forward, at the wall.

"The blatantly odd thing was that she was shocked to see Naruto," Sakura said quietly. She resisted the urge to look at her shoes. "Uzumaki-san dropped her teacup, and then invited him to join us. Not long after, she had a conversation with Tsunami-san in the hallway, addressing her concerns about Naruto's health."

Sasuke shot her a sideways look with a question. He hadn't read her report, and she hadn't mentioned that aloud.

She avoided making eye contact and put her chin up a little higher.

"I thought Uzumaki-san was just a friendly person when she asked us about our lives and families. But Uzumaki-san is related to Naruto. Somehow. So she was almost certainly more interested in Naruto, and being nice to Sasuke and I to obscure her focus," Sakura put forward. "She was trying to gather information about him in specific." She cleared her throat.

That stung, a little. She'd thought… it had felt nice to think that she was someone's favorite. And Uzumaki-san had offered her career advice, not Naruto or Sasuke. That wasn't like Kakashi-sensei at all. She hadn't even seen him since he told her to follow Sasuke during the invasion. Of course, most of the senior jounin were suddenly missing. But she… she didn't think he was dead. Someone would have told her.

Sandaime-sama was already moving on, turning his attention to Naruto. Sakura tore her attention away from her sadness and anxiety and back to the less painful immediate topic.

'Aiko-san didn't care about what I said when I talked about my family. She only asked me questions so that it wouldn't seem odd when she talked to Naruto.'

Of course Aiko-san had asked about family. That would be the reasonable thing to do if she was surprised to see a relative. She had to have recognized him by his features. That probably meant she knew who his parents were? Or that he had a strong Uzumaki resemblance, Sakura decided. Aiko-san hadn't really asked about parents… lack of interest? That strongly fit with the theory that Aiko had recognized Naruto by one or both of his parents.

She stole a glance at her teammate. He did have unconventional features. His coloring was unusual, but it was the shape of his face that was just a bit foreign. Did Aiko-san's face look like his? She strained, but couldn't exactly remember. She needed side by side comparison. If Naruto looked a lot like Aiko-san…

'I probably would have noticed,' Sakura thought dryly. 'I saw them next to each other a lot. So unless Naruto is the only one of the two with distinctive Uzumaki traits, that must mean that it was the parental recognition.'

The really weird thing… if asking about siblings wasn't just idle conversation, then… why would she do that? That only made sense if she thought Naruto should have a sibling, or was invested in knowing if he had one. Or knowing if he knew he had -

Her mouth opened in an O.

She looked up, blinking quickly and trying to catch on to where the conversation had gone. Naruto was still talking to the Sandaime, relating something about his training with Jiraiya and Aiko-san sitting in on it. That was a surprise to her, but it made a sinking kind of sense with the theory she had to get out into the open.

It burst out of her without any decorum. "Aiko-san wanted to know about Naruto's family because-"

"Haruno-san," a voice snapped out, shouting enough to cover her voice. "Do not interrupt your Hokage."

She jerked.

A jounin she'd seen around was giving her a stern look. How long had he been in the office?

Everyone was looking at her. She felt her face flush scarlet with embarrassment at her rudeness, but the shame was fighting with the urgency to share her theory. "But," she tried. "There was – I had a thought." Her voice piped down to nearly nothing.

"It's quite alright, Genma-san." The Sandaime was giving her an intense look. His tone was paternal, but she wasn't soothed. "Sakura-chan is a agitated by events, as we all are." He gave her a smile. "Genma, would you escort her out for a breath of fresh air? I think we could all use a moment. Once you return, I'd like to hear your thought, Sakura-chan."

Meek and embarrassed, she avoided looking at her teammates and allowed the jounin to lead her out. She'd been so disruptive that she'd been removed from the briefing. That was… she was never going to let Ino-pig know that her temper was still so poor.

"Haruno-chan, let's have a walk," the jounin- Genma? Genma-san- said, so gently that it was almost certainly an apology for shouting at her. "Have you ever seen the jounin breakroom?"

'Obviously not! Do I look like a jounin?'

She gave him a smile. "No, sir."

He stuck his hands in his pockets and gave her a grin as he started walking in a way she'd never gone before. It was incredibly goofy. Against her conscious desire, she found her shoulders relaxing a bit.

"You know, I've gotten excited enough to mouth off in a debriefing," he confided. "It happens."

Sakura managed a weak laugh and trotted at his left side. "Naruto does it a lot. I'm sorry. I'm not usually like that."

"I believe it," he said generously. "Hold up, we better be quiet for a while. You don't want to disturb people working in this area." He held open a stairwell door for her, but jogged up the stairs fast enough that he passed her again before he reached the exit. He unlocked it by typing a number string in faster than she could see. The door buzzed and he held it open for her. They passed a desk with two senior shinobi who watched them walk by silently.

'This is definitely not a place where I belong.'

She didn't know if she wanted to slink or to try to look confident. She settled for trying to look a lot less interested in their surroundings than she was. It was hard, when they kept passing doors with names she didn't understand and spiderwebbing seals that she wanted to take a closer look at.

"Most of this belongs to offices you've never heard of," Genma said quietly. "Maybe you'll find yourself in one of them, someday."

Sakura gave him a polite look to hide her doubt. On the jounin floor? She was talented enough to make chuunin, for sure. But jounin? Probably not.

He chuckled, so her thoughts probably hadn't been as hidden as she'd hoped. "Oh, you might be surprised." Genma-san opened a sliding down and sauntered inside. She followed a step behind and pulled the door shut automatically.

The room was noticeably warmer than the hallway. It was actually very comfortable. It had big windows and a ring of soft seating. There were three coffee machines crowded onto the counter space, which was somewhat ominous.

"This is the jounin lounge?" Sakura asked, even though she was pretty sure.

Genma-san plopped down in a puddle of light from a tall window. His adam apple moved as he adjusted the senbon in his mouth- when had he put a weapon in his mouth? Ew. "Yupp," Genma-san verified. He closed his eyes.

He was… a little weirder than she'd thought. Sakura picked a seat reasonably close and sat primly, smoothing her dress over her knees. "It's empty."

Genma-san snorted. "Sure is. It has chairs, too. Anything else that you spot?"

Sakura pursed her lips, because obviously she had been politely prompting for information about why it was empty and how he'd known that. But… well. It was all above her clearance. So he'd probably understood and chosen not to answer, she reasoned.

"What was it, earlier?" Genma-san cracked an eye open to peer at her. He seemed only mildly curious. "What was so interesting you started shouting over the Hokage?"

She winced at that description, but it wasn't wrong. "We know that Uzumaki-san is related to Naruto," Sakura started.

All she got in response was a nod and a sort of 'go on,' wave.

She licked her lips. "Uzumaki-san knew Naruto on sight, which implied it was by resemblance. That could either mean a general clan resemblance, or a resemblance to a specific person, likely a parent. She asked about family casually, but was not interested in pushing for details about parents. That implies that she knew who the parent was, because she would have been trying to establish that person's identity if she was trying to figure out how Naruto was related to her."

Genma-san opened his eyes. He was watching her impassively. Something in her hindbrain twinged a warning that something wasn't right, but she couldn't stop now.

"So she knew Naruto on sight, by his resemblance to a parent." By this point she was talking fast enough that Iruka-sensei would have asked her to calm down. "She asked about siblings- why would she do that? Either she wants to know if he has them, or she suspected or knew that he has at least one sibling. She seemed surprised that he said no- she actually asked that twice."

Sakura took a quick breath. "So she really thought Naruto had a sibling and she was surprised to hear that he didn't. So. That probably means that she has strong reason to think he has a sibling. She could just be wrong. But if she's not wrong? She probably knew details about this person, and they're probably older than Naruto. She wasn't trying to find out if this person existed, she wanted either current details or to find out what Naruto knew about this person. And he knew nothing. That's very odd, if he really has a sibling. Why would she know if he doesn't know?"

Sakura knew her pitch was unpleasantly high but the panic of realization was back again. "Because she's the sibling. That's how they're related. She didn't know about Naruto, so when she met him, she wanted to know if he knew about her."

Sakura stopped, breathing hard. It took her a moment to realize that Genma was giving her only a small, mildly incredulous smile.

"That's…" he shook his head gently. "That's remarkably well-done, Sakura-san." Genma-san pulled the senbon out of his teeth and twirled it.

She looked at him. "You're not surprised," Sakura said. "You… had the same idea? Does the Hokage think so too?"

The Jounin let out a whistle. "Kid, you're going to go places with a brain like that." He crossed an ankle over his thigh. "But where you're not going is back to that office to share your theory."

Sakura stared. "That sounds like you're going to kill me."

Genma-san didn't laugh. "We're investigating the possibility of treason, Haruno-san." His voice was suddenly, painfully weary. "I hope you understand the serious nature of what you've stumbled upon here."

Wait, what? Her thoughts were roaring, but self preservation had finally hopped forward to keep Sakura's face blank. Treason? Aiko-san couldn't be a traitor unless she'd been a shinobi of Konohagakure. And surely they would have recognized her if she had been- she hadn't even changed her name.

'Whatever is going on… it isn't Aiko-san who is in trouble.'

"Yes," Genma-san said. "Consider this your notification that your speculation is classified. Speak to no one, unless the Hokage tells you differently." He sniffed once and stood up. "I think it's about time to go back, don't you?"

'No one?' Sakura wondered, mechanically following. 'Not… tell no one except your jounin-sensei? Did he just… leave that out? Or if Kakashi-sensei not supposed to know about this? Is that why he didn't come to this meeting- they thought he might think the same thing that I did?'

She didn't say a word. But… by the time they reached the Sandaime's secretary to ask approval to enter, Sakura was concentrating on one question:

'I wonder if Naruto could tell me who his parents are. I thought they must be dead. But the Sandaime wouldn't waste his time investigating possible treason from dead people.'

When the door opened, she saw the Sandaime look at Genma-san too quickly for Sasuke and Naruto to catch. Genma-san did… something fast with his right hand that Sakura couldn't see.

She plastered on a smile.

"Are you feeling better?" the Sandaime asked kindly.

Sakura nodded, and slipped into an apologetic bow to hide her face. "Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. Please excuse me."

"It's no trouble." He was making uncomfortably direct eye contact when she lifted her head. "You returned at a good time, Sakura-chan. I was just asking your teammates if they had any questions and concerns?"

Naruto threw his hand up and waved. "The Yondaime!"

"That's a rumor," Sasuke-kun muttered, leaving off the "idiot".

"Kiba said Ino said-" Naruto started arguing. She lost interest. She could ask Ino directly and get better information than Naruto would report.

Sakura pressed her lips together and tried not to be too obvious about looking Naruto over. In profile, he was… kind of cute, she grudgingly admitted. In a girly way. Maybe his nose could be a match to Aiko-san's. Was their eye shape the same? She snapped back to paying attention when Naruto broke semi-dignified reporting posture in order to plant both hands on the Sandaime's desk.

"It's not a rumor that you fought the other Hokage, right old man?" He grinned obnoxiously.

Sakura winced.

Her teammate leaned his weight onto the Hokage's desk and let his feet come off the ground. "That's true, right?" Naruto wiggled his butt. She looked away hastily. God, he was so embarrassing!

"Get down, idiot!" Sasuke-kun hissed. He grabbed Naruto's collar and yanked the team disaster back to his feet. Naruto went with a squawk and immediately tried to jab Sasuke-kun in the gut.

The Sandaime watched the tussle with impassive fondness. "That's true, Naruto," he agreed. He pulled open a drawer and extracted his pipe. "Orochimaru revived past Hokage. However, his control was broken." He lit up his pipe. "Thank you for coming, team 7. I believe the mission desk downstairs has work for you. After that, please report to the hospital for your check-up appointments. You will be getting a full physical, with x-rays and bloodwork, so be prepared. Goodbye."

All three genin saluted on reflex. Sakura was halfway out the door before she realized that the Sandaime hadn't answered Naruto's question.

She woke up. Aiko moved slowly, smoothing down the futon cover again and again with her palms to get the wrinkles out. She stood and grimaced at the taste in her mouth. Mission number one was to brush her teeth. The toothbrush was- where had she left the damn thing? It wasn't in the cup to the right of her sink, it wasn't sitting on the rim, it wasn't-

"This is just sad," Sanbi commented. "You must plan better if you will attempt this lifestyle."

He was right. Aiko flinched and fed her own restored chakra to the Rinnegan. Her purple toothbrush innocently looked back at her from where it was balanced on top of her face wash.

"Why did I do that?" Aiko frowned and tried not to make eye contact with her reflection as she cleaned her mouth. "That's a stupid place to put a toothbrush."

"I usually do my best not to wonder," Sanbi said contemplatively. "Last week, you left it on top of the clothes washer. Also, the lid to the nori that you misplaced last night? It is actually under the sofa."

That didn't sound right, but she didn't remember well enough to argue. Aiko caught her mirror self's creepy eye and frowned automatically. When she spat out the foam, she conscientiously put the toothbrush into the cup where it was supposed to live. "Stay," she muttered.

When she made her bleary way out to the kitchen, Aiko paused. It was weird to see someone else there. "Good morning," she decided. "How was your night?"

Gaara didn't look at her directly. In the clear light of day, the stains and wrinkles on his clothes were apparent, as was the sallow quality of his skin.

'Has anyone taught this child about hygiene?' Aiko wondered. 'He doesn't seem to take care of himself well.'

He needed to be outfitted. She should delegate it- but he was her kid. She needed to take care of him.

She ruffled his hair as she walked past- or she tried to, anyway. She scraped her fingers on a cloud of sand.

She checked Gaara's face. He seemed more resigned than wary or standoffish… She didn't think he'd been the one to push her away. So Aiko raised an eyebrow and slowly, deliberately reached past the slowly churning resistance to run her fingers through his rough hair. Two guesses as to what the grainy texture at the base of the strands was- "You need a bath, little one." She stepped directly in front of him and pulled her hands back to herself. She made a note to wash her hands- there were old, spare bis of people in that sand. Gross.

'I wonder if I can get him clean sand. Can sand be washed? His sand should be washed.'

Gaara was watching her with slightly narrowed eyes, but he didn't seem to outright reject the idea of a bath.

"After we eat breakfast, I would like for you to shower and borrow some of my clothes. Once you're out, we can go shopping for your personal effects and have what you're wearing now washed." She waited for a response.

He opened his mouth after a protracted silence. "Fine."

'Oh my god, he's talking to me.'

She beamed at him. That was the first word of the day, and it was a good one.

"You are alarming that child."

Aiko toned her grin down to something more dignified and turned to scavenge for breakfast. She filled the rice cooker halfway and turned it on- oh, that was going to take a while… The fridge held 5 eggs, some more cabbage and onion, soy sauce, mirin… Milk. Not much else.

Well then. They were going to eat scrambled eggs with chopped onion and cabbage on top of rice. And then she was going to find more vegetables, because he needed to get on a healthy diet.

Which reminded her…

'I need to contact Konoha and politely remind them that I expect the accommodations for my puppies to include age appropriate amounts and variety of nutrients. None of that gruel bullshit. I'm not doing that to their people.'

Sanbi sighed.

"Breakfast is going to take a while. Let's go find something you can borrow, okay?" Aiko didn't wait for a response. It was enough to know that he followed her to her bedroom and stood in the doorway while she dug through the cheap plastic drawer set in her closet. She scavenged two long-sleeved t shirts. Neither of them really seemed like his style- they were both slightly stretchy material. One was red, the other dark blue. As for pants- The only thing that seemed remotely plausible was a pair of the dark gray uniform pants. They might even be fine- it was the smallest size available. They were a little long on her, but all her height was through the torso. So…. Probably okay?

She held the options up for his perusal. "Can you stand to wear this for a few hours?" She held eye contact until he shrugged.

That was probably the best answer she was going to get, so she shepherded him into the bathroom. "Gaara, please use my shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Oh, a clean washcloth, just a second…" She pulled her loofah out of the shower and tossed it in the sink. She found a threadbare pink washcloth in the second drawer, which would do. She held it out until Gaara unfolded his arms to take it from her.

His brow was furrowed.

'Does… He does know how to take a shower, right?' Aiko hovered a moment, unsure. 'He is nearly a feral kid. And from a city with severe water use restrictions. It's… it's pretty possible that he's never used a shower.'

Well then. She stepped into the shower area and glanced back to make sure she had his attention. "This dial adjusts the temperature. I have it at a heat I like, but you can move it to anything. I'll start the water-" she did just that. A gentle rumbling echoed out of the pipes. She took the showerhead off of the hook and angled it to show him the green button underneath. "When you want the water to spray, press this button to turn it on. Press it again to turn it off. When you're done, you can turn all the water off with this lever. If you don't remember, just leave it and I'll get it."

That… That felt pretty through. Could there be something else?

Um. Towels. She only had two, and one was still damp from her shower before bed. So she pulled the other off the rack and draped it within reach of the shower. "You can use this." Aiko pursed her lips. "I'll be in the front room, taking care of morning mail, breakfast, and starting a list of supplies we need for the house. If you think of anything, you can add it to the list once you're done. Please take your time- the rice won't be ready for 40 minutes anyway." She hovered, but that was it. Aiko ran a hand through her hair. "I'll see you when you're done."

Gaara took a slightly appalling hour in the shower, judging from when the water started to when it cut off, but she wasn't entirely certain he had actually taken a shower until he padded around the corner with soggy hair, wearing both of her shirts at once. They were soaked around the neckline.

She did not sigh. She got up, found a big, soft kitchen towel, and gestured him into the tiled room. He came, frowning slightly.

"I want to dry your hair, okay?"

Gaara looked as though he was considering commenting, but settled for a nod. It was just like when she'd hugged him: he started off stiff and aloof, and relaxed in bits and pieces until he was actually leaning his head back into the towel. It was with slight regret that Aiko finished and pulled the cloth away.

She managed to get him fed and tug him out the door within fifteen minutes. The workday was starting around them- genin and chuunin were reporting to the missions office, and scattered civilians were taking their bleary-eyed walks to the fishing docks or construction sites.

'The stores are not open at this hour.'

Aiko felt slightly stupid.

"It's earlier than I realized," Aiko eventually admitted.

Gaara probably thought that his reaction was subtle, but even in her peripheral she saw him steal a quick glance at her.

"Let's go to my office. It's still closer to the shopping areas, anyway."

When she walked in, chuunin scattered. Saito was presiding over the office staff as they began hauling the day's mission scrolls to the front desk. She gave Aiko only the briefest of glances, but a coltish genin hauling the enormous master binder of staff looked incredibly alarmed to see her.

'You'd think it would not be a surprise that the Mizukage is occasionally in the Mizukage's office.'

Sanbi huffed. "Very occasionally, as it were."

Dickhead. She had other things going on, alright?

She pressed her lips together sourly and walked past. The clock in her office claimed it was 6:34. When a frightfully thin genin with light brown hair brought in a tray with coffee at 6:39, Aiko was reading details on the construction report for the repaired bridge. She tried to make eye contact and smile, but the boy ducked his head and set the coffee on her desk as far from her as possible.

Gaara watched this happen, perfectly still on the straight-backed chair across from her desk.

Aiko resisted the urge to sigh. "Thank you," she said. "I need a few things. First off, let's add a cup of tea to my morning order whenever Gaara-kun comes with me to the office. Secondly, tell Saito-san that I'd like to locate a couch and a short table for the back wall, as soon as is reasonably possible. And when Mira-san comes in, she should have a list of medical personnel in the village. I want that list fleshed out with contact information and someone to guide me to each address on the list. I want to tour every clinic and hospital today, preferably before 3pm."

He repeated the orders silently back, mouth moving.

That was… well. A bit unusual, but okay. Aiko waited patiently.

The genin blinked rapidly and then nodded. "Yes." He tapped his fingers against the now-empty tray he'd brought her coffee on. 3 taps, 5 taps, 3 taps, and then he forcibly stilled his fingers. "Will that be all?"

"Yes." She managed a smile, because she was starting to suspect that his ticks had nothing to do with her. "Goodbye."

He left without further comment, which was oddly funny for a reason she couldn't put it in words.

Aiko shook it off and went back to her reading. Gaara had initially turned down all offers of entertainment, but after about an hour he drifted to look at the bookshelves on the wall. When she set down the last invoices for the dock materials, he was a good twenty pages into a book of Kirigakure's political history.

'I need to read that one,' Aiko remembered, slightly guiltily. She knew what Konohagakure cared to teach, but it probably wasn't the same or as detailed.

Ah well. It was nice to see the tension off of Gaara's face. He seemed more peaceful than she'd ever seen, with a boring book and the second teapot of the day set by his side.

He looked up and caught her smiling at him. Gaara frowned instinctively. But after a moment, he seemed to deliberately wipe the negativity off of his features and give her a nod.

She nodded back and then pulled out Mifune's letters again to reread them and implant the details into her memory. Then she drafted a letter to Konohagakure.

At 9, she took Gaara out for the basic supplies of clothes and toiletries and groceries. He was completely disinterested. She gave up on getting his approval for most things and simply picked out a combination of the practical and the whimsical. He didn't seem to have any interest in decorating his room, but it was just too bleak to leave without anything personal. It might have been too ambitious, but she had a small bookshelf and a miniature table added to the huge order to be brought to the house and assembled while she was at work. Hopefully he would find something he wanted to put on them… But just in case he didn't, she picked out a few potted plants of various sizes.

In mid-morning and the early afternoon, she spent her time touring small clinics and checked in on the main hospital. She took her masterlist of persons and places with her and made notes of impressions and facts after each encounter. She left swirling eddies of terrified and confused medical workers in her wake, but that couldn't really be helped. It was going to take time for the general populace to feel safe around a Mizukage. In the meantime, she had work to do.

They needed everything, frankly. They needed more doctors and nurses, they needed better training, more and better medicine, more and better facilities and equipment. The project would have to be approached in starts and stops, but it had to be started.

She called in the man whose half-remembered name started with "Yama" and had a meeting about the contents she needed him to draft in proposals and letters to Mifune. Gaara watched on with surprising engagement for a 12-year old. Granted, he was a 12 year old who would have become Kazekage by 14 in another world, so maybe she ought to be making a concerted effort towards furthering his education with the assumption that he had political ambitions. The meeting ended at 3, at which point she took the time for a good, long stretch and surreptitiously found out that her assistant's full name was 'Yamagi'.

'After lunch, I need to make a chart of my administrative personnel and make sure I know who is reporting to whom, so I can make any changes necessary and keep bad combinations apart.'

Oh. After lunch, huh. That should have been hours ago.

"I'm hungry," Aiko said, in a tone of realization. Had she… She looked at her ward guiltily. "Gaara, I forgot to feed you. Are you hungry?"

He gave her his full attention. "I am not a cat."

Well, yeah. She was aware of that. Cats could feed themselves.

'It's time for a break.'

Aiko stood up and laced her fingers over her head, reaching as far up as she could reach. She felt the stretch down her sides and shoulderblades. "Let's take the afternoon," she said. "A late lunch, and some kind of outing. There's a library I want to visit, and we could see a park, museum, go for a run or do some training- what do you like?"

Gaara just looked at her, as thought he had no idea what to do with this question.

She swallowed. "I'll pick lunch, and you can think on that while we eat." She crossed the room to pull open the door and call for her secretary. Mira-san came instead, holding what must be the finalized copies of mission reports from the first shift, ready for her notarization and pending filing.

Aiko felt oddly guilty for saying it, but- "I'll be out of the office for several hours. I'll return between 6 and 7."

"You have a meeting with Terumi-san at 6:30," Mira said sternly.

She gave the older woman a look, raising her left eyebrow. "I'm aware," Aiko said simply. She held out a hand. After a moment, Mira passed over the binder. "Thank you. That will be all."

She locked up the office from inside. Gaara watched, apparently disinterested. When she held out her hand to him, however, he grabbed it with enough force to turn her fingers white and that somehow turned into something that was almost a hug. Aiko smoothed down his hair with her free hand and did not comment on the desperate force with which he pressed his head into her collarbones. She had meant to hiraishin them away quickly, but she ended up just holding him until he started to lean his head away.

Aiko took them to Grass.

Gaara stepped away quickly in the sunshine, but he didn't pull his hand free. So she kept hold of it. They walked down the city streets of an area she was only passingly familiar with until they found a cafe that looked half-decent. Aiko picked a soup, salad, and sandwich meal with coffee, but Gaara seemed more comfortable with more traditional, home-styled offerings. He ate all his tsukemono- he liked sour and bitter flavors, then?- and the soup and broiled fish, but he left a good portion of his rice.

The libraries in Grass's civilian capital were impressive stone buildings, haughty and dark against the skyline. Gaara drifted along behind her while she collected a few things from the architectural college's library, one tome from the medical college's building, and then finally perked up when she went to the general library. She glanced down at him, fussing with the canvas strap of her bag. It was digging into her shoulder from the weight of the books inside, but she could fit a few more things.

"Anything you want," Aiko promised lightly. "I'll be at that table reading. Why don't you have a look around? Pick at least one book out. You can take more, but I'll be coming back next week. So you can always get something else then."

True to her word, she set to reading in the enforced quiet of the public areas and let him explore without her hovering or guiding. He didn't go far, which was a little saddening, but it did make it easier to keep an eye on him until she got too immersed into what she was reading about foundations and frames.

'I should have listened to Yamato more,' she regretted. 'Over the years, he's told me a lot offhand. I wouldn't be starting off with so little understanding if I'd paid attention.'

She definitely couldn't ask him now- not about architecture in general, and certainly not for clues about how to improve and use her Mokuton. Obito had been right that she could use it, and with a lot more stamina than Yamato. But her control was just sad. She needed a lot of practice, and she needed a lot more understanding of what she should be trying to do.

Pursuing it as a side project was the best solution. Using Mokuton would drastically increase speed and decrease costs associated with importing materials and skilled labor. There was minimal danger in commissioning Yamato for many of the building projects. But some things were in areas where he couldn't be trusted, or would need to have secret floor plans, and definitely couldn't afford to have any of the deliberate weakness that he might be tempted to plant.

She knew Yamato. He was not going to rig an orphanage or footbridge to fall. But he would sabotage government buildings, and bring back information about important locations of food and water supplies, of electrical lines and other such infrastructural weak points.

Gaara was sitting beside her with a closed book on the table in front of him when she looked up. She checked her watch compulsively- 5:30.

They still had some time, then. She tapped her fingers on the table and smiled at him. "Is there anything you want to do?" She held out her hand for his book, intending to put it with hers.

Gaara put his hand on it and slid it away from her. His bony hand covered the title protectively.

Aiko blinked. "Sorry. I wasn't trying to take your things. I just thought I'd carry it for you."

He looked at her heavy canvas bag and then away. Stubborn baby.

"Let's get you your own book bag," Aiko decided. She stood up and headed for the checkout counter, relieved that he followed. "And then?"

She didn't actually expect him to answer. So it was surprisingly thrilling to hear him say, "What kind of museum?"

They used her forged library card to check out all the books like the criminal she was, found him a dark blue bag in a store meant for the university students, and then used their remaining half an hour in a museum detailing the history of the local castle and the series of clans who had inhabited it. She thought Gaara might actually want to see the castle- she promised him that they would do that when they returned the next week.

There wasn't, like, an official tour or anything. The castle was still inhabited. But they were shinobi, they could break in.

'Or I guess I could request it, as the Mizukage?' she vaguely considered. Probably not. That would complicate things. Sometimes it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. It was best to just be so sneaky that no one would know they'd been by.

Her office was just as she'd left it, but when she unlocked the door, she found a couch in the hallway immediately outside. Aiko poked her head out and looked around- there were some other small additions further down: a table, a vase with flowers, a lamp, some small pillows. Huh. That was good service. When she began hauling items in, Gaara assisted without comment. She was walking backwards with one end of the couch when Mei entered the area. The older woman raised an eyebrow, but she swooped in to help Gaara without comment.

"Good evening, Mizukage-sama," Mei said. "May I be of further assistance?"

Aiko walked past to grab the lamp and set it on the table. Gaara was already putting the pillows on the couch. "No," she said, belatedly. "I don't think so." She paused. "Ah, did you submit a request for refreshments on your way in?"

"No. I will do so immediately. Coffee, and…." Mei let her voice trail off, looking at Gaara implacably.

He looked at Aiko. She nodded, trying to prompt him to speak for himself.

"Water will be fine," he said.

She resisted the urge to tell him he was doing a very good job. He probably wouldn't respond well to that. Instead, she just nodded and dithered for a moment over where she should sit. She'd like to sit with Gaara on the couch, but… that seemed more appropriate for less relaxed times. This was an informal meeting with Mei, but Mei was not her friend.

Aiko sat behind her desk and gestured Gaara to the couch so that Mei could take the seating he'd been haunting all day.

When Mei returned, she expressed no more curiosity about Gaara than she'd demonstrated last night, at their longer discussion at Aiko's home. At first, Aiko noticed Gaara listening intently to their conversation. But it was truly boring stuff- dossiers on possible diplomats, information of Hunter-nin and Black-Ops procedural minutia- and after a while he began alternating between his library book and taking neat, deliberate notes on a pad of office paper. She needed to get him notebooks, then.

After Mei left, Aiko took the piles of paperwork with her to the couch and did her reading and stamping there. Mira-san had gone home, as well as most of the day staff. But one of the skeleton crew waiting for the last mission reports of the day trotted in and out, bearing coffee and water and tea. When asked, they went out and returned with steaming curry for dinner. She and Gaara ate there, as the sun went down and drafts of various letters and proposals were sent in for Aiko's approval at the end of the office day. Before 8, all of her in-going correspondence had been dealt with, reports read, requests for the following day filed, and the changes to her schedule approved. She led Gaara out past the front desk as security came by to lock the building for the night.

It was dark. Like, really dark. The city lights weren't on yet- it hadn't been prioritized. But there were some lanterns burning in attempts to entice customers into the few restaurants open, and ambient noise that kept the city from being too creepily empty.

At home, it was something of a relief to see that the genin team she'd had take her things home had done a nice job with putting away groceries and filling up Gaara's bedroom and adding his toiletries to the bathroom. Someone had even added some things of their own volition- she'd need to find out who was responsible for realizing she was out of floss and replacing it. That was thorough and thoughtful.

'I wonder what dad is doing in Konoha.' She curled up on a cushion in front of the in-ground firepit without lighting it. 'The Sandaime can't possibly trust him yet. Will he reach out to Naruto right away?'

Would Naruto even deal well with that? Would-

"However interesting those troubles, you do not have the leisure time to struggle with them. You have many fascinating problems of your own. Shall I list them?"

'You're a mediocre and mean turtle.'

There wasn't much heat in the insult, because he was right. She needed to remember that she served Kirigakure's people, not Konoha's. She didn't have to be cruel, but she couldn't waste away resources and energy that her people needed.

"Gaara," she managed. She didn't have to look over to know he was paying attention. "Do you have any ideas about what you would like to do? You don't have to do any kind of shinobi work for us- it's probably inadvisable unless you decide you don't want to return to Suna at all. But you should probably be contributing while you're staying here. It sort of looks like nepotism if I have everyone but my kid helping out, you know?"

It took nearly a minute for Gaara to decide to come closer. Aiko reflected that he walked like a cat: near silent, and with an aloofness that said his chosen path had absolutely nothing to do with anyone else who might be in the room.

"Apprentice," he said.

Aiko actually turned to look at him so he could fully appreciate the way she was contorting her face. She didn't know what emotion it was conveying, but it was definitely moving in an interesting way. "I would like clarification."

"I'm going back to Suna." Gaara's lip curled, and teeth peered out. "Eventually."

She waited.

He seemed to think that was enough.

It was not enough. "That's your choice," Aiko said as patiently as she could manage. "Weird, but okay. Who are you apprenticing to and why? Or are you asking for an apprentice?"

"You." The word was spat out, to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. "You're like me, but they listen to you. I need to be able to do that as well. Show me how to make them respect me. I'm the only one Sunagakure has who is strong enough to lead."

She leaned back on her cushion and braced her weight on her palms. "That sounds like the opposite of what I asked for," Aiko countered. "I asked how you might contribute to Kirigakure, you're saying that you want a lot of my time and attention." She shook her head, feeling the weight of her hair swaying behind her. "Make it worth my while, and we can talk."

Gaara crossed his stick-thin, anemic arms, ad tried to look tall. "Kirigakure will benefit from competent leadership in Sunagakure."

"Probably. How can you know you'll be a competent leader?"

He scoffed. "Is it your teaching abilities that you doubt, or my capacity for learning?"

"I doubt a lot of things," Aiko rebuffed. "The time and attention I can dedicate to your education, your emotional capacity to bond with civilians, the likelihood that Sunagakure's citizens are going to react as Kirigakure's have, and yes, my ability to teach you to govern given that I have a style you are not suited to, and I'm making shit up as I go." She paused. "Constantly," Aiko stressed. "I don't know what I'm doing. I can't teach you how to manage a city because I'm still learning. I encounter a problem, I seek out information and attempt to predict future problems and work to preempt them. I can teach you how I think and problem-solve, but I can't teach you how to do that job."

"My current skill-set is killing people," Gaara said flatly. "Whatever you have to teach me can't make me worse."

That was just untrue, but sort of sweet in naivety. "I could teach you about-" Aiko stopped, remembered how young Gaara was, and frowned. "There's a lot I can't teach you about. But fine. I'll consider your proposal with a trial period." She pulled her hands onto her lap and leaned forward. "You work for me, now."

"How long is this trial period?" Gaara asked.

She tilted her jaw up. "As long as it needs to be."

"That's not good enough." He was turning a bit red, pupils dilating in the darkness. "I can't be away from Sunagakure indefinitely, nor can they mistakenly think me a traitor."

They held eye contact. Aiko kept waiting for him to turn away or change expression, to either back down or become aggressive. But he just matched her stare.

She cracked a smile. "Fair enough." She gave him a half-bow. "It's a deal, then. I'll make sure that doesn't happen. I will either accept or reject you as an apprentice within a month."

He took a moment and then bowed uncertainly. "Uzumaki-shishou?" Gaara asked. "Aiko-sama?"

Both of those were weird and markedly more responsible and adult-sounding than she felt, but one was significantly less weird to hear. "Aiko-sama," she confirmed. Ugh. So weird. "We are both going to be learning on our feet, Gaara. Tomorrow I want you to accompany and assist an architectural specialist. I think that your sand could be very useful for his construction project. Demonstrate your abilities, learn from him. I'll expect you in my office at 4pm for a detailed report of his thoughts and what you've understood." She stretched. "I'll have someone take you to him at 8 tomorrow morning. Be ready to take direction."

If she'd told that to Sasuke at that age, she would have gotten a sneer. Naruto? Whining. But Gaara only nodded.

It was a little unnerving. But she went about her night as if she wasn't bothered by the compliance. She answered some letters, sent an updated set of orders to the third border post with a courier, and showered before bed. Even in the hot water, she couldn't relax. Eventually she gave up and wrapped her towel around her body and laid on top of her sheets. The damp towel and her sopping her made her cold and uncomfortable.

"I really should hang this towel up so that it dries," Aiko said to herself. But she couldn't find the energy to move, even to unwrap the towel and push it off the bed. Whatever. She closed her eyes, dreading everything. She let the Rinnegan sleep.

Some of the tenseness in her neck washed away with the sinus pain she hadn't exactly noticed building over the course of the day. She stared bleakly into the darkness for a while. There was a pressure in her chest. It wasn't like something sitting on her body. It was like there was something small and hard pushing outwards inside of her breastbone, trying to open up a space to contain… something. Anything.

It was difficult to muster the give-a-damn to finish getting ready for bed, when her body felt so heavy and tired. Eventually, she contorted enough to reach her fingers along the wall along her head and flip off the lights. It was hard to know how long it took for her to fall asleep.

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #clarity #AIC #Aiko in Canon

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actiaslunaris · 1 year

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Regina ‘live-watches’ Last Man: Zenmou no Sousakan S01E06.

This time up, a hostage situation -- which seems straightforward at first.

This episode is prefaced by a content warning of the 'barricading situation' and ends with a reference to and blessing for the victims of a similar situation in real life.

[Sidenote: I find this approach interesting because events like this happening in an American drama get the episode pulled, especially if they happen very close to the airdate. I'd be interested to know if that is at all standard procedure in Japan.]

I will also point out that there are scenes of child endangerment.

Everyone else is having a good time at the Godo patriarch's birthday party but Godo certainly isn't.

Oh, he's remembering a past incident. Aww.

And, immediately we're dumped into the case of the week.

Ah hah, this conflict between Minami and Arai of the equivalent to SWAT here (I'm assuming) is like watching the pissing contest between Lieutenant Reed and Major Hayes on Enterprise.

Godo is very concerned about Minami, ostensibly so that Minami won't cause trouble, but there's a bit more there, methinks. More than what existed before.

Godo: *leaves* Minami: *trades himself for a hostage*

Godo specifically tells Minami not to do anything rash and Minami goes and does that immediately. *facepalm* Yes, that's why the warning. Gosh.

Listen.

Telling the person you trust to be your eyes you have that much trust in them is as much a burden as an act of faith. That said, I love the relationship between Minami and Agatsuma so much, guys, so so much.

Get him, Sakura. Yes, good.

All of the teamwork in this episode is splendid, conflicts and otherwise.

Is Minami okay? Well... of course he is but suspense!

Prime whump, y'all. Good stuff. I like actual injury a bit more than what this show is giving me, but threat of imminent danger/death does it for me quite well, too.

At least Arai and Minami reach consensus faster than Hayes and Reed. (Also, how dare Masha have so much chemistry with everyone he works with. How do he do it?)

Such a tense episode. I like how it kept me guessing as it was telling the story, but also gives enough clues that I'm just a step behind whatever it's doing. That is excellent narrative. Well done, writer.

And there's just enough pause amidst the action to comment on the perpetrator's motivation. Minami's emotional intelligence is so refreshing to see.

Aw, this final scene with Godo senior is lovely. Adorable. Not overly sentimental, just the right touch of sweet.

My heart breaks.

Okay, so I know the angst of the revelation that's coming with Godo discovering that Minami has kept his true reason for coming to Japan away from him will probably not be as much as is being telegraphed before it's worked out. At least, that's my expectation. The focus of these stories isn't to wallow, but to just have enough conflict that the audience stays invested.

It's a good thing that we're being given the viewpoints of those around Godo before he finds out, since that both ratchets up the investiture and takes sting out of the eventual fallout. At least, that is, from Godo and his own personal entanglement with Minami. You see, I have the sense that when Godo discovers that his entire family kept this from him, he'll be more angry with them, and they stand a better chance of being able to mollify him, as well.

That doesn't mean that it's going to be any easier to watch.

Speculation: I think Minami has always intended to get close to Godo, perhaps to use him as is speculated by Izumi at the end of this episode, but not with ill intention.

Minami is, without a doubt, a naturally charming person, but a lot of what he was doing with Godo at the beginning was aggressively charming, even obnoxious. It's evened out over the course of the six episodes as he's gotten to know Godo.

Yes, he's been gently prying information out of Godo about his father, but none of it seems to come from a place of malice. Additionally, the information Minami is seeking has changed a bit, as when he attempted to discover Godo's favorite food -- that has nothing to do with what he wants to know. That comes from a personal interest and you can see how it affected Minami when Godo gave his answer. There was a shift in his perception, an understanding of Godo's internal viewpoint.

It's clear to me that he's very aware that what he's doing is disingenuous, because he was the one that offered to Godo complete usage of his own skills, from the very start. It's a way of dealing with the dishonesty of it, a silent quid pro quo.

I also think Minami came to the conclusion at that point of that shift in understanding to continue to keep his intentions secret from Godo, conducting this investigation on the sly in the hopes that his suspicions are not correct; that Godo's father will be absolved of his actions. He's doing it secretly because he doesn't know what he'll find. It could go either way, and in that case, he's the only one that wants to be hurt by it.

Perhaps his motivation in being friends -- genuine friends -- is to indicate that he's come to peace about what happened to his parents. That he understands Godo is himself innocent of his father's crimes.

And, if Minami has the character I think he does, he's just waiting to tell all of this to Godo himself. And he's ready for whatever happens then.

God, I hope.

#regina watches #last man #last man blind investigator #last man spoilers #i had a lot of thoughts; more meta than reaction #lm s01e06

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smokeybrandreviews · 2 years

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Savvy

It’s been a minute sine I've dropped an Azur Lane update, about two weeks, and i kind of wanted check in. These posts seem to be pretty popular which is odd to me because i just kind of write them for myself. I genuinely enjoy this game and it’s lore so kind of gushing about it goes without saying. I’ve invested quite a bit of my time, and a decent amount of cash, over the two years I've been playing and feel pretty accomplished in my Fleet. I mean, admittedly, the KMS dock is kin of weak but I'd be lying if i said those boats weren’t the dopest in terms of design. I say this all the time, but it was Prinz Eugen that got me into the game and I've been a fan of the Kraut aesthetic ever since. Almost all of my favorite ships are from the KMS fleet but a few others have wormed their way into my heart. Mostly Sakura Empire bats but i do have an affinity fro Eagle Union and Northern Parliament ships. Generally speaking, however, i do not care for Royal Navy ships so imagine my surprise when i was positively drawn to the new boats in the current event, Fight On, Royal Maids! (Part 3).

Interestingly enough, the Maid boats are, generally, my favorite Royal Navy ships. Belfast, Charybdis, Dido, Hermoine, and Formidable are counted among that number, Formidable actually being the most recent get in one of my gacha rolls. I’ll get to that soon enough but my maid collection is not complete. I’m missing Jervis and Enterprise but I'm not really worried about that. The maid thing is kind of just a fancy, nothing serious. Something more concrete i can pursue, more attainable, i collecting the Centaur class ships when available. I already have Centaur, herself, so seeing that Albion was available on the current Event banner, set my drive ablaze. Centaur is pretty readily ranked in the top tiers of Carriers so i have high hopes for Albion going forward. That flies in the face of my KMS love but what can i say? You have to recognize strength when it’s so goddamn apparent and Centaur is a whole ass powerhouse. Also, Perseus, but we’re not talking about her right now.

Indeed, Albion was my target on the current Banner, just because she’s a Fairy boat so i made that run. It helps, tremendously, i like her look and she’s basically speced up for a Chapter Fourteen run, so she’s worth the attempt anyway. Surprisingly, i was able to roll Albion, and the rest of the Banner ships, on two, ten-cube, rolls. That’s right, i was able to snatch up, not only Albion, but Janus and Manchester, by only costing me forty Wisdom Cubes, on my first real attempts. I opted to wait until that following Monday for the big rolls as those ten attempts count toward the Weekly Mission total so i hit the banner hard at the beginning of the week and cashed out fast. I always clean up during Events like this. Usually, though, it’s around four or five ten-cube rolls, across that first week, so substantially more expensive. It worked out fairly well because i was more concerned with unlocking Royal Fortune. If Albion was the quest, then Fortune was the need.

Look, I'm going to be honest; I just love the look of Royal Fortune. She’s dope and, as a quest unlockable ship, he was going to be mine regardless. I love the pirate aesthetic. I love the little octopus tentacles. I love the fact that she is basically a Sailing Frigate, the only ship in her Class right now. Royal Fortune feels like a cross between the Flying Dutchman and some weird ass Lovecraftian horror, which i dig completely. I’[m all about the crawling horrors and what someone with a keen sense of creativity can do with that content. I’d be remiss if i didn’t mention that Abigail Williams is one of my favorite Servants in Fate/Grand Order specifically because of this sh*t. Like, almost all of the Foreigners are based on Outer Gods and i love them for it. How can i not yearn for something that has that same energy, in Azur Lane? It’s odd to me that she isn’t part of the Royal Navy, though. Pretty sure Fortune is based on the ship the part Black Bart sailed and he was from Wales. Still, i am intrigued by the possibility of other Tempesta Faction ships. Might be another long term quest?

As far as basic progress stuff goes, I'm chugging along. Last i tapped in, i was trying to get all of my KMS ships to 125. That’s the overall grind but i finally got Lutzow to peak level, capping off all SR, Priority, and Rainbow boats in my dock. I say all but the Subs are still sitting at just 125. They do have the Experience to max out immediately whenever i get enough chips to Limit Break them but, for now, they’re all that’s left. I’m glad Lutz is finally in fighting shape as she is a top tier boat and is a welcome addition to my Main Kraut fleet. I mentioned before that i counted formidable as one of my favorite Royal Navy ships. That’s very true but, up until to days ago, i didn’t actually own her. She eluded me because i rarely do Even ts outside of KMS. Well, on a lark, i figured I'd burn through a hundred or so Wisdom Cubes. At the time, i was sitting on around three hundred and fifty so i had a few to chuck. I cleaned the f*ck up.

It took eighty Cubes, but i was able to net not only Formidable, but Kazagumo, I-168, I-13, and a few Elite ships i didn’t really track. I rarely use those but i do keep them on hand, just in case they can be retrofitted down the line. Obviously, the gem in that run was Formidable but the extra Sakura Subs went a long way to enhancing my Faction points. I was able to raise a level and net a handful of those ever-so-scarce Cognitive Arrays. These things area pain in the ass to get so i make it a point to snatch them up wherever i can. Interestingly enough, netting Formidable and the other Banner ships levels up my Royal Navy Faction, too, so that was one hundred chips used toward breaking Luz. It all comes back to my darling Iron Blood boats. I love how far I've come in this game and look forward to where i can go. Even if i still don’t have a goddamn Inverted Orthant rerun!

#Azur Lane #Fight On Royal Maids! (Part 3)#Royal Navy

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smokeybrand · 2 years

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Savvy

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recurring-polynya · 2 years

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I used an RNG generator for this and got 10. Well:

A character/ship I didn't enjoy/think about as much before you wrote about them

That's an interesting one. I mean, it is true that I did not enjoy/think about the Renji/Rukia dynamic nearly so much before I stumbled across your writing as a part of my return to the fandom. But that seems kind of broad and obvious, so let me instead focus on a specific niche within your writing that I love, and I don't really see elsewhere, at least as much as I'd like:

Seireitei dynastic politics. I don't know if it's the amateur medieval historian in me or what, but I cannot get enough of the positioning and shenanigans among the wider Kuchiki clan, and how it relates to their greater position in Soul Society, and how Renji and Rukia-- two people who did not ever think they'd be here-- are figuring out how to deal with it. It's an undercurrent in a lot of your writing, but it really stands out in Portions for Foxes (RIP Byakuya) and the choices they have to make, and the stress that puts on them...it's wonderful I'm so sorry they have to deal with that.

(Fanfic Asks for the Asker)

I have seen some of this in other fanfics (probably because I read a lot of Byakuya fanfic), but I feel like I come at it from a slightly different angle. I think most people who like writing that kind of stuff are into palace dramas, where there are assassinations and poisonings and marriages being sabotages. I both a) am not good at that stuff and b) do not like it because I do not like when people are mean to each other.

What I do like is period dramas and literature (primarily Jane Austen novels) where everyone's social status puts a very strong color on their motivations and ability to do things. I ended up giving up on Downton Abbey (see: I hate mean people being mean), but the theme of old families with titles who have lost all their money on bad investments suddenly having to tolerate the nouveau rich, somehow really pressed itself into my brain.

In Soul Society, there's wealth, which is somewhat couples to nobility (although there does seem to be a very distinct gulf between, say, Byakuya and Omaeda), but there's also spiritual power, which can be somewhat generated by bloodline, but the Kuchiki family in particular, seem to be running dry of it. We see on-screen Byakuya grow more accepting of Rukia as his sister as the story goes on, but I think it's tremendously interesting that his family gave him all this shit for adopting a street urchin, but then she goes on to become a captain, I mean, that's absolutely wild!

I am also mildly obsessed with this one New Year's comic where Byakuya gives Ichigo a "Sakura-Crested Kuchiki All-Access Pass" which gets him free stuff "from any Kuchiki-managed store", which implies that the Kuchiki family owns a lot of business concerns around town. There are clearly these other Kuchiki...around...doin' stuff, and I just want to know more about them.

When I first started writing Byakuya fanfic, I had to really dig for something I liked about him, and the two things I came up with were 1) he loved his wife and 2) he takes his responsibilities extremely seriously. I know everyone hates the Captain Amagai filler arc, but I actually really liked it because we got to see what other noble clans are like, and it implied that there are better things to do in the Seireitei when you're rich than go to Hueco Mundo and sever your own tendons. I really dig the idea that Byakuya has this huge sense of obligation that his relatives generally lack. This also feeds into why he ends up loving Rukia and Renji so much, is because they feel that duty to the good of Soul Society in the way that he does. In their case, they feel like noble families ought to be doing something will that wealth and power because they have seen things from the other side, but the end effect is the same: they all want to hold the Kuchiki to a high standard and then work hard to that end.

I'm really glad to hear you enjoy my efforts on this front, because it's really hard and I don't always feel like I do a very good job of it. I am not a Japanese history scholar and every time I try to do research, the only thing I come away with is "Soul Society isn't very historically accurate," although it is sort of an interesting mishmash of things. Like, you can very distinctly imagine them being aware of the Meiji Restoration going on the Living World and covering their eyes and saying "I do not see it," and then immediately adopting a bunch of the technological and cultural advances that followed, but only the ones they liked. I do my best, though, and if something I write is occasionally cribbed from the copper auction drama from Poldark, well... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#fanfic asks for the asker #this is definitely one of those topics that i write about because *i* want to see more of it in fanfic #usually i am just waving my hands and making stuff up and hoping it sounds good #everyone has been so nice to me in this meme and i am just 😭😭😭

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sneezemonster15 · 3 years

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What bothers me the most about SS and NH fans (stans?) is that they can't accept the plain truth from both narrative's and fandom ship's perspective. Nobody is stopping you from writing fics/ self inserts/ porn / whatever but please do say "yes it's a fragment of my imagination, ship's not like that in canon".

Ships: yes you're free to ship what you want, canon or not, but please do accept both relationships are dismissive and not satisfactory (for neither four of them) at best, plain dysfunctional and implicitly toxic at worst (and yes, you can still ship them if you want, it's not a "sin"). The fact that theyre canon is actually more damaging than good as an argument. I don't think people can comprehend that being married does not equal being in love with that person. As a person who grew up with dysfunctional relationship between my parents, resemblance is uncanny. Like... please try to pull yourself away from emotions and attachment and look objectively on things. And if what I said angers anyone, do try to ask yourself why is that the case before attacking anyone.

Naratives: I won't say no development, because there is, just instead of climbing up stairs they fell all the way to the bottom. Both were one-sided affections/ obsession, and just sends a bad message? Like yea do chase after someone, do not accept no as an answer, yes do ignore other's person feelings and opinions, yes do be a nice guy TM, do guilty trip. At the end of the day, one of keys to a healthy relationships is emotional conection and reassurance, and SS and NH have exact opposite of that. This isn't even about SNS, just for both of them ending up with someone who actually actively tries and wants to understand them would be far better ending. And for Hinata and Sakura to stop falling in love with concept of love and obsession and actually rethink if they want a thropy or a genuine connection with another human being.

I'm not an anti nor a pro ship for both SS and NH, but it's concerning that today's generations lack critical thinking this much.

Hi. I agree with everything you said anon.

It is very disappointing that the canon pairs give out such harmful messaging, but they are still being perpetuated constantly in this day and age. We as the consumers of this media should have the objectivity and conscience to reject such unhealthy portrayals of female characters and pairings. But instead, they have huge fan followings who not only approve of them, but harass those who don't.

Like who exactly is in the wrong here?

Media is a reflection of our lives and that's how we come to enjoy it, by this suspension of disbelief availed by the makers through storytelling and characters that we relate to and invest in. They influence us heavily.

Do I blame Kishi? He is a misogynist, so yes. But really, I blame the entire culture that lets these portrayals out into the world willy nilly without condemning them explicitly.

And look at the result. Lots of women think Sakura and Hinata epitomize feminist role models and SS and NH are couple goals.

Shounen has a clear pedagogical element, it's a supporting pillar of this genre that shapes its characters and story and imparted values according to the age group it caters to. It's a particularly delicate age and most people in this age group are pretty impressionable, throughout cultures, there can be difference in degrees. So you give them characters like Sakura or Hinata as 'heroines' ( I say heroines not because they had any significant part but because they were matched up with the two main male characters), without redeeming them or explicitly condemning them, they would think they are good and worthy of idolization. Critical thinking takes time to develop and that's why it is important to be exposed to media that imparts correct values early in life.

Perhaps these fans are the ones who consumed Naruto as kids and now are adult women, who continue to idolize them?

I won't comment on how these stans are in their personal lives but given their content on online platforms, I doubt they are ideal.

I also don't know how much to blame them, I constantly struggle with my need to understand where they are coming from and the repulsion that I experience while communicating with them, what with their vile attitudes, lack of comprehension and stubborn denial.

It's just a sad state of affairs, isn't it?

If I ever raise a daughter, I would not let her watch Naruto until I have exposed her to realistic and healthy portrayals of women, love and friendship in books and on screen, and have had a full fledged discussion afterwards over custard apple ice cream and butter palmiers. Starting with Anne Shirley series by L.M. Montgomery perhaps, hehe.

If she decides to ship Naruto with Sasuke afterwards (for the right reasons of course), she will have my blessings. :)

#ask #anon #anti ss #anti nh #anti sakura #anti hinata #sns #naruto

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lightaflametoburnmethrough · 2 years

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A Study of YunaAki Analysis #3 - Healing & Choice

Akiho and Kaito.

I’ve talked about their characters separately in these two analysis posts and now I think it’s time I did one focusing on their relationship as well.

And frankly, you’d have to be very shallow-minded and stupid to not acknowledge that their story IS all about acceptance and consent.

(also, please note the ENG version of Clear Card has a lot of translation errors. Read the JPN version or meimi-haneoka’s summaries of the chapters for the correct narrative)

Acceptance especially because it reinforces the authors’ message on love: it’s not about WHAT a person is but WHO they are to you personally that matters the most.

Let’s start with a quick review.

Akiho and Kaito both had terrible childhoods.

Akiho was harshly criticized from an early age for not having any magic, which greatly damaged her self-esteem and left it in an almost crippling state. Then she was forced, without her consent or even knowledge, to go through a ritual that would turn her into something non-human for the sake of her clan’s greed.

Kaito was abandoned as a child and taken in by the shady Magic Association so they could exploit his impressive powers. They had no interest in raising him properly or helping him foster his own will, only calling on him when they needed someone to do their dirty work (ex. ordering him to take up rewind magic, which is known to shorten the caster’s life force). As a result, for the longest time, he only ever knew how to be someone else’s tool.

No family to protect them. No friends to talk to or play with. No one.

It is no surprise that they’d grow up struggling with depression when their very surroundings existed to traumatize them further into the submission of cruel and amoral people monsters.

It is also no surprise that when the opportunity came for them to escape that misery, they’re doing everything they can in their own respective ways to be free of the Squids + Association for good.

As someone who’s been through child abuse and is fighting against mental illness on a regular basis, I cannot even begin to explain how much I connect with these two. How much YunaAki’s journey means so much to me personally.

It has gotten to the point that I can only view them as the greatest concern of Clear Card.

Because I know for certain that nothing bad will happen to Sakura and her friends. The kind of story that CCS is and the genre it falls under will not permit anything but a safe and happy (and fair) ending for its heroine and all those acquainted with her. And CLAMP themselves reiterated several times that “Sakura will be alright.”

So there is really nothing for me to worry about there. Sakura has plot armor. She’s going to be perfectly fine and I’m glad for that because that means I can fully invest all my attention in the ones I relate to the most.

Yes, I do see myself in Akiho and Kaito.

Not to the same extent, obviously, since they’ve lived way more horrific lives that I was very fortunate to avoid.

But still, I can understand where their pain is coming from based on my own experiences growing up.

That’s probably why during their first scene together, when Akiho put herself down as a “bother” out of habit and Kaito immediately stepped in to reassure her “you have never once been a bother to me”, I automatically knew without a doubt there was nothing remotely toxic about their relationship.

Because if he were taking advantage of her, if he did harbor ill intentions, there could’ve been other ways for him to tie her to him. With guilt or psychological manipulation or whatever. However, his words held no deception and clearly showed only a need to make sure Akiho was okay first. All the weight of what’s important was transferred to Akiho...leaving none for himself.

With Kaito, there’s always an emphasis on Akiho’s well-being before anything. He’s not always 100% good at handling that (because he’s human and therefore, flawed and prone to making mistakes like the rest of us) but it’s very obvious he always wants to do what’s in Akiho’s best interests.

Furthermore, the fact that Akiho isn’t afraid of him, is comfortable with him in her presence, speaks volumes of how positive an influence Kaito has been in her efforts to move past the ordeal that was her early childhood.

Because please remember, when Akiho was still living under her clan, all she was ever told (by her own kin) was that she was “useless”.

They didn’t have a single kind word to say to her. They constantly scorned her and left her alone with only books for company.

So whenever someone approached her, she’d be overtaken by fear. Fear that she’ll disappoint again. Fear that she’ll cause a burden just by existing as “useless”. Fear of being hated.

Do you have any idea how cruel it is to instill those thoughts into a little girl at an age when she’s just beginning to develop her sense of self?

How messed up does one have to be to ever think it’s okay to treat a child like this? To deny them the love they deserve and punish them for things they have absolutely no control over?

This isn’t some bullshit method to “build character”. Degrading someone, bullying someone repeatedly for whatever reason will never be anything but harmful and there can be absolutely no argument that the victim is always the one who’s going to be hurt the most.

This is exactly why Kaito taking Akiho away and refusing to return her to the custody of the Squids and the Association was the best decision he ever made.

It was the first step towards freeing Akiho (and him) from her abusers, from the ones determined to chain them down so hard that they’d never dream of defying them.

Over the years they traveled together, Akiho and Kaito changed. They learned for the first time what it felt like to not suffocate under someone else’s control and judgement. They began to truly live and grow as their own persons because they were in the company of the right people.

And that was each other.

Everything that we’ve seen about their journey up to Tomoeda, everything we’ve heard Akiho or Kaito or Momo share about their time together before reaching Japan supports that.

First of all, Kaito made the conscious choice to go with Akiho because he did not want her to stay among people who wanted nothing more than to destroy her for their own gains.

He knows better than anyone what kind of environment it is to live among power-hungry magicians. Even at such a young age, he was perfectly aware that he was only in the Association because his powers were wanted, not because he was.

That’s so fucking depressing. For Kaito, who was still just a little boy back then, to become so disillusioned with the world that he lost hope that anyone would care enough about him for him and not his magic. It got to the point where he couldn’t bother to care about himself anymore, only eating the minimum to get by and letting the Association use him as they pleased until his life finally expired.

If he turned out like that, that what would become of the girl who had no powers at all? How much worse would it be for her?

So much worse.

Because even Kaito couldn’t have predicted that the magicians would jump on his comment about her being “like a blank book” as a reason to turn her into a guinea pig. He said those words hoping they would realize since she’s of no use to them, they can let her go live a normal life...which was something he couldn’t have.

He wanted Akiho out of the magic world and tried to do that even before they met.

Despite having little frame of reference for human kindness, Kaito still possessed a lot more of it than all the members of the Squids and Association combined.

Akiho was still a stranger to him then, their only connection being that Kaito spoke with her mother, Lilie, a couple of times. He didn’t know Akiho yet but he didn’t want this poor, orphaned, innocent little child to suffer.

So you can imagine the guilt that wrecked him when he later found out the ritual, the experiment to alter Akiho’s body into a storage item for all the world’s magic, was a success.

Kaito was the most powerful magician in the Association. There’s nothing, no magic he couldn’t master. Yet the one thing he wanted to do (i.e. free Akiho), he failed because he underestimated how twisted these magicians could be.

Therefore, when the chance presented itself on who would travel with Akiho around the world...he took it. He volunteered to go and never looked back once he and Akiho set off on their journey.

For Akiho’s sake, he was never going to let her return to the place where there was nothing for her but despair to begin with.

Then during the years they spent together, he made another conscious decision.

To be the exact opposite of how her clan treated her. Where the Squids neglected and always harshly reprimanded Akiho, Kaito chose to be kind and gentle and understanding.

He talked and listened to her when nobody else did.

He learned to cook, to perform domestic chores, to do anything that would make Akiho’s life a little more comfortable and happier than it was before she left her clan.

He asked for her preferences, offered her options and most importantly, never demanded anything from her. Because 1) he was in no position to due to the pretext of his “job” as her caretaker/attendant and 2) his primary goal seemed to be creating an environment where Akiho would learn that it was normal to choose for herself and want to be happy.

Because the Squids were never going to give her any of that. They want Akiho’s soul to be erased in order for the artifact to be completed. As Kaito said in chapter 35, it would be easier for them to control something that had no will.

An instrument is meant to be used as such. It’s a tool. A tool doesn’t have a personality or feelings. It cannot resist orders.

That was what life was like for Kaito when he was still employed in the Association. They preferred a Kaito who didn’t care, who didn’t question things and just did as he was told. They did not teach him how to think for himself so they could continue to manipulate him into using his powers for their ambitions.

That is a violation of consent, especially so because Kaito was still a child when it happened. Being so young and so emotionally deprived, he did not have the capacity to fully comprehend the extent of something so important...and the magicians took advantage of that.

And Kaito likely became more aware of how wrong his situation was after he came to know Akiho. Akiho, who was now going through the same thing he did with the added dread of literally losing everything that defines her as Akiho forever.

That’s why he’s so desperate. He’s doing everything he can to make sure that won’t happen. He doesn’t want Akiho to end up worse than he was. A doll with no mind of its own for other people to abuse over and over and over.

It is through these actions of his - of being caring and kind towards Akiho, of reassuring her through her self-deprecating episodes and encouraging her to not be afraid to choose - that allowed her real self - a warm, bright, energetic and compassionate young girl - to finally come out from hiding.

She gradually began to trust him, to be more open with him, to smile for him and express gratitude and concern for him...and through interacting with her, he came to know his own heart. He became aware of his own humanity along with the feeling of what it’s like to love someone and be loved in return.

What they severely lacked from the adults who were supposed to act as their “legal guardians”, they found in each other.

That’s where healing starts.

By being around those who lift you up, not pull you down.

What Akiho got out of this relationship was a person who truly cherished her for her and not what she did or did not have. Kaito is her first friend, her first confidant, her first sense of it meant to have a family. It was because of Kaito that she could finally believe she wasn’t alone in the world. That there was someone out there who could accept her for who she was, not what she was.

What Kaito got out of this relationship was a person who treated him like a real person and not a convenient errand boy. Akiho inspired him to care, bringing out the gentle sides to him that he didn’t know he had because the environment he was “raised” in stunted his ability to empathize. He began to do stuff he normally wouldn’t do because they were a “hassle”. He found far more meaning and purpose with her (even in the most mundane things like brewing tea) than he ever did with the Association. He didn’t need to be powerful or possess magic to have worth. He just needed to form a true connection with the right person and through that, he would no longer be lost on what to do with himself.

So it is not at all unnatural for them to come to love each other beyond measure. To even fall in love with one another because nobody Akiho or Kaito knew before they met went as far as they did for each other. Because nobody YunaAki knew before each other could really comprehend the hell they went through. At least, not better than they themselves can.

Not even Momo or Lilie or even Sakura, the closest people to YunaAki there are.

Sure, Momo has her own history and share of tragedies and possesses a lot of wisdom, making her more than qualified to be the parental figure YunaAki direly need. But her nature as a supernatural, ageless being is the degree of difference that sets her apart from her charges.

Momo is a witness to their journey, their ever protective guardian but she is not the one for either Akiho or Kaito and she knows this. Which is why she always pushes YunaAki to become even closer because if there’s anyone who can help them fight their demons the best, it’s each other.

Momo watched these two grow up in front of her own eyes so nobody knows better than she does that there isn’t anyone else that’s as suitable for Akiho as Kaito is and vice versa.

Also, as their responsible chaperone, Momo wouldn’t have let Kaito near Akiho if he were truly a danger to her, much less agree to contract with him in the first place. The fact that Momo still remains on Kaito’s side as of right now in the story (ch 61) is the most solid proof that Kaito isn’t scheming to hurt Akiho.

Then Lilie. Lilie was the first person to ever approach and treat Kaito like a human being. She didn’t seek him out for his powers but rather, appealed to him like a motherly/auntie figure would to a kid by offering him snacks and spending time to talk with him.

Her genial effort to guide Kaito onto the path he’ll eventually take left a strong impression on him, yes...but it was never meant to be more than that.

Lilie is not the one either and she also knew this.

Because she saw the future in her dreams, already knew that Kaito and Akiho would meet and paved the way for that so that Kaito would take the initiative to go to her daughter on his own accord. Because Lilie already had her own beloved, knew what it was like to have that one special person to love above all others, and wanted Kaito to be able to find his as well because doing so would save him.

But also because despite them both being very powerful magicians, they led very different lives. Whereas Lilie was actually valued among the Squids and enjoyed a certain amount of freedom and grew up with a healthier mindset because of it, Kaito was blatantly used as a magical resource by the Association with no regards to his emotional needs as a child, resulting in him having the lowest opinion of himself.

Just like Akiho, her own daughter, would as well.

Knowing these two needed someone, and not just anyone but someone who could truly understand their personal plights and know how to support them, Lilie made the decision to say these words to Kaito so that they would act as a beacon in his mind towards his future:

The “like/love” that belongs only to you is surely waiting for you out there, waiting for you to realize (them)

“You will come to know love. And you’ll know it is love because there’s nothing else in the world that can make you feel that way”

It’s Akiho. Because Akiho is the one who moved Kaito to make the very first decision for himself in his life. She’s the only one who could and can drive him into action, to make him feel anger and sadness and want to fight this hard for something.

Everything Kaito does, it is for Akiho’s sake. To change the impending fate of her losing her soul. To give her a world where she no longer has to cry.

Lilie saw this in her dreams and pushed Kaito towards it so the future where YunaAki save each other could be fulfilled.

Finally, Sakura. Sakura is the personification of CCS’s main message (that unconditional love should not discriminate) as well as the ally YunaAki need right now.

She is a person who will prove to YunaAki that she is worthy of their trust after so many betrayals they went through. She won’t judge them or turn them away but instead choose to help them because that’s the right thing to do. Because warmth, hope and compassion are the cruxes of her character.

She will definitely not stand for YunaAki getting less than a happy ending after everything they’ve had to endure.

However, Sakura is not the one either.

Because there's a limit to how much she can comprehend about either Akiho or Kaito’s pain. Even with the synchro “assisting” her somewhat in empathizing with Akiho through dreams, those are still not Sakura’s feelings, memories and experiences. They are Akiho’s and cannot be transferred to anyone else.

Akiho and Sakura are very distinct from each other, individual of each other because of that. Therefore, the depths Sakura can reach can only go this far.

Adding onto it, the rest of the original CCS cast come from very privileged homes where love, support and protection were always available to them. They were never lacking in what mattered most.

So it would be very difficult for them to try and navigate through a situation as horrible, heartbreaking and complicated as YunaAki’s. Considering the majority of them are still children themselves with barely any experience into how the real world works (and most of them can’t be told the secrets of magic anyway) while the Clow faction is more inclined to protect Sakura than anything, it’s hard to picture any of them having a genuine interest in wanting to truly know the newcomers of this arc.

There aren’t enough significant bridges established between YunaAkiMomo and the members of Sakura’s group for that to be portrayed believably.

Don’t get me wrong, they’d still show sympathy because they’re good people, after all. Any decent person would when they hear about the atrocities of abuse or the serious trauma caused by mental illness.

But the way this story is structured so centrically around its main heroine, I doubt anyone except Sakura can manage to close the distance with YunaAki. And even then, because of the reasons above (and how much YunaAki will actually let her in into that part of their lives), she can only do so much.

Which is fine. It’s not something to fault Sakura or the other characters for. The important thing is that when someone is in trouble, another person steps up to help those in need. And that’s Sakura’s role in YunaAki’s story. That’s more than good enough from her.

However, for Akiho and Kaito to be able to truly overcome the obstacle that is their pasts, I believe it is the most crucial that they have at least that one special person who they know can accept them wholly and whom they can be totally free in front of.

Free to share their thoughts and feelings without that reluctance of possibly being a burden to the other.

Free to talk, cry, rage and completely let go about everything that upset them and still be there to hold each other through it all, tirelessly reassuring “you’re going to be okay, I’m here for you”.

Akiho and Kaito deserve someone who will know the right words to say and the right things to do in order to comfort them, to help them heal. They deserve that one person who they’ll look to when they feel insecure and their anxiety will vanish because “you know me, you get me without trying, you understand even without me having to explain.”

Ch 61 pretty much confirms that’s the case as far as Akiho’s side goes. A developing case, at least.

Sakura had offered to listen to whatever Akiho wished to share on Akiho’s terms (ch 56) and for that, Akiho was grateful.

However, the fact that Akiho hasn’t done so yet shows that she still needs time before confiding in her friend about her family affairs which are tied directly to the most vulnerable parts of herself.

On the other hand, with Kaito in ch 61, Akiho really didn’t worry at all about taking up his time. When she asked if they could talk a little, she already knew he’d be willing and ready to listen, just as he always is (for her).

Because he’s known her for far longer than Sakura does (years as opposed to Sakura’s few months) and most importantly, Akiho knows that Kaito is aware of her coming from a clan of magicians. This is not information outsiders (which Sakura falls under) are privy to so for her to speak openly about the Squids in front of him...it not only proves he’s not an “uninvolved person” but also shows how much she trusts him to discuss something so personal.

And when he defended Akiho against her reiterating the clan’s disappointment (”in the end, she (I) can’t do anything”), she was only lightly surprised before she smiled and shook her head at his apology for acting out of line.

As if saying, “It’s okay, I know you meant well. I know you got mad for my sake.”

Akiho doesn’t have it in herself yet to be angry at her clan...so Kaito gets angry for her instead.

With that, she knows that she’s cared for. With that, she knows he feels and cares for her very much.

And that’s all Akiho ever wanted, really. A person to be on her side.

Because she has that, because she has Kaito, Akiho has already become stronger than her scars of the past. Sure, the pain will still be there because it always hurts to not be wanted by your own family...but that no longer matters as much as the present she has now. The present where she has friends who swore to do anything to help her and not let her feel lonely. The present where she can smile happily from the bottom of her heart.

The present Akiho that became possible because Kaito was there to understand her, defend her and fight for her.

Nobody ever did that for Akiho and nobody after Kaito will ever go to the lengths he did for her either. Because nobody else loves Akiho as much as he does.

And now Akiho wants to do the same for him. Because she cares greatly for him, too. Because he’s her most important person and she truly loves him and doesn’t want to lose him.

Even though Akiho isn’t aware of Kaito’s powers or the secrets he’s been keeping behind her back at the moment, that doesn’t mean she’s going to abandon him when she learns about them. Especially when he was the first person to ever accept everything about her and do everything within his ability to make her happy.

It would be extremely OOC of Akiho to act that way and go against everything the authors have built and established about these characters.

That a relationship goes both ways, not one.

That a relationship is not easy, perfect or automatic. It requires time and patience and learning to get through the hurdles and barriers between two people.

For Kaito, that is more terrifying than dying because all his life, he’s only ever known of being used by others, including himself in his goal to save Akiho. So it makes sense why he harbors distrust against the world. Why it’s so difficult for him to believe he can be anything good for Akiho.

He can give and give and give...but he refuses to receive help from her in return.

He thinks so little of his own welfare, is so full of self-loathing and on top of that, carries the immense guilt of putting Akiho in this situation when in reality, he was only doing what he could to prevent it. And there was no guarantee that she would’ve come out safe even if he didn’t make that “blank book” comment because the Squids, being the psychopaths they are, surely would have thought up other cruel uses for her even if they didn’t turn her into an artifact.

Yet he still sees it as his responsibility to correct it. To do whatever he can to eradicate the danger planted inside her by the magicians. He’s willing to give his very life to apologize to Akiho because he doesn’t think he can make it up to her any other way.

However, anyone can die. It’s not difficult to die.

It’s living that is so much harder.

But at least, by properly facing your feelings, you have the chance to release all that inner turmoil and anguish trapped inside. After that, the “load” on your chest doesn’t feel as excruciating and you can slowly work on getting better.

......in theory, it’s easy to say. In actuality, it’s not easy to do.

Because to understand yourself...requires having to relive all your horrible experiences, nightmares and regrets before coming to terms with them.

When I began my sessions with my therapist, it took me several weeks of crying out all the emotions I’ve bottled up for over 20 years before my mental state went back to being relatively stable. Though it was liberating, at the same time it was very difficult to work up the courage just to talk about it. It felt so awful to feel all that pent up hurt just hit me at max capacity.

So imagine how much worse and scarier it is for Kaito, who is shouldering so many issues right now and not once has given himself a relief from them. His severe low self-esteem that left him convinced he’ll always be alone, that no one would miss him if he’s gone. The painful solitude he still remembers before Akiho came and changed all that. The massive guilt that crushes him every day over how he put his most important person in the situation she’s in now and how that same guilt is what’s keeping him from reaching out to comfort her because he doesn’t think he has the right to be close to her.

The distress over how he and Akiho are running out of time (his health rapidly deteriorating because of using too much rewind and the artifact starting to shut out Akiho’s consciousness), the pressure of Sakura’s group closing in on him now that Sakura is aware he’s a magician, the fear that he won’t be able to protect Akiho from the European magicians...and the persistent determination to save Akiho nonetheless in spite of all these odds against him.

Not to mention, another danger of someone’s magic possibly going berserk during this whole mess. Because remember, in CCS, people’s powers are connected to their emotions. So if he loses control over his magic because of that, there’s no telling what harm may befall him or Akiho or anyone involved.

Subconsciously, Kaito might have realized this...which may be one of the reasons he’s turning a blind eye to his feelings. To maintain control of the situation.

He cannot risk getting distracted, not even for a moment. He can’t allow himself to let down his guard at anytime because doing so might just mean losing everything he’s worked so hard to achieve up till now.

And that’s a common defense mechanism, really. We all hide behind a smile, sweep what’s bothering us underneath the rug, in order to try and function normally throughout the day.

Nobody wants to suddenly find themselves in a meltdown. Nobody wants to feel so vulnerable, lost and utterly helpless when they can no longer deal with the weight of their problems and crash from that.

Not to mention, it’s so obvious that Kaito’s the type that loathes to be a burden to his loved ones and you can see it in the way he always deflects Akiho whenever she shows concern for his health and begs him to rest.

He’s always like “Please don’t worry about me, think of yourself first.”

Again, he doesn’t think he deserves to receive Akiho’s kindness so he often tries to steer the conversation away from him and make her the subject again.

But this also stems from his struggle to really trust anyone, to be willing to rely on others for support and not do everything alone.

Not only is Kaito adamant that Akiho shouldn’t be plagued with his problems, he also doesn’t believe she can bear the weight of them. In other words, the truth about himself.

That he’s a magician and a powerful one at that. That he used to be associated with the people who put her through that ritual. That his “blank book” remark is the cause for why she’s in this predicament even though that was never his intention.

That he planned all this. Taking her from Europe all the way to Japan, letting her meet Sakura, synchronize with Sakura, all for the sake of his wish (to save her).

How would Akiho react to that? Would she detest him? Hate him for what he’s done, what he is? A calculating magician who’s been manipulating the events around her newfound best friend?

It’s such a terrifying idea, the thought of the person you love most hating you.

And it gets even scarier because what if the shock of the reveal breaks her heart and belief in people forever? Then Akiho will never be happy.

If there’s a risk of that, then Kaito will surely think it’s not worth it to tell her. Moreover, it’s far too dangerous with the current circumstances. The seals he placed on the artifact (ch 35) have already been broken (ch 49) just by Akiho’s sadness breaking to the surface in response to Sakura’s words about wanting her friend to be happy.

The progression of the artifact is triggered by Akiho’s emotions and if she feels anything of intense negativity, then she (her soul) can be instantly swallowed up and he’ll lose Akiho.

It’s not worth it. If not knowing keeps her safe, Akiho never has to learn the truth about him. As long as she can smile and have a warm future, he’d be glad to erase himself from her life. He’d be happy to die for her (the reply to her “the moon is beautiful”/“I love you”).

He believes he isn’t of any value to anyone anyway so what loss will there be if he’s forgotten by the end of all this?

But Kaito underestimates just how strong Akiho really is, especially when it comes to her feelings towards him.

There is no way her love is that weak that she’d be okay about letting him leave her like that. She’s constantly on his case, telling him he should rest because she can see through his perfect mask how fatigued he is. She’s always worrying about him and becomes so sad when he won’t let her do even that.

Akiho’s willing to go through any lengths to protect Kaito as well, just like he’s been doing for her this entire time.

And she’s demonstrated that when it comes to perseverance and courage, she is the stronger of the two of them.

Akiho isn’t afraid of getting hurt and it shows because every time Kaito brushes her off, she comes back and tackles harder. She’s essentially telling him “rely on me, you don’t have to be afraid, I’m here for you”. She can handle any turbulence that comes their way because she knows her love for Kaito is greater than any hardship she’ll face. She knows it’ll be alright as long as she has that.

So even if she does get shocked by the truth, it’s only going to be a minor bump in the road compared to fearful prospect of losing her most beloved person forever.

The truth is, Akiho has always been fighting since the beginning even before she met Kaito. And she’s only gotten more resilient with time thanks to Kaito removing her from her poisonous clan and bringing her into a safe space so that her true self can properly flourish as it’s meant to.

Akiho resisted giving into bitter hatred when she had every right to lash out against the world for what it’s done to her. She retained her kindness and compassion and chose to focus on what’s most important to her: the bonds with the people she cares about.

So the issue of whether she can accept the truth about Kaito or not is pretty much nonexistent. Because she loves him for who he is, not what he is.

The person she fell in love with is the Kaito who she’s known for years, has been by her side for years. The Kaito who took care of her, supported her and gave her everything she’s ever wanted and needed.

So what if he’s a magician? That’s just one part of him. It doesn’t wholly define him and it isn’t a problem for her to unconditionally love that aspect of him as well.

Because please, please, please understand, what hurt Akiho the most wasn’t magic itself but people that did. It was the heartless, selfish community (with their fucking goddamn ableism mentality) she was born into that ostracized her and made her feel like shit. Not magic.

Akiho may be young but she’s not dumb. She knows how to tell good people and bad people apart. Therefore, there certainly can be good magicians that stand apart from bad magicians as well.

Sakura’s definitely a good magician and would never make Akiho cry or cause her to feel less for not having any powers. And Akiho adores Sakura and cherishes their friendship so much that something as trivial as magic can’t stand in the way of how dearly think think of one another.

So if Akiho is determined to hold onto this bond she has with Sakura, how the hell can anyone fathom she wouldn’t want to do the same for her relationship with Kaito, who isn’t just the most important person in her life but also the very first good person she’s ever known? The first good magician who’s also currently fighting tooth and nail against death to free her from that society that still wants to hollow her out into a husk?

That’s absurd.

Again, Kaito means so much more to Akiho than what he is. He’s more than just her caretaker, more than just a magician. He’s an extremely kind and devoted young man who had a very unfortunate upbringing and is tormented by the past.

He’s just like her.

That’s why, even before she learns the truth about him, Akiho already on some level knows him. She’s had years to observe him and his mannerisms and behavior.

And because they’re so similar, she can definitely understand him and relate to his pain better than anyone else can. It’s not the magic she sees, it’s the person he is.

Akiho is more than strong enough to accept Kaito and support him through his troubles. Nobody’s forcing her to and she’s not doing it out of obligation. She chooses Kaito because she wants to of her own will.

Honestly, this kind of connection is incredibly rare (even among non-romantic love as well). For someone who can see everything you are, the good and the less than ideal parts, and say “I will accept all of you, I am not afraid to love you.”

It does not mean omitting their faults. Rather, it’s the strength to acknowledge, embrace and forgive the fact that nothing is perfect. It’s to not let your perspective be ruled over by prejudice. To not let one small, superficial aspect stain the beauty of the entire picture.

So what if Akiho can’t do magic? That’s not going to make Kaito love her any less because he’s already seen, already knows, that just having magic can never compare to a fraction of the sum of all the great qualities Akiho does possess. And he knows this better than anyone because he’s been with her longer than anyone else has to witness them!

So what if Kaito is a magician? That doesn’t erase all his efforts to help her escape her toxic family and his desire to keep her safe from harm. It doesn’t negate his pure feelings of wanting Akiho to receive the happiness she truly deserves. That is what’s matters. That is what’s always going to mean more to her than anything.

YunaAki are never going to forget those things, the most important things, about each other. Nothing can make them, it’s impossible.

The way their characters are written, separate and around each other.

The way their relationship is portrayed with layers upon layers of complexity, transcending things like age or gender or sexuality.

The reason why CLAMP suddenly brought the phrase “ 私だけの人” (“The only person for me”) into the story right when we’re reaching the start of the climax of CC. Right when we’re finally getting the overdue extended exposition into Akiho and Kaito’s pasts.

The incredible stroke of luck that out of probably a billion chances, YunaAki were able to find the one special person meant solely for them and them alone.

It is to illustrate the authors’ intentions regarding these two persons. That no one else can love them better, can love them the best, than they do each other.

YunaAki aren’t only compatible because they’ve got similar backgrounds (and therefore, also have similar understandings) but also because they have a special sensitivity to one another that nobody else does.

Even though their real personalities are quite different (Akiho being more optimistic and outgoing with Kaito being more moody and cynical), when they’re around each other, they show sides of themselves that no other person has that ability to bring out.

Kaito’s eyes don’t soften so gently for anyone else but Akiho. He’s not attentive towards anyone else like he is towards Akiho.

When she’s hurting, he so evidently aches for her as well and you can see it in all the expressions he makes whenever he’s around her.

And when Akiho is super happy or wishes to discuss something she feels very deeply for, it’s always about Kaito.

Nobody else can get her to smile, so warmly and brimming with quiet but potent affection, like Kaito can.

“The one who brings out the best in me is you. The one who makes me feel the most beautiful and precious is you. The one who will give me the greatest despair is you if I ever lose you.”

The only one.

The one they can’t afford to spare, not even for the world. The most important one.

Which is why they’re fighting. At the end of the day, it’s not about who wins but what one must do in order to not lose.

Putting everything on the line for the sake of love. As proof of one’s love.

I believe this is the narrative Ohkawa-sensei is going for here. And you know it is because this theme is universal in CLAMP’s works and has actually been stated by Ohkawa herself (check the wiki, I believe she said it a press conference).

Well okay, we get all that about acceptance and what’s important but where does choice fit into this spiel then, hm?

Because yes, even if Kaito is intent on saving Akiho and hiding things from her for her own safety (reminder that the artifact can activate at any moment), Akiho will not approve of him trying to force-give her happiness this way, especially at the expense of his own life.

...among several other problems since we still don’t know the exact details of his plan. The only things about it that has been confirmed by Kaito’s own words are:

1) He needs Sakura to manifest a specific card in order to activate Momo’s book, the pivotal key to accomplishing his wish.

2) Sakura’s other Clear Cards (and possibly the artifact inside Akiho as well) can act as some sort of “fuel” to power Momo’s book or the taboo of the book or whatever.

In short, some sort of spell is needed to save Akiho. So what is the purpose of this spell? What does it do?

There are a bunch of theories going around including Kaito possibly wanting Akiho and Sakura to switch lives (though ch 61 seems to be disproving that atm) or trying to the reverse the state of Akiho’s body to the moment before she underwent the ritual. Maybe he might even want to create a copy of Sakura’s “perfect” life (thereby messing up the time-space continuum?) ...but make it so it’s a world without magic and insert Akiho in it?

We don’t know and none of us can claim confirmation about anything until CLAMP finally reveals Kaito’s intentions in future chapters.

What we do know is that Kaito sees absolutely no hope of him coming out of this alive.

The repeated use of rewind magic causes him severe seizures and now he’s passing out from the exertion of it as well. Kaito barely has enough left in him to even stand and yet, despite Momo warning him against it multiple times, he refuses to listen.

Because saving Akiho means so much more than preserving his own life, which in his mind is just a small price to pay.

Because he believes Akiho must choose happiness for herself. Whatever that means, whatever he envisions for her as “happiness”, he needs her to choose that.

That’s probably what he’s been conditioning her to do from the beginning when they started traveling together. That’s why he’s always offering her options , to get her into the habit of choosing what she prefers. To think about what she wants.

“Please don’t worry about me (I am of no value), think about yourself.”

Choose a normal life where she can have a loving family and good friends and a future.

Choose a life where there is no magic which consequently means a world without him since the only thing he sees himself useful for is his magic.

Kaito seems convinced that magic is the source of Akiho’s pain...so without it, without him who unknowingly cursed her into her fate, she can finally be free.

But that’s just what Kaito believes in that stubborn head of his, drowning in all his internalized self-hatred and guilt. Again, right now, he has no idea just how much Akiho loves him and how much it will hurt her if they’re torn apart.

As long as he remains unaware of her true feelings, he will continue to go down the wrong path. He will continue to avoid facing his heart and his death will cause Akiho an even greater grief than any actual happiness he wishes for her.

He will not realize that his pursuit for an ideal world for Akiho is what effectively deprives her of her choice on what happiness means to her.

And that’s to be with Kaito, her most beloved person, always.

If Kaito dies, they lose that forever. They cannot go back on it.

That’s why it is extremely crucial that Akiho confess to him again, this time with the more direct “I love you”.

Only by getting across to Kaito that she loves him dearly, that she sees him as special and the one person she doesn’t want to live without, can it put a halt to this downward spiral of self-destruction.

Moreover, by choosing Kaito over a “perfect world”, Akiho will teach him the real meaning of the word “choice”.

That she chooses Kaito for him and not his magic. That even with magic, she can accept all of him because there isn’t a single thing about him that she doesn’t love.

And just as he chose of his own will to save her and give her freedom, Akiho will choose him to give him his - to free him from the belief that he’s destined to be alone.

By knowing he is not alone, that he is cared for and loved by someone, Kaito can begin to properly heal. He can finally learn to trust someone, to believe that he too has a right to live, to have a place to belong to in this world (with Akiho, by Akiho’s side).

He will no longer have any reason to die. He will not wish to leave Akiho because doing so will only bring her endless despair and if there’s anything we can be sure of, Kaito will not accept any outcome where Akiho is less than happy.

To conclude this overly long ramble (yea, it’s ramble-analysis at this point...rambalysis?), everybody chooses their own happiness. It’s not something another person can decide for them.

Choice also extends to those we love and how we love them.

By choosing to love the correct way...that is, by supporting each other, caring for one another, accepting one another for who they are and not what they are...can we hope to find, to become, the true love we’re looking for.

True love brings out the best in people, allows the real strengths of their characters to bloom and thrive as they’re meant to.

True love heals, helps us become stronger and better than our old selves so that we don’t lose to our weaknesses of the past.

True love will never intentionally hurt you and even if there is pain, it’s the proof that you’re alive. Alive to feel, alive to hope and to fight. To choose your own happiness.

That is the meaning I’ve found in YunaAki.

#I can't count how many times I've had to step away and cry while writing this post #it didn't even turn out as I planned which should've been more organized and possibly more concise than this #that past two months were just a mess y'know #nonetheless it served as a good catharsis for all the emotions I had trouble releasing and I'm very glad I pushed through to finish it #writing is my therapy and I still strongly believe in love despite the awful hell I'm living in rn #that's why YunaAki is my ultimate OTP #this ship was made specially for people like myself #and nobody can ever stain this beautiful feeling they've inspired in my heart #I will never regret or be ashamed for expressing this love #shinomoto akiho #yuna d. kaito #yunaaki #akiyuna #🕰️🌾🐇

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sanguine-tenshi · 3 years

Text

I just finished Inazuma and I have words

TL;DR: Hate the story, mixed on characters, love the design and tired of being treated like a 4-year-old with a learning disability.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Let’s start with what I like.

Inazuma is absolutely beautiful. I’ll admit Inazuma hits a lot of aesthetic points for me. All the islands are different enough to feel unique but they still look like they are a part of the same land. There are a lot of secrets to discover through just exploring. Each island has a world quest to help it (make it less hostile towards you) so it very much feels like you are saving Inazuma from itself.

The puzzles are alright.

I like the cubes that rotate, I always put in the effort to figure them out properly.

Hate the ones that don’t rotate, they just aren’t engaging enough for me, so I just hit them at random and hope for the best.

The glowing floor tiles were fun, once you actually realized what they wanted you to do. A little bit too easy if I’m honest.

The electro compass isn’t really much of a puzzle, more of a fetch the nearest electrograna quest.

Those little pillars that require an electro connection are kinda boring to me, again not much of a puzzle, the hardest part is finding both pillars.

I love the new electro seelie, kinda hard to follow the jittery thing in certain parts but they make a nice contrast to the regular seelies.

I’m very much mixed on characters.

Yoimiya is adorable. She is so bright and bubbly. What little game play we had with her was fun and I love her over the top style of fighting. Kinda disappointed she’s another pyro archer but I do admit it fits her character well. It was also wonderful seeing her just settle down and be quiet, just be a part of that moment that obviously meant a lot to her. It’s always nice to see that bubbly, energetic character have that one quiet thing, ya know. Kinda funny it’s fireworks, of all things, for her.

Gorou I like, from what little we’ve seen of him. My man killed a dude with his thighs so I’m down. I do find it kinda ridiculous that a resistance general has his whole damn belly exposed. There is also something about his voice that just does not fit. I cannot for the life of me put my finger on what exactly it is. Could be the tone itself, could be just voice acting. It sort of feels like the VA is trying to sound deeper than he actually does.

Sangonomiya Kokomi, mixed. I like her design, she looks like some sort of mystical priestess. Again something about the voice is jarring. I expected her to sound sort of airy, like she isn’t 100% present, like she’s seeing something we can’t. TBH she reminds me of Luna from HP for some reason.

Yae Miko, I was interested because of her design. She sounds very arrogant and up her own ass, which would have been fine...if she hadn’t given us that god-awful line. “...I have high hopes for you, child. Don’t disappoint me.” Dear lord I wanted to punt her off the mountain. Or fucking what! Also she’s some bigshot priestess of the Sacred Sakura and yet she can’t do her damn job properly. Why couldn’t her arrogant ass come down from her high perch and cleanse the stupid roots? Why did the traveler have to do that shit?

Baal looks dead inside. Booba sword is overrated, get a life. I want a remach! And no cutscene shenanigans this time!

Kujou Sara seems like one of those ‘honor above all else’ characters. Those are either hit or miss with me. You have my attention for now. Also what are those shoes woman?! I’d rather you wear those leg-killing, needle point stilettoes instead of those Wish gag shoes. How in the name of all that is holy can you run in those?!

Thoma, I like him. At first I thought we were gonna get another Childe incident, but Thoma is too much of a innocent puppy to pull anything that horrible. To me he fits a fox a lot better than Childe does. Childe is a dingo and I stand behind that.

Kamisato Ayaka...hate her. At first I was neutral on her. Nothing about her design really spoke to me, but I was willing to wait and see. But then miHoYo started to violently push her friendship at us. We are totally friends now, this is the first time you see my face, but we are so totally friends now. And during her story quest everyone was like “Ah, you are so good Ayaka. You are so nice Ayaka. You are so perfect Ayaka. We all love you so much Ayaka. And oh, how could a mere merchant like myself...” Ew, go away. This is the first time I’m actively not pulling on a character banner. Normally I pull even if I’m not particularly interested in a character, because you never know how good their gameplay is until you take them out in the map. But I think I’ll be skipping this one. No thanks.

And now, the worst part, the story.

We’ve been hearing about the situation in Inazuma for a long time. There has been also a lot of talk about how hard it is to get there. About the wall of thunderclouds that surround the islands. So to have it cut to black and then voila Inazuma, feel just so cheap.

I was expecting something. An animation. A struggle. A quest. A minigame. At least show us the horrible weather! Something! Anything!

Hell if they wanted to be assholes about it they could have made it so that if the player fails at this point the ship is damaged, you return to Liyue and have to wait until tomorrow for the ship to be repaired. No Inazuma for today. That sure as hell would have raised the stakes.

The next complaint I have is with Yurika, the 2 milion mora processing fee girl. Later on Thoma mentions that the agency people see the fees as easy money, so her attitude doesn’t make much sense. After all someone like her would want to extract as much money as she can, but you still want the people to be able to pay that.

So it would make more sense to me if she was overly friendly and asked way too many questions. She’d need to get a much information as she can and after all the previous hostility people would be very open with her. So she’d be able to quickly find out why someone is here, what they are selling and roughly how much money they’d be able to pay. A merchant selling expensive silk would have more many than a regular ore merchant. So she’d be able to extract as much money as she could.

“I know this is a lot of money, especially for something so simple, but there is nothing I can do about it. I’m so very sorry.” And people wouldn’t say anything bad to her because she’s the first friendly face they see in Inazuma.

The stealth mission was just god-awful and I hope we never have to do that nonsense again.

Getting off of Ritou was a bit janky at the end, Chisato should have had a better reason for coming along. But I’m honestly just glad we didn’t get out the usual way...getting stuffed in a crate and smuggled out.

As a side note, I’m getting really tired of characters overexplaining things to me, especially Paimon. Dear lord, not everything has to be said, you can leave me to come to my own conclusions and solutions. Just please, who cares if a few player struggle for a bit, you don’t have to hold my hand through the whole thing.

Ayaka’s three were...ugh. It was basic emotional manipulation. Oh no this guy forgot about the love of his life and he’s been waiting for decades. And oh how sad this guy was so good and he helped these people so much but now he can’t remember. And oh the tragedy this guy forgot his life goal and is now hunted by the demons of the past. Oh the humanity!

And it did not work. Know why? Because I have no emotional investment in any of these people, in this land. What is happening to the vision bearers in Inazuma is tragic, true, but that doesn’t make me want to overthrow the government. I don’t live here. I just got here. I wanna ask a question or two and then move on. None of this concerns me.

I was so happy when the traveler just flat out refused to start a revolution. And then we had to go and meet some people and immediately I knew this was going to be some oh noes the tragedy moments and then we would agree to help them.

It’s so forced.

Wanna know what would have been better?

Just as we are leaving the Kamisato estate Thoma catches up with us. And he tells us he gets it. We are an outsider and this doesn’t concern us. He was hopeful but he expected the denial. We shouldn’t hold it against Ayaka.

He joins us as a guide because he knows of the people we have to meet.

And so as we help these three we also get to know Thoma. We find out he was an outsider too. He got in just before the worst of it started and then he was stuck in Inazuma. He lost someone to the Vision Hunt. They slowly lost their mind after loosing their vision, their ambition too closely tied to their personality to continue without it (what is happening to Domon hits a little too close to home and he has to walk away, this is where we hear the story of the one he lost). And the same would have happened to him if the Kamisatos hadn't taken him in. He owes them his vision, his sanity and his life.

So this rebellion is personal for him.

At the end of the three wishes the atmosphere is somber. We tell him we understand why Ayaka fights, why he fights. We know that this is all wrong, that it should be stopped...but not by us. We came here to get a lead on our brother. And rebellion isn’t an overnight affaire and we can’t loose so much time in Inazuma.

And yeah, he expected as much. He just asks that we let Ayaka down gently. It’d be a shame if someone as idealistic and hopeful as her lost their spark.

And so we are gentle but firm with Ayaka. She looks like she wants to argue with us but Thoma shakes his head at her. So she sighs and tells us that a promise is a promise. We should come to the Komore Teahouse in a few days and she’ll have a plan for us to meet with the Shogun.

Now we can still have a character story quest with Yoimiya and we can still somehow get involved with helping Master Masakatsu, but it’s through Yoimiya instead of Ayaka.

And instead of a character story quest with Ayaka we have one with Thoma. Hell, give him a whole damn hangout event even.

You can probably guess why I’m pushing the friendship with Thoma so much.

Because. He. Gets. Kidnapped. For. The. 100th. Vision. Ceremony.

And that would have been the perfect emotional in to get us involved in the rebellion. After all we just saw what happens to people who have their visions taken away and we are not letting that happen to Thoma, someone we just got close to.

So Baal makes it personal for us as well.

I have a few more minor complaints.

Aoi is stupid for asking for compensation after she tells us everything we needed to know because, ya know, we could have just walked away. We should have.

The whole stupid misunderstanding about the value Kurosawa’s sword holds. Kinda obvious he meant emotional value instead of monetary.

The suspicious amount of visionless NPCs and by that I mean this is the first time we have NPCs with vision. This wouldn’t have been a problem if we’ve seen NPCs with visions in Mond and Liyue.

The whole rebellion camp bit feels incredibly rushed. We just sort of lollygag over there and then there is a fight (against Sara and her stupid shoes).

Don’t make us fight Baal just to force us to lose. It would have been better if we were forced to retreat, because Thoma was injured, because there are too many soldiers for us to handle on our own. Hell, you can have a funny scene where we straight up jump off a cliff with Thoma clinging onto us and screaming bloody murder until he realizes we are slowly gliding away and he’s not about to plummet to his death.

The Sakura cleansing quest should have been voice acted.

The Mirror Maiden and Pyro Agent are totally on a date, I will not be told otherwise.

#genshin impact #inazuma #genshin inazuma #genshin 2.0 #Thoughts #opinion #yoimiya #gorou #sangonomiya kokomi #yae miko #baal #kujou sara #thoma #kamisato ayaka

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captnjacksparrow · 3 years

Note

Hello.

So is it just me or Naruto suddenly becomes smart and analytical when it comes to helping or rescuing Sasuke? It happened in the forest of death when Sasuke is about to give away the scroll to Orochimaru and Naruto berates him saying Orochimaru is still going to attack no matter the scroll. Or when Sasuke is about to leave Konoha to join Orochimaru and Naruto says that it won't be a free deal. Orochimaru will have his body and his life in exchange of power. Maybe I am biased, but it just feels that Naruto, who is not known for being analytical or strategic, suddenly becomes smarter when it comes to Sasuke. Maybe there are other examples.

What do you think?

Thanks for the ask anon☺️

Naruto suddenly becomes smart and analytical when it comes to helping or rescuing Sasuke

Smartness/analytical sense usually goes with Naruto by how he comes up with a quirky plan in a very difficult situations with just a simpler jutsu.

Example, Naruto and Sasuke worked together as a team to bring down Zabuza. Naruto defeated Neji in chunin exams. Naruto defeated Pain by using Transformation jutsu, smoke bombs, rasen shuriken as a three step attack. Naruto saved entire shinobi alliance by teleporting everyone with the help of Minato.

The situations you mentioned are highly indicative of how Naruto is emotionally perceptive and protective, especially towards Sasuke.

Let's go back to Episode 1.

He was just a 12 year old boy who could able to understand the words uttered by Mizuki in episode 1, "It's not that Iruka is afraid of the scroll, it's just that he is afraid that YOU have that scroll".

I didn't understand what that means in the beginning. After rewatching the episode and only then I understood it's true meaning. Naruto after knowing kyuubi is sealed inside him, thinks that Iruka is only concerned about the sealing scroll because Naruto may use it to release the seal rather than protecting the scroll from Mizuki altogether. Meaning, Naruto thinks Iruka doesn't trust him entirely. See how Naruto is perceptive towards people's emotions.

However, What happened later is the iconic scene which changed our Titular character's fate and he went onto apply the same concept he learnt to every villain he ever met. That is Acceptance and Forgiveness.

And Naruto is a person who learns from his mistakes and corrects next time.

Coincidentally, the two scenarios you mentioned is somewhat similar to what Mizuki asked Naruto to do. Mizuki told Naruto to steal the scroll and perform the jutsu inside it to pass the Academy Graduation. Naruto believed him not knowing his ulterior motives.

Now, Orochimaru is also doing the same thing. He is asking Sasuke to do something. Give the Scroll/Come to me, I will give you power. Naruto already knew Orochimaru is a bad guy as he sent one of his snake to swallow Naruto, don't you think he can see through the lies after experiencing the same with Mizuki??

The mere thought that a garbage like Orochimaru is using Sasuke before his eyes is something intolerable for Naruto.

Naruto is not being smart here. He is heavily invested on Sasuke in terms of his Emotions and becomes extremely protective. Meaning, the mere thought of him being in danger always heightens his emotions to the edge. Because everytime Sasuke acknowledges Naruto in his own stubborn way, Naruto's emotions changes too.... just like his emotions heightened when Iruka acknowledged him in Episode 1.

Proof??

Sasuke died protecting Naruto. Saying 'My body moved on its own'. Haku tells him 'He died protecting his precious person'. What happened next?

Naruto released the Kyuubi chakra for the first time due to his extreme rage despite collecting mass hatred from his villagers for about 8 or 9 years.

Sasuke tells Naruto "I want to fight you too". He gets extremely happy and wins the fight against Kiba.

Sasuke again tells Naruto "I don't want to see my precious friends die in front of me again".

He smashed Gaara into pulp.

Sasuke finally admits 'For me, you became my closest friend".

And later he sprouted his first tail.

When Sasuke was branded as an international criminal, Naruto hyperventilated due to his extreme suffering.

[I don't count Naruto sprouting 8 tails for Hinata as a means of love. Coz, even if Sakura jumped and got her ass kicked like that, the result would be the same]

Somehow Sasuke always brings out extreme emotions out of Naruto, be it happiness or rage or suffering, which is a clear indicator of how Naruto places Sasuke above everyone else.

Now, you tell me, If there is a person whom you love more than yourself, is being used by some trash before your eyes... Just like how you were being used once, how can you not become extremely protective?

Maybe I am biased, but it just feels that Naruto, who is not known for being analytical or strategic, suddenly becomes smarter when it comes to Sasuke.

You are not biased anon, it’s just you worded it differently.

Smartness refers to using your brain. Love or emotions refers to using your heart. Naruto always pours out his heart before Sasuke.

The correct way of putting it is,

Maybe I am biased, but it just feels that Sasuke, who is known for being analytical or strategic, suddenly becomes dumber when it comes to Naruto

Sasuke decided to give the scroll to Orochimaru only after Naruto appeared in the scene.

Sasuke decided to seek power from Orochimaru only after he felt inferior to Naruto and according to him, the bond with Naruto is making him softer, in other words weaker.

In short, it’s just Sasuke’s dumbness makes Naruto looks smarter. So Naruto is desperately using all his powers and past experience to protect Sasuke at all costs.

#ask #sasuke #naruto #naruto analysis #sasunaru #narusasu #sasunarusasu

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moonlit-mizukage · 4 years

Text

Chapter four: The Deal

Summary: Y/l/n Y/n, a third year at Sakura High School, is just a girl with a bad attitude towards anyone outside her small circle. When y/n’s younger sister starts first year, she gains a lot of attention. Unfortunately for everyone in school, the Y/l/n household has one rule, No dating till y/n does. Some people become just desperate enough to pay the leader of the “Monsters”, the trouble making group on campus, to date y/n. What will happen when she finds out? (All characters aged up to third year unless otherwise stated)

TW Swearing, mentions of sex, mentions of using women, sexualizing woman, smoking, aggressive behavior, mentions of violence.

AN: Please let me know if I missed anything in the TW. Sorry this is also almost two hours late. I got super invested in this anime I was watching and forgot to finish it up.

Taglist Open!! Send an ask or dm to be added!

Word count: 1k (Just a little over)

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Third Person POV

Oikawa waited by his locker for his closest friends.

“Where are we going?” Kuroo asked Oikawa.

“You will see when we get there.” He responded with a smirk. The two had waited for the rest to come up to them before he shut his locker. “Ready for mission Mei?” He asked.

“I’m ready for this whole thing to blow up in your face so I can laugh again shittykawa.” Iwaizumi said.

“You’re so mean Iwa-chan!” With that the five guys exited the school. Outside the crossed over the field as they approached the bleachers, Bokuto suddenly stopped in the middle of the field,

“Oikawa, you must be joking.”

“Who else do you know who isn’t afraid of anything?” He said back with a sly smirk. Bokuto nodded his head to show he agreed with Oikawa’s thought.

Entering the underneath of the bleachers, Terushima was seen smoking next to Matsukawa.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Matsukawa said, anger dripping from his words. Terushima pulled out his phone and sent off a few short texts.

“We have a proposition for Terushima.” Oikawa said.

Before anyone could say anything else, Kyotani busted in and shoved Atsumu out of his way.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING HERE! GET THE FUCK OUT ASSHOLES BEFORE I MAKE YOU.” He yelled aggressively, now standing in front of Matsukawa and Terushima like some kind of protective beast.

“Down dog.” The voice came from behind them as they all turned to see Tendou walking up with Hanamaki behind him. “So why are you bastards in our spot?” He said pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up.

“We came to make a proposition to Terushima.” Oikawa spoke up again.

“What kind of proposition?” Terushima asked, looking unamused.

“I want to take Mei out, but you see I can’t do that without someone dating her older sister.”

“And how does that concern me?” Terushima asked as sass dripped off his words.

“Well, you are known as Ladies Monster... so I was thinking you could take out her sister, just like once or twice a week till I get bored or get what I am after.”

“Who is it?”

“Y/n.”

“Ah hell no man! I went into the café she used to work at and she dumped my entire milkshake over my head.”

“Dude, you grabbed her ass when she set mine down.” Matsukawa butted in.

“Yeah but any chick who makes me work that much, ain’t it. I like my girls easy. Besides, not like I’d get anything out of it anyways. You’d get sex with her sister and I’d get 50 maybe 70 cups of milkshake on my head fow what? One date and no sex. Hell to the no bro.” You could see gears turn in Oikawa’s eyes.

“What if I paid you?” He asked Terushima.

“How much?” Tendou butted in, regaining his interest in what Oikawa was saying once again.

“$100 a date.”

“For just one date? You know that’s way too low.” Hanamaki now joined the conversation.

“Okay how about $300?” Oikawa offered.

“$300 is less than we all make individually in a week.” Matsukawa said.

“$1000 a week and you have yourself a deal.” Tendou said.

“And you will be the one to get her to date you?” Oikawa sounded shocked by Tendou’s offer.

“For $1000, I can. Anything less I don’t see how it’s possible.”

Oikawa looked back at his friends.

“Dude $1000 is way too much for a date with someone like Mei.” Iwaizumi said. Oikawa turned back around facing Tendou again. Extending his arm out towards Tendou.

“Deal.” Tendou gave a sly smirk as he shook his hand to seal the deal.

“I can write you a cheque now.” He reached down to his pocket for what was thought to be his wallet. Tendou raised his hand to stop him.

“No. I want cash.”

“Cash!?!?!” Bokuto yelled up from behind Oikawa.

“Bring cash tomorrow or the deals off.”

“See you tomorrow then.” With that Oikawa walked out, followed by his friends.

“If I knew he’d offer $1000 for one date I would have done it.” Hanamaki said.

“To bad y/n wouldn’t give you the time of day.” Matsukawa laughed.

“I wonder what this Mei girl looks like to be worth that kind of cash.” Terushima spoke up.

“Why don’t we go find out. We can browse the first year locker hall and find her ourselves.” Hanamaki suggested.

“I’ll come too. I want to scare some people into giving me their lunch money anyways.” Kyotani said.

“You really are a wild one Mad Monster.” Matsukawa said, as he patted him on the back.

The guys smoked a little more and bothered Tendou what he would do with his new income. After they finished up they headed inside to find this girl worth so much money. Back inside the school already, Oikawa and his friends were standing in the washroom while a few of them splashed water in their faces.

“That was so scary what Kyotani busted in. I thought I was gonna piss myself.” Bokuto said as he stood fully up from the sink. “Dude he pushed me outta the way. I thought he was going to punch me or some shit.” Atsumu replied back.

“I think the scariest thing is how Oikawa is about to drop a grand weekly to get pussy.” Kuroo said with a chuckle.

“It’s not even my full allowance. I don’t think I will need over three weeks at most anyways.”

“Dude.. That's $3 grand!!”

“Yeah and that’s just a little over my one weeks allowance.” Iwaizumi rolled his eyes.

“You’re such a spoiled brat Shittykawa.” Oikawa just laughed at him.

“Don’t be jealous Iwa-chan!” On that note, the group left the bathroom as they walked down to their classes.

“Hey Shirabu!!” Bokuto yelled, waving at him.

He turned and gave him a disgusted look.

“I see you already are best friends with him.” Kuroo joked.

Oikawa felt a hand push him from behind, as he quickly turned he noticed it was y/n.

“Watch where you are going bitch!” He spoke up.

“Shut the fuck up asshole. You were the one taking over the hallway with your flat assed self.”

I can’t wait to take you down a few y/n. Oikawa thought to himself.

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Previous | Masterlist | Next

Taglist: @belongtothewcrld @elianetsantana @its-the-aerieljeane @london-quynh @vhskenma @denkithunder @swagdaddycam @ems1des @tendouispretty @senpaisbadass @elephantloser @smolbbgorl @mikeys-thighs @kuroolilchibichan @softesyoongi @ouijaeater15

#tendou x you #tendou x reader #tendou smau #tendou x y/n #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smau #haikyuu x you #haikyuu x y/n

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dayseternal-blog · 4 years

Link

Summary: % Sweet - What’s a guy to do when he has a cute customer? Bubble tea shop AU.

Part 1 of a series of fluffy short one-shots in Modern AU.

For @badluckbrebis for NaruHina Secret Santa 2020! I have more planned for this gift exchange, so please stay tuned. I REALLY HOPE YOU LIKE THESE.

Rating: G

% Sweet

With a gallon of milk in each hand, Naruto saunters down the road from the nearby supermarket back to Kyuu-Tea, his part-time.

The sun’s finally starting to set, sending a golden hue across the cooling afternoon. It’s been good weather. Which means they’ll have a good amount of customers heading in for a boba drink before dinner. Hopefully, that girl, too-

The sound of a car door shutting closed draws his attention.

Her. Long, dark blue hair and skin as creamy as genmaicha milk tea.

His heart thumps almost violently in his chest like a gunshot at a race. He’s making a mad dash back to the shop, throwing the door open, bursting in, and he announces to Sasuke with an uncontrolled yell, "SHE'S COMING! I saw her!!"

Sasuke stands straighter behind the counter with a concerned and curious, “Who?”

But he’s already rushing into the back to shove the milk into the fridge before flying back out to the floor. “The girl from last night,” he gasps as he frantically straightens chairs and takes panicked glances at each table for any stray straw wrappers lying around.

Sasuke’s brows are high on his forehead as Naruto runs back behind the counter and pushes him away from the register.

And hardly five seconds later, he sees her appearing on the other side of the windows, pulling the door open, laughing with a friend with double buns. The friend’s got that street-sporty look that he’d usually be into, but the girl is just soo pretty...and especially after what Sakura told him...

Naruto can’t help smiling stupidly at her.

She glances at him, and her gaze dances away, a shy smile coloring her sweet face. She approaches the counter, her eyes focused on the menu, but he’s quite certain that she’s already decided.

“Hi,” he greets.

“Hello,” and finally, she looks at him head-on, and damn, he’s really never seen eyes like hers before in his life.

“The same as last time?” he asks.

Those light eyes widen in surprise, and he can’t help mentally patting himself on the back. “Oh, yes,” she murmurs in soft tones that leave him wanting to hear more.

“Medium Winter Melon Tea Latte?”

She nods.

“With light sugar?”

She nods again, that blush on her cheeks almost good enough to compensate for her silence.

He taps her order onto the touchscreen. “...And small boba?”

“Yes, thank you.”

He grins despite knowing that he’s way too excited about such a customary phrase. “That’ll be $4.95.”

She nods again, opening her purse and retrieving a $5 bill for him.

“Thank you...here’s your change.”

She takes it and promptly drops the nickel into the tip jar.

He’s still smiling at her even as she turns around.

She’s cutely biting her lips, and he hears her quietly remark to her friend, “He remembered my order.”

“What, really?” the other girl gasps.

He smiles wider and steps away from the register, super proud of himself. “Sasuke, can you get the next one for me?”

“Oh.” Sasuke hands him the plastic cup for that girl before taking his spot at the register back.

And Naruto gets to work, all the while wondering if she’s watching him or not.

Gods, he really hopes she’s into him like Sakura said she is.

Sealing the lid to the cup, he grabs a big straw for her and neglects calling out that her finished order is ready in favor of taking it directly to the table where she and her friend are seated. “Here’s your Winter Melon Tea Latte.”

Again, she looks at him with that incredibly surprised expression. “O-oh, thank you.”

“No problem.” He grins for a second before turning around, but disappointment quickly settles in. That’s pretty much the end of their interactions for the rest of the night.

The number of customers starts picking up again, as he predicted.

But his straying gaze to her table doesn’t go unnoticed. She catches him every so often, blushes, and looks away.

He hopes that he’s not coming off as creepy. It's just that he can’t stop thinking about her.

And who can really blame him? When they came last night, Sakura quickly told him before they left the shop that her friend thinks he’s hot!

Hot, as in like, should he try to pursue her? Or was that just a passing, shallow compliment?

But they’re here again and…

Turning to Sasuke, he blurts out his conundrum in as hushed an urgent whisper as he can. “Should I try talking to her?”

But Sasuke seems not nearly as invested in this as he should be. “If you wanna talk to her, then talk to her.”

He wishes he wasn’t such a dork. Then maybe he’d have the nonchalant attitude necessary to just walk up to girls and start hitting on them.

They could leave at any second now. And now is as good as it’s going to get while there’s a lull in the work.

So sucking up his self-consciousness, he strides over to their table again.

She’s looking at him shyly.

“Uh, hi,” he starts. Really smooth of him.

Her friend is making eyes between the two of them, and, honestly, this is the most awkward thing he’s ever tried to do in his life.

“Hello,” she greets.

The friend also says, “Hi.”

“I heard you-” He abruptly stops. What’s he actually trying to say here, that he heard she thinks he’s hot?! “-I, I’m friends with Sakura, and uh-”

She’s nodding.

Thankfully, the friend intervenes. “Yeah, Sakura wanted to show us this place where her friends work. You guys have good tea.”

“Thanks.” He awkwardly smiles, wondering how he got himself into this mess. Why can’t he talk like a normal person right now? “Glad you guys liked it enough to come back again.”

She smiles and nods.

“Uh…” Now what. Now what is he supposed to do. “...Can I have your number? O-or, I could give you mine if you’d be more comfortable…”

She’s nodding, taking out her phone.

“...with that… um…” He watches her unlock her phone and open up a new contact page. “My number is…”

She taps in his phone number, and he really hopes she’ll actually contact him, and that he’s not going to be the next fool in their girl-talk.

But with that sweetly shy look, she peeks back up at him, and his hope multiplies ten-fold. He must be doing something right for her to look at him like that...

“Um...what was your name again?” she nearly whispers.

Embarrassed heat slams into his face and beats down at his neck. “Oh!" He really is a fool of all fools. "I’m Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. Sorry…”

She shakes her head, a small smile playing at her lips as she enters his name into her phone.

“A-and your name?” he ventures to ask. He wishes he could start this whole conversation over. They are definitely going to be laughing about him after this.

“I’m Hinata. And-” She looks at her friend. “-This is Tenten.”

Tenten raises a hand up from the table as if to separate herself from their conversation. “Don’t mind me.”

He grimaces in renewed embarrassment, muttering an apology that he’s not sure the other girl heard over Hinata’s much more embarrassed cry of, “Tenten!”

The buns girl is just laughing at them.

“So uh, Hinata,” he redirects, “Text me sometime?”

She nods, her cheeks adorably flushed. “I am. Right now.”

Unchecked, stupid joy floods him, and he knows he's smiling way too much to look cool. “Great, thanks.”

The little bell at the door chimes as more customers walk in.

He has to get back to work. But first, he makes sure to seal this with a promise. “I’ll talk to you later, then?"

She nods easily, and he turns around to give Sasuke a victorious grin.

Back behind the counter, his phone vibrates in his pocket, and a quick glance shows a short message: “Hello this is Hinata Hyuuga :)”

A flashed smile at Hinata, a wave of his phone to show that he got her message, and she’s blushing that adorable smile back at him. “Thanks for texting me back,” he taps out and sends before he finally starts focusing on making drinks.

Only a few minutes later, he notices them cleaning up, getting ready to leave.

“Thank you!” he shouts out.

She turns, mouthing a “thank you” in return, with that sweet smile that dazzles him each time, and he can already tell she’s exactly what he wants.

Even if her boba tea is 25% sweetness, Hinata is definitely 125% extra sugar.

#nhweek #nhweek2020 #naruhina secret santa 2020 #badluckbrebis #❤️❤️#thank you for reading!#naruhina fanfiction #short one-shot #more to come!!!

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bl1ndbraavosi · 4 years

Note

Stalking you bc I haven’t been able to be on tumblr lately. Seeing those prompts from earlier today and give me number 37 pls, dealers choice 🥰

hehe hi ty this is way longer than i anticipated but I COULDNT STOP so pls accept #1 Most Terrible Babysitter Rokudaime Hokage (under the cut bc she is kinda long for tumblr)

37. "What happened to their happily ever after?" "Not all those love stories get a happily ever after, sometimes it's just once upon a time"

There was something to be said about the fact that his most gifted medic was, for all intents and purposes, a single mother to a very precocious child. Sarada was the spitting image of Sasuke, but everything in her countenance screamed Sakura. He never knew a child to be so shrewd. Well, aside from himself, anyway.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have gotten involved. But, these circumstances were anything but normal; Sakura was his former pupil-become-friend. Sort of. He couldn’t very well demand her presence at the hospital and leave her young daughter to her own devices within the Uchiha compound.

No, instead, he’d demanded that one of the other parent-type shinobi take on the littlest Uchiha for the night. They had all adamantly refused, and now he understood why.

Sarada peered at him over her red-rimmed glasses, strapped to her little head with a thick rubber band, but all the ridiculous spectacles in the world could not diminish the dark eyes narrowed at him in suspicion as he paraphrased and skipped over entire sections in the bedtime story he was meant to be reading her.

“That’s not how it goes,” she said for the fifth time in the last five minutes.

“If you already know how it goes, why am I reading it?” he challenged. Her eyes narrowed further.

“Because I’m five and my mama said you have to,” she said.

“You know, she really takes orders from me? I’m her boss,” he pointed out, not entirely sure what he expected this five-year-old to do about it.

“Mama doesn’t take orders from anyone,” she said with a proud smile, like Sakura had trained her to say it. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she had done just that. He slumped over in the tiny wooden chair that was definitely not built for a grown man.

“Alright, kid, I’m gonna level with you; I’m not cut out for this bedtime story thing.”

“You’re telling me,” she said with a little scoff, popping her arms out from under her blankets to take the book from his lap. She flipped through the pages, skimming over all of them until one of them pleased her. “These aren’t my favourites, anyway,” she admitted. “My favourite is when mama tells me different stories. Without reading,” she said, her dark eyes big and imploring.

“You want me to make it up?” he asked doubtfully. Her cheeks went a little pink.

“Did you…know my dad?” she asked timidly. Kakashi got the feeling Sakura was not one to entertain this request very often, if Sarada’s shifty eyes and pink cheeks were anything to go by. “Could you tell me about him? And mama?”

“No way,” he said, knowing Sakura was probably going to give him shit for it later. But, right now, his main concern was that he was sat on a chair built for a toddler, and his legs were quickly going numb. At this rate, he would have to ask the ANBU guards stationed outside this house to carry him home. “I’ll tell you something better,” he promised.

Mollified, Sarada tucked herself lower into her bed, staring up at him impatiently. He launched into the story of her parents without telling her it was about them.

Sasuke and Sakura; where to begin. He supposed the beginning would do. So he started her off with their beginnings as he knew them; the genin team, where Sakura had been the brightest by far, but often overshadowed. Sarada, an academy student herself, was deeply invested in the details of Team Seven’s early days. Before he knew it, she was yawning uncontrollably and those dark eyes were falling shut despite all her efforts.

He made himself a tea and sat on the big couch in their house until Sakura came slumping in after a long night at the hospital. She was surprised to see him there, thanking him profusely before pouring herself into her own bed.

The next time it happened, he hadn’t even bothered asking anyone else to look after Sarada, even though he promised Sakura he would. Now that he knew how to get the little demon to conk out quickly, it would be a walk in the park. Besides, Sakura had bragged to just about everyone that Sarada apparently loved him, and wouldn’t stop talking about him. He just hoped the girl kept their story to herself.

She didn’t even bother with a book this time; she just laid on her pillow and stared up at him until he began. The story took an unpleasant turn here, and he was worried about telling her all the hardships her parents had faced as children. He shouldn’t have been; this was a reality of the shinobi world, a world that Sarada was a part of. Still, he tried to handle Sasuke’s running away and various attempts at killing Naruto and Sakura as delicately as possible.

“Didn’t he love them?” Sarada asked, looking sad.

“Yes, he did,” Kakashi said with absolute certainty. “But sometimes that’s not enough,” he finished.

“You shouldn’t leave people you love,” Sarada said adamantly, and Kakashi realized that perhaps this was not the version of this story to be telling her. Thankfully, she drifted off shortly thereafter.

It was a while before his storytelling was put to the test again, but it seemed no time had passed at all for Sarada. She was as deeply invested in the story as ever, bursting with questions and ready to hear more.

He jumped right into it; talking about a formidable clan, a noble and strong clan, and Sasuke’s dedication to that clan. He skipped over the nastier intricacies—like the slaughter and fratricide—and focusing in on the devotion Team Seven had for one another. Sarada didn’t seem overly suspicious of his sugar-coating, and allowed him to continue on uninterrupted.

“Why did they keep fighting so hard to save someone who didn’t want to be saved?” she asked, a little knot appearing above her brows, just as Sakura’s did when she worried.

“That’s what you do for family,” he explained. “You stick by them, no matter what.” Her knotted brow eased slightly.

The next story time brought them to the war; the rejoining of forces, Sasuke’s return to Konoha’s side, fighting alongside his remaining family, and saving the world. Sarada seemed a little more appeased by this part of the story, taking particular interest in hearing about Sakura’s healing prowess on the battlefield.

“She saved all those lives?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, but let’s not forget it was a team effort. The leader also saved many lives,” he said, the leader being him. She didn’t particularly care. He wondered if Sakura had actively instilled her general disregard for him as a leader in her daughter, or if this behaviour was hereditary.

The only thing more impressive than Sakura keeping Naruto’s heart pumping by shoving her hand into his body was the fact that she had punched a goddess in the face.

“And then she saved her other team members? After all that?” she asked, her eyes wide. Kakashi realized belatedly that he had meant to tell her a small romance about her parents, but instead had exalted her mother for the better part of it all. He supposed that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps Sakura wouldn’t be so mad at him, should she find out.

But, of course, impudent as she was, Sarada made it clear that he would likely never be safe from Sakura’s wrath.

“So, they went through all that to save him, but he still left,” she said, a deep line appearing between her brows.

“He left to protect them,” Kakashi explained. Sarada did not look convinced.

“He didn’t leave for her,” Sarada said, rolling her eyes behind those thick red frames. “Does he come back?”

“Yes, eventually,” Kakashi said, feeling uneasy. “But he leaves again because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.”

“He’s wrong,” Sarada said. “I’m five and I know that. What happened to their happily ever after?” she complained. Kakashi had forgotten among all her quips and questions that she really was just a five-year-old girl.

“Not all those love stories get a happily ever after. Sometimes it's just once upon a time.”

“This story sucks, Hokage-sama,” she complained.

He found himself agreeing. He had always kept his reservations about Sasuke’s absence to himself, but it was hard to deny that his daughter certainly seemed to have a better understanding of duty than he did currently.

“Do you think my dad will come back?” she asked suddenly. “Do you think he loves us?”

“I’m sure of it,” he answered as quickly as his mouth would let him speak.

“But he’s not here now,” she said, her eyelids slowly getting heavier and her words slurring with sleepiness. “I’m glad you’re here, Hokage-sama.”

“Me too, kid.”

“Does that mean we’re family?” she asked softly. He didn’t know what to say.

“I guess it does.” And just like that, she was out.

“Hey, Kakashi?” Sakura poked her head into his office, her brow knotted and eyes narrowed at him.

“Hm?” he answered, barely sparing her a glance as he reviewed his pile of mission scrolls.

“Just a quick question for you,” she said, her voice dripping in suspicion. He felt his shoulders tense. “Why the fuck does my daughter keep telling people you’re her dad?”

#alholland #prompt

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tiaragqueen · 4 years

Note

Can I please request a yandere!Sasuke Uchiha x Hyuuga!reader where she's very calm but also powerful and she's the only girl that doesn't try to get his attencion, but he is obsessed with her and wants her to be his wife?

Edict

✂ Pairing: Yandere! Pre-Shippuuden! Sasuke Uchiha x Reader

✂ Word Count: 885

✂ Trigger Warnings: Possessiveness, drugging

Do not re-upload my writing to another website or use it without my permission.

[Edited]

***

So, I made it pre-Shippuden because I think Sasuke wouldn't care much about romance if Itachi was still alive. I hope I didn't make the yandereness too subtle, tho.

If you like my writing, please support me on ko-fi!

“You can throw a fit but it’s no use (don’t reject me). Just close your eyes, tune your ears.” - Pied Piper (Bangtan Seonyeondan)

In some aspects, you reminded Sasuke of Hinata. You were polite, hardworking, smart, and quiet, though not necessarily shy like your blue-haired counterpart. When other girls were busy groveling on his feet, you kept your attention on books and training. Certainly, you weren’t the first and only one to not fall victim to his ‘charm’. He’d met Tenten, Hinata, and Temari who treated him like a fellow ninja.

And yet, there was something about you that attracted him.

Was it your intelligence? No, Sakura was smart, too. Was it your beauty? Well, Ino was no less than pretty, either. Or was it your determination? Every girl, if not all, who enrolled in the academy had the same resolution; to be the best ninja they could be.

Really, if he were to look deeper, he’d find that there was no real reason as to why he liked you so much. Thus, it led him to the only possibility; crush.

Yes, Sasuke Uchiha had a crush on you, just like any other boy around his age.

But Sasuke couldn’t accept it. Liking someone meant investing his time and attention to them, and he couldn’t afford that; not when he had a more pressing matter at hand. Itachi was stronger and smarter than him on many levels, so if he wanted to have a chance at defeating him, Sasuke needed to work harder. And infatuation could only hinder him, as far as he was concerned.

Then again, nobody told him that he couldn’t bring you with him. With, or without your consent.

“Come with me.”

You glanced up from the green tea and blinked owlishly. Sasuke stared at you emotionlessly, like he always did, but you could discern something in there. A dogged determination that you’d seen it appeared whenever he talked about his ‘purpose’. A dark sentiment that allowed no rejection from you.

“… To where?” You had a suspicion regarding his abrupt invitation, but you didn’t want to jump into conclusion yet. For all you knew, you could be wrong, and you’d be forever reminded of it. Your brain always picked the wrong time to humiliate you with memories, especially the embarrassing ones.

But when he scoffed, you knew that your suspicion was correct.

“You know where.” He lifted his own glass and sipped the lukewarm tea, still staring at you as though you’d bolt out of the door anytime soon.

Though, if you knew what would happen next, you’d definitely escape sooner.

You shook your head, having already made up your mind long before he asked you. It was no secret that you disagreed with his intention, and frankly, nobody would, either.

“Sorry, Sasuke-kun, but I don’t think I can join you on your… quest.”

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

Sasuke squinted and had you weren’t close to him, you’d certainly be intimidated by the gesture. He had a way of frightening people with a mere look, and sometimes it worked on your favor. Behind his cold demeanor, you found that he was quite caring to his friends. Though, his kindness often lacked the warmth that was necessary for them to feel his sincerity.

“I didn’t ask, you know.” His tone became flatter than you thought was possible as he slowly leaned forward, crossing the table that acted as a boundary between you two. If he wasn’t trying to intimidate you earlier, then now, he surely was. “I want you to come with me. You don’t have a choice in the matter.”

“Still,” You withdrew slightly while keeping the gaze that grew heated in each second. “you want me to come with you. Therefore, I have the right to refuse.” Once the situation had truly dawned on you, you frowned and dropped all courtesy. “Honestly, Sasuke. Just because I’m your friend, doesn’t mean you can order me around like that.”

Frigid eyes widened slightly as he inclined his head, black hair concealing his visage. Why did he look shocked? Should he already know that you considered him as one of your closest comrades? “Friend, huh?” Sighing, Sasuke finally retreated and picked up the empty glass again. He twirled it for a good moment or two, seemingly lost in his thoughts. As far as you were concerned, you were the only he ever put his guards down.

But this time, you knew better.

“… How unfortunate.”

As if on cue, your sight began to grow blurry until it looked like he had two faces at once. You slowly grabbed your head, feeling the blood rushed and pounded the skull. The glass fell to your lap and dampened your skirt, but you didn’t notice through the abrupt headache. You collapsed to the floor and curled into a ball, wincing to keep the pain at bay. Several tears managed to trickle without your knowledge, creating droplets against the floorboard.

“I see the drug is working,” Sasuke remarked dispassionately, finally putting down the glass that he’d been gazing for a while now. Peering towards the ticking clock, he hummed. “We should have a couple of hours to prepare before we arrive at his base. In the meantime,” he glanced at your weakened figure, discerning the consciousness that slowly slipped from your bloodshot eyes along with the pain. “rest a little, [Name]. You’ll need full stamina for our journey later.”

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migila · 4 years

Text

Fic time! It’s Inojin’s birthday!

December 5th

“Sai?”

“Yes, Beauty?”

When Ino didn’t answer, Sai turned to look at her, seeing her biting her lip, her eyes going around the room, looking at anywhere but him. That was never a good sign, the man had learned. Insecurity, slight fear, sometimes quilt. It made him wonder what his wife had done “What’s wrong?”

Ino took a deep breath.

“I’m pregnant”

There had been many life changing moments in Sai’s life, but none topped that one. His wife, pregnant. He was going to be a father… probably.

“Am I the father?”

The answer to that question was Sai having to sleep on the couch for the rest of the week.

XXXXX

It had been months since then, and Ino was now in labor. Sai had been kicked out of the room, against his wishes, but Sakura had insisted that his insensitivity would only make things worse for his wife. Maybe she’d been right; Sai knew he still didn’t have a proper instinct on what words were considered okay when and what weren’t. He was studying hard though, both from books and in practice.

“Waa…” Sai looks down at Sarada, Sakura’s daughter, who’s tugging at his shirt. Naruto had shoved the toddler in to his arms not too long ago when he’d left to change his own son’s diaper “Waa-aa…”

“What is it, Sarada?” he asks “Is something wrong?”

The baby just raises her hands, like trying to reach for something. Sai blinks.

“I have no idea what she wants” he thinks, frowning “I don’t think I’ll be able to understand our baby, either.”

This wasn’t the first time he had these concerns, and he’d asked advice from Sakura, but she’d only shrugged and told that no one knew what to do immediately, that he had to “grow in to the role of a parent.” Sai honestly didn’t even know what that was supposed to mean.

“What if our child learns from me too much and becomes as hopeless?” he wonders “He’ll have a hard time making friends.”

“I think Sarada wants you to pay more attention to her, you know” Chouji, who’d just arrived with his daughter in his arms, says. Looking at the baby girl, Sai supposes that at least one of his fears was unnecessary; his baby would be part of Konoha’s legendary Ino-Shika-Chou; it would have at least two friends.

“Is that so?” Sai asks, just staring at the baby “…What exactly am I supposed to do?”

“I can show you” Chouji says, holding out his daughter to Sai “Hold Chou Chou for me.”

Sai takes the sleeping baby, watching as the bigger man picks Sarada off his lap. He can see the baby’s smile fade.

“Hello Sarada~!” Chouji says, making a face that Sai assumes is meant to be funny. Sarada however, seems to disagree as she starts crying.

“Oh no” Chouji panics “No no no, don’t cry!”

“Chouji has yet to grow in to the role of a parent, it seems” Sai thinks. In a way it’s a relief; the man had been a father for a while now, yet didn’t have a hang of it, so Sai wouldn’t have to hurry, either. But if even Chouji had trouble with it…

Another scream joins Sarada’s crying, and Sai notices the older baby had woken up the younger one.

“Oh no, not Chou Chou, too” Chouji whines “It takes a forever to calm her down!”

That Sai was not so eager to know, but it made sense; the girl had apparently inherited her mother’s temper. He just hoped that their baby wouldn’t inherit Ino’s… though the more it’d be like its mother otherwise, the better. Ino would be able to raise the baby in to a proper shinobi and tell him what to do, too.

Sai jolts as a third scream joins in, but this time it’s not a baby’s, it’s his wife’s. Again.

“It has been two hours already” he thinks. He’s read about childbirth, so he knows it can take a long time, but the wait is agonizing as he fears that Ino and the baby won’t be fine. Not that he has any right to complain; Ino obviously has it the hardest.

“It’s like a concert in here” Shikamaru says as he walks in, his baby in his arms “Troublesome.”

Sai cringes, seeing that the baby boy had been asleep, yet was now waking up. Another one to join the concert-

…Or not. Shikadai opened his eyes, frowning in annoyance, which Sai hadn’t known was possible for one so young, before closing his eyes again, seemingly undisturbed.

That was weird.

“Looks like we have Lazy Junior here” Naruto snorts as he returns with his son in tow “I’ll bet a dinner that his first word will be “troublesome!””

“Haha” Shikamaru huffs as the others laugh “But I’ll take you up on that bet; there’s no way Temari’s letting it happen.”

“We’ll see” Naruto laughs, then frowning “Why are Sarada and Chou Chou crying?”

“Chouji scared Sarada, and that made Chou Chou cry, too” Sai tells honestly, getting a frown from Chouji. Naruto sighs.

“Alright, Chouji, switch with me” he says, holding out Boruto for the bigger man to take “And don’t make my son cry while you’re holding him.”

“I won’t I won’t” the man assures, taking the boy as Naruto takes Sarada. Sai watches as the Hokage to be, yes, he’ll definitely be one eventually, coos at the toddler, swaying her up and down slightly, and soon the baby’s crying turns in to laughter.

It seems that at least one of them knew what he was doing. Sai was surprised by the fact that it was Naruto.

“Phew” Chouji was relieved “Sai, take Boruto. I’ll handle Chou Chou.”

Sai did, and watched the baby calm down as Chouji pulled out a bottle and started feeding her. Figures. But it did work.

He winces as Ino screams again, and hopes that it doesn’t upset the babies.

“…I think we should take the kids away from here before they start crying again” Chouji says.

“Might be a good idea” Naruto agrees, taking Boruto from Sai, balancing two toddlers in his arms “We’ll see you later, Sai.”

“Yeah” he mutters. He could’ve used the distraction from his worries, but he couldn’t ask them to stay; they had their own families to take care of. And in Naruto’s case, Sakura’s family too since the woman was aiding with the childbirth and Sasuke was off on a mission.

Sighing, Sai tried to get his emotions under control, wincing as Ino screamed again.

“Ino’s going to be fine, you know” Sai jolted, having not realized that Shikamaru had remained behind and sat down next to him. He saw Shikadai still in the man’s arms, his small face holding a frown again, but the boy didn’t let out a sound.

“I hope so” Sai says, not taking his eyes off of the baby “…Does he ever cry?”

“Our Dai? Mostly only if he’s hungry” Shikamaru laughs “Temari has been worried, but mom assured her that I was like that too when I was a baby.”

“Ah” Sai says “Lazy from birth, then. Is it a medical condition?”

“Shut it” Shikamaru answers “If your baby is anything like its mother, you might want to invest in some earplugs.”

“I’ll tell Ino you said that” Sai laughs, and Shikamaru glares.

“One doesn’t get friends with that attitude” he grumbles. Not too long ago, Sai would’ve thought the man was angry, but now he knew it wasn’t the case, not really.

They were friends after all.

XXXXX

Ino slumps back in her bed, exhausted. Eleven hours, eleven! She knew childbirth could last long, but she’d thought it’d be a few hours max. She should’ve read those books Sai had bought, too.

“Congratulations!” Sakura says, holding the newborn heir of the Yamanaka clan “You have a healthy baby boy!”

As tired as she is, Ino smiles, holding out her hands. Getting the hint, Sakura hands the baby over. Holding her child for the first time, Ino can’t help but get emotional as the tears start falling down her face.

Understanding the privacy of the moment and that they’re not needed for now, Sakura and Shizune leave the room, the former saying that she’ll tell Sai as she goes. Not long after, the fresh father enters the room. And stays at the doorway, unsure of what to do from here. All those books hadn’t prepared him for this.

“Sai, it’s okay to come closer” Ino says “He’s your son, too.”

Son. It was a boy.

Nervously, Sai does walk over, seeing the little bundle in his wife’s arms. The baby had its mother’s hair, he notices.

“Hold him” Ino says, holding the baby out, but Sai hesitates. He had never held a child that small before.

“It’s alright” his wife says “You’ll do fine.”

Sai smiles, though still unsure of himself, but it’s not like he could say no. Like Ino had said, this was also his child, also his responsibility, so he hesitantly takes the baby in his arms.

“He’s so small” Sai says. Babies always were, but somehow, theirs seemed smaller than he’d expected… but then again, he hadn’t seen one right after birth before.

“Maybe a bit more than he should be” Ino says, but after Sai looks at her in alarm, she continues with a reassuring smile “But Sakura said that he’s healthy, so everything’s fine. I’m sure he’ll grow up to be strong.”

“…Strong, huh” Sai mutters. He supposes their son will be a shinobi like them. That’s natural, of course, but Sai’s surprised how reluctant he feels about the idea. Somehow, the thought of his son willingly putting his life in danger out there doesn’t sit well with him.

“Yes” Ino says, smiling “But even so, we’ll always be there to protect him.”

“Absolutely” Sai agrees “…I just really hope neither of his teammates have inherited the tempers of their mothers; if they have, we’ll really have our hands full.”

Ino laughs.

“Well if our baby got my temper, he’ll be fine even if they have!”

Sai shivers.

“I think I might need some protection in that case”

Ino just laughs. Normally, she’d let Sai have it for a comment like that, but she’ll let it slide today. Only today.

“So…” she says “Do we still agree on the name?”

“We decided it together” Sai says “It’s a good name.”

Ino smiles, and right then there’s a knock on the door.

“Ino, can we come in?” Chouji calls “Chou Chou and Shikadai want to meet their teammate to be!”

Sai’s about to retort that the babies are too small to express wanting something like that, but holds his tongue. Not the time for that.

“Of course!” Ino calls back “Come meet our Inojin!”

#the baby pig and I share a birthday so I had to write something #yamanaka inojin #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #yamanaka ino #yamanaka sai #boruto #boruto naruto next generations

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depressedkakashihatake-fics · 4 years

Text

Fond Memories

Hatake Kakashi (No Ship)

1563 Words

For: @caffeinatedshinobi

Spending his night out with friends was a rare occurrence, one that was meant to be treasured and remembered fondly on a bad day, or during the last precious moments of life.

Instead, Kakashi was trying to get drunk, and fast.

“Whoa slow down,” Gai’s hand came down over his glass, preventing him from shooting back his third cup of sake. “What is the rush, Rival? We’re supposed to be relaxing.”

“I don’t think ‘relaxing’ is a word that exists in Kakashi’s vocabulary,” Glaring over at Asuma, he huffs when his friend simply responds with a playful smile. “You know it’s true. Your idea of ‘relaxing’ is reading that book of yours.”

“That is relaxing for me,” He grumbled, though it was sort of a lie. Most days he just read his book because it was easy to do. It didn’t involve a lot of energy, no emotional investment since he knew what was going to happen, and it kept his mind occupied. “Fine, let’s do something ‘relaxing’ then. What’s relaxing?”

He looks to Kurenai for an answer. There’s no way he trusts whatever idea comes out of Asuma’s mouth, and he’s pretty sure Gai doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘relaxing’. The only time he relaxes at all is when he has a stick of dango in his hand.

Taking the hint, Kurenai leaned back in her chair and took a moment to think about the request. After a few minutes a small smile started to pull at the corner of her lips, meaning she had come up with an idea.

“Let’s share memories,” she leaned forward, her smile so big it could almost rival Gai’s regular toothy grin. “Talk about our favorite memory with our team. How about it?”

That didn’t sound nearly as exciting as she made it seem.

“Does anyone even have a favorite memory?” He asked, relaxing into his chair and watching as everyone turned to look at him. “What?”

“Surely you have a favorite memory of the time you have spent with your team, Rival,” There’s a worried look on Gai’s face.”A time when you looked at your students and couldn’t help but smile, or feel like everything was perfect for just a few minutes.”

Bold of Gai to assume he liked his students.

“Even if you aren't particularly fond of your students,” Good old reliable Asuma. He always seemed to know what was on Kakashi’s mind in moments like this, and he held no judgement unlike a certain Taijutsu expert currently gasping in disbelief. “There must be one moment where you looked at them and thought ‘huh, they’re not so bad’”

Not so bad?

That was possible, though he’d have to think about it to remember such a scenario since most of his memories with Team Seven involved endless headaches. Naruto being a constant pain in his ass, Sasuke being...well, Sasuke. Sakura was in there somewhere too but she didn’t stick out as much.

It was a downfall of not being a complete monster, but he appreciated that there was at least one normal person on his team. It was also a result of being the smartest out of the three, so he didn’t have to worry so much about her doing incredibly stupid shit.

He’d have to think really hard to come up with a fond memory that didn’t involve contemplated murder.

“Oh no, he’s making the thinking face.” Asuma’s voice cut through his thoughts, followed by Kurenai’s laughter and the distant sound of Gai asking him if he was alright.

He ignored it all, determined to find just one fond memory with his team of gremlins.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ichiraku Ramen

Not his favorite place to eat out at, but these days it was the one he saw the inside of the most. All thanks to one orange clad genin currently in the middle of screaming about how he’s going to be Hokage one day.

Quite the dream to have, for a kid who can’t keep his trap shut on a mission.

“You don’t believe me?” Taking his chopsticks, Naruto poked Sasuke in the nose. “It’s true. I’m going to be Hokage and i’m going to prove to the whole village that i’m the strongest there is.”

“You might want to focus on learning how to throw a kunai properly first,” Sasuke swatted the chopsticks away from his face. “besides, what are you going to even do as Hokage? Make it a law that everyone has to eat at Ichiraku Ramen every day?”

He didn’t need to hear Naruto’s enthusiastic ‘yes’ to feel sick to his stomach. He was already eating more Ramen than he could handle. How Naruto survived on the stuff every day was beyond him.

“I think the most important thing you’re forgetting here is that a Hokage should be a good leader,” Sakura spoke up. “How can you be a good leader when you can’t even get along with your own teammates?”

Point for Sakura, again.

So far she was winning in his ‘who gets to be my favorite’ competition.

Not that it was hard with teammates like hers.

“I can learn,” Naruto protested. “Besides, we have the best Sensei out of all of them! We’ll be the strongest in the village, all three of us.”

He can’t tell if Naruto is just being nice, or if he actually believed what he’s saying. If it’s the second one he has to question Naruto’s logic in calling HIM the best sensei in the village.

That title clearly went to Gai, but it might help that his students were less determined to put him in an early grave.

and that he had actually wanted to be a Sensei, unlike Kakashi.

“You’re not wrong there,” Sakura beamed. “Kakashi-Sensei’s far from perfect…” rude. “but he’s an amazing Sensei. Don’t you agree Sasuke-kun?”

Ok, he could forgive the rudeness for that one.

Turning his eyes towards Sasuke, he waited for a response to Sakura’s question. A smile pulled at his lips when he saw the Uchiha glaring over at him.

“He’s not terrible,” Sasuke admitted in a hushed tone. “I’ve learned from worse.”

It wasn’t the best compliment, but he was willing to take it.

“Hey, Sensei,” Naruto nudged him in the side. “You like teaching us, right? Showing us how to be the best shinobi in the village.”

How had he ended up with Minato-sensei 2.0 staring up at him with bright blue eyes and a smile that could melt any heart

Well, any heart that wasn’t his.

His heart and soul thrived off of being the guy that showed affection through insults and jabs. Probably not the best trait to have when one is a Jonin-sensei.

“Of course i like teaching you,” he turned his attention to the bowl of still untouched Ramen sitting in front of him. “There’s no other students dumb enough to get hit with the ‘thousand years of death’ twice.”

No, he was not going to let Naruto live it down after he had successfully used his father’s goofy old attack on the kid again during training today.

“S-sensei…” Naruto’s head hit the counter, his voice full of shame and defeat.

Good.

He was getting too comfortable. Too chummy.

“Best Sensei maybe,” Sasuke grumbled beside them “biggest ass hole for sure.”

Well, at least they were starting to understand him. They couldn’t fully appreciate his personality if they thought he was just socially awkward. They needed to accept that their sensei was a bully just as much as they were.

It’s what made them all a perfect team, even if he did want to murder them all most days.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smiling to himself, Kakashi turned his attention back over to Kurenai, who began to look very concerned as soon as he did.

“D-is everything ok?” She asked cautiously. “Did you come out of your thoughts in one piece.”

His friends were just as much ass holes as he was, and he loved them for it.

“I thought of a fond memory,” he informed her, laughing to himself as he thought back to it once again. “I guess i do have one of those.”

Gai’s hand came down on his shoulder hard, shoving him forward suddenly and forcing him to reach out and grab hold of the table for support.

“That’s great, Rival!” Gai’s voice boomed in his ear. “Tell us! What is this fond memory of your team you found?”

“Mmmm, i don’t think I will,” there’s a sense of pride that bubbles up inside of him when all three of his friends slam their hands down on the table in protest. “It’s my memory to enjoy all on my own.”

“You can’t just…” Asuma’s words devolve into a string of nonsense while Gai starts screaming about ‘youthful passion’ and ‘rivalry’. Meanwhile, Kurenai just leans back into her chair with a groan and closes her eyes, clearly done with the entire situation.

This.

This was relaxing for him.

Annoying all of his friends with little to no effort and watching them react with a variety of different emotions.

This is why he hung out with them.

Because they made his life interesting, and they never got so used to his trolling horrible ways (As Asuma liked to refer to it) that they stopped reacting.

This is what he loved about these three and he never wanted it to change.

#Hatake Kakashi #Yuhi Kurenai #Saratobi Asuma #Maito Gai #Uzumaki Naruto #Haruno Sakura #Uchiha Sasuke #Kakashi is a dick #but he knows he's a dick and he has fun with it XD

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