#jutsu theory

[randomwritingdrabbles]

My take on the Naruto 'teleportation' jutsus cus they're hard to actually tell apart so I made rules for them.

Kawarimi/replacement

Tag an item with a chakra thread and then swap places with it. Can be done before the battle on items and swapped with when they are out of sight or mid-battle on things you can see.

Walls restrain chakra threads so you can't kawarimi through a wall and people with any kind of sensing capacity might be able to see the strings.

Depending on control, strings can be made thinner or bendier so they can fit under a door gap/be harder to see and shit like that but it requires high chakra control.

Shunshin/body flicker

Kawarimi but with air.

Relies on line of sight and is much harder than kawarimi because you have to tag a pocket of air (aka a shit tonne of air molecules) instead of a single item.

Same downsides of 'people can see ur chakra strings' and 'can't go through walls'.

Hiraishin

Uses a time-space dimension to pull the person to a seal. This is done by attaching a chakra string to a seal and threading the string through a slip dimension.

The person has to constantly maintain the low-chakra required strings which can add up depending on how many you have placed. If the ninja lets go of the strings then they loose that link until they physically go to it and remake the link.

They can be kept up during sleep unlike most jutsu due to the seals making them a passive bodily process similar to chakra keeping the heart beating etc.

In my opinion each string takes about a fifth of a (non-shadow) clone to maintain but the further that string stretches, the more chakra it will take so a seal in another country may take a full clones worth of chakra compared to a seal 100m away only taking a fifteenth of a clone.

To create a hiraishin the nin needs to identify both their personal chakra seal and to find a way to work that into the time-space dimensional key (essentially the interdimensional address of the slip dimension). After that it only requires tagging the seals with chakra which will form a kind of permanent kawarimi link through the time-space slip dimension and activating that seal will yank the user through the slip dimension and spit them out at the other side.

It is essentially the same technique as the other two but, due to the string being stored in the slip dimension, it ignores the other two's downsides.

The user can use chakra to burn a seal onto objects and people if they already know how to do that with seals, otherwise they gotta use pre-made paper seals.

The reason so few ninja can do it even if the process becomes known is because it takes super high-level knowledge of sealing as no one else can make a personal seal so the user has to have a high enough sealing level to identify and map their seal 'fingerprint'.

This seal can actually be used against the user so anyone who makes a personal seal also adds 'noise' to the seal to disguise its exact form. These usually take the shape of seal elements that directly contradict one another and therefore do nothing.

A personal seal can also be used for anything that involves sealing and their chakra so having arm tattoos that act as backpacks are now possible. Huzzah.

Anyway, yea, this is mostly reference for my own headcannoning and fics but feel free to steal it if you want 👍

[driedlillies]

impure world reincarnation part 1

Imagine.

Orochimaru ressurects the four hokage during the fourth shinobi war. Hashirama does his whole speech, they get told what’s happening out there, the usual. Suddenly, Tobirama stops silently fighting for control as he’s been doing since he felt the connection to the pure lands shut closed.

“If Madara is behind this war…” everyone can see the mental calculations in his eyes, “where did you steal my Edo Tensei Technique from?”

Orochimaru raises an eyebrow. “A laboratory in the northern mountains. The barrier seals were a work of art, a masterpiece of its own.”

“Did you discover any of my other labs?”

“Other?”

The Second Hokage nods continuously, deep into thought.

“Um, Tobirama?” Hashirama asks sternly. “I know that look on your face, what did you do?” Sasuke notes it’s a tone of voice he can vaguely recall Itachi using on him in their youth — an older brother absolutely done with his younger sibling’s antics.

“I… might have an idea. Wait a moment,” and with that, he teleports out of the room.

The non-Kage stare at the empty spot the Second was standing in a moment ago. Minato lights up.

“Oh, wow, I’ve always wondered how it originally looked,” Hashirama turns around and looks at him, so the Fourth explains, “I improved and mastered it. It was sort of my signature?” He adds a bit sheepishly. Hashirama gives him a smile.

“I’m glad Tobirama’s work is getting continued, then. He was always a great inventor, he just sometimes didn’t know when to stop.” He pointedly side eyes Orochimaru, who ignores it.

Then, Tobirama snaps back into the room. He’s holding a vial of a red liquid. The snake sannin looks very attentive.

“Okay, don’t be mad,” he starts, looking at Hashirama (who quickly rebutts “How do you expect me not to get mad if you start off like this?!”), “but I have an idea on how to throw Madara off, if not stop him in his tracks altogether.”

“What is that?”/“Who is that?” Minato and Orochimaru ask at the same time.

“Uchiha Izuna’s blood.”

[ventique18]

Whack spoilers

"Lilia was harder on me than him (Headmaster Crowley)"

Yes bc he went to buy milk indefinitely so he wouldn't even have to raise you--

/not true btw

[takkarulz]

My favorite theory/HC of JJK is that Naobito knew that Maki had an Heavenly Restriction like Toji and lowkey wanted her to get as strong as him, but he also knew that Mai was holding her back and making her HR inncomplete but he knew that killing his own teen nephew was a very coward move and telling Mai KYS was lowkey pathetic so he made Mai go into Kyoto Jujutsu Tech because he knew she was not strong enough to make it and wanted her to die so Maki could thrive and have a ungodly amount of physical power and boycotted Maki's grade promotion because he wanted her to work twice as hard to get strong and had a "what dosen't kills you makes you stronger" mentallity.

Also he probably did all that shit because he was an ugly sexist drunk who loved to create drama between his family and avoided explaining all his plans and logic to anyone, like the way in which he avoided to mention even to his golden child that Megumi was a candidate to be his succsesor.

Also he probably wanted to see full stregth Maki challenging Naoya for the title of the Head of the Zenin Clan and probably would have seen all the fight between them while drinking and eating hot chips in a sofa like if it was the World Cup and not some fucked up power struggle that he helped to cook up.

[turboacek-blog]

Substitution Jutsu theory

This has been one of the more weird jutsu in the series when it comes to explanation

The user replaces with its target (usually a log) at the last second before an attack

The inspiration kawarimi is essentially the same thing

And there it’s supposed to be misdirection and optical illusion along with the speed and such

If you want to read my process you can keep reading but basically I just think it’s prep time, can only swap with the “log” if you know exactly where it is which makes it a limited space-time jutsu but on a comparable level to the clone jutsu to the multi shadow clone or whatever the highest clone jutsu is that substitution jutsu is to Sasuke’s Rinnegan ability

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Thought Process

So outside of the examples of when the character is grabbed like when Jiraiya grabbed one of the paths of pain with his hair and it escaped and left a log lol I can see it working with the ninja magic the characters have as things like transformation jutsu and clone jutsu still exist and people don’t question those

Because of how useful the jutsu is and how similar it is when compared to something like the flying thunder god and Sasuke’s Rinnegan ability is where people have their confusion or issue with it

My thing with the jutsu has always been the log part, as the idea is that they’re replacing with something else but in locations it doesn’t make sense they swap with a log like again the Pain-Jiraiya example where in the Hidden Rain there’s a random log lol

My theory

My guess/theory is there would have to be some sort of prep for it presumably as maybe Pain had a log around just in case, Sakura had time to plan in the forest of death so maybe she planted logs around etc…

Prep as in the user whether beforehand plants the “log” or is just aware a “log” is in the vicinity has knowledge of what to replace themselves with

That is the part that makes it different from Sasuke’s Rinnegan ability where he swaps with anything in his sight

The log has to be somewhat close by (I’m sure skill, speed and chakra affects the range) and the user would need to know exactly where it is

Like for example Sakura in the forest of death, I think she used it 3 times before she took the Kunai head on

With my theory it would be because maybe she had only 3 logs to swap with as she did have time to prep with the traps and such she had made to protect her boys

So when she used all of them she kinda had to take the kunai hit because she ran out

Maybe it actually is teleportation

In this case swapping instantly but due to the prep it’s only able to be used once/few times with more prep

As the idea of the jutsu is that it’s like a bail out of a tough situation technique so when you’re caught you use your “1” get out of jail jutsu so you don’t die but since you used your “1 log” you can’t escape again

Like if someone gets ambushed it’s not that they can just use the jutsu to avoid it as unless they’re in a familiar environment they wouldn’t be able to substitute with anything as they wouldn’t know what to swap with

On some merit it makes sense especially early series

Clones, transformation, even some of the more gag ones like the invisibility cloak (like when konohamaru tried to blend into the wall) can all hypothetically work at high levels

See Naruto using the reverse harem against Kaguya lol as that’s just transformation with his clones

Meaning even if only briefly it distracted essentially a god at the time

Transforming, duplicating yourself, blending into any environment and swapping with an object are all E Ranked Jutsus lol

In the context of how destructive things like the Rasengan, chidori, etc are I can see why they’re ranked so low

But in practicality those jutsus are really useful no matter the situation

They just have downsides like with the limited number of uses of substitution jutsu I theorized, and that the clones aren’t physically there so they can’t fight, transformation and invisibility cloak seems to be really linked to the users skill level as Naruto when running from the ninja since he was perfect at the invisibility cloak (at least to those chunin) but when Konohamaru used it to try and follow Naruto it was really bad

So those have downsides where the higher ranked variations or equivalents don’t

Shadow clones are perfect duplicates essentially just fragile, Sasuke’s rinnegan and flying raijin give more targets to swap or teleport to and can hypothetically be used infinitely, etc

Late series is where it gets tricky and confusing

I used the Pain Jiraiya situation a lot as not only is it one of the weirder uses as the log in the hidden rain makes it appear the log more comes out of nowhere than it being planted somewhere before hand

But when the user is restrained and they get free it’s either they were so strong/fast that they could of potentially broken out of the restraint without the Substitution jutsu and just used for distraction and confusion for the opponent

Or it has to be some weird space-time thing as the log comes from nowhere in a place with no trees so the jutsu is literally swapping with a log anywhere in the world basically which then begs the question of why not use it all the time

Every shinobi that isn’t killed immediately should be using the jutsu to escape those bad situations if that’s the case which is where the confusion and debate comes in

Which is why I’m leaning more towards the prep theory as planting it beforehand as a just in case I need it vs swapping with anything in the world… I like mine better

The potential brokenness of swapping with a “log”

So if my theory is correct that it literally is a small space time jutsu that swaps with one thing then why wouldn’t it be used to swap with other things like everyone should be basically able to use Sasuke’s Rinnegan ability just minus the eye part

Like even back in the lane of waves, Naruto make a clone and use the substitution with Kakashi trapped in the water prison to free him, to the final Naruto vs Sasuke battle hey a fireball is coming my way let me use the substitution jutsu on a rock to avoid it vs blocking

I think it’s 1) something about the log being inanimate as I imagine swapping switch a human is harder, 2) the substitution has to be somewhat comparable to the user as in the ninja swapping with a pebble is too different than a log that’s at least the size of the 12/13 year old genin so whether because of chakra or how the jutsu literally works 3) the basis of the jutsu is a last second thing so if you don’t meet that prerequisite it wouldn’t work

But yeah in summary the substitution jutsu requires a little prep by having the object in the vicinity to be able to swap with meaning it has a limited number of use regardless of chakra but when it’s used it’s really effective

[cool-thymus]

Obito Week 2025: seal | together | love | any au

For this year's Obito celebration i've decided to illustrate a curious AU idea :3 The detailed description is under the cut in case you want to play a guessing game 😄

So, i think this au was sparked by a discussion of a fic Secrets Stolen From Deep Inside where Tobi "books" Kakashi for a week of intimate fun (and yes Konoha happily sells Kakashi out just like that). Tobi is a gentleman (overwhelmed by his enormous crush on the Copy Nin) who offers Kakashi to spend time together, confessing his feelings to him and generally looking like a creepy but passionate stalker. And Kakashi decides why the hell not! He'll get some lovin' and an opportunity to experiment. The fic ends here. @maireyart and i imagined how this could go further.

What if during this week the masks are cast aside, and Obito's identity is revealed! Kakashi's world is turning upside down, the mental walls are crumbling, but he decides to elope with Obito to somehow influence his plans and save him from himself. The closer they get, the sooner they realize that there's something wrong with Obito. Actually, he registers it himself. He knows how he feels about Kakashi, but as this fantasy of them being together turns into reality, Obito becomes numb; it's like his body is rejecting the budding warmth and intimacy they'd managed to create. The evil genius he is, Obito studies the pattern (yes, he is ironically self-aware in this au xD) and tracks that visceral response. It is most intense when Kakashi albeit carefully challenges Obito's plans and beliefs. When it happens Obito feels like the walls go up around him, the masks creep up onto his face again - anything to shut Kakashi out; he is even repulsed by the idea of being physically close to him, and any implication of intimacy repulses him. All of that is not how he is supposed to feel for the man he truly (he had years to realize it) loves.

Despite his inner struggles, Obito manages to communicate his observations to Kakashi. (yes-yes they do talk! they do listen!) Together they work out a theory about a dark seal that could be affecting Obito from within. After having done more research Kakashi figures out what kind of seal it is and goes on a quest to retrieve an ancient scroll with an instruction on how to get rid of it. He keeps the "save-my-Obito" mission a secret bc of the seal's particular feature - deadly self-preservation. It will manipulate Obito into keeping it safe, and Kakashi doesn't want to fight him or use force. Instead he lures him in an old abandoned temple, a sacred place where even such dark curse temporarily loses its power. And in this temple Obito willingly allows Kakashi to perform a ritual that would destroy the seal on his heart.

The scroll specifies the sigils and the type of ink that must be used to paint the skin. Another condition for the ritual is that the caster can only wear red clothes. Obito is skeptical about this one since clothes never played any part in any jutsu he used in his long criminal experience; however, when Kakashi starts to undress Obito bites his tongue and protests no longer. Kakashi he knows is a stickler, so there's no point arguing with him about it (that and the nudity in the moonlight.) Unfortunately, Kakashi fishes out a scarlet hakama and ends the show (looking gorgeous nonetheless❤️)

And this is where we find them in this illustration ✨

@obito-week

[tentenarchive]

In Defense of Tenten - the Chunin Exams' Written Test and Her Mirrors

A common joke made about Tenten is how obvious her mirror and line contraption, used to share answers with Rock Lee during the written exam, is. In this post, I'll show how her solution is perfectly reasonable and why she wasn't disqualified by the ninja proctors.

Firstly, we have to stablish what the objective of this written test is: to cheat. The written test was designed to be too difficult for ninjas of their level to be able to answer, forcing them to cheat from each other. Such is stated by Ibiki in the end of the First Phase chapters:

Next, the proctors are all higher level shinobi, better prepared and used to seeing various tricks and jutsu. It's not an stretch to suppose they're aware of EVERY cheating attempt made by those Genin, but were responsible for judging if their technique is too sloppy, obvious or ineffective.

My theory is supported by this scene, where Izumo eliminates one of the ninjas doing the test, claiming he took "five strikes".

It implies the competitors are allowed five errors before being disqualified, and one of the eliminated Genin makes it clear to the reader the "five strikes" are five times being caught cheating.

Naruto is also implied to be caught almost cheating when Hinata offers him her test answers (it can be interpreted either as Naruto being closely watched or Naruto's nerves making him think like that, half the proctors' job is to scare the Genin) and even then he is not automatically removed.

Tenten's technique may be obvious for us, as readers who have been shown by the author himself how she did it, but it's a single and successful attempt, and it's not commentated by any other characters, meaning no one caught on her besides the proctors, and they would only disqualify her if she did it more than once (which wasn't needed, she found the mole with all the answers!).

A pettier criticism i've "how isn't anyone seeing the lines?" to which the answer is very simple: manga is a visual media and the author needed the audience to understand how she was manipulating the mirror. If you take in consideration Tenten's fight with Temari in the anime - which is filler, btw, and it's up to you reading this to decide if it's a fair assessment on their abilities or not - she's shown using invisible lines to manipulate her weapons after throwing them. The lines are, conveniently, only visible when the animation needs us to understand how the weapons are moving backwards. Any other frame they're invisible.

You can see in the panel how the lines fade out towards the bottom and only show where they're attached to the mirror.

Finally: that's exactly what Ibiki expected the genin to do. There have been a few posts, specially on twitter, asking "how are you supposed to pass if you don't have a kekken genkai??". Like Tenten. That's how.

Kankuro and Tenten are the only characters which Kishimoto showed us cheating that didn't use an exclusive DNA super power. Kankuro and Tenten both use hidden threads, one uses chakra lines for puppetry and the last manipulates mirrors. They also pass their answers to their teammates, Temari and Lee.

(Sakura is the only confirmed character to do the entire test without cheating. Congrats Sakura!! You could argue Hinata used her byakuugan to cheat like Neji, but if you think she did it by herself, I will give you the pleasure of congratulating Hinata too. Congrats Hinata!)

Tenten's method was practical, and used her specific skill set: summoning and kunai work (where do you think the mirrors came from? a scroll, that's for sure). It was probably set up before the test started, during the commotion Team 7 created with their arrival. We're not shown it because Tenten is a tertiary character and Kishimoto wouldn't invest 2-3 panels of set up for a 3 panel sequence pay-off that works by itself very well. She is smart, did great and made sure her teammate was not left behind.

Tenten is not even the most absurd method used in this exam, so, as a treat, i will show you, in order, the most obvious cheats shown in the manga from least to most!

Sasuke's Sharingan If you're a ninja from the Leaf Village, you know who Sasuke Uchiha is and what a Sharingan is capable of. Unfortunally for him, the Exam is being held at the Leaf Village and all the jounin and chuunin there are from the Village. Any proctor looking at his direction in a position in front of him could see clearly his eyes and know exactly what he was doing.

Neji's Byukuugan Like the Sharigan, you can physhically see when it's activated, with the downgrade of being noticible by people sitting at up to 95º from him, as the veins are visible on the sides of his face too. A fair trade for the ability to see better than the Sharingan, even if you're not able to copy, in my personal opinion.

Ino's Mind Transfer Jutsu The jutsu's hand signal is simple and can be missed, but it's still obvious for any Konoha ninja watching, it is a very recognizable ability. There's also the higher chance of Ino being caught since she needs to do it three times (once for getting Sakura's answers, twice to pass them to Chouji and Shikamaru). Besides, the "dropping dead on the table" thing can be disruptive in a mostly silent classroom.

Akamaru and Kiba's communication Akamaru is barking all the way through the exam, and while the balloon used for the text is the one for thoughts, it's also the same used for whispered conversations up to this point in the manga. The anime makes the barks happen in the real world, and not in their thoughts, and as far as i could find, Kiba can understand dog language but there's no psychic talk between them. By the noise alone he could be caught. I think he wasn't expelled just because a full conversation between dog and human is a novel enough ability to not be considered by most ninjas unaware of the Inuzuka clan's special abilities.

The Most absurd one: Kakuro and his Puppet He put an entire guy no one knows and has never been seen in a room where all the authorities are from the same village and have, at least, a vague knowledge of each other's existence. To increase the absurdity, somehow everyone let Kankuro use his own puppet to guide himself to the bathroom. I cannot express enough how unlikely it is that, in a real info gathering mission inside a single room where all the higher rank ninjas are exclusively from the same village, Kakuro's plan could work. Most decent sensors could also catch the chakra line's signature.

I'll give it to him, making the puppet talk helps with the disguise, but it only fools his fellow attendees, not the proctors. He's too confident that he didn't raise any alarms.

But Ibiki goes as far as insinuating he knows (and has known from the start) about the puppet's existence when Kankuro comes back from the bathroom.

If Kankuro was able to finish the test and not get disqualified, even if he had what I consider the most obvious cheating attempt from the named characters shown, it's fair game for Tenten and all the other important cheaters. Besides, it's a single attempt at cheating, even if it required an entire prep work for it, so it doesn't matter if all the high level ninja's are aware, that's not enough to kick him out.

I cannot leave out the meta reasons why these characters weren't removed from the class: they're important to varying degrees to the story and they need to advance through the first phase to keep readers engaged.

Regardless of how absurd I think Kiba's and Kankuro's methods are, they need to go all the way to the fight tournament after the Forest of Death, where they have important roles to fill: Sasuke and Naruto are main characters and are prioritized by the narrative; Ino and Sakura will have an important character developments and flashbacks during their fight; Neji has an entire arc that only concludes all the way in his fight against Naruto; Kiba is the rival for Naruto in the surprise fighting tournament and he is one of the few characters able to match Naruto's silliness so he can win in a silly way; Kankuro and Tenten are both part of the two strongest cells present in the event, the Sand Siblings and Team Gai, both introduced as real threats to Team 7, and having anyone from these cells lose would undermine the narrative created around then. All of them would get through anyway.

Tenten losing against Temari in future parts of the Chuunin Exam has narrative importance too, a fight I will cover in the next In Defense of Tenten, but in short Tenten was introduced as a threat alongside Neji and Lee, her abilities and experience surpassing Team 7's. Having her lose against one the Sand Shinobi serves to show how big their gap in power is: if someone more experienced and well trained than them can't win against them, Team 7 has no chance. It's part of the build up for the future Naruto and Gaara fight, and the suspense about their real strength (since the fight doesn't exist in the manga, only the result is shown).

Conclusion: people are overly critical of Tenten because she's seen as a "lolcow" in the Naruto fandom, in part by the bad adaptation of her fight with Temari to the anime, which poisoned any feat of hers before and after it; but also because Naruto and Boruto don't give satisfying ends to any of the original female cast besides Hinata (she marries the man she loves and becomes a housewife away from the battlefield, an honorable decision i will never shit on, she never wanted to be a ninja and is a kind mother and wife, good for her!) so all female characters are seem as weak and useless when compared to their male peers. Naruto is a work riddled with undercover misogyny, never out right stated but always preventing the girls to achieve any meaningful resolution or permanent development.

That added to the ever expanding powerscalling abilities and fights make characters with simpler and down to earth abilities and feats outdated by its own universe. Knowing how big the Naruto fights and jutsu get in the future make people look down on crafty solutions like sealing scrolls, kunai and mirrors, when that is a perfectly respectable solution within the series and matches the powerlevel presented this early in the story.

Tenten is not weak, or bad, or useless. She's misrepresented by the most popular media consumed: the anime, and further misunderstood by the fans of said work. Large fandoms can be allergic to text interpretation and infighting is stimulated to the point fans of smaller characters are bullied off social media and forums (i.e. the forum where I got the list of all chapters Tenten is in is filled to the brim with comments about how OP should move the topic to "fan works" since no one would want to read about it in the canon work page, or how the mods shouldn't allow him to have a thread). I respect Tenten's feats, as well as other small characters', and refuse to be fed the same "uselessness" narrative this fandom always had, because i actually enjoy Naruto, even if i have many problems with it, and I take it seriously.

She did great.

[mixelation]

reborn au concept: i stuck tori with the utano clan (which is where tayuya is from) at whim but kind of feel like i should do something with it? so i think tori maybe knows the theory of sound-based genjutsu, she's just like..... shit at the sound side of it. girl cannot carry a tune. you want her to learn a FLUTE? no way

anyway kushina randomly gets anxiety over tori having lost "her clan" and sometimes says things like "but don't you want to preserve the traditions and jutsu????" and tori is like. the whole utano clan thing feels like a weird side quest to her, but you know what. it IS kind of shit that your husband helped destroy the culture of my home country and kushina is like "wait hold on--"

anyway tori is like "i will simply assign this task to itachi" and then vaguely implies he couldn't do this type of genjutsu and basically tricks him into getting a hobby. maybe YOU can't learn an instrument, tori, but how hard could it be--

(he's not going to implement it in combat or, like, in public. but he thinks it's neat)

[raikirikiri]

obito who somehow survives actually and makes it back to the right dimension. he immediately finds kakashi and kakashi goes bugged eyed and silent because no way his teammate died and came back to life a second time. but he's really real and this time he's not going to commit insane war crimes for the sake of infinite delusion. kakashi who's about to become hokage and knows obito needs to face justice but he's a little warped now AND he's hokage so he hides obito until he can freely pardon people.

people start to get suspicious because the next in line for the hat is suddenly acting really shifty.... he's usually pretty quiet but now his neighbors are making noise complaints every other day. they hear muffled yelling, a lot of crashes and bangs, and strangely, their walls start shaking almost every night...

word spreads fast and soon the rumors start. oh he just got a new puppy to train, that's all...

he's remodeling and the remodeling company is giving him a hard time....

he's practicing new jutsu...

those are the innocent theories but of course, no one loves drama and horror quite like a shinobi and soon enough, genma and the rest of the surviving jounin of that era are taking bets.

kakashi is actually a secret serial killer and is torturing his victims openly and since he's about to be hokage, he's about to make murder legal

he's taking part in weird masochistic rituals to safeguard konoha

he's a follower of jashin now, hidan has been talking to him in his dreams

he's a witch

all of these start spreading around until the konoha 11 get their hands on it and they, in all their infinite nonsense and skill, actually try to figure out what the hell kakashi-sensei is doing at night and why he's being so weird and offputting—more so than usual, that is.

sakura and naruto make a silent pact. they know kakashi better than anyone, if anyone can figure it out, they can. and boy do they. they catch a glimpse of obito one night and both of them, jaws dropped and fuming, march right up to kakashi apartment door and start BANGING because what do you mean KAKASHI'S war criminal boyfriend gets to walk free and THEIRS doesn't... quite frankly, it's disgusting and they will get retribution.

kakashi answers and of course tries to brush them off but they are having none of it. not while sasuke is rotting away in a cell, docile as a lamb. sakura bodily moves kakashi out of the way so they can search his apartment. "you're not going to find anything," kakashi insists. he sounds urgent and frantic. because he's hiding something.

"oh we know he's not here," sakura acknowledges, tapping the corner of her eye with a vicious sneer. "but you can't hide traces of him."

they search and search but they only find circumstantial evidence. until naruto catches a hand, it's groping around the kitchen table for something. kakashi sees it coming. he sees obito's glasses on the counter and he wishes he could enter kamui and hit him over the head. instead, he can only watch as naruto silently gets closer until he snags the hand and yanks, demanding the bastard leave his little hidey hole.

obito comes tumbling out, crashing to the ground in a pathetic heap. kakashi lets his head drop and soon, the cacophony of complaints and demands start up from the peanut gallery that his students make up. when they finally die down and wait for an explanation, all kakashi can do is promise them he will immediately pardon sasuke.

sakura and naruto pause and watch obito who's looking at the floor with a grimace, a hand loosely holding onto kakashi's jounin shirt. with twin groans, they collapse to the floor and relent. fine, they'll keep kakashi's secret but he has to pardon sasuke IMMEDIATELY even if it means he loses the hokage title.

"done."

kakashi has no qualms. he's almost hoping it gets him to lose the hat.

[oh-no-its-bird]

Ok, so. Smashing together my recent posts (stoner Itama / the secret Senju weed empire money / co-dependent twins Itama and Tobirama) to make a cohesive narrative:

So, Itama survives AU.

In this, Itama and Tobirama are twins. They're very close, arguably closer to each other than Hashi is to either of them.

Growing up, after Kawarama died, Hashirama found a new friend in his boy by the river. Meaning the twins were sort of left to mourn on their own, their older brother no longer as interested in playing with them. They got to be almost dangerously codependent, and their father only encouraged it bc they were also training to fight as a duo, and the codependency made the team synergy go crazy hard.

On that note, they're absolutely terrifying in battle together for sure. They're nightmares on their own already, but together?? Let's say that as long as they're fighting side by side, they're on the same level as Hashirama himself.

Itama grows up to be a scientist like Tobirama, but in a different field of science— ✨️plants✨️

Itama is like, a bioengineer for plants. He's crossbreeding the fuck out of these bad boys, finding ways to amplify certain traits in some plants, erase them altogether in others, or mixing them up for the best of both worlds. Full doctor Frankenstein plant edition

It's fun bc he often gets help from both of his brothers, and he's also able to help the both of them in turn!

Hashirama helps with growing plants, meaning Itama doesn't have to wait the years this research would usually take. He can go from nothing to having his final product in days flat when it should have taken a fucking lifetime to do. If he fucks up it's no stress bc as long as he has the seeds, Hashirama can just grow him a new plant to start from! All he needs is one single seed and an entire world of new possibilities is unlocked.

On top of all that, the mokuton can affect the plants in ways growing by regular time doesn't, so Itama also gets to play with special mokuton plants too

Then Itama can give Hashirama all sorts of new plants to potentially use in battle, tho Hashirama doesn't seem to want to use want against the Uchiha. But like. He has them!! And it's fucking terrifying!!! Plus they can just in general bond over being plant enthusiasts. If Hashi finds a cool new plant or vice versa they can get excited about it together

Tobirama understands all to most of Itama's research, at least in theory, and will often help with his experiments. Likewise, Itama also understands all to most of Tobirama's own research (at least in theory) and can help him in return. Having their own specific fields of interest, they're often bringing a fresh pair of eyes and different thought process to the others experiments, and it's great for them both. SO many results.

Itama is let in on most of Tobirama's projects, and even if he's not helping he generally knows what he's working on and vice versa. They have few secrets and its actually just in general very good for Tobirama specifically. Like, mentally and support wise.

Because Itama never died to serve as that final push over the edge, and was instead there to offer emotional support, Tobirama didn't turn to necromancy. (If he had tho, Itama would have been fully on board— sorry Hashirama) Instead, maybe he's spending that time being even more focused on cool time/space jutsu or something.

So like, all grown up he's a poison specialist with a major wind chakra attribute and minor fire attribute. His main weapon is a pipe, which he just smokes normally on top of using its smoke as a weapon. He can put so much pressure into the smoke that it becomes physical, and can then be used as a blunt force weapon (on top of ofc the smoke being used as just smoke, and having different effects on its own)

He's immune to a lot of his smokes effects, but has special extra powerful versions of most of his go to weaponized smokes that are so strong they work even on him. Obviously, he doesn't usually use these in battle, but they're there as a last resort

Fun sort of chain reaction attack where he disperses some super flammable powder or smoke then tosses in a single spark and it goes up like fucking fireworks. Or a cool combo attack where Tobirama provides hella fog with whatever water is nearby, and Itama condenses it so thickly that it chokes out their enemies without having to lift a single finger.

He can make like, platforms of smoke to stand on or use as shields, and he's especially good at deflecting and redirecting enemy attacks with carefully condensed smoke shields summoned up at just the right angles. Like, imagine you throw a kunai and it bounces off some invisible platform, then off ANOTHER invisible platform, and somehow its still gaining momentum (propelled by summoned winds or wrapped in a slightly solidified veil of smoke thats moving it on its own) and hits you right in the eyes

He absolutely fucks around with making all SORTS of custom effects with whatever he's smoking, which also brings us to the idea that got me here in the first place ->

Ok so the joke about the Senju having a secret weed empire where they sell ultra special mokuton weed, but it happens fr in this AU bc of Itama.

Stoner Itama deciding he can make the weed even better and forgetting what the word self-control means and making objectively the best weed in the naruto world. Ultra delux genetically modified mokuton grown senju weed.

Tobirama kind of gets on him for it at first (not liking the idea of mind-altering substances) but then tries some and stares dead silent at a wall for 10 hours then silently gets up, makes several scientific breakthroughs, then passes out dead on the floor.

They get Hashirama in on it and start mass producing, then start selling it and very quickly and mostly accidentally create a secret senju weed empire (oops?) which also gives them hella funds or the war and other things

No one can even reproduce their weed bc they need the Mokuton to grow it right, they have no competition in the market. AND their product safety/quality is insane bc Tobirama's perfectionist ass helps oversee it

Bc of Itama's interference, Izuna lives, and when they make Konoha the weed money means the first shinobi war doesn't happen bc they can afford to bribe officials they couldn't before (and probably have a uhh. Much more relaxed Kage meeting that year.)

You can't go to war with Konoha !!! That's where all the best ninja weed comes from !!!

Itama and Izuna get along really well actually. Izuna's cringe fail ass does NOT know how to smoke and refuses to admit it, he also becomes Itama's favorite test subjects for new product bc he and his brothers tolerance levels are insane so they need like, a normal guy to try shit on

As a person, Itama is one of those really friendly, charming, easy to get along with guys who seem to have a ton of friends— but when you look a bit closer you quickly notice that while many of those friends share their woes with him, he doesn't really with them. He has lots of friends but isn't really close to any.

He's a pretty good mix of his brothers, seeming friendly and cheerful like Hashirama but much more down to earth, and with the same ruthless streak as Tobirama underneath all the gentle mannerisms. He might be more ruthless than either of his brothers when it really comes down to it, but he's very slow to strike or anger, and virtually no one but his brothers and Touka really know he even has that side to him.

He's Konoha's lead poisons expert, is 100% aware and helping Tobirama with all of his especially fucked up experiments, and honestly that should tell you enough— but most tend to get distracted by the soft smiles and sleepy expression.

Art interlude ->

Anyways uhhh. All of this only exists bc I started thinking ab stoner Itama getting dumped face first into modern Konoha with Izuna, the two of them having been hiding after pissing off Madara for unimportant reasons. They don't realize they're not in their Konoha, and proceed to run from Madara (who they still think is mad at them)

Meanwhile Madara is losing his fucking MIND trying to chase down the ghost of his brother, and also some guy...? Who is that actually? He doesnt really give a shit tbh, Izuna oh god please come back here�� ARE YOU FUCKING HIGH RIGHT NOW?

@fashionredalert : Zetsu lived in fear of Itama because itama would have made him into an edible That's why zetsu is two colors, itama smoked one half of him before zetsu managed to escape. One half intact the other half charred black

Please?? The closest hes been to death in years.

Itama was put on this earth to smoke everything he physically can, he hasnt been sober since he was 13, he no longer knows the meaning of fear or sanity. If it can burn he can smoke it

Hes holding one of those tiny Zetsu's going "Hey look at this fucked up plant I found :DD" then taking it straight into the weed lab

Zetsu specifically had him killed in canon bc he knew he'd grow to be too powerful pass it on

[tryingahandinholdingapen]

thinking about the "consensual but not safe or sane tag" but like. what if instead of referring to sex it was referring to Tobirama's dubiously ethical science?

Imagining a fic/universe in which Tobirama is actually pretty well liked by his clan because he invents so much cool stuff they can then use (seals, jutsu including healing jutsu, knowledge, miscellaneous inventions) but you know, Tobirama needs to test things out sometimes. Theory is all well and good but ideally you don't want to be testing something for the very first time when you actually NEED it to work. But the ethics are. Dubious

Like he'll make sure he's certain of the theory before he does anything, and if applicable he will try to test it on mice or something before leaping to human testing. But if animal testing would be difficult/impossible for a particular invention (including diagnostic or healing jutsu, and some combat jutsu) he WILL just jump straight to human testing. Also sometimes "certain of the theory" means "I am certain one of two things will happen here, one of which is the desired result and the other...Isn't."

When talking human experimentation he prefers his subjects to be allies if possible. This is partly because of Hashirama (he assumes Tobirama wouldn't do anything too unethical/harmful to their allies, which may or may not be a flawed assumption but so far hasn't been an issue) but mostly because Tobirama is like. Well. One of the main advantages of testing something on humans is that they can give me coherent feedback on exactly what they experienced/felt/etc,but if the human in question is a prisoner or captured enemy they'll probably just fucking lie to me about it and that would impede further research quite significantly. Nah. Best stick to allies as test subjects

I want to say this is a universe in which a) because naruto-verse is so anachronistic and what people know is further complicated by jutsu vs technology vs keeping secrets, Tobirama's first step in helping the Senju clan develop the more complex healing jutsu was "figure out anatomy"; AND b) rumours abound about Senju Tobirama being an evil mad scientist who aims to steal bloodline limits and experiments on prisoners and there's always screaming coming from his lab... most people either fully believe this or are like "I'm sure he doesn't do any unethical experiments or test anything on humans or hurt anyone at all ever (except in battle/missions)" both of which are, of course, wrong. Just, in opposite directions

Anyway

Scenario in which an insignificant Senju is captured by another clan (Uchiha? or would it be funnier for them to learn secondhand?) and one of the first things the captors are discussing is after stripping them of weapons etc and possibly changing their clothes (look its pretty standard practice to have ninja wire, senbon, etc hidden in your clothes, it's a BAD IDEA to leave a prisoner in the clothing they had prior to capture) is "hey what the hell are these scars about?? were they tortured before or something??"

(okay pronouns are getting confusing with using plural they for captors+singular for prisoner+he for Tobirama so I'm deciding the prisoner uses she/her for sake of easy comprehension with pronouns for now)

And so at some point they question the prisoner and she's p out of it (concussion and or drugs and or shock and or genjutsu so she answers p easily she's like "which scars?"

and whoever is leading the questioning goes, "well, for starters, these scars here. when were you tortured and who by? how did you escape? (subtext: is this smth we need to be aware of/take into account and also how do we stop you escaping us the same way?)"

and she pauses a moment because what "I've never been tortured?? this is also the first time I've been captured. embarrassing really. normally people just try to kill me s'not like I'm important"

and the leader goes "..okay. how did you get these scars then?" whilst another of their group talks over them to say "wtf do you MEAN you've never been tortured it looks like someone cut you apart!"

and she goes "lab day :)"

and the leader takes a hint from the interruptor's wild gesturing to press "...how does a 'lab day' entail being cut apart?"

and she, alarmingly casually given shes talking about her own insides, clarifies "well, anatomy studies. duh. hard to study the insides of a person when the outsides are in the way, yknow?"

alarmed silence

"just cut...there, and there", jerking her chin towards two horizontal scars on one arm, "line between them..." there is indeed another scar connecting them, like a poorly proportioned H, "..and then pull the skin back to see underneath."

more horrified silence

"like flaps! or the pages of a book!" she continues (un)helpfully, "and then you draw out what you see under the skin, ideally with annotations and stuff. we've got some pretty good charts now"

"...and you say you've never been tortured before."

"nope!"

"and you don't classify that as torture because..?"

she's all blank confusion

"torture is damage or genjutsu or emotional pain inflicted by an enemy with the intention of extracting information and/or causing a victim to suffer," she reels off by rote. "that, another jerk of chin towards the scars in question, "was none of those?"

"...right."

"well I guess technically it was an attempt to extract information, yknow, the information being 'what does the inner arm look like in this spot', but if that alone classified it as torture then every conversation and observation would also be classified as torture, so..." she's still really out of it and getting distracted

"..of course. so your captor wasn't intending for you to suffer, even though you still have scars even now?"

"I mean, this was like. five months ago. I scar real easily but I also heal pretty well so those ones should be almost invisible in maybe three years?" she frowns belatedly processing "hey! captor's a bit harsh. I only had any restraints at all because I get real fidgety real quick and I kept moving too much when I tried to see what was happening. not a good idea to move around when someone's got their hands in your insides. my cousin is way better at staying still and still seeing what's going on, lucky bitch, so doesn't have to deal with restraints at all"

"you were conscious when this happened."

"yeah?"

"surely if they didn't want you to suffer the easiest option would have been to just knock you out until you had recovered from the.. injury. keeping you awake and not suffering, as you insist you werent, seems far more complicated"

she's kind of confused by this "well, yeah it was sort of complicated to figure out and implement and stuff but if I wasn't aware that wouldn't be nearly as useful?"

"...what"

"well. in this PARTICULAR case I guess it didn't really matter but USUALLY on lab days being aware is helpful. tobirama-sama says one of the top reasons to use human subjects is you can actually get active feedback on how they're affected since they can just tell you"

one of the interrogators, somewhat further from her and (mistakenly) too loudly not to be heard "god fucking DAMNIT I thought those rumours were exaggerated"

[hana-a-chattic]

Tsukishima's arc is (kinda) subversive and I need to talk about it!!

Also known as: Tsukkiyama is so everything for me pt 3 (but it's not shipper-y, it's about canon)

Haikyuu!! is definitely a Shōnen Jump series, with great execution of old & gold tropes: the "light" and "darkness" double protagonists, multiple rivalries, training arcs and tournament arcs one after another etc.

But Tsukishima Kei's character arc, specifically, kinda... breaks? and maybe even makes fun of the classics? (Which, if it is- very fitting for Tsukishima, huh)

You're probably familiar with "talk no jutsu" meme.

In case you're not - it comes from the prequel to absolute banger series Boruto (I know this joke is overused. I like it, leave me alone), which involved its main character resolving so. many. troubled characters' arcs by leading them to light with his mid-battle speeches about hardships and hope and friends and trust, that people couldn't help but meme it.

However, Naruto is indeed one of generation-defining sort of series, and as overused as it may be, this plot point creates many a powerful, emotional moments.

Haikyuu!!, of course, also does this. Having Hinata first blindly (literally and figuratively) trusting Kageyama, then (also literally and figuratively) grabbing Yachi's hand to help her take a step forward. Oh, also giving Asahi a thing or two to think about? All that jazz.

And I, personally, fully expected this to happen with Tsukishima. When the time comes, it will be mostly left to Hinata to hear his sad backstory out, and maybe be nice about it, and then – Idk, annoy him into character development? This is shōnen, he's the "I can show you the world~" hero, that's just how it is, right?

Wrong.

We get the tense lead up. We get the flashback. We get the "Can ye help him, o protag-kun?" scene with Yamaguchi. And Hinata goes, basically:

Uhhh... seems kinda like a you problem? 🤨

(Off-topic, but I l-o-v-e this as a Hinata character moment, too. This was maybe when I started kinda liking him: realising how actually emotionally mature he is? The dude knows when it's not his time to get into someone else's mess, he sees the "do not enter" sign and is chill about it. I'm so sad this part of him gets overlooked so often)

The dialogue here is very simple, but very significant:

"Hinata, what would you say to Tsukki? Like you did to Kageyama and Yachi"

<...> "What would you say to Tsukishima, Yamaguchi?"

This is where my theory that this is a little jab comes in - because in meta way, you can read this as, wouldn't it make more sense if the person he's connected to the most would be the one doing the talking? Not the random passerby protagonist like y'all like to do. But maybe I'm just weird.

Even without any sort of meta reading though, this is still a great character writing.

Because yeah, why would Hinata talk to the guy? They don't even like each other. Hinata says it as it is: I have no idea what his deal is, there's nothing for me to say.

They're also very different people, and whatever Hinata would say, honestly, is likely to not even resonate with Tsukishima.

And that's not even accounting for the fact that Tsukishima might not listen to Hinata, at all. With all his defensive walls that Hinata is never shown to be invited inside or breaking through.

But it's told to us ahead of this with visual language that Yamaguchi is.

Yes, I am talking about the headphones off while they walk together despite both being silent scene. Which seems a pretty obvious showcase of Kei's willingness to listen, if not him actually waiting for Yamaguchi to say what's on his mind.

And- of course it's him! If there's anyone there Tsukishima might allow himself to not build a front for, that would be the childhood friend who's known him since elementary school. Who knows him inside and out. Who knows why he's like this. With anyone else, it would be so easy to brush them off by a simple "You don't know what you're talking about, why do you even care".

But... Yamaguchi knows. And Yamaguchi cares. Because that's his best friend.

And Yamaguchi is the one person Tsukishima never just brushes off, actually, if you pay attention.

It had to be Hinata.

But in Haikyuu!!, it had to be Yamaguchi.

To get Tsukishima Kei moving, it had to be his caring, supportive, strong-willed but not pushy, and very, very cool best friend.

P.S. For ppl who wanna say this type of rule-breaking isn't that uncommon nowadays, please also note Haikyuu!! did this in 2014, ie 10+ yrs ago.

[lossie92]

I went back to working on a short story for @iamdusttoo. They have sent me a prompt forever ago and I wanted to write something special for it. I feel like I've finally figured out the plot I want to go with and hopefully I can finish this soon.

The below is a snippet from that story. Hope you enjoy! ❤️

-

Warnings: none

-

Though he was somewhat confused by his husband's unyielding determination to woo him – and it was indeed wooing, no doubt about it – he felt warmed by it as well. 

Nobody else has ever put so much effort into getting to know the real him. Similarly, there had been very few instances of others calling him beautiful and he had yet to hear anyone apart from Madara referring to his mind as an absolute wonder. His husband had even prepared a dedicated space for him so he could continue working on seals and jutsu if he so pleased! There was never a time when Madara had refused to listen to him talk about those subjects and he often contributed to the conversation, which resulted in the two of them having heated debates about subjects such as chakra theory or the creation of jutsu.

There were many, many other things Madara had done that had endeared him to Tobirama, of course. Simple, but nevertheless meaningful things such as always having a pot of his favourite tea ready, adjusting traditional Uchiha recipes to suit his palate, making sure to bring a shawl or a jacket when they went out for a stroll so he wouldn't never be cold, bringing home knick-knacks he would like, gifting him flowers just because, respecting his boundaries and not trying to push past them…

What would he do with himself, he wondered, if he was robbed of it all? How could he possibly endure if he could no longer see the glint in Madara's eyes as they discussed chakra theorems or played shogi, or the soft smile on his face when he told him “you are beautiful” as if it was the most fundamental truth in this world?

Would he survive never seeing Madara again? Never holding him again? Never talking to him again?

He didn't think he would.

Madara stood up and turned before reaching for the light armour made of leather that hung neatly on the gusoku lake. He had seen Madara prepare it the night before after dinner so he knew what it looked like already, but it was different to see it now in the grey, dim light of early morning.

Hesitating only for a second, he crossed the distance between Madara and himself, one of his hands coming to rest against Madara's hand that was already holding onto the armour's breastplate.

“Let me,” he said quietly.

Madara looked at him for a moment before he let go and stepped back. 

“Of course, wife,” he said. “Thank you for your help.”

Tobirama said nothing in response as he picked up the breastplate and helped Madara put it on, and fastened it in place. He remained equally silent while tying the kawan kote around his husband's forearms, the haidate to his thighs, and the suneate to his calves. 

He thought briefly that kneeling before Madara didn't feel degrading or humiliating. It was an act of reverence; a way to show his husband he hadn't wanted, but cared for now that he wanted him to be safe.

[alexanderwales]

One of the dominant models of magic and superheroes is that everyone has their "thing", what I would call a bespoke magic system, but is mostly just a power that sits orthogonal to all other powers. This crops up all the time, because it's really really good for having dynamic fights, for characterizing people through their powers, for having new surprises and twists, and just generally keeping things going.

It's adaptable to all kinds of genres. Superheroes are the obvious one, whether it's canonized as Quirks or just an aspect of the setting. But I'm pretty sure that the basic concept was first invented in anime, with marital arts settings, where every character had their own jutsu or whatever, or the system in theory is all about ki manipulation or equivalent exchange but in practice everyone has their own particular niche. You can slot this into urban fantasy, giving every vampire their own special Power, or you can have some magical fantasy thing where everyone has their own unique Semblance.

So this is all well and good, but it leaves us with a narrative hole, which is progression. Having a unique power is cool, because you can think of new uses for it, have unique matchups, etc., but it doesn't give you that juicy sense of becoming more, and if you're facing down terrifying villains with their own powers, then a god-tier power is just kind of ... random. Luck of the draw, rather than the consequence of a powerful will or keen mind.

You can strip out limitations and amplify effects, and this is cool and good, or you can lean back away from uniqueness and toward uniformity, which I think is sometimes the right call, depending on your narrative needs.

So you say that actually the guy who can swap places with someone and the guy who can cut people from a distance are both unwitting hyperspecialists in the same field of magic or whatever, and that in theory, with unlimited time to train and experiment and explore, each could do what the other does.

This allows for a lot of snazzy narrative stuff. Two intense rivals "learn" each other's techniques, or at least adapt them into their own technique. Maybe the guy who does teleport swaps never learns to cut from a distance, but his teleport swap incorporates a cut into it, slashing at the person he's trading places with. A widower incorporates aspects of his dead wife's power, a mentor passes down elements of his technique to all his students, a young protagonist has some angst about using the aspect he got from his abusive father, etc.

If powers are a reflection of character, then you get to physically manifest a character's relationship with other people.

[kurishiri]

Jude chapter 3 silly but kinda detailed summary

꒰ ִ ֺ ⊹ @ notice ⊹ ֺ ִ ꒱ any pretty translation you may see in here may not be 100% accurate or contain creative liberties due to characterization or narrative flow purposes. this is a sort of summary as well. if you enjoy, though, please consider reblogging, but please don’t repost these or claim these as your own!

kate successfully completes sortin out letters so she heads to the port where jude is talking with the foreman. its there she sort of thinks back on her time at raven co and the long and short of it is that jude, as the ceo, is actually really outstanding, and he acknowledges the efforts of those who work hard, produce results and whatnot, and rewards them in turn.

(that said he could work on his wording ,,)

time skip to night after judes done and they all walkin back tgt where kates like “i think i’ll be able to have a good dinner today” and jude scoffs at her callin her a twit. and shes all defensive like hey whats wrong with wanting to eat good food and judes like when did i say that was wrong?

all of a sudden they stop in their tracks and jude tells kate “on the count o’ three, crouch” and kates all panicked like tf is going on but jude already starts counting down so she crouches anw (in a panic!)

some guy in a suits out to kill jude. god knows who too bc apparently jude don’t know him either 💀

Jude: Who are ya? Can’t say ya look familiar.

[ insert some lines im lazy to tl ]

Jude kicked up at the man’s chin, causing the man’s body to do one smooth flip before collapsing onto the ground.

Man in a suit: Jude… Jazza——!

Jude: N’ like I was sayin’, who the hell are ya?

ok turns out jude does remember him in the end, its just another dude who broke his contract with jude and was selling up some illegal drugs and whatnot.

Jude: I told ya, didn’t I? That if ya breach your contract I’d show ya so much o’ hell you’d wish you kicked the bucket?

J: I fulfilled that promise for ya. Havin’ a grand old time in hell, aren’t’cha?

omg he pried open the wound on the mans face and he let out a cry to the night sky that could shake anyone’s soul silly.

kate then thinks or foreshadows (yk how like ikevil stories r kinda told like kate is recalling the past? like “i didn’t realize it then, but xyz” kinda like one of those moments) that what she witnessed that night was but a prologue of what’s to come bc they get attacked over and over again.

kate and jude get into another argument like “i feel im gonna die every time! im at my limit!” and judes like “well ur in the way loiterin round like that” then jude just yeets off w/o listenin to another word.

she does feel something bothering her tho

(For someone like Jude, he should be able to avoid these grudges…)

When I thought this, I came up with a theory that relieved me of this unsettling feeling.

(…Could it be he’s making himself an enemy of many on purpose?)

‘Yeah, right,’ was what I thought, but also, somewhere in my heart, I felt such a theory may also be true.

shes like there’s not enough info rn but if i do know anything its that

Kate: At this rate, if I stay with Jude any longer…a hundred lives would not be enough!

and so shes like i gotta learn self defense! so she goes knocking on a certain someone’s door like pls teach me le jutsu of self defense!

Ellis: Okay. （╹◡╹）♡

turns out ellis was also thinking of teaching her some stuff abt self defense soon.

so ellis takes kate to the lobby and kates like why the lobby and ellis goes to a bookshelf to take out a book which actually reveals vics weapon collection and takes out a gun, telling kate to try and hold it.

idk if this is a real gun or not (as in it exists irl), apparently its made of silver with a wooden grip.

ellis thinks its well suited for kate. like its lightweight yk. hes like you may need to use it jic. and then hes like

Ellis: But, it’s kind of refreshing.

E: Other than me, Jude seems pretty adverse to putting people by his side.

E: So, maybe he wants to get along with you?

kates like mmm doubt but at the same time she has this question in her mind w/o an answer of why he went and wrote a whole contract and let her stay by his side then? shes abt to cook up a theory in her head when…

just then jude comes in.

Ellis: Ah——Jude.

Jude: We got a job to do.

so they head off to some noble mansion.

Jude: How do ya do, we’ll be here a while.

Nobleman: Ah, Mister Jude?

apparently this nobleman is connected with the guy in the suit jude beat up in the beginning of the chptr. he made him spit out info.

Jude: If ya just were sellin’ somethin’ shady I’d let that off the hook. Illegal drug’s some child’s play.

J: However.

Jude raised one leg and rested it atop the long table.

Jude: I seem to recall the contract prohibitin’ the sellin’ and buyin’ of humans, or am I wrong?

ko-fi☕️ ┊ comms🤍

[babygurlaura]

KURO UZUMAKI

黒い女司祭

Kuroi on'nashisai

Who Is Kuro Uzumaki?

Kuro Uzumaki, most commonly known as The Black Priestess of the Uzumaki clan, was the youngest sister of the Uzumaki clan matriarch line–Mito’s great-grandmother’s sister–though she is rarely spoken of by name. She was seen as a commodity by many, but was respected due to her towering figure in both stature and intellect. Kuro often diverged from clan traditions, often ignoring her ceremonial duties. Instead, she secluded herself in her carriage, which the men of the clan carried, consumed by experimentation in sealing arts, spiritualism, and painting.

Kuro is also known as the first Uzumaki to bear the Sen Fūin seal on her forehead, which would later be passed onto her eldest sister and become a staple for the clan heads to bear. Kuro was known among her clan to be obsessed with understanding the boundaries between life and death, between flesh and spirit. Her work, while intriguing the elders, was at times dismissed as eccentric or cursed; this became the foundation for both yokai summoning techniques and early genetic research.

It is said that Kuro theorized that bloodlines could carry spiritual memory, that trauma, power, and jutsu could imprint not just on the human body but also imprints itself onto the soul across generations. These writings were preserved only in fragments, would later inspire Orochimaru’s human experimentation and fuel Tobirama’s reanimation theories.

Her deal with the shinigami, an act which was at first disregarded as one of the Uzumaki clan’s darkest secrets, was struck in exchange for access to yokai spirits, which she used as summons. For each soul she provided the shinigami, hr allowed her claim to a yokai servant, sealed within painted scrolls. Her victims were often those who threatened the Uzumaki clan, centering her as a hidden protector within the clan.

Though her practice was considered taboo, it aided the Uzumaki clan in progressing. She wasn’t feared but rather revered for her intelligence. Many scholars within the clan looked up to her and studied her scrolls after her death. From her madness, she and advanced knowledge and strengthened the clan's sealing art further.

Her Appearance

Height: 6’8, the tallest recorded Uzumaki woman.

Hair: Long, brimming red hair, knee-length when inbound. Her hair was styled in a unique hybrid of the hime cut and a braid loop that resembles a noose or ring, a symbolic nod to eternal return or sealing.

Eyes: Narrowed slanted not by genetics, but linked due to constantly squinting. She spent most of her life in the dim painting chambers of her carriage and would only leave her carriage at night, which caused her vision to weaken over time.

Makeup: Embracing the Ohaguro tradition, her skin is naturally pale in comparison to the common tan skin of the Uzumaki. She wore pale foundation with red-shadowed eyes reminiscent of a geisha or funerary doll.

Clothing: Usually depicted in elegant, ink-stained robes with long sleeves that concealed her hands, often trailing behind her. Her color scheme contrasted with the Uzumaki, who adorn bright colors, while she adorned dark color schemes.

Her Ability

Kuro Uzumaki was a master in soul-binding, spiritual sealing, and living art.

Soul Paintings: She could trap people, memories, or yokai within her canvases. Some she created as prisons, others as shrines.

Yokai Summoning: Through a pact with the Shinigami, she could summon yokai in exchange for offering them their lives or sealing souls into art.

Shiki Fūjin (Death Reaper Seal): Kuro was the original creator of the Shiki Fūjin, a jutsu birthed out of desperation to contain a rampaging yokai that even she could not purify. In return for an uncleaned soul, she offered the Shinigami the body of the summoner—a binding contract that became legend.

Her Role

Kuro Uzumaki’s existence answers a fundamental mystery long glossed over: Why does the Shinigami answer to Uzumaki's hands? Why are Uzumaki bodies capable of such prolonged sealing, unnatural longevity, and survivability beyond human limits?

Kuro's sacrifice, intellect, and spiritual attunement forged the blood pact that made Shiki Fūjin even possible. Her work inspired Tobirama and Orochimaru’s own research.

Kuro is seen as the silent foundation of the Uzumaki clan's spiritual and sealing arts. Her work created forbidden jutsu libraries, later sealed away in her temple alongside her research.

The mask shrine within the Uzumaki compound derives from a relic based on Kuro’s original pact. The shrine mask was mottled after the first one she painted, said to be dipped in yokai blood. These masks were later embedded into Uzumkai ceremonial traditions.