#minaamunch

[konohadaddies]

Continued from HERE with @Minaa-munch

The Jounin Commander tried to keep his occasional smoking a secret, at least of the herbal side of things, and wasn't entirely sure how open Minato was about it. Thankfully, it seemed to be going well with how amused the blond looked. "It's a special blend for me. Quiets the mind and makes me hungry," Which was something the Nara struggled with at times. "Doesn't hit too hard."

Though what he didn't say, was it was definitely Inoichi who had mixed it for him. His best friend grew the best herbs in the village and knew how to use them. But after the day he'd had, arguing with Lord Third about who to send on a couple missions, he'd wanted the time to calm his head. Besides, Yuki had greeted him at the door and shoved his smoking pouch in his hands and given him a quick kiss before shutting the door in his face. Even she had known how stressed he was. Probably thanks to Inoichi, but the result was the same. "Sometimes it's hard to be taken seriously even now." He was after all, still in his early twenties. Raising the joint back to his lips and flicking the lighter, he took another puff before turning his hand in a silent offer of the joint if Minato chose to join him. "Your day?"

[peepingtoad]

I recently got an ask regarding Kiiroi Senko merch and I was wondering...Jiraiya was obviously more popular; both as an artist and a shinobi. Do you think he ever found his face plastered on random merchandise he never endorsed? If so, what was his reaction? [Also, hello it's been forever]

impromptu hc asks || always accepting! || @minaa-munch

Good question!

You know, one of the things I liked right away in the Search for Tsunade arc was the slot machine she plays on (this is from a card I found but I remember it being in the anime too):

So I always like the thought that because the Sannin were famous mostly for their a) feat in war, b) their summons and c) their overt indulgence in the shinobi taboos, the use of the sansukumi imagery ended up being ‘unofficially’ used in casinos across the nations like the above.

Of course, it’s not something they have copyrighted or anything, but I could see them going to a casino some time after they’ve become famous, seeing these little frog-slug-snake nods everywhere and being like ‘... hey, are any of you guys getting royalties for this? they totally lifted our brand’

That aside, we see a fair few bits of toad/frog merchandise in general, which again I’d say is a nod to the fact that toads were always said to have strong ties to the Land of Fire, and Jiraiya’s iconic use of them just cemented that view further.

Other than that, I’m now definitely picturing like... you know fairground rides that have the really off-looking, miscoloured bootleg artwork of copyrighted characters or pop stars airbrushed on? So you’ll have a helter skelter that’s got some wind-themed name and there’s a wonky Orochimaru on it with bright blue markings and lime green eyes, a ride with a sudden drop that has a ginger Tsunade with her fist to the ground, and then perhaps a toad-themed trick house with an equally goofed Jiraiya with a bright pink and purple outfit or something :’D

This ended up a bit more specific to the Sannin overall pff! 

But as for Jiraiya specifically, I’m sure with his truly extra appearance and penchant for hot springs and bars, he’s been used on some posters and stuff without his knowing. Of course, I reckon he’ll get approached on a more official basis via his publishers for endorsements once he becomes more of a ‘household’ name through his books—and let’s face it, any bootleg stuff he’ll probably find it super funny, and be very happy to offer a better photo or what have you anyway :’)

Of course, we also can’t forget the card game that becomes popular by the Boruto era! I’m sure plenty of wonky figurines come from that, as we see consumerism begin to grow more commonplace.

[dirt-ninja-archived]

@minaa-munch for a lyric starter from Obito      Song

“Things are so much different now”

[decayman-a]

@minaa-munch​ said:  “ maybe swearing will help. ”

  Dust particles and specks of debris flitter through the air like falling stars. They are proof of Tomura’s resolve to chase his ambition and bear witness to the grand war taking place in its name. This day has been months in the making, serving as the last hurdle before the eventual crumbling of hero society. At least, it should have been. 

   To Tomura’s feet lie the quirk-destroying bullets he procured from Overhaul, shattered into tiny leaking pieces by none other than this random no-name hero. The battle has come to a stillstand as Tomura glares at him, bristling rage wafting off him in waves. Maybe, the hero knows he is about to meet his maker. Perhaps, his smugness is a testament to his pride. He destroyed what Tomura worked so hard to acquire: bullets that his friends were gravely injured and killed over. Their sacrifices are now in vain, and the hero dares to gloat.

  “It won’t,” Tomura informs him. He walks over slowly, taking his time. Once in front of the hero, Tomura’s hand shoots out and wraps around his throat, squeezing with four fingers. The remaining fifth hovers closely over pale skin. It will drop when Tomura made this man understand the severity of his mistake. “But this will.”

[aurelicht]

@minaa-munch asked:  OOC: I received an ask from a curious anon earlier and...well, now /I'm/ curious. Does Persephone have any quirks/odd habits that are /very/ character specific? To the point that Demeter or Hades would find it odd?

Ooooh, this is a very interesting question and definitely something I haven’t thought about before! Thank you for asking!

Since Persephone spent a lot of time with her mother growing up, I don’t think there are any ticks that Demeter specifically would be surprised by, at least not any quirks that Persephone would have developed before escaping to the underworld. However, she may have developed some rather particular habits during her first time staying with her husband for six months. 

For one, she may not be used to bright sunlight and would squint her eyes and scrunch up her nose a little when outside during daytime. She may also seemingly drone out or plain ignore the voices of nearby flower nymphs, even if they happen to address her directly. She doesn’t mean to be rude, it just so happens that she learned to tune out the voices of the dead who tend to beg her for mercy or to appeal to her husband so he may save their wandering souls. Demeter is not pleased by this behavior, but there is little she can do to “fix” it.

On the flipside, Hades may at times scratch his head a little due to some oddities in her behavior. I’d compare Persephone stepping into the underworld to someone moving to a culture that is rather different from your own. She may speak too loudly in places where such a thing isn’t permitted or miss subtleties or social conventions she isn’t familiar with at this point. However, Persephone is eager to learn and picks up on these nuances in due time. She intends to be a worthy queen after all; someone who commands respect from her subjects.

Oh, another quirk that Hades might be somewhat baffled by is that Persephone hums a lot. She doesn’t even realize she is doing it most of the time. While this might seem rather cute when she is strolling through flower fields, it’s rather ominous and creepy when she wanders the dark deserted halls of Hades’ castle. Some of his servants have fled from the sound before for they fear Persephone might try to bewitch them.

I hope that answers your question! It was a lot of fun to think about :D

[konohamuses]

[Question for the Sandaime -- what made you lose faith in Orochimaru, exactly?

     “I can give you a simple answer–or a more complicated one,” the Sandaime says, intertwining his fingers.

     “The simple answer is that I came to realize that Orochimaru was not the hokage that Konohagakure needed, nor will he ever be. 

     “And the complicated one? It is true that I trained Orochimaru because I believed he had the strength, the intelligence, and the foresight to be hokage. It is also true I thought he had certain… other qualities that a hokage needs, the decision making skills, the ability to make hard decisions, that many lack. And he does have those qualities.

       “But Orochimaru… would not have been good for the village. Though he had the qualities that would have made a good hokage, the village did not want him, and because of that, they could not use him. What I mean is–just as important as decision making skills, strength, intelligence, foresight? Is the ability to be a symbol. Of not just power, but of peace, of hope, of harmony within the village. Of the Will of Fire.

        “I thought I could nurture that within him. I thought I could help him become the symbol of the Will of Fire to the people of Konoha, but I was wrong. He thirsted for power for his own purposes, for vengeance whenever he was wronged, and in the end… people just didn’t like him. And you can’t have a symbol of the Leaf Village that the Leaf Village doesn’t like.

        “It wasn’t that I didn’t like Orochimaru. Or that I liked Jiraiya more, when I offered him the position. It was simply a matter of what was best for the village. Because as the Hokage, that is my duty, above all else.”

[shadowkage]

// @minaa-munch

“I wish they had somewhere to go,” Sasuke said. Everybody ought to have some place to go. He hadn’t, for a long time, and knew the pain that comes from it.

[zilaiyc]

I read your verses and I couldn't help but be curious - in the anime (because I'm not sure about it in the manga yet), Jiraiya is tasked with three Genin students. One of them is Minato, would you happen to have an opinion as to who the other two might be?

[ @minaa-munch ]

Dude, that’s a really good question! From everything I’ve searched through, I haven’t found anything in canon that gives information about the other two genin on Minato’s team, outside of this one picture. To be honest, I haven’t given much thought because of what I’ve been getting from Jiraiya about his team.

He focuses solely on Minato. Whenever I try to pull up his headspace from that time, the majority of his focus is on the difference between these three and the Ame orphans paired with his admiration for Minato. It’s very apparent that there’s a reason he continues working with Minato while the other two are left unknown.

From that, I’ve personally sorta headcanoned that those two remain genin. Perhaps one continues on to be chuunin and works in the mission desk or something while the other one might turn to civilian life, but that’s about it. If either one of them became anything, I’m certain it would have been mentioned by now and I absolutely don’t see Jiraiya ignoring a student that showed potential. I just get the feeling they could have died young or weren’t cut out for being a shinobi.

Though it would be interesting to explore, I think.

[curseofire]

@minaa-munch

  “I’m sorry---” He’s not exactly sure what he’s apologizing for, and it’s not the first time he’s tried. Was it for dying the first time? Was it for attacking the village? Was it for---- whatever it was he was trying to do during the war? His memories are jumbled and tumbling over each other, and he’s sure there’s more he should be apologizing for, but he can’t quite remember them.

  “I’m sorry.”

[konohadaddies]

"You're on next watch" [Inoichi, Shikaku or Chouza maybe?]

Oceanic eyes snapped opened at the first sound of Minato's voice, never a deep sleeper on missions. Inoichi took a moment to process that they were not in danger and then sat up, nodding and hiding a yawn behind his hand. "Hopefully we did manage to lose them." It was a best case scenario at least that the Rock nin that had been on their tail had yet to catch up.

[peepingtoad]

// @minaa-munch cont {x}

 It was extremely fortunate for Jiraiya that against the backdrop of an overcast sky, his hair was no more obvious than a bird ruffling its feathers on its perch. Minato, on the other hand, was bright as a daffodil as always, and... well, the elder had had to impress upon him just how important it was for him to really lay low, especially after the last time, of which they do not speak. In hindisght, perhaps he should’ve taught him the Transparent Escape Technique by now, after all.

 The cryptic comment came absent-mindedly, followed shortly by a gasp, and an uncharacteristically high-pitched giggle of glee. Brush met paper for a brief moment, but all that was legible--or at least vaguely understandable--was a rather wonky, slightly blotchy:

( . )( . )

 However, Minato’s response drew his attention back, and had him turning with a slightly incredulous look towards his pupil.

 “Okay, I don’t think you quite thought that question through, kiddo.” He twisted around, using his elbow for support while he gestured, brush still in hand. “Y’see if it was before, then we’d already be boiled to death and thus unable to be drowned by furious women. And if it was after--well, then let’s just say I’d have a whole lot of questions to ask the furious women who drowned us then decided to boil us for good measure... Well, y’know, if I wasn’t already dead by that time...

“Anyway my point was--”

 But he wouldn’t be able to actually get to the point, for at that very moment, the notebook slipped from its position and proceeded to tumble--noisily--to the ground. Jiraiya watched in abject horror, having failed to make a successful swipe at it, but fortunately he saw no stirring from the conversing women. The book had fallen not quite within the boundary of the fence that acted as a perimeter around the bath, but in exactly the sort of spot that would be monitored every so often for peeping toms. No thanks to someone.

 “.... Shit. Alright Minato this is critical. This is an S-rank mission Minato--” There was a certain franticness to his eyes despite his pleading grin (more like a grimace, really), and a bead of sweat rolled visibly from his temple. “--just use that Flying-Raiwhatever thing and go get that for me, wouldja? There’s a good lad?”

[dirt-ninja-archived]

@minaa-munch​

“Are you sure, Minato Sensei?” He really didn’t want to go, but he didn’t want to just stick around if he wasn’t wanted or if he would be a bother to have around.

[kitsunbu]

@minaa-munch

  Everything was....off to say the least, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. He woke up outside the village, his head throbbing with a headache, and his body sore. He felt like he had been training for days on end, but he was sure he hadn’t been. Had he? It’s possible either way, honestly. He had been found by some other ANBU operatives, though they didn’t recognize him and he didn’t recognize them. Which was strange. Sure, he mostly worked with Tenzo, but even trying to say his name didn’t seem to help anything. He was now being taken to the Hokage for questioning-----

  That wasn’t the right Hokage. He’s glad he’s still wearing his fox shaped mask, to hide the slight widening of blue eyes. He had never been able to meet the man before, but he was sure of who he was anyways.

  Now to just figure out what was happening.

[brckenmirrors]

Menma was not in a good mood. Though, finding him in a good mood seemed to be rarer and rarer these days. He trudged into the house, sighing quietly as he shut the door behind him. Another day of training, and nothing seemed to improving--- like he had hit a wall. Over and over and over----

And there was the last person he wanted to see.

"Training was fine, I already had dinner, I'm going up to my room." Two lies and a truth.

[peepingtoad]

@minaa-munch​ said: Speaking of art, and this is something I've always been curious about: HEADCANON + Kabuki/theatre | SEND IN HEADCANON + A WORD / PHRASE FOR A RELEVANT HEADCANON ABOUT MY MUSE. | not accepting! | 

It’s a no-brainer that Jiraiya clearly enjoys kabuki as an art form, given the shapes he throws and the dramatic facial expressions he pulls—not to mention the vocal techniques, which aren’t only for the purpose of being flashy but also for disarming people (sometimes successfully, others not so much). As for the origins of how this influence came to be, it was in the making ever since he was small. 

As a child, he was introduced to the stories via the books his mother had in her collection, but it wouldn’t be until he was in his pre-teens that finally, the opportunity came to see a real performance. In fact, this is probably one of his fondest memories of his mother, for a troupe came to a town close to Konoha rather conveniently at the same time she was back home from one of her missions (and maybe, just maybe some strings were pulled on her part there)!

Watching that performance his mother took him to was probably the longest amount of time Jiraiya had ever sat still—without the threat of Fukasaku’s stick present, that is. He was completely enraptured by it, and henceforth would end up incorporating kabuki elements as part of his general flair—dare I say even softening up some of his messy, boisterous edges with a dash of pure flamboyance. 

He even had a greater appreciation for the markings on the faces of toads, which looked so much like some of the makeup he’d seen on stage, and he began to wear kohl to accentuate his eyes, along with a little red pigment dabbed on his lower lids where his existing markings sprout from. In general, he was quite pleased with the fact that red paint was often the mark of a hero in kabuki, and so he became very proud of those markings of his, too.

As kids are wont to do, there were fanciful notions that eventually he could become an actor himself, though of course being born with shinobi ability ruled that profession out given the time and dedication it takes to learn the art and have a career in it. In fact, this is one of the things that also led him down the route of pursuing writing instead, because it’s a medium that can be picked up and revisted at any point—it just slots in with his lifestyle much more neatly. 

Regardless of that sad reality, he still took overall inspiration from the theatricism, even practicing and becoming quite skilled at kumadori (the act of the kabuki actor applying his own makeup to highlight facial structure in a way that represents characters). 

Unfortunately this seemingly useless skill has only been put into practice once, and in a typically shinobi setting—that being an undercover mission where he had to infiltrate and assassinate as part of a kabuki theatre troupe. Needless to say, he pulled that off with aplomb, and he even got to act in front of an audience before pursuing and assassinating the (rather drunken) target after the closing night afterparty!

[peepingtoad]

@minaa-munch​​ said: Do you have any headcannons with regards to Jiraiya and fuuinjutsu? The Sannin are part of the few shinobi who exhibit sealing prowess after all. | headcanon asks | always accepting! |

Hello again! First off, great question because it’s always been vexing to me that the Sannin are all so skilled in this area, and yet fūinjutsu overall is such an underexplored, underexplained discipline in general. On the other hand, this gives us a lot of room to have fun with it (which I think I’ve yet to really make any specific headcanon for) so here we go!

What I’ll say first is that I’ve been waiting (I dunno why, because nothing was stopping me) for a reason to post this particular thing for so long now, but in regards to the origin of Jiraiya’s skill in fūinjutsu, I see Danzō being the one to introduce him to it and initially mentor him in his youth—I’d say from perhaps age 13 or 14, for a couple of years. And for this I’ve thought of a few main reasons it’d come about:

Plain and simple, Danzō is keen to piss off Hiruzen by snagging his students because he’s a salty and bitter old goat—and at this point Orochimaru isn’t quite on the cards, what with still comfortably being Hiruzen’s favourite. Meanwhile Jiraiya is underestimated and somehow, despite being the way he is, manages to fly under the radar a lot. The raw potential is there too, and it’s intriguing to him.

To expand on Jiraiya going unnoticed, he is also basically an orphan, with no parent present enough to ever interfere. This is an important factor that Danzō no doubt values in the early stages of building ROOT—and whatever its intentions were at the time, Danzō was not particularly a shady guy at this stage. He could scope out the talent relatively unbothered.

But young Jiraiya’s talents are definitely something he’s seeking out, knowing he eventually wishes to operate from the shadows, to have people who can blend in seamlessly—and Jiraiya, being so personable and capable of ‘acting natural’ to the most human degree, is a great candidate for such a job. Sometimes he barely even seems like a shinobi at all, and that’s a strength for a spy.

Of course, after a few infuriating years he learns that basically everything about Jiraiya as a person is fundamentally unsuited to the type of work he wishes to do through ROOT. What a waste of time, huh?

So with some degree of general mentorship and information-digging going on, Danzō offers some training across various specialties and thus discovers that Jiraiya has a natural flair for fūinjutsu. In fact, despite being a slow and steady learner in many other areas of shinobi discipline, he takes to this like a fish to water. Book-learned basic principles aside, I imagine it’s a very hands-on, intuitive skill that requires great creativity to expand on the knowledge already possessed—which is probably minimal, besides Danzō’s own and the previous Hokage’s contributions, based on how relatively early Konoha is in the whole ‘document everything’ game (relatively).

Needless to say, Jiraiya has the creativity down pat. He designed the seal to suppress the Kyūbi chakra, after all, and was even proficient enough to seal Amaterasu. Hell, his toad-themed jutsu in themselves are quite the exercise in creativity, so even though Jiraiya turned out to be no good for ROOT, he would use that brilliant(!) mind to go on to play a part in developing many seals commonly used among Konoha shinobi today.

His main forte, or at least the area of fūinjutsu where he really went wild, is the design of numerous paper/scroll/tag-based seals, lending to the general convenience of use for shinobi of all ranks. They’re easy to pack, carry and replicate which helped to ensure that units were more prepared than ever. Chiefly, sealing elemental jutsu (exemplified by sealing Itachi’s Amaterasu fire) and weapons within scrolls, along with chakra suppression, vocal silencing, paralyzing and tracking seals. He didn’t invent these manners of sealing by any stretch, but made the designs more... streamlined? Accessible? More simple to draw and execute, I imagine, being generally simpler himself and not so constrained by the rigid teachings of any given clan. 

As an aside—the reason he was so focused on sealing objects at all was so that he could bring Items He Should Not Have into Places They Weren’t Welcome, while being more difficult to notice doing so. Make of that what you will. (It’s booze-related because isn’t it always? Hell, maybe even some of that dank Myōbokuzan kush that the toads are blatantly always smoking in those fancy kiseru... am I joking? Who knows)

Anyway. His weapon seal would go on to inspire Tenten’s technique of sealing many weapons at once. Again by no means did he invent this technique, because this is Tenten’s baby (plus he’s no bukijutsu specialist!), but the theory had its basis within the seals he designed for simple and chakra-efficient storage of weaponry.

Again being very much geared towards paper and tag seals, much of Jiraiya’s training that was unique to Konan, along with combining toad oil/fire and paper, was teaching her fūinjutsu and brainstorming ideas to make her paper jutsu even more formidable and unpredictable than before. We of course see her using all those explosive tags in the fight with Obito, but I think Konan + paper seals doing all sorts of shit, releasing sealed jutsu and who knows what else... was a missed trick!

While I believe Mito definitely had influence on Jiraiya’s fūinjutsu, I think it was indirect, and any learnings of Uzumaki sealing will have been passed to Jiraiya through Kushina and/or what Minato learned through Kushina (who in turn learned most heavily from Mito). My reasoning for this is that as the first jinchūriki, Mito seemed to be far more isolated than later hosts would be, particularly in her older years—and I don’t see there being much inclination to share Uzumaki sealing secrets with someone with no ties to the clan. Kushina and Tsunade? Yes. Random little ragamuffin? Perhaps not.

... I’ve already rambled on a fair bit and think I’m out of proper ideas for now, so I’m just gonna take a moment to list some short/stupid fūinjutsu-related headcanon ideas now:

When he calls Orochimaru’s work sloppy that one time, it’s a big ol’ front. But he does still think this is one area where he’s better than Oro. Nyehhh.

Why yes, of course he has seals for sexual use! Climax-blocking, stamina refreshing, instant shibari (chakra or actual rope), all over stimulation via the mildest raiton contained in a seal? You bet!

Released a book of ‘prank seals’ including ‘poof the object into nonexistence’ and ‘release deluge of oil’ and ‘suddenly frog’ amongst many others. This book is illegal in most countries.

He once sealed (and I guess, technically stealed bwahahaha) a hotel jacuzzi when he was drunk, forgetting that there was no such thing as plumbing on the road, and its not exactly the same experience having to make all that hot water yourself

No appropriate place to piss? SEAL IT. BANISH IT. OR USE IT AGAINST YOUR WORST ENEMIES.

Once heroically sealed an entire town’s vermin infestation, forgot about it, then accidentally released it later. Is now barred from that ryokan, forever.

Has an entire scroll devoted to condoms

And another devoted to flavoured lube.

Not so stupid, but the need for rapid seal-drawing helped him to develop his ambidexterity to the point where you can barely tell what his dominant hand originally was (however he places down his left hand to summon in all early manga panels I remember at least, which indicates that as a child he signed it with his left hand).

He’s able to store Gerotora easily with a seal concealed in his throat. That’s why it’s so easy for him, not because of some other gutter-brained reason, honest.

He got really good at kanji through learning fūinjutsu. It arguably helped him along in his writing career—especially when writing more traditional style poetry.