#sasuke specifically wears high-collared shirts because of it

[liam-cadmus]

Sasuke’s eyes steadily widen, breaths leaving out of him as Itachi chokes him, the man seemingly staring at him, eyes dazed and mind cloudy. His hand weakly closes over the wrist, as he screams under the force of Tsukuyomi. 

Itachi didn’t notice his hand getting far more tighter than he anticipated, was unable to see the force of his hand as it restricts Sasuke’s breathing, and the assault of his younger brother’s already fragile mind with the Tsukuyomi. Tears fall down Sasuke’s eyes as he helplessly latches on Itachi’s wrist, wanting to be free, croaking as he tries to talk, even if the hand covering his throat is crushing.

“Ni-i san..” his voice trails off, as the air cuts off from his lungs, eyes rolling back to his head, snapping Itachi to attention, plunging his brother accidentally deeper to the effects of Tsukuyomi. 

Naruto screams for his pseudo brother’s name, as Itachi and Kisame flees, the battered young Uchiha splayed motionless and pale on the floor. 

Tsunade’s shoulders are hunched, after she finished the surgery for Sasuke’s injuries, rage filling her body, on the thought of how Itachi fucking Uchiha thought it was a good idea to let his otōto, as if his previous genjutsu and massacre of the clan isn’t enough. Thankfully, he didn’t manage to fracture the larynx too much that the air is entering to his brother’s chest. 

Sasuke’s vocal cords weakened drastically, making him careful in talking, until he heals enough to full voice use. Not that it’s such a huge change, since he’s already normally quiet because of his selective mutism. 

Leading him to now, where he walks with Konoha 11, knowing that he’s unable to talk for the first week, two weeks at most. Seeing the nosy shinobi and civilians peering at him, he shuffles closer to be hidden behind their senseis, not wanting to be approached without the ability to answer. 

Kakashi’s protective side is fully flaring out, after the Forest of Death. He silently thanks Gai for being there to take Sasuke when he was unable to, and the times his rival suggested the teams to train together. He’s relieved and grateful to his rebellious student for reaching out, happy to know that his student trusts him. 

Not to mention the eleven teens that have been closer was present when Sasuke woke up, solidifying their bond and making Sasuke reluctantly see that they’re there for him. Regardless, he still took time to talk with him privately, explaining how Itachi was wrong for making him to be the one to take revenge.

“I don’t care why Itachi is doing this to you, but you don’t deserve it, never had, never will.” He utters, letting his emotions bleed into his voice. “You’re still so young, Sasuke, you don’t need to be burdened with so much responsibilities.” 

He always have seen the tired expression that his student keeps on hiding behind layers of indifference and mock anger, and the downcast, bottomless black eyes of his. “You can kill him eventually, on your own time. Trust me, trust us. We’ll be with you, we’ll do this together, step by step. No one’s rushing you.” 

Kakashi could feel the floodgates teetering the edge as relief courses his whole being, when he finally sees his student sagging, when said student finally cries after keeping it to himself since the massacre. He thanks the Sage that Sasuke was able to override what Itachi implanted on his mind. 

Kakashi wraps his arms around the trembling teen, as he shallowly breathes out on the inky bluish strands. I’ve saved one of them, I fucking managed to save an Uchiha, and I won’t let him down. He repeats in his head, before he promises, “And I will continue to protect him, and my two other students, even if it costs my life. History will not repeat itself.” 

Sasuke frowns, cursing his stoic and aloof expressions for once, his mask making it difficult to show his emotions, far too used to feigning indifference. Neji takes a glance of him, before tapping Hinata’s shoulders to get her attention. He gives him a hopefully grateful half-smile, as the heiress finally reads his question that was written on the paper. 

Kakashi saw it, knowing that he couldn’t stop the expectations that the elders are giving the sole survivor of the clan, but it didn’t make sense because he’s already doing enough for the village. He’s staying. He’s trying. Why isn’t that seen? Sasuke is physically and emotionally exhausted, and he’s only thirteen or fuck’s sake, and he grew far too early like him.

People often say that Sasuke's cold, arrogant and so full of himself. Konoha 11 beg to differ, after spending time with the other teen, they just noticed he's reclusive, a bit detached and anti-social. He can manage to talk, but he's not too fond of talking to people he doesn't know, especially ones who trigger his anxiety, making him uncomfortable and high strung.

Kakashi could see his student getting restless and trying to act nonchalant while Naruto and Sakura respectively gets busier being apprentices while Sasuke was left alone. Kakashi tries his best to steer Sasuke away from getting dragged to ANBU, while his student raises to chūnin and eventually jōnin . 

Sasuke would occasionally go back to the Uchiha compound, either to visit their huge library filled with scrolls, adding terrifying clan jutsus to his arsenal. While training himself and training with the other members of Konoha 12, Kakashi provides some time to train him, steadily making him advanced in ninjutsu, especially kenjustu. 

Sasuke instead focused his time on making his chakra reserves larger, honing his time to create variations of Lightning Release: Chidori, upgrading the renowned Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation, Fire Release: Great Fire Destruction and their clan’s signature move, Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to reach higher temperatures. Kakashi mentioned to him that he can reverse summon, after seeing the ninken that followed his sensei around. Sasuke was able to sign a summoning contract with the Hawks. 

He’s extremely proficient in completing missions in various places outside of the village, which has taken the attention of Danzo. Tsunade although takes him as her personal ANBU guard before Danzo manages to take hold of him, which he excelled in, masked as he protects from behind the shadows whenever she goes for diplomatic meetings. He was deemed as Sasuke of the Sharingan, and the Silent Lightning, often seen with a blue-tinted chokutō.

[glassedplanets]

I love your AU redesigns for Suigetsu and Jugo, particularly Jugo. I mean, Kishimoto drew all of Taka very attractive (and it was notable how much more skilled their drawing is in the manga compared to the lukewarm drawing from Pierrot) but lbh he didn't put much thought into Jugo's outfit lol All these outfits are making me butthurt abt adult Sasuke's redesign (we're not even talking about Nart cuz they changed his FACE). Do you have any ideas of what you'd have liked for adult Sasuke's outfit?

taka’s post-series designs are some of the best, honestly, and i’m 100% biased because the shaved sides look for jugo AND karin is just (chef’s kiss)

you’re opening up a can o’ worms here and i’m sorry in advance, but – as far as sasuke’s adult design goes, imo it’s the lesser of two evils between him and naruto. (naruto’s is just a fucking tragedy. i hope whoever vetoed the absolutely fantastic (logical! sensical!) tales of a gutsy ninja design steps on a lego this week.) but! but. i have bones to pick.

the first major bone i have to pick with it is that it’s.. how you say.. fucking bougie. a VEST? a fucking COLLARED SHIRT? listen, sasuke is THE drama queen of the series and i say this with as much love as possible, but honestly, truly, frankly, all of his outfits have been stunningly pragmatic. forgive me for citing tvt here (i will do this only once more in this post) but they have a point:

even with the tiddies out shirt, it’s sensible. there’s a reason. he switches to a sleeveless shirt between killing orochimaru and the fight with itachi for the same reason. he goes back to simpler a short-sleeve shirt through the end of the series, similar to what he wore as a kid. it is FLAT OUT RIDICULOUS that uchiha “says exactly as many words as necessary” sasuke would choose to wear something as superfluous as a collared vest and a shirt. imo the general spirit of the design is alright – darker colors, purples, long sleeves, cloak – but get this fucking man a sensible shirt for once in his life. for ONCE. i honest to god like his fucking hobo cloak design more than the post-series/boruto design because it is ruthlessly pragmatic. also, i’m a huge fan of those armguards he wore at the start of shippuden, because they look fantastic. those can come back any day as far as i’m concerned. (gee, i wonder why i put them on his redesign for the au.)

moving on to my second and much pettier bone to pick, i hate. i HATE where he keeps his sword. this is one hundred percent a personal bias thing, because while the other normal kids in middle school and high school did things like band or volunteering, i was the fucking weaboo who participated in sword competitions on the weekends, and so unfortunately now i’m stuck Knowing Things about swords. (specifically katanas! even more unfortunate.) do you know how uncomfortable it is to get smacked by a sheath? get it off that goddamn fishing line so it stops bouncing around on his back because that has got to be painful and uncomfortable. even in this (early?) boruto manga outfit, it’s in a more sensible place. secondly, sensibility aside, the way sasuke keeps his sword throughout shippuden is flat-out really cool. no other character in the series who uses a sword does that! it’s unique and it stands out. it is, as you say, iconique, and it sucks to lose that. 

my third bone to pick is less petty and more just a weird personal bias thanks to a misunderstanding – here’s my second quote from tvt:

initially, when my interest in naruto got piqued again after… 10 or so years? for whatever godforsaken reason i decided to read what tv tropes had to say about sasuke, but i didn’t actually look up any visuals. so for a few months, i honest to god thought that sasuke was growing his hair out long long post-series, and i was honestly disappointed to find out that this meant he just looks even more like an emo kid of yore. long hair would be an interesting move, both to echo madara’s looks, and as a sign of movement away from having short hair as a kid/teen. 

my fourth and final bone to pick is more of a general one, but man, i wish he had scars. yes there’s magical healing, yes there’s no “need” to have scars, yes it’s mostly clearly just a stylistic thing, but i wish. give me facial scars and burn scars and little scars all over his hands from handling sharp weapons. there’s so much flavor to be added through scars. 

boy this got long but to tl;dr:

longer hair

less of a fancy cloak, more like what he wore near the end of the series

a return to how he used to carry his sword (which does have precedent, actually) 

a sensible shirt and no fucking vest