#they continue to be THE canon naruto couple

[im-still-watching-anime]

i’ve been meaning to change my header to bsd for forever because i LOVE bsd but yall are really gonna tell me all about the new minato thing right as im about to finally go for it and stop me AGAIN?? yall cannot do this to me im literally never going to get over minato and kushina

[snakecat]

some of the most tragic gay love stories are the ones with a large group of writers, and some of the writers on the team are writing the couple romantically while others are making it platonic, so it comes across as queerbaiting. cuz one episode they’ll be like i’ll die for you, i love you more than anyone else. and the next they’ll be like, but i’m IN love with someone else actually. and i mean it is queerbaiting cuz the show benefits from attracting queer audiences without delivering. but it’s with less malicious intent cuz there are actual gay people in the writers’ room pushing for it to be romantic. they’re just getting censored

[punkeropercyjackson]

Sasuke gets called a 'hurts every woman in his life because his real soulmate is a man' case and in actual canon he's so desperate to get Naruto off his ass that he resorts to brutalizing him multiple times and he tried to kill Sakura exactly twice when he was spiraling due to relapsing but was best friends with her in their Genin days and continues to have a soft spot for her in Shippuden and Blank Period,was a mama's boy with pretty much no positive opinions on his abusive dad,mouthed off to multiple male authority figures and the only times he was actually mean to women more than men was when Ino and Karin would hit on him despite his obvious disinterest.Ichigo and Orihime are accused of ruining their whole series just for being endgame and then they were literally best friends who were secretly in love the whole manga with Ichigo's hollow raising him from the dead because of how much they loved her and Orihime being allowed to actually have her own personality,powers and friends and enemies seperate that were all fleshed out seperate from him.Nami and Luffy are said to be obviously the main couple but Luffy is canon aroace and Nami might be a lesbian since she's never shown interest in guys but HAS possibly in women.Fairy Tail is Lucy's story and her and the other girls have are way more interesting than almost all the guys with the exception of Gray and the Dragon Slayers and Graylu and Gajevy are easily the most well-written m/f ships in the franchise compared to the other shitty ones but you'd never know that from the fandom's metas and other content alone.Shonen fans will wake up every day and just lie

[panharmonium]

Hi! I love your Naruto thoughts and meta posts with all my heart and I want to ask your thoughts on something that has been on my mind literally since I was 13: what do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura? I went from being a hardcore shipper when I was a teenager, to being against any romantic relationship in Naruto after finishing the anime when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays I'm very into platonic love and depictions of friendship and I think the anime's obsession with forcing the "romantic interest" curse upon the main female character robbed us of... so much. There are a few wonderful moments in the anime where Sasuke and Sakura acknowledge each other, but because she's always "the girl with the crush", her actions are so often interpret as irrational or selfish by the fandom.

Hi @riemmetric!  It's great to talk to you again! Sorry it's taken me so long to answer this; RL has been making demands of me lately and it took me way longer to finish writing this up than I wanted it to (then again, I knew from the minute I read your original ask that my reply was going to get long, so I suppose I should have predicted a delay XD)

It's funny, my sister once asked me to choose between Sasuke or Sakura for an “unpopular opinion” meme, and I ended up doing Sasuke solely because I think the negative fandom opinions about Sakura are so unhinged and divorced from the actual text that I wouldn’t even know where to start.  People are entitled to dislike whatever characters they want, obviously, but there are some fandom takes that are, for me, so obviously rooted in bad faith viewings/readings that there’s no urge in me to discuss them.  That said, since you asked, I’m happy to go into my own thoughts on this a bit, with the disclaimer for other potential readers that I only write about fandom things for my own personal enjoyment, not as a contribution to The Discourse. If you don’t like Sakura, great!  I have no interest in changing your mind. Please consider this a sincere invitation to scroll on by and go enjoy whatever parts of the fandom appeal to you.

In general terms: I love Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship as much as I love all of the relationships in Team 7.  If we’re talking about them specifically as a romantic couple, then I probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, because I do like them together in a post-canon (to be clear: non-Boruto) setting, after time has passed and they’ve continued to develop individually and reconnect with each other, but I also wouldn’t exactly call myself an intense “shipper,” in the sense that I have no interest in pulling things out from the text and incorrectly citing them as evidence that Sasuke has hidden romantic feelings for her during the canon period. He cares about her in the canon period, just like he cares about Naruto and Kakashi.  That’s not up for interpretation; it’s the text.  But Sasuke during the canon time period does not demonstrate specifically romantic interest in anyone.  

[A note before people who might ship Sasuke with Someone Else emerge to rail against this statement - please just scroll past and continue enjoying fandom in whatever way is most fun for you. It is cool to ship whatever fanon thing you want; I think that’s great!  But earnestly citing any loving or emotional thing Sasuke does re: various characters in this story (yes, Sakura included) as indicative of specifically romantic love isn’t supported by the text. I know there are always going to be enormous subsets of any fandom who insist that it is, and I'm certainly not going to barge into anyone else's space to complain about that (because other people having fun together is harmless and none of my business), but I'm not obligated to indulge it on my own blog, either.]

Anyway, that said - the reason why I love Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship (from here on out I’ll use “relationship” in a general, non-romantic sense) is precisely because Sakura isn’t just “the girl with the crush.” Sakura has an arc when it comes to Sasuke, and its trajectory moves in the exact opposite direction of “irrational” or “selfish.”  She specifically goes from “the girl with the crush” to “the girl who steels herself and tries to put her personal feelings for Sasuke aside for the greater good” to “the girl who knows she can’t put her feelings aside, but who also knows full well that Sasuke doesn’t reciprocate them, and who still wants to save him regardless, because he matters to her as a person and a friend.”

[I'm putting the rest of this under a cut to save everyone's dash, and also to emphasize once again that this is a personal post on my personal blog which I wrote in response to a question from a personal acquaintance, the full content of which no one is obligated to read. I am not sending this post to random strangers and forcing them to look at it. I'm not even putting it in the character tags. I'm typing it up on my own blog and putting it under a cut. If you already know that you don't like Sakura, but you still click the link/read the post and then feel an urge to comment and complain, I am going to copy-paste this disclaimer and remind you that I specifically recommended that you scroll past and go have fun with fandom in your own way. Thanks in advance for responsibly curating your own fandom experience!]

So, from the top:

1. the girl with the crush

Sakura is, obviously, completely obsessed with Sasuke at the beginning of Part 1.  She’s also deeply clueless about him and his history (bizarre though it is, the story seems to indicate that she initially doesn’t know what happened with his family, the same way young!Obito is initially clueless about Kakashi’s father).  But what I like about Sakura and Sasuke’s Part 1 relationship is how this changes over time.

The critical scene that kicks this off happens right at the beginning of the manga, when she and Sasuke are talking by that bench - she complains about Naruto and blames his behavior on him being all alone/having no family to scold him; and even says she’s jealous that he doesn’t have parents to nag him all the time.  This obviously triggers an outburst from Sasuke, who tells her she has no idea what loneliness means and that she “makes him sick”/she’s “annoying” (importantly, the exact same thing Sakura said to Naruto in anger earlier that day), which in turn prompts Sakura to reassess herself and wonder whether she’s been making Naruto feel this terrible all the time, too:

From that point on, it’s a process of her putting little pieces together.  She still has a MAJOR crush, and she still acts like a twelve year-old, but as we approach the end of Part I, Sakura actually has a more accurate grasp on Sasuke’s current state of mind than Naruto does.  Naruto is initially excited to fight Sasuke on top of the hospital, because he feels like Sasuke’s finally acknowledging him, whereas Sakura is the one who immediately recognizes that something is wrong about this situation.  She is also the one who, after this fight, is concerned that Sasuke is really unwell and might do something drastic like run off in pursuit of the power Orochimaru promised him, but when she communicates this to Naruto, he assures her that this would NEVER happen:

(Sakura isn't convinced, though, because she goes to monitor the exit out of the village anyway.)

I’m not criticizing Naruto for his response here.  I ADORE hearing him say that Sasuke is too strong to need Orochimaru, with such perfect confidence - I love seeing how much respect and admiration he has for Sasuke underneath all their fighting, because that’s the whole reason he’s always baiting Sasuke and yelling at him and claiming “you're not so great!” He looks up to Sasuke; he wants to be like Sasuke; he thinks Sasuke is awesome! (It’s that Obito @ Kakashi behavior, you know?) But the fact remains that he is clueless about what’s actually going on with Sasuke in Part 1, and he remains clueless(ly optimistic) for a long time.  

(Eg, when he catches up to Sasuke during the retrieval arc and Sasuke climbs out of that cursed seal coffin, Naruto waves at him and calls "Come on, let's go!" as if Sasuke has been successfully rescued and is now going to come running home.  Even in Part II, when Naruto hears that Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he beams and immediately says, “So he must be on his way back to the Leaf Village!”  And everyone else in the room is like, “....,” because they know better.  Naruto doesn’t yet fully understand [or doesn't want to accept] the extent to which Sasuke has willingly chosen this path, and it’s not until after Jiraiya’s death/the Pain attack/the Five Kage Summit that Naruto really starts to understand Sasuke more clearly, which is something he himself admits.)

Sakura, in Part 1, has access to more information about Sasuke - she’s there for his first dissociative monologue during the bells test, she’s there for the curse mark’s placement, she’s there for his first violent transformation in the Forest of Death - she is, in fact, the unwitting catalyst for it (“Sakura…who did this to you?”), and her compassion is the reason Sasuke is later able to overcome the curse mark’s influence - so she has a more accurate/complete picture of “how he’s doing,” for lack of a better phrase, whereas Naruto, who doesn’t know about the curse mark in the first place, is still in the dark.  This means that Sakura is able to accurately discern that Sasuke is struggling more than Naruto realizes, and specifically to predict that he’s going to run away.  

(This dynamic is then interestingly flipped in the back half of Part II, since at any point after the Five Kage Summit, Sakura doesn’t have access to extremely relevant [if currently questionable and unproven] details that would in any other circumstance inform her behavior).

Of course, just because she has more info in Part 1 doesn’t mean she has some kind of miraculous insight into Sasuke’s every thought and feeling.  There are parts of her attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village that are as clueless as any of Naruto’s assumptions, and they showcase the kind of magical thinking common to childhood - like when she says that if he stayed with her, she could give him happiness, she’d do anything for him, even help him get his revenge - this idea that she herself can do something to make him feel better, that she can love him powerfully enough to defeat his pain - obviously none of that is rooted in realism.

Is this part of her approach irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered?  Of course it is!  But it’s no more irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered than Naruto’s stated plan to drag Sasuke back to the village even if he has to “break every bone in [his] body!” 

Hating on Sakura for her Part 1 attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village while simultaneously lauding Naruto for his feels like a bad faith misread of what is, to me, pretty clear narrative intention.  The story doesn’t at any point intend for us to see her begging him to stay as a selfish or conniving attempt to get something she wants.  She’s begging him to stay for the same underlying reason that Naruto is: she cares about him.  She thinks he’s making a mistake that will only cause him more pain in the end (she’s right) and she wants to make it so he feels less pain right now (she can’t.  But she doesn’t understand that/isn’t able to admit that, and she’s willing to try ANYTHING that might help).  

It’s critical that this farewell scene is set in front of that same bench from their first important confrontation - she references that day and how angry he got at her, and this time she tells him that she understands his reaction.  She’s learned things and she recognizes how insensitive she was being back then (“I know what happened to your clan, Sasuke”), even though she still can’t fully grasp all the complexities of the situation. She tells him that him blowing up at her back then helped her understand what loneliness actually meant (as opposed to her previous shallow understanding of it), and she challenges him about his choice right now: "So that's it, you're choosing the lonely path?" And when she tells him that she'll be very lonely if he leaves, we're immediately shown a panel of Sasuke thinking of both his friends, with the very clear implication that if he goes through with this, he will be lonely without them, too - that he's still struggling with the idea of leaving them, no matter how hard he tries to pretend:

Sakura at this point knows that Sasuke isn’t interested in her the way she is in him, but she still wants to give him happiness, however fantastical and immature her ideas sound to us (and, I’m sure, to him).  “I’ll do anything, even help you get your revenge/we'll have fun every day, and...and you'll be happy! I'll make sure of it!” - of course, it’s completely childish.  It’s irrational.  It’s ridiculous to think that any of this would ever be effective, but no more ridiculous than Naruto’s belief that he can simply break every bone in Sasuke’s body and keep him in the Leaf by force.

Both Naruto and Sakura are children who have a deeply oversimplified understanding of Sasuke’s situation.  They both still think they can fix him themselves.  They both think they can save him themselves.  They both think they can convince (or force) him to do what they want, what they think is in his best interests.  Both of them don’t yet understand that he has to want to come back, if it’s ever going to mean anything.  Their attempts to keep him in the village are immature and unrealistic, yes.  What they aren’t, however, is selfish, because neither Sakura nor Naruto are doing any of this with the intention of advancing their own interests.  They’re only thinking about Sasuke - how to keep Sasuke safe, how to make Sasuke happy - even when neither of them are taking an approach that will actually work.

Naruto and Sakura are children.  They’re afraid of losing somebody they care about.  Their attempts to prevent that from happening are desperate and messy and ultimately ineffective, but they are also genuinely felt and rooted in a true desire to rescue Sasuke from his pain, which - and this is the single most important thing that should impact our viewing of Part 1 - is something that Sasuke RECOGNIZES.  He doesn’t spend that agonizingly long moment bowed over Naruto’s defeated body so we can pretend he doesn’t understand that Naruto was just trying to help him.  He doesn’t take the time to murmur, “Sakura…thank you,” before laying her out carefully on a bench, just so we can discount it and pretend that he doesn’t recognize and appreciate her genuine intention to make things better for him, however clumsy that attempt might have been.

2. the greater good

If Stage 1 Sakura is "the girl with the crush," then Stage 2 Sakura is a progression to “the girl who decides to put her feelings for Sasuke aside in order to protect innocent people, including (but certainly not limited to) Naruto.”  She’s driven to this decision by interactions with Shikamaru, who all too recently had to grow up fast himself (“We're not kids anymore...we can't allow a war to break out between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud because of Sasuke") and Sai, who risks his new friendship with Sakura and Team 7 in order to speak some hard truths and deliver one of my favorite lines in the whole story: “I don’t know what promise Naruto made to you, but it’s really no different than what was done to me.  It’s like a curse mark.”

(INCREDIBLE.  How can anybody be complaining about a season where Sai gets to say something that goes THIS HARD and Sakura LISTENS and takes DRAMATIC ACTION that actually propels the story forward in a meaningful way - )

[Okay, yeah, brief personal opinion interlude - it is just bonkers wild to me that there are people who complain about Sakura in the Five Kage Summit arc. That entire season is the greatest character arc she ever has.  Literally she has never been more interesting and dynamic than in Season 10; it’s the first time she ever gets to be as deep and fascinating as the boys; what is everybody so worked up about?  Oh, “she lied to Naruto that one time” - Sasuke joined infant-kidnapping baby-murdering human experimentation machine Orochimaru when he was twelve years old in order to (dare I say it????) selfishly pursue his personal goals and yet, somehow, we are still able to root for him.  He abandoned his friends/allies to imprisonment and death (Suigetsu and Jūgo) or outright stabbed them in the chest himself (Karin) in order to (SELFISHLY) get what he wanted, and yet, somehow, we are still able to love him, understand him, and be on his side.  Naruto is canonically not upset with Sakura about her lie after receiving context for the situation and I think we can probably take our cues from him without feeling the need to bring her up on war crimes; please calm down]

[Sorry, I just really love most of Season 10 and think it’s one of the best examples of how good this story can be when every single character gets to do something that matters (as opposed to things being all Naruto, all the time) so I get a little bit worked up over people complaining about some of the best writing Sakura ever gets.  I don’t understand what certain elements of fandom want from her. People complain about her being “useless” and not doing anything that contributes to the story, but then they complain just as much when she does finally get to act decisively and have just as complex/dynamic an inner world as the boys.  She’s “weak” for being unreasonably in love with Sasuke, but when she tries to be “strong” and put her love for him aside and eliminate him in order to protect Naruto and the rest of the world, she’s evil, because she should have been more understanding of his situation (despite the fact that she doesn’t KNOW anything about his situation).  But then when she can’t go through with killing him after all because she cares about him too much despite the things he’s done, she’s not "compassionate" or "kind" or "a good friend," she’s “weak” again. Nothing Sakura does in S10 is more wrongheaded or rash than any of the batshit, buckwild things Naruto and Sasuke have done in the past (and will continue to do in the future), but when Naruto and Sasuke have big feelings or take bold action, it makes them interesting characters, whereas Sakura can’t breathe in anyone’s direction without being minutely scrutinized for moral impurities.]  

Anyway. Back to a more measured response.  

Every single piece of development Sakura has with regard to Sasuke in this season satisfies me so much.  Her initial shock and disbelief at hearing that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki?  Good, appropriate.  The fact that she starts to acknowledge the reality of what Sasuke’s done sooner than Naruto does?  Also extremely appropriate, very in-character for both of them.  Her taking Sai’s words to heart and deciding that the promise she asked Naruto to make when they were children is causing him to suffer and she has to relieve him of that burden?  Juicy!  AND thematically significant (promises!!!!  the burden that a promise places on a person, especially when it can't be kept - we've seen that before in this story and we'll see it again).  Her anguished pivot from wanting to protect Sasuke to realizing that she has a responsibility to protect the countless innocents who will die because of the war he’s trying to start?  HELLO THIS IS INCREDIBLE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.  Her knocking out the classmates who agreed to help her so they don’t have to share in her burden (and so the only person Naruto will hate when it’s over is her)?  BRUH.  Her being so committed and focused on her goal of saving innocents and protecting Naruto (not just from being harmed by Sasuke/the Akatsuki, but by the possibility that Naruto will someday have to hurt Sasuke himself) that she tries to take everything on by herself and walks into a confrontation that she absolutely cannot win??  INCREDIBLE.  (Literally the first time I watched this, I said, “Finally!!!  It’s Sakura’s turn to go off the rails!”  I laughed with my sister about how Kakashi isn’t even mad, because Naruto and Sasuke have been pulling stunts like this for years and Sakura was way overdue for her own meltdown.)  And then, after Kakashi intervenes in the fight - Sakura barreling back into the battle when she realizes he’s going to take on the burden of killing Sasuke himself in order to spare her and Naruto the horror - “I can’t let Kakashi-sensei bear this burden!”  I love her for that.  

And then, of course, in the end - her not being able to do hurt Sasuke after all.  Despite committing herself to the act, despite forcing herself to put her feelings for him aside, despite resolving to stop him from starting a war and killing innocent people, she can’t harm him.  She cares about him too much.  This, too, is thematically significant - think about Itachi’s “you don’t have enough hatred” - she doesn’t have enough hatred to kill someone she cares about, even if it seems like he deserves it, even if would be the right thing to do to protect others.  She can’t do it, and Sasuke almost kills her for her compassion.  

I love the dynamic this sets up between her and Sasuke, for a few reasons:

1) Personally, I think Sasuke respects Sakura much more for trying to kill him than he would have if she’d just tried to talk him out of his behavior or beg him to come home (a la their original confrontation in Part 1).  This is the first significant interaction he’s had with Sakura in years, and the fact that she does something SO contrary to his memory of her is an important demonstration of the fact that she’s not the same girl she used to be.  Sasuke spends a lot of time after his defection declaring to his old team “I’ve changed; I’m not that person anymore,” but this is one of the moments where he’s forced to acknowledge that his teammates have changed, too.  Time didn’t just stop for them when he left.  While he was turning into someone new, so were they.  They grew up without him, and his old memories of them can’t encompass the whole picture of who they are now.  

(This is a little tangential, but in general, I love the spectrum of reactions that Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi have in this sequence, and the way that all of them are ultimately messages Sasuke needs to hear.  Sasuke - who we know textually regrets what he did here, who apologizes to Sakura for it later - for “everything,” in fact - needs Naruto’s aggressively optimistic open-arms policy, yes, needs that potential, that unconditional possibility of return.  He also needs Sakura’s refusal to let him hurt her friends and start a war that will kill thousands of people, needs her surprisingly ruthless attempt to take him down; needs just as much her failure to do so, because it shows him that she still loves him too much to kill him even as she condemns him.  And he needs Kakashi’s grim line in the sand, needs someone who very possibly won't hesitate like Sakura (despite the horrifying personal cost), someone who will try to reach him but also won't let him escape and become the next generation’s Orochimaru, who won't let him cause untold suffering to untold numbers of people just because a teacher loved him too much to stop him when he had the chance. 

(And then even Kakashi chooses not to deliver a killing blow when he has the opportunity -)

(I know that in fandom people are more likely to be all, “oh, Naruto Good, everybody else Bad,” but I don’t think the narrative frames Sakura or Kakashi as “worse” than Naruto in any way.  The story goes out of its way to make it clear how desperately they don’t want to hurt Sasuke and how much they care about him.  And [this is just my interpretation, so obviously I won’t claim it as fact], I personally think that Sasuke - Sasuke, who, looking back, can see how lost he was then and how tortured he would have been if he’d gone through with many of his plans - would be grateful to Sakura and Kakashi for making an attempt to stop him when he couldn’t stop himself.)

2) On the other side of this, the fact that Sakura wasn’t able to deliver the killing blow means a lot. Sasuke was incapacitated under that bridge; he was completely at her mercy - but she stopped with the kunai an inch from his back.  She couldn’t kill him, even though she knew that he was completely willing to kill her (because he'd attempted to Chidori-assassinate her from behind just a few minutes ago).  That’s huge!  Sasuke is too out of his head right now to process this or understand it, but later, it's going to matter.  She stayed her hand.  She spared his life.  She loved him too much to hurt him, even when he’d given her every reason to take him down.  She hesitated, and he almost killed her for it, but her inability to strike him ultimately gave him yet another chance to come home, another chance to get better, another chance to have a life outside of his pain.  Despite everything, some part of her still hadn’t really given up on him, and that knowledge will matter later, when he’s finally able to acknowledge it.  

The point of all this is to say that I really have no complaints about Sakura and Sasuke’s dynamic in their S10 confrontation.  This season is the point where Sakura fully grows past her “girl with a crush” stage and into her “shinobi must make very harsh decisions” adulthood, but it never means that she doesn’t care about the person she’s trying to take down.  Her ultimate inability to deliver the killing blow remains a dangling lifeline for her relationship with Sasuke, an open door that Sasuke is able to walk through at the end of the story (literally, in fact, when Sakura opens that portal for him and saves him from Kaguya’s desert prison, and figuratively, too, when Sasuke apologizes to her).

3. she only wants to save you

The last stage in their relationship is what Sakura settles into during the war arc.  She started off Part 1 being just a girl with a crush, then tried to harden her heart and put her feelings for Sasuke aside in service of the greater good, but she was unable to actually follow through and kill him, and because of that, what she’s come to accept by the war arc is actually two things: that 1) Sasuke truly is willing to let her die if it furthers his goals, and 2) she wants to save him anyway.  

She has no intention of pursuing Sasuke romantically.  She knows full well that Sasuke isn’t interested in her.  She even knows that Sasuke isn’t really on their side (there’s a great scene where Sai questions Sakura about Sasuke’s return, and she reassures him that everything is fine, and Sai sadly thinks to himself “even I can tell your smile is fake”).  She’s well-aware that Sasuke didn’t try to help her when Madara stabbed her.  She’s well-aware that he left her to die in the lava pit.  She’s also well-aware that none of this is enough to make her stop loving him.  He doesn’t have to care about her - she still cares about him.  She still wants to help him.  She still wants to save him.

This is not hidden, hard-to-parse character development.  It’s explicitly articulated on the page:

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

I’m not sure if people look at this last confrontation and unquestioningly take Sasuke at his word (as if we haven’t just read 71 volumes/watched 700 episodes showing us how how painfully distorted his thinking is), or if they stop reading/watching before the end of the scene, or if they don’t understand that Sasuke saying something doesn’t make that statement an accurate representation of reality.  The entire point of this scene is to show us how deeply mistaken Sasuke is about Sakura (and, by extension, the rest of Team 7).  He’s locked into a false pattern of thinking.  His single-minded focus on revenge and destruction has blinded him to the unconditional love his friends feel for him; he’s become so accustomed to using others and being used that he can’t understand or accept that someone would care about him without needing a reason, without needing him to love them back, without needing to receive something from him in exchange.

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

Sasuke matters to Sakura as more than a love interest.  He always has.  She does love him romantically, yes, but she doesn’t only love him romantically, and her desire to help him is not and has never been contingent on him returning her feelings, romantically or otherwise.  Sasuke isn’t able to acknowledge that in this scene, but that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to just sit back and agree with his warped perspective.  Kakashi is the one who’s explicitly positioned as the voice of the narrative here.  We, as the audience, are supposed to recognize that Kakashi is the one telling us the truth.

[tangential thing 1: You don’t have to love Sakura's last plea to Sasuke here. It’s not my favorite, either - the best part, other than Kakashi’s speech at the end, is the moment after Kakashi collapses when Sakura’s expression changes from pained uncertainty to pure rage, when she grits her teeth together - when I first saw that, I almost leapt out of my seat like “Oh my god.  She’s finally going to let him have it.  It’s finally happening - ”  I wanted that so badly, and I still think it would have been a more effective writing choice for Sakura’s last words to lean more into her anger at the suffering Sasuke is causing all of them (himself included!) and less into yet another of Kishimoto’s “let me have Sakura articulate what a shame it is that she can’t do as much as Naruto despite the fact that I literally just went through a major reveal sequence in the war to show that she’s caught up to the boys; I can’t make up my mind about whether I want her to progress or not” - it’s extremely frustrating (and it's something he does at the very end of the S10 Team 7 reunion, too, which is the ONLY moment of S10 that falls flat for me).  But at the same time, even if there are ways this sequence could be more satisfying, it doesn’t change the fact that her plea to him is not remotely motivated by a desire to be with him romantically and not anything to condemn her for.]

[tangential thing 2: I do like how she remembers that moment when Sasuke says “Thank you.”  That panel precedes her saying “If there’s even a tiny corner of your heart that thinks about me…” (which I’m sure is one of the things that people like to criticize about this scene, aka “oh she’s sooooo self-centered” etc), but that particular line of dialogue is preceded by that particular flashback panel for a reason: Sakura knows that Sasuke DOES think about her.  He thinks about all of them.  Sakura remembers that “thank you,” and it reminds her that despite everything Sasuke has done and said since, despite all evidence to the contrary, she knows in her bones that his expression of gratitude back then was genuine.  He cared about her once.  He cared about all of them.  She’s trying to reach the part of him that still does, if it exists.]

[tangential thing 3: The fact that Kakashi says “she suffers from loving you,” and it triggers Sasuke to remember his own family - thinking about how much he suffered (and still suffers) from loving them - “Perhaps…those are the ties to a failed past” - the idea that it’s not worth it to have bonds if it means you suffer this much…that it’s too difficult, it’s too painful, and if Sakura and the rest of Team 7 were smarter they would just give it up (all Sasuke knows how to do now is sever potential bonds before they can hurt him; so why aren’t Sakura and the rest of his teammates doing that, why can’t they let it go, why are they making this so hard - ) << yeah, he clearly doesn't care about her/them at all.]

4. the shadow of my family

This has all been a really long way to answer the original question, but the short response to “What do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura?” is “I really care about it,” just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Naruto, just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Kakashi. And I don’t think the story ever asks me to choose between them.

I’m not sure whether it’s the impact of Boruto-era “canon” that gets in the way of other people approaching things this way (I don’t consider sequel material when I evaluate the original story), or if it’s Kishimoto’s frequent disinterest in/disrespect towards female characters, which yes, does sometimes make it harder, or if it's a shipping thing (bane of my existence), or some combination of factors, but for me, taking one member of Team 7 out of the equation hobbles the rest of the story.  I can’t read/watch Naruto while hating one of the protagonists and loving the other three.  It doesn’t work like that for me.  The story wasn’t written that way, and there’s nothing in the text that would cause me to receive it that way.

That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with disliking one of the main foursome (or any character, for that matter) - obviously we're all going to have different preferences, and everyone is free to enjoy or reject whatever parts of a story they want, or to like or dislike whatever characters they want. I know that some people have more fun disregarding canon and doing their own thing, which is fine.  My own personal zone of enjoyment comes from receiving the story as closely to how I think it was intended to be read as I can, and personally, when I look at this particular story, what I see is that all the members of Team 7 clearly demonstrate their love for Sasuke in ways that he himself later recognizes and acknowledges. All of them are driven by their desire to save him and their unwillingness to hurt him. All of them make repeated choices to chase after him when he runs away, to trust him when he hasn't exactly earned it, to give him another chance when he doesn't appear to deserve it. ALL of them, not just Naruto, do these things multiple times throughout the story, and Sasuke owes his life (and thus his eventual recovery) to ALL of them, many times over. Kakashi disobeys Hokage-elect Danzō and breaks the law to negotiate for Sasuke's life with a foreign head of state. Sakura and Kakashi both have opportunities to kill Sasuke in the Land of Iron, and they choose to spare him instead. Kakashi stops Sasuke from killing his only friends at two different points in the story, which would have been a mistake Sasuke couldn't have recovered from. Sasuke would have died in Kaguya's desert dimension if Sakura hadn't saved him (Sakura, who knew that Sasuke wasn't even truly on her side yet, who knew he'd abandoned her for dead multiple times already that day). Kaguya's bone bullet would have killed Sasuke too, if Kakashi, with his intention to die in Sasuke's place, hadn't leapt in front of it (Kakashi, who also knew that Sasuke wasn't fully on their side yet, who also knew that Sasuke had abandoned him for dead earlier that day). Sasuke and Naruto would have BOTH died in the Final Valley if Sakura and a severely injured Kakashi hadn't chased after them to heal their injuries.

Remove any one member of Team 7, and Sasuke never makes it home. Without the combined efforts of all three of his teammates, he doesn't survive.  That’s the way it should be, thematically, for a story whose first and most foundational premise was the importance of teamwork, and since Sakura was just as essential to that framework as everyone else, I’m just as invested in her relationship with Sasuke as I am in his relationship with everyone else.  You can’t remove one leg from a four-legged stool without damaging the integrity of the entire structure, and for me, discounting any single member of Team 7 irreparably damages the integrity of the entire story. 

TL;DR: I love all of the Team 7 relationships, including Sakura and Sasuke's, because despite what some segments of fandom seem to believe, the text of the story never gives me any reason not to.

[powerful-niya]

— (prσmísє ríngs.)

��꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚hαppч nαruhínα mσnth єvєrчσnє!

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚𝙳𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟿: 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚁𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 + 𝙲𝚞𝚍𝚍𝚕𝚎𝚜 - (𝙽𝙷𝙼𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚑𝟸𝟹)

Link to Oneshot below ↴

Wattpad | AO3

Pairing˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚Naruhina

Synopsis˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡Naruto and Hinata solidify their commitment by exchanging promise rings, signifying a profound step in their relationship. However, the night progresses further as the two sought to make their promise of being together forever tangible in the sheets.

Content Tags˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ Accidental Stimulation • Bed-sharing • Blank Period • Body Worship • Boyfriend/Girlfriend • Claiming • Canon • Clit Play • Clit Stimulation • Condoms • Couple Goals • Couple Rings • Cuddles • Cunnilingus • December 3 • December 9 • Dirty Talk • Exploration • Fluff • Feel Good • Love • Love Making • Multiple Orgasms • NHMonth • NHMonth23 • NSFW • Oral Sex • Overstimulation • Praise Kink • Promises • Promise Rings • Protected Sex • Rings • Romantic • Tooth-Rotting Fluff • Vaginal Sex • Vanilla • 2023 •

Overall Word Count˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚9.8k.

Tumblr Post: Word Count˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚6.5k.

Preview ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

Illuminated by the gentle moonlight, Naruto and Hinata strolled hand in hand through the enchanting streets of Konoha, their steps echoing with the rhythmic harmony of anticipation as they journeyed toward the doorstep of their new home.

The air was crisp, and the night held a certain magic that only those deeply in love could truly appreciate. 

They had been together for a year now, navigating the twists and turns of life side by side, and tonight marked a significant milestone in their journey. The couple had taken each step at a measured pace, savoring the growth of their relationship.

Setting out on the adventure of purchasing a home and moving in together marked a significant leap for both of them.

Surrounded by thoughtfully selected furniture and shared spaces, Naruto and Hinata cherished the uncomplicated joys of living together, relishing in the delightful routine of shared meals and intimate moments as they embarked on the journey to build a better life together.

It embodied all they had ever desired, and they found joy in the realization that the steady pace of their relationship was progressing seamlessly–a promise that it would endure and eventually evolve into something even more meaningful.

During their night time stroll home, fingers entwined, Naruto found himself unable to resist stealing glances at Hinata–the love of his life. Her cheeks held a rosy hue, and her lavender eyes sparkled with a delightful mix of excitement and adoration.

Naruto felt a surge of giddiness each time he turned his head, gazing at his midnight-blue-haired beauty beside him. It stirred a sense of emotional turbulence deep within him. 

He felt like an emotionally unbalanced teenager again, where every look stole his breath, leaving him eager to experience it once more. To look at her again and again.

His heart thundered wildly in his chest, a symphony of gratitude echoing for the woman by his side, who had stood by him through thick and thin.

Clad in formal attire fit to keep them comfortably warm, they had just concluded a sumptuous date at Ichiraku Ramen that left them pleasantly full. 

As the night unfolded and the temperature continued to drop, the couple eagerly anticipated returning home. The prospect of indulging in some much-needed alone time beckoned, offering a chance to digest the fine meal they had shared. 

However, before diving into the comforts of home, there were other plans in store.

Naruto looked up as they approached the familiar streets leading to their humble abode, the place they both could now call home.

He couldn't contain his excitement.

Naruto cheered, turning his head to spare a glance down at his lover, "Kami, can you believe we live together now, Hinata-chan?" 

A broad smile illuminated his whiskered face, a grin that cannot be contained, "Now, we get to come home to one another after missions, a-and see each other every single day!" Naruto exclaimed in jubilation. 

The blonde ninja's excitement was palpable, his lips set wide in a boyish grin, and his whiskered cheeks elevated in sheer joy.

The profound happiness Naruto felt in this moment was unparalleled. The very idea of coming home to someone, living with someone he loved, and having that person committed to caring for his every need filled him with an indescribable sense of elation. It was an experience he had never known before, a departure from the loneliness that had characterized much of his life.

The realization that he was no longer alone, coupled with the certainty that Hinata stood by him, prepared to join him in creating a shared home and life together, brought so much happiness that Naruto felt like he was on the verge of exploding. 

The presence of Hinata, residing with him, became a constant affirmation that his life was veering onto a path he had always dreamed of.

He couldn't possibly contain his happiness, not in the slightest.

So, before Hinata could utter a single word, Naruto quickly reached over and swept his strong arms around her, lifting her off her feet and cradling her bridal style, propelled by an outburst of uncontrollable enthusiasm.

Hinata responded with laughter, her cheeks ablaze with embarrassment caused by Naruto abruptly sweeping her off of her feet, her long midnight blue hair fluttering through the cool wind, draping down from her orange, bushy toboggan. 

Naruto, caught up in the joy of the moment, then began to spin her around and around within his arms along the sidewalk, causing her white winter jacket to sway to and fro in the rhythm of their shared delight.

"Naruto-kun!!!" 

"Isn't that great, Hina?" 

"Yes! It's amazing, Naruto-kun! It's a dream come true, my love!" Hinata exclaimed amid laughter, her arms tightly wrapped around his neck, her head pressed against his chest as he spun them both.

Round and round he spun, the cool wind rushing to embrace their faces. Yet, the burning sensation of their smiles and the rosy hue of their cheeks brought warmth, a surge of adrenaline coursing through their veins, amplifying the happiness within them.

Taking the initiative to further kindle their warmth, Hinata moved forward, surprising Naruto as she planted her lips firmly upon his own, initiating a kiss that stopped him in his tracks.

His spinning came to a halt almost immediately. 

The kiss Hinata initiated was nothing short of passionate, a fervent embrace that brought them even closer together, something they've yearned to be every ounce of each day. 

The kiss ignited warmth within their bodies amid the nightly winter chill. Their heads intertwined, and their clothed bodies pressed close together, creating an intimate connection that transcended the coolness of the season.

The kiss, though brief, marked only the beginning of the very intimate night ahead of them, and Naruto, unwilling to part from Hinata, continued to carry her all the way to their home. 

He held her close as he stepped off the sidewalk, traversed their lawn, and took a halt in front of their shared residence. 

Adorning the door was a gracefully crafted winter wreath, proudly displaying their intertwined names: Naruhina.

Below, a charming welcome mat lay, its inviting message declaring:

"Love and ramen–the heart of our home sweet home!"

-The Uzumaki Family

The mat, with its warm hues, offered a humorous invitation, creating an immediate sense of comfort as one stepped into Naruto and Hinata's shared haven. 

The intricately designed wreath echoed the season's spirit, with delicate touches of frost-kissed leaves and subtle accents of love, symbolizing the union of Naruto and Hinata, displayed for all to see.

Before their home, Naruto carefully set his precious girlfriend down, allowing her to land before the door with a clatter of her boots, regaining her standing once more.

With a cheerful exclamation, Naruto hopped back upright, wearing the same broad grin as before, "Whew! Well, this is our stop: home at last!"

Hinata pulled one hand up in front of her mouth, giggling sweetly, "Oh, you're so cute when you're excited, Naruto-kun. Just hold on, let me fetch the keys." She declared, before leaning down to shift the welcome come over, to locate their home's key tucked beneath. 

However, before she could secure it, a warm hand suddenly clutched her moving arm, halting her in her tracks. 

She lifted her body up, turning her head, only to be greeted by a subtle smile from her blonde boyfriend, his cerulean gaze carrying a sudden solemnity. 

He smiled warmly, a hint of red tinting his tanned cheeks due to the cold. His blonde locks were neatly tucked under a white toboggan resting on his head, while an orange winter coat embraced his broad form—colors intentionally chosen by the two to create a harmonious and complementary blend in their attire.

"Um, before we go inside…" Naruto started off, "I have something I've been wanting to give you." 

His voice lowered, the coolness of the outdoors turning his breath visible as he spoke. There was a noticeable shift in Naruto's voice, an undertone of nervousness evident in his words.

Naruto brought one hand up to rub the back of his neck, attempting to soothe the mounting nervousness within him as his lover's gaze bore into him. 

The moment has arrived. 

The moment has come, to finally reveal the surprise he had worked so hard to craft and put together. 

But, he was so nervous. 

Surprised by Naruto's earlier declaration, Hinata gasped and with that, abandoned the search for their home's key. Instead, she pivoted away from the door to fully face Naruto.

"Hm? There's s-something you wanted to give me, Naruto-kun?" She repeated, tilting her head, an adorable expression. 

"Y-Yeah." Naruto responded with a nod, "You know, I'm not good at pl-planning or, um, surprises for that matter. I've never done anything like this before, but I wanted to do this one thing for you."

Naruto was nervous, it wasn't hard for Hinata to tell. 

His current demeanor mirrored hers when she felt uneasy or flustered, yet instead of tapping his fingers together like her habitual gesture, he found solace in rubbing the back of his neck—a nervous habit uniquely his own. It was so cute, and Hinata couldn't resist a giggle at his adorableness.

Hinata perceived that whatever Naruto had in store for her must be quite the surprise, as it even caused him, typically composed, to feel nervous. Her heart began to thump in her chest, filled with anticipation.

Hinata watched as he delved into the pocket of his orange winter coat, retrieving the only object that was inside. Hinata glanced down at his fallen hand in response, curiosity and excitement growing within her for what Naruto had in mind. 

Hinata bit her lip, "Wh-What is it, my love?" 

It was only then that Naruto finally revealed the surprise he had in store for Hinata, holding it up in his hand.

"This, Hinata-chan."

It was only then that Naruto's fingers carefully revealed a small dark blue velvet box, smooth to the touch, and Hinata's gaze immediately fixated on it. Her heart quickened, at the sight, her cheeks burning red in no time. 

"Oh, y-you-" The midnight-blue haired kunoichi faltered, rendered speechless, her gaze remaining planted on the jewelry box cradled in the palm of her lover's hand—a container concealing the true secret surprise Naruto had for her nestled within.

Naruto's eyes moved from his surprise back to her, presenting a warm, but nervous smile, "Hinata-chan, I've been thinking a lot about us, about our journey together," He began, his voice carrying a gentle sincerity.

Hinata's eyes widened with anticipation, "N-Naruto-kun..."

With a deliberate yet gentle motion, he opened the box, to finally reveal the true surprise he had for her. Finally revealed, there it lay, presented in all its glory for Hinata to feast her eyes upon. 

A ring.

Encased in the deep blue velvet box lay a captivating silver cluster ring, exuding a subtle elegance. The ring sparkled with the radiance of three distinct jewels—a beautiful lavender amethyst nestled at its core, flanked by two shimmering white diamonds.

Varying in size, the white diamonds adorned the cluster ring like the gleaming stars in the midnight sky, augmenting the ring's overall dazzling effect. 

The meticulous arrangement of the jewels, both at the center and along the ring, orchestrated a harmonious interplay of luminosity and splendor, rendering the ring a truly enchanting masterpiece.

It was a sight that left Hinata utterly breathless, finally witnessing such a masterpiece up close and personal—an affirmation of how far Naruto was willing to go and sacrifice in the name of love.

Hinata let forth a sharp gasp, one hand of hers flying up to cover her mouth in surprise. Tears formed in her lavender eyes almost immediately, threatening to spill.

"Oh my kami! It's so beautiful, Naruto-kun." She exclaimed into the palm of her hand, her lavender eyes shimmering with a blend of astonishment and joy as she meticulously examined the ring, almost tempted to pinch herself to verify if her reality was indeed real.

She has to be dreaming! 

She has to be! 

The realization that Naruto had taken the effort to select, no, purchase such a valuable gift deeply touched Hinata. She knew it wasn't Naruto's usual forte, especially when it came to orchestrating surprises, let alone scouring stores for an item in the romantic department—particularly a ring—for her.

But he did.

He did it anyway. 

Despite Naruto's inherent lack of experience and sometimes oblivious nature when it came to romantic gestures and surprises, he consistently went above and beyond for Hinata.

The clear fact that Naruto pressed forward and ventured into this new territory of romance, with her on his mind, despite lacking experience in such an area, made Hinata feel incredibly content—like the happiest woman in the world.

It surpassed any gesture she had ever experienced, surpassing anything anyone had ever done for her.

For that, she was deeply grateful.

For a moment, Hinata just marveled at the intricacies of the silver ring Naruto held out for her, studying the lavender and white jewels that adorned it. 

The more she examined it, the stronger her connection to Naruto grew, evolving into something even more profound. She found herself even more drawn to the man before her, appreciating the profound thought he had invested in such a gift—a symbol of his love.

Hinata's eyes welled more and more with tears, a mixture of joy and overwhelming love filling her being, "Oh Naruto-kun, you shouldn't have. Th-This is-"

Naruto chuckled nervously, once more rubbing the back of his neck, "Y-Yeah, I know it's a bit much. The ring was pretty expensive, almost broke my pockets—but hey! That doesn't matter!" He abruptly cut himself off with a loud exclamation, prompting a soft giggle from Hinata.

"Instead, what matters is that," His voice trailed off as he stared deeply into her eyes, losing himself in them, "I would do anything for you, anything at all, Hinata-chan, just as you would for me. I'm willing to sacrifice my all to ensure that you are happy." He declared, his cerulean gaze solemn, "I am willing to go to any lengths to show you just how much I love you."

His eyes fell down to the expensive ring in his possession, and his smile widened, "So, I wanted this to be something special, something that reflects how much you mean to me." He expressed with profound emotion, "I had help, of course, bringing this little shindig to life, but I did it, and I did it for you." 

At that moment, Naruto gently brought the jewelry box closer, presenting the ring and all its splendor to her fully.

Hinata stared in awe the entire time, her heart pounding in her chest, her cheeks growing redder and redder. Her eyes never left Naruto; they remained fixed on him as he held the ring he had chosen for her in his grasp, extending it toward her.

"Hinata-chan, I wish to offer you this ring, but I want you to understand that it's not just any ordinary ring; it's a promise ring."

"A promise ring?" Hinata questioned in awe, her eyes shooting from the beautiful cerulean eyes that bore into her and the ring held out for her below. 

Naruto nodded, "Yes, it's a ring that signifies a promise from me to you. A promise that I will always be by your side, no matter what obstacles are thrown our way, no matter how challenging life gets—I will stay here, with you."

The spiky-haired ninja beamed, a smile so big and warm that it made Hinata feel like she was going to melt, her hand falling down to her chest. 

"Oh kami," Hinata marveled.

Naruto sighed softly, "Yes, we've been together for a year now, and I want you to know that I've cherished every day I get to spend with you. Every moment," He reached out, cradling the jewelry box in one hand. 

He gently placed his extended hand on her cheek, giving it a caress with his thumb.

"every second," He breathed.

Naruto looked deeply into her eyes, and with sincerity, he continued, "You've single handedly changed my life completely. You have revealed so much to me, Hinata-chan." He began, his own eyes tearing up." 

"You’ve shown me what true love feels like.  You have shown me what it feels like to have a life where I have a family to come home to, to take care of, to love as my very own."

He bit his lip, racing his thumb back and forth along his lover's cheeks just watching as Hinata slowly but surely came undone due to his words.

"Hinata-chan, you have brought nothing but love and compassion into my world, fulfilling everything I have ever wanted. You are my happiness, my love, and I want to stay with you, continuing this journey together, no matter what, ya know?"

Naruto couldn't resist a gentle coo as Hinata began shedding tears in response to his heartfelt speech. The fresh, wet tears cascaded down her already flushed face, words no longer enough to express how deeply touched she was.

Such tears flowed down Hinata's cheeks like shimmering streams, each droplet a visible affirmation of the profound emotions welling up within her. They glistened under the soft moonlight, tracing a path along her flushed face as a visual expression of the overwhelming joy and love that Naruto's words had stirred within her.

She began to cry, but Naruto stood prepared to comfort her; to wipe such tears away. His thumb moved ever so gently across her cheek, spreading the damp essence into her skin.

"And so, I don't want us to stop here, Hinata-chan. I am willing to forever be yours, if only," Naruto swiped his thumb across her face once more, marveling at the beauty in his possession. 

His blue eyes twinkled, caught in the gorgeous pool of lavender, "you’ll be mine."

"Yes." Hinata proclaimed without hesitation, leaning her head further into his touch. She pulled her own hand up to drape it over Naruto's, to cradle his hand on her cheek, warming her up further.

"Oh Naruto-kun," She uttered once more, "I have been wishing my entire life for this very moment to come. I have loved you for so long, wanting to walk beside you, wanting to hold your hand in this world, and bring you the happiness you know now." She continued, "And now I have, and it has been a dream come true."

She sobbed, "You have been a dream come true, my love."

Naruto's eyes widened, his heart skipping several beats. 

Hinata sniffed back her tears, raising her hand to gently caress his cheek, tracing her fingertips over each of his whispered birth marks.

The dark haired kunoichi hummed, "I, too, cherish every moment we've shared. It's everything I've ever wanted." She declared with croaks in her voice, but that didn’t stop her. 

"My wish is to continually offer you all that you yearn for—love, happiness, warmth. I want to be there for you, always, in every aspect of life. You've become my everything, Naruto-kun, and I want to be your unwavering support, always by your side, in joy and in sorrow."

Naruto's eyes widened even further, if that was even possible at this point. Hinata's heartfelt revelations caused his heart to thud against his chest with an intensity that he feared it might break free from its confines. 

He couldn’t believe his ears. He couldn’t contain his joy. 

Hinata smiled. tightening her grip on his hand. She nodded with a tender affirmation, "So yes, I want to be yours forever, Naruto-kun."

In that poignant moment, as Hinata spoke those words, time seemed to momentarily freeze. 

Naruto's breath hitched in the realization that the woman he cherished, the love of his life, was affirming his sweet declaration with a resounding yes. 

His world felt transformed, bathed in the radiant glow of Hinata's acceptance. 

Naruto found himself utterly captivated, unable to do or think of anything but marvel at the wonderful woman standing before him.

Nothing but gratitude flooded his entire being for having a lover like Hinata, one who not only wished to be with a knucklehead like him but was ready to embark on a journey of forever with him.

He couldn't resist reveling in the realization that Hinata was his promise girl, his precious girlfriend, and he eagerly anticipated the prospect of her becoming his wife—the future mother of their children.

The mere thought filled Naruto with a happiness so powerful that words couldn’t come close to expressing it. It was the kind of joy that made him want to leap onto the rooftops at that very moment, and scream to all of Konoha that Hinata was his lover, his beloved, his everything. 

He yearned to proclaim to the entire village just how much Hinata means to him, hell, proclaim to the entire world.

A wide smile stretched across Naruto's face, nearly revealing all of his pearly white teeth, his whiskered cheeks aflame with the warmth generated by the sheer breadth of his lips. An antsy excitement pulsed through his body, urging him to dance and celebrate.

In joy, Naruto let out cheers, ones that could be heard from miles away.

"Oh kami, you have no idea how much that means to me, Hinata-chan! Arigato!" In that moment, he yearned to finally slip the ring out of its box, and slid it on Hinata's finger, to solidify their promise.

But before he could proceed, it was Naruto's turn to be stopped.

Hinata softly shifted her hand from his cheek to gently nudge his shoulder, a light giggle escaping her lips as Naruto froze in his tracks, his eyebrows furrowing with a hint of concern by her gesture. 

"Wh-What is it, Hinata-chan? What's the matter?" He asked, a touch of worry coloring his words. Hinata, however, maintained her reassuring smile, signaling that there was nothing to worry about.

She shook her head, her midnight blue hair swaying with the movement, "Um, b-before we proceed, I th-think it's safe now for me to reveal that I too have a surprise."

"You what?" Naruto exclaimed loudly, genuinely taken aback. This was certainly not something he was expecting. 

His heart skipped a beat. 

"You do?" He questioned, his curiosity piqued.

Hinata giggled sweetly, "Yes, my love. And I believe it's best if we exchange our surprises at the same time. I think it would be more fitting that way." 

The mischievous glint in Hinata’s eyes introduced an element of intrigue for Naruto, leaving the blonde eagerly anticipating what Hinata had in store for him—a plot twist indeed.

He rocked about, twisted, and danced in his spot, his excitement building as he watched Hinata turn away from him to retrieve something from her coat's pocket. She rummaged inside, getting what she needed in no time flat. 

She rummaged inside, swiftly finding what she needed. But as she searched, Naruto couldn't resist leaning over, extending his body to catch a glimpse of what Hinata had retrieved, his excitement getting the best of him.

Sensing a shadow looming over her, Hinata glanced back, instantly capturing Naruto's mischievous gaze peering over her shoulder.

It was a fleeting instant between them, but the moment her lavender eyes locked Naruto's blue ones, he swiftly averted his gaze, whistling nonchalantly, feigning innocence as if he hadn't been peeking.

Hinata couldn't help but giggle at her boyfriend's playful silliness before she turned around, and presented the object she had retrieved—Naruto's own surprise—setting it in the palm of her hand before him.

"H-Here. I got you something too, N-Naruto-kun." She said with a shy smile. In that moment, Hinata revealed the surprise she had prepared, a sight that caught Naruto completely off guard. 

His eyes widened almost to the point of bulging from his head at what he saw, his mouth hanging open in sheer astonishment.

He pointed at the black box in her hand, his blue eyes widened.

"No way," He exclaimed, his disbelief evident.

"You got me a ring, but how is this possible? How did we get one another the same-" Naruto's words trailed off, leaving him speechless.

Certainly, right before him, Hinata also presented a black velvet jewelry box, embellished with gold embroidery along the edges. The box appeared to be of the same size as the one he had given her, the one concealing…

'A ring? But how? How did Hinata end up with the same gift I got her? How did she know?' Naruto pondered to himself in disbelief.

Hinata giggled sheepishly at the bewilderment on her boyfriend's face. 

She looked away, a hint of nervousness creeping in, "Um, well, I may have sort of..." She paused, briefly biting her lip, "heard you talking about the surprise you'll get me."

"What!" Naruto shouted in shock. He smacked his forehead, feeling like a complete baka, "Damnit, how could I be so careless-"

"Gomen!" Hinata apologized, "I came back from a mission just a few days ago. I then walked inside our home, went up to our bedroom, and heard you there, talking to yourself about a surprise you wish to give me." She nodded down at the box in her hand, "A ring." She pointed out.

"But that is all I heard!"

"Damnit." Naruto hissed, frustration evident in his tone. He kicked the ground with a pout, throwing a mini tantrum, "See, see!! I can't keep surprises; I always mess them up!" Naruto exclaimed with a groan, looking up at the sky, smothering his free hand over his face.

Hinata tried her best to suppress a giggle as her boyfriend seemed to revert to a child due to his inability to surprise her. 

Even frustrated, throwing a fit, Naruto looked so adorable to her.

The lavender-eyed kunoichi shook her head, clutching his shoulder firmly, "It's okay, Naruto-kun, my love, really." She reassured, her gentle touch a comforting presence, "It's actually better this way." 

Her lavender eyes sparkled with warmth as she looked up at him, offering a reassuring smile.

"How is it better?" Naruto whined, "I was supposed to be surprising you."

Hinata shrugged, "Well, I just figured now, wouldn't it be best if we got each other rings, ya know," She beamed, "as a couple!"

"Ahh, like couple rings, eh?" 

"Yes!"

Naruto hummed, intrigued to say the least. 

For the most part, he couldn't deny feeling a bit disappointed about not keeping the surprise he had planned for Hinata. He had hoped to seize that one moment to surprise her for a change. 

Now, all the planning, all the hiding, the rapid search in the village and neighboring ones for the perfect gift for her, the quest for inspiration, and even pleading to the Konoha gang for help—all seemed to be in vain.

'Hinata heard me talking to myself, really?' Naruto groaned, shaking his head in disbelief.

He wasn't used to living with someone else yet, he must admit, but having his grand surprise found out in the stupidest way ever only heightened his desire to go ahead and whack himself in the face.

But then, he looked back at Hinata's face and grew breathless at the bright smile that was upon it, radiating like a beam of sunlight breaking through the clouds. 

Her lavender eyes sparkled with joy, and the warmth of her smile seemed to illuminate the night, creating a captivating sight that deeply touched Naruto's heart.

At that moment, Hinata looked more beautiful to him than ever before.

And it was also in that moment that all the disappointment Naruto felt vanished, and instead, he was filled with happiness. 

He appreciated how Hinata had gone out of her way to get him a ring in return, showcasing the very qualities he loved about her—her selfless, considerable nature.  

The concept of couple rings seemed even more special now, and Naruto felt deeply flattered to receive such a meaningful and thoughtful gift from the woman he loved.

Naruto smiled. 

Hinata's smile widened in return, her head lowering to open the black box in her grasp, revealing the ring she had chosen for Naruto.

His gaze descended to observe the contents, and once again, his mouth fell open in astonishment.

"My kami."

"You've given me mine, and now, here is yours."

Before him, the ring Hinata had presented was crafted entirely in gold, with an orange citrine taking center stage—a fiery hue reminiscent of a blazing sunset, resonating with Naruto's spirited nature. 

The ring sparkled with intricate golden embellishments, each detail perfectly placed within its designated spot inside the case. 

Such an exquisite piece not only captured Naruto's essence but also reflected the warmth and radiance of their shared love, symbolized by the vibrant gem at its heart.

Naruto was utterly blown away as he fixated on the glistening ring before him, his eyes welling up with tears. 

He sniffed, overwhelmed, "It's... it's so incredible, Hinata-chan! You've truly outdone yourself, as always." He exclaimed, marveling at the ring, tracing its details with his gaze, "I love it, my love. This means the world to me. Arigato." He expressed gratitude, leaping in joy. 

Hinata giggled, her laughter resembling a sweet melody. She was thankful to see that Naruto genuinely appreciated her gift, savoring the twinkle of awe in his gorgeous blue eyes.

"You're welcome. Anything for you, Naruto-kun." She looked affectionately at the ring held delicately between her fingers, its golden hues twinkling with each gentle touch of moonlight.

Then, her eyes shifted to her own ring, still cradled in Naruto's hand.

She smiled, "Shall we exchange?"

Naruto's face lit up with excitement at that suggestion. "I don't see why not!" He cheered, pumping one hand in the air. “Yeah, let's do it!"

At that moment, they formally exchanged their promise rings.

Naruto handed his to Hinata.

And Hinata handed hers to Naruto.

Their hands trembled ever so slightly as they swapped rings, a symbolic gesture sealing their commitment and fortifying their promise. 

Naruto reached for Hinata's hand, sliding the silver ring he had chosen for her onto her ring finger. His touch was gentle, as if handling precious treasure, each movement deliberate and tender. 

The ring was a perfect match, smoothly gliding down Hinata’s finger and snugly settling into place.

Hinata reciprocated the gesture, sliding the golden ring she had chosen for him onto Naruto's ring finger. Like a perfect match, it snugly settled on his finger, both rings demonstrating the precision of their measurements.

"I'm yours, Naruto-kun," Hinata breathed, her eyes shimmering with emotion.

Naruto grinned, his azure eyes mirroring the profound sentiments within, "And I'm yours, Hinata-chan. Forever and always, and that's a promise."

"Yes, a promise," Hinata whispered, "forever made, and forever kept."

"Oh Hinata-chan." Naruto took a breath before stepping forward to seal their connection with a kiss, a manifestation of the deeper emotions his heart harbored.

Their lips melded in a perfect union, a moment that felt just right to both, drawing them even closer. 

Their promise, the exchange of their rings, and their very kiss marked the initial step toward a complete union, a merging of two souls into one.

Under the soft glow of the moon, they kissed, their lips meeting in a tender exploration of each other's emotions. The moonlight painted a silvery sheen on their entwined figures, casting a gentle radiance over the scene. 

Their kiss deepened in no time with the steady rock of their heads, eager to imprint their love on every inch of each other's lips, delving deeper to explore the inner recesses of their mouths. 

Naruto's tongue emerged, gliding out of his parted lips, granting Hinata's lips a gentle swipe—an unspoken request to enter her warm depths.

Hinata noticed Naruto's gesture and granted him access without any hesitation. She slightly parted her lips, enabling Naruto to slide his wet tongue deeply inside her mouth, exploring every nook and cranny—her teeth, gums, and eventually her own tongue.

Hinata met his fervor with equal intensity, her hands finding their place on Naruto's chest, where she could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her fingertips.

The night enveloped them, and the outside world faded away, leaving only the two lovers immersed in the joy of their newfound promise. The night air carried a subtle chill, but the heat generated by their joined bodies made them oblivious to the outside world.

Naruto's hands gently traced the curves of Hinata's back, drawing her nearer, intent on eliminating any lingering space between them. Hinata reciprocated with a gentle moan of contentment, her fingers tracing a delicate path up his body, entwining in Naruto's hair.

The promise rings they adorned gleamed in the moonlight, gracing their respective ring fingers as symbols of devotion. Lavender and orange hues sparkled, reflecting the celestial glow of the night, an exquisite fusion akin to fire and ice colliding, creating something greater.

Passion ignited between them, accompanied by a plethora of muffled moans. 

Neither wanted the kiss to end.

Neither wanted to pull away. 

However, inevitability set in as their breaths ran out, their lungs aching, forcing them to reluctantly pull away.

But their separation did not signal the end of their night of intimacy; rather, it marked the beginning. They had a promise to fulfill, to solidify but now…

deep in the sheets.

Naruto's hand slid down gracefully, encircling the small of Hinata's back, his large arm enveloping her petite form. The contact made her gasp, and a blush colored her pale cheeks.

Naruto hummed, his dreamy eyes locked onto hers. He sent a nod toward their home's front door, his blue eyes narrowing in that way that always made her squirm in want. 

"Come on, let's finish this inside, shall we?"

The seductive shift in his voice sent a shiver down Hinata's spine, and she nodded eagerly, fully aware of what Naruto was implying–what both of them desired.

She hummed, "Yes, I desire that more than anything, Naruto-kun." She replied, her voice carrying a lingering promise.

With that, Naruto and Hinata finally headed inside their very own home to fulfill the rest of their promises in privacy, leaving the moonlit streets of Konoha all behind.

Continue Reading On Wattpad Or AO3.

— (⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆)

[spideywhites]

Just came from reading the latest chapter of COS. And after screaming and crying my head out in different directions, all I have to say is... You are an amazing writer and I have faith in you.

Like we got glimpses into Naruto's mentality and disastrous coping mechanisms and the frustrations and hurt simmering between both the twins. This coupled with that horrendous heir contract for Natsume looming in the future has set up a tense stage.

But. Naruto already has grown leaps and bounds compared to how he was in canon at this stage. And I don't mean it solely in terms of skill level. So tbh with the way you are exploring and gutting canon I won't be surprised if he were to grow up even further emotionally as a person.

Cuz let's be honest- the moment Naruto chose to continue to love Konoha, after knowing every fucked up thing they did to Sasuke... I knew his character was being stagnated. To the point I was baffled when Yami Naruto came and Naruto actually got furious at his mom being exported from Uzu to be made into a Jinchuuriki. He is optimistic like Minato (in the sense of knowing how the world is shit but choosing to love it anyways), but mostly because of his horrifically low self esteem and unhealthy coping behaviours (which ok I understand. Cus the choice is between bad and worse). The brainwashing in his academy years and the way the public treated him has just fed into the mindset of rationalising away everything bad and the idea that he is the problem. Vs. Natsu is cynical like Kushina.

Coming back, Naruto's reaction regarding his Mom...makes me think that...when he will learn and understand the full depth of the shit Natsume was put through....he is gonna have a reaction similar to Sasuke (not sure about the I wanna raze Konoha to ground part though lol)

I have a feeling that canon is going to be thoroughly thrown off its rails by the time Shippuden were to arrive (or maybe even before that). Cuz Naruto and Natsume can have their growth arcs, if they are still stuck in the village that is hurting them and leeching off them

This was a brilliant chapter!!

First off, thanks for reading and all your thoughts! I’m glad this chapter was suitably scream-worthy lol. I’ve been trying my best to add in realism outside of the general canon-divergence, because as much as I love the nostalgia of Naruto, it’s lacking a bit when it comes to character depth, a sense of intimacy in relationships (of any kind), and just that good, slow burning build of friendship and maturity.

There’s going to be a lot more divergence ahead! That’s really all I can say tbh! I fear they’ve been trapped in stagnation for too long, it’s time for shit to hit the fan….

[mortyvongola2-0]

Day 5: Aphrodisiacs

Venom

Pairing: Shino Aburame x Readee

Genre: Gift, smut, kinktober prompt

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: afab!reader, vaginal sex, aphrodisiacs, no refractory period, dirty talk, lots of sweat, Shino canonically has one of the biggest dicks in Naruto and that's a fact, missionary, doggy, venom as aphrodisiac, unprotected sex, marathon sex, multiple creampies, Aburame's have golden eyes change my mind

A/N: This is dedicated to the wonderful @justmyownreality. She's awesome and so is Shino and he deserves more fanfictions and she deserves all the love~ This was fun, I hope I was able to do Shino justice and I hope you all enjoy!

Read it on AO3

You huffed as you pushed another oversized leaf out of your face. It was hot, you were sticky with sweat and growing more uncomfortable by the second—it didn’t help that your mission partner was not only completely oblivious, but he seemed relatively unbothered by the environment despite wearing a long sleeved, black shirt and bright orange pants. Not to mention the two of you had yet to even see the criminal you were sent out there to get in the first place. A cold shower, your AC unit, and your handsome boyfriend were all you wanted to think about.

“Oi, Naruto, slow down. We won’t be able to find him if we’re speeding through here.”

“Its fine, its fine, ya know. If we go faster, we’ll find him faster.”

“No, I don’t think that’s how—”

“There he is! Hey, you! Stop right there!”

“Ah, Naruto wait a minute!”

The chase didn’t take very long, despite Naruto doing his own thing, as he always did. You stood beside the unconscious, and tied up, man as you waited for the rest of the team that Naruto went to notify. “Damn mosquitos,” you muttered as your hand shooed another away from your skin before it could land. “Uhg, I hate this place.”

Another couple of bugs tried to get to you and you swatted them away, trying your best not to kill them. “Why don’t you go after the unconscious guy instead?”

“Oi,” Naruto called your name as he approached. “Let’s go, we’re gathering over there.”

“I’m more than ready.” As you turned to start heading toward the meeting area, you felt that telltale pinch of a bug bite and sighed in exasperation as you turned to swat the mosquito away. When you saw it, you paused. It didn’t look like a mosquito. It was large and long, brown with red stripes along its carapace, and you stared at it in shock as it continued to bite you.

“Ah!” Naruto yelled and squashed the bug against your skin. Bug guts and blood splattered on your flesh as the blonde looked at you incredulously. “What the hell was that, are you okay?”

“I think so?” You wiped away the guts and squashed carcass to check on the bug bite. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, it seemed like a typical mosquito bite, so you shrugged and nodded. “Let’s just go meet up with everyone.”

A few days later found you laying underneath your home fan, still sweltering despite having arrived back the day before. The Sixth had given your team a few days off to rest, and you gladly accepted hoping to relax and unwind while you could, but how were you supposed to do that when you were still so hot? You felt warm all over, sweating and flushed from head to toe. You’d never before felt so gross in your life.

You styled your hair to be as far from your neck as possible, you felt less nauseated when cold air brushed against your nape. Along with the intense heat was an incredible thirst that no amount of water, milk, soda, or juice could quench. Never before had you felt so miserable. All you could think to do before was soak yourself in as cold of a bath as you possible could, but as you laid there having only experienced a small amount of temporary relief, you noticed how inflamed your most recent bug bite had gotten. “Maybe I should go to the hospital after all,” you muttered to yourself.

Redressing was taxing, the clothes felt sweltering, despite their shortness in nature, and clung to your skin from the sweat. After you clipped your hair out of the way, opting for flipflops over your normal sandals, you grabbed your essentials and headed out the door. You began to make your way to the hospital, the hot sun not helping you as it beat against your exposed skin. But how could you not expose so much skin? If you wore even more, or thicker clothes, you were sure you would’ve died of heat stroke.

Before you could enter the large white building, you caught sight of a certain dark-haired, sun-glassed shinobi and paused. Your heart beat against your chest, and it wasn’t due to the sweltering heat that time. In fact, you almost thought it made the heat worse. The Aburame would surely know about bug bites, right? Surely, they had all sorts of antivenom; there was no need to go to the hospital when you could just ask the heir to one of the most knowledgeable clans in Konoha, right? It definitely didn’t have anything to do with him being your boyfriend or anything, definitely not.

The two of you had begun your relationship about six months ago. It had been going well, but recently a tension had grown that the two of you had yet to approach. Whenever you both were alone together it was palpable, you hadn’t even been able to give him a light peck on the lips without feeling tingly from your head to your toes. You really wanted to take things to the next level, but were unsure about how to bring it up, or even initiate it.

With a shiver and a large amount of determination you began to follow after your tall boyfriend. Man, he was so tall, and so attractive. That spiked long hair, you liked it better long like that and really wanted to run your hands through it again, to tug on it as you rode those full, plush, lips and— “Shino!”

He paused his stride and looked down at you as you approached. Gosh, he was so handsome. “Oh,” he started in that deep baritone that made the base of your neck tingle and brought goosebumps to your flesh. Your name left his lips and you practically melted into goo. “Is everything alright? The reason for my question being, you look flushed and—” he cut himself off, you watched as his adam’s apple bobbed with his swallow. “And uncomfortable.”

“Actually, that’s part of why I’m here. I need your help.”

“My help?” His defined brows furrowed.

“Yeah, I think this bug bite is making me sick.” You showed him the inflamed bump on your arm.

“I see, do you know what type of insect it was?”

“Well, no not really.” You fidgeted as you began to grow more and more uncomfortable. That thirst became your greatest enemy, your throat felt dry and it made you swallow continuously. There was that familiar tingling that had started in your lower belly, and you wanted nothing more than to get out of the sun’s rays.

“Come with me, the reason being I can better assess the situation with information at home.”

“Okay.” It was a struggle not to openly pant as you looked at him, your eyes glazing over as your thoughts drifted to imagine what he looked underneath all of those clothing layers. “Let’s do that then.”

The walk to the Aburame estate felt incredibly long. Though Shino was excellent company, his proximity only seemed to increase your dilemma. Every few steps or so, your arms would brush against each other and you almost groaned every time. It was almost like too much stimulation. And all of that coupled with the heat, the thirst, and tingling in your gut made for an excruciating experience. All you wanted was some relief, and at that point you didn’t really care what you had to do to get it. You needed. Needed it more than anything else.

Shino didn’t seem all too comfortable either and you couldn’t blame him. It would be a bit awkward to walk beside your significant other who was so obviously overheated, uncomfortable, and kept looking you up and down like you were a glass of water in a desert. You didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable, or to eat him alive with your eyes. When you were in the right headspace, you’d be sure to apologize profusely for your actions, probably even buy him some melon to make up for it.

The two of you entered the estate quietly and it seemed no one else was home. You could’ve been wrong, your senses as haywire as they were, but when Shino didn’t give any greetings or go anywhere but to his area of the home you figured you were, in fact, the only two in the house. “Would you like some tea?”

You stared at him for a bit before your brain finally registered what he asked. “Oh, sure, thank you.”

He told you to make yourself comfortable—you were in a drawing room of sorts it seemed—and you sat on the seat cushion provided as you waited for his return. You hated how you couldn’t stop squirming, you were a ninja, you’d survived the Fourth Great Ninja War, had succeeded on many missions, some were even solo missions, and here you were being brought down by a single bug bite.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you, Shino.” You took the tea and set it to the side for a moment, it was far too hot for you to attempt to drink in your current state.

“So, how did the insect that bit you appear?”

You began to tell him about the bug, how big it was, where it bit you, and where your mission was to give him a better idea of the insect population there. “And your symptoms?”

If you could be any more flushed, you would have been. It was a bit embarrassing to tell the object of your affections how overheated you were, how thirsty you were, and how wet you were. You decided it’d be better to tell him the first two and leave the last bit out of your explanation. “I’ve been overheated since I got back, and so thirsty but no matter how much I drink I don’t feel better.”

“Is that all?” He leaned in closer to you from across the table, you looked away from his shaded gaze but not before catching a glimpse of those golden orbs. The intensity took your breath away. “The reason being, the Diptera you have described, their venom, causes more symptoms.”

You finally took a sip of the tea he had offered; it was refreshing. Mint probably. It suited him well. You looked anywhere but at him as you placed the cup back down and shook your head, feigning nonchalance as best as you could in your current state. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Heightened arousal,” he stood and walked around the small table toward you. The man towered over your sitting form, and then even as he bent to kneel over you, he remained quite a bit above you. You shivered and leaned back while looking away. “I don’t believe you. The reasons being, your dilated pupils,” his hand pressed against the floor behind you beside your head. Shino had you practically pinned to the floor. He was so close you could feel his body heat against your already overly warm flesh, you almost whimpered. “The hitching of your breath, the distinctive squirming, and the hungry way your eyes devour me. You desire me.”

Even if you hadn’t before you certainly did then. You shivered, keeping your eyes away from his as you continued the same squirming he’d called you out on. You almost gave in to the need to breathe through your mouth, to pant like an animal in heat, but you didn’t and tried your best to keep your wits about you. “The insect you encountered, has a distinctive venom that worsens as it continues to circulate in your blood stream.”

He removed his glasses, and you took a peek at his honeyed eyes and bit your bottom lip. They were heated, like liquid gold as they stared you down. The Aburame inched closer, his breath fanning over your ear as he began to whisper directly to it. The low rumble of his voice broke you, and you let out a gasp as he whispered to you. “Its venom acts like an aphrodisiac in humans, with only one way to satisfy it.”

“W-What way is that?”

The young heir remained silent for a moment, his hot breath made you feel dizzy. As you squeezed your thighs together for friction, you felt just how wet you were and how badly you wanted the insect specialist. “It has to be worked out. Thoroughly.”

He may not have said it, but the implications made your insides clench. Shino seemed to hesitate for a moment, backing up only a bit so he could look you in the eyes. “Are you willing to—” again he paused, it seemed like he may have some nerves of his own despite the confident bravado. “Are you willing to allow me to treat you?”

“Yes,” you squeaked, your tongue slipping out to lick your dry lips and try to clear your throat. The sound of your voice was raspy, desperate, “Please, please, yes.”

Shino visibly shivered.

The next few seconds were a messy blur of lips, tongue, and teeth. He tasted like mint, like the tea. His large hands shook as they roamed over your sweat soaked skin and pushed your flimsy shirt up toward your neck and exposed your breasts to his greedy fingers and lips. Both of Shino’s hands, warm and calloused from years of training, enveloped and kneaded your chest in a rough manner. After breaking the kiss his tongue licked a stripe down your neck and if you had the mental capacity, you would have been embarrassed by the sweat; but you didn’t, you were too far gone.

He licked his way down, avoiding the crumpled material of your shirt, and lapped at the flesh of your breasts, he took a softened peak between his lips and sucked hard. You moaned, your hands reaching out and tugging at his outer jacket. The Aburame heir shrugged out of the coat, his lips still focusing on your pebbled bud, and he threw the material somewhere off to the side. His teeth scrapped against your nipple before he roughly bit into the underside of your breast, and you cried out. When you started to tug at his vest he pulled back from your skin and began to speak once again.

“Your skin tastes so sweet.” He took his vest off and began to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his pants. His voice was deeper, much deeper, his own skin flushed, and his eyes were drowning in lust, he seemed close to panting. “The reason being the venom turns your own body fluids into a similar aphrodisiac.”

With that he licked another stripe over your breast, his deft fingers pushed his pants past his hips, and with a matched eagerness you pulled your own shorts and underwear off. You lifted your hips to aide in the removal of your clothing and as they came up, they came in contact with an absurdly large, hard, and throbbing piece of flesh. “Shino you—” you cut yourself off as you looked down to his member and you felt like your eyes were about to pop out of your head. “Huge,” you muttered.

The insect user looked to the side, somehow still embarrassed despite the situation, before his lust won out and he pressed that monstrous erection between your slicked folds. You immediately moaned, both in relief and pleasure, and you laid your head back to keep your hips up and moving against his. “So wet,” he panted, his heavy tip bumping against your clit as he rubbed against you. He kept rubbing, and groaning in that delicious tone of his, and you kept shifting your hips and begging for him to put it in.

“Shino, please I can’t—” your breathing hitched and your thighs began to tremble as you struggled not to climax from the pressure of his member rubbing against your throbbing clit. “Please, please, put it in. I need you so bad.”

You felt his erection throb against you, and again he shivered. He pressed his face between your breasts as he nodded and brought a hand down to guide himself inside. His fingers poked at your entrance to make sure he was positioned correctly before pressing the head inside. It was a burning stretch, the lack of preparation adding to the discomfort as he spread you impossibly wide. A hiss left your throat and you had to shift your hips to adjust, and he sunk in deeper. “Nnnh,” you closed your eyes.

It hurt, but it felt so good all the same. His face was tense with concentration, his jaw locked and teeth grinding as he did his best to not push in all at once. The Aburame pushed in deeper, and you whined in both impatience and pleasure. You panted and wrapped your legs around his waist and pushed him further in. As he bottomed out, both of your mouths fell open with a sharp gasp.

His hands shook as they held your hips, and you clawed at his back with your nails, trying to find your bearings and get him to scratch the itch that was driving you insane. Shino seemed to be struggling just the same, his body wracked with shivers and fingers twitching against your flesh, his golden irises were shut off from the world, tightly, as he breathed shaky breaths. You squirmed a bit to try and relieve the pressure and heard his breath hitch. Unconsciously, or at least you assumed unconsciously, his hips began to buck against you.

It felt instinctual, the way his hips moved against yours and the way yours moved back. Your throat felt scratchy, your lower belly felt tight as the pleasure built. The friction from his thrusts scratched the itch you had been so desperate to relieve since the damned bug bite. “S-Shino,” you moaned, your nails blazed a trail down his back and your toes curled as you reached your first peak, the Aburame heir followed you to your heaven shortly. But it still wasn’t enough.

The two of you kept going, only pausing for a brief moment to confirm the mutual need to continue. He felt so good, the perfect angle, the perfect size; when you both changed positions, you were on your hands and knees as he took you from behind, and he reached parts of you that you hadn’t realized could be reached. Shino’s voice spurred you on and he knew it. He made sure to lean down and moan, grunt, groan, and gasp right into your ear. He came before you the second time, but even then, neither of you wanted to stop.

It was incredible, it was exhausting, it continued until late into the evening. You estimated that you’d both stopped somewhere around the sixth time. The both of you collapsed, the overwhelming thirst and heat finally satiated, and you felt completely spent. There was a giddiness that began to spread through your chest and you couldn’t help but smile at the tired look on your boyfriend’s normally passive face. He was covered in sweat, as were you, but his soft ambers didn’t leave your form. “We should clean up,” he began, his own voice gruff with overuse and an increasing amount of sleepiness. “The reason being—"

“We’re gross,” you interrupted, voice nothing more than a hoarse rasp.

“Yes.” Shino pushed some hair back from your face. “Are you feeling better?"

“I don’t know,” you teased. “We may have to go one more round for me to know for sure.” “Anything for your treatment.”

tagged list: @therantingfangirl @justmyownreality @hashira-mal

Previous Day || Next Day

|| Kinktober 2022 Masterlist ||

[sinnbaddie]

The Naruto ask! 4, 6 and 19

Putting a cut here so y’all don’t have to scroll because it is rather long!

4. are the romantic undertones between naruto and sasuke intentional or accidental?

I want to say fully accidental because Kishimoto just cannot write romance but I can’t help but think that some scenes are just… too romantic to not be intentional. The moon/sun theme, naruto saying he would die with Sasuke if it came to that, the cover art of them having necklaces with each others faces, etc.

There are just too many instances where they fit together a little too well, I mean even dude bros call them gay, which is a feat in of itself.

So, while I can’t say for certain if it was either, I can say that if there was intention to it, it makes the canon couples look incredibly bad imo.

6. what makes the Naruto ending bad?

I’m rewatching rn and am currently in the beginning of the war arc, so I’m refinding out that there are just… so many things Kishimoto ruined with the way he ended the series.

My biggest gripe of course is Sasuke. He is one of my favorite characters and has been since the beginning. After freshly rewatching the scene where he nearly kills Sakura and knowing how his arc finishes is frustrating. Sasuke deserved justice, he deserved revolution and his clan’s name cleared.

If we’re following canon where Sasuke lives, then I think a full dismantling of the system – changing the way the entire village worked would’ve been a good start. Destroying the leaf was not the way to go about it and he was intent on it because he was (validly) emotional. It’s a huge disservice to Sasuke and readers to not see revolution happen because it pushes this idea that the oppressed have to conform to their oppressor, it’s super nationalistic but that’s more about the entirety of Naruto instead of just the ending.

Personally for me? Sasuke and Naruto dying at the end of their last fight would’ve been a more appropriate ending than Sasuke assimilating to the oppressive village that committed genocide against his clan for “peace”. I’m incredibly upset that Kishimoto wrote Naruto not actually doing anything for Sasuke and the remembrance of his people (lets also not forget the Hyuga), it feels disingenuous to Naruto’s character that he “went back on his word”.

It was set up so well for Sasuke and Naruto to die in the end and to make them continue living just backtracked on both of their writing.

19. pettiest fandom opinion you've blocked someone for?

Almost always for disliking my faves. I just recently blocked someone for disliking Might Gai and some others for shipping characters I don’t like together😭

[watermelonsloth]

How would your infinite tsukuyomi dream end? when did it started and how to end it? let's not consider boruto as canon but go with the end of gaiden and do you have links for other analysis which talks about this possibility

I’ll be honest, it took me longer than I care to admit to realize what you were asking. I’m hoping I can still read and you’re asking how I’d ideally write the infinite tsukuyomi working off of Gaiden and ignoring the Boruto anime/manga.

Assuming that’s what you’re asking, I have a couple of ideas:

First the Rules

Everyone was put under the genjutsu by Madara at the same time. (It doesn’t make any sense that the susanoo would block it out.)

The reason we saw team 7 fight Madara and Kaguya afterword, is because the genjutsu is designed to basically gaslight you into thinking that it’s reality. It tells you everything was just a bad dream or quickly brings whatever was bothering you to a conclusion.

The infinite tsukuyomi works on two principles: It can only reflect back whatever is in the victim’s mind, so it can’t create someone/something the victim can’t conceive of (ex. can’t create “true peace” in the mind of someone used to conflict, can’t create a world with dead people alive in the mind of someone who can no longer imagine the world with them in it). The dream continues on a linear path unless distress or suspicion is detected, in which case it will only change to relieve those feelings.

The dreams aren’t perfect. They’re based on what the person wanted at the time of it being cast and will make as few changes as possible (think of it like a computer made to find the most efficient way to keep everyone happy. it’s the ai art of dreams, except with less art theft). On top of that, it can’t recognize complicated emotions. So bittersweetness, reluctant contentment, dissatisfaction, anxiety, disappointment, etc. aren’t considered “distress” and won’t cause the dream to change.

Dreams aren’t identical with each other and dreams aren’t mixed like in Road to Ninja, but some people are able to affect the dreams to some degree.

Different people have different levels of awareness when it comes to whether or not they know they’re dreaming. Generally, the better someone is at genjutsu/spotting discrepancies in their chakra, the more likely they are to notice.

Now, What I’d Do With This

The status of everyone at the beginning:

At least a year has passed since everyone went under the genjutsu, but the Rookie 9 aren’t in their thirties like they are in Gaiden. I’m thinking they’re in their early-mind twenties.

Kurama didn’t break Naruto out because Kurama is under a dream of his own (they do have separate consciousnesses after all). Naruto is in blissful ignorance in a dream about being Hokage, Sasuke being in the village, the world having rebuilt itself and being a peace, him having kept his promises, etc. It would probably look very similar to the Boruto world. Kurama would probably be trapped in a dream about Naruto being happy and him and the other tailed beasts being free.

Sasuke took a while but he figured out he was under the genjutsu, probably because he isn’t used to things coming so easily to him. His dream, given when the genjutsu was cast, would have him acting as Hokage fighting for world peace and security. Despite this, he’s neglecting his “duties” to instead search the world for a way out.

Sakura was aware pretty much from the start and is in denial (Denial is a river in Egypt, Sakura! This is a dream!). Regardless of what her dream is, everything would be tinged with guilt. With the nagging question of whether she’s doing the right thing. She’s meant to be a realistic character and I think it’s very realistic to prefer fantasy over reality. Just think of all the people who use escapism (via books, movies, tv shows, video games, sleeping, etc) as a coping mechanism.

The rest of team 7 is blissfully ignorant all throughout because it either wouldn’t make sense for them to be aware or their role would be redundant. Same goes for every other character except its because their character is passable as they are or the ship has sailed and them suddenly becoming relevant at the end would be more confusing than satisfying.

One the outside, the four Hokage are still trying to break everyone out of the genjutsu while Madara is bored, watching them try and fail repeatedly. At first I can imagine them fighting each other (verbally and physically), but at this point they’ve all realized there’s no point. The Hokage are the only thing keeping Madara even marginally entertained/sane and fighting Madara only wasted the Hokage’s time. At most, they throw jabs at each other.

The Plot:

This would be very Naruto-Sasuke-Sakura centric with cut aways to the few people on the outside.

Naruto and Kurama would find out about the dream because their chakra networks are still linked so whenever they try to tap into the other’s chakra, they see glimpses of the other one’s dream.

Black Zetsu would either be an obstacle within the dreams or be reabsorbed into Madara because he isn’t really needed.

Naruto would have an arc choosing reality and choosing real people. Since he had spent much longer than Sasuke or Sakura fully believing that the dream was real, he got much more connected to the fakes inside of it (both real people that he didn’t get to interact with much in the real world and fake people his imagination/dream conjured). I think he would know very early into becoming aware that he wanted reality, so most of his arc would be him teaching/forcing himself to say goodbye. (Demon Slayer spoilers: picture the scene of Tanjiro leaving his family from the Mugen Train arc)

Sasuke would have an arc about what you want not necessarily being what you need. I think instead of him continuing with his revolution/world peace goals, he would return to his roots and instead focus on finding peace. Maybe some spreading awareness stuff, but most of his arc would have him choosing to instead focus on what he still has, maintaining what he has, and restoring whatever he can of his clan (its honor, its culture, its place in the village, etc).

Sakura would have an arc about self-acceptance. I interpret her as carrying around a lot of shame and self-blame, so I imagine her keeping herself in the genjutsu because she’s ashamed of who she is in the real world. This would have her moving forward with the newfound awareness that there’s no shame in being who you are and it’s never too late to do better.

Because I’m biased and I think it’s fitting for a story about understanding others to end with the day being saved because of understanding, I’m giving Madara a redemption arc. So, Madara would be going through team 7’s character arcs all at once. He learns to choose the real world with all its flaws over a fake utopia, he learns that finally grieving and coming to peace with all that he’s lost is what he really needs over the world peace he was chasing, and he learns to stop blaming himself for the deaths of his brother/s. His story would be full of the Hokage and him talking about why they wanted peace, their dreams to become Hokage or bring change, their experiences in war, what they’ve lost, etc. and him slowly deciding to help them free everyone.

The End:

Team 7 gets into contact with the outside somehow. Maybe one half of Kurama communicates with the other half. Maybe Madara can tweak the genjutsu but can’t break it (because that would be too easy). Maybe Tobirama makes a jutsu. Maybe Hashirama, Minato, or Naruto use sage mode to interact with the tree holding everyone. Maybe Sakura finally uses that talent for genjutsu that’s been being hyped up for the entire manga. Whichever you think makes the most sense.

So team 7 and the Hokage + Madara come up with a plan to draw a huge amplification seal around the god tree’s trunk and using that seal plus a bunch of chakra to pretty much perform the biggest genjutsu release ever. It’s not enough to break everyone out at once but it is enough to get Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura out and send a shockwave through the rest of the tree. Everyone notices that shockwave and gets suspicious. So the infinite tsukuyomi starts stretching its chakra thin trying to cover it all up. Because it’s stretched so thin (it is covering everyone on the planet), the genjutsu is weak enough to break. Some ninja, especially those good at genjutsu, start breaking themselves out. For everyone else, team 7 + Hokage + Madara is doing a race against the clock to release everyone they possible can before the infinite tsukuyomi stabilizes itself.

From here, the Hokage + Madara would either leave after everyone’s been released or after the world has gotten back on its feet after the war. I’m leaning towards the latter for two reasons: 1. Along with the symbolism of the old generations passing the torch, there would be the symbolism of generations working together for a better future. 2. Madara could pass what he knows of the Uchiha clan onto Sasuke since Sasuke would’ve been too young to remember most of his culture.

I don’t think Madara should stick around any longer than the Hokage (y’know, leaving the world in the next gen’s hands), so he’d have to die somehow even if it would be a pretty dark end. I’m thinking seppuku style.

Did I just answer an ask by basically plotting a fanfiction? Yes. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but I apparently had a lot more than “a couple of ideas”.

[mostlyihyperfixate]

idk who needs to hear this, but as your resident older-fandom-lady I'm gonna tell you: if you don't enjoy your fandom anymore, move on.

I had somebody apologize to me the other day for no longer being that interested in Ace Attorney, and, like, there's just no reason for that! To borrow a meme from yesteryear, if it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it!!

And I don't mean this in the "quit policing" way--although that's important. I just mean if it doesn't make you happy, don't do it anymore. You are not obligated to finish that fanfic you started if it's a struggle to get through. You are not obligated to reblog fanart anymore if the direction of your canon media has disappointed you in some way. You are not obligated to continue producing for or interacting with a canon media that for whatever reason doesn't interest you anymore.

(And the same is true in reverse: Don't make someone feel obligated to keep doing something in your fandom if they're not enjoying themselves anymore. Let them explore new things.)

(Obviously, if you receive money in some way for producing stuff in your fandom, that's a different can of worms.)

Yeah, you might stop getting the same amount of traffic. You might not get the notes or the likes or the reblogs or the kudos or whatever that you've been getting. And if that's an important consideration to you, then take that into account. But I can tell you from experience that it can burn you out, putting that at the forefront of your priorities.

The friends you have made through a fandom, the ones that are really your friends? They're going to stick around. I have one internet friend that I made because of a shared interest in Naruto about twenty years ago now. We often don't share the same fandom nowadays (we're both into Ace Attorney, as it turns out, but that was completely random that we discovered we were both playing it simultaneously), but we still talk to each other daily, still send each other gift packages a couple of times a year, still chat with one another about the interests we don't share. The friends you've made through that fandom that are truly your friends aren't going to care that you've moved on because they're your friends, not the fandom's.

Maybe you'll grow back into your fandom. Maybe you just need a few weeks, a few months, a few years, and you'll come back. It's also okay just to take a break. But do that if you need to do it.

Life's not particularly fun or easy for anyone. Fandom should be a hobby, not a job; something to distract you for a little while from the pressures of reality, not something that adds to your daily grind.

Please just try to enjoy yourselves when it comes to your fandom, younglings. Don't make yourself miserable over it. Life already goes out of its way to make you miserable. Fandom should be fun.

[lunaneko14]

I hate Borusara but tbh it seems it is gonna become canon along with Inohima (I hate that as well). There has been two many hints like Boruto smiling for the first time after timeskip and that too only because of Sarada and he even reciprocated the hug unlike Naruto when he was hugged by Sarada. Has Sarada confirmed her feelings tho?People say Inohima is basically Naruhina 2.O.

Yeah I honestly just wish we could go back to enjoying the series with shipping and endgame couple speculation being the side dish.

I know BoruSara isn’t happening because it’s too convenient and predictable. Boruto might end up dying or a lonely traveler.

What I worry about with Hima is that because of Boruto’s inevitable loneliness, she might be used to continue the bloodline and I really want her to be her own character. I don’t have an issue with InoHima but it doesn’t have the charm or foundation of NaruHina. See NH was about Hinata supporting Naruto even with the demon inside of him and seeing the good in him and Naruto slowly subconsciously reciprocating that sentiment.

InoHima has nothing like that. They don’t have the focus needed to develop them just yet but we’re only a few chapters into part two.

[95jezzica]

Kakashi Shipping Musings

Tbh I'm pretty neutral/more of a multi-shipper about Kakashi's ships nowadays, but I do think it's interesting to see how many of the ships have the potential to provide different things for Kakashi.

"Jezz, what the hell are you talking about this time?"

Bear with me here, but well, Kakashi has more ships than I can count at this point, SO! Just to mention some examples:

First up we have Gai, who is Kakashi's constant. Kakashi's other side of the coin who never gave up on him. They've known each other since childhood, with all that entails, and I'd argue that Gai is likely the person who (in canon) knows Kakashi the best out of everyone - including past Obito and Rin. Gai has seen and BEEN with Kakashi at his absolute worst, but also seen and been there as Kakashi slowly worked through it all and came out alive on the other side. Gai might call Kakashi his rival, but it's obvious they're best friends, and they completely trusts each other to 120%.

Secondly we have Iruka, who I'd argue is perfect as Kakashi's grounding. The one who takes Kakashi down a peg or two when needed. Iruka has both called Kakashi out on his bullshit in the past and continues to do so as well, but it's still obvious they respect each other a great deal. Naruto is obviously something that connects them, but from the little I've watched the Boruto series it's obvious Kakashi and Iruka are also portrayed them as friends on their own.

(Which is honestly a great foundation of any relationship - start as friends before you see if you also want something else out of it. After all, why choose between getting a friend or a partner when you can get both in the same person?).

My last example is Kurenai. There's something bittersweet there, but I do think she and Kakashi could make a great couple. Something sweet, and in a sense a... calm lull of love? Especially compared to the other ones he's shipped with. Anyway, Kurenai lost her partner and father of their child when Asuma died, and Kakashi lost one of his good friends. But they made it through. They still live. Kurenai also has a bunch of moments where she shows pretty good insight into Kakashi's thoughts, and there's a lot of understanding between the two of them. I guess my bottom-line is that I see some great potential in a relationship between Kakashi and Kurenai. Additional bonus is that the thought of Kakashi accidentally becoming the bonus dad/older uncle-figure to Mirai is kind of funny, because he probably thought he was done with raising children in any capacity after the mess that was Team 7 (which honestly wasn't his fault). Like sure, Kakashi will do it and he loves the child (Mirai), but he sure as heck didn't plan for this. x'D

.

There's obviously a lot of ships out there for Kakashi (such as with Yamato, Rin and Obito just to mention another 3), but my point is that different ships with Kakashi provides very different vibes of what they'd do and provide for Kakashi. None of them are wrong or better than the other(s), but I find them interesting to keep in mind.

Though Idk. Maybe my 4am musings won't make sense to anyone else. x)

[strangefl0wer]

You know what, if you're not multishipping, you're missing out. Not to hate but, like, you are missing out on so many headcanon hoarding ideas and you can just bounce around at any time and continue blissfully ignoring canon because it sucks.

I mean, just

Kakashi/Iruka

Kakashi definitely doodles on Iruka's papers which he pretends to be annoyed about

Coparents

Iruka fighting for his life to get Kakashi into a regular sleep schedule (not working)

Kakashi/Yamato

Mission cuddles/hand holding

Helping each other through PTSD moments

Kakashi's relentless teasing and 'I can make anyone do what I want'

Kakashi/Itachi

Tired men

More PTSD assistance

They'd definitely go stargazing

Sasuke/Naruto

Highkey soulmates

Sasuke is super stubborn and Naruto waits for him to be done to be like "Can I have a kiss tho"

Sasuke hates how flustered he gets, Naruto doesn't even do it on purpose

Sasuke/Hinata

She's nice and he's nice because of her

He is going to fight her dad

She's going to actually listen to him when he needs to be sad about everything

Hinata/Ino

Hinata definitely didn't know two girls were legally allowed to kiss

Ino loves making her blush with little bits of affection

Very soft

Hinata/Sai

I kinda made this one up

He'd thinks she's cute and then get way too close investigating her blushes

She'd think he's pretty weird but reminds her of Shino which makes her feel safer

She'd get all surprised when he draws her

Ino/Sai

Sai draws the flowers from her shop

Ino likes dressing him up and doing makeup for him

Help each other cope post-war

Temari/Shikamaru

The best living couple in canon sorry I don't take arguments

Temari does his eyeliner

And also steals his clothes

He plays with her hair while they cuddle

Naruto/Hinata

Once she's over being super red all the time, she wants forehead kisses all the time

He loves loudly telling people that she's his gf and then wife

He just randomly picks her up

Neji/Tenten

I don't know they're just cute

They like to just relax together and braid each others hair

[depressedhatakekakashi]

It's sad that this debate always comes back, since 2015 I see people complaining about "not needing a reason to love someone". The worst thing is that they always respond in the same way: "Sasuke did need a reason", "Sakura was just obsessed and Kakashi supported her because she reminds him of Rin", "Kakashi didn't know what he was talking about", "he wanted to force Sasuke", "loving without a reason is really childish". What I feel is that people take the reason to love as dating love, that is, once they are already in something, that is, if you are with someone for no reason, it's because you wanted to try being with that person but you don't really love them, but I take that love that Kakashi talks about as what it feels like when you talk about love at first sight, rather when you fall in love, there is not always a reason, for me it's like the phrase love is blind. Also, the fact that all the characters have a reason is a lie, it's just as you say... I literally thought of the same couples that you mentioned but also a couple that for me came out of nowhere is Choji and Karui, what reason did they have for being together? They don't even show us an interaction lol but anyway, some fans (i'm not going to mention them but it's obvious who they are) don't take seriously how some couples were formed since according to them Boruto doesn't exist and therefore it's not canon.

I hope one day they leave Kakashi alone, he's a character who suffered a lot and always did what he could, maybe not everything he did was right but the things he did are not as terrible as they make out to be.

But well, sorry for my English and for continuing with this..i'm tired and angry that people don't understand

It’s just another stupid reason to hate on Kakashi when the fact is both points are correct and come from a place of trauma and personal experience.

Sasuke saying ‘she has no reason to love me and i have no reason to love her’ is valid. I totally support his works because they come from a man who has lost everyone he loved and now guards his heart from any new emotions and connections that could hurt him further

Kakashi is the opposite. Kakashi is the one who lost so much but always sought out someone with whom to fill that missing hole in his heart with. He’s the character who also lives ‘you don’t need a reason to love someone’

Kakashi is the guy who saved Yamato after Yamato tried to kill him. He faced down Yamato’s attacks and still called him friend. In that instance Kakashi had every reason to consider Yamato an enemy and he still didn’t cuz deep down he knew they were friends

Kakashi is the character who dropped all issues with Zabuza and stopped fighting him as soon as Gato revealed his master plan. He had every reason to want Zabuza dead (rogue shinobi, enemy of Konoha) but as soon as he realized that they no longer had a direct reason to fight he no longer viewed Zabuza as an enemy.

Kakashi has always lived ‘you don’t need a reason to love someone’ in a none romantic way, and even in this instance he’s not speaking purely romantic. He even states that Sakura isn’t trying to make Sasuke her’s (he’s wrong but he can’t read Sakura’s mind so i won’t fault him for that) and he’s fighting for Sasuke to acknowledge Sakura sine they’re all working together

In that moment they’re allies and friends, yet Sasuke continues to belittle and ignore Sakura even when she’s showing care for him.

That’s where Kakashi’s words come from. This man who has stopped fighting enemies because he no longer has a reason to, wants Sasuke to just open up and stop being cruel to Sakura and calling her things like ‘usless’ (when she just helped them stop Kaguya in her tracks and defeat her) and being beedlessly cruel with shit like his genjutsu to knock her out (i get why he did it given what happened last time him and Naruto tried to fight with Sakura around, but a genjutsu like that was still super cruel)

[yamanaka-shin]

🔥 (if your still dropping the tea! xD. Idk for a topic, anything I guess, shout it out!)

Last night me and Jess were talking and I subjected her to a little Mangetsu and Suigetsu rant. So, since it's the birthday of the older brother and a few days from the birthday of the younger brother, it's time I brought some words out today. Not good ones. Keep in mind, Mangetsu is damn near tied for my #1 favorite in the entire franchise. So I don't say this out of malice.

There is no point to him existing. Both as a character and as a sibling. Because we got absolutely nothing worthwhile from his existence. Sure there was the whole "oh he can use all the swords and is basically a prodigy" but we didn't even get to see any of that, now did we? Didn't even see him with his own primary weapon (Hiramekarei) in canon, had to see it in Sharingan Legend for a couple panels and I believe one of the games too. How fucking disrespectful is that?

There's at least one other Hiramekarei wielder that's not Chojuuro that we've seen too. So we can just replace Mangetsu as the strongest user of it for the Edo Tensei and miss absolutely nothing. Suigetsu doesn't even need "oh my brother died and that explains some of why my life sucks so bad" since we genuinely don't know what role Mangetsu (and his death) played there! I can assume all I want but without shit to base it on, it's all worthless. There's easily ways you can give Suigetsu a hard time that gets him caught by Orochimaru to explain everything. The story continues as normal.

And the sibling comment, well. There's plenty of characters who aren't an only child. Both by blood and otherwise. Kabuto and Sai come to mind immediately. But you also got the Sand Siblings, the Senju quartet, Madara was one of 5 for fucks sake, Naruto and Hinata have 3, Hinata herself has a sister in Hanabi. And while Madara is an interesting case cuz only 1 of his 4 other siblings is shown, at least we get valuable input from Izuna being around. Everyone else? You can make a good case for the existence of their siblings.

Take for example Urushi, Kabuto's adoptive older brother. He didn't have a big part to play but I still am moved by his presence in Kabuto's life. We didn't need to see his whole deal either. The two were together in the orphanage for a couple years and clearly bonded based on the SCENE FROM THE WAR ARC LATER WHERE NOW ADULT URUSHI SAYS HE HOPES HIS BROTHER WILL FINALLY COME HOME. and then guess what? They're back together in Boruto! Not a great fate for Kabuto, looking like Orochimaru after All That, but at fucking least he has someone important to him left.

And then no one needs me to go off about Shin in any capacity cuz by now it's clear what my feelings are. That being said, for all my bitching about the lack of info, we got a decent amount to go off of. We know their place in Sai's life and how it shaped Sai into the person we got to know in Shippuden. That is enough to justify their role as a sibling. I'm content with it.

Mangetsu? Had an opportunity to be reunited with Suigetsu in the war. I know it could have fucking been done. But no, no, nothing came of it. Because even SP didn't want to put in the effort. WE DID NOT EVEN SEE MANGETSU GET SEALED LIKE ALL THE OTHERS. HOW FUCKING DISRESPECTFUL! Legit at this point he should have just been removed from the entire narrative. You could do that and lose NOTHING.

Happy birthday beloved wet beast, you got done so goddamn dirty by canon in every way. I wish I had the ability to correct the wrongs done.

here have a couple pieces done by Brentonsart (Twitter) who is very dear to me as compensation. I've been holding onto these a while.

[basedsakura]

how have your feelings about sasusaku changed over the years? just stumbled across a post of yours criticizing how ss was handled from 2015 #tbt, asking as someone who's held a torch for ss for years but I definitely don't shy away from takes giving kishimoto a little heat now lol. revisiting my old arguments and posts has been a wild ride, curious about other people's journeys with this bananas couple

ahhhh it's been a wild ride but i'd say i've come full circle pretty much lol. when i was 13 i loved that it was full of shojo tropes and enemies-to-lovers out the ass.

then i turned 15 and entered my annoying woke phase where i criticized it for being abusive and anti feminist but rly i was just sucking up to the popular bloggers who hated on it cause hating on ss was all the rage back in 2014. i secretly rly liked it

then i was off tumblr for years and didnt really care about naruto for a while but i got back into reading fanfiction as a break from my english lit degree. it's like junk food to me. i thought the state of affairs in boruto was pretty cringe as far as ss was concerned but i don't really consider any of that cash grab shit canon anyways. when i think about manga sasusaku it really is about the subversion of shojo tropes and it's so romanticized but also so real in how no, love doesn't conquer all and even though sasuke was grateful to sakura for it, her love couldn't heal him. only revenge could. both sakura and naruto defined themselves via sasuke but sasuke had a score to settle and he couldn't continue to drive their arcs forward, so that meant that the both of them had to reinvent themselves without him. i love that he was a positive influence on her. i love that he encouraged her. i love that he respected her and didn't begrudge her for her accomplishments the way he did naruto. i love that she found the courage to speak up for herself and even call him out if needed be. i love that he never patronized her or even held back against her. i feel like the two of them, despite being so different and growing up so differently, always shared a subtle understanding and i think it's just a really interesting dynamic