#which is basically impossible but kakashi doesn’t know that

[raikirikiri]

anbu tattoos remain one of my favorite things in naruto purely because they’re like a sign of ownership. anbu ninja are tools moreso than than the normal shinobi of their village. so much so that the village marks them with a signature that everyone recognizes. and even when that anbu—that tool—is allowed to rest, manages to leave anbu ranks, or dies, they remain branded by the village that owns them. they don’t truly escape, they can always be called on again because a tool does not have feelings, it does not have choices, it’s only made to be utilized by those who know how to wield it.

anyway. anbu is so fucked up and minato…i love minato but the illusion that he’s a pure little guy who’s a wife guy and a little shy nerd is crazy. he saw kakashi, someone he’s seen grow up, someone he’s guided and taught, some he’s supposed to care for. and he thought, ah yes, i need to keep you close to me. how best to do it? perfect! you are now forever marked as an asset to me and the village! and he does it with what he assumes to be love in his heart.

and i’m not saying this is a good or a bad thing, the morality of minato’s choices within the context of the story is nothing entirely out of the ordinary, but the way in which he’s portrayed, how we see him and his demeanor… it’s all very much a sweet facade to mask what’s hidden underneath. he’s twisted and calculated and ugh, i love him. because he genuinely thinks he’s doing the best thing he can by kakashi and also by the village. kakashi is talented. he has a sharingan and he’s vulnerable. of course minato wants to help but he also sees an opportunity and he strikes. now they have kakashi of the sharingan in their highest ranks, and he won’t ever be able to escape the duty instilled in him. not unless he becomes a nukenin but everyone knows by that point that kakashi is so indoctrinated, the thought of leaving never crosses his mind.

and then minato dies. and kakashi is still a tool. his feelings should not affect his use. but they do. and for the first time…

kakashi of the sharingan, anbu hound, thinks maybe… leaving the village might be a good idea. if not to get away from everything. he can’t be a good tool if he’s rusty and broken. he can fix himself, he can he can. he doesn’t want to keep breaking over and over again. it hurts it hurts it hurts and the village never puts him back together the right way and for once he just wants to feel whole.

so when kakashi disappears, it’s quiet. it’s full of guilt. ashy tongue, scratchy throat, tears in his eye, and aches in his joints. but he leaves because he needs to be whole to be useful again. but it hurts. it’s not right. he’s not supposed to feel this way. he’s a tool he’s a tool he’s a tool. a weapon. an extension of the village’s wide reach. he almost can’t bear it. he throws up bile all night, on the verge of returning and getting on his knees and begging for forgiveness. he didn’t mean it, he’s sorry he just wants to be better. to feel better.

he doesn’t return that night if only because he can’t make himself get up. his body weak and feverish. he’ll go back the next day.

but he doesnt. he feels better the morning after. only a little bit but it’s enough. maybe he can take care of himself. he can mend his wounds, tighten the loose screws, clean off the rust and dirt. he can do it.

and for every day he stays away, he feels better. more whole. he’s still a shinobi. he does odd jobs when he can but mostly, he takes to helping out villages in need. he likes to help out on different farms, it feels right to him, like something in his muscle memory. he’ll also help with construction if needed, anything that uses his hands in a thoughtful, meaningful manner is good. it makes him feel good.

he likes being a shinobi, he thinks. it doesn’t feel quite right when he says that anymore. but he loves the way it feels when he builds something instead of destroying it. when he uses chakra to make the kids in all the villages he visits eyes light up with joy and wonder. he loves using katon for fires that create. he loves it he loves it he loves it.

it takes time to learn what he’s feeling, and the ever remaining guilt and shame linger in his chest when he remembers that’s he’s supposed to just be a tool and he has to return back to his wielder at some point. but for a long time, years even, kakashi lets himself be something else. something that feels close to human and he thinks he can put off going home a little longer.

[captnjacksparrow]

I really want a spin off manga on Kakashi’s time as Hokage. And yes, I know there’s a novel basically dedicated to it. But that novel was only really created to throw a random love interest at Kakashi for…what reason? Please remind me.

Something I really enjoyed about the original Naruto (and most of Shippuden) was the political side to the Hokage position (e.g. keeping Village bonds, keeping strong relations with the other Kage, dealing with the council, etc). I don’t think we really got to see much of that during Boruto and kakashi retsuden never touched deeply if at all on the political side of things. It mainly focused on that one useless and never seen again love interest and Kakashi dealing with living a life without the Sharingan (that aspect of the novel was actually pretty interesting).

I honestly feel as though Boruto made a joke out of the Hokage position. It doesn’t feel as grand and important anymore. Which is so disappointing considering how hyped the role was, and how special it was to Naruto’s character.

The moment they pulled that stupid Naruto-gets-knocked-out-and-Konohamaru-has-to-stand-in-for-him stunt during Naruto’s coronation ceremony, as well as the whack ass power scale in Boruto, I feel like the title “Hokage” doesn’t mean shit in the story anymore. All we see Naruto do as Hokage is drown in paper work and always sacrifice himself for the village.

And while the first part is somewhat a new challenge for Naruto, the second part isn’t something original for Naruto’s character. He’s been a sacrificial lamb for the Leaf since Minato placed a literal demon in him the day he was born.

Where’s the political aspect of his job? I think that would be a great and refreshing plot point in Boruto and aspect to Naruto’s character.

I think with a spin off to the series focusing on Kakashi as the Hokage, that political element could return and with it, some very interesting aspects to the Naruto universe. As well as returning that air of importance to the Hokage title.

Aaahhh, There you go... "The air of importance to the Hokage Title"... A Brilliant choice of words, Anon.

I think the word 'Hokage' has lost it's meaning and respect, after chapter 699 and I am no longer looking forward to it anymore. It's mostly due to the fact that Boruto is a series which is all about some Badly designed Aliens who are going to destroy the Earth for no reason.

For this kind of story, Political Side could be brought on and has lots of potential to be developed into another Masterpiece in Shonen... Only if the author had planted this Alien idea in Chapter 1 of Naruto Manga.

Like, A powerful Alien presence that's not noticed by any of the Five Great Nations because they are very busy fighting each other. Lot of wars and tragedies created heavy bitterness among the Villages which made Peace, an impossible choice to be achieved. While the Shinobis are fighting amongst each other by being oblivious about the impending threat, the Alien slowly but surely makes it's presence to be visible and was planning to destroy Everything. To destroy this Alien, How everyone set aside their differences and come together as one could be written as a great story.

Well, it's nothing new... I just summarized Game of Thrones series in a nutshell. And also Marvel Cinematic Universe until Avengers End game also carries the same story.

Eventhough, Game of Thrones series has Alien like themes inside, the core of the series was all about Human hearts and their conflicts. People loved that series precisely because of the political elements which drives most of the characters to do what they do. When you have to make an alliance with the neighbouring country, as a leader you must take wise decisions... Sometimes you have to do some evil things to protect your family. Scheming, Plotting, Backstabbing and you name it... These are the things that makes any story into a good one.

Whereas in Boruto, it was all about some 1 Dimensional Alien crap vs already united Shinobis. If Momoshiki attacks Konoha, all the remaining villages wont sit silent... They would all gang up together and eliminate him. It's not like Suna and Kiri villages will be silent and selfish because deep down they want vengeance against Konoha... No, It's not happening and all these Political Drama were over in Part 2 itself.

So, there is no more political scope to this story other than Naruto doing some stupid paper works, assigning Missions and talk to the Kages about something. "Tsunade planting Yamato as a spy to watch over Sai because Danzo was plotting against her"-- Days are over...

Literally Naruto has no genuine reason to exist in this story till now. All he has to do is to die protecting the Village and pass off his Will to Boruto or Kawaki or both.

But if a spin-off about Kakashi's Hokage era were to be drawn, just like you said, it would bring back all the essence of the story we've lost to the Shit Next Gen series. Since the unity of the 5 villages at the end of Chapter 699 was very fragile, it would take more effort to keep this peace secured for the future generation. It would be interesting to see how Kakashi deals with this scenario.

And also, his Best Friend Obito created a tangle of a mess to the Shinobi World and Kakashi's job was to clean Obito's mess and this plotline is very interesting to explore.

But will they ever do it???

I don't think so.

[silverstarlightwrites]

An alternate AU to this one that occurred to me just now

Team Seven take the mission to the Land of Waves. On the bridge, they fight Zabuza and Haku.

On the bridge, Naruto dies.

Something in Sasuke breaks, and he goes berserk. Haku and their ice mirrors scream as they flashboil in the black flames Sasuke summons forth, and it takes only a howl and a wild gesture to send Amaterasu blazing across the bridge to consume Zabuza and Tazuna as well. The stone melts underneath them, while Kakashi snatches up Sakura and flees, and it’s not until Sasuke feels the weight of wet clothes - crushing Naruto’s body to his chest, bloody and so absurdly hot - that he realises the bridge has disintegrated, and the water is burning.

It’s instinct and desperation that let Sasuke to douse the fires he’s conjured, and even then it aches and tastes like blood and acid, and he’s sinking when Kakashi whips across the surface to catch him, the moment the flames are gone.

Sasuke cries into Naruto’s chest, and refuses to let go. Sakura is cold and silent, and she neither speaks nor eats for the grim, slow trek back to Konoha. And it is slow, even further drawn out by the constant fluctuation of chakra from Naruto’s corpse, carried awkwardly and painfully by Sasuke alone.

It’s not Naruto’s chakra, of course. Kakashi dreads the inevitable questions, resolves not to lie when they come, and somehow their absence is even worse.

The moment they walk through the southern Konoha gate, there are Anbu all over them. They pry Naruto’s body from Sasuke’s arms, despite his shouting and kunai, despite the way Sasuke’s eyes ignite into blood red to fight-- But he doesn’t summon Amaterasu again, doesn’t expend the chakra he doesn’t have to try and kill their own. Sakura touches his shoulder, just two fingers, and her face is pale and hollow when she shakes her head, but it’s still more interaction than she’s allowed for the whole trip, and Sasuke obeys her. Blinks his eyes black, slumps in place, and then sags against Sakura.

She catches him, and he’s shaking, and she stares over his shoulder, unblinking, at the Anbu wrapping Naruto’s corpse in chakra-absorbing paper scrawled endlessly with Seals.

Kakashi isn’t sure what she sees, and he isn’t sure he wants to know.

One Anbu stays behind, and they instruct the gutted remains of Team Seven that the Hokage wants to see them. Kakashi can’t bring himself to intervene when Sasuke snarls and lunges, or when Sakura lets him. Doesn’t step in when Sasuke tells them to Fuck Off or when he punches them weakly in the chest - and the Anbu clearly thinks he’s simply not going to get involved, because when they try to catch Sasuke’s wrist they aren’t expecting Kakashi to move. Too fast to be safe, too fast for the chakra use not to burn.

Sasuke leans back into Kakashi as the Anbu trips, and Kakashi feels himself close his hands on Sasuke’s shoulders. “Don’t touch my kids,” he hears himself hiss, and if he doesn’t quite know when he accepted them as his then he doesn’t quite care either.

One of them is dead, and they won’t be permitted to mourn him properly because of the beast caged inside him without his knowledge.

The thought makes Kakashi sick. It all does, all of it. Konoha’s abuse of an innocent child, Kakashi’s complicitness in allowing it to happen. Hiruzen’s cruelty in allowing it also.

In allowing all of it.

Sasuke has lost enough.

The Anbu doesn’t need telling twice, and they leave Kakashi to cajole his kids into seeing Hiruzen. It takes more effort than he’d care to admit. Just physically, the three of them are a wreck - and it’s worse emotionally. Mentally.

“You let them take him.”

It’s the first thing Sakura has said since Naruto died - in a burst of blood and scarlet chakra - and Kakashi suddenly thinks he’s never felt anything so cold as her voice. When he meets her gaze, it’s like drowning.

“I had to. The Hokage will explain.” Because Kakashi is bound not to. By an oath that maybe he shouldn’t have taken, by a promise extracted by force. Why shouldn’t he tell them?

He doesn’t, of course. He scoops Sasuke up, and despises that Sasuke simply allows it, and offers Sakura a hand as they start walking. Sakura ignores it, striding ahead with her back too stiff and her hands clenched too tight. The walk to the Hokage Tower, while significantly shorter, is the same as the trip from Waves to Konoha.

Hiruzen ushers them into his office, tearful, and Sasuke struggles stiffly out of Kakashi’s grip. Red flickers and whorls through his eyes, and it’s impossible to know if he’s fighting to ignite his Sharingan or if he’s fighting not to.

“I’m sorry.” It’s low and mournful and wet. It’s insulting.

Sakura snaps. She flies into a rage, screaming obscenities. Her teammate is dead, and she’s never experienced loss like this before, and gods but she watched it happen, and no pitiful, pathetic ‘I’m sorry’ can ever undo that. That Hiruzen even tries sends her over the edge.

Nobody stops her. By the time she burns out, the office is torn apart, papers scattered everywhere and the desk overturned. Sakura has scratched her nails bloody against the woodwork. When she collapses to the floor and howls, Sasuke finally approaches her, sinks to her level, and wraps his arms around her.

Perhaps he understands, then. Perhaps a hug - so tight as Sakura clings back that it may be the only thing holding her together - is all he wanted after the horror of his clan’s slaughter.

Kakashi catches himself wondering if Sasuke ever got that hug, but he knows the answer.

Of course he didn’t.

Hiruzen explains to them what a Jinchuriki is. He explains the basic concept of a Bijuu, and gives them a short summary of the Nine-Tails. They take it blankly, too much to process over the top of their raw grief, but they look to Kakashi as if searching for confirmation and Kakashi nods. Tells them it’s true.

And then, because it’s not enough, it’s pathetic an explanation, he hears himself continue.

Because “He deserved better. We failed him.” Hears it spin, feels more than sees the way Sasuke and Sakura twitch and shrink, and then corrects himself. His own voice is like tar in his throat.

“You failed him.”

Sasuke and Sakura follow him out of Hiruzen’s office, and Hiruzen doesn’t try to stop them.

Kakashi sets the pack to watch them when they all end up at the war memorial. It wasn’t exactly a decision to go there, of course, but it never really is. All eight ninken are there already when they arrive, and they encourage Sakura and Sasuke to collapse and curl up with them, but Kakashi resists. He has something else to do.

And it’s dark by the time he comes back, his kids and his pack all bundled up in his far-too-tiny apartment, but he wakes them all the same. Demanding Naruto’s body back hadn’t been easy or clean, and the results of the chakra-draining done to preserve as much of the stray Nine-Tails chakra bleeding out of where it had torn free upon Naruto’s death is... messy.

Naruto’s body stays wrapped up the way Kakashi walked out of the Anbu Blue Vault with it. Only his head is visible, and his hair is knotted and matted with blood and oil, but it doesn’t stop Sakura from running her hands through it, or Sasuke from laying his head against Naruto’s chest.

Not enough people come to Naruto’s funeral. The whole fucking Village should mourn him, the child who protected them from the Nine-Tails for his entire, short life. His loss should have been overwhelming - it should have brought all of Konoha to a fucking stop.

But it doesn’t. Umino Iruka attends, and he’s quiet but he weeps ceaselessly the whole day. Sakura and Sasuke seem to welcome his presence, so Kakashi doesn’t nothing to discourage it.

Hiruzen shows up, perhaps halfway through. It takes all of Kakashi’s still-wan strength to hold Sakura back from trying to maul him, and Sasuke doesn’t fight one way or another when he lights up his Sharingan at the Hokage’s approach.

“Go. Away,” Sasuke snarls at him, and for just a moment it seems like Hiruzen might scold the boy, who’s been stripped of his family in half a dozen different ways, over and over again, as if he’s expressing his grief incorrectly, and that moment is all it takes for Kakashi to speak over all of them.

It’s the voice he used as the Hound. He hasn’t heard it for years. “You should go, Hokage-sama. You don’t want to make me choose a side here.”

Because Kakashi is loathe to fight Konoha at all, let alone its leader, but he knows without a doubt that he will. For Sasuke. For Sakura. If ever the decision must be made, Kakashi knows he will turn on Hiruzen in an instant if it would protect his kids from ending up like him.

Konoha would not make a broken blade out of Sasuke. It would not strip Sakura of her soul.

Orochimaru comes. He seeks out Sasuke, and the power he offers is too tempting for Sasuke to pass up - but he refuses to sneak away in the dead of night. Team Seven’s progress has halted in the aftermath of Naruto’s death; Hiruzen has tried several times to full the gap in their unit, but Sakura and Sasuke vehemently refuse to accept one, and Kakashi does not make them. He will not.

Naruto cannot be replaced. The gap can never be sufficiently filled.

And so comes the morning that Sasuke asks for their company in leaving. He’s been suffocating under Konoha’s weight for a long time, Kakashi realises that morning, and he’s finally reached his limit. Kakashi doesn’t try to talk him out of it; he won’t succeed. There’s no point. Revenge has been his motivation for so long that Sasuke will never quite learn how to give it up, and now he has so much more for which to seek vengeance.

It will only be Itachi first. After that, all of Konoha is culpable for Naruto’s death, and the endless suffering he endured before it. Kakashi is not fool enough to think he can change Sasuke’s mind.

Sakura agrees on the spot. She’s unrecognisable from the bubbly genin Kakashi took custody of from the Academy. She’s gaunt and messy and angry, and she’s forsaken her friends in order to follow Sasuke into the dark. She’s clinging to him, ferociously, in a different way than she’d tried to before.

She’s clinging to Sasuke the same way Kakashi had clung to Rin - how Rin had clung right back - after Obito’s death. Sasuke is her constant, her reassurance that Naruto’s absence won’t just be for nothing, that someone is going to pay for it. That she’s going to help make that happen.

You don’t want to make me choose a side, Kakashi had told Hiruzen, as if they were words of fucking prophecy. Because here are his kids, minds made up, choosing a side that Kakashi would rather flay himself than join - and yet, here he is too, and he knows already he’s going to go with them.

Choosing against Konoha tastes like ozone and fear and self-loathing, but choosing against Sasuke and Sakura is unconscionable. Even this, even this, Kakashi will do. Watching them die is a terror that keeps him up at night, a nightmare with its hands around Kakashi’s throat, a dread that’s getting ever colder. That this might lead to that outcome takes his breath away.

But the thought of not being there is even worse. Konoha forsook Sasuke when his family was wiped out, and Konoha forsook them both once again when they came home bloodied and shattered. Konoha has gone on the same as always, as if nothing even happened, and it always has when the whole world was supposed to shatter and didn’t - with Obito’s eye in Kakashi’s skull and Rin’s blood on Kakashi’s hands - and that truth does absolutely nothing to stay Sasuke’s hatred or Sakura’s wrath. They are young and angry and wounded, and there is no words Kakashi can say that will convince them to reject the power on offer, no matter how dangerous and untrustworthy the source may be.

And he refuses to let them do this alone. Everyone will want their heads, but Kakashi has fought and killed the best of them, and if - in the end - his only purpose is to protect his remaining kids, where he failed to protect the third, then perhaps the Hound yet serves a purpose still.

So Kakashi selects a kunai, and helps them score through their Konoha hitai-ite, and lets them lead him into hell.

[thundrpilot]

Cam’s Naruto Rec 2/∞

Naruto Fic Recs: [1] [2] Fic Masterlist here for full list.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

through the dark, reaching for me now by callaina

Word Count:  5,341 (1/1)

Summary:  The first time Iruka meets Hatake Kakashi he is decidedly not awestruck.

Comments:  KakaIru. Fuuinjutsu Master Iruka. First meeting. Strangers to Lovers. Iruka being amazing and Kakashi realizing it and then lots of fluff.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

Making Amends by Jubokko, LazarusII

Word Count:  31,381 (5/5)

Summary:  It had been months since Kakashi and Iruka last spoke to one another for anything other than business—and over two years since their mutual breakup. Terrible, painful, lonely years filled with nothing but shitloads of paperwork and enough politics to make Kakashi want to gag. 

But his days in office were numbered. That, he could deal with. Iruka, on the other hand…

Comments:  KakaIru. Hokage!Kakashi, ANBU!Kakashi, BAMF!Kakashi, BAMF!Iruka. Undercover Kakashi, lots of action and fight scenes, and lots of missing-nin. A part of the Umino Undercover collection on Ao3, which is full of really good Iruka-centric fics

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

Taking A Break by ohmygoshwhatascream

Word Count:  47,699 (8/8)

Summary:  With Naruto gone, Iruka finds himself left with nothing but loose ends. Lonely, but not quite willing to admit it, life goes on. He takes more shifts at the mission desk, avoids his friends and tries to convince himself that the shadows in his apartment are not growing larger and larger with each passing day. 

It doesn't help that Hatake Kakashi, a man who Iruka tries to avoid at all costs, is suddenly lingering in each and every corner of his life. 

No matter what he tells himself, there's something about Kakashi that makes it impossible to stay away. The remnants of an age-old crush that never quite faded offer the promise of something he'd promised to forget and, even when it burns, Iruka finds himself captivated. 

His back bears the cruel memory of weakness and he knows that this can't last. 

Comments:  KakaIru. ANGST OH MY GOD. Dadruka. Basically slowburn where Iruka is struggling to get over what Mizuki did to him (they had been together) and trusting someone else after that kind of thing is hard.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

** The Proposal by BC-Brynn

Word Count:  8,176 (1/1)

Summary:  ...or how Naruto got platonic-married to one of his friends and in the end didn’t regret it at all.

Comments:  Shikamaru/Naruto. Marriage of convenience trope, which when you think about Shikamaru for a second it makes perfect sense. Perfect oneshot with a sprinkle each of fluff and angst, has a very slice-of-life feel to it.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

Love Reveals The Paradise by cuupid

Word Count:  13,425 (1/1)

Summary:  Tsunade spread her arms wide, the smile on her face stretched large enough to match. "You two are getting married. Congratulations!"

Or

Recovering from war, Kirigakure and Konohagakure have decided that the best way to unite their villages is a marriage between someone of Kiri birth (Iruka) and someone of Konoha birth (Kakashi).

Comments:  KakaIru. Arranged marriage. Iruka being the best dad to Naruto. 

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

don’t piss off a seals master by stupidbadgers

Word Count:  1642 (1/1)

Summary:  perhaps it was a little petty of iruka to almost completely dismantle the warding protecting hokage tower, but could you really blame him?

Comments:  Fuuinjutsu Master Iruka. Implied established KakaIru. We get to see how important Iruka is to the village in this one. I like it when ppl realize that they’ve made a huge mistake underestimating him.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

To Go Hand In Hand by megyal

Word Count:  50,025 (20/20)

Summary:  Iruka and Kakashi have to join forces...as parents, for Naruto.

Comments:  KakaIru. Partners to Lovers trope. Marriage of Convenience. Lots of Dadruka and Dadkashi.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

Pillow talk for fake lovers by Dunloth

Word Count:  10,845 (7/7)

Summary:  Kakashi and Iruka go on an undercover mission as civilian diplomats. They would be okay with it, if only they didn't have to pretend they're married too. Also, Kakashi is crushing like a teen and Iruka can't stand the sight of him. Or can he? Warning for unwarranted fluff and a bit of angst.

Comments:  KakaIru. Undercover as married couple trope. Enemies to lovers kinda. There was only one bed. This one is also in the Umino Undercover collection on Ao3.

☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆  •  ☆

Fic Masterlist here for full list.

[trulyhumblenarcissist]

Well... Shit

I've just finished Jujutsu kaisen, both anime and manga, it was a beautiful marathon like the old ones I used to have when my life didn't get in the way of my passions (but that's another story). I must say the experience was incredibly refreshing and I'm glad I've decided to finally give jjk a try. First and foremost, it definitely has its own problems: the power system is not so clear and easy to understand at times (or maybe I'm just dumb) and some characters suffer from a severe case of plot armor that gives them the edge to win fights that should be out of their league. The premise isn't original at all, but I don't think Akutami wanted to create something ground breaking. There are a lot of references to well established shonen mangas, such as Bleach and Naruto (duh). Curses born from humans' bad emotions are definitely similar the hollows that terrorized Karakura in Bleach. I'm not going to point out the obvious resemblance between Gojo and Kakashi because I guess it's already a meme at this point, but Itadori and Naruto are definitely quite similar: sunny types with a demon trapped inside their bodies. With this derivative kind of setting, you would expect jjk to be quite simple and boring, but here's the catch: this manga manages to embrace stereotypical shonen tropes while at the same time painting them in a different light. Let's talk about Itadori and Fushiguro's relationship, for example: they are basically Naruto and Sasuke on a surface level and it would've been so easy writing them as sour rivals, at least in the beginning. The industry loves this type of relationship, but Akutami said "screw that" and actually made these two boys the best of friends. Itadori saved Fushiguro's life and Fushiguro saved Itadori's in return. They are very different people and their ideologies are bound to clash: Fushiguro doesn't want to be a "hero", he's a sorcerer, whose duty is to exorcise curses, not to save every single person he meets. He has a strong moral compass and he judges things on his own, avoiding to be influenced by others if possible. To him, saving lives is not an obligation, it's something he decides to do only if he thinks it's worth it. This may appear extremely selfish and arrogant, but in reality, Fushiguro's choices don't stem from an exaggerated ego. He despises injustices, to him the world is inherently unfair, so there isn't proper way to make things "right". It's impossible saving everyone and it isn't even something worth pursuing, especially because someone's safety could easily become someone else's demise. Fushiguro came to the conclusion that, since fairness really doesn't exist, the only thing that he can do to make the world a better place is basically starting from his own world, helping only the people he really wants to help (a similar concept is expressed by Nobara, who doesn't concern herself with the problems of people she doesn't know or care about, because she understands that doing it would be the fastest way to become miserable). Itadori, on the other hand, finds humanity inherently worthy of salvation, no matter what. That's because he is strong and his strength is definitely his curse, metaphorically speaking. The strong must protect the weak because it is the moral thing to do.

If you're strong, you are gifted with something more in comparison to the average person; since nothing is given for nothing, you must return to the world at least a part of the luck you have received by birth. Things get even more complicated for Itadori the moment he realizes that Sukuna could destroy (and he almost did it) everything he cares about in an instant, forcing him to make amends for crimes he didn't even commit. That's a very tragic situation for our MC and I really, really appreciate the fact that Sukuna isn't just another Kurama, ready to become Itadori's pet friend and help him whenever it fits the plot. To this day, Sukuna intervened in Itadori's fights only when he wanted to, for a whim or because the situation could benefit him. So refreshing! Itadori is definitely cursed from both Sukuna and himself, which is a very interesting plot point and it makes you wonder who will be faster in making Itadori's life a nightmare: Itadori himself or Sukuna?

Itadori's objective to save as much people as possible is also liked to his visceral desire to be accepted and loved, to have people around him even at his death bed. But, unfortunately, his merging with Sukuna definitely suggests he will be soon forced to isolate himself, in some way, basically depriving him of the only thing he really wanted. Besides, his desire to have friends and comrades is probably the byproduct of his upbringing... He wasn't alone, he had his grandpa, but he never met his parents and this is definitely a huge gap in his life, even though he seems to not care.

This rambling is already too long as it is, sorry... The last thing I'd like to point out is that, finally, we have some pretty good female characters! No Sakuras or Hinatas and that's really nice. Nobara, the heroine, is unhinged, badass and also extremely feminine in her passions and desires. She's not the typical tomboy nor the typical girly boy obsessed princess in distress. She can defend herself without sacrificing the softer sides of her personality. She is Kugisaki Nobara and no one can tell she must be different in order to fullfil her role as a shaman woman. I really like her (sobs). Maki makes tingle my little bi heart so I will not say anything about her. I'm not gonna show my simping shameful self, not now at least.

Honorable mentions:

Call me main stream and basic, but I fucking adore Gojo... He's hot, a little sadistic and completely childsh. For once, he is a teacher that doesn't get obscured by his pupils. He is so broken and op that Akutami needed to... Well you know. Another element that gives me a bit of sadness is the fact that Gojo is basically my age... And the fandom calls him a "dilf"... A dilf! He's just 28, don't call me out like that.

Suguru's story was pretty sad, I wish we could've seen more of his descent into madness.

Mahito... Cute, but nothing special. I find him kinda boring sometimes, he doesn't tickle my imagination neither my speculative instinct, while Suguru is definitely more interesting, especially in his relationship with Gojo.

That's it for now, I can't wait this week's chapter.

[dai-nana-han-agenda]

HIIIII!! I really realllly love reading your tags on your retweets! It's one of my favorite things to see while scrolling down my TL. I was wondering if you have any of your fave TEAM 7 gen fics you could recommend? 💖💕 preferably no ships and just something that focuses on their dynamic and growing solidarity with each other!

HELLO! thank you so much omfg 💖 i’m so so sorry it took me so long to respond, i had the answer all drafted out and ready to go and then my dumb ass CLOSED THE TAB and i lost everything 😭 i had to rewrite the post which took a while FJDFSJ but it’s here now!! i really hope these are fics you haven’t seen/read before (omfg could you imagine if you’ve read every fic on this list i’d feel so bad 😭) but yeah!! i hope this helps!! 💖

(also side note, your icon is SO cute, i always see it in my notifs but i never got the chance to tell you until now LOLOL)

MULTI-CHAPTER

komorebi by tomorrowsrain ─ okay, i know you said preferably no ships (we’re already off to a rocky start FDJFKSJ) but this is literally my favorite team 7 fic ever, it’s impossible for me not to include it. it’s kakaobi, and team 7 doesn’t come in until ch. 3 of the first part, but i highly HIGHLY recommend it. seriously, this is my absolute favorite characterization of the members of team 7 & their dynamic, the author does such a good job of building their relationship from teammates to family. i will say the first chapter is a little disorienting (it’s in first person POV, which i usually tend to avoid when it comes to fanfiction, but the author does it so well and it does shift straight back to third person POV for the rest of the chapters). the author is currently writing the chuunin exams arc and it’s literally everything i wanted. 

tides by edenfalling ─ omg, this was one of the first team 7 fics i ever read waaay back on ff.net when i was like, 12 years old. unlike most of the fics on this list, this is set in shippuden, but it’s very much AU/canon-divergent. good character dynamics with team 7 learning how to work together again<3

how to make a team by Pleasedial123 ─ basically, kakashi gets his head out of his ass and actually invests time into strengthening the bonds between the members of team 7. don’t get me wrong, i absolutely LOVE canon!kakashi & i know he did his best (he was traumatized + not ready to be a teacher, i get it)... plus, if he was a good teacher in canon, there literally wouldn’t have been a plot. basically this is me saying fuck kishimoto because LOOK at what we could’ve had!! 

and so, the sensei supports his students by ihopethelightwillshineupon ─ this is really more kakashi-centric and it focuses more on his relationship with each of his students than on the dynamic between naruto, sasuke, and sakura (but kakashi is technically part of team 7 so it still counts!!)

ONE-SHOTS

for warmth by magnificentbirb ─ a scene i wish we would’ve gotten in canon.... like you’re telling me there are literally HOURS of filler episodes and we couldn’t get ONE soft, genin team 7 moment?? kishimoto & studio pierrot, you’ll be hearing from my lawyers. 

believing in heroes by guycecil ─ another moment i wish we got in canon because like... can we talk about how, in their genin days, these kids are 12 years old. are you fucking kidding me. also, now that i’m skimming over the fic, this may be more sakura-centric than team 7 centric, but i’d still highly recommend!

the pretty one by theformerone ─ it’s tagged as ot3, but i promise there are no ships! like maaaybe if you squint? but i honestly read it as platonic. one of my favorite fics ever tbh. answers the question that i’ve been thinking about since the manga was released all those years ago: what could have happened if kakashi was too late?

take the fight from the kid by theformerone ─ someone tell me why these 12 year old kids aren’t allowed to process anything on screen.... like, right after the wave arc, everything just went back to normal. like okay, yes, naruto had that moment to grieve for zabuza + haku, but i really just wanted to see a shift in the team 7 dynamics and we never really got it. so take this beautifully written fic instead!! god bless fanfiction. 

pray my name by Chancy_Lurking ─ ok so this is a fic that i found today and i’m OBSESSED. i do want to warn you, since you asked for no ships: it’s not tagged as ot3, but it could be if you squint. or, you could argue that team 7 is just very affectionate/very codependent. either way, right after i finished reading it, all i wanted to do was curl up in my bed and cry (but like, in a good way). 

just killing time by edenfalling ─ a very short but cute little one-shot that i also just found today! same author as tides, so if you read that first and you like their work, you should check this one out! (or vice versa)

did you inherit a sickness? did you blame god? by hotgirl ─ i literally recommend this fic to anyone and everyone because like?? it doesn’t exactly match what you’re looking for but it does have team 7 moments (heads up: it’s implied sns). this is honestly one of the best sasuke characterizations i’ve ever read. 10/10 would recommend.

of bruised brains and dog baths by sweetpotatopie ─ okay so these last three fics might not be exactly what you’re looking for but i’m adding them if/when you’re in the mood for cute, feel-good team 7 one-shots. this one is just a happy, post-canon piece where they actually get along<3

another day in paradise by ohthelinsanity ─ modern au where sakura and naruto bully sasuke, sakura and sasuke bully naruto, and kakashi is weird as shit. the friendship between naruto/sasuke/sakura that i wish i got in canon. hints of past itasaku and implied inosaku, but it’s very much a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.

gotta see! finally know! kakashi-sensei’s true face! by Lolistar92 ─ my FAVORITE face reveal fic EVER. episode 101 from naruto is the only filler that deserves rights (and maybe the curry arc because i love team gai, the ramen episode, and all the episodes with konoha 11. but mostly ep 101.)

[armorsleevedsinglehit]

the huge shippuden music meta

no one asked for this but i’m gonna write it anyway. i’m going to focus primarily on the shippuden soundtrack here, but expect some references to the original series soundtrack as well. also before i begin i know approximately two (2) music so some of my terminology is probably going to be incorrect lol, it’s been a while since college. this is a general shippuden meta but it does focus on the uchiha clan, in particular sasuke and madara.

anyway, to start off, you can pretty easily divide the shippuden soundtrack into a few general categories:

traditional and/or acoustic

electric guitar tracks

some combination of these, plus orchestra hits aplenty

there are a few odd ducks here and there, but no worries, we’ll get to them. and then within these general categories we have a series of recurring character motifs (which can be a bit muddled, because certain themes are used for multiple characters. i assume that naruto (the show) isn’t necessarily scored the way a film would be, and so the directors just slapped whatever dramatic/sad/upbeat music they could find onto a scene, esp if it’s a filler ep, which definitely generates some confusion.) but characters and groups in shippuden DO sort of get their own motifs and themes, so here is my very basic list of those as well:

uzumaki clan and its descendants/allies: “emergence of talents/hyakkaryōran” has a very cool melody towards the end that comes back in “narukami/weeping god” and “shoryu/rising dragon”. we can basically call this the protagonist theme. naruto, sakura, kakashi, jiraiya, most of the konoha 11, and even minato get to claim this one. however, VERY interestingly, narukami is what plays when tobi (as madara) is telling sasuke about the glory days of the uchiha clan... possibly hinting at greater connections between the two clans???????????

akatsuki-related themes: i won’t link a ton of these because they’re super obvious. they’re often full of choir and organ (harkening back to orochimaru’s original series theme); they also tend to be slower. not always, though; look at crimson flames, a slapper if i ever heard one. prime example of akatsuki themes: girei, my FAVORITE bit of the shippuden soundtrack. UGH.

general shippuden themes: things like hurricane suite, heaven-shaking event, etc. most of the first ost goes in here. this category also contains the closest approximation to hashirama’s theme that i could find, experienced many battles and departure to the front lines, which both make me cry lol

there are other fun little motifs and bits and bobs that appear in this soundtrack that i won’t get into here for length (remind me to talk about the angelic herald of death sometime), but it’s a remarkably cohesive piece of work to the point where it gets repetitive sometimes; why are all the super interesting tracks unreleased!!!!??? anyway the purpose of this meta is to attempt to make sense of the way this soundtrack works. we’ll investigate sasuke primarily because i feel that he really ties the whole soundtrack together, and you can extrapolate a lot from the way his theme evolves.

sasuke’s theme (wandering/hyouhaku), yes the dramatic cowboy music theme, is this wonderfully atmospheric track that makes use of the kind of negative space between guitar strums to build up this aura, this Essence of Sasuke. this alone makes it stand apart from other mostly-acoustic pieces on the soundtrack, to me. the whole thing is just humming with this simmering frustration and melancholy and it really gives you a sense of sasuke as this tortured figure who has been severely wronged and experienced the world’s faults firsthand. notably, this version of sasuke’s theme lifts its opening notes (and structure, sorta) from sasuke’s original series theme, which i assume was on purpose. it shows that he’s grown jaded as he got older, i think.

anyway, as the inevitable battle between sasuke and itachi draws closer, we get our first variation on sasuke’s theme: black spot/kokuten. it has the same melody and structure as before, but features heavier guitars, more orchestration, and, in the final bars, notes that previously fell on 1 and 4 but now fall on 1 and 3, which bring a heightened sense of urgency to the whole thing. and more importantly, it ends without resolving itself? it leaves us hanging on this almost call-and-response bit with one wailing guitar after another, before winding the orchestration down and fizzling back down to the level of “wandering.” here we see a sasuke in progress, if you will, working towards a goal that some may find sinister, but he is determined if nothing else, and the instruments match his fervor. it’s roughly analogous to “crimson flames” in terms of intensity, but it’s very distinctly Sasuke.

there are several more variations of sasuke’s theme floating around, but the next one i want to talk about is this one called “sasuke’s ninja way,” apparently, never officially released but relentlessly employed by the anime directors. it takes a more subtle turn than “black spot,” but i don’t see it as a direct sequel to “wandering” for a few different reasons. i think it represents the dilemma sasuke found himself after finally killing itachi and learning the truth about him: the realization that this whole quest for power of his was never really about revenge on one specific person, but rather about reforming the shinobi world as a whole. it’s slower than “black spot,” yet darker, more ominous; it treads the same general path as “wandering” but with added electric guitar, and, notably, choir. recall that choir is often used for themes related to the akatsuki, which i think ties in neatly with sasuke’s motivations at this point. he, like nagato before him, wants to remake the world.

the final iteration of sasuke’s theme, “sasuke’s revolution/junkyousha,” brings it all together. the akatsuki is commonly represented through choir and organ, and this theme starts out with both of these cranked up to the max. this is (pardon the pun) sasuke’s rebirth, if you will. just combine the intensity of “girei,” the anger of “crimson flames,” and the determination of “emergence of talents” and you’re there. seriously: this culmination of sasuke’s character development basically pulls from every single facet of the soundtrack and produces this MASSIVELY rich piece full of anger and rage and hate and fury, while STILL managing to include the twangy guitar bits from “wandering” (which have gone back to 1 and 4!!). we also have someone going ham on a shamisen towards the end of the track, which calls to mind the shamisen solo from “emergence of talents” and other tracks. hinting at an eventual compromise with naruto, possibly?

anyway, i started out this meta trying to find a piece of the soundtrack that could serve as madara’s theme, but i wasn’t sure that one existed. i think the susano’o has a theme, and the uchiha clan has a theme, but....madara just doesn’t?? sure there are unreleased tracks like “legendary uchiha,” but i’d argue that doesn’t really go into his character as much as it just says “watch out for this fucking guy.”

but then i listened to hurricane suite one more time, and i was like HOLY SHIT THIS IS IT. for one thing, it’s long as fuck: this track is a whole journey. it really gives the impression of someone who has lived an impossibly long life and become jaded and cruel and hardened. i realize that the argument could be made that hurricane suite is sasuke’s theme, not madara’s, or that it’s a general shippuden theme and doesn’t represent one character in particular. and yes, i think both of these interpretations are correct. hurricane suite represents what sasuke could POTENTIALLY turn out to be, given his evolution from “wandering” to “black spot” to “sasuke’s ninja way” all the way to “sasuke’s revolution.” hurricane suite warns us that sasuke can (and very well may!) make the same mistakes madara did and end up destroying himself in the process. (the middle of “hurricane suite” GREATLY resembles “wandering.”) and recall that hurricane suite is used in the very first episode of shippuden: the episode where naruto encounters sasuke for the first time, AND- are you ready for this- when madara’s name is dropped for the first time in the series.

this is why i think that, along with it being a general shippuden theme, hurricane suite is also madara’s theme. shippuden as a whole is practically suffocating under the oppressive weight of madara’s presence, right from the very first episode. even before he’s introduced, he is VERY much there. so much of madara’s character is established before he even shows up. we hear so much about him from other characters (kurama, itachi, obito, hashirama), and as such our view of madara changes drastically over the course of the series. and guess what plays when itachi shows sasuke that genjutsu of madara stealing izuna’s eyes?

anyway, in my opinion and in my interpretation of the character, the music fits him perfectly. it starts out all low and choral with these slow ominous drums and deep strings, and this violin comes in that sounds like it’s weeping. we hear something like a heartbeat that grows darker over time, before the music comes to some sort of resolution, an inflection point, and the brass comes in heavy. NOW we’re dealing with the orchestra, three quarters of the way into the song, and we’ve got strings and drums set to a marching pace, more choral chanting, climbing strings and shamisen tumbling down the scales. it sounds like grief!!

and note that yes, this track is used in the very first episode of shippuden, during naruto and sasuke’s first encounter. but it is ALSO used during the scene in hashirama’s flashback when izuna is mortally wounded and madara makes the decision to abandon the clan on the battlefield to take care of him, despite his better judgment and hashirama’s offering of peace. the inflection point in the music represents a very real inflection point in madara’s life: the loss of his last brother. (it always comes back to that, doesn’t it.)

[mokutone]

,, i dont,, know jackshit about naruto,, but,,,,,,, your watercolor pieces are so good??? like???????? SO GOOD?????

Here's the obligatory ask (since I started trying to use watercolors): are you aware of any tips for that particular medium? Like, are the brushes and watercolor quality really important or is that just my imagination? Also, how 2 mix colors and not die-

LMAO thanks!! I’m glad you think so!

I do have a lot of tips for watercolor, but I’ll start with the material questions. I would say that the quality of the tools can be fairly important, but like, it’s not make or break.

Supplies Information:

Disclaimer: None of this is necessary! You can make great art with any material available to you. All materials have different strengths and weaknesses, but you can create things that bring joy with the most rudimentary of supplies. 

I tend mostly to use liquid watercolors because I find them easier to control and manage (and I just...like working out of little bottles of liquid with eyedroppers. It’s my ink bias), but they have significant drawbacks. Archival speaking? light will bleed all the color out of what I have created eventually! They aren’t built to last. That doesn’t worry me much because I tend to stack all my drawings up and shove them in a drawer when I’m done, but it’s something to keep in mind. I find them easy to mix and manage in the pallet, and easy to reactivate if they dry out 

The brands I use are Dr. PH Martin’s Concentrated/Radiant Watercolor, and Ecoline Watercolor. Between the two, I would recommend Ecoline because they are cheaper, have more consistent texture, and have more in the bottle. Honestly, if the art store near me wasn’t on a huge sale, I never woulda gotten the PH Martins, they’re expensive as hell and just incredibly teeny glass bottles.

BUT, if you want to use watercolor that comes in tubes (which will last longer, give you more options for artistic expression—because the texture ranges from paste to watery, you have all that range to experiment with—and which most watercolor artists prefer in general) there’s a lot more options. The highest quality for the cheapest price I’ve found are the Turner’s watercolor tubes? I don’t always love the texture when I’m wetting the paint because I am picky, but the color is incredibly vibrant, and the prices are incredibly affordable compared to like, schminke or cotman haha. I used these in school and had a great time with them.

Brushes I know a lot less about, like almost nothing honestly, I wish I could give you some concrete advice on brushes but what it really comes down to for me is like, if you like the way it feels in your hand, if you like the way it makes a mark, it’s good. all it exists to do is facilitate You making a mark on the paper with some artistic medium, as long as you are satisfied with it, that’s good. 

If you want brush recommendations though, I’ve been told that Princeton’s watercolor brushes (i have a couple from the Heritage and Velvetouch series) are good synthetic brushes for...moderate prices. Brushes are expensive. Usually people recommend you have a #2 and #4 Round, and a smaller detail brush, but again, really, like all things art it all comes down to your preferences, and your needs. 

Actual Painting Tips:

Take care of yourself! Treat yourself kindly, forgive yourself for making mistakes. I’m dead serious. It’s impossible to avoid making mistakes, and in watercolor the mistakes are really hard to fix, and usually impossible without the use of gouache or something else opaque, so at some point it’s going to become an exercise in forgiving yourself for making those mistakes, like drawing in pen with no under-sketch.  On a good day, I find this therapeutic. On a bad day, it’s maddening. It’s okay not to make art on a bad day. When it comes to something you do because you enjoy it, and want to continue enjoying it, it’s important not to force yourself to do anything you don’t want to, and to take breaks when you feel yourself getting frustrated.

Paint from Lightest color value to Darkest. If you’re going to paint a character with a bit of a rim-light from some golden sunlight, paint that light light yellow first, top to bottom, and then work your way to the darker colors.

If you’re painting on a tilted surface (I’m guilty of keeping my sketchpad or paper block on my knees) paint from top to bottom. The weight of the water will pull the paint down, so you want to work with gravity, not against it! 

Limit yourself. Let yourself only work with one color for a day or so, then only two colors, then only three. When you put yourself in a corner where you don’t have a lot of options, you’ll often find you surprise yourself with what you come up with. Usually, I pick three colors, put them down on my pallet, and leave them there for a week or so, mostly just painting from those colors. It helps me develop a familiarity with how those colors work together, and how they work when I mix them. 

Mixing Colors:

another thing I should say about the Dr.PH Martin’s watercolors is that they don’t always mix well. I tried to get a skin tone for Kakashi once out of pink, green, and a little bit of brown, and in the mixture you could see all of the colors that went into it, and it gave a very strange look. I liked it as a color, but it definitely looked weird.

The paint that you use will have properties specific to itself, and you will get more familiar with those properties as you work it. It may mix smoothly on the pallet, it may not, and both of those can be good if you’re willing to work with them. 

Because of watercolor’s properties, there’s three main ways to mix it:

One: Mixing in the palette. What it says on the tin—you mix the paint, you put it on the paper. I do this one the most, it just takes a lot of familiarity with your paints to get used to the balances that create the colors you want, just lots and lots of playing around.

Two: Mixing dry. This isn’t really “mixing” per se, but it does the same job, Watercolor is a transparent medium, and one that reactivates when wet, so if you put one color over another, it’s about the same as mixing.

Three: Semi-wet mixing. The combination of the two! You can get some weird effects out of this. I use it sparingly, but I love to use it when I do.

The most useful physical tool for me (just me personally) in mixing is a pallet i have, and while it’s fairly cheap and should last like, idk forever, there are other ways to get a similar effect without it, as long as you give yourself space to mix.

it looks like this, it’s a porcelain pallet (so the cleanup is incredibly easy, unlike my plastic one, which unfortunately wants to hold my color a little) and i use it almost daily. The circular wells are for where you put the bulk of the color you will be using, and the rectangular wells are for mixing either with water, to get more translucent colors, or with other colors. The limited wells but excess of mixing space puts pressure on me not to use too many colors, but to mix them constantly. (but also has enough divided space that I don’t feel anxious about everything getting muddied. i am very particular.)

It’s heavy though, and while its therefore good for sitting on my desk and not getting knocked off by my cat or me, it’s not easily portable, especially as it’s uncovered if that's something that is important to you. Blick’s probably has them, as does...I imagine any other art retailer? They’re fairly popular. Usually around 6-8$ but again, none of these tools are necessary, they are just what suit me personally. I hope this helps! If I have the energy for it, at some point I’ll post some basic watercolor exercises to help with control and technical skill. You can get very good with any medium just by raw continuous practice, but my teacher last year had us do a lot of exercises that not only gave me a much greater comfort and confidence with watercolor, but that were also just...incredibly meditative to do.

[chatonyant]

are u planning on making any major (or minor) changes revolving the kekkei genkais? :D

OhohO yeah I’ve got plans :> thanks for asking, I have an excuse to ramble about them now :D

The ideas I have actually came before the idea of this au because I was chatting with my friends and had a whole ramble on “Hey, kekkei genkais don’t make sense. What if they did?”

The ideas, much like pretty much everything else, are still a work in progress BUT the general idea I have for them is that they’re learnable jutsus-- it’s just that they’re harder to learn and control and may have physical debilitations due to the nature of the jutsu. 

This is excluding the things that are obviously physical/biological like the doujutsu and the bone kekkei genkai. Though that does bring up the question of why Ao could activate and deactivate his Byakugan but Kakashi couldn’t do so with his Sharingan. Personally I want to think that it may have something to do with a battlefield implant by a still-learning (but highly talented cause wOW) medic-nin. But that’s more food for thought at a later time :D

More rambling underneath!

So to go more in-depth with kekkei genkais being learnable, I want to first talk about the original concept itself. It’s interesting how within the Naruto universe, there’s this concept of knowledge being passed down through genetics. Because this isn’t the Avatar universe, where movements and will are what control the elements. Though their movements are akin to martial arts, accidental bending exists, as does bending with casual movements. Ninjutsu isn’t like that. Ninjutsu requires specific hand movements in a specific order. The control of chakra could be instinctual, like someone knowing how much energy they need to jump, but hand signs are a lot more precise and complex(?) than that. So how is it that such knowledge is passed down through genetics? Haku and Tenzou both wield their bloodlines very well without having a teacher with the same kekkei genkai. 

I’ve got no proper answer for that in canon (except the idea of “why not?”), but I do want to go more in-depth with the idea of knowledge and instincts within the au at a later time, tying it in with the idea of yokai and spirits ;)

So. The fundamental elements of kekkei genkai aren’t unusual. It’s the combination of two chakra elements to create a secondary element. But is that impossible for other shinobi? What makes these clans so special? 

In this redesigned world, this combination of chakra elements isn’t impossible for other shinobi-- just really really difficult and requires high chakra control. If a shinobi doesn’t have the chakra control and just slams the two elements together, sure it could work, but it may not have the results that they particularly wanted. These jutsus COULD be copied by someone who has a Sharingan, but it would difficult for the copier to control said chakras if they didn’t have experience beforehand. 

Another reason it’s difficult is the physical requirements. For example, Haku’s ice. So say someone eventually DID learn how to utilize the ice style. But there are consequences. They can’t use it for long before the cold seeps into their skin and bones and begins numbing their fingers and potentially causing hyperthermia. Haku, being born with this kekkei genkai, has a body better suited for such jutsu which could vary from naturally lower body temp to being more resistant to the cold. 

Another example is Tenzou and his Mokuton. I mean really, this man can turn his body into a tree. Enough said about physical requirements. 

HOWEVER.

That does not mean that someone couldn’t learn a modified version of Mokuton that doesn’t require turning your flesh into wood. 

But before I get into that, let’s go into ambient chakra. 

I don’t know if this is canon or not and frankly i’m too tired to find out because it doesn’t matter, i’m doing my own thing. 

I’ve got this headcannon that there is ambient chakra that infuses the air, water, and nature in general. This is not nature chakra, because nature chakra is a special type of chakra that does not usually float around in abundance because if it did, sages would just need to tap into the near infinite energy of nature around them and spend less time “gathering” the energy. No, this is just casual chakra that just vibes in the world. 

Haku’s ice is created by the moisture around them. Ok, cool. Fire jutsus are created when the user breathes out chakra elements. Aight, makes sense. You could totally science that and say something about chakra and friction and sparks and- yeah. Kisame creating a fucking mini ocean in the middle of a desert?

I hate my brain trying to science this. Did I just make ambient chakra a thing just to make some things make sense? Yes, among other things? Am I going far too into things when I really don’t need to/ probably shouldn’t? Probably.

So. Conservation of matter really doesn’t apply to this world, but ANYWAYS, shinobi subconsciously use ambient chakra to create and manipulate the world around them. They basically use their chakra as a fishing line to hook onto the chakra of their surroundings and yank it into position. Or create a mini-ocean in the middle of a desert, whatever. 

The idea I have of how Mokuton works is that the user manipulates the roots and seeds of plants around them into growing faster and moving where the user wants them to be. Thus, their jutsu is weaker in areas with very little plants. At first I was thinking “hey maybe they make wood out of nowhere like they do with water” but then I was like “wow that would use up a LOT of chakra.” And also i just like the idea of a Mokuton user carrying around seeds and tossing them around but I digress.

So a Mokuton user would use their chakra and ambient chakra to feed the plant and make it grow. (wow such a simple explanation that took too long to explain-- I’m sorry, words get ahead of me sometimes.)

Thus a person can learn to manipulate the plants in their vicinity but not be able to turn their own flesh into wood like Hashirama and Tenzou :D with Obito as honorable mention.

Stuff like chakra chains are less of “wow that require pinpoint control and understanding of chakra natures” it’s more of “oh fuck that’s a lot of chakra and i have to mold it into shape outside my body??? nope” it’s like Rasengan! except with wayyy more chakra and more density. (Tailed beasts!!! It can fucking hold down tailed beasts-)

Chakra is said to have five (+two) natures but there’s also so many different types of jutsus shown within the show that things inevitably get very very confusing

[blacksunisvalid]

Analysis: Did the Death of Pyrhha raise the stakes?

I want to start this by saying that people who were smarter and more qualified than me have talked about other problems with the character of Pyrhha and the writing behind her, and also with other things like the Arkos dynamic. But this has been something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I wanted to ask the question in the title: Did Pyrhha dying really raise the stakes of the series? The answer after I've come to about this is no, it didn't, but we as an audience believed they had been. Let me sort of explain what I mean by this, and use some other series as an example.

When Pyrhha died, we knew very little about her. We knew she was an arena fighter and was one of the best of the best. We knew that this had left her to be mostly friendless, and wanted to be viewed as normal, based on her interactions with Jaune, we can tell she felt good that someone was seeing her as a person and not The Invincible Girl. And we know that Pyrhha is socially awkward, with her habit of apologizing for things that aren't her fault, and the sort of awkward way she would say ' Hello again.' But beyond that, anything for Pyrhha is a head-canon or a bit of a deeper reading of what's present. We didn't know if she had a family at the time, what her goals were at Beacon, and for the rest of her life. We know the above things, and that she liked Jaune. An important thing to note is for the most, we are told these things. We are told she doesn't really have friends, and we are told people put her on a pedestal. But we aren't shown this. This is less effective as we have no context for this.

I think a lot of people will agree that when characters die in fiction one of the saddest things is the fallout other characters go through as a result of their death emotionally. When I think of some of the saddest deaths in fiction, it's usually not the death itself, but the way people around them react. One of the best examples of this for several shows ( spoilers for all will be here, hence the spoiler tag) is the death of Maes Hughes from FMA and FMAB. Maes Hughes was a supporting character, but we knew a lot about him. He was Mustang's best friend, supportive of the Elric brothers, and a loving husband and father. We also know he was very supportive of Mustang's plan to advance and change the world once he had more power. Importantly, for the most part, these things are shown to us. We see Hughes on the phone gushing about his wife, we see Hughes showing tons of photos of his family. They didn't have to tell us ' Hughes cares about his daughter' because we knew that. And so when he died, it was devastating to the audience because we had to see how everyone reacted, and these were characters we knew also. Everything from Mustang crying and saying ' It's a terrible day for rain' to Hughes's daughter crying and asking ' Why they're putting dirt on daddy' at the funeral. These are characters who we cared about, and so seeing them in pain was awful to experience.

But with Pyrhha, we don't really have that. I forget the exact volume, 6 or 7 but even when seeing a redheaded woman talk to Jaune at Pyrhha's statue when they leave flowers, we don't know who that is. We don't know if that was her mother, her sister, an aunt, or just someone who had known Pyrhha. Everything about that ( unless RT has revealed on social media) is speculation, and while a good scene, it doesn't really solve the problem I mentioned above, we don't really know people like a family who would be the most affected by the death of Pyrrha.

Jaune and Ruby were both affected by the death of Pyrhha, with Jaune reforging his armor to be a tribute to her. But the problem is, at least to me that it doesn't feel deep enough. Using a different example, the death of Peter Parker in Infinity War. Some of the first words Tony says in Endgame are ' I lost the kid.' At first, Tony is not willing to risk his wife and child on the chance of bringing back everyone else, because he got incredibly lucky. We've seen the arc of Tony, and this, while maybe selfish is understandable, he's always made the sacrifice play, and so seeing him saying for once he won't is satisfying. But then he sees a picture he has with Peter. Trying to play it off as curiosity, he sees if he could actually invent time travel, and then he does. It's subtle, and it's not tossed in our face, but it's there that the death of Peter really affected Tony and played into his survivor's guilt.

One could say that Jaune wants to kill Cinder for what happened to Pyrhha, and that is a fair example of growth. Volume 1 Jaune probably couldn't fathom taking a life, and by Volume 5 he was trying to murder Cinder in the battle of Haven. But Ruby saw her die. And other than activating her silver eyes ( Another issue others have talked about is how she doesn't really wonder what the silver eyes are) I can't remember really her ever commenting on it. Contrast this with the death of Penny, which is some of the best voice acting the series has for Ruby.

Really small scenes could have helped a lot with this. Some of the examples of things I think could have helped-

When Jaune is calling out team attacks, he accidentally calls out Arkos or a move which relied on Pyrhha, only to realize she wasn't there, and there's a brief moment of silence as it sinks in all over again. ( Example: Shotaro from Kamen Rider W calling for Phillip in the last episode but Phillip wasn't there)

Jaune or someone else does a move in combat that Pyrhha had taught to them. Some of the others see it happening, and they briefly see Pyrhha with them. ( Example: Kakashi seeing Minato in front of him when Naruto performs the Rasenshuriken)

Let the characters talk fondly about Pyrhha with a sense of wistfulness. An example of this would be a difficult battle, and then after the battle, they say something like " If Pyrhha had been there with us, well that would have been easier." Tense silence, and then someone, maybe Jaune chuckles and agrees. It's okay to talk fondly about those who are no longer with us. ( Example: The Justice League cartoon when in an alternate world, Flash is dead and Green Lantern and Hawkgirl talk about him with playful annoyance.)

No one really talks about what her death means for them or how outclassed they seemingly are. An example of what I mean is in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid when a character named Kiriya, or Kamen Rider Lazer dies. The characters are told he died because he 'knew too much' and so a lot of time is spent in uncovering what it was he knew. It became a meme of sorts in the fandom about ' the real reason Kiriya died.' On top of that, the characters lament on how it's concerning that their enemy has a Level 10 form while the highest they can reach is Level 5 as an example.

Pyrrha's death and the fallout from it ultimately remind me of the Justice League movie. We're told the world misses Superman and is a worse place without him. But the DCU hadn't spent enough time building up a Superman the world at large would mourn for, or a Superman who did so much for the world that in his absence, things fell apart. I felt the same way with Pyrhha's death, we were told that it mattered more so than anything.

Now that I talked about what I feel is the emotional failure of the death of Pyrhha, I want to move into the other side of it, raising the stakes. Yes, killing a character is a great way to raise the stakes. It's the most lethal version of The Worf Effect (TVTropes some it up very well, basically a character we know to be strong losing to a new character to establish the new character is strong, IE Thanos beating the Hulk as Infinity War opens). But I feel that Pyrhha was not the right character to do for this for the following reasons

We don't really know strong she is. We are told she was a prodigy, but we are never really shown what that means. The only fights we see her in are CRDL, students at Beacon, and while she does beat them all, this is also the only extended fight we have for them, so we don't exactly know how difficult it would be to beat them. Mercury, but he threw the fight purposefully to get information on her, so we have no idea how they would have stacked up if they fought. ( I think she would win but still) Penny, which even if the fight ended in tragedy is the best possible matchup for her since her Semblance lets her control metal, and the fight which ultimately cost her life in Cinder. We knew Cinder had the power of half a Maiden and got the other from killing Pyrhha, but we don't really know what 'half a Maiden' amounts too because we don't know how strong Cinder was before becoming a Maiden, so it's impossible to say what the amp was. I'm not an expert power-scaler, but killing a character to show someone is strong works if we have a much better sense of how strong they were. The example of this is the death of Jiraiya against Pain in Naruto. We know how strong Jiraiya is as a member of the Three Sanin, which by the narrative would roughly put him on par with Tsunade, the head of the village at the time, and Orochimaru who had trained Sasuke. Jiraiya dying shows the audience that Pain is stronger than the current Hokage and protector of the village, and most of the cast. We never got to see Pyrhha sparring with RWBY or other members of JN_R to show how much stronger than them she is. If we had seen this, and then Cinder killed her anyways, it would have been much more d effective and plant a question in our mind: " How can the main cast hope to defeat Cinder?"

Killing Pyrhha wasn't really an objective for the villains, and it was more so good luck that happened along the way. Sure, Mercury gathers data on Pyrhha, but it seems like Cinder wanted to destroy Beacon more than get Pyrhha out of the way. Even the set up of Emerald making Pyrhha kill Penny amounts to nothing, as in the same volume, Pyrhha dies before the consequences of this can be addressed. Pyrrha was in the way of what Cinder wanted, and Cinder killed her which can be an effective set-up, but in my opinion, it's more effective if the villains have been planning specific things, like toppling a public figure like Pyrrha. In BNHA, people try to take out All-Might, and for good reason, he's seen as the Symbol of Peace. Small scenes could have built this up for Pyrhha also. After Mercury gets information on her, just have the villains make small statements about how she's in the way, and that they have to do something.

Pyrrha being chosen to be the Fall Maiden doesn't really make the most sense. From a set-up perspective, it does, the villain killing the hero before they can achieve a powerup, and said power-up is the hero's best hope. ( Examples of this being the Muteki form in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid) But we're not shown why Pyrhha was chosen. As I said above, because we don't really know how strong she is, it could have been Weiss, or Yang, or Blake, or Nora because we don't know what qualities she was chosen for. On top of that, both Glynda and Winter were there, and arguably more powerful than Pyrhha, and would have been better choices. The set-up for me just doesn't work, and so by extension to me, Pyrhha's death felt like they wanted her out of the way, and needed a reason.

This was an incredibly long-winded post, but I hope I was able to get my points across. What do you think?

[asotin]

This was an old post but would you be agreeing with narutoforums(.)org/threads/kishi-was-right-to-make-tobi-obito-and-not-izuna.932510/#post-47956684 ?

link to post

writing this was one long "i guess i like obito??" another uchiha i'm a fucker for rip me

going in (something like) vanadius’ order:

making tobi madara's age doesn't work (why vanadius thinks obito is logistically impossible but is fine with a founders’ era person being spritely a almost a century later is baffling bc even kishimoto doesn't go that far). they seem to want tobi to be izuna, i’ll focus on him

how would izuna be alive and not old as hell? he's madara’s age

sure, tobi being izuna is a neat reveal, but it would require a major overhaul of canon that raises a lot of questions

if tobirama didn't kill him, how do we get to the point of senju-uchiha collaboration that leads to the creation of konoha? if izuna survives, madara's behavior will be different. his priorities will be different. the initial peace came around because izuna died. without the formation of konoha and madara's alienation- which isn't certain if izuna is still alive- madara's defection isn't a guarantee. madara might not have gotten izuna's mangekyō- has there ever been a reciprocal implant? if the two of them lost their sight, that's a major difference (well, maybe, considering what madara got up to for a while). would madara have read the stone before he and izuna went blind? would he have been as impatient with hashirama? as easily manipulated? konoha would have been fundamentally different or non-existent if izuna had survived

“ancient, enigmatic menace" sounds cool, but in practice, what does it mean? we have black zetsu, so let's not assume that those traits make a character interesting lol

imo vanadius is missing the point with obito because yeah, he is still a schoolboy. this is the problem with writing a story that selectively acknowledges trauma. every boo boo and bobo the fool conveniently forgets that it also applies to characters they don't love. characters like, you know, the child soldier who was nearly crushed to death, then kidnapped and emotionally tortured for we don't know how long. of course obito acts like a kid. how can he mature emotionally after madara basically drove him insane? (here are the problems with logistics since the whole rin jinchūriki thing is a mess, yeah, but i’m not saying that canon's plot with obito was perfect)

i do agree that the love triangle on team minato doesn't matter, but i agree because there isn't one. obito has a crush on rin. he saw kakashi as a rival for her attention sometimes, but that's it. (if you want to go for the kakashi and obito shippy interpretation, the same holds true. you can't have a love triangle when there's no conflict.) if kishimoto had bothered to give rin a personality unrelated to kakashi and obito, obito’s devotion to her would have been more understandable

(you could argue that that's deliberate because obito only saw rin as his childhood crush, but you would be wrong because masashi kishimoto wrote this)

i didn't find obito's moments with minato moving either, but i did think, for a moment, that he and kakashi throwing down was going to be satisfying, but it got watered down because nobody gets to resolve anything on their own

the way obito became ~good~ again was lazy. i hate a forcible change of heart, especially right before a heroic sacrifice or whatever. it undercut obito's fucked up resolve to destroy the world and made everything he did even worse because wasn't even that devoted to it. naruto isn't similar enough to obito to justify such a massive change in so little time. they don't know each other, and their connections through kakashi and minato are weak

definitely agreed about kakashi having too much importance. i wish i could remember who wrote it, but someone said that kakashi should have stayed dead when pain attacked. i'm on the fence about that, but he shouldn't have had such a big role in the story

tobi's role in the massacre needed development regardless of who he was. why would izuna want to kill his own clan? why would madara- or would izuna freestyle like obito? why would a totally new character want to do that?

actually, the blank period did it and did it fine, but that storyline would be way too complicated to integrate into the main narrative

lol @ the idea that shippuden era naruto is fighting the ninja system. that disappeared with sasuke in part one. the caring about other people renaissance with pain was a blip

idk why anyone would suggest that tobi should be madara. again, you’d have to rewrite so much to make it work that the story would need to be fundamentally restructured. how would he still be alive? wouldn’t he still an old man? how is he going to keep up in a fight? is madara's cave setup not going to happen? does he not die? if he does, how does he come back?

tl;dr some decent points but overall, nah, i would not be agreeing

[justagirlwithapen32]

Mirror Mirror

This was the only chance they had to fix everything...

"Hey! Is this thing even on?"

Surprised, (understatement) Sarutobi Hiruzen looked around for the source of the voice, which quite frankly sounded like his former pupil, Tsunade, but found nothing.

"Sensei! Can you hear me? Open the damned Kage sealed room! I need to talk to you!"

Brow arched, Hiruzen did indeed get up, signalling to his ANBU to seal the room and leave him alone, which they did immediately. Heading over to where the room that had been installed only three days after the Hokage tower had been built, he slid a painting of the village aside, bit his thumb, then smeared his blood over the seal found there. The wall creaked and groaned, but slid open on command, and Hiruzen stepped in.

The reason he was being so trusting of this, was that no one could get in here without having taken the Hat. There were a lot of dangerous and foreign objects in here, things that not even their own ANBU could be trusted with. And now, Hiruzen stood in front of one he recognised, one that he knew the Shodaime had put in here himself.

There seemed to be nothing special about it, it was an ordinary full length mirror. Except for the fact that, according to the notes attached with it, it had been imbued with all kinds of forbidden and even unknown seals. The end goal? Connecting time and space through one simple portal. And reflected in that mirror was his former student, Tsunade.

"Hey sensei," she greeted him. "What point in time is it right there?"

"…We're a year into a third war," Hiruzen told her. "Tsunade, what are you doing in the mirror?"

"Well… The thing is, we're kinda at an 'end of the world' scenario here," she told him, to his distress. "We're desperate, basically, so we decided that going back in time to end it would be our only option. Thing is, with all the study we did for it, we couldn't open it as far back as we wanted, though we guessed it'd end up around the end of the Second War, or start of the Third. Quite frankly, with everything that happened, we're lucky this thing is even still intact…"

She trailed off, and it was then that Hiruzen noticed that wherever Tsunade was, it wasn't in the sealed room, or even in the Hokage building.

"Where are you right now?" he asked. "I don't recognise that place."

"We're in the last safe place available," Tsunade told him. "We're in Kaminari no Kuni."

"Is that him?" a voice called. "Tsunade! Why are you waffling around? Where's that apprentice of yours, the Hatake, and the rest? Send them through already!"

"Get lost A!" Tsunade snapped at someone (the Third Raikage's son!?) that Hiruzen couldn't see. "I'm handling it!"

"Handle it faster!" A grunted. "They're getting closer!" Then the sound of a door slamming was heard.

"Sorry about that," Tsunade apologised. "That guy's as irascible as ever."

"So it would seem," Hiruzen noted. "What's this about sending your apprentice and a Hatake through?"

Tsunade cleared her throat, then said, "My apprentice, Haruno Sakura, and someone you might know, Hatake Kakashi. Also, two other shinobi who you won't know, Tenzou and Sai. We were going to send two others with Sakura and Kakashi instead, but circumstances dictated that that would be impossible."

There was a frown on Tsunade's face, but before he could ask after it, his former student barked an order to someone else there in the room with her. "Shizune! Go get Sakura, Kakashi, Tenzou and Sai! It's time!"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama!" came Shizune's (presumably) voice, then the door from before opened and then closed, much more gently this time.

"Does this mean, then, that you are currently Hokage?" Hiruzen asked.

"Unfortunately," Tsunade mourned. "I was all ready to give up the Hat, too, but then my successor decided that, instead of taking over from me, he'd rather go back in time instead. Damned Hatake!"

Hiruzen's brow raised at that. He couldn't imagine the Kakashi he knew being a candidate for Hokage-ship.

"What is it your team intends to do?" he asked.

The look on Tsunade's face became serious. "There's a lot to fix," she told him. "I need your promise, sensei, that you won't interfere in their mission. Some of it… There's a couple of missions in particular that I outlined for them that you probably won't like. Especially considering how you handled one of them the time it almost resulted in your assassination."

Now Hiruzen was a little worried. "I would hope that I deal with with attempts on my life quite seriously," he said.

"Depends on who orchestrates it," Tsunade said ominously. "No, sensei, I really need to know that you'll let them complete their mission. Too much rides on it."

"May I know what this mission entails?" he asked.

"They can brief you when they're through," was all Tsunade would say.

Hiruzen sighed. "As long as it doesn't endanger the village, I will not in any way hinder their mission," he told her.

Tsunade's expression softened. "I suppose that's all I can ask," she said.

The sounds of people approaching on Tsunade's end reached them, and Hiruzen braced himself for whatever was coming, hoping that the future these people experienced could be avoided as they all hoped.

[rayshippouuchiha]

Oh man.... Toni/Bucky, Carol/Rhodey or Kakashi/Naruto? Ino/Sakura too if you want to explore that idea. I'm not picky, you do The Good Writing™ for everything

Oh man this got away with me and we didn’t get any Kakashi/Naruto actual content but I did set up an entirely new AU that’s similar to some of my others but with a few twists.

For this scenario I think maybe it should all be Shisui and Itachi’s fault.  Although Itachi maintains he only had a ... very small hand in the entire debacle.

See since the coup never happens the village is way more stable. And, thanks to that, Shisui and Itachi both eventually end up transferring out of ANBU.

Itachi becomes an elite Jounin and takes up his training as future Clan Head.  There’s also rumors, much to Itachi’s despair, that he’s being considered for Hokage since the Sandaime is getting seriously old and Kakashi is notoriously uninterested.

Shisui, cause he’s a solid 6 on the Uchiha How Much Of A Dick Are You? Scale eventually decides that he needs a protege, someone to pass on his Will of First Of All Fuck You to, so he goes “huh let’s get some kids” and turns up all “yo, i want babies” at the prospective Jounin-sensei meeting.

Sarutobi, much to most people’s horror, agrees.

So Shisui ends up getting the most annoying, adorable, impossibly perfect team ever.

There’s his adorable gremlin of a cousin Sasuke.  Kid’s got an unhealthy obsession with swords and fire and is basically a walking, talking brother complex.  Just like a proper Uchiha.  It’s adorable.

There’s Sakura Haruno who is .... Shisui’s not really sure what she is but she switches between sweet and proper and cackling like Anko at the drop of a hat and it’s delightfully terrifying.  He starts calling her sweet side Pink Sakura and her other side Red Sakura, because yeah he’s pretty sure she’s got a split personality and not naming them both would just be rude.  Either way both Sakuras have a punch like a horse’s kick and that’s when they’re not even trying.

And then, last but totally not least, there’s his final student.

Shisui’s Holy Grail if you will.

Naruto Uzumaki, the Kyubi container, and worst kept secret in the entire village.

The kid is loud, somehow viciously cheerful, deviously sweet, has ungodly amounts of chakra even without the Biju factoring in, has an obsession with making things go boom, shows up in a kimono or as a girl roughly 50% of the time, and has a deeply embedded sense of Gotta Go Real Fast.

All things that Shisui both respects and appreciates.

But the most important thing is, in Shisui’s opinion, the fact that Naruto is the possessor of the biggest Fuck You Very Much I Do What I Want attitude Shisui has seen since Minato-sama and Kushina-hime were alive.

So, overall, Shisui and his team are a match made in the deepest, darkest, most glorious pits of hell.

The training Shisui puts them through, with Itachi being their honorary 2nd sensei, is whispered about for years to come.

They make Chunin in 6 months and Shisui, backed by his gremlins, just straight up tells the Hokage thatif he tries to break Team Shisui up they’ll stage a revolt and flee Konoha together for a life on the run where they’ll devote all of their time to making the lives of Konoha shinobi, and the Sandaime in particular, horrible for decades to come until they inevitably conquer and/or destroy the world in a blaze of glory.

Considering that Team Shisui consists of not 1 but basically 3 Uchiha (because Itachi would totally follow his best friend and little brother), whatever the hell Haruno turned out to be, and NARUTO Sarutobi takes them seriously.

They become a permanent squad.

By the time Shinsui’s gremlins are 16 they’re Jounin and have entries in every Bingo book to be found.

Naruto is well on the way to earning a Flee On Sight rank just like Minato-sama.

Shinsui couldn’t be prouder.  Despite the fact that there’s only a handful of years between them he’s pretty sure he feels almost father levels of pride for his gremlins.

That is until the romance bug goes around hard.

Sakura, to Shisui’s ever lasting awe and horror ends up focused on both Ino and possibly Rock Lee.  Shisui’s not really sure.  He just knows there’s a lot of flowers changing hands, a lot of punching being done, both Sakuras keep cackling, and Lee won’t stop screaming.

Shisui’s about 60% sure that Sasuke is gonna end up with Naruto because there’s some kind of obsession there between those two.  But that ends pretty quickly when Shisui realizes that Sasuke’s brother complex kind of pales in comparison of his new found “Keep Naruto Pure” complex.

Kiba makes one off color joke about Naruto’s new kimono looking better on Kiba’s floor and well .... let’s just say Shisui didn’t know Sasuke was a biter but Kiba does end up spending a good week in the hospital.

Honestly Shisui can’t really find fault in that either though, especially since he and the Sakuras take such delight in winding Sasuke up and urging him on.  Although they are both protective of Naruto too.

Naruto, despite a shitty childhood or maybe because of it, is precious.

Which is, of course, when Itachi slides up with a truly awful idea sometime post Kiba’s mauling.

“You know,” Itachi says softly, “Naruto has such a .... magnetic effect on others.  Look at how protective my sweet little brother is.”

Shisui does in fact know this.  He also knows Sasuke, who he has now seen actively chew on a fellow Konoha nin, is absolutely the sweetest.

“I think he’d be just the thing to brighten up and ground some of our more .... unstable comrades,” Itachi says casually.  “Naruto might even find his match there since we all know his peers aren’t ... equipped to handle him.”

Shisui agrees but he’s also not fooled.

Everyone might think otherwise but Shisui knows the truth.

Unlike Shisui’s solid and respectable 6, Itachi, despite being a pacifist, was born a firm 7 on the Uchiha How Much Of A Dick Are You? Scale.

“Who did you have in mind?”  Shisui asks but he’s pretty sure he already knows.

Itachi smiles.

Somewhere in the village Kakashi gets a chill up his spine.

Naruto, of course, takes Itachi and Shisui’s attempts to put him in Kakashi’s path with grace and good humor.

Sasuke takes one look at Kakashi’s orange book and looses his entire mind.

Kakashi isn’t sure what he did to deserve Minato-sensei’s entirely too attractive and entirely too strong kid stalking him, or his rabid Uchiha trying to kill him, but it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.

Plus, about six months in, Kakashi thinks he might be having Emotions(TM) of the decidedly romantic nature and he does not care for that shit at all.  This is why he avoided doing more than watching over Naruto here and there when Naruto was a kid.  He can’t afford these kinds of attachments, especially not of the romantic nature, and Naruto is entirely too easy to get attached to.

In turn Naruto doesn’t care about him not caring.  Once Naruto latches on he latches on hard.  And Kakashi has his complete and total attention.

Shisui thinks it’s all adorable.

Sarutobi is kind of delighted honestly.  Kakashi is a bit older yes but it’s not so unusual in their lifestyle.  Naruto would be good for him and vice versa.  Plus Kushina had always wanted Kakashi to be family, Minato too.  Marriage would make that happen.

Meanwhile Itachi’s in the background silently gleeful because if Kakashi would have just accepted the hat none of this would have happened.  Itachi’s revenge is both sweet and Naruto shaped.

Now Kakashi will inevitably end up in the Hokage’s office anyways.  Either wearing the hat himself or as Naruto’s trophy husband.

If Sasuke doesn’t kill him first.

Either way it serves him right.

[kayteewritessteve]

Fated - 2/8

Description: You’re a rogue werewolf, a bounty hunter. It’s not the most glamourous life, but it keeps you paid well and highly entertained. But when a long time acquaintance resurfaces with a mission and a lot of money to throw around, you finally relent and take a job from him. And then things get crazy when you stumble upon your Fated Mate along the way.

Catch up HERE.

Word Count: 6,000 ish.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Werewolf!Reader

Rating: PG.

Warnings: Curse words. Sassy comments. Depictions of fight scenes and fighting, the same as canon stuffs.

A/N: I sadly don’t own any of these characters. And no beta reader, so I do proudly own all the errors and this story, so there’s that.

Sorry lovelies! I know you probably all thought this was the L&W update. Which is almost done and should be up in the next day or two. But I just haven’t had much time to write the last few days. And happened to have this part basically done in my drafts, so figured I’d just post it as my blog has been dead the last few days! And I don’t like it! Hahaha anywho, hope you guys like this part!

The large blonde instantly halts his steps, giving you a once over and then his face morphs into one of curiosity, one of intrigue, as he tips his head slightly, just assessing you. Everyone else in the room is deathly quiet, just looking between the two of you. You assume they are all just studying this whole weird interaction as it unfolds.

But not like you are actually paying much attention to anyone but the large man before you.

‘Mark him! We need to Mark him now!’ She excitedly commands but you shush her, needing a moment to just take this all in.

You’d began to assume you didn’t actually have a True Mate, as you’d yet to find them. And most wolves found them young, somewhere between the ages of 16-20. And you’d even travelled around with your Alpha to all the nearby packs often, whenever he needed to seek out alliances or reform territory treaties. And yet nothing. No Fated Mate in sight.

You’d met so many different wolves in your life, and yet not one turned out to be your Mate. But this, this human is. You never would have seen that coming. Yes, he was fucking hot as hell, and much larger than yourself, but WHAT THE HELL WAS THE MOON GODDESS THINKING?!? Pairing you with a fucking human.

‘He’s perfect,’ your wolf sighs out dreamily in your head. Whelp, looks like she’s already on board with this all.

A movement beside him causes your eyes to instantly snap in that direction. And what they land on makes your heart break, instantly. And your instincts to protect your Mate, kick into high gear. And before you can stop it, a deep menacing growl unleashes from deep within your chest.

All eyes snap instantly to you, but yours are locked on the small brunette who now has her hands on your Mate. Her hands clasping his forearm, possessively.

“Babe, who’s the new girl?” She whispers, glancing up at your Mate. And you instantly want to rip her eyes out for just looking at him. And you aren’t even going to acknowledge, or put to words, the bloody thought you just had about what you’d do to her, just for calling him ‘Babe’.

‘I’m going to kill her,’ your wolf growls out and you can feel her trying to take control. And so much for not acknowledging your bloody thought, as it definitely ended with that outcome. You watch as the nails on your fingers begin to elongate, starting to change into claws. You quickly shove your hands in your pockets to hide them.

‘Stop! Stop it!’ You command your wolf but she doesn’t appear to give one shit about that. ‘I’m willing to bet that none of these people even know werewolves exist! and you not only want to shift in front of them, but also rip their friend apart! Are you insane?!’ You yell at her in your head, but she is still trying to push through. And it is taking everything in you to maintain control here, but her need to not only protect, but CLAIM, your True Mate is making that fucking difficult. To say the least. So time to bring out the big guns, time to hit her where it hurts. ‘And on top of all of that, think of Steve, he will NEVER forgive us for that. And you know it. You hurt her, and we can kiss our chances with him, goodbye. And I mean forever!’

She halts instantly at your words, and you feel as the claws retract back and are replaced by your human nails. You release a deep sigh, relieved that she relented. If the Steve line hadn’t worked, that woman would have been dead within seconds. And you’d never stand a chance at winning him over after that. You’d never stand a chance at even having him in your life at all, after that.

He snaps his eyes down to her, a frown on his face, and you get the distinct feeling that he hadn’t even noticed she was in the room, let alone now hanging off his arm. He quickly corrects his expression, and smiles at her, though you can tell it’s forced.

“Y/N!” You hear Fury yell and you cringe. Of course he’d find you right freaking now. Of all times. Damnit!

He enters the room and glances around at everyone just standing there, silent. Then his eyes lock on you, “where the hell did you go?”

“Been here the whole time, Kakashi,” you shrug, hearing Tony snort to himself at your Naruto reference. “I’m honestly surprised it took you so long to find me. You, more than anyone, should know that I’m highly food motivated and would obviously end up in a kitchen.”

He shakes his head but ignores everything you’ve just said. “Let’s go,” he orders, “you need to be briefed on the mission, so you are on the same page as the rest of the team.”

“Can I at least eat first?” You cross your arms.

“No, briefing first, then food,” he sternly says and then promptly exits the room. He sure does like to just order people around and then walk away before they can reply. Which is just still so fucking rude.

‘Now follow me here,’ your wolf starts, getting your attention. ‘What if we eat him, then it can be a briefing AND food. Win, win.’

You snort at that. And notice as Buck leans towards you slightly, whispering, “I’ll bring the steak in when it’s done, Doll.”

You groan happily, and glance at him, “now you’re my new favourite person in the whole of New York. Name anyone you don’t like or want dead, and I’ll happily take them out, just for you,” you wink at him. And receive a chuckle in response as he shakes his head and goes back to cooking.

Your eyes drift to Steve once again. Noticing the small chick on his arm is now blabbering on and on, probably about absolutely nothing. But he isn’t paying much attention to her, his eyes are locked on you, that curious look no longer on his face. But still very much in his eyes, as they glance between you and Bucky. Probably trying to figure out if you two know each other, or have some sort of deeper relationship.

You smile at him as you walk towards him, he quickly moves out of the way, pulling the ridiculous brunette along with him as he does. You nod as a thanks to him and then exit the room, glancing over your shoulder at him as you do, and seeing that his eyes don’t leave you once. Watching you as you go, until you both can’t see each other anymore.

He isn’t a werewolf, so there is no one to inform him that you are his True Mate. But the Mate Bond is an intense thing. Even humans feel the effects of it, instantly, upon setting eyes in their werewolf Mate. Though it isn’t anywhere near as intense to them and it is to your kind.

To them it just feels like this need to know you, to befriend you, to just keep you close. Which, yes, those are all feelings your kind have as well, just in a much, much grander scale and also accompanied with the need to love, protect and Mark and Mate them, instantly. To make them yours and only yours, forever. To show every other wolf that they belong to you, just as you belong to them. It’s like marking your territory, if that territory was a living being instead of land.

Wolf on wolf Mates will usually Mark and Mate within hours of meeting each other, the pull being so strong that they can’t, and don’t want to fight it. But with a human Mate, it’s a lot more difficult, more delicate. You have to tread lightly, build up to that. First you’ll most likely need to open their eyes to the fact that Werewolves actually do exist, which doesn’t usually go too well.

And then you have to slowly build up to the whole Marking thing. First explaining Fated Mates and the Moon Goddess, and then informing them that they are yours. Which also usually doesn’t go well.

And then they have to slowly become used to the idea, to you being ‘it’ for them. And there is this little law—sort of—amongst your kind which states that you can’t Mark a human without their verbal permission. But it’s also the same for Wolf Mates. They have to consent to the Marking or it won’t take, it will just fester and rot, and hurt like a bitch. It can get infected without proper care, but if it is taken care of, it will eventually heal naturally, and there will be nothing left on the skin. No mark, no scar, no signs at all that there had even been a bite there once. That there had even been an attempt at a Mark.

So yeah, him being a human wasn’t going to be easy for you in the first place. But then add the fact he clearly already has a girlfriend, into the mix. Yeah, no, this would be damn near impossible. You sigh deeply as you continue to follow your nose to Fury, following his scent in the air to wherever he stomped off to. Completely and utterly disheartened by this insane turn of events. And honestly, why you?!

‘Us,’ your wolf corrects, sounding just as forlorn as you. But you knew she would be, wolves take Mates waaaay more seriously than their human counterparts. Mates are sacred to them, just as they are to the human side, but on a completely different level.

The human side can deal with the rejection or death of a Fated Mate, they can live on passed it. The human side has to build up to loving their Mate, the feelings are similar to regular human on human love. Though they do feel instantly protective and possessive, but the love takes time to form.

However wolves, they bond instantly. With wolf on wolf pairings, the two wolves instantly love each other. But with a human Mate, there is no Wolf to bond with, so that feeling is passed to the humans themselves. It’s instantaneous, so much so that a wolf basically dies without their Mate. Not literally, but spiritually. They usually become recluses, receding deep within the human’s mind. They don’t talk much, if ever. They refuse to allow you to shift into them. And they basically just cease to exist altogether. Still there, but not present. It’s really not a fun thing to go through for either party involved.

The human loses that constant companion, the creature they have always been able to talk to—well, at least since the moment the wolf first appeared in their mind, on their 16th birthday. 16 being the age a werewolf shifts for the first time. But ever since that moment, they become your closest friend, your strongest ally, your fiercest protector. They become everything to you.

So to one day wake up and no longer have them around, is usually almost more heartbreaking to the human side, then actually losing their Mate is. Almost.

You finally find the boardroom Fury is occupying and slowly trudge in, heading for a chair. You flop yourself down into it with a sigh, you know you need to focus on what Fury is about to tell you. But your mind is entirely preoccupied with your current Mate dilemma. If he rejects you, your life as you know it is over. But if you reject him first, you may stand a shot at your wolf getting through this unscathed. Even if just slightly. But it’s still a much better option than losing her completely.

‘We are not, and will not be doing that,’ she growls. ‘He is ours and we will make it so.’

‘You don’t get it,’ you sigh, ‘he isn’t ours. Yes, he is our Mate, but he belongs to someone else. Humans don’t usually take to these things the same as us. Not at first, at least. But if we reject him formally, maybe we stand a chance of not getting so hurt.’

‘No! I won’t let you do that!’ She stomps her foot.

Fury begins to start talking and you quickly attempt to shelf this conversation. ‘We will talk more about this later,” you sternly say. Much like a parent scolding their child.

She huffs angrily but doesn’t say anything more. You sigh relieved and try to focus your attention on the briefing now. You really need to know exactly why you’re here, and just what you’ll be walking into on this mission.

You walk out of the large glass encased boardroom, the dirty plate and utensils in your hand. Bucky had shown up about 15 minutes after Fury started talking, a plate with a glorious smelling and looking steak in his hand. Your mouth watered instantly and you quickly thanked him. Fury didn’t look too pleased by all of this, but he didn’t say a word, probably just happy that maybe now you’d be able to actually focus.

Which you sort of did. Your mind was still overthinking everything, but you’d managed to catch all the important parts. Basically some high up Hydra goon, named Heinrich, was set on world domination and destruction. You didn’t even realize Hydra was still around, but turns out they were. The American government was just covering it up all this time, and using the Avengers to handle the situation both efficiently and quietly. However, this goon was posing to be a bit more of an issue.

He was a little too good at avoiding the heroes. At hiding from them. He’d gone underground but was still very much calling the shots and moving the plans forward from wherever he was. Nat had managed to track him down a few times already, but just as they’d move in to take him down, he’d escape. He’d get away every time as if he’d been tipped off of their imminent arrival.

So that’s where you come in, not only did they need you to track him down. As all of Nat’s leads and intel kept coming up short or were going stale, and fast. But then when they did actually pan out, he was always a step ahead. Always outsmarting them.

So you were to track, hunt and capture him, with the help of the Avengers, and as fast as you could. Since they had intel that he was going to enact his plans in 2 weeks time. So you had until then to not only find and stop him, but to save the whole fucking world as well. Goddess, what the hell did you just sign yourself up for!?

You shake your head as you enter back into the living space, heading towards the sink to clean your dirty dishes. Mind still all over the damn place with everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours.

You reach the sink, turning on the water and a smell hits your nose, instantly making you perk up. And your wolf, who had been giving you the silent treatment since your little argument earlier, finally reappears.

‘He’s here,’ she says in a happy, sing song voice. And you groan inwardly. Perfect, that’s just what you need right now. Ha! Not.

“Ah hey,” comes his soft, sexy voice from behind you, and a pleasant shiver runs down your spin. His voice quiet, as if he was worried about startling you. If only he knew what you were. That you could smell him in the room, could damn near sense his presence.

You glance over your shoulder, continuing to wash the dirty plate in the sink. “H-hey, Capsical,” you stutter out, instantly wanting to smack yourself upside the damn head. Smooth move, exlax!

Your eyes snap back to the sink, needing to focus on something other than the incessant need to jump him, right here, right now.

‘I vote we do exactly that,’ she offers, being her super helpful self, as always—Note the sarcasm.

You go to sigh frustratedly but the deep chuckle behind you halts that action. You flick your eyes back to him, and the sight makes your heart sore. He looks ridiculously handsome when he laughs, but of course he would. This is just your luck.

He takes a few large strides towards you. “It’s just Steve,” he says as he offers his hand out to you.

You furrow your brows, “oh, but the Stark guy said,” you trail off, confused.

“Yeah, Tony,” his free hand rubs the back of his neck. “He always likes to mess with me,” he gives you a small smile, but his eyes are down, looking at his still outstretched hand. That you’d completely forgotten that he’d offered you! Fuck!

‘Get it together woman! You are ruining this for us!’ Your wolf scolds you.

You quickly place the plate down in the sink, whipping your hands on your jeans, and then taking his large offered hand in your own. “It’s nice to um, to meet you, Steve,” you nod, shaking his hand as sparks shoot up your arm. “I’m Y/N.”

He continues to just stare at your joined hands, and your curious what it feels like to him. What touching you, his Mate, is like. You know the feelings coursing through your own body in this moment, the warmth, the sparks, the tingles. They all feel so amazing to you, but your senses are more heightened than his.

You quickly remove your hand from his, taking a step back. His smell is intoxicating, his nearness is driving you wild, and his touch is warming you in places no creature should be warmed, by just a mere handshake alone. Goddess, it is not going to be easy to stay away from this man. Not one freaking bit.

You turn back to the sink, just before he softly says your name, “Y/N.” As if tasting it on his lips, and his voice saying it makes your knees feel weak. Makes your heart race. Makes your skin heat up. “That’s a beautiful name.”

‘I say we just kill the girl and keep him forever.’

‘Shhh, you aren’t helping. At all,’ you say back to her, needing her to just zip it for right now. Just till you can get a handle on your stupid body.

“Thanks, my mom picked it out,” you shrug one shoulder, hoping it looks nonchalant. But who are you kidding, you know it probably didn’t.

You begin to wash the plate again, even though it is already clean, but you just need the damn distraction. Even more now.

You hear a barstool being pulled out, and almost groan loudly in discontent. Almost. Can’t he just leave already?! Why does he insist on staying here, flustering the hell out of you. You’re a strong woman, but you have your limits. And this, this is bordering on those damn limits.

“Can I ask you something?” He starts, unsurely, and you just hum, nodding for him to ‘go ahead’. All while still washing this stupid, now super clean, plate. “Why um,” he clears his throat awkwardly, “where did Fury find you?”

You glance back at him, quirking a brow, knowing full well that that was not what he was about to ask. What he was really wanting to ask. But you let it slide, knowing he’d ask you in his own time. So you just shrug and turn back to the sink, “known Fury for years. First bumped into him on a job a while back, we were hunting the same guy. He liked my,” you pause, scrunching up your nose as you aren’t entirely ready to drop the werewolf bomb just yet, “skills, I guess. He offered me a job with the little team you got here, I declined. And he has just sort of popped up here and there over the years. Offering me new missions every time, each with larger incentives, probably in the hopes I’d finally say yes.”

“Really?” He questions.

“Mhmm,” you nod.

“What made you say yes this time?”

You take a second to think about that. “Um, honestly,” you place the plate in the sink and turn to face him. Resting against the countertop and crossing your arms, “the money. I won’t lie and say I’m on this mission for honourable reasons. I don’t pretend to be the good guy.” You shrug, “I agreed to do this entirely for the payday at the end. Then when it’s all done, I’ll take my money and go back to my normal life.” You finish, and though your words came out confident sounding, your heart aches immensely at the thought of leaving Steve behind. At going back to your normal life, where he won’t be. You just met him, but already you feel like you can’t live without him. Fuck, you’re doomed. So utterly doomed.

‘We can’t leave now, and you know it,’ your wolf rolls her eyes at you. ‘Plus look at him, how could we walk away from that face!’

He nods slowly, a small frown on his face. One that breaks your heart, and makes you instantly want to cheer him up. Just to get that frown off his lovely lips. “You wouldn’t want to stay after? To join the team, I mean?” He asks quietly, hesitantly.

You sigh, looking down at the floor. Of course you’d want to stay. Fuck, you’d be okay with just moving directly into his room right now. If, if it wasn’t for that brunette. You aren’t a home wrecker. As much as you desperately want to be, you just aren’t. You wouldn’t want whatever beautiful love story you both were destined for, to start out like, like that.

“I honestly don’t know. I like my job,” you shake your head, “I love it actually. It gives me freedom, excitement, something to accomplish entirely on me own. I don’t have to rely on anyone. I just,” you shrug, “I work better on my own now. I’m better off alone now.”

And no matter how many times you say those words aloud, you still don’t really, truly believe them. You are a pack animal by nature, your kind strive to have that connection, the sense of a family. Being a rogue isn’t natural for you, it’s not the way you are wired.

But you can’t go back to your old pack, and most others wouldn’t even hear you out, if you approached them asking to join. Know one cares that you were the toughest warrior in your pack, no one cares that your loyalty track record was perfectly intact. That you’d never once wavered on orders or respect for you true Alpha. No one cares that you were a model pack member before the take over.

They just don’t care. All they care about is that when the new Alpha took over, you refused to accept him, to swear allegiance to him. To that monster. You may not like being a rogue, being packless, but even if you had to go back and relive that horrible moment over and over again, you’d still make the same decision every time. Without question.

“No one truly likes being alone,” Steve says softly, almost knowingly, like he could read your thoughts at this exact moment. But you know he can’t, it’s more likely that he is reading your current body language. Which you know is probably as easy to read as a dang book right now. You’re willing to bet that you’re currently giving off apprehensive, closed off, wary, and maybe even a little disheartened vibes at the moment.

“But being on this team,” he starts, “it’s like a family. We are all misfits in our on ways, we all have dark backgrounds. Or moments from our pasts that we aren’t proud of. But I believe that’s why we are all so happy here, that’s why this team works so well.” He shrugs, “because we all had nowhere else to go, and nothing to lose by being here,” he finishes, giving you a small, sweet smile, that makes you inwardly swoon.

‘Well, we’re sold. Where do we sign up?’

“And here Mike Wazowski said y’all weren’t trying to recruit me,” you playfully scoff, shaking your head. But you can’t stop the smile from forming on your lips, not one bit. And so much for having a poker face with this man.

‘Good. Now someone else can see through your bullshit,’ your wolf snarks, and you almost gasp in feigned and/or slightly real offence. You can’t really be too sure which.

He throws his hands up in mock surrender and chuckles lightly. And yup, that’s your new favourite sound. Hands down. “Not recruiting. Just saying ya don’t gotta go it alone,” he shrugs one shoulder, “if ya don’t want to, that is.”

You nod slowly, and honestly you don’t really want to be alone anymore. You miss having people to watch out for, people watching out for you. You miss having that feeling of family, of support, of love. You force a smirk, and you’re 100% sure he can tell it’s fake, “I’ll take it under advisement.”

He just nods, a knowing smile playing on his lips, but he doesn’t push the conversation any further. “So, Y/N, tell me about yourself?”

You glance down at your feet, arms still crossed over your chest as you shrug. “Not much to tell.”

“Now I don’t believe that,” he chuckles softly again. And damnit, if he could just stop doing that, it’s really fucking with you. “There is obviously a story here,” he gestures to your form. “Fury doesn’t just hound people for years, for nothing,” he shakes his head, quirking a brow at you. “Ex-military? Ex-cop? I’m just curious what you did to end up on Fury’s radar, is all.”

‘That Mate pull though,’ your wolf giggles out excitedly. ‘He wants to get to know us. Give him something, anything. I beg you!’

You sigh at your wolf’s over eagerness to spill all your dirty deeds to this man, without really even knowing a thing about him. Besides the odd stuff you’d heard about him over the years. But you have to tread lightly here, you can’t overstep. You need to remember he is taken, he isn’t truly yours.

“None of the above. It’s a long story, I was ah,” you falter, trying to figure out how to word this without giving too much away. “I was part of a team, I guess you could say. We had an amazing leader, he’d have done anything for us, given his life to protect us. But ah,” you shake your head at the horrible memories of that day. “He was killed. During a mission. And the guy that took over just,” you sigh, “it just wasn’t the same. I couldn’t devotedly follow him, or his orders, like I should have. Like I was supposed to, so I left,” you shrug, dropping your arms to your sides. “Decided to branch out on my own and became a bounty hunter. And a few years later, here I am,” you raise your hands to gesture around the room. “And that’s the whole story, in a nutshell.”

“I’m sorry about your leader, Y/N,” Steve says softly, and you know if anyone can understand the true feelings behind losing someone you care for, it’s him. The man out of time. “It’s never easy to lose someone we care deeply for, but we just keep pushing forward for them. To make them proud,” he smiles, but it isn’t a pitying one. It’s more reassuring. As if to tell you that you are strong, that you can live on past tragedy, and not only that, but that you can rebuild your life. Make it better, or at least just as good as it was before.

You nod, “thanks, Steve.” You can feel the tears pricking your eyes, but you refuse to let them fall. Not here. Not now. You need a distraction, someway to get off this heavy topic and back to lighter conversation. “So, tell me about yourself? What truly interests the great Captain Rogers?” You pause, then snap your fingers, “oh! I know! You collect stamps, don’t you?” You grin widely, pointing a finger at his, “don’t lie!”

He laughs, like truly laughs. The sounds stemming from deep within him, from deep within his belly. And you are instantly proud of yourself for being the cause of such a beautiful sound. Such a spellbinding reaction from this wall of a man. He glances down at the countertop for a moment, shaking his head almost fondly. And then his eyes flick up to you, from under his ridiculously long lashes. “No, I don’t collect stamps,” he grins widely. “I’m actually more into drawing.”

“Huh,” you hum, giving him a once over, appraisingly. “I never would have guessed that. You any good?”

‘Of course he is,’ your wolf rolls her eyes. ‘What a stupid thing to ask. You still suck a flirting, FYI.’

‘Shhhh!’ You hiss back at her in your head. ‘And I’m not trying to flirt with him!’

‘Bull. Shit.’ She calls you out. ‘I swear you forget sometimes that I’m literally in your head.’

‘Like I could forget that,’ you scoff. ‘Now zip it, I can’t focus with your constant narrating.’

He shrugs, “I dunno. I just draw for fun, a way to unwind. I don’t really show many people, so I have no idea how good I actually am.”

You get the distinct feeling that he is so full of shit right now. That he is just being modest, being humble. And now you’re so curious how good he actually is. “Well, if you ever decide to share, I’d love to see some of your work some time.”

He nods, smiling, “of course.”

You nod and then turn around, realizing you never put your plate away. You pick it up and glance at Steve over your shoulder. “Which cupboard?” You ask lifting the plate up for effect. Steve points to it and you quickly put it away, then open a few drawers until you find the utensils one, and put those away as well. Making mental notes of where they went for future food endeavours.

But now as a silence hangs over you both, only one question bounces around in your mind. And even though it’s slightly morbid, your curiosity is getting the better of you. That’s a lie, it’s more than just a curiosity, you need to know what you’re up against here. “So, ah, was that,” you turn back to face him, and you’re positive you look sheepish as hell—Which is a pretty odd descriptive word to refer to a wolf as, but you’ll ignore that currently.

‘We don’t act like sheep,’ your wolf scoffs, ‘we hunt them,’ she shakes her head, a toothly grin on her lips. ‘Now I know I’ve said this once already, but seriously, get it together, woman.’

And she’s clearly still being her extra sassy self. ‘And once again, not helping!’

He nods, urging you to continue. So you do, “that woman earlier, is she like,” you clear your throat, awkwardly. “Like your girlfriend or something?” You glance up at him, trying to gauge his reaction and then quickly add lamely, “she ah, she seemed nice.” Wow, could you be any more obvious?!

‘The answer is no,’ she shakes her head at you again, this time in disappointment.

‘Still not helping!’ You huff.

“Who?” He furrows his brows, looking utterly confused. It’s actually kinda cute. But of course it is. Damnit. “Kelly?”

“I don’t know,” you laugh awkwardly, and shrug, “I guess?”

He shakes his head and is about to speak when you smell two people close by. You tense up but instantly recognize Bucky’s scent, though the second one is new. Your eyes snap up just as Bucky and another guy enter the room.

They come towards you, and once they reach you Bucky gives you a handsome smile, “hey Doll.”

You grin at him, “oh hey, bestie. Thought of anyone for me to take out yet?”

“Take out?” Steve quietly murmurs under his breath, sounding both confused and slightly irked. It’s so quiet that you almost didn’t catch it, but thanks to your enhanced hearing, you had. Making a mental note to thank the Moon Goddess for that enhancement later.

Bucky just chuckles, side eyeing the man beside him, “maybe just one.”

You pick up on his meaning and wink, “consider it done.” He just nods, grinning in response.

“Do I even want to know?” The new guy says as he looks between you and Buck sceptically, his eyes slightly narrowed.

“I honestly think it’s best if you don’t see it coming,” you smirk wickedly at him, and he just stares back at you, looking almost nervous now.

This all earns a hearty laugh from the large brunette. “I can already tell that I’m really gonna enjoy having you around, Doll.”

The new guy looks at Steve, sighing deeply, “damn man, looks like we got two of them now.”

You glance at Steve and see the same curious look in his eyes, just like when he’d first witnessed you and Buck interacting. His eyes just shifting between you both as he assesses the situation. “Yeah, looks like it,” he says quietly, nodding.

You have to fight to not grin like an idiot when you realize it isn’t actually a curious look at all, it’s a jealous look. The last thing you want is to upset him, or make him jealous, in any way. Not a good base for a long term relationship. But at the same time, you will most likely be subjected to witnessing that woman all over him, and often. So maybe a little jealousy on his end isn’t such a bad thing.

You turn to the new guy, offering him a smile and your right hand, “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

“Sam,” he smiles back, shaking your hand, all jokes aside now. “Welcome to the team, Y/N.”

“Thanks,” you nod, “though I’m not actually on the team for good. Just here for the mission then I head home.”

Bucky frowns, “wait, just for the one mission?” He glances around at the other guys, “you aren’t sticking around after?”

You shrug, “not sure, honestly. But that wasn’t the original plan when I agreed to help.”

“Damn,” he sighs, “I was really looking forward to the permanent backup against Bird-Brain over here,” he nods to Sam.

The aforementioned just rolls his eyes, “I’m going to ignore that comment this time. Mainly because now I’m super curious why Fury would bring an outside agent in on this mission. You ex-special ops or something?”

“No,” you shake your head. “Nothing like that.”

“Ex-shield?” Bucky asks next.

“No, definitely not,” you chuckle.

“Okay,” Sam nods slowly, “so you’re enhanced then?”

‘More than you could ever know, Bird-Brain,’ your wolf snickers. Clearly liking the nickname.

“Sort of?” You scrunch up your face. And it’s not technically a lie.

Sam glances at the other guys quickly, then shifts his eyes back to you. “Okay, consider us intrigued.”

“Would you be interested in showing us some of your skills?” Steve asks, drawing your full attention back to him now.

‘We’d gladly show you any ‘skills’ you’d like, big boy,’ your wolf purrs in your head. ‘Just say the word and we’re yours.’

And you straight up almost choke on nothing, but quickly compose yourself before you cause a scene. “Sure ah, yeah,” you nod quickly, “yeah, I can do that.”

“Alright, let’s head down to the training room then,” Sam says excitedly as everyone heads towards the elevators.

Now you aren’t sure exactly what they are all hoping for here, but what you do know is that even the two super soldiers won’t even be able to keep up with you. Not a hope in hell.

They don’t stand a chance against you. Yes, they may be enhanced, but nowhere near as much as you are. And you honestly can’t wait to show them this fact, first hand. You can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when you show them all up.

Because as for your ‘skills’—Well, in the famous words of Tony the Tiger, ‘They’re greeeeeat!’

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you want to be added or removed from this stories tag list, just ask! I can make that happen! ;)

@caps-lockdown @boxofteenageideas @wangdeasang @giggleberts @casuallydarktiger @theonelittleone @agentbadbitch @ratwrites @starrystellars @bandsandanimefreak @rockyroadthepastryarchy @lovvliies @cuffski @icesoccerer @alwaysright4 @lilsthethrills @imdiegohargreeves @zombiepotterfour @mu-mu-rs @ledandan1244 @straightforwardly @denzmallows @xremember-me-notx @gwynethjodie @lollipopdomination @capstopavenger @jemimah-b99 @rcvenqers @justkending @alagalaska @silent-loucidity @sabertooth-potato @pies-wands-and-more @interstellarmess @gabriella69816 @phantom-soilder @wordlesscaptain @captain-hammer-of-asgard @starstucknature @viarogers @pixieferry @kaithezaftig @the-kinkiest-goblin @hysterically-original @badassbeckettswan @heyiamthatbitch @zlixlle @capsicledoll @givemehopenfandoms @pretendingandpreposterous @frozen-phoenix17 @emotionallysalty @saturngirlz @atomicsludgedonutbiscuit @ivannagotthebeat @bohemian-barbie @marvelous-capsicle

[thegraysquirrel]

Self-Promotion Sunday

For self-promotion Sunday from @mouseymightymarvellous , I would like to bring the following to your attention:

*scrambles to search for anything useful to promote* 

Oh! There was that one time I was making a promotional speech for Obito in the hypothetical situation of Obito in his prime (no Rinnegan though) fighting Shisui in his prime in hopes of convincing people to vote for Obito instead of Shisui! Below the cut, you will find all 3600 words of it... Because go big or go home.

(If I knew how the hell I would put this on AO3, I so would. But. Tags? Format? okay format would be easy probably I have no idea how to get this on there. Title? I know how to jump literal hurdles but I draw the line at figurative hurdles.)

One last thing! You might be asking, “Why?!” and I would shrug. In reality, I don’t like that Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami is regarded as unbeatable in the Naruto ‘verse. Everything should have a weakness and I just exploited my love for Obito as a character to throw him at Shisui and it worked remarkably well.

I will title this: 

Why Obito (who fell through literal cracks and out of reality as he knew it while regarded as dead last and then dead first) Would Beat Shisui (the legend, the martyr, the Uchiha genius that seemed to have it all in terms of skills and abilities)

Okay so I have thoughts and I have to live up to my “commenting disaster” name so here goes. If you ever wanted to know how authors could feel when they got a comment from me, then buckle in. (wow this turned out to be about 2 full AO3 comments, yes, this is exactly how writers will feel upon seeing my comments in their inbox!)

I think it’s a wild guess that Shisui would have been able to manipulate the complete Uchiha clan through Fugaku.

SHISUI’S JUTSU AND WHAT I THINK OF IT

SHISUI’S LIMITATIONS AND LACK OF EXPERIENCE WITH KOTOAMATSUKAMI I don’t think Shisui’s ability has ever been countered or met his match in the short time he spent on the pages of the manga. Shisui doesn’t know how to tell if someone is fighting the manipulation, and he CAN’T know for sure that no one could. Considering he could use it once every ten years and he is younger than Genma, he hasn’t even got a lot of practise with it. He’ll have used it, what, once? So let’s say he used it twice, since he’s got two eyes. 

That’s TWO instances in which he used it—are you honestly telling me that his technique is unstoppable because he used it twice with no one countering? I’m not buying this. We don’t know the limits, and Shisui sure as hell doesn’t either. 

(I’ll admit, maybe it’s 10 years because the crow does not share the Uchiha blood. We can say Shisui could not use it for 2 years for the sake of Shisui, y’know… being able to build a reputation with it. I think Shisui had his Kotoamatsukami when Itachi was 5 years old, so he had it for about 8 years = 8 or 16 attempts, IF he spams his technique the second it comes off cooldown like us gamers do. Otherwise, he used it TWICE at most)

PEOPLE SAY “THIS JUTSU IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT/THIS DEFENSE IS MORE SOLID THAN A ROCK” AND WERE PROVEN WRONG Do I think everyone has the potential to beat Shisui’s genjutsu? Hell no. But we CAN’T just buy the people’s words for it when we have so little data and they actually have little data too. The people Shisui used it on probably weren’t even a challenge in the genjutsu department. Here’s my thoughts about when people say something about a jutsu being *waves hand* without weakness. 

Gaara was said to have Absolute Defence and Sasuke managed to penetrate it when he was a Genin and everyone was like “Whaaaat he got through the Absolute Defence how is that possible??”

In chapter 257, Kakashi says “There is no cancelling the effects of [Itachi’s Tsukuyomi],” but Sasuke still managed to do so later with an ordinary sharingan. Kakashi’s sharingan prowess in dealing with Itachi’s mangekyou sharingan were inferior to that of this particular Uchiha. Sasuke did it by putting a genjutsu on himself to break free of the former genjutsu.

I’m sure there are more instances when jutsus are called “impossible to defeat” only for someone to go in and say, “bitch, watch me prove you wrong.” Naruto did it with the 3rd Raikage, in a way. “Impossible to defeat” means nothing. 

The only thing we have for Shisui’s eye-technique to be unstoppable is his and everyone’s beliefs that it’s flawless. But really, if Itachi’s powerful Tsukuyomi could be broken by an individual Uchiha, then why can’t Shisui’s have flaws that can be exploited (by another Uchiha)? When fighting an Uchiha and it’s one on one, flee, is Chiyo’s advice—unless you are also an Uchiha, I amend, even if your eyes are still basic instead of the premium version. 

CLOSER LOOK ON SHISUI’S VICTIMS Follow me on this wild speculation. (If you’re still reading, you rock!) It was said that a different person would need to question the one under the genjutsu for them to even consider the possibility of being manipulated. Let’s also list off the people we know or assume have been under Shisui’s eye’s manipulation:

Bloody Mist ninjas

More Bloody Mist ninjas

Probably ninjas from other villages they were at war with (I honestly don’t know)

Probably the Elders via Danzo (I’m vague on the details, but very likely right?)

The Daimyo via Danzo (wow that was really a challenge to influence him. Someone without ninja skills.)

Mifune via Danzo

Edo Tensei Itachi via crow instructed by Itachi (well, the eye was instructed by Itachi)

If I look at the list, I’m not seeing anyone who would give Shisui (or the holder of Shisui’s eye) a challenge, especially as Itachi got under control willingly. Just like Kakashi had no trouble fighting Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto in the first bell test, Shisui is on a level most people will never be able to reach.

The last one is the only one we know used on an Uchiha. We can’t actually conclude much or anything from it because Itachi orchestrated the Kotoamatsukami, but it was Itachi himself to make note of the manipulation. He was aware of the genjutsu. So the manipulation was noted.

MY CONCLUSION ON SHISUI He’s got the greatest genjutsu, but here’s the thing—he doesn’t know how to fight against other geniuses of genjutsu. It’s the same with eSports, when you are the best by far, you don’t get the experience against the people who match your skill, and that means you get rusty (YES I stole these words right from of a player in the LCS of League of Legends, be happy that I didn’t throw KICK a soccer metaphor at you) and since this tournament I’m arguing for is a knock-out, any mistake can cost you the tournament. His genjutsu is revered as the best, that it can’t be broken, but other jutsus that have been called flawless have been shown to have flaws that could be exploited. Shisui doesn’t have enough experience to have found them out himself. Shisui will win if his Kotoamatsukami works 100% on the enemy, but it’s less sure if the enemy breaks (partly) free.

But who could possibly have a chance of breaking free from it?

*RECORD SCRATCH* (In my document I had the following in a very big font. I miss my big font. ;-;)

MY ARGUMENTS FOR WHY OBITO CAN BREAK FREE FROM KOTOAMATSUKAMI (And why he can win it)

GENJUTSU AND MANIPULATION Obito is not just passing with genjutsu, he’s GOOD, because he was able to even control Yagura—a perfect Jinchuriki, someone who has a built-in pacemaker, but then a pacemaker for when the brain zones out of reality and needs to come back. He managed to somehow convince everyone that he was Uchiha Madara and he double-crossed the actual Madara too—this dude knows how manipulation works, even if that alone obviously won’t help him against a genjutsu of manipulation (it’s a good thing he’s got his own mangekyou sharingan, otherwise he’d definitely be toast). Still thought it worth mentioning. 

I hear you say, “Madara manipulated him!”

Actually, no, I don’t think he did?

Hot take: (I don’t know enough of the general consensus to know if it is a hot take) Obito was NOT manipulated by Madara.

Madara manipulated the situations, but Obito remained true to himself in reacting to them. Whether it would have been Madara’s super evil plan to kill Rin or if it had been The Leaf’s own incompetence at sending kids into dangerous territory (resulting in the deaths of said kids because the system is SHIT), Obito would have reacted the same. 

Yes, Madara is evil for playing with people’s lives like a kid does with blocks to build a structure, but Madara’s involvement isn’t important to the outcome. I think that Madara was unable to “genjutsu bullshit” his way into Obito’s mind, otherwise Madara would have hella secured Obito’s actions already. If Obito could have been influenced by “genjutsu suggestions”, no way in hell would Madara have simply kept asking Obito angrily, “Bring me to life, Obito, I hate being dead. I can’t become the Juubi’s jinchuuriki like this, Obito. Bring. Me. To. Life. (Wake me up.)”

Madara, feared by the world, didn’t use genjutsu on Obito from what we saw. He fell back on manipulating the circumstances for Obito, and the only reason I can think of that is because Obito isn’t susceptible to Madara’s suggestive genjutsu. 

Every time I watch the Obito and Madara episode, I just see Madara spouting words and Obito indulging the old man until he can get out of here. In my interpretation, the words have nothing to latch onto. When Obito returns, it’s his own choice. Madara’s and Obito’s interests aren’t aligning as much as Madara would like, and as such, Obito remains more than just Madara’s pawn.

OBITO IS HELLA STUBBORN (OOPS AND MANIPULATION AGAIN) ANYWAY, if ANYONE would be able to find a flaw in Shisui’s eye technique, Obito would. HECK, he even managed to keep his mind sound when the Juubi was driving him crazy. Like, that anime sequence when his limbs were torn apart? That thing. This dude got willpower and a stubbornness to follow the path he wants to take even if it’s really a dumb path. I might be easily swayed and manipulated, but Obito is not. Shisui wouldn’t even need his eyes to sway me, but on Obito he would need to give his 100% and, again, I’m not sure Shisui has ever been pushed to his limit, and he ALSO thinks that he’s impossible to beat so he’s not even going to give it his 100% (he might think he is, but you’ll only know how fast you can run when you’re chased by something you really don’t want catching up to you or if your alarm went off too late and you really need to be on time). Against Obito, it’s a flaw for Shisui’s ability that it’s about manipulating his decision, because Obito is a master of manipulation himself. He knows what Madara did to him. He fought the Juubi. Obito would walk into a tree rather than change his mind about what path he should walk.

OBITO HAS EXPERIENCE Obito at his prime also has a lot more experience with his ability, he knows his own limitations and how to use it as a part of himself. He can use it multiple times, he can use it in ways Shisui would not expect... Shisui would need to figure it out fast, and I think Obito at his prime (TWO Kamui sharingan) just has too many tricks up his sleeve for even Shisui of the Body Flicker to keep up with. 

MY SLEEP DEPRIVED CONCLUSION ON OBITO What I think Obito has: he got the stubbornness + sharingan skillz for weakening Shisui’s genjutsu on himself enough or maybe even completely repel it so Obito can actually still do things + Obito’s own mad skillzzz with Kamui. Shisui loses. 

TO CONCLUDE

I’ve got a lot of fanon thoughts (or maybe just my personal fix-it for canon) on Obito that I won’t unpack here (it’s that Obito is actually a genius himself even if it never showed clearly in his years pre-sharingan) because, hey, people don’t like reading 1k of random shizzle when they just want to vote for their boy Shisui! But please give Obito a chance because I feel he actually has a chance!

TL;DR 

Shisui has never been challenged in his abilities (especially not by an Uchiha). He won’t know what his all-out is for this, so he won’t go all-out 

Abilities have been called flawless before only for someone to be “hold my beer” and fuck them up. Case in point: Sasuke practically made Gaara cry

There’s been precedent of an Uchiha with normal sharingan getting out of what is hailed as one of the best genjutsus whereas no one without     sharingan would be able to do that alone (or at all)

Unlike Sasuke at that point, Obito has been a master of genjutsu and has a mangekyou sharingan at the point of fighting 

Obito knows what manipulation is and has even kept to his sanity* when the Juubi was tearing him apart. He has manipulated practically everyone, including a perfect jinchuuriki. He will be able to find a flaw in Shisui’s jutsu because he’s too stubborn to change his mind enough about yeeting (parts of) himself to his Kamui dimension when there’s danger

Obito knows his own ability like the back of his hand, including limitations, so Shisui will have a hard time fighting Obito if his own Kotoamatsukami isn’t winning the fight for him. 

*Okay, so maybe Obito isn’t completely sane, but Sakura wasn’t either when she fought off a jutsu working on the mind. I think Obito’s instability even gives him a cookie point

PLEASE GIVE OBITO A CHANCE I EVEN TALKED MY POOR SISTER’S EAR OFF DURING DINNER BECAUSE OF THIS

LET HER SACRIFICE NOT BE IN VAIN

 ---

(Counterarguments with my own reply I put in that document)

Honestly Great Argumenter for Shisui: my counter argument: Shisui is known as the ultimate uchiha genjutsu master. And hes also the best looking. ;)

         Me: In reply to greatest genjutsu master-- Would you say that Itachi was a greater genjutsu master than Sasuke? Because Sasuke broke free from ITACHI'S genjutsu. I'm not saying that Obito would put Shisui under a genjutsu--it's just that Shisui's genjutsu wouldn't hold as well as it normally would, and that might be enough already.

         HGAS: Shisui would still be faster than obito if we take genjutsu out of the equation completely Minato was able to almost kill obito due to speed so that can't be discounted. Obito had to retreat from his fight with minato.          Me: How old was Obito? 14? (Kakashi and Obito are both 31 at the end of Shippuuden, and Naruto’s birthday is in October, so Obito would have turned 32 in the following February of the war, and THIS means that Obito was 14 during the fight against Minato too, because Kakashi was 14 at the time of Naruto’s birth but Naruto timelines are terrible) I hardly call that his prime! And against Shisui, Obito will have two Kamui, whereas against Minato, he only had one. The fight would be different, I feel.

---

YO BECAUSE I STILL GOT TIME HERE I WILL ADD TO THIS. I warned you, if you feel confused where this is all coming from, you’re probably feeling the exact same things Mumma does at some of my Konoha Files comments. This is how I roll. AND PLEASE IF YOU WANT TO TALK KONOHA FILES HIT ME UP because I’ve got a lot more thoughts on that than on Obito vs Shisui!

EXPERIENCE Shisui graduated any age between 6 and 12, but we know that about two years later, he met Itachi who was 5, and 8 years later he died (I think he died when Itachi was 13 because there was more time between Shisui’s death and the other Uchihas’ deaths). Shisui died when he was between 16 and 22. (I am not familiar with the book canon!)

This means Shisui had at most 10-11 years of experience as a ninja. Yes, one year after graduating he got the Kotoamatsukami, so he got 10 years TOPS with his Mangekyou Sharingan which had a freaking long timer of usage in between, regardless of how many years we put it as; 10 years, 2 years, Shisui would have kept that ace up his sleeve so he would not spam the ability the second it came off cooldown.

Obito graduated when he was 9. At his prime he was 31 years old. That’s 22-23 years of experience for Obito as a ninja! He got his mangekyou sharingan when he was, what, 14 (at the end of shippuuden he is 31, and Kakashi is 31 too, so they might have been the same age—and then the Kyuubi summoning was when he was 14)? That’s 17 years of experience with his Mangekyou sharingan. 

Obito will have had way more battles with his ability than Shisui, way more opponents that would challenge his way of using his ability so Obito KNOWS what his flaws are. He knows what it will be like to fight against someone with kamui! He fought Minato and knows how the Flying Thunder God/teleportation can be used against him (and that was when he had his Mangekyou sharingan for less than a year!). In his battles, even when he was mostly forced to stay in the normal dimension because he needed to get his hands on someone, he has shown that he can slip body parts into his dimension even when he is attacked from all sides. His reaction time is solid (even if he is not because... dimension stuff).

Conclusion: Obito has more years of experience than Shisui at fighting with his mangekyou and more moments of figuring out his own limits and flaws and adjust his fighting style to minimize them. Obito has also had more momentous fights to test out his own abilities, including The 3rd Mizukage, The Fourth Hokage, Copy Ninja Kakashi with Kamui himself, other Uchihas during the Uchiha massacre (they count), Konan, Naruto and Killer B. Seriously, he’s more well-rounded than Shisui!

---

THE MIST Shisui fought ninjas, soldiers of the Mist and was feared by them. Obito won from the strongest ninja of the Mist, the Mizukage who was also a FREAKING PERFECT JINCHUURIKI and kept him under his control for YEARS. I know which feat I think is more admirable. 

SPEED Shisui is hailed for his speed, but the Body Flicker is said “To an observer, it appears as if the user has teleported. It is accomplished by using chakra to temporarily vitalise the body and move at extreme speeds.” Obito has FOUGHT Minato, who actually is able to teleport. This was 17 years ago!!! Obito has improved because he was just a fledgling who even had to figure out how his new arm worked!!! Yes, Shisui is faster than Obito, but Shisui will not be fast enough to pulverize Obito. Don’t forget, the kamui sharingan has the added benefits of being able to predict the opponent’s movements, see chakra, so Shisui’s speed advantage is diminished against any Uchiha.

OBITO’S TECHNIQUE Shisui has no idea what Obito’s technique could be and honestly, passing through him mid-fight is already a scary thought, just think how disappearing from sight and appearing could be. Heck, Obito could probably even be in his own dimension, spit fire, and then long-range Kamui it back to the dimension where Shisui is. The precision of it can be worth speculating, but if Obito can appear on a branch of a tree, then he sure as hell can know where exactly he’d send his fireball jutsu. He just does. He’s got the spatial awareness of the overlap between his own dimension and the one Shisui recedes in. And how would Shisui counteract this attack, huh? He can’t body flicker to Obito’s dimension.

Even if Obito stays in the dimension Shisui is in, Shisui won’t be able to exploit the weaknesses. It took Konan a long time to know what the timer for Obito’s ability was, and Konan had her own ability to exploit that weakness. From what we know of Uchihas fight styles, I am having a hard time figuring out what Shisui could do to exploit Obito’s timer—and that’s only if he can figure it out, which he won’t. No one but Konan has found out about that particular tid bit, to my knowledge.

Let’s say Shisui got a hit on Obito. A hit means contact and he gets sucked to the other dimension. Afterwards, Obito would return to the dimension with food and eat while Shisui starves. Win. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but the people who have managed to get a hit on Obito when Obito could use kamui (Remember! Obito could not use kamui when he was the Juubi jinchuuriki!):

Minato with his Flying Thunder God move when Obito was new to kamui, to his arm, and only had his right eye kamui and not his left

Kakashi but that was when he was in the other dimension while Obito was still fighting Naruto. Since Obito vs Shisui is a 1v1, this won’t happen

Kakashi because he used his OWN kamui to get a kunai to Obito. Uhuh, Kakashi got a lot of hits mostly because Kakashi had kamui.

Kakashi again, but that was because it would be hella stupid to phase out to the dimension that had a war going on.

Konan (she was so badass)

I honestly don’t remember more, do you?

Shisui is amazing with his body flicker, really, but Obito can dodge left and right. Shisui won’t get a hit on him unless Obito allows it, because Obito got the damn experience!

With two kamui’s, Obito’s transportation (himself and of others he holds on to) is faster, as we’ve seen when Obito and Kakashi worked together to move Obito to his own dimension. Obito’s speed has increased with two kamui’s. 

SHISUI’S TECHNIQUE Shisui is a softy. I’m sorry, but he is. Aoba lived to tell the tale because Shisui wanted to scare them off with his genjutsu instead of killing them. Danzo was put under a genjutsu by Shisui and Shisui thought it was enough even when the genjutsu was done (and then Danzo managed to take an eye of BODY FLICKER SHISUI, so hey, his speed ain’t gonna be the end of it all). Shisui relies on his genjutsu deterring people—that’s obviously going to be his go-to move, and it means he can be caught off-guard when it’s not as effective.

He’s good at Taijutsu (or at least, he would win every spar against Itachi but Itachi was 3-9 years younger, so…), but even Taijutsu master Gai didn’t manage to land a hit on Obito when he used his nunchucks--would Shisui really be able to do what Taijutsu master Gai could not? 

Another TL;DR

Shisui simply doesn’t have the tools against an Uchiha as experienced as Obito. Obito’s ability is a different kind of OP than Shisui’s because Obito knows how to use it as a part of him, whereas Shisui’s ability is something he has relied on very heavily because no one has countered it yet. Obito will find the weakness in Shisui’s “strongest” genjutsu and be able to win from Shisui because of all the battle experience against talented individuals Obito has had. Obito managed to unite the five nations all on his own, he was THAT powerful.

We’ve said before that Shisui is on a different level from practically everyone, but honestly?

Obito stares down on Shisui from his god tier level 

*mic drop*

[quietlysatan]

An Invincible Summer - ShanaStoryteller, AO3

Link: Here!!

Rating: T for read the warnings, but don’t worry too much because of them

Favorite Quote(s): I legit wanna tattoo this next quote on me somewhere

"Oh, the things that can be accomplished through ignorance of their impossibility," 

And this Straight Up Fact

“There’s no such thing as cheating as long as you win,” Natsu says, and the brat’s not wrong.

This one’s just funny

“Chouza,” Inoichi forces himself to say evenly, “Your teachings produced Ebisu and goddamned Gai.”

“Genma’s pretty normal though,” Chouza sighs, “I never could get through to that boy.”

Gently Gai casually caring about Kakashi’s well-being is my entire reason for living, speaking of which if someone wants to come be my Gai that’d be really fucking nice because us Kakashi’s don’t do too well on our own

He hesitates, but says, "Not that I do not find your newfound mentorship to be a most youthful endeavor, but -"

"I don't know," Kakashi interrupts his friend, "I met her while she was taking her genin exam and she, I don't know, adopted me or something. She just keeps showing up."

Gai nods thoughtfully, "Stubbornness is a useful skill to have when trying to cultivate a friendship with you." Kakashi elbows the other man, but doesn't protest besides that. "She's a good cook."

And this one because I love it when people Get It, ya’know?

That's really why he won't say anything, why he won't reveal that the Kyuubi's container and the fourth Hokage's child is still alive: they already killed him once. Naruto and Shikamaru are the same age, they would have been in the same class, and the idea that anyone could want to harm his innocent, precious son makes his blood boil 

And this one, for accuracy

"This sounds like a most youthful endeavor. I will bring Anko! She will fan the flames of youth in our young Konoha blossom!"

Both Itachi and Kakashi look at Gai, horrified. "Please don't," Itachi says weakly, like he knows it'll fall on deaf ears but he has to try anyway.

"Don't worry," Gai attempts to assure them, going into his Good Guy pose, "They will produce youthful flames of feminine excellence!"

"They're going to burn down Konoha," Kakashi says flatly.

Gai's hair and teeth sparkle in the sunlight, and he doesn't attempt to deny it.

Another important one

"The world is a terrible place," she says, and she has to swallow before she speaks again, "and it's full of terrible people. But I don't have to be one of them." 

I love that Natsu-chan has great balance, this is my number one favorite character trope, and I wish more people would write it

She bends down to look at him upside down, and Itachi can feel that she's not using chakra to stick onto him, and sometimes her balance just isn't logical. 

I just love the idea of tiny genius Naruto, and I love that Natsu-chan is a seal master at like, fucking seven and a half lol

Itachi knows it's actually far more complicated than that, but just as he does not tell her minutia of the past shinobi wars in their history lessons, she does not overcomplicate her explanations of sealing. Usually he's grateful for that, but when she appears to break every known law to sealing and chakra, he's not.

"That's," he blinks and he's not going to tell her it's impossible because it clearly isn't, "new," he settles on.

A mood honestly

Inoichi now feels the urge to bang his head against the table top, because 'a huge pain' to Natsu is 'literally impossible' to everyone else.

Another mood honestly

Inoichi watches his former genin dig in with resignation. “When are you guys going to start picking up the tab? Feeding you all isn’t cheap you know.”

Hana swallows her mouthful, “Sensei, I am but a lone healer’s apprentice –“

“I have been a chunin less than a month,” Kabuto pouts, wounded, “and already you seek to profit-“

“Do you have any idea how much sealing paper and ink costs?” Natsu demands.

“Okay, okay,” Inoichi grumbles, but it’s not very effective considering he’s smiling, “I take it back, jeez.”

Okay so, since this is a 100k+ word fic, I’ve been doing this thing lately literally just now on this fic review where I only feature quotes from the first chapter (Depending on length.) but, I’m making an exception because I’ve never seen these three characters and my thoughts on them summed up so well by someone I don’t know which is to say anyone, no one I know cares about my interests really lol

"Maybe a little," he admits grudgingly, "Sakura's really smart, but she acts dumb for some reason. And her endurance is really bad. She probably would have been failed on that alone if she didn't have such good aim with shuriken. And Sasuke's good at like, everything, I still don't get why he didn't graduate earlier. He's just so-" Kiba rubs his hand over his face.

"So what?" Hana prompts, even though she's heard this particular complaint before.

"Sad," the genin sighs, "He's miserable all the time, and he works hard and if you yell at him for long enough he'll work with you, but - crap, I don't know. He's got this really great poker face so you think he's just a big jerk, but I can smell his emotions, the big idiot, and he's just this sad lonely kid who won't listen to anyone."

Hana hums, because if she opens her mouth she'll probably start cursing the Hokage and his dumb rules and his dumb ideas, and that is not the type of thing that leads to a long life.

Just one last quote because dudes, guys, pals, friends of mine it’s important and you should all stop and read it.

 “Thanks for being cool with – everything. I’m really happy you’re not mad at me for not being honest with you.”

“You are my friend,” Gaara says warmly, “and you have always been honest about that.”

Words & Chapter(s): 136,306 words of greatness, and 6 full chapters of nicely done completion

Summary: When Naruto is five, he's gutted by a drunken civilian and presumed dead.

Six months later a girl with ash pale hair and dark blue eyes enters the Academy. 

(Guys I swear on my cool as fuck username, and all around internet personality as practically satan and probably Lucifer and whatnot that nobody we like stays dead or severely injured)

Score: 13, this is one of my favorites for a reason, this is actually my second technically third time rereading this in as many weeks

Pairing(s): Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, background Haku/Zabuza, but don’t worry anything you’re thinking of is addressed quite nicely in the fic ultra background but still there’s a lot of relationships and I’m not going to tag them all

Warning(s): Naruto technically dies more than once because this is Naruto we’re talking about but they also technically don’t??? You gotta read it, but basically temporary character death, only the bad guys stay dead in this one.

Nobody knows that Naru-chan lived so there’s that angst for you, however, to be fair it’s not like this whole story is just characters mourning and crying and whatnot, at this point it’s mostly just passing thoughts and memories which, again, to be fair, does almost feel worse at times... Huh, regardless it’s not overly angsty

Kakashi is adopted whether he likes it or not by Natsu-chan, we love both of our emotionally fucked over fair-haired ninja in this house so you won’t have to worry about that sorta fic coming outta nowhere from me BTW... but anyways, Kakashi freaks out a bit, much like the abused dog he always reminds me of, but Natsu is the sweetest and most gentle, yet forceful person he could’ve possibly caught the attention of. (This is canon)

The Akatsuki are still bad, BUT ITACHI ISN’T technically SO WHO FUCKING CARES!!!! (The Massacre still happens tho...)

Mentions of The Flower District and what that implies, and also things a Kunoichi might definitely do

Oh my fucking god the Hyuga... Who would willingly do something so horrible as that? Of all the things... Warning for... The Hyuga branch family situation, it’s dealt with nearly as soon as we are informed but, gods, my blood ran cold, and my face whited out, my sister thought someone had died when she saw my face haha,,, who the fuck does this? And do they die? In canon I mean? I think I only watched up to the chunin exams or Pein’s attack, I can’t remember which tho...

Natsu cries because people are nice to her sometimes. And honestly that’s fair, I burst into to tears once because I imagined someone kissing my forehead softly so, Natsu is completely valid... Sidenote, I’m touch-starved and have no cure for this beyond younger siblings and my cat because I don’t have the ability to ask my mom for a hug without literally gross sobbing and I have A Thing about embarrassment sooooo... yeah if anyone has some therapy justu for me that’d be nice

Mentions of Gross Men that apparently want to have Natsu’s increasingly growing collection of the absolute most dangerous people she can befriend pay them a visit. And by that, I mean an old fuckwit has the gall to leer at a TEN-YEAR-OLD and a FUCKING THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD!!!!!! Ugh, I hate those kinds of pathetic worms.

On that note, there is technically underaged things going on, but they are also Ninja soooo???? They’ve killed people and are technically in their version of an army, and by the laws of their lands they’re all adults, actually I’m pretty sure by shinobi life expectancy Kakashi is middle-aged, Inoichi is a senior citizen, and Hiruzen is a walking corpse tbh

Alcoholism??? I don’t really think it is but I’m not sure, but some characters do drink often, and usually when stressed courtesy of Natsu and co. but still... I don’t actually know if it is because it doesn’t actually happen much, more like every few weeks/months

Mentions of past sexual assault, and attempted past sexual assault, neither happen in fic or to any of our main characters, the experiences are not graphic though they do talk about it in chapter five, it’s not to graphically described.

Also, a bunch of off-screen lemon

A Thing (That I copy-pasted from the author so that all of you will see it and not say a single word against it.): If you thought Natsu was too mature for her age - she has seen and been through some really horrible shit. But also: my cousin has, since he was like 4, hung out with kids that were about 4 years older than him because those were the kids that were in his neighborhood or whatever. Point being, even after he started school, his main group of friends was consistently older than him. He very quickly adapted to that, and to this day (he's 12) hangs out with that same group, and considers children his own age 'kids' because he adapted to the behavior of the group he was surrounded with. I hardly believe Natsu would be any different.

And also

4. Quick little note because some people mentioned liking my portrayal of the Sandaime. I base his decisions/motivations (and Itachi and Danzo's to a certain extent) around this quote by Clementine von Radics: "It is so hard to live half monster, to hurt everything you love by trying to protect it wrong."

Pros: Watching Natsu just casually disregard the idea of gender with little to no thought is the greatest thing anyone will ever experience beyond, I dunno, the party we’re all gonna collectively throw when soggy Cheeto dies (I still haven’t decided which song we should make chart number one when that happens)

Given that I’ve technically read this three times you should already know the writing is fucking amazing, like, whoa, mind blown type of amazing, like, wow, so good, I usually hate rereading something I’ve read before, and especially so soon after the fact but geez Louis is this fic amazing

Natsu is just as easy to fall in love with as Naruto, and they are still the same people with slightly different personalities as is to be realistically expected with a situation like Naru’s was.

Also, GENDERFLUID REPRESENTATION DONE FUCKING AMAZINGLY IS ALWAYS A PLUS!!!!!!! 

The author manages to convey a very realistic genderfluid character in an incredibly believable manner, while also still keeping Natsu/Naruto themself. They’re still the Naruto that we knew and loved, but they’re different too, as is to be expected. when Natsu is a girl no-one stumbles, she is a girl without a doubt, even the author doesn’t trip up on societal expectations, and when Naruto is a boy there is next to immediate acceptance of this fact with absolutely zero (0) Zero bullshit from transphobes, which, as a genderfluid person myself, is always fucking nice to see. You’ll have to read it to know more though.

Natsu running around creating seals is honestly the greatest thing ever, and the end scene with the village made me cry a lil bit, and dammit this fic is so fucking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, there’s a scene, where Natsu heals Kakashi, and the way the author handled explaining the intimate not sexual relationship between two of my favorite characters ever is just, so subtly beautiful, the sibling-bond these two have is beautiful, and a part of me wants to cry sometimes when I read it, and usually do cry a little when I get to this scene, and only partially because of what happened directly before it.

I love the way everybody just gets up and moves past their trauma and just decides to politely ignore it, oh they still have it, they still deal with it, but they care, and they are careful about it, and even though it hurts them like a knife-wound to the kidney in slow-motion they still get back up and keep fucking going. That’s hella admirable and I can respect that, I can respect even more that they slowly but surely let themselves heal as time moves on. This fic is beautiful on so many different levels but it is this one perhaps, that is the most magnificent. Perhaps.

Sasuke is adorable and depressing and adorable and I love it. And Ino is still a bad bitch but she’s a kid so we only see it like a handful of times in the first two chapters. The Akimichi/Yamanaka/Nara are all great, and I occasionally pity Inionchicause like, he’s putting up with a well-informed seal genius that’s still hyper, a slightly frightening medic-kunoichi with giant dogs, another slightly more frightening medic-nin who isn’t the greatest fighter but damn can he be intimidating and also really good at pointing out “Certain Things” while judging you about them which, honestly, is my greatest pastime. Itachi is so sweet and then so tragic oh my gods, and Natsu never even considers giving up on him. Kakashi is so sweet, and he slowly becomes less of a beaten dog as time goes on and I just love all of these characters.

Except for Hiruzen. Well, no, I still love this particular incarnation of Hiruzen, for all that he’s got one hell of a pathetically small backbone, I get why he does shit. But that doesn’t make me happy. Still, he’s better than dumbledouchebag. Granted that’s not difficult, and you might have to actively put an effort in to be as bad as that guy, but still. Plus, his hearts in the right place, and he’s less about the greater good then... certain disgraces to teaching and being in charge of a large group of people... Hiruzen is actually kinda sweet and admits he has issues and actually has an excuse that’s understandable for the shit that he pulls which is great, if sadly uncommon.

Anyways, Sakura is terrifying, and I remembered why I had a crush on her. She’s so badass, also, she ends up Princess Mononoke basically which, honestly, is fucking great, and the best thing we could’ve asked for, I love all of these characters so much!!!

Aesthetic: It reminds me off beefy stew (We don’t eat beef, so we used vegan soy beef stuff instead, and it was just as good.) it reminds me of the warmth, and friendship, and home that I felt after my mom and I make dinner together with nothing but a little music on and jokes passing back and forth between us. It reminds me of scraping my knee and having my friends help me to their mom, it reminds me of loyalty and compassion. It reminds me of dancing outside at night, alone in the forest with nothing but the moon for company and wind for music. It reminds me of the first time I realized that I could love someone despite their gender and that I should despite mine. It reminds me of finely spun handmade lace, and all it’s delicate while also reminding me of the sturdiest of steels, it reminds me of so much. It reminds me of acceptance, and understanding, and so much more. If I were to say what food and drink it reminds me of, I’d say chicken noodle soup, and sweet lavender-lemon tea.

Music Aesthetic: So, I made a playlist while I was reading this the first time around, and instead of a gif or twenty like I would usually prefer to do I’m going to add that playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbhXmTSBbAyjk0m1b4BZUp3t0RHL83LDK

But if I were to add a gif or two it’d be these

Because something about this fic reminds me of rainy days with tea and baggy clothes.

Every time Natsu/Naruto decided to fight ever, to be honest.