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jacksgreysays · 5 months

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i saw this and this is SO perfect for shikako: "ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem" (with the sword, she seeks peace under liberty) - maybe something with the shikabane-hime in the gardens-verse?

Okay anon, I did learn a few things about this phrase, specifically: The phrase is often loosely translated into English as "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." The literal translation, however, is "she seeks with the sword peaceful repose under liberty." The "she" in question refers to the word manus from the full phrase manus haec inimica tyrannis ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem, which means "this hand, an enemy to tyrants, seeks with the sword peaceful repose under liberty."

Which, you know, is VERY in flavor of my usual “let’s murder Danzo, that’ll take care of at least 95% of the world’s issues” as seen within the Shikako Nara’s Guide To Delinquency and Military Insurrection series which is basically where I put all of my messing around in the Gardens-verse.

But I find myself interested in the, hm… steps of translation for the phrase… like, the original specifically saying “this hand, an enemy to tyrants” which is then removed from the final phrase. However, the final phrase does still keep the sword and also specifically says peace ONLY under liberty.

So my interpretation of this is: once “this hand, [she who is] an enemy to tyrants,” goes away, all that remains is the sword, ie violence, and the prioritization of liberty over peace. Which actually makes me wonder if… hm… I wouldn’t necessarily say a “dark turn AU” but a… pessimistic version of the “let’s murder Danzo, that’ll take care of at least 95% of the world’s issues.” What happens to Konoha as an institution after Danzo is dead and all of his machinations are brought to light?

ESPECIALLY considering how much he claimed to be merely following the Nidaime’s vision. Imagine the repercussions! The implication that Konoha has been so twisted and rotten from its founding. And I’m not saying it’s a return to the Warring Clans Era, because it’s not as if the clans would necessarily rekindle any issues with each other, but how much of the village infrastructure is suspect? How many people did Danzo influence either with the ROOT seal or with Shisui’s eye?

How many clans then think, we are not free under Konoha?

For example, the twins vows when becoming genin prioritize clan, then allies, then teammates, then the village. (I know they had different vows, but I think that’s roughly the order of priority for both of them?) But I can’t imagine—given Hatake Sakumo’s treatment by Konoha when he saved his teammates and “started the war” (although I do have Danzo-related headcanons for that, of course)—that vow would prevent a court martial or disciplinary action.

So if being a good soldier of Konoha contradicts being a good member of the clan, then the existence of Konoha itself is a contradiction to a clan’s existence—I am, of course, exaggerating for the sake of the premise, and I guess what I’m saying is that the premise is:

Shikako killing Danzo does solve a lot of problems, but then unleashes a whole lot of other problems which, unfortunately, a single murder will not solve. Might be multiple murders. Or maybe a war. Whoops.

Because! The fact that the phrase wasn’t shortened to just “Peace [Only] Under Liberty,” the fact that the “by the sword” part was kept is interesting. But a sword without a hand behind it, a sword without an enemy to target, is just an unsheathed weapon that could harm allies or yourself.

So that is the premise, but I don’t know what the plot would be, per se…

OR maybe this is a universe in which someone that ISN’T multiverse-traveling Shikabane-hime clocks Danzo’s rancid vibes and kills him but without a plan to deal with the fall out or a way to deescalate the situation. Like… if it were Shisui and/or Itachi who killed Danzo but in a kind of panicked way. The Uchiha clan is already SO SUSPICIOUS to the rest of the village (at least, that’s the impression they’ve been given) so they can’t come out with a laundry list of Danzo’s crimes and everything will be fine.

Okay, this isn’t the prompt necessarily, but the idea of two freaked out teenage Uchiha just panic whispering to each other over the corpse of Danzo who they just killed while Shikako watches from the shadows, bemused, because… well… they beat her to the punch, but also they have no idea what they’re doing. It’s very funny.

#jacksgreyson #anonymous #ask box advent calendar #ask box latine dictum #dreaming of sunshine #the many gardens of shikabane-hime #shikako nara's guide to delinquency and military insurrection #danzo shimura #shikako nara #shisui uchiha #itachi uchiha #ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem

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jacksgreysays · 1 year

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Generalia specialibus non derogant (Shikako and Shikamaru)

Generalia specialibus non derogant => general provisions enacted in later legislation do not detract from specific provisions enacted in earlier legislation ==> A principle of statutory interpretation: If a matter falls under a specific provision in a statute enacted before a general provision enacted in a later statute, it is to be presumed that the legislature did not intend that the earlier specific provision be repealed, and the matter is governed by the earlier specific provision, not the more recent general one.

So for example… since the specific earlier rule still holds true over the vague later rule, that could mean…

—

We don’t really talk anymore, because whenever we talk we just seem to fight. We don’t celebrate our birthday together, which really ought to be the one thing we can share without any problems (literally the one thing we’ve shared our entire lives). We both still live at home, but with how often we’re out on missions (and I so often sleep in the ANBU dorms just to save time) we don’t see each other much—and I already moved out of my childhood bedroom for Kino so that’s not the same.

So what do we still have? Different teams, different specialties, different missions, different priorities. Dad’s already taught us what he could of shadow jutsu, unless he develops something new, but even that doesn’t take too long to learn. It’s up to us to individually seek out Kasuga-jii for more in depth training, and if Shikamaru’s gone I wouldn’t know. I have so many other things to learn that I don’t have the time to specialize any further into shadow jutsu.

So then what do we still have? Matching names which don’t even connect us to each other so much as to a long line of Nara clan heads. A shared childhood that we sprint further and further away from. A shared clan who I’ve already been burned by and which he is sworn to protect above all else. Our parents who love us but won’t interfere because it’s not their place to do so and our issues have nothing to do with them. A little brother who has seen Shikamaru more than me, and who would have different relationships with each of us even if that weren’t the case.

So what do we still have?

We love each other. Of course we do. That’s part of the problem. Or, no, it’s what is making the problem so persistent and tedious and awful.

We’re at cross purposes because I need him to be safe in this world that has already almost killed him and that means I need to get stronger as soon as possible, even if that means putting myself in danger. And if it drags the rest of my friends along—pushes them further and faster—then I can only try my best to make sure they don’t die in the process.

We’re at cross purposes because he wants me to be safe in this world that has already (probably?) killed me and that means he wants me coddled and caged in the village where he thinks nothing bad can happen but only because he has his eyes closed so much, watching clouds instead of the threats around us. As if the majority of the problems in the Elemental Nations didn’t originate from Konoha. As if the strongest S-ranked missing nin weren’t born and bred Leaf. As if an entire clan hadn’t been massacred within our walls, within our lifetime. As if Sai’s mere existence weren’t a screaming, flashing warning sign of how dangerous Konoha is.

We love each other. Great.

If we didn’t love each other, we wouldn’t worry so much. We could properly walk away from each other instead of circling each other, passive aggressively sniping and snubbing each other in turns. Tethered inexorably by all those things we share, but our sharp edges only scratch at each other instead of making us stronger. And now we’re stuck in this purgatory where we love and rage and hurt and sulk and brood and regret and reminisce. Then start the cycle all over again.

The problem is that we haven’t fully cut each other out of our lives. The problem is that we do still actually talk to each other even if that leaves openings for us to fight. A festering wound that we keep picking and poking and prodding at instead of leaving it alone, letting it scar over, skin hardened and discolored and less sensitive to things like misunderstandings and snide comments.

I want to fix things between us but I don’t know where to start, I don’t know how. I want to fix things between us but I don’t have the time or energy. I want to fix things between us, but it can’t just be me trying, putting in the effort, meeting him halfway.

And why should I meet him halfway? He’s the one being unreasonable.

How does he think it’s going to work? I stay in the village and grow stagnant and weak? Revert into that shy little girl, hiding behind her brother because one of the other kids said something slightly mean? But we can’t go back in time, we can only go forward.

I can’t save his life while being weighed down by his irrational expectations.

I’ll fix things after everything is done.

—

A/N: Dona!! <3<3<3 Thanks for the prompt! I’ll be honest, it did take me a while to understand what this particular phrase meant. And then a while longer to abstract it into a metaphor. And even then what I wrote above started as more of a stream of conscious for trying to figure out what either the “specific earlier rule” and the “vague later rule” would be—that it is in a Shikako!POV is a little bit of a surprise to me since I don’t usually do first person POV. But Shikako has always been an exception to that lol

I don’t think I clarified what either of the two rules are? So I guess it only sort of meets the brief. I think I was originally trying to pinpoint a specific “if we go to this particular hill we cloud watch/read and have nice quiet bonding time” versus the vague “we are currently fighting” but that didn’t really work out… If I had to pull a proper answer out of nowhere I’d say the specific earlier rule is “make sure Shikamaru makes it through the dangers of this world” which is more important than the vague “be a good sister.”

Also, I may have channeled some of my own sibling issues into this, whoops.

Ask Box Advent Calendar 2022!

#jacksgreyson #donapoetrypassion #ask box advent calendar #writing #fanfiction #dreaming of sunshine #shikako nara #shikamaru nara #prompt response #ask box latine dictum

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jacksgreysays · 5 months

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Ask Box Advent Calendar 2023 Announcement

I'M SO INCREDIBLY LATE

Free-for-all ask box event in which I will respond to all prompts/asks by filling/answering them to the best of my ability, even if that’s a brainstorm-y outline more than a proper ficlet or explaining why I can’t even do that meta textually.

Any prompt Any question (personal or headcanon) Any previous ask box event format (see bullet point list below) Any new ask box fic format if you have one to recommend Any random word/name?

I’ll try my best! <3

Could/Should/Actually Fic

things you said

Would You Ever

Fake Fic Titles and or a spin-off Title Remix

Author’s Cut

A Softer World

ask box latine dictum

#jacksgreyson #announcement #prompts please #ask box advent calendar

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jacksgreysays · 1 year

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Ask Box Advent Calendar 2022 Announcement

... I actually ought to just reblog my 2021 announcement since it's almost literally the same thing I would want to say here, but for the sake of keeping the years separate here we go:

Any prompt Any question (personal or headcanon) Any previous ask box event format (see bullet point list below) Any new ask box fic format if you have one to recommend Any random word/name?

I’ll try my best! <3

Could/Should/Actually Fic

things you said

Would You Ever

Fake Fic Titles and or a spin-off Title Remix

Author’s Cut

A Softer World

ask box latine dictum

#jacksgreyson #announcement #prompts please #ask box advent calendar

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jacksgreysays · 2 years

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luceo non uro - I shine, not burn + A Softer World 1008, Combined it gives Clockwise-vibes.

Just once I’d like to fall in love with someone who will ruin things before I do. (I already had too many turns.)

A/N: AHHH!!! Thanks for the prompt! :D Also, ahhhhh counterclockwise!! When I first read your prompt, I only saw the latin phrase and light/shining/burning has never really been Leanne’s motif, but the softer world 1008 is exactly Leanne! So then the question is, who is the other person who does have the light/shining/burning motif?

My go to girl Tetsuki Kaiza.

But here’s the thing: she does have the light/shining/burning motif, although it’s generally more lightning than fire. And they were vigilante teammates! So, like, that should be an immediate, locked-in answer. But, I don’t know, they just were never romantic in my head. In the completely opposite way of how Joy and Leanne were a surprise to me, I cannot get these Leanne and Tetsuki to be romantic even though there’s all sorts of factors which should suggest they could be.

To be fair, it’s mostly Tetsuki’s fault—for all that she’s my go to for “OC in X fandom,” she’s very judgmental and obstinate and slightly misanthropic besides. It doesn’t help that canonically (or as canonically as an original fiction I haven’t fully written down) they meet as teenage vigilantes in Testuki’s “first life” and she has none of the wisdom that either in-universe experience or multiverse traveling would give her. Leanne is rightfully indignant and put off by Tetsuki’s initial lack of respect and that’s something that haunts their relationship even when time and dimensions may soften things through nostalgia.

Though now that I mention it, maybe that’s the way to go…

Leanne’s journey is essentially a mortal unknowingly turning into a god—that her domain is time just confuses things further—but, at some point (in time ;P) she’ll achieve control over her abilities. In contrast I throw Tetsuki around whatever fandom has taken my fancy and legitimize (in as much as fanfiction can/needs to be legitimized) by saying she is stuck reincarnating through the multiverse and makes a deal with the Space Time Witch from CLAMP’s xxxHolic, trading an unknown amount of time as an agent of fate in order to get back home.

So we have a Time God and an Agent of Destiny/The Multiverse.

And in a way, if we mess around with the verb tenses—which we can because it involves Leanne who is a Time God—it almost has a sort of… “Hey, our first impressions of each other were bad, but let’s try again; not forgetting or disregarding our past, but building something taking it into account… also we are both incredibly powerful people who have seen A Lot and it’s kind of nice to interact with someone who knew me before everything went to shit.”

… now that I’ve said all that, I can’t really justify doing a different take and, anyway, I don’t know who else fits the parameters so well besides Tetsuki. So here we go?

—

Leanne visits rivers when she can, when she’s available and when they exist. She makes do with artificial rivers if she has to, though the concrete walls and precise lines don’t work quite as much as natural ones.

It’s probably the most normal thing about her, nowadays. Humans have been soothed by proximity to bodies of water since humans existed and she, at the very least, began her own existence as a human.

Though lately her propensity for rivers has more to do with philosophy than nature. Obvious metaphors running through her mind. The flow of time and the inability to step in the same river twice, how she can never go back home even with her abilities under control. But even still there is a continuity, a consistency, something that can be relied upon even as everything, including itself, changes.

Also, the negative ions are nice.

She followed a water molecule once, from a river to the ocean through the full water cycle, just to see if she could. She followed it for a full decade and confused a great many people for focusing on them seemingly for no reason until, as all things, it passed. Then when it made its way to an entirely different river, she stopped, struck by a sudden, immediate futility.

Then she went back a decade. Not to regain the time lost—for one, that’s not how her abilities work, she still experiences the passage of time; but also, two, she literally has all the time in the world to waste—just to put as definitive an end to her experiment as she is capable of doing. She could have continued following it until it ceased to exist, if she wanted to. Arguably, she could even follow that water molecule again from the start, but what would be the point? To have the same exact journey? Or, worse, change things slightly just to see where it went this time? Why? It was just a water molecule. She would go mad.

She was already going mad.

Hence, rivers.

… maybe she should find a different meditative object.

Except, as she considers that, a door appears on the opposite bank of the river. A free standing, unattached door in the middle of nowhere.

She goes back five minutes. It is still and, somehow, already there.

She goes forward six million years, the river at the bottom of a canyon and the sun a dying red. The radiation in the air hurts her skin, her lungs. Her eyes burn. Across the canyon, the door still stands, ageless.

She goes back six million years and six minutes, because she can, and the door is there also.

Hm, something new.

Tetsuki leaves on a mission from The Shopkeeper—an uncertain but hopeful Watanauki-kun—and six months later returns to a different The Shopkeeper, a Yuuko-san who assesses her with thoughtful, narrowed eyes.

“I do not know you,” The Shopkeeper says, eerily immobile, contrasting with her lounging position on unnecessarily decadent furniture and the softly wafting smoke from her pipe.

Tetsuki shrugs.

“I do not know you yet,” Yuuko-san corrects, continuing to not move.

Tetsuki does not bother to shrug again, instead moving away from the Dimensional Door and taking her usual seat:

Not beside Yuuko-san, though there is space on the divan even despite her sprawl. Not across from Yuuko-san, the way a customer would, the low table a false barrier between mortals and magic. But on the left hand, with her back to the kitchen, facing both the Dimensional Door and the more material entrance to The Shop. Not Watanuki’s place, student and steward, but a guard’s position.

“Ah,” Yuuko-san says in understanding, though there had been no confusion before. “Something is wrong with The Shop then.”

“What?” Tetsuki asks, finally alarmed despite Yuuko-san’s continued impassivity. The Shop exists outside of spacetime. How can something be wrong with it? “No,” Tetsuki protests. “We time travel all the time,” she says, pushing through the inanity of the sentence.

Yuuko-san sits up, movements no less eerie than her stillness. “We’ll need an Auditor.”

“What? No. Explain.”

Yuuko-san does not. With one finger tapping at her chin, she ignores Tetsuki and muses, “Auditors are so rare. And it will have to be one who has never interacted with The Shop before. A closed universe perhaps? But they’re usually so mistrusting. How ever will I get a message to them?”

“What. Are. You. Talking. About.” Tetsuki has never empathized with Watanuki-kun more.

Yuuko-san looks to her, a sly grin splitting her face. “A messenger!” she exclaims, clapping her hands, as if Tetsuki had only arrived just now or performed a convenient trick.

Tetsuki grumbles preemptively. “Fine. Where am I going?” She asks, then reconsiders. “… or to when am I going?”

“Neither!” Yuuko-san enthuses. “To whom are you going,” she corrects, “will be an Auditor.”

Tetsuki grumbles more. “Okay, and who is that?”

Yuuko-san’s grin, if possible, stretches wider.

—

It does not matter when Leanne goes, the door is still there. It also does not matter where she goes, although that is not her immediate purview—if speed is distance over time, then time is just distance over speed—traveling does not prevent the door from following her. Or, rather, from already being there when she appears.

If she is at a river, it is on the other bank. If she is in a city, it is across the street. In an uncrossed plain, it remains a consistent distance from her no matter how much time she spends walking towards it. The door is there and it does not want to be approached, but it also wants her attention.

Should she get a cat?

Leanne is considering ranged options when the door opens.

The figure that walks through is familiar in the same way as memories of learning to ride a bike: a balancing act she struggled with reminiscent of scraped elbows and knees, the scent of blood and metal on pavement, and a pretty nasty concussion.

“Thunderbolt?”

Whatever neutral expression had been on Thunderbolt’s face twists into something of furrowed brows and pursed lips. Clearly, Leanne’s fellow former teenage vigilante recognizes her.

“You,” Thunderbolt says, almost an accusation.

“Me,” Leanne responds, a little giddy all the same. “I thought you died. Or, at least, I saw you die… I think?”

“You’re the Auditor?”

“I don’t know what that means,” Leanne admits, because Thunderbolt already has a low opinion of her that to attempt to save face would make things worse. “But how are you alive? And why is your door following me?”

Thunderbolt presses a hand to her face and sighs. This, too, is painfully familiar. “Of course it’s you,” she says into her hand, exasperated enough that the words carry even to Leanne’s ears. She heaves one last sigh before pulling her hand away. Her expression has changed again: brows a little less furrowed, one side of her mouth curled up, maybe. “Of course it’s you,” she repeats.

Confused and delighted, both at the sensation of confusion and seeing someone really real, Leanne smiles back.

—

“Here’s your problem,” Leanne says to Yuuko-san who is, for once, acting like a professional and not a mirage masquerading as a person.

Tetsuki trails after them because she’s not sure what would be worse: leaving Leanne alone with Yuuko-san or leaving Yuuko-san along with Leanne. Although how Leanne of all people knows what is wrong with The Shop when she didn’t even know what The Shop was before Tetsuki escorted her through the Dimensional Door is just one more annoying mystery to throw on the pile.

Seeing her is like being a teenager again. And not in the usual way she is a teenager again—reincarnated into a new world and burdened by a cosmic purpose which reveals itself with patience and strategic application of lightning powers—but irrationally frustrated and looking for a fight.

Leanne looks back at her, mid explanation to Yuuko-san, and smiles when their eyes meet. Tetsuki tries not to instinctually glare in response and probably ends up looking confused or concerned instead given the way her smile widens.

“The Shop is designed to be independent of spacetime, but it still requires a sentient lodestone in order to function,” Leanne is saying, when Tetsuki pays attention. “Obviously it’s supposed to be The Shopkeeper,” Leanne says, with a nod to Yuuko-san who nods back magnanimously, “but it looks like it has its wires crossed, so to speak, and is trying to connect to Thunderbolt instead.”

Yuuko-san blinks, a coy glance sent in Tetsuki’s direction. “Thunderbolt?” she asks.

Leanne, perhaps sensing her mistake, corrects herself. “Oh, uh, I mean. Tetsuki,” she stammers. “We used to be, uh, teammates—”

Tetsuki rolls her eyes. “She knows.”

“Ah, right, sorry.” Leanne says, grimacing at herself before falling silent.

Tetsuki digs within herself for the nonexistent modicum of patience she has for Leanne, has reallocate some from a different well instead. “She’s wondering why you called me by my callsign instead of my name,” she explains, a poor attempt at reassurance.

It works well enough. Or, at least, Leanne is generous enough to let it work, she brightens a bit. “Oh, well, it’s just,” she shrugs, “how I knew you.”

Because they were teammates first and only, not friends. Tetsuki hadn’t let Leanne know her otherwise.

—

The fix is quick, especially for someone who already controls time. The Shop, like Leanne, has a chronological flow internally consistent even as it exists separated from spacetime. However, without its own sentience, it would collapse under the sheer cosmological pressure from the multiverse and cease to exist. Or maybe exist everywhere but no longer be a single entity? That one she’s not too sure of.

Regardless, The Shop is designed with a corresponding Shopkeeper in mind. While Leanne similarly isn’t sure of how succession is meant to go, something got mixed up between Shopkeepers and in an almost instinct to survive, The Shop must have latched onto Thunderbolt as a makeshift lodestone. Which would have been fine by itself. However, there’s a reason why The Shopkeepers are not meant to leave The Shop: with its makeshift lodestone going out and traveling the multiverse, The Shop also fluctuated—a ship using a rowboat as a lighthouse.

Recalibrating The Shop was simple enough, bidding Yuuko-san goodbye and following Thunderbolt back through the Dimensional Door, only to walk right back through the Dimensional Door and meet a flustered Watanuki-kun and an unblinking Doumeki. Connecting The Shop to Watanuki-kun did not require blood or wards or magical script, just a willing soul and determination.

No wonder it latched onto Thunderbolt in its moment of need.

“It was nice to see you again,” Leanne says, a little honest and a lot surprised by it; even teenage torment becomes a fond memory with enough time and other trauma.

Thunderbolt, straightforward as ever, does not lie and say the same. But perhaps in her age, she’s learned some form of manners because instead she says, “It is… good… to know that you…” She struggles to find an end to that sentence.

Leanne, amused, takes pity on her. “… didn’t end up betraying everyone and joining Bastian?”

Thunderbolt glares, a quick twist of her mouth, a wrinkle between her brows. This has always come easy to her whenever Leanne has been around. “You’ve changed,” she says, because that at least does not require a positive opinion.

Leanne smiles. “I’d hope so.”

Thunderbolt’s glare does not let up. Rather, it bores into Leanne’s face, searching. Searching for what? She doesn’t know.

After a small eternity of this, Thunderbolt looks away and sighs. “Maybe next time you can say the same of me,” she says, begrudging and shamed.

Delighted, Leanne smiles wider. “Next time?”

Thunderbolt narrows her eyes. “I said what I said,” she says, before opening the Dimensional Door.

“Until next time then,” Leanne says, stepping through the door. “You know where to find me.”

“And when,” Thunderbolt says, a threat, a promise.

Leanne could not be happier.

—

A/N: This was a little harder than I thought, and not really a romance so much as a pre-romance maybe one day inching its way towards a romance, but it was interesting to mash, essentially, epilogue versions of Leanne and Tetsuki when they only ever knew each other as part of each others’ prologue.

Thanks for your patience, anon, and thank you again for the prompt! :D

Ask Box Advent Calendar 2021

#jacksgreyson #anonymous #prompt response #ask box advent calendar #ask box latine dictum #a soft ask box #writing #original fiction #fanfiction #counterclockwise #viridescent #xxxholic #leanne peridot #tetsuki kaiza #yuuko ichihara

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jacksgreysays · 3 years

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mens regnum bona possidet - an honest heart is a kingdom in itself (set in the Kako (& Kamaru) & Shikamaru (& Kinokawa) AU in chapter 3 of one hope then another (bring me home))

one hope then another (bring me home)

Shikamaru has never seen her like this.

Though, to be fair, Shikamaru has technically never seen this version of his sister before today. For all that his sister and Kako Kinokawa share a face, they are as different as can be: Kako Kinokawa is harder, brow furrowed with suspicion, mouth pursed with irritation. Scars run across her face, struggle and survival almost literally written across her skin. Her chin is raised, proud and almost hostile with it, stance firm and wide.

Shikako had been shy is a child, a quiet shadow standing behind him, his little sister for all that they were the same age. Even as she grew more confident, she had been--if not softer, then more flexible than the girl in front of him. She was friendly with many, came at problems sideways, and gave others the benefit of the doubt.

Kako Kinokawa doesn't have that luxury. She never had a brother to hide behind, never had a clan to catch her when she fell. They had the same parents, but he never lost them so young, never had to make decisions about rent and food and other mundane necessities. And for all that they mirror each other, matching toddlers in their arms, Shikamaru has never had someone as reliant on him as the younger version of himself is on her.

She couldn't afford to spend her kindness on strangers, she had to save it for her brother.

And that's not him.

They go to a bakery. The one that Shikamaru knows will one day be run by Akimichi Hironobu except at this point in time Hironobu-san hasn't even married into the clan yet. Still, its an Akimichi establishment and nothing to scoff at.

Considering her animosity, Shikamaru would have thought this would be too affiliated with the Nara clan, but Kako was the one to suggest it. From the fond smile the current proprietor sends her way followed by a confused look at him, protectiveness and clan mandated respect conflicting on his face, Shikamaru figures this is as close to semi-private neutral territory as they can get.

Good. He's glad she has someone in her corner even if it's not their clan. His clan.

She orders and sits, he does the same, once more mirrors of each other with their respective younger brothers at their sides.

"What do you want, Nara?" Kako Kinokawa asks, still so doggedly irritated with him. Her tone is curt, her jaw tight, but when she passes a cupcake over to her little brother, her hands are gentle.

"I'm Shikamaru," he says, same as before, and wills it to mean something to her.

If anything, her attitude worsens. "Good for you," she says. She's not unaware of the clan head naming convention, but she doesn't get it. She thinks he's been given a name to match the position, rather than having had it since birth.

"No," he says, and this time gestures at the toddler beside her. She shifts forward in her seat protectively.

"I'm Shikamaru," he repeats and, third time's the charm, she gets it.

---

"I don't want your pity," Kako Kinokawa says after a lengthy conversation about altered timelines, multiple dimensions, and clan obligations. It's the last one that angers her. Thankfully they're relocated to the Kinokawa apartment, a small but comfy studio, where the toddlers can roam around and play.

For all that this version of his sister hasn't had the opportunity to study sealing, she quickly grasps the concepts of dimensional travel and even accepts the fact that, in another universe, they were twins. She seems more surprised by the fact their parents are still alive than the reality jumping bit. It's a strangely practical mindset, he'd have been lost at even understanding the idea of multiple dimensions, but then again hers is the mind that created the seal that brought him here.

"It's not pity," Shikamaru says, and if he's a little impatient then so be it. He's trying to help her and she's being stubborn, just like before. "You're my sister."

She rolls her eyes, crosses her arms. "I met you today." Try again, she doesn't say.

"You should have been part of the Nara clan from the start. Let me fix their mistakes."

Now she glares, this attempt so off course she doesn't need words to refute them.

Shikamaru looks at her, this version of his sister who never had a twin to grow up beside, whose parents left before their time, who now devotes all she has to the little brother that is another version of himself.

And so he says, "I need your help."

Third time's the charm, it works.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed, dona! I'll be honest... I'm not entirely sure what's going on in this universe and given Shikamaru's lack of angst it doesn't seem like he's stuck here? But... like... why would he have brought baby Kinokawa on an interdimensional mission with him? Unless the help he needs from her is the way back home? ... hm, I will have to ponder this some more.

Ask Box Advent Calendar 2020

#jacksgreyson #donapoetrypassion #prompt response #ask box advent calendar #ask box latine dictum #writing #fanfiction #deaming of sunshine #naruto #one hope then another (bring me home)#shikamaru nara #shikako nara

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jacksgreysays · 3 years

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audiatur et altera pars "let the other side be heard also" (aka free pass to dig up and expand any of your previous works :p)

A/N: Hm, I do love digging through my own old work, anon, like a narcissistic raccoon, so having a pass to do so and further write about it is pretty nice :P

I will be honest though, a lot of my time was trying to figure out which previous work I wanted to do or which best fit the prompt or which I've been wanting to do and needed the excuse to touch back on...

So I narrowed it down to nine. Which isn't particularly narrow, but considering the list I started off with... is pretty good? (Although, one of the nine could be considered technically three for an actual total of eleven? But... uh... yeah...)

At this point I'm typing out my thought process so as to help me eliminate/figure out which 'verse I want to use for this prompt. And also, in a very meta way, this kind of fills the prompt since it's like the other side of the curtain? Anyway, here's the honorable mentions:

9. Torifu POV of Ascendant : an outside (but still close enough to witness) POV of Danzo is in theory a cool idea. Because he can't have always been that megalomaniacal sadistic bastard, surely. But for Torifu, depending on how much he knows about his former teammate/friend's actions, how sad this would be? Not just in seeing all of his former teammates/friends turn into increasingly bitter people but also, if he tried to save any of those ill-fated Hokage candidates it would just be a series of failures. And that's mondo depressing. Plus, part of the... fun? challenge?... that was the original Ascendant was to do a... not necessarily unreliable narrator but a villain's POV and mitigating it with Torifu's POV would peel back a layer unnecessarily.

8. rockstar!Shikaara AU AU : here's the problem, because it wasn't a full fic (this 'verse originated way back in the ask box three sentence fic event) I don't have a proper tag for the rockstar!Shikaara AU. Best way to find it is probably through the Sabaku No Gaara tag, chrono, and then search for rockstar!Shikaara. It is not a great method. However the reason why it came to mind was because of the literal "hearing" part of the prompt and, well, muuuuusic. So then I thought, hey, what if it's an AU of this AU in which Shikako is the rockstar? However, I think we've established that the Nara twins actually aren't that musical and I have to admit that I do still love Shikaara, I haven't been in those feels for a while. And I'll be honest, that ficlet would've been mostly froth.

7. The Saga of Windy Strife: I'm just very fond of them. Unfortunately, it does need to be revamped. And also, I haven't actually FFVII, not even the remake! Something about Windy Strife is just... they're always against something. Which is... there's a difference between being a champion of something vs being a soldier fighting something and they've always been in the latter. And I guess in that same literal "hearing" part of the prompt, it would work well to address the language barrier of Unto The Climate. But again, I'm just not vibing it :(

6. Tamed (aka, the fairy tale!AU) : There's no real plot to this one which was largely the problem. I was thinking about--hey, what if I added a war in there and the team of misfit fairy tale protagonists have to use their unique talents to stop the war before it consumes the land? But then that was a little meh... while there is some misunderstandings about Sasuke hating magic because of his brother and Shikako having magic its largely. That's just drama and rehashing friendship that I'm not so keen on.

5. dragon rider!AU (another one of those “lost” ‘verses): baaasically for the same reason as above but the conflict already exists there. And like, I'll be honest, I did have a little bit written which I've let stagnate on my laptop for literally years and given the premise of it was Shikako showing up and trying to convince the Sand dragons to aid against probably Akatsuki. And literally about getting herself heard by Sand's government. But again! A little meh!

4. Indelible: I mostly wanted to play around in this world because of how hyper-political it's become. I mean, I made it so of course I'm enjoying the drama, but it's one of those things where it's just--hey, a tiny thing can be blown so out of proportion and have so many consequences but it's not out of anything evil or mean. If anything Danzo's bullshit machinations were made obsolete because of this. Which is a little hilarious. The only reason why this didn't win at being the prompt fill is that, kind of like the Torifu POV for Ascendant, this fic would have to be either a Gaara/Sand POV during the chuunin exams (which is so far removed from the original butterfly flapping its wings) or a Nej POV as the only person other than the Nara twins to be in on the secret. And I don't really write Neji well... or at all...

And now for the top three, in no particular order:

Cadmium City/Counterclockwise/Ode to 11010201: ie, my original fiction world. Mostly because, uh, yeah. There's a lot that's happening in that which the prompt could apply to. I was thinking about using the framework of Twelve Sessions since of my original fiction series I think this one is the best received. And, also, the literal "hearing" this also applies to this in multiple ways. But for the prompt this would mean its about Curtis learning about Simone's backstory which isn't as fascinating as a literal superhero going to therapy. Maybe more of an exploration of the other Could/Should/Actually 'verses? Alternatively, and this is a little weirder, I was going back over the Ode to 11010201 'verse and just like. Realizing all the personal shit I put into its foundation and thus how inherently biased it is. I was considering trying to write from R's sister's POV but its almost too personal? Because then I'd have to reexamine the IRL analogue of the situation and consider what pushed me there in the first place. And why, conversely, I haven't written that much in that 'verse since. Emotional Maturity is not here right now.

Iron Will: the only thing stopping me here, tbh, is that I still haven't figured out which iteration of Tetsuki is the one I'm going with. Is she actually the semi-feral, Earth Kingdom, would be Freedom Fighter? Or is that a cover that the Fire Nation heiress uses to manipulate and murder on Azula's behalf? I legitimately do not know.

Primadonna Girl (Says No Thank You): specifically, the dark future AU. It's such a bonkers AU that I don't think I'll ever really be able to justify playing around in it, truly, but dang. I went real bleak with it.

... so less of a fill and more of a fanfic equivalent of a clip show, I guess. Sorry, anon. If any of these struck your fancy, let me know and I'll try my hand at it. Otherwise, uh, feel free to send in a different prompt.

Ask Box Advent Calendar 2020

#jacksgreyson #anonymous #prompt response #brainstorm #links #fanfiction #original fiction #ask box latine dictum

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