#sakura get behind me i will protect you from these writers

[usuratongaychi]

On Sakura

I hated sakura so much when watching the show, yet when you list out her achievements it DOES LOOK LIKE SHE IS USEFUL, so why when actually watching the show does all of that disappear? Why is she so hated in the fandom?

(Ignoring the fact that this is a shounen based anime, where the main fanbase is a bunch of misogynistic men)

From a writing standpoint, kishimoto doesn't have the best outlook on women. In my personal opinion, I really dislike how women are portrayed in the series. A lot of it falls under the “nagging wife” archetype, which just reminds me a lot of those old boomer jokes abt hating women or hating their wife.

Also, when i talk about disliking sakura, I’m not talking about her in the OG. I mean, she was 12-13 then, and most 12yr olds are annoying. Comparatively to Naruto and Sasuke, she lived a pretty privileged life, so I think her attitude was justified. Both Naruto and Sasuke had their…moments…as well.

I think in a lot of the filler, they trump up her personality to the point where its annoying, similarly with naruto but bc hes male and also a mega idiot already, it isnt talked about. Filler isnt present in the manga, so manga readers tend to appreciate her more.

here is where i get a little biased..

Comparatively to naruto and sasuke’s connection (they are literally soulmates, platonically or romantically), her romance with sasuke is so flat and one dimensional. Shounen in general as a genre focuses so much on male characters development. It honestly feels like their romance was hastily thrown together at the end of the series. This makes her devotion to him seem shallow and vain.

(This next part is only really applicable to shippuden and somewhat in the OG series i dont really expect a 13yr old with no jutsu to be the best fighter)

I feel like the series intentionally makes her, and really every woman character weaker in terms of endurance (besides Tsunade). Like it feels like the writers say "thats enough fighting for a girl, make her get knocked out" 20secs into a fight. I remember watching her battle with Sasori and being so excited for her to be a badass in shippuden..only for a bunch of episodes to pass and not really getting that same feeling again. To be fair, I wonder if i would have felt the same if I skipped filler episodes. Regardless, I think she could have been more involved in combat, I would have loved to see that from her. “But she’s a healer!!” she can fight also, doesn’t she do that in Boruto? She can do both.

I also think the studio fucks her over a LOT. Theres a few other moments of her in the anime saying some pretty outrageous things, one of them being “I wish i had parents I could respect a bit more, I’d be better off without them….Why’d you have to be here now? If it was Sasuke, I know he would understand”, to an orphan, which is wild as fuck. I can’t remember if that episode was filler or not, but some of the lines they give her are just outright insane. I can’t think of a sane character that would say that.

In conclusion to this essay of a post..

Fuck The Writers.

#sakura haruno #sakura get behind me i will protect you from these writers #haruno sakura #im sorry i actually hate kishimoto

[sashi-ya]

𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟑 DAY 9: BANKAI Kuchiki Byakuya 𝘹 𝘍! 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

Requested by: anon ➡ sashi my love! can we please have day nine with Byakuya with an afab reader, she/her pron? you are an amazing writer, we love u! 💗💗 tw: mdni. a first part of an old idea I had. If you all wish me to keep going with the story I totally will! I based this fic in an old poem I wrote called 𝑨 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏. shower sex. sex with a "stranger". maybe confusing and romantic too. 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

It has been the same since you can remember; running away from those things. Monsters with white masks and a ravenous desire of swallowing you in just one bite.

You can also see ghosts. And sometimes, even some strange beings dressed in black uniforms with swords here and there.

However, your childhood hasn’t been easy. Being scolded for lying, and sometimes taken to the doctors because of your “wild imagination”

So much you’ve been scolded and bullied that you simply stopped alerting others about that “invisible” menace and kept it secret for yourself… you got used to, after all, to those monsters and how to avoid them… Soon, however, you learnt you can’t always win by yourself…

You feel it. You know it must be closer to you. At least one or two. Maybe a bigger one? Maybe a lot of them?

You grab your bag and start walking faster. With all your senses alerted, you think of the better way to get to a certain place in Karakura town; the Tsubakidai park. Somehow, when you get to a little old shrine, hidden behind tall grass you feel safe. It is always the same, you feel like you are lacking air and then pass out. By the time you wake up, there isn’t any monster following you no more and you are safe to go back home where somehow you sleep soundly feeling a warm mantle of protection falling upon you.

You can feel their stomps getting louder; you can’t act calm now; you should run to the park, as fast as you can. There are no taxis available, it’s cold, it’s dark, the night has already engulfed the lives of the citizens of Karakura.

Crossing the river, just a little bit more (Name)… you will be safe is you run through the bridge. But there is no time to do so, so your legs should get wet. The river isn’t deep, it only gets up to your ankles.

You keep running, taking a brief look behind you. Is not one. Is not two. There are at least, ten of those monsters. As if someone had put a bait to call them all to this damned town.

The slippery river bottom and your shoes aren’t compatible, and your knees hit the ground the moment you slip. You pray it should be enough, you are just a few meters away from the little shrine. Whatever keeps you safe will help you… right?

The claw of the biggest of them, with a scary white mask covering mostly of his “face”, seems to be moving in slow motion as you finally close your eyes waiting for your death.

“Scatter, Senbonzakura”

You open your eyes to discover the most beautiful pink rain of shining petals. However, those alluring sakura flowers cut the monster in pieces, with a violence so unproper of a blooming sapling. How could something so pretty be so deadly?

In between the blushing glow, facing the creatures, stands a man of long hair and white haori covering his black uniform. His hands hold what seems to be the hilt of a sword with no edge, and his impassible attitude before those scary monsters is at least admirable.

You realize that soon, your lungs are begging for more oxygen as that crushing feeling you always experience reaches you again. It’s both torturing, but also calming. This means, you will be safe...

But you were far from it, just yet.

The man turns around with a velocity your eyes can barely follow. His arm suddenly passes around your waist, pulling you so closer to him it even feels disrespectful.

When you finally catch up with the events happening, your eyes ease the blurriness to focus on the finest features you ever came across with. His sharp mandible, his deep blue eyes, the delicacy of his traits equals the fearless sight during battle.

“I am not sure how you are able to see me, but you must stay exactly this way. Or you will die” he tells you, pulling you even closer to his body to the point of almost nuzzling on his chest. With a big jump back, he gets out from the river and now both lay on the shoreline right under the bridge.

You blink repeatedly, you are probably dreaming. This can’t be happening, there is no way such a prince has come to rescue you.

His free hand have no rest, as uncountable numbers of monsters keep appearing. That’s why, you can see in his eyes he has determined something.

“BANKAI… SENBONZAKURA KAGEYOSHI”

The sword in his hand is now sliding down, as if he had let it fall. But instead of hitting the ground, the edge pierces the floor with no effort. Around you, enormous blades stand still, forming some kind of structure built of thousands of them.

Explosively, they turn to million of pieces. And now you understand that what looked like uncountable cherry blossoms were the pieces of those swords.

“I have a safe zone around me, and only me. Should you move away, and the blades will cut you with absolutely no mercy” he informs you, calm but dominantly. Perhaps there is too much of arrogance in his voice, but he is definitely saving your life now, so you must obey.

“I am not moving away from you a single inch, sir” “Very well. This hollows keep coming and I’m not exactly sure why. It won’t take much, though”

You hug him. You need to be sure you won’t move -or maybe it is because he is too irresistible not to do so-. And when you do, he gasps. It is as if both of your skins reacted in different ways than none of you were expecting to.

His gloved, refined hand, moves up and down in swift delicate motions guiding the petals and cutting the “hollows” that violently try to trespass the protective curtain of flowers around you two.

One of them seem to be strong enough to take the cuts, coming as close as possible to you two. Your protector, quickly covers you completely, as his eyes seem to have telekinetic control of the petals. He creates a wave so strong that a blinding pink light explodes, destroying everything once and for all.

When everything is over, the roaring sounds disappear. There is only the music of the river bubbling next to you and the panting of both of you.

You feel your shoulder wet, thinking it must have been due to your fall in the river. But a sweet look confirms it’s blood.

“Sir! You are hurt! Let me help you!” you desperately chime, when you realize his arm has an opened bleeding wound.

“How are you? Are you hurt?” he asks, calmly, brushing your question off. He is strong, surely. But you can’t leave him this way.

You realize none of you have stopped hugging the other. It feels comfortable, as if you have always belonged to his arms.

“I am… ok, sir… Thank you for saving me” you murmur, wondering if he is going to tell you his name some time.

He closes his eyes, and nods. He sighs in relief. “I’m glad you are fine. Where do you live?” he asks, letting you go for the first time since he arrived.

“I can walk by my own, sir. I don’t mean to bother you… however, being hurt… uhm there is a pharmacy nearby I could buy some stuff to cu-“

“I am not a human, miss. Don’t worry about me” he cuts you short, stating something that’s pretty obvious by now.

You nod and start walking back home, you are cold, trembling. You are completely wet, and the night breeze detrimentally makes it worse.

The finest white fabric covers your shoulders. Golden details hanging on each side and your eyes meeting his.

“Sir I… this is…” you try to give him his haori back, but he is not taking it.

“It’s just a cheap garment. Cover yourself”

You silently walk towards your home, with the scent of his clothing engulfing you in a delightful experience. It is soft and manly, and for sure expensive. You wonder what kind of being he might be, even if for you he could be considered an angel, a knight.

“Mh, you live by yourself right?” he asks, all of a sudden a few meters away from your home. How does he know? Was it him who protected you all the time when you ran to the tori?

“Yes… how- never mind. My name is (Name). What’s your name, Sir?” you ask, you at least wish to know who saved you.

“Kuchiki Byakuya. Captain of the sixth squa…” he stops himself from further talking. He realised you are just a human and shouldn’t know about it.

You smile. Of course, he is some kind of captain or important person. You, however, don’t mind. He is coming from another dimension, that’s for sure. No man looks as perfect as him in this world.

“Thank you so much for saving my life, Kuchiki Byakuya. Would you like to come in? If it’s not too much to ask, I would like to cure your wound”

Byakuya seems reluctant to say yes. Yet, he nods and follows you inside your little house in complete silence.

You immediately show him where to sit on your living room as you quickly go grab some gauze and some antiseptic.

Soon enough you find him looking at your television. He seems to be inspecting the appliance with great interest.

“Do you like me to turn it on for you, Mr. Kuchiki?” “Honestly, I have no idea what this does so I’d much rather prefer not to”

You giggle sweetly. Of course televisions aren’t a thing in his dimension or wherever he comes from. He is dressed as if he lived during Edo period, you highly doubt there is such thing as satellite television…

“So, let me see your wound please” you murmur, a little shy, with the curing supplies on your hands.

Byakuya nods and uncovers his shoulder, letting his black shihakusho fall down. Half his chest and lean arm flash beautiful pale skin with a scratch on it.

It’s no time to lust, but to act. He needs attention now.

With utmost care, you pour some drops of antiseptic solution over his shoulder. The liquid runs in form of big drops down his arm and chest, and he flinches before the subtle burning sensation.

“I’m sorry, Byakuya. I know it’s a little bit uncomfortable, but I’ll be quick I promise” you inform him, as diligently clean the scratch and the dried blood all around.

“This doesn’t hurt. I don’t need you curing me, I can do it. I am staying because I am still wondering why so many hollows were following you… and why you are able to see me… you are loaded with heavy spiritual pressure” he spits. He is for sure not a very friendly pal.

He keeps insisting with the fact you are able to see him, and soon you realize why.

“Sir, are you a ghost?! I’ve seen ghosts all of my life, but you- I can touch you and talk to you and… the scent of your sk-“ you stop. That’s embarrassing, but also true. You were never able to touch one of the ghosts you saw before.

Byakuya grabs your hand. You widen your eyes.

“I know you do. But I don’t know what changed for you to see me now and not before” he confesses, pulling you even closer to him. He is somehow inspecting something in you, you can’t quite see.

So, he is indeed the man saving you from the monsters then… what’s his motivation? Why he protects you?

“I am honestly glad to be able to see you at least Mr. Kuchiki. I owe you my life, not once but uncountable times. How should I repay you?” you ask, coming even more close to him.

Byakuya keeps pulling softly from your arm, his soft fingers tracing paths on the inside of it. Your legs hit his knees, it’s difficult to maintain yourself standing.

“I’ve been watching you for a long time, (Name). You don’t need to repay me. Please be safe until we found out what’s the deal with your high spiritual pressure… but I need you not to tell anyone else about this. Even if other people dressed as me come to talk to you, simply ignore them. Promise me you will”

You swallow. How many invisible threats have you been put under throughout your life?

“So, are you staying the night… Byakuya?” you ask, sincerely and shamefully. You don’t want him to go, and now you begin to think that every time he saved you in silence he probably stayed by your side all night…  

Byakuya nods. He knows you are not stupid; he knows you know. He understands that tonight, more than any night, he must stay right by your side.

No words were said. He followed you to your bedroom. Because both knew that this haven’t been the first time…

“I bet you sat there all night, Byakuya…” you laugh, pointing at a chair you found warmth every now and then without nobody sitting there. “Or maybe in my closet…?” you joke.

“No, the closet is not my style. My sister’s, however…” he mumbles, with a soft smile showing in the commissure of his mouth.

A smile; this man knows how to smile?! Oh, how beautiful was that.

You giggle sweetly, as you scrutinize some comfortable clothes to offer him. He is still wet, he shouldn’t be.

“Here, this should fit. It was going to be a gift for my brother. But… anyway. You can take a shower, I will give you towels… you- can use my hairbrush too” you tell him, while lending him a pair of grey jogging pants and a white shirt.

His hands graze yours, and a simple touch makes you shiver; weak.

You indicate him to follow you to your bathroom. “Here. I’m sure you know how this works” you point towards the shower tab.

“You should take a bath first. You are absolutely wet. I just have my feet a little cold” Byakuya insists, almost whispering behind you. There isn’t much space in your tiny bathroom.

“Then we should bathe together” you joke, taking your hand to your mouth and laughing happily while opening the tab for him.

However, Byakuya has some trouble catching which sayings are simply jokes and which ones are serious propositions…

His delicate hands land on your waist. A jolt of electricity runs through your body, ending in a gasp coming out of your mouth.

He slowly turns you around to face him, committing a sin that nobody should learn about.

“I’d like to do that” he murmurs, as your back hits the acrylic shower screen and Byakuya approaches your lips with his.

You look up at him. He might have been watching you for a long time… but this is the first time your eyes see his face. Even if you tried to deny his presence every time you felt it around you.

Almost instinctively your hand reaches for his cheek, and somehow all of your doubts suddenly fade away. Whether this is real or not, safe or not you simply don’t know.

His lips crash with yours in a soft but needy peck. Byakuya’s body sticks to yours. Soon you two begin kissing desperately, lustfully, sexually.

It seems to you that the kiss turned liberating for him. Who knows how many nights he spent wanting to join his mouth with yours…

It doesn’t take much for his hands to finally undress you. Your dampened clothes falling to the floor, tangling a little around your ankles. His clothes, also falling to the floor. Those baggy clothes can’t hide the perfect anatomy before your eyes.

“You are beautiful” Byakuya mumbles, as your body presents in full display once and for all.

“I’m sure you already knew how I looked…” you murmur, thinking he could be capable of peaking through your shower during those nights where he cared for you in secret.

“I would never, ever, disrespect you. I never once tried to peak through” he confesses, perhaps even feeling “stupid” for not doing it.

On tippy toes, you plant a sweet kiss on his cheek. “I know. For some reason, I feel like I’ve known you since the very moment I was born”

Byakuya’s eyes get instantly coated with a glossy mantle of tears. Even if he tries to hide it, he is not really able to do so. And instead, he lifts you up from your thighs.

Kissing you more and more deeply, with the steam of the shower already replacing the oxygen in your lungs, he gets inside the shower with you.

The hot water rains on both of you. His raven hair, falls gracefully on his shoulders and wide back. It tangles in between your fingers that rest on the nape of his neck.

“I wish to make love to you” he moans, with lingering lips.

You sigh in response; you can’t even talk. He is a stranger and still feels like your soul is bounded to his… why?

You hug his waist with your legs, feeling his sex graze yours from how hard he is getting. He is holding back, just not to penetrate you right away… even if that’s exactly what you two are desperate to do.

“Please… do it now” you beg, kissing the scratch he got on his arm earlier.

Byakuya moves your hair out of your face a places a soft kiss on your forehead with his eyes closed.

“Yes… after so long…” he grunts, allowing his hips to finally impale you. While you didn’t have to wait, he did. But when he begins to move in and out, it feels as if you were pleading for this for an eternity.

The back of your head hits against the wet tiles of your shower. Byakuya’s sharp teeth bite your neck, your skins slap against the other while there is no space in between your bellies.

The more he rams into you, the more you carve your heels on the small of his back and pull from his beautiful black hair.

Byakuya grunts. You moan, loudly. As if it might be the last time your bodies will join, you keep connected until the hot water runs out. Orgasming, one, two, three times. And who knows how many more times.

Dripping, full of his release, he carries you in arms to your bed. “I can’t get enough of you…” he whispers, as he deposits you over the mattress.

“Then don’t go. Stay and love me more. Protect me, with those sharp petals…”

“This is gonna be the death of me, (Name)…”

(to be continued)

taglist: @miabiaria @carmenthedreamer @stygianoir @electronicwitchcollection @aizenwifey @deputy-videogamer @efrodd17 @mizugami @uzxotic @cyberdazetragedy @bookandyarndragon 💖

#byakuya kuchiki x reader #kuchiki byakuya x reader #byakuya x reader #byakuya kuchiki imagine #byakuya x you #kuchiki byakuya #byakuya kuchiki x you #kuchiki byakuya x you #byakuya #kuchiki byakuya imagine #byakuya kuchiki #bleach #bleach headcanons #bleach imagines #bleach byakuya #sashi ya #byakuya smut #bleach x reader #hentober #kinktober #kinktober 23 #kinktober 2023

[chattegeorgiana]

I admit I didn't really like SasuKarin back then but I decided to give it a chance after reading On Sasuke Uchiha and his bonds with Itachi Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Karin Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno and your posts concerning them. I still don't ship them but my opinion has changed of it a lot and I actually think those two had a better chance at becoming a pair. But I think what raised my respect for it even more was their fan children. I have a soft spot for fan children so it's not really a surprise, but they are all so cute and beautiful! My personal favorites are Akari Uzumaki and the U-Twins! Speaking of the U-Twins, you and Pumiih did an awesome job on them! They look so cool and mysterious just like their parents and I love what they are meant to represent! They're hairstyles also remind me of Madara so that's funny to me lol. I also really like the idea of Sasuke growing his hair out into a ponytail to honor Itachi. The side shavings on his hair makes him even cooler in my opinion. I also noticed something. I don't know know how to properly explain it but I'll try. We see more male Uchiha clan members than female (despite there being some such as Naomi, Izumi, and Mikoto) and we see more female Uzumaki clan members than male (despite there being some such as Ashina, Nagato, and Naruto). It's almost as if those certain genders hold the more importance. So I think it's interesting that it's reversed with the U-Twins. Sorry if I didn't explain it well (couldn't really find the right words) but all in all, I'm excited to see what you'll do with them in the future, make sure you don't rush, take your time and rest, and again, awesome job! 💜❤️

Anon, I don't know who you are, but first of all THANK YOU for your kind and introspective message.

I want to say this is one of the messages that definitely won my heart because you SAW what I meant to do. You explained everything PERFECTLY! That's exactly what I wanted to do. A "gender roles swap" to show that change that is meant to bring in more ways than one.

Because while I do express these changes through my preferred ships, I never really forgot about the CORE elements of what made the Naruto story so beloved, and one of that is the clans & the shinobi system.

Their design have a thought about element from the very strand of hair to their overall design... I don't know if you know me for a long time or not, but one of the things I'm obsessed about is symbolism. So when I create something, there's a symbolic meaning behind almost everything!

When studying Literature, symbolism has been one of my favorite parts. I just love how one can transmit certain themes, ideas, beliefs etc in a symbolic way.

I feel as if this manages to stay with the reader/viewer better. It somehow enters your soul.

Being part of the Shinachiku Kosen team & doing Kaika myself, I can tell you that both Akari & the U twins have a great deal of symbolism behind them & were created with much love.

I know people don't taste SK that good, especially given how the great metas of the past about them has been lost. I only touched in that analysis you mentioned like a small, surface-level way.

If you would've been here in the past when Skania or Homusubi wrote their metas (both great known names in the SK fandom), you would've at least been able to understand where the SK fandom comes from. Or came. There aren't many left anyway.

You don't have to ship them, ofc.

I didn't particularily do it either in the beginning, but then when I saw the symbolism that was building up, Sasuke awakening such power to protect Karin and their similar backgrounds, I couldn't help but fall for the possibility of it. Plus, the comedic act of it. It was something different about them. But alas...

Once again thank you for your kind and introspective message! I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. And trust me, as a writer-wanna be, it lit my soul on fire to see someone properly getting the "underneath beneath the underneath" I was trying to show there. Gives me a lot of mood to keep pushing through this, even if I'm so late with how I planned for the project to go & all that. But hey, adulting will somehow do that with your plans lol. This year has been quite busy on a personal level for me. But now things start to look up, so I should be able to soon get back to it & bring about all this vision I had in my mind to life. So thank you once again for your message and your interest in Kaika! All the best,

Chatte.

#anon message #kaika saisei #kaika au #sasukarin #u twins #kaito #saiko

[sunlightinourheadlights]

HANANENE HUB SECRET SANTA FICS MASTERLIST

Happy holidays everyone! This year we did an art/fanfiction secret santa swap on the Hananene Hub, and here is the masterlist of the christmas/winter themed fanfics! They are in alphabetical order according to fic title. Thank you to the amazing writers on this list and for everyone who contributed in the event. 

[WARNING: it may be the holidays, but do check the ratings and read the tags for each fic carefully. Not all the fics are fluff. This is still JSHK after all.]

Hope you all enjoy!

Give Me Your Stars to Hold by sincerelyand (me!) for Rapid (@rapidfur) -  If Nene knew one thing, it was how difficult it was being childhood friends with the Yugi Twins.

Honey, Don't Feed Me, I Will Come Back by thebonezone  (@fangirlingforeverz) for sincerelyand (me) - Nene wants to marry a prince more than anything.And what price will she pay for that wish? (Bluebeard AU, Aged Up Characters) 

Imperfect by thatsrightdollface (@thatsrightdollface) for hopesartcastle ( @thehopeelias)- When she was young, Aoi Akane had liked the funny-shaped, imperfect sugar cookies best of all.

if anything happens i love you by zileywrites (@muffindounat​​)  for teafloof (@teafloof) - Amane was a young precious boy with stardust running through his veins and galaxies swirling in his soul, who had been trying in vain to protect himself from the harsh realities of life. [or, three times Yugi Aname felt utterly alone in december after the passing of Tsukasa, and one time he didn’t.]

Lemon and Peach (and you and me under the mistletoe) by Baronesscmd (SweeterThanYourDarkestSin) (@baronesscmd) for HanaNoHanabira -  Tsukasa has a plan. It may involve threatening his brother's little assistant and making Natsuhiko's life a living nightmare, but if Sakura is happy in the end it will all be worth it.

No Place Like (Someone Else's) Home for the Holidays by Hammsters (@uglierdaikon) for Sharkbytez - Yashiro Nene is down on her luck; dumped and alone in a new city where she knows no one, she's preparing to spend her holidays alone for the first time. That is, until the flirtatious bartender at the restaurant where she works makes her an offer she might regret accepting- an invitation to spend Christmas with his family instead.

Once Upon A December (Things I Almost Remember) by banjjakz (@banjjakz) for piyo_nii (@piyo-nii) -  Aoi went missing last Christmas, and the chilling bite of the new year rendered her case cold to the touch. This year, on December first, Nene opens an anonymous Christmas card to find a lock of deep purple hair. Terrified, jaded, and freshly incensed, she teams up with the boy next door to track down her best friend before it's too late.

partly cloudy, chance of snow by sourlemoncandy (@sour-lemon-candy) for Naomi -  Amane is right in at least one respect- his apartment is close to her job, vacant, and perhaps most importantly, he makes the best chocolate chip cookies she's ever tasted. 

Pining Amongst the Pines by corologs  (@corologs​) for Cheyenne / Anu (@anubis-005) -  Just as Prince Hanako had found his favorite little gardener, news of an accident brings about an opportunity for Nene Yashiro to prove her usefulness.

snowfall and frostbite by lilaflo (@istoleyourboat) for sourlemoncandy ( @sour-lemon-candy) - After blossoming into a stunning, young college student, Yashiro Nene decides to push all her past regrets and mistakes behind her.That is... until her graduating class decides to throw a high school reunion on Christmas Eve. After finding out that her ex will be there, Nene seeks out a fake boyfriend to spare herself the humiliation.And who better than her best friend, Yugi Amane.

Time, Space, and the Worlds in Between by milkteamoon (@spades-queen) for Indigo_Floof (@indigosienna) -  Amane Yugi is an astronaut stationed on a planet far away when he catches a glimpse of something he's not meant to see.

the golden age of something good by piyo_nii (@piyo-nii) for Hammsters (@uglierdaikon) - Under the silver-streaked heavens, you pray to whoever is listening. You vow to become someone she can come to rely on. Someone who can protect her, someone she can learn to love.(That night, you dream of Yashiro’s shy smile and the clicking sound of a turning lock, and that can only be an omen.)

The Greatest Gifts Come in the Most Unorthodox Places by insipidenvy (@insipidenvy) for paopu_moo (@macey-wacey) - Hanako and Tsukasa spend Christmas catching up on lost time and opportunities. The past and present couldn't be any more different.

Threads of Nettle, Threads of Gold by Indigo_Floof (@indigosienna) for thebonezone (@fangirlingforeverz) -  Nene's siblings have been cursed to turn into swans, and as for the solution...she literally can't say anything about it.

When you get together with your friend to bake, it's usually a good idea to get the recipes beforehand by Chykori  for Miko (Mito Mitochondria) -  Amane and Nene cooking together at Amane’s house! With no adult or Kou supervision. Lots of fluff, no angst allowed here in this household. At one point they do pull up Kou on the videochat because he is on a vacation trip with his family and couldn’t make it to their baking day.

Please make sure to leave the incredible authors kudos and comments! Everyone worked very hard! ❤️

#jibaku shounen hanako kun #jshk #toilet bound hanako kun #tbhk #fanfic #jshk secret santa 2020 #all of you are amazinggggg #steadily making my way through the list

[t0bey]

plum drop the essay on fuyu/peko and mondo/taka paralelles !!!! i am curious

ask and u shall recieve (inserting my first ever page break because holy FUCK this got long) 

oke! I guess I’ll start off with Peko’s initial conception as a character, which was the main initial comparison danganronpa intended between Peko and Kiyotaka.

I’ve noticed danganronpa has a tendency to re-use character tropes or roles after each game, tho their fates end up differently. For example, Chihiro was the smart, cute, and sweet character who ended up dying early on and had little significance outside of alter ego afterwards. Chiaki is the same, except if Danganronpa took Chihiro’s character and made her one of the main protagonists that has much more significance in the game. 

The staff of SDR2 confirmed that they based Peko off of Kiyotaka, from their intense red eyes (which was intentional) + predominately b&w colorscheme, they both have swords, and their characters are tied to justice, though in different ways. Not to mention both are meant to be extremely disciplined, but ultimately struggle at socializing due to their rough backstories. But that’s where Peko’s ties to Taka as an initial concept end there, because the parallels between Peko/Taka and Fuyuhiko/Mondo are a whole ‘nother ballpark.

Before bringing that up though, we should note that while their designs are significantly different, Mondo and Fuyuhiko are extremely similar in terms of their backstory and personality (down to their ability to curse like a sailor). Both struggle with an inferiority complex (Fuyuhiko w/ how he isn’t taken seriously because of his babyface, Mondo w/ how his self esteem is really fragile and gets jealous of others when he acknowledges them to be stronger than him). Both act like tough, aggressive lone-wolfs (well, Mondo pre-sauna anyways), but have been stated to have a soft side, to the point they doubt their capabilities of being a tough leader because of it. They both even have a sibling they both believe would be a better leader than them (Daiya and Natsumi). BASICALLY fuyuhiko and mondo are the same role, being the intimidating gang leader that no one should fuck with, but in actuality has a lot of insecurities behind that facade. 

Ok, ok, time to the ACTUAL relationship parallel analysis. We now know why Peko/Taka are meant to be parallels, and we can definintely make a solid claim for Fuyuhiko and Mondo. This isn’t new for Danganronpa, in their tendency to use patterns but give them a different twist depending on the game. Which is exactly what happened in  regards to chapter 2 of THH and SDR2, respectively.

The games’ chapter 1s are simple: meant to introduce the characters/game/stakes. Leon and Sayaka’s deaths were tragic, but the emotional impact of them wasn’t the main priority by the writers. Only to show that this was, indeed, a Killing Game where anyone’s possible to die. But chapter 2 of danganronpa is intended to be the chapter where you’re introduced to just how emotional and tragic the games can actually be, meant for maximum heartbreak (for both the characters and the player).

Chapter 2 of THH was where the different students’s relationships between each other became more solid. Sakura and Aoi were good friends. Toko’s obsession for Byakuya first solidified. Hifumi being Celeste’s servant, etc. Taka and Mondo’s fast developed friendship is no different. After the sauna, the two clicked so much that they believed calling each other just a friend wasn’t really accurate, and settled on calling each other brother instead. While they don’t have memories of their close friendship during Hope’s Peak at this time, it’s heavily implied that their closeness during that time made them subconsciously gravitate towards each other so fast, which could also be seen with Sakura and Aoi, and how Chihiro was able to find Makoto familiar during their introduction. 

Peko and Fuyuhiko’s relationship could be considered to be just as close. The two grew up together, quite literally since they were kids. Like Taka and Mondo’s relationship pre-sauna, Fuyuhiko and Peko’s relationship was somewhat strained, though it’s more deeply rooted than two extremely contrasting guys clashing over their perceptions of each other. Fuyuhiko is extremely insecure in his place as the Kuzuruyuu clan’s head, and sees Peko’s desire to protect him and carry out his commands as an unwanted crutch that challenges his desire to be independent, as well as extremely worrying considering how because of this, Peko devalues her own life and worth as a person. Fuyuhiko very much loves Peko as a person, and as such tried to distance himself from her during their time on Jabberwock Island. Though unfortunately, Peko took this as him loathing her in general, further cementing her desire to be his “tool” because if he couldn’t stand being around her, she might as well make herself useful to him.  

Now. Finally to get into the explicit parallels between the relationships of Kiyotaka/Mondo, and Peko/Fuyuhiko. Peko and Taka’s perspective on their relationships is a great starting point. 

Each game’s chapter 2 shows just how willing both Taka and Peko are willing to go in order to protect Mondo and Fuyuhiko. Peko’s motive for killing Mahiru wasn’t to escape, but to in her eyes save Fuyuhiko from the Killing Game, by using herself as his tool to carry out muder, and have everyone incorrectly vote for her so Fuyuhiko could get away. She was his bodyguard in the truest sense of the word. Now in THH’s chapter 2, instead of fighting against Mondo in proving his guilt, you’re fighting Kiyotaka. He refuses any evidence you throw at him, arguing relentlessly to prove Mondo’s innocence, to the point the only reason he stopped was because Mondo told him to. And you later find out, in chapter 3, that Kiyotaka felt so determined to prove Mondo’s innocence was because he felt like it was his responsibility to, as he cared for Mondo so much. 

So, in a way, Taka considers himself Mondo’s bodyguard. Just without the years worth of reinforcement that you’re nothing but a tool to be used which makes you devalue your own worth as a person. (Not that his self esteem and willpower wasn’t ultimately crushed by Mondo’s execution, but that’s only because the circumstances he lost him was undenyingly brutal considering the Killing Game). While the circumstances of Peko’s desire to protect Fuyuhiko are really murky and problematic considering how she was raised, Danganronpa confirmed that she protected him so much because of her care for him, to the point she was willing to sacrifice her own life to assure that Fuyuhiko is safe. And Kiyotaka was willing to go to the exact same drastic measures, by voting for himself. 

It’s also worth noting that in the stage play, he willingly accepted to be punished alongside him by doing this to make sure Mondo doesn’t die alone. 

So from my own understanding, Super Danganronpa 2 took the tragedy of Mondo and Taka’s relationship, and flipped it so that while it still follows its signature use of repetitive patterns, they made the circumstances different, but just as heartbreaking. And how? Because they took the Taka of the relationship, and made Peko the culprit. It’s not the Mondo this time, which is who you’re supposed to expect to be the culprit, because of your expectation from THH’s trial 2. 

Peko tried her best to protect Fuyuhiko, much like Kiyotaka tried to after he recognized the fact Mondo was the blackened. Both were, at the expense of their classmate’s and their own lives, were willing to protect them both, no matter what. Peko took a more active role in trying to do this however, which is what Kiyotaka severely regretted not doing, as stated in chapter 3. 

And Fuyuhiko is what would have happened if Mondo was forced to face the consequences of his actions (in Fuyu’s case, being partially responsible for Mahiru’s death, in Mondo’s case, Chihiro’s). Instead of Taka arguing to prove Mondo’s innocence, it’s Fuyuhiko who’s doing that for Peko. A deliberate use of subverting the pattern given to us by THH’s chapter 2.  

That’s the main takeaway, but I suppose I should also address the romantic parallels while I’m at it. I personally don’t like Kuzupeko as a romantic relationship, mainly because of how Peko’s self worth and personal value of herself as a person was as a direct result from being considered Fuyuhiko’s “tool” and their professional relationship as yakuza leader/henchman. Fuyuhiko does love her as a person, but that doesn’t negate the years of psychological degradation Peko endured to consider herself as a tool. Though in typical Danganronpa fashion, they choose to gloss over the problematic aspects of their relationship while heavily implying romantic subtext between them. So while I can’t say I’m a fan, I know the game/DR3 anime says otherwise. 

And as for Ishimondo, I know some will disagree with me, but I definitely feel that their relationship is heavily lined with romantic subtext as well. Not much is really explicit in the game outside of Ishida and Hifumi’s romantic rivalry for alter ego (who Taka considers Mondo), but the mangas and posters definitely show their relationship that most would consider normal for couples.

But at the end of the day? Both Peko and Taka love Fuyuhiko and Mondo, whether or not you consider both, one, or none of their relationship to be romantic. They wouldn’t have put their own lives on the line if it was anything else. And it’s that emotional connection between Kiyotaka and Mondo, and Peko and Fuyuhiko that’s meant to give you an emotional punch in the gut for THH and SDR2’S chapter 2’s, because of how far the two were willing to protect them.

#ask #spaceymedicgamer #kiyotaka ishimaru #peko pekoyama #cw kuzupeko #ishimondo #danganronpa #super danganronpa 2 #DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

[uchihasakurawrites]

Until Next Time

Rating: T

Summary: When ghosts from the war come back to haunt Sakura, Sasuke's there to try his hand at warding them off. A story of comfort, growth, and realization. (Blank Period)

Word Count: 3,777

A/N: Long time, no see everyone! Thank you for your patience as I’ve worked through some writer’s block the past few months. I know many of you are waiting on the next chapter for A Lesson in Practicality, but I hope you’ll still enjoy this piece. Please let me know your thoughts if you have the time! Otherwise, thank you for taking some time to read my work. ^_^

Warning: This story contains depictions of panic attacks, PTSD flashbacks, and some alcohol abuse. Nothing too dark in here since it's mainly a comfort fic, but please be cautious if any of these topics are triggering for you.

Cross posted on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net

____________________________________

Her day begins and ends the same way every other day the past year seemed to - with Sakura walking into the hospital with a confident spring to her step and a brightness in her eyes and dragging herself out (on the rare day she had the energy to pry herself from her desk) with antiseptic or blood or a mix of the two staining her hands and the lab coat she'd forgotten to peel off.

Tonight, Sakura consciously decides not to make the effort to drag herself out of the hospital. Leaving means she'll be roped into the birthday party Ino's been planning for Sai for months, and she doesn't quite have the energy to even shower, let alone paste a convincing smile on her lips.

She spares a glance at the old clock posted right above the chalkboard in her office as she shuffles in and locks the door behind her.

8:00PM.

Fourteen hours since Naruto shook her awake and thrust her straight into a day from hell.

It's still a little too early for anyone to come looking for her yet. Naruto will notice that she's not at the bar right when he arrives, but Hinata will patiently remind him of the shitshow that was today and reason that Sakura's still probably dealing with the aftermath. (In much less colorful terms, of course; Sakura's only heard her friend curse a handful of times, none of which were in front of Naruto.) That'll buy her about an hour before Ino starts making a fuss and sends Sai or Kiba out to Sakura's apartment.

If she's not there, they'll assume she's still at the hospital, and they won't come back until it's close to midnight. Not today. Not after seeing the hallways lined with burn victims pleading for someone to find their loved ones. Not after returning home and finding that the stench of charred skin and blood isn't so easy to wash out of their clothes.

Sakura didn't get to leave. Her role just changed from a kunoichi dispatched on a rescue mission to the de facto head of the hospital the moment she crossed the threshold.

She pulls the shades in hopes of convincing her friends that she isn't here if they do decide to come looking but stops short in front of the light switch. The migraine between her temples screams for her to turn the fluorescents off, but she doesn't trust her mind not to see death in the shadows of her office tonight.

She turns them off anyways.

It isn't until she's sitting criss-cross on her floor with her too-full bookshelf at her back and a bottle of sake in her hand that Sakura realizes her hands are trembling. A splash of sake makes its way onto her carpet instead of into her cup, and she curses because it's good sake - the expensive kind that Tsunade bought her a case of after the war and no no no.

She cuts that thought there because violent memories of the war, or rather the days immediately following the war, have been intruding into her mind all day and she just can't.

A case or so of sake should knock her and those thoughts right out (or so she hopes). Years of honing her skills as a medic nin have given her a certain resistance to toxins, including alcohol, and it's why she doesn't bother to drink most of the time; social drinking is more of a waste of money than anything else. She figures that's precisely why her mentor gave her an entire case as a gift.

It isn't until she's two bottles in and there's a buzzed lightness to her body that she realizes she's crying.

Her breath seems to come faster and faster, shallower and shallower, and she wonders if the buzz and creeping, cold numbness in her fingers is because of the alcohol or the lack of oxygen. She's shivering, muscles tensed to the point of pain, but she blames it on the chill of the hospital.

Another glass will knock the cold right out. At least, that's what Tsunade used to say when she drank away the ghosts that forced themselves a little too close to the front of her mind.

It's a few glasses later that Sakura starts seeing the eyes of the dead staring back at her from the shadows at the edges of her office. She's back on the battlefield, the same smell of burnt skin and the mournful cries of shinobi finally processing the deaths of their comrades hanging in the air. She's been healing for days, but she continues to push. The fighting may be over but there are still identities to confirm, survivors to heal, and families to be notified.

Sakura knew that death was part of her job description from her days in the Academy; protecting the interests of the village often required it. Tsunade had let her figure out that the same was true of her job as a medic on her own, when she lost her first patient at fifteen. She'd learned to put the deaths she dealt with in a neat little box which she deadbolted and tossed on a shelf in the deepest recess of her mind she could find.

But death was a uniquely stubborn bastard that didn't always like to stay in that box.

She'd been awake for the full three days the war had drawn on, but the medical corps was tasked with the brunt of combing through the miles upon miles of dead shinobi for another forty-eight hours or so. They'd had help, but medics were the ones needed throughout to organize, heal, or in the worst possible cases (which Sakura and Shizune handled) show mercy to the shinobi who were alive but long past the point of saving.

Sakura nearly vomits and washes the bile down with more sake. One glass. Another.

The quiet tears have turned into sobs that scratch at her throat and squeeze her lungs. Her nails cut thin crescent moons into her forearms, and her shoulders hunch as if she can ward off the prying eyes. Sakura barely has the presence of mind to activate the silencing seal in her office - the one she keeps on hand when discussing particularly sensitive cases - before her sobs grow into half screams. She can't get enough air to manage much more than a hoarse cry, but if she can just drink fast enough, it shouldn't matter.

And so she cracks open another bottle and brings it directly to her lips, trying to focus on the burn of the alcohol on her throat and Naruto's bright smile reassuring her that everything would be fine when he first found her clutching a bottle of sake in the corner of her disaster of a bedroom.

What she doesn't count on is the alcohol making it increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from the memories that have escaped from her mind and seared themselves into the darkness around her. They become more real, more tangible, until she swears she can hear the fresh widow of a shinobi from Cloud shouting about how Sakura hadn't done enough. Another voice joins until there's a chorus telling her exactly what she feared most:

There shouldn't have been so many casualties. She should have been able to do more.

She was weak.

Her tears stop for a moment when she looks up and sees Sasuke standing in the doorway. For a fraction of a second, she almost feels relieved and tries to move to go to him, but she's reminded none of this is real, and she can't be sure which Sasuke this is. Given her current state of mind, it's probably the one who haunted her nightmares for months after the bridge and still longer after his genjutsu in the war. She takes a swig from the bottle she clenches in her fist and curls back into herself.

Sasuke's repeated calls of her name fall on deaf ears.

For his part, Sasuke is at a loss. He's never seen Sakura like this (and he'd witnessed her tears firsthand on many occasions as genin). Sure, she's always worn her heart on her sleeve and been far too open with her emotions by standard shinobi rules, but she has never seemed so broken.

Looking at the scratch marks that trail down her forearms and the far too many empty bottles of sake for someone of her stature littered on the carpet, Sasuke realizes he doesn't know this woman - and in retrospect, he never should have assumed otherwise.

From her confessions both during the war and when he made the decision to leave her behind yet again, Sasuke knows she's still fiercely loyal and has a light bright enough to forgive and heal anything it touches without her needing to make the conscious choice to do so. Her skills as a shinobi have grown to the point that she could give him a challenge if they were to spar, and he's seen her heal an entire battlefield for days on end while still fighting on the front lines.

She's become more than worthy of the title of the "New Sannin," as the original Team 7 has now been christened, and she still loves him (unreasonably so in his opinion, but he's come to realize that maybe he doesn't want her to change her mind - even if he thinks it would be better for her in the long run). But that's all he knows, and he finds himself wanting to discover more of who Sakura is now.

He has years of absence and cruel actions to make up for, and far more growth beyond that to become someone who deserves the steadfast love she's always been ready to give him.

At the moment, however, he needs to get her to let go of the liquor bottle she clutches onto like a lifeline and refocus on the present. He's been trapped by his past more times than he'll ever admit, and though he hasn't had real comfort since his mother (and Sakura, he amends), he owes it to her to at least try.

Sasuke approaches her slowly, intentionally making his footsteps heavier so that she can hear him approach. Whatever nightmare she's trapped in - he confirmed it wasn't a genjutsu the moment he broke the lock on her door after an unnerving spike in her chakra - she hasn't seemed to notice he's actually here. He bites back the guilt that surfaces at the thought that he could be part of her nightmare, but that's something they can work through later.

He crouches down in front of her, taking a firm hold of the hand that clutches the bottle to try to coax it out of her grip. She jolts at the touch, peeking hesitantly up from her knees with red-rimmed eyes and a mix of tears and sweat coating her cheeks.

"Breathe, Sakura."

Her grip loosens as she meets his eyes. He sees uncertainty waver in her gaze as she hiccups in a short breath, but then the panic snaps back down and tightens her hold on the bottle yet again.

"I- I can't."

The words are stilted, as though forcing out those two words causes her physical pain. Sasuke, however, considers it a small win as it means Sakura's decided he's real. Her breathing is still far too fast, and he knows he needs to stabilize it before she's ready to explain what's happening.

It's awkward - both because Sasuke has never done this and the fact that he hasn't completely sorted through his feelings for his teammate - but he eventually pulls Sakura far enough away from the bookcase that he can shuffle in behind her. He secures his legs around her sides and arranges Sakura so that her back rests on his chest.

It's almost annoying just how snugly Sakura fits against him, her head tucked just below his chin. A part of his mind notes how her curves seem to melt into his frame only to be ruthlessly shoved down. There are priorities, and noting how the boyish (yet annoyingly charming) Sakura has clearly blossomed into a young woman is not one of them.

Where the Sakura from his memories smelled of strawberries and artificial sweetness, the woman in his arms tonight seems as though she's been doused in a pungent blend of antiseptic and ash.

"Breathe, Sakura."

Sasuke repeats Sakura's name to ground her as he starts regulating his own breath: six counts in through the nose, hold, eight counts out through the mouth. He's sure to exaggerate his breaths a bit so Sakura can feel the movement against her back. Hesitantly, his hand comes up to trail over the marks on her forearm. His hands have always been cold, so he figures the one he has left might be able to relieve some of the sting from her nails.

He makes a mental note to pick up some basic medical ninjutsu and doesn't bother to pretend it's just for field injuries.

It takes about ten minutes for Sakura's breathing to return mostly to normal. It still stutters every now and then, but she's matching Sasuke almost breath for breath. She doesn't move away from him, and Sasuke doesn't move to shift her.

As they sit in silence, save for their own breathing, Sasuke realizes he's put himself in a position where he needs to actually start the conversation. There's no bright chatter, no smile to coax him into talking. Again, he's at a loss.

It seems this new Sakura has retained a talent for doing this to him.

Annoying woman.

"Tell me about it."

Sakura immediately shakes her head, breath trembling yet again. Sasuke sighs and guesses he should have known she wasn't going to make this easy for him. He can't blame her. If someone asked him to do the same, he would have told them to fuck off.

"Sakura."

She turns to him with a dangerous look in her eyes, a cold jade that threatens to cut him if he pushes too far. Sasuke's always been the best at serving the very same look, but it's unnerving to see it etched into Sakura's soft features.

"Dammit, Sakura. Just talk to me."

Her gaze grows warmer, but not in the way he wants. She's angry, and Sasuke isn't really sure how he could have pissed her off in just six words. Sakura being Sakura, she of course makes the reason for her anger clear immediately.

"And why the hell do I need to do that, Sasuke?"

Sasuke nearly winces at the dropped suffix on his name and tries to remember how his mother handled it when he refused to confide in her.

"You haven't been here" - even Sakura knows this is unfair as she says it, but the confusion, grief, and alcohol clouding her mind make it difficult to acknowledge how much the man she loves has grown to be able to offer this to her- "and you never told me anything when I asked you to. So fuck off, Sasuke-kun. I'm sure Naruto's expecting you."

Naruto most definitely wasn't, but Sasuke doesn't see the value in pointing that particular fact out. By the time he got to the village and was promptly dragged into the bar he had made the mistake of walking past on his way to the Hokage Tower, the idiot was already drunk off his ass. Ino was as well, so Hinata asked Sasuke if he would mind going to check on Sakura at the hospital since she and Sai needed to stay to take care of their significant others.

Sakura finally moves to get up, tipping over a half-full bottle of sake in her efforts, but Sasuke can still see the tremors in her hands and the familiar strain of a jaw clenched against tears. Her eyes still dart towards the corners of the room.

Sasuke's well aware of the ghosts that can haunt those shadows and resolves to help Sakura put hers to rest, even if it's just for the night. His legs tighten around Sakura before she can fully pull away from him, and she falls back against his chest with a huff and a glare that's more tired than venomous.

Sasuke sighs and lowers his head. His bangs cover his eyes as he decides to voice at least part of the feelings he's managed to process regarding Sakura. He's not sure exactly how to categorize how he feels about her yet (mostly because his mind still can't comprehend why someone so bright has loved him through so much darkness), but he wants to help and that's about all he can offer her at the moment.

She deserves more, so much more, but he hopes it's enough for now.

"I'm here, Sakura."

He wants to add that he's not going anywhere because someone who will stay is only a fraction of what Sakura deserves, but that's not a promise he can make.

He feels Sakura's surprise as she stiffens against him, and her breath stops altogether for a few worrying moments. Sasuke wills himself to stay relaxed at her back, still maintaining a steady breathing pace should she need the rhythm again.

Sakura's thoughts are a whirlwind that she tries to grab ahold of but slips right through her fingers. She's torn, half of her mind shattered glass that urges her to open up and share even a part of her pain so that she can just stop breaking. Sasuke's here, showing his own vulnerability (however slight) in hopes that she'll trust him enough to do the same, and she's not sure when she'll experience this side of him again.

The other half, near-solid stone with only spiderweb cracks, whispers that voicing the memories that haunt her will only confirm her weakness in Sasuke's eyes. Instead of seeing the warrior who destroyed the ground and healed thousands in the war, he'll see the wisp of a girl who had trailed behind him as a genin.

It's the gentle, unconscious stroke of Sasuke's thumb across her forearm that makes her decision. Sasuke can sense the shift in Sakura as her head drops back onto his shoulder and her eyes squeeze shut. She's tired, so tired.

"I killed them."

Her voice breaks in the middle, and Sakura hisses out a quiet dammit at her traitorous voice. Sasuke's hand tightens where it rests on her arm.

He's quiet for a moment. Outside of discussing strategy or the details of a mission, talking isn't something Sasuke has much practice in. That, and his plan may have ended at getting Sakura to calm down enough to breathe properly.

He spends another minute in silence, growing increasingly frustrated with his inability to find the words he needs to comfort the woman who has always known exactly what he needed to hear. Sakura, however, doesn't seem to mind the silence as she relaxes against him. Green eyes crack open, and though they're still muddled with pain, he sees a steady glimmer of trust and contentment behind them that immediately quells his frustration.

The open trust in Sakura's gaze reminds Sasuke that she's never expected him to be anyone other than himself. She's always been patient, meeting him more than halfway as he seemed to take one step towards her and two or three back.

He suspects it's the same now, as there's no expectation in her eyes, no tension in her body that suggests she's irritated by his silence. So instead of pushing himself to think of the correct words to fill the empty space, Sasuke pulls her more firmly against his chest and shifts her so his chin rests lightly atop her head.

It's more affection than he's ever shown, and it's far from comfortable for him, but Sasuke knows that Sakura's worth a bit of discomfort.

Just as Sakura has spent so many years steadfastly waiting for him to come to her, he settles in to wait for her to tell him - whether that time comes tonight or later down the line.

That time doesn't come tonight. Though she trusts Sasuke with her life, Sakura can't quite break through the insecurity that he'll find her weak the moment she says anything more. Maybe it's not a fair assumption to make, but most of her memories of them together on the battlefield ended in Sakura being treated as fragile - something to be left behind and protected.

Even if they made progress during the war, Sakura's not quite ready to test the durability of the picture of strength she painted as she threw herself at Madara or took on a goddess at her team's side.

Instead, she's happy to just let his presence ward off the shadows in her mind. The voices are silent at his touch, so she decides to just enjoy the rest and wrestle with them when they inevitably come back after Sasuke's gone again.

Sasuke feels Sakura's breathing even out and watches her eyes flutter closed as she falls asleep against him. It's an interesting thing, having someone trust you so fully that they're willing to be at their most unguarded.

And he's done nothing to deserve it. He knows this, and it merely strengthens his resolve to continue his journey of atonement so that he can become someone who's at least a fraction deserving of Sakura and all that she's willing to offer him.

As he maneuvers himself out from behind Sakura and shifts her onto his back, Sasuke realizes with a tinge of bitterness that this is something he could have every day - Sakura's presence and everything bright and loving that entails. But as much as he wants to be there when she wakes up and finally say yes to taking her with him, he's not quite ready for that step.

There's more growth to be had, more relationships to mend, more emotions for him to reconcile within himself. While he knows having Sakura by his side would expedite the process of mending bridges and healing his own wounds, she needs to keep some of her light for herself.

When he leaves this time, it's out of consideration not just for himself, but for both of them. He can just make out the time when he asks Sakura to join him on his journey in the near future, but it's not now. They both have steps they need to take before they're ready.

He leaves Sakura tucked under the nest of far too many blankets she's always stubbornly kept haphazardly strewn across her bed, with a simple note on her nightstand:

Next time, Sakura.

#sasusaku #sasusaku fanfic #sasusaku blank period #blank period #naruto fanfiction #hurt/comfort #sasusaku fanfiction #sasuke uchiha #sakura haruno #romance

[panharmonium]

@dreamersscape​ please forgive me for tagging you in a post to respond to your comments; tumblr’s reply feature is hard to have an extended/coherent conversation on, and I’m so excited to talk to a kindred Naruto spirit that I knew I was gonna write too much for it all to fit in that space XD

re: hinata - Oh my gosh, YES, my sister and I were so frustrated by how they just completely never addressed that moment again.  I wasn't surprised, because it's been clear from the beginning that this show doesn't really care much about women, so the female characters' storylines getting dropped or never explored in the first place is pretty much what I've always expected, but it's still infuriating.  

Honestly, the only good thing about this show's general disinterest in women is that it means that I don't place any blame on in-story Naruto for never addressing what Hinata did for him, because I know the fact that we don't see him dealing with her confession isn't actually intended to communicate anything about his reaction/non-reaction/level of investment; it's literally just a function of the fact that the writer doesn't care about her story.  It's the same way I feel about how we see so much less one-on-one time between Kakashi and Sakura - her lack of screentime with him isn't something about which a person can credibly argue "Oh, this means Kakashi doesn't care about her enough and he's a bad teacher etc etc," because the imbalance isn’t a deliberate writing decision we're supposed to analyze for characterization.  It's a reflection of the fact that the entire show is super sexist. XD

re: danzo: It’s one thing to have your villain believe himself to the hero of his own story, and like, another to have Danzo basically tout having darkness in your heart being a great thing and encouraging it’s presence/cultivating it - lmao YES!  And honestly, this is why I actually find Danzo LESS infuriating than the Third Hokage.  Like, Danzo is Super Evil and every time he exploits another child I want to watch him die all over again, but at least he like....owns his horribleness?  Whereas Hiruzen is the biggest hypocrite on the planet - when I rewatched the Shonen Jump stuff a while back (my sister and I took a little break prior to Season 11 and rewatched some old stuff), I couldn't stand listening to Hiruzen go on and on about how the entire Leaf Village is his family and it's his role to protect all of them etc etc, because like - he literally covered up the genocide of Sasuke's entire family and let the perpetrator remain in power (and that was before I even knew about all these other crimes he allowed to go unpunished!!!)  Danzo may be the Worst, but at least he's not pretending to be anything other than what he is.  Hiruzen is still acting like he's everybody's sweet old grandpa, and that makes me even more angry than Danzo's straight-up horribleness.  (And I do agree with you, they definitely lean harder into the "Lord Third is amazing" stuff pre-Shippuden, I just still feel confused about what the show is ultimately trying to say about him because we haven't gotten an explicit enough condemnation of his choices yet, and I feel like it's way overdue XD )

re: minato - Hard agree that Minato is an enigma.  I don't feel like I fully understand him either - and not in a bad way, just in the sense that he's hard to read.  The toughest thing for me to parse was always how distant he seemed with his students, which was surprising to me at first, because he'd been built up as sort of this "ideal shinobi" figure for such a long time, but to me, an ideal shinobi teacher looks more like...well, Kakashi, to be honest.  And it took a while for me to reconcile with the fact that Minato and Kakashi really do just relate to their students very differently.  I think Minato has always been a soldier, and I think he sees children as soldiers, too - not in an evil way at all, just in the sense that this is how the shinobi world works, and how it has always worked.  It's not a "wrong" way to perceive shinobi kids, in the context of the story's universe.  And so when things happen to those kids, he absolutely cares, but it's also sort of just a grim fact of life for him.  It's like when Kushina tells him she doesn't want to make Naruto a jinchuriki, and she asks 'why do we have to do that to him, why does he have to suffer that way for the sake of the balance of power between nations,' and Minato's response is “Because our family is Shinobi.”  That was a really telling moment for me in terms of how he sees the world.  It's not something I'm interested in condemning him for, like you said; I don't think the story is ever asking us to do that, it’s just a philosophy that's very different from how Kakashi sees things and what he thinks children's experiences should be like.  

I guess what I ultimately think (from the material we’ve seen so far, at least) is that Minato seems to perceive the loss of his students as something that Kakashi is struggling with, not something he himself is agonizing over.  It’s a very sad thing that happened, of course, but it’s just part of the way their world works/a function of the times they live in.  It's not something Minato is tormenting himself about.  Whereas I think that if Kakashi ever lost a kid, it would have killed him.  And I don't think this fact is in any way supposed to paint Minato as a bad person.  He's not!  All it means is that there is a generational difference between the world Kakashi and Co. are trying to create and the world Minato always knew, and people like Minato are doing the best they can with the framework they have.  

I do like the guy a lot - and I wonder what he might have been like if he had lived to see a permanent peace established.

re: little Yamato - oh boy, those episodes nearly ended me.  I am already very, very, VERY weak for Kakashi and Yamato’s friendship, and seeing Kakashi rescue Yamato from that horrible place (literally and metaphorically) was too much for me to handle.  Kakashi’s silhouette replacing Danzo in Yamato’s memories of being rescued from Orochimaru’s lab - that slew me.  And the way Danzo tells Yamato “you have no past, no future, no name” juxtaposed with Kakashi introducing Yamato as Tenzo because he remembers from three years ago how Yamato once rebelled at being called Kinoe and yelled “MY NAME IS TENZO” - Kakashi just using that chosen name without hesitation, without question, without needing to be told...it all ties back into the recent thematic throughline the show is working with about Identity - the importance of the Tailed Beasts having names, Kabuto’s desperate and misguided search for “who and what he is,” Itachi reclaiming his true self by undoing the reanimation justu and declaring “I am Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf Village,” Obito claiming that his real name doesn’t matter anymore, that he’s Nobody...it’s fantastic how they’re pulling all this together.

re: Kakashi and little Naruto - oh man, the feelings.  I agree with you that Kakashi was in no place to be dealing with this, but certainly under different circumstances I think he would have loved to be a part of baby Naruto’s life.  I actually think the reasoning behind “let’s put Kakashi in a situation where he’s in close contact with someone bringing new life into the world” is sound - I think that would be a really good thing for him!  Just not in the sense of “you’re Kushina’s personal bodyguard, so if anything happens to her and the baby you can blame yourself for it.” XD  Like...Minato could have invited Kakashi in for dinner sometimes, instead of having him constantly stand guard under their window???  If it had been more “we care about you and we want you to be a part of our family”....ugh, that would have been amazing.  Kakashi is already SO good with Naruto (who is NOT by any means an easy kid to manage) - he just has such good instincts about how to talk to that kid and teach him in ways that work WITH Naruto’s particular brand of high motivation/low frustration tolerance, ping-pong emotional extremes, explosive energy levels, zero impulse control, and an inability to process more than one thing at a time.  Handling Naruto effectively would be a challenging project for any teacher, never mind taking care of Naruto and two other kids, but Kakashi is a natural at it.  It would have been awesome to see what Kakashi was like with Naruto when they were even younger...though the Feels might knocked me out.

[also, you mentioned Naruto and Obito - I cannot even tell you the Extremest Agonies I was in when the big reveal happened and I had to hear Naruto blankly go “who is he” - utterly clueless, without the faintest idea that he’s looking at the person who shaped his entire moral philosophy.  The amount of things that these kids don’t know...that fact that Naruto has been quoting this very person all his life and making all his major life decisions based on the lesson Kakashi relayed to them on Day One - Obito’s words - oh boy oh boy I was not capable of handling that even the littlest bit.]

#*high fives your brain right back* #feel free to gush about this show anytime - i am right there with ya! :D #replies #naruto #pan watches naruto

[cobaltusami]

Tropical Vacation pt. 4

Hey hi hello! I meant to post this earlier but my dumbass forgot to. There Is no tickling in this part but this Is the part where they meet!

Something important to note: I have not completed the second game, So this probably won't make sense because I've probably not seen some huge plot twist yet. I apologize. This Is happening In an alternate universe anyway so hopefully that doesn't take away from the story too much!

Characters In this part: All of class 78, Hajime, Fuyuhiko, Mahiru, Hiyoko, Ibuki, Nekomaru, Akane, Chiaki, Sonia, Nagito. (The rest of class 77 Is there but not mentioned by name.)

Word count: 2,247

Part 1: [Click or tap here!] Part 2: [Click or tap here!] Part 3: [Click or tap here!] Part 4: You are here.

Once they all assembled at the gym, Monokuma appeared on the stage.

“Thank you all for coming to my ted talk!” He greeted. “And for the splitting headache I now have thanks to you four over there.” He pointed to Mondo, Hiro, Taka and Sakura. Mondo and Hiro chuckled while Sakura blushed.

“I have gathered you all here for a very special surprise!”

“We know what you said in the announcement, can you just get on with it?” Leon rolled his eyes at the mismatched bear.

“Well, Someone’s pushy today. I guess my feng shui isn’t working as well as I’d hoped.” he sounded dejected. “Which Incidentally, Is the subject of today’s meeting!”

“Don’t tell me, You’re gonna throw more sand around?” Hina asked with a small giggle, nudging Sakura.

Sakura flinched hard from the contact, her nerves still on fire from earlier. “M-Monokuma… we are not interested In your decorating escapades.” she mumbled.

“I guess you’re right… It’s not nearly as interesting as watching you getting ti--”

“Sh-Shut up!” She stammered, blushing.

“What about your decorating, Monokuma?” Kyoko sighed, realizing this meeting may never end If she didn’t step In and get it back on track.

“Puhuhuhuhu…” Monokuma giggled. “See? Someone cares about--”

“Just get on with It.” Kyoko interrupted, quickly losing her patience.

“Fine, You’re all no fun…” The bear moped for a moment before clearing his throat. “I called you all here to tell you that I’ve redecorated again! Once you leave the Gym you should notice a whole new world out there…” He said ominously.

“This Is a waste of my time.” Byakuya huffed. “I’m going back to the library.”

“Oh but before you do that, I must warn you…” Monokuma sounded like he was grinning as he spoke. “There are other students out there, much different than the group you’re all used to.”

“D-Did you ge-get another p-p-pool floaty or some-something?” Toko rolled her eyes.

“Something like that.” He called vaguely after the students who were exiting the room.

But imagine their surprise when they opened the doors only to be met with bright sunlight, the sound of waves crashing, and seagulls cawing.

A/N I'm not sure how Monokuma Houdini'd this, he probably stole Usami's spare magic stick--

“W-What the!?” Byakuya jolted back with a surprised gasp.

“W-What happened to the school?!” Makoto stammered.

“Puhuhu… What do you think? After your lukewarm response before, I took your criticisms into account and redecorated! Pretty realistic huh?”

Hina, Kyoko and Makoto stepped out, looking around. “G-Guys? It’s actually real.” Hina stammered, shocked.

“No shit, How could Monokuma have faked it!?” Mondo retorted, walking out with them.

Hina scanned the area enthusiastically then squealed. “Sakura! Come out here! There’s a beach!” she announced as she bounced back in the doorway.

Sakura followed her best friend out again. “It’s… pretty.”

Leon, Hiro, Celeste, Sayaka, Taka and Chihiro all followed them out, looking around curiously.

Chihiro giggled happily. “It’s so nice here!” they beamed, twirling around once in the gentle breeze.

“Look at the water! It’s so blue!” Sayaka smiled.

Toko took one look at the water and began to back up nervously, she looked to Byakuya trying to gauge his reaction to all of this.

“This Is some kind of trick. I’m not falling for It.” Byakuya huffed irritably.

“I don’t know, It looks pretty real to me.” Hifumi commented as he stepped outside.

Hina looked to Toko and noticed how nervous she seemed. she smiled, reaching her hand out for the writer. “Come on Toko! Come with us. I won’t let anything happen to you!”

Toko blushed, stammering awkwardly. “I-I don’t ne-need your protection, M-Meathead!” She chided.

Most people would be offended by this, Hina knew by now that this was just how Toko was. She stepped back through the doors. “Come on Toko~ don’t you wanna just feel the fresh air for even a few seconds? It feels great out here!”

The writer did in fact, want to feel the fresh air. She looked to Byakuya silently for his opinion again.

“Do what you want, I certainly don’t want you In here.” He said coldly, crossing his arms.

She looked back at Hina and shakily took her hand, stepping outside with her.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna join them?” Monokuma asked the Progeny.

“This Is some kind of Motive, and I’m not dumb enough to fall for it like they are.”

“Yeah no.” Mondo grabbed a hold of Byakuya’s arm, dragging him outside. “You aren’t staying where we can’t keep an eye on ya, We all agreed to stick together.” He muttered.

Toko actually smiled as she stood In the sunlight with Hina. “I-It does fe-feel really g-good out here…” she admitted.

“See? It’s not so scary.” Hina beamed, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

Sakura smiled at the two, glad they were getting along for the time being and she didn’t have to kick Toko’s ass for saying anything too off handed to the swimmer.

“L-Let go of me!” Byakuya growled, ripping away from the biker, as he turned around to go back inside the doors closed with Monokuma standing in front of them. “Open the doors. I’m going back inside.”

“No you aren’t.” Monokuma announced, All the students turned to him questioningly. “Consider this a school field trip! You’re going to be staying here for the next few days while I make actual changes to the school.”

“Stay where exactly? This Is just an island.” Makoto asked.

“I’m glad you asked, Unlucky one! Across this bridge Is a park, and through magical gate number one Is an island with a hotel. The hotel Is where you’re all set up to stay.” Monokuma explained. “But be caaaareful… There are other students on this island that aren’t as hospitable as you are. They’re cold blooded killers who’ve already had a few trials.”

Makoto felt his blood run cold as he looked to Kyoko for comfort, her face was it’s usual iron mask.

“I’d love to stay here and chat with you all, but your teacher should be here shortly to show you the way.” Monokuma sighed. “Enjoy yourselves! Try not to kill for at least a few hours, I have some surprises to prepare for when you get back!” with that he disappeared. Leaving behind the group of concerned students.

“H-He’s totally joking about the other students… right?” Hiro asked, nervously smiling.

“He has to be, There’s no way he can watch over us and a whole other class at the same time.” Makoto replied.

“I shouldn’t have listened to you!” Toko cried, pulling her hand away from Hina. “I-I should ha-have known y-you were m-m-making the wrong ch-choice!”

“Toko, Easy! It’s gonna be okay!” Hina tried to reassure the walking ball of anxiety. “I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, And I mean It!”

They didn’t have any more time to panic when Usami appeared. “Hello students!” She greeted cheerfully, the group quieted down and looked at the pink and white bunny in total confusion.

“Oh god, There’s more of ‘em?!” Mondo asked.

“M-More of them? You aren’t comparing me to that awful Monokuma, Are you?” Usami sobbed. “I would never do anything as vile as him!”

“Who are you?” Kyoko asked.

“My name Is Usami, I am your soft and squeezable teacher! It’s nice to meet you all!” She beamed. “I am very happy to have you all here!”

“Monokuma said there were other students on the island… Is that true?” Makoto asked.

“Yes, Ah but don’t worry! They aren’t at all as he says!” Usami quickly corrected. “They are wonderful kids! They’ve taken a stand against Monokuma by not participating In his horrible games…”

Makoto let out a small breath of relief. “We’re the same, We haven’t killed anyone either.” He informed the plushie.

Usami giggled happily. “Love, Love! That’s wonderful to hear! Come with me, I’ll take you to the others to get you all acquainted!” She announced as she began to walk towards the bridge.

The students reluctantly followed, not seeing much of a choice. As they made the trek to the other island Usami asked for all of their names, giving them each a compliment on how nice their name was.

It was such a stark contrast to what they were used to with Monokuma, which only made them more suspicious and uneasy about this whole thing.

They arrived at the front of the beach house, and they could hear yelling and laughing, mixed in with some shrieks of surprise coming from whatever was behind the house.

“It sounds like they’re out on the beach!” Usami observed, leading them around to the beach and sure enough, they were. They were having a water gun and balloon fight.

Hajime shrieked as he got pelted by three different people, turning away to protect his face with a laugh. When he opened his eyes he was looking at the other class and Usami.

The students abruptly stopped their shenanigans and looked to the group.

“Everyone, This Is the class Monokuma mentioned before!” Usami announced. “Come introduce yourselves!”

Ibuki was the first to step forward, her eyes wide in shock. “Sayaka??? Is that you??” she gasped.

Sayaka’s eyes also widened as she too stepped forward. “Ibuki? Ibuki Mioda??”

There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other in disbelief, but then they squealed and ran to hug each other. “Ibuki, I’m so happy to see you!”

“Ibuki Is happy to see you too!”

“Ibuki? You know her?” Hajime asked curiously.

“Yes! We were In the same music group before Ibuki left to pursue a solo career.” Ibuki explained, pulling away from the singer.

Leon eyed Nekomaru, shocked. “C-Coach Nekomaru?” He stammered.

Nekomaru blinked, seemingly his face clicked In his head. “LEON KUWATA!” He shouted. “Oh man, It’s been a while! C’mere you!”

Leon smiled nervously as he approached Nekomaru, being pulled into a powerful hug.

Hajime seemed a bit more at ease about the situation as Sonia was the next to step up. “Hello! My name Is Sonia Nevermind! It is wonderful to meet you all!” She greeted cheerfully.

“Whoa,” Akane looked at Sakura with stars in her eyes. “You look super strong!”

“Th-Thank you.” Sakura smiled a bit. “My name Is Sakura Ogami, What Is your name?”

“Oh! Right! I’m Akane Owari, Ultimate Gymnast.” She introduced herself. “Hey, Wanna fight??”

Nekomaru approached them, gently pulling Akane back. “Easy tiger, go introduce yourself to the rest of the class.”

She pouted as she did as he asked.

“Sorry about her, She’s really Into sparring.” Nekomaru laughed. “I’m Nekomaru Nidai! Ultimate team manager! You’re the Ultimate Martial artist, Yeah?”

Sakura was a bit caught off guard. “Yes, How did you…?”

“I’ve watched you fight.” He admitted with a chuckle.

Makoto stared at Nagito. Why did he look so familiar to him?

“Hi, I’m Nagito Komaeda! I’m the Ultimate Lucky student. Nice to meet you!” He introduced himself. Man, he even sounds familiar.

Makoto jumped In surprise. There could be two of the same ultimate?! Though he supposed they DID do this lottery before… “U-Uh, Hi! I’m Makoto Naegi. Ultimate Lucky Student.” He smiled sheepishly at the surprised look on Nagito’s face.

“Really?? Another Ultimate Lucky student? WOW! So my theory was correct.” Nagito said thoughtfully. “I’m really not an Ultimate after all!”

“W-What?” Makoto stuttered, taken off guard by how cheerful he seemed about this. “N-No uh, I was picked at random for a lottery. You’re probably the real--”

Chiaki grabbed Nagito by the arm and yanked him away to give him a lecture while Hajime and Fuyu took his spot. “Sorry about him, He’s on a kick about being trash.” He explained with a sigh.

“Man, and I thought Makoto had low self esteem…” Hina mumbled, giggling at the side eye she received from him.

“I’m Hajime Hinata, I don’t know what my Ultimate Is.” He offered his hand to shake.

“I’m Makoto Naegi. Nice to meet you!” He beamed, his eyes flickered to Fuyuhiko, who still looked a bit uneasy about this situation.

Hajime looked at the blond and gently nudged him. “Go on, It’s okay.”

Fuyu stepped forward and looked up at Makoto-- It’s not every day that someone has to look up at him so he was slightly amused. “My name Is Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, I’m the Ultimate Yakuza.” He introduced, stepping back. Hajime put his arm around Hiko’s shoulders and pulled him into his side to comfort him, sensing he was uneasy.

Mahiru, who had been scared initially, seemed much more lax now as she and Hiyoko introduced themselves to the group.

Once the rest of the group had been introduced, Usami turned to the students. “I should show you to the hotel so you can settle in your rooms!”

“Ibuki can do It!” Ibuki bounced excitedly.

“I will go too!” Sonia volunteered.

Usami giggled. “Very well! I’ll let you two show them. Their rooms have their names on the doors. I must go prepare something, but I will be back to check In on you!” She reassured, disappearing just as Monokuma does.

“Follllooow Ibuki!”

After getting settled In, the Hope’s peak students found that some of their stuff was already in their rooms, also the rooms were much nicer than their school dorms. It was definitely gonna take some time to get used to being able to see sunlight, but It was certainly going to be a nice change for a while.

Tomorrow they would be getting more acquainted with the students that inhabit the island.

[reignsupreme-inyourdreams]

CLAMP Endings

The announcement of the Tokyo Babylon anime caused me to fall back into a CLAMP rabbit hole, but it is honestly so refreshing considering the recent phenomenon of shows ending that clearly didn’t have a planned ending (GoT, SPN, Dexter, etc). Don’t get me wrong, CLAMP isn’t always great with endings (Looking at you, X and Clover) but I’ve been re-reading Tsubasa recently because it is my all-time favorite story and there was a bit of foreshadowing that I hadn’t picked up on when the Clow/Acid Tokyo reveal first happened.

In Volume 6 (I forget exactly which chapter) Syaoran meets Seishirou in Outo, and remembers first meeting him in Clow when he wanted to read a book Syaoran was guarding for his father. The book mentions vampires (Seishirou is a ‘vampire hunter’), but when Syaoran lets him see the book Seishirou realizes that he is unable to read it. Syaoran offers to read it to him as the book is written in an ancient language that the people of Clow Country no longer use, but Syaoran was taught it by his father (an archeologist). 

 In Volumes 15-18 the group goes to Acid Tokyo and meets Kamui and (eventually) Subaru, the specific vampires that Seishirou is hunting. It’s a post-apocalyptic world, water is vital, but  (This is a SUPER condensed version of this arc) over the course of the arc the water in the building the group is staying in is ruined when Sakura absorbs the feather guarding it. Eventually another feather is found in the world and, with Sakura’s permission, is left behind to protect the (replaced) water. The group leaves. 

Then, in volume 24 or 25 (I can’t remember exactly) after the group arrives in Clow Country it is revealed that the feather that has been calling to Sakura from Clow’s ruins (Way back in volume 1!) Is the same feather that Sakura left in the reservoir in Acid Tokyo, meaning that Clow Country is the future of Acid Tokyo. 

Thus, re-reading volume 6, I realized that the vampires mentioned in Syaoran’s book are, in fact, Kamui and Subaru specifically, and that ‘ancient language’ of Clow Country is from the people of Acid Tokyo chronicling the events of that arc. 

In short, it was super mind blowing to me that, even though Tsubasa’s ending is chaotic and complicated, CLAMP planned it all from the beginning and stuck to it. They didn’t feel the need to change their plan to subvert expectations, and it’s a satisfying ending. True, there are a few plot points that never got fully resolved (looking at you specifically, vampire twins!) but CLAMP seems to be planning to revisit some of them in short bonus compilations, like they did with the Tsubasa World Chronicle series. It is even mentioned in the final chapters that the group’s memories of past worlds will lead them to return to previous worlds more often as they continue their travels.

I really wish that more writers were willing to end their shows in similar ways; have your planned story and tell it. Leave some things open ended if you feel like you want to revisit the story in the future with side stories, but leave a good, complete story to cement everything together. Don’t let a good story peter out until there’s nothing but incomprehensible plot twists thrown in just to revive a story until you reach an unsatisfying ending. Just let it end. If a side story ends up being not as good as the original story then it’s less frustrating for fans because they still have the satisfying original story to return to.

#CLAMP #Tsubasa RESERVOIR CHRONICLE #syaoran #subaru sumeragi #kamui shirou #seishirou sakurazuka #musings

[takirasu]

Why I cannot understand how a huge majority of the Persona 5 fandom ships Akira/Protagonist with Akechi if you’ve played the game and what is possibly wrong about it

First and foremost: I do not mean to offend or hurt anyone personally with this. This is purely analytical from the viewpoint of someone who is interested in analysing characters and character dynamics. The group of people mentioned that I dislike regarding this ship is targeted to certain types of people in the fandom that will be explained at the end, meaning if you ship this No, I don’t automatically dislike you and even if I would, who cares? It’s just me. I don’t know you and it shouldn’t matter to you. I also want to mention that obviously Persona 5 will get spoiled in this analysis as well as slight mentions and spoilers of Royal, especially the third semester. Read at your own risk! Without further ado, let’s jump into a very interesting dynamic between two characters that had potential, but – in my opinion – leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth due to what fans did and do with it most of the time and how Atlus ends it in both Orginal and Royal. I will try to be about this as neutral as possible, since an analysis shouldn’t take a side and then put my opinion about it at the end, because the aspects and whys about this matter more than one person’s opinion alone. Also, the analysis will help form an opinion and back it up. There is nothing worse to me than giving an opinion, but not having anything to back it up with.

To analyse the relationship between the two I will be taking important parts of the story in this dynamic and analyse it as well as analyse the characters briefly according to the situation and towards each other. I will be taking the Anime and Manga into this for certain parts as well. I would like to do a whole character analysis one day if I find the time and fans are interested, but since the main focus of this is a ship and what is up with it I will only analyse the moments that they either have together or that further underlines the topic.

 Starting with Akira, it is clear from the very first hour on that he has a strong want of helping other people – in need or not - and cannot stand injustice. To underline how important it is to him you have to understand that in Japan’s society it is considered incredibly rude to interfere between two adults in whatever situation given. It is not your business, like Sojiro Sakura – his guardian in Tokyo during his probation – explains to him and much more the player at the beginning of the game. In short, Akira knew what he might possibly get himself into. Even if Shido wouldn’t have tripped and hurt himself. Even if Shido wouldn’t have threatened the women to tell the upcoming police Akira apparently assaulted him. The only thing important to those who found out about the incident and know that he did not push him was still this: You do not interfere between two adults, keep your business. People who do that are considered delinquents and you really do not want this stamp on your forehead in Japan. Further, I assume Akira might be suffering from a Saviour complex. In all three media – game, manga and anime – he puts other people’s needs over himself and gets incredibly upset if he is not able to help someone or better, in Akechi’s case, save them. As helpful and kind a someone can be by nature, you have to understand that not everyone will either want your help or will be able to accept it. Not everyone can be saved and you do not have to save everyone. People who have trouble with accepting this suffer from a Saviour complex. A moment to justify both this and my first point is during the beginning of Madarame’s Palace, with one of my favourite quotes of Akira being,

“I want to help. I just want to be sure what we're doing is right. Trust me I'm not saying we should turn a blind eye and do nothing...”

After this event, Ann and Ryuji call him out for being both too timid and yet in haste at the same time. They’re barely out of the Metaverse and obviously have a private life that they need to care about when he already wants everyone to gather information on if Yusuke is really being abused and used by his teacher as fast as possible; on the same day. Again, he puts others over himself. While of course Ryuji and Ann aren’t any less concerned, to him someone might be getting hurt and there is no time to waste on matters like this. When they do find out through Nakanohara, a former student of Madarame, that he steals his pupil’s art, threatens everyone that leaves him and makes students even hurt themselves, Akira as the Phantom Thieves leader decide on saving Yusuke. Said complex also feeds his need of wanting to protect others, shown and explored more in two major scenes in the anime. When Phantom Thieves meet Akechi for their finale encounter they captured it very well. Akechi reveals he has the power of the Wild card, being able to handle more than one Persona, like Akira does. When the Thieves try to either talk to Akechi or attempt to walk up to him and handle it, Akira as Joker takes his role seriously. He tells the others, “He’s mine. Hold. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” knowing full well that nobody else would be able to take him on other than another Wild card. Another scene is when he protects Sojiro from a few police men. He knows he shouldn’t step in between two adults and he is still on probation, but the want of protecting the person that offers him shelter and that warms up to him is stronger than his own desires. He stands in front of Sojiro and shields him.

 Akechi on the other hand is one of the most interesting and misunderstood characters I have seen in a long time. While not outright admitting it himself, Akechi has this immense and unfulfilled need of being loved since his past was pretty much empty of it. His resentment towards Akira is fuelled by this since he sees how said one has a lot of supportive friends when he’s nothing special in particular. This possibly means that in Akechi’s eyes you have to have a certain standard to achieve to be special and lovable, which would explain the way he made himself for the public. He further insults Akira as a criminal who lives in an attic during their last meeting and asks himself what he has that Akechi lacks, not knowing that it is something he never grew up learning. He hates Akira, but deep down he does not. It pains him to see the exact opposite of himself and how out of place it is for him. Akira is nothing yet loved, while Akechi build up this perfect self that is special, but not actually loved. It messes with him whenever Akira is in front of him and does better than him. He is the reason he gets reminded of the things he hates the most about himself. Similar to Akira he is an outcast to society – just carefully sealed and hidden behind his Ace detective mask. Shido, who is actually his father and he only works with to get revenge on, did not care that he got someone pregnant and left, which lead to Akechi’s mother giving him away and committing suicide. In Japan these kind of families are frowned upon on, being the kid of a possible one-night stand gives no meaning to your life and only tarnishes the mother, which is most probably the reason why the women took her life. It wasn’t bearable for her in this society and she couldn’t life with Akechi’s existence. He was given from foster home to foster home, never had any parents that would give him love and that he could look up to as well as forming actual bonds with people. You see him both struggling to form an actual friendship with Sae, an adult, as well as adapt to people his age, for example the Phantom Thieves. He feels odd and has this unpleasant aura of superiority around him, since he has never learned anything regarding love and how to work and be with other people. So Akechi decides he needs to build his mask to be lovable to the public since his actual self, in his eyes, is not. He’s smart and basically reforms himself completely new for the public. His public self is near to perfect for the role of a student detective. Justice driven, charming, funny and smart. During the game while he is on stage it slips his thoughts during the moment everyone cheers for him and adores him, that none of these people know he’s an unwanted bastard child, which means that he does not think as highly of himself as the player tends to think at the beginning of the game. He is sure nobody would like him and he would never be able to become a detective if it was him as his true self that is worthy of nothing. These two things lead to him being able to be cold-blooded and cause the mental shutdowns, as well as try to kill Akira. First, he has never gotten love and affection. These things are needed for a child to grow and learn empathy, which Akechi lacks. It might almost sound mean, but from a neutral viewpoint this is why it was so easy for him. He does not feel for other people as openly as others do. Also, you have to keep in mind that every shutdown being demanded by Shido would eventually bring him closer to his goal. His father to acknowledged his existence in the perfect moment, the apex of his power, and to take revenge on him for the life he has to live and most possibly for his mother to be driven to suicide. Lastly important for this analysis, Akechi knew what he did when he decided to let himself get killed by his cognitive self, Shido’s so-called security system. First, it would have either been him and the Phantom Thieves who were the only ones able to use the Metaverse next to him and change Shido’s heart, or only him which means that there was a possibility to at least ruin his life and not make him the new Prime minister of Japan. He knows that they won’t kill Shido, but taking everything from him that is important to him, his only desire, and the reason Akechi had to live life like this to begin with seems enough in the moment he faces death. Second, he does not believe in second chances and he does not believe in forgiveness. Akechi’s believes that are present during the whole game aren’t just towards others, but also himself. He hates his true self the same way he dislikes Akira. Both his true self and Akira are nothing in society therefore neither worthy of love or forgiveness. To him, there is no other way to atone for his sins. When the Phantom Thieves defeat Akechi he states,

“You (Akira) are so lucky to be surrounded by teammates who acknowledge you. Once Shido confesses his crimes, you’ll all be heroes. As for me, people will find out my past deductions were just charade. My fame and trust will vanish. In the end, I couldn’t be special…”

The only place he could eventually feel loved was when he faked those crimes and fake investigated them, since they were his own the public didn’t know about. He could feel important and respected, have a place in Japan’s society while working on his goal of his father’s downfall. The moment the Phantom Thieves won over him, he knew this would be taken away from him since to him the only possible outcome of this is the Phantom Thieves winning over Shido and either turning Akechi in or Shido spilling during his change of heart. People relying on him and trusting him, people acknowledging him. That is what the trust and fame was about to him. The moment they meet in Shido’s palace and Akechi is defeated, it would all be taken away from him. Putting this together is the reason he decides to trap himself with the summoned shadows and his cognitive self. His father would lose everything that was important to him if he saves the Phantom Thieves and he has no reason to live in a world where he has no fame and trust from the public, since in his distorted mind he will not be worth of love and worth of existence. He wouldn’t be special. When the Phantom Thieves do reach out and tell him all the things they admire about him and give him a chance to join them against Shido, he laughs about them. His true self is out and to him, it is not lovable or special no matter what they say.

From the reasons shippers bring up for these two, Akira being devastated about Akechi’s death and wanting it revoked is a big one and the first one I want to analyse and explain. As analysed earlier, it is important to Akira to save others and help them, especially when they cannot help themselves. In certain parts, the two aren’t far from each other yet polar opposites. Akira knows that and despite everything feels empathy for Akechi after said ones tells the whole story. Witnessing someone’s death whether it is hearing or seeing it is traumatizing and it’s normal to think about it later back at home in the real world how Akira does, but taking his character analysis into consideration it probably messed with him more than it would with other people, like the other Phantom Thieves. In the anime, Akechi throws a chess piece with Akira catching it. Akira, who is not someone to have emotional outbursts, gets so worked up and angry that he hits the wall that came down in front of them with his fist before he quickly catches himself back in the role as the leader who always had and has to stay calm and collected. If you look at it, Akechi is the only one Akira couldn’t save when he knew he needed it and, to Akira, deserved it. Because throughout the whole game with so many different cases of people not being able to save themselves or being in unjust situations not once does he care about how the people are or if there is any certain character trait etc. to them in particular. Akira probably shares the same belief like his friends. Everyone is special in their own way and so was Akechi deserving of a better life like everyone else is. It messes with him so much, that in Persona 5: Royal, a game that came out 3 years after the original game and it is still tightly being fought about if it is canon or an alternative reality to which the developers have yet to make an official statement to, he tells Maruki, the school’s therapist who is interested in cognitive science, that if he could change reality, his wish wouldn’t be that all of this had never happened, but that Akechi would still be alive. While this is the number one situation people who ship the two use ever since Royal has come out, it just further underlines Akira’s character and my suggestion of him having a Saviour complex. He cannot live with the fact that he couldn’t save Akechi, when this is what the Phantom Thieves stood for. It pains him so much that his wish is actually beneficial to someone else. We know nothing about Akira’s past, but it is impossible that there isn’t something he wishes wouldn’t have happened that is outside of the game. Instead, he chose something that helps someone else and puts himself back to ease. He knows, this is what pains him the most and will for quite some time. Having Akechi back would ease his complex and give a person he thinks that deserve a second chance another tries. This is once more better shown in the anime during the last confrontation when Akira tries to talk to Akechi multiple times during Akechi’s small monologue, but eventually realizes it will be of no use. Akechi is too far gone and Akira tells the group to finish it.

Second are the moments we got early in the anime. While the game doesn’t allow this, the anime explores Akechi’s detective side a bit earlier and more for the viewer. In game, we only see Akechi working on the cases he created while he is actually really good at “real” cases as well and able to solve them. During Yusuke’s arc, Akira and Akechi work together on a few of those and Akechi teaches him how not to be fooled by rotten adults. This all goes quite wholesome, but at that point the interrogation nor the black mask reveal had happened yet. The story is early and fresh, not even having picked up the pace. It almost feels like Akechi either tried learning how Akira’s mind works, or honestly just wanted to spend time with someone he felt like was similar to him. All of this gets revoked though when he massively insults him at the end of the game, making it hard to put this in canon. It might be that Akechi was trying to give himself a chance, because Akira was probably the first person who could handle Akechi just like how he is and also accepted him just like that - since that is what Akira does with everyone throughout the game and also gets complimented and aknowleged for - but instead Akechi couldn’t stop himself and pulled through with the rest of his plans. Looking at it from another side, taking this from the anime into consideration makes the next thing and points even worse.

Last is the interrogation, probably one of the most well-known scenes in the whole game, that I want to analyse further. To begin with, Akira finds himself getting arrested due to Akechi’s betrayal. While it is not exactly explained how, it is obvious that Akechi lead the police in since only Metaverse app users can enter the Metaverse. If you have a non-user nearby, you can pull them into it. Akechi probably did this beforehand, told them to hide and gave them either a time limit or symbol. After the fight against Sae Futaba picks up enemy readings, so many that they’re being surrounded. Akira and the Phantom Thieves part ways and the leader makes all the attention go to himself so that the others can escape. In the end he gets ambushed, cuffed up and knocked out by drugs. What the player does not know is that the group had known about Akechi’s plan all along and they had to play along. All throughout Sae’s palace, Akira knew he would most probably be cuffed up by the end, but it was necessary to let it happen. Otherwise they would never be able to defeat Akechi. I would like to add that this in particular sounds pretty traumatizing and stressful as well. Moving forward and the Phantom Thieves’ plan succeeding, Akechi is unknowingly being dragged into the Metaverse. He outright plans to kill Akira, which reveals his true motive on why he worked with them on Sae’s palace in the first place. The Phantom Thieves are blocking his path of the mental shutdowns and destroying his father. It is so soon that he cannot lose due to them. He is smart about it and wants to kill their leader. Once again and as stated earlier, Akechi doesn’t feel empathy and he has killed before. He gets things done so that they are beneficial to what he needs to do further, just like how it was beneficial for him to work with the Thieves together for at least a while. Be that figuring out how they work, or just messing with them. What he doesn’t know is the person in the interrogation room is the cognitive version of Akira. He is only in there, because he just entered Sae’s palace and in her cognition Akira is in the interrogation room, which she does not have much control of. Therefore, it keeps being the interrogation room instead of anything Casino related. Akechi proceeds to shoot an innocent guard and then Akira. While doing so, he seems like on a high, fully enjoying it getting rid of him and it is almost uncomfortable to watch that is how good it is made. It is Akechi’s first time he kills someone in the real world, but it doesn’t seem to be much different for him. He shoots Akira right in the head when he has nowhere to go, tied up and completely drugged to a point that both in the game and anime he can’t talk properly and even passes out. The state Akira is in is portrayed very well and just underlines the atmosphere further. A murderer just aiming at their helpless victim. Akechi puts the gun in his hand to report it as a suicide and leaves. He never shows any remorse when they meet again, only throwing in that the two might possibly would have become friends if having met earlier. He does not mention the faked death, because there is nothing to say. It might be, because both know Akechi wanted to do it. It was necessary for his path and nobody, especially not someone like Akira, would be standing in his way. Shippers defend this situation, saying Akechi had to kill Akira. To some extent, I would analysis this as true and say that it was a possibly way of getting rid of the Phantom Thieves and continuing his plan, but is your first idea really murder to this? In such a special way? Concealing it as a suicide and not have any respect to the person you just killed? It is unlikely as smart as Akechi is that this was the only possible option he had regarding on how he would get rid of the Phantom Thieves or their leader. Killing the person is just probably the most convenient one to Akechi and again, he does not feel for others properly, since he has never learned how to. This is why he is able to plan this, kill someone he acted like a friend with, saw multiple times for weeks and just walk away. In conclusion that means it is not because he had to and also not because he wanted to in particular, but because Akechi did not care and therefore made it possible to just shot him and continue with his life. It is one of the most important scenes in the whole game and does a lot to the development for all three characters involved (Sae, Akechi and Akira) yet shippers throw it under a bus with the sole statement that he had to.

Putting everything above together, the major moments these two had, shipping Akira and Akechi is complicated and probably not the best.

To finally conclude my opinion to this. In another world, Akechi could learn a lot from Akira. He has a lot of empathy for others and wants to help, which Akechi lacks. It would have been good for him and the part where Akechi mentioned that they might have become friends if met earlier made me emotional as someone who does not support it in a romantic way. In this moment, I thought of them as friends. I thought myself thinking of what would have been if they had met one or two years earlier. Two people who get better through each other and learn from each other. As much as I love this character trait from Akira, I have had my personal fair shares that having this can be negative at times. It would be good for him to have someone that shows him the opposite or at least a middle path. Both characters go All-Out on this. It is either full on empathy or complete lack of empathy. Either you want to save everyone or you’re okay with killing whoever as long as you obtain your ultimate goals.

Many people have stated already that the ship is quite abusive. Anything that comes out of Akechi’s mouth towards Akira in both game and anime (I’m only referencing the anime since the last two times because the manga is barely at Futaba’s arc yet) after revealing his true motives, is negative. Either he insults him directly or the way he lives, just because he found someone that reminds him of himself deep inside if he wants to or not. That gives him no right to act like this, even when psychology is complex. And if you want to defend this, it gives him no right to shoot him and actually visibly enjoy it – which you cannot deny and a lot of people in the fandom stated as well. He didn’t have to, but he did. He wasn’t forced to, but he did it. I wonder if Akechi tells Akira he hates him for the fact that he did make him feel something. Not in a romantic way, again, but more in a way of empathy and this feeling of friendship and he knew he had to stop this.

There are a lot of good people in the fandom fan of his complex character. I don’t necessary like Akechi as a character, but I find him interesting and good to talk about. As for liking or hating him…the interrogation scene happened the way it happened let’s just leave it at that. Sadly, there are also a lot of people in the fandom who will shove this ship down your throat. Somehow, it is superior to them and it should be canon. I have seen so many tweets and Tumblr posts, especially with Royal and its’ third semester that genuinely leave me concerned. What started as 3AM ramble to my friend ended up being this 5000 words essay on why the situations and character traits stated above get taken out of context or misunderstood by shippers. It goes further when you find out that some people ship it because it is abusive to begin with. They acknowledge it and love it and while there are more important things in life than this, I just found it too concerning and also very annoying at one point, I had to make an analysis about it and clear some things up. I have blocked a lot of tags regarding this ship and I still see it every day in the fandom and get attacked if I say something against it, so I just made this  post, knowing that people will eventually get mad at it. But, I honestly really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed writing about Akechi’s character. He is interesting, complex and there is so much to talk about him, but do I ship him with my favourite video game character? Hell nah.

If you want to add something to this, feel free to. I also enjoy respectful and normal discussion about this! I researched a lot for this, re-watched a few anime and game scenes and wrote for a total of 7 hours. If you enjoyed it or it made you think a little, it would be kind to let me know. I haven’t written anything in a while and my last character analysis was years ago, so this was quite a challenge, but knowing how popular this ship is and how much worse it got with Royal’s existence, I had to put this out. I’m going to be honest here. If they would’ve met a few years earlier, who knows if this wouldn’t have become one of my ships (I don’t interact in a lot of shipping to begin with so), because the basis of it is nice. But then the actual plot happens. All this stuff from the interrogation until the end happens and shippers just dismiss it or try to make it sound less bad. Like it’s the actual plot. It’s there. This is how P5 goes down. Akira’s one of the most traumatized characters I’ve come across in fiction and Akechi does a fair share to that. Don’t just dismiss that so your ship can be cute. It won’t, I’m sorry. And if you want to come at me for shipping in general, I as well ship something with complex and interesting dynamics within this game. It’s appealing, but not like this.

 Thank you for reading this if you got through all of it! I seriously appreciate it and my non-existent sleep does to! - May

#persona 5 #p5 #persona #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #goro akechi #video game #analysis #persona 5 analysis

[unpopularly-opinionated]

FINALLY FINISHED NARUTO AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Honestly, and this might sound harsh, but I think I give the series overall a 6/10. Being generous, I’d say it’s maybe a 7/10, but I’m deducting one point because I’m almost positive the only reason I’d rate it that high is because despite all it’s flaws, after watching 720 episodes across two series and 10 movies, you’re just going to be attached to the characters and show regardless of how you feel about it.

I know it’s super popular, or was anyways, and I can absolutely see why, but there were just too many issues that bothered me personally. It’s frustrating because I want to like it, I really do. There’s so many elements at work here that are so just perfectly me that it’s almost weird that I don’t like it, but I don’t. Obviously I liked it enough to spend hours upon hours watching it, but I think I just kept expecting it to get better at some point, and that point never happened.

More about my issues with it below...

I don’t know how to frame this (I never do) so it’s mostly just off the cuff.

I’ll start with the easily dismissible criticisms, the movies. Obviously all but one of the movies are non-canon (and I’ll get to the canon one shortly...), and they’re made by other studios so it’s not entirely fair to criticize the series based on them. I’m far too used to this weird format from Pokemon and their non-canon movies, so it wasn’t a huge deal to me. I will say that, much like the Pokemon films, almost all of the Naruto films followed the same exact format: Naruto goes to a location we’ve never heard of before and will never hear of again and is forced to protect someone abrasive and annoying until the enemy is defeated and they become BFFs that we’ll never see or hear from again.

I’d say, in order from best to worst:

Road to Ninja - Naruto the Movie

Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie - Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie

Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Blood Prison

The Last: Naruto the Movie

Yes, you read that right. The one canonical movie I put in dead last. Originally I thought that position was reserved for Blood Prison, which offended me because of just how utterly contrived the plot was and how out of character everyone needed to act to get it moving. But somehow, The Last took last place because of just how bad of a movie it was that for some reason has the audacity to be canon. And look, I know why it’s canon. It’s where Naruto and Hinata ‘officially’ get together and it ‘explains’ some missing plot elements from the series (more on that...), so of course it’s canon.

But come the fuck on, the last movie in the franchise, the one canonical movie, the one that may or may not take place after the Great Shinobi War, I.E. the big final battle of the series, has Naruto going into the fucking hollow earth through a cave portal that takes him to the moon, which is falling because the man on the moon is an incel and hates earth? What kind of methamphetamines were the writers on for that one. The Hinata and Naruto bits were fine, but holy fuck was that plot bad. They may as well have put Naruto in a spaceship and sent him to Mars to fight Martian Shinobi, I mean if we’ve already crossed the line, why not run a marathon beyond it.

The movie was meant to explain away a one-off line made in the series, that admittedly I did sit and ponder whether or not they’d ever explain it, about the Sage of Six Path’s brother, Homura, who went to go live on the moon after they defeated their mother Kaguya. It was mentioned so briefly and only once that I thought for sure it wasn’t ever going to be brought up again. I also wondered where Byakugan came from since we’d gotten an explanation for Sharingan and Rennigan during the series, but never for Byakugan. I actually don’t mind the explanation that it came from Homura’s bloodline, I think that tracks well enough. The man on the moon bit was...odd, but when I thought of how strong Homura was, I didn’t think much of it. I actually thought he somehow was going to still be alive and he’d come down to earth after they defeated Kaguya, but that never happened.

Here’s the rub though, and one of my issues with the series as a whole, which is that the show seemed to keep writing itself into these weird corners where they’d be forced to do something completely nonsensical, purely because they were the ones who wrote them into those corners. It would’ve been simpler to just say all visual jutsu was derived from Kaguya’s power, or the Homura died so there’s no man on the moon, or that Tsunade died so Kekashi needs to become Hokage, etc. They didn’t have to write themselves into these scenarios, but they did anyway and the end result was them having to write complete and utter nonsense to rationalize why they did it in the first place.

Kekashi becoming Hokage doesn’t really make any sense, like at all. They literally bisected Tsunade during the war but willed her back to life when they could’ve just as easily killed her then and there since she’s largely irrelevant to the rest of the series after the war, and then it would’ve made more sense why Kekashi, the man who on numerous occasions said he didn’t want to be Hokage, would then be forced to become Hokage as he’d be the next strongest (eligible) shinobi after Tsunade. I feel like it was all meant to be a payoff to Obito’s dying words to Kekashi which told him to become Hokage, which even then I found myself asking why the fuck would he say that? Kekashi almost was Hokage once before and was so relieved when Tsunade woke up from her coma so he wouldn’t have to.

Also can we talk about how bad that final episode was? I mean don’t get me wrong, it was cutesy as fuck and actually brought a tear to my eye (when Naruto asked Iruka to be his dad I fucking lost it, I won’t lie), but they cut it off before the wedding? Before the aftermath? Before he becomes Hokage? Like I understand Boruto exists, but I don’t feel like that’s a justifiable excuse for ending your long-running series on merely the assumption that he’ll become Hokage in the future. Maybe if the show was a whole 500 episodes shorter I’d be comfortable with it ending on a vague, yet hopeful ending, but when I’ve spent fuck knows how many hours on this series you bet your ass I’m expecting some mother fucking payoff.

Also do not even get me started on Sasuke. What. The. Fuck?!?!? My guy literally just sends a note via carrier pigeon to the wedding? That’s it? Did I just fucking hallucinate the last 720 episodes or wasn’t Sasuke supposed to be like the second main character??? The absolute absurdity.

This isn’t even much of a comparison because it’s so much shorter than Naruto, but it’s all I got in the moment, but imagine if at the end of Return of the Jedi, Han Solo just decides to fucking dip. He’s just not there. He and Chewie hopped into the Millennium Falcon the moment the Death Star was destroyed and just dipped. No longer in the movie, just gone. Didn’t say anything to Luke or Leia, just up and left. That would be insane.

It’s even more offensive knowing him and Sakura end of together. My. Fucking. Gods. This has been the relationship I’d been dreading since the start when it became abundantly clear they weren’t doing even the barest minimum to actually establish a relationship between them. As it is, when I watched The Last, I thought to myself: “Well, Naruto and Hinata’s relationship hasn’t been the most well-developed relationship I’ve seen, but it’s still leagues better than whatever hatchet job they’re going to pull to convince me Sasuke and Sakura end up together”. We didn’t even get the hatchet job. That’s just how little of a shit they gave. They did not even bother pretending to give any explanation as to how I’m supposed to believe they end up together. I’m quite literally just supposed to believe it because I know it will happen. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, it’s just something that is and therefor I must accept it. Absolutely ridiculous. As it stands, the show gave us more reasons why Sakura and Lee should end up together than they did for her and Sasuke. Fuck, I’d even buy Sakura and Inu before I’d buy Sakura and Sasuke.

I could go on, I really could, but it’s late and I’m just looking forward to putting this behind me. At some point, probably not too soon, I will watch Boruto. As it is, my watch schedule is pretty thoroughly booked up for a while. I can’t foresee myself ever watching this again. I know I sound harsh on it, but I wanna reemphasize that I want to like this show. It’s not a show I think is bad period, it’s a good show I think was just done rather poorly. It all felt very off-the-cuff, much like this shitty review. I don’t know what the manga-to-adaptation pipeline looked like when the show was live, but clearly something got fucked up somewhere.  This really feels like the Fullmetal Alchemist to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and I can’t help but want Naruto to get the Brotherhood treatment...if such a treatment even exists.

#random rant #random #anime #personal #review #pls don't scream at me for my bad opinions #I get that this show was obscenely popular #still is to an extent #it was as painful for me to write this as it was for you to read it #I feel so conflicted on this #like I want to say I loved the show #because many many parts of it I did #but so many more parts just completely failed for me

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 78 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch finally confronts Charles in the Human Instrumentality Elevator but before his laser Geass bullshit can kill him, he steals C.C.’s Code and becomes immortal. Now that Charles is at the highest Geass level, C.C. like “Oh yes Imperialist Daddy kill me cause Lelouch is too chicken to” because she wanted an out for her immortality all along. But she’s been saving Lelouch this whole time and didn’t force the Code on him like was done to her so she clearly has a soft spot for him. Also Viletta and Sayoko are having a ninja fight over Ohgi and Nia’s developing nukes or some shit. Ironically now that we finally know who C.C. is, she’s lost her own memories so her character is always incomplete. But Lelouch has busted up the Thought Elevator and Charles is stuck there so showdown postponed I guess.

Inuyasha: Naraku continues his plan to cover Sesshomaru in his goo and take him inside himself… not gonna bother rephrasing that. But he gets jumped by Inuyasha’s barrier breaking powers and absolutely wrecked by both of them once Inuyasha inadvertently saves Sesshomaru. Ironically Inuyasha’s able to stop himself being absorbed while Sesshomaru isn’t, implying he’s stronger at this point but who knows. Anyway Naraku just kinda rockets away on a poison cloud and Sesshomaru’s about to turn full doggo and chase him but the writers remember we’re never allowed to see full demon Sesshomaru again until he regains his arm and Naraku tells him “Hey yo Rin’s about to get murdered, better go take care of that instead of finishing the series now” and Sesshomaru’s out of bluffs pretending he doesn’t care. Everyone realizes if Sesshomaru catches Kohaku killing Rin or about to kill Rin he’ll straight up murder Kohaku which is exactly the level of head-fuckery Naraku wants. They stop Kohaku from killing Rin but he keeps attacking Sesshomaru and Sesshomaru’s like “Oh, you WANT to die, well tough shit buddy, I’m not in an accommodating mood today so you live mother fucker” because even he realizes Naraku wants him to murder Kohaku for some reason. It’s interesting to see him spare a human out of spite but also kind of take pity on Kohaku, his tolerance for humans is slowly but surely growing.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Well we’re on the boat to the Dark Tournament, aka the first episode of Hunter x Hunter, and the totally not Genkai Masked Man uses the move Genkai taught Yusuke to wipe out all the competition, wonder who they could be. Like even Kuwabara’s guessing it’s Genkai at this point, we have no excuse. Anyway the other demons get pissed at the loss and everyone has to murder them all to be let through, including one dude Yusuke kills while still sleeping off his training hangover. We meet two of the first team they’ll be facing and it’s standard “Grr rawr, we’ll crush you” shit from a little boy and an Buttrock Band singer. Also Keiko and Shizuru are on the way to the tournament courtesy of Botan and Yusuke’s mom is left at home for no reason despite being in the arc in the manga, we just couldn’t handle more Milf Urameshi action.

Fate Zero: This is basically a summary episode, we have Kirei/Gilgamesh and Kiritsugu summing up where we’re at right now with the war and who’s involved. Kirei doesn’t have any more ninjas so he’s out but the Grail’s like “Nuh-uh, get back in here loser” and gives him Command Seals back even though he doesn’t have a Servant to use them on. Gilgamesh is all “What if we teamed up? Haha, just kidding… unless?” And weirdly enough Kirei is kinda into the soap opera bullshit going on with Kariya trying to save Sakura and being turned into a mummy for it. He’s like “what kind of fucked up person would like seeing a man being eaten from the inside out to save a child in vain?” Gilgamesh is all “Joke’s on you, we’re into that shit”. Also Iris is dying or something so they move into Shirou’s home and Saber ironically makes the transmutation circle in the shed that Shirou will bleed on later and summon her in UBW, guess it makes more sense why Shirou lives in a bullshit dojo house now that we know it was a originally a mage base fortress to harbor his girlfriend and Stepmom’s forbidden lesbian affair.

Konosuba: We kick of Season 2 with everyone throwing Kazuma under the bus for him to go to jail and then Aqua showing her whole damn ass during her pathetic breakout attempts. Then we shift Ace Attorney/Chrono Trigger mode and get a recap of all the shit Kazuma’s done over the past season. It’s kinda funny people don’t really know how to feel about him because he is a scumbag but he’s a net positive for the community. He eventually uses his lie detector skills to clear himself but because this is a kangaroo court he get found guilty anyway. But SINCE it’s a kangaroo court Darkness is able to use her own even higher levels of royal bullshittery to void the verdict and delay the case until Kazuma can prove he’s a harmless scumbag instead of a traitor. And they lose Darkness and get all their shit taken. Like I get that’s the nature of the show and the main joke but I kinda wish we’d get more story stuff or have them thrown a bone every once in a while, not a huge fan of shows like Marrier with Children or Everybody Hates Chris where you know shit’s just gonna fall apart in the end somehow, it makes it hard to care. Like this isn’t THAT bad about it but I just wish we’d get a few more serious/wholesome moments thrown in because everything else is just a fakeout.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So we’re getting close to the end of the season here and Beryl’s here and Mamoru just kinda… watches as she fights the Sailor Guardians in an alternate dimension because apparently Ami can just do that, like aside from their signature attacks I feel like the limits on what the Sailor Guardians can and can’t do are very vague, seems to be a problem with a lot of shojo action at the time since powers are more focused on emotion and it just ends up being “I can do whatever I feel like”. Anyway they summon the Meteor Sword from Avatar and cut off Beryl’s power necklace and she just kind of… dies for some reason? Like she was a reincarnated human just like everyone else but she just kinda melts after her necklace is chopped off like she’s been alive a thousand years. But yeah, possessed Tuxedo mask has the crystal and the sword and apparently the sword is the key even though we only started hearing about it like three episodes ago. Usagi follows him to Antarctica or whatever and the Sailor Guardians just… fly there, see this is what I mean apparently they could fly the whole time and just never did? They fight the Four Kings and reawaken their memories but Metalia blasts them away in seconds which if she could do that to the people that were kicking the Sailor Guardians’ asses five seconds ago couldn’t she just do it to them too? Anyway the girls’ former boyfriends are dead and that’s sad I guess even though I don’t think we ever really established which one was dating who so idk if it matters unless they’re all one big polycule. Usagi tries her bullshit fixer beam power and it doesn’t work so her next solution is just stab everyone and sort it out later, not a bad plan honestly, she cuts down Mamoru and then herself and is like ah fuck it, the end.

Durarara!!: The Saika arc concludes and we get Anri fucking up Haruna while Shizuo pounds the whole town in the park with his new demon gloves. But basically because Anri is a little ball of dissociation and trauma more than a person she’s a perfect host for a sword that’s yandere for the whole human race, the void contains the explosion and all that shit. However now that there’s been a Saika riot but Mikado and Masaomi are scared and mobilizing the Dollars and Yellow Scarves (also oh yeah Masaomi is the leader of the Yellow Scarves but you should know that already) to fight Saika to protect Anri except Saika IS Anri and Izaya’s just having fun stirring the pot and Anri’s the only one who knows he’s behind it because turns out when you have a hundred peoples’ memories swimming in your head it kinda helps you piece shit together.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Code Geass #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate Zero #Konosuba #Sailor Moon Crystal #Durarara!!

[charlietheepicwriter7]

I’m remembering that you like NDRV3 now, which assumably means you also like DR in general??? Hence what I like to refer to as- The Three Hopes AU! Because I don’t have a better name, and we were shafted when they didn’t let Kaede be a protagonist and get called a symbol of Hope (yes I’m still bitter). Also this gets kinda dark- Which is fair, I think, it’s DR- But it’s probably coming dangerously close to that Yandere Mariharem AU of yours.

So! Here, the casts of DR1, SDR2, and NDRV3 are combined in one Killing Game, turning them into a 48 person group and therefore upping the amount of killings in that timespan- Assumably, the NDRV3 group becomes another class that attends Hope’s Peak. Like in canon, however, everyone has their memories wiped, so they don’t actually remember being classmates or friends.

Since so many people are participating in the Killing Game, there are some modified rules and patterns- There are more trials (anywhere from 9 to 15, depending on how you’d like to play things), and the number of survivors would also escalate, though it still feels like very few in comparison to how many people started (again, anywhere from 9 to 15, probably- They’re solid numbers, I can’t help it).

Also as a result of so many people, three groups end up forming- Initially, they were formed before the Killing Game was announced, and each faction would be headed by one of the protagonists (Makoto, Hajime, and Kaede). There’d be sixteen people per group, just to keep it even, and different people from each class would be in different groups. I’m still torn on why the factions would form, though- Either they’re formed by the students themselves, just to keep track of everyone, and Monokuma just rolls with it, or maybe the Mastermind splits them up? Either way, it’s against the rules to attack people in your faction, because that just seems like something Monokuma would do to get more despair.

Here’s where it gets... Darker. See, I feel like the large groups, and the splits, when combined with the isolation and the motives and the fact that some of the people there aren’t exactly stable, would... Ah. Become a bit fanatical, when it comes to what they might come to see as a figurehead for their group. It isn’t an immediate things, to be clear- It’s brought about through a lot of stress and desperation and the need to cling to something, more than anything.

Which. Basically makes Kaede, Hajime, and Makoto the targets of a bunch of platonic and/or romantic yanderes, I suppose- Depending on what you ship, or just what you think is interesting. Whoops? Either way, Monokuma isn’t above using them for motives (IE- Someone kill someone else or your leaders will all die).

Moving on, though- Here’s what I have for the factions so far! I have reasons for each person, if you’re interested, though a lot of them I haven’t sorted yet.

Kaede’s Faction

From the Class of 79

— Kaede Akamatsu, the Super High School Level Pianist (Leader)

— Shūichi Saihara, the Super High School Level Detective

— Kokichi Ōma, the Super High School Level Supreme Leader

— Rantarō Amami, the Super High School Level Survivor

— ???

From the Class of 78

— Nagito Komaeda, the Super High School Level Good Luck

— ???

From the Class of 77

— Tōko Fukawa | Genocide Jack, the Super High School Level Writer | Serial Killer

— Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the Super High School Level Moral Compass

— ???

Makoto’s Faction

From the Class of 78

— Makoto Naegi, the Super High School Level Good Luck (Leader)

— Kyoko Kirigiri, the Super High School Level Detective

— Sayaka Maizono, the Super High School Level Idol

— Junko Enoshima, the Super High School Level Fashionista | Analyst

— Mukuro Ikusaba, the Super High School Level Soldier

— ???

From the Class of 79

— Kirumi Tōjō, the Super High School Level Maid

— ???

From the Class of 77

— Mahiru Koizumi, the Super High School Level Photographer

— [Redacted], the Super High School Level Imposter

— ???

Hajime’s Faction

From the Class of 77

— Hajime Hinata, the Super High School Level ??? (Leader)

— Nanami Chiaki, the Super High School Level Gamer

— ???

From the Class of 78

— Leon Kuwata, the Super High School Level Baseball Player

— Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Super High School Level Fortune Teller

— ???

From the Class of 79

— Korekiyo Shingūji, the Super High School Level Anthropologist

— Tsumugi Shirogane, the Super High School Level Cosplayer

— Anjī Yonaga, the Super High School Level Artist

— ???

Unsorted

— Celeste Ludenburg, the Super High School Level Gambler

— Hifumi Yamada, the Super High School Level Doujin Author

— Byakuya Togami, the Super High School Level Heir

— Chihiro Fujisaki, the Super High School Level Programmer

— Aoi Asahina, the Super High School Level Swimming Pro

— Mondo Ōwada, the Super High School Level Gang Leader

— Sakura Ōgami, the Super High School Level Martial Artist

— Gundham Tanaka, the Super High School Level Animal Breeder

— Sonia Nevermind, the Super High School Level Princess

— Kazuichi Souda, the Super High School Level Mechanic

— Hiyoko Saionji, the Super High School Level Traditional Dancer

— Teruteru Hanamura, the Super High School Level Cook

— Peko Pekoyama, the Super High School Level Swordswoman

— Fuyuhiko Kuzuryū, the Super High School Level Yakuza

— Akane Owari, the Super High School Level Gymnast

— Nekomaru Nidai, the Super High School Level Coach

— Mikan Tsumiki, the Super High School Level Nurse

— Ibuki Mioda, the Super High School Level Musician

— Maki Harukawa, the Super High School Level Child Caretaker | Assassin

— Kaito Momota, the Super High School Level Astronaut

— Miu Iruma, the Super High School Level Inventor

— K1-B0, the Super High School Level Robot

— Tenko Chabashira, the Super High School Level Aikido Master

— Ryōma Hoshi, the Super High School Level Tennis Player

— Himiko Yumeno, the Super High School Level Magician

— Gonta Gokuhara, the Super High School Level Entomologist

... This got long. I am so, so sorry- Super interested in hearing your opinion, though, so I couldn’t help it. Thanks for responding, if you decide to!!!

This sounds like a really cool idea. We love the yanderes and dark here!

The first thing that kinda worries me is the large cast. This is 48 characters to develop and, with three protagonists, you’d be constantly be switching between point’s of view. Of course, protagonists don’t have to be the same as point of view characters, so you could switch the PoV each chapter? Just to give each character some screen time. 

I’m curious about why factions exist rather than how they’re formed. It’s really weird that there are three separate leaders when everyone should be unified by the goal of escaping. Perhaps the mastermind chose them? Maybe only the group leaders can officially vote at trials; like, the group will decide who they want to vote for and the leader is supposed to choose what the majority wants?

(I think the game Zero Time Dilemma does something similar to this? Three groups that have a leader and the leader needs to choose to kill another team or not). 

How long a would this killing game last? assuming there’s a trial every 5 days, that’s 45 to 75 days! 

What’s the motive behind the killing game? is it the same as DR1, where someone just wants the world to witness Hope’s Peak suffer? 

Team opinion time:

A bit curious who the mastermind is if Junko is on Makoto’s team.

I was a bit confused as to why you put Komaeda on Kaede’s team, but thinking about it, it makes sense. She is the only protag with a real talent after all, since Hajime doesn’t know his. 

Put Byakuya on either Kaede or Hajime’s team--he’s the type to try and overthrow the leader, and those too would actually stand up against Togami (which would make for a great “falling into yandere” moment for him). 

Assuming members choose their teams,  Fuyuhiko could go to Kaede’s team bc she looks kinda like his sister and that makes him want to protect her.

You could do a star crossed lovers thing, where two members of a canon-ish couple are on two different teams. This forces them to confront the feelings they have for their partner and their leader. 

Mikan should be on Makoto’s team. He’s really nice and caring, which would bring out her obsessiveness quickly. 

***************

Anyway, this sounds really cool! Tag me when you write it? ;)

#fanfic response #danganronpa #the three hopes au

[secret-engima]

Today in “SE works through the Chuunin Exam Arc and gets increasingly incredulous over how a show so beloved can have so many GAPING PLOT HOLES and also wow you can actually tell when the animators were getting paid to be enthusiastic or not can’t you”:

1. Sarutobi why did it take you so long to realize that the stadium and village were under attack.

2. Sarutobi why did you let Orochimoron take you hostage for even a hot second KAWARIMI IS A LITERAL ACADEMY BASIC TECHNIQUE JUST SWAP OUT WITH A NEARBY TILE YOU IDIOT I’VE SEEN IT DONE BEFORE FROM THAT CLOSE RANGE. KAKASHI DID IT. SO CAN YOU.

3. Sarutobi I don’t want to say you DESERVE to be trapped in a giant purple death box with your failed student and two dead guys trying to kill you but honestly you deserve to be trapped in a giant purple death box with your failed student and two dead guys trying to kill you.

4. Anbu. My guys. My dudes. I KNOW that the barrier is deadly and made of horrible purple fire and you can’t jump in but like- the barrier holders are right there. Wasting chakra to make an extra barrier around themselves. The barrier protecting them can’t be that thick. You have these lovely things call FLAME RESISTANT STEEL SWORDS you could be using to try to crack open the barrier. Or if you were REALLY smart you could, I don’t know, TUNNEL UP THROUGH THE CEILING??? The barrier is just a box that’s been turned upside down, there is no sign of a barrier floor underneath the tiles and even if there is you guys could have checked. You don’t need to just- sit there. Watching an old man, two dead guys, and a snake wearing makeup beat each other up.

5. Who let Kakashi make the plan. Why did Kakashi decide that it would be better to send the civilian girl he hasn’t bothered to train, the loud blond who he also hasn’t bothered to train, and the boy who tried to fake sleep to get out of helping go alone with just a tiny pug as escort. There were other genin RIGHT THERE who could both help AND be conveniently out of the line of fire in Kakashi’s fight. He was sending them after Sasuke, who was chasing three genin we’ve already seen wipe the FLOOR with the average genin. Having more numbers would be HIGHLY ADVANTAGEOUS.

6. And don’t tell me “he did it because Stealth” he sent the girl with bubblegum hair and the boy in neon orange out there, stealth is a non-factor and also it’s AN INVASION, nobody is going to care about a bunch of wacky kids running by they’re too busy trying not to die to the blur of green spandex that is Gai.

7. Where is Lee in all this anyway he just kinda vanished from the screen. Or was he passed out on the floor and I just missed him. I know he can’t fight, I just wanna know if he’s okay.

8. Was it bad that I didn’t know Asuma could actually fight? I knew he was one of the Guardian Twelve or whatever but mostly fans only talk about him getting owned by Itachi or murdered by Hidan so I guess I just assumed he was ... kinda a sucky fighter. I have been proven wrong. Nice job saving your deer boy, Asuma, I’m impressed.

9. There’s an actual budget for the Hokage fight? Nice. Also who gave Sarutobi the right to actually be cool NOW when he’s been acting senile for the past 10+ episodes excuse you.

10. EXCUSE YOU SARUTOBI YOU DON’T GET TO MAKE EPIC FEELS-INDUCING SPEECHES ABOUT THE WILL OF FIRE AND THE VILLAGE AS YOUR FAMILY, NOT WHEN YOU HAVE FAILED ON BOTH THOSE ASPECTS SO HARD.

11. How dare you make me regret your impending death even a little bit Sarutobi. How dare.

12. There’s a monkey king? That’s an actual THING? I mean I knew there was a monkey king but I didn’t expect him to be so amazing. Now if he would just stop waiting for Sarutobi to grow a spine (because we all know he won’t) and actually kick Orochimaru while the snake was distracted taunting his old sensei maybe we’d actually get somewhere with this show.

13. Seriously Monkey King you turn into a adamantine pole or whatever that can change shape and size, just play dead on the ground for a minute then expand and extend to the size and length of a tree. You don’t even have to do any damage yourself you just have to shove him/wack him into his own barrier and let him go up in flames. It probably won’t kill him, since Plot and also Orochimoron, but hey at least it will do damage and distract him for a few seconds.

14. Turning to Naruto real quick because clearly Sarutobi’s Senile Damsel Syndrome is contagious- Naruto. You are an Uzumaki. You have so much chakra you can barely do chakra control exercises. I know you’re tired from the Neji fight, but I ALSO know via fandom that you’re going to summon a freaking Boss Summon in a few episodes. When Shikamaru says “someone needs to stay behind and be a diversion” why didn’t you, I don’t know, SPAM A FEW SHADOW CLONES? You didn’t even have to use only shadow clones for the diversion, you could have just dropped off a few to help out Shika in his rare moment of self-sacrifice. Half a dozen screaming orange genin would go such a long way in providing a distraction so Shika could make a plan (may I suggest, catch the sound ninja in shadow possession and then have the Naruto’s slit their throats before their ninth member has a chance to catch up?). But no. We can’t possibly spam clones the one time a comrade could find them terribly useful, let’s go back to running through the trees worrying about the boy who knows an A-Rank assassination jutsu and would be totally fine surviving on his own for another several episodes of dialogue and reaction shots ten minutes.

15. Where the ACTUAL freak is Jiraiya. He came to Konoha specifically because he heard Orochimaru was planning something. There is an INVASION HAPPENING. GIANT SNAKES. BUSTING DOWN THE WALL. ENEMY NINJA EVERYWHERE. YOUR SENSEI IS TRAPPED IN A BARRIER JUTSU WITH THE GUY YOU SPECIFICALLY CAME HERE TO LOOK FOR. You don’t suppose you could leave your drinks and women and pity party long enough to- I don’t know- HELP? I mean I know it would be hard for someone who has such niche skills like SUMMONING GIANT TOADS and USING FUUNJUTSU THAT COULD PROBABLY BREAK THE BARRIER YOUR SENSEI IS TRAPPED IN but come on man, put forth a little effort.

Maybe you show up in a later episode miraculously doing something important to help stop the invasion, who knows.

Pros of this arc tho:

1. When they decide to actually use their animation budget THEY REALLY GO FOR IT. The fights that have a budget are epic.

2. Sakura got to be useful! For 20 seconds! She fended off a genjutsu and woke up Naruto and told him what was going on! That counts as useful! *devolves into sobbing because why are the girl characters not allowed to be both good guys AND competent onscreen*

3. I genuinely cheered when Asuma swooped in to save Shika. That was cool.

4. Some of the exam fight bits were cool. Naruto vs Neji dragged on a bit but the ending tactic was as rewarding as I’d hoped it would be from reading about it in the fandom. Also I really enjoyed the Shikamaru vs Temari fight. A-tier victory from the resident Deer Boi.

5. Sasuke using Chidori first time on screen was cool, and even though I’d read about it ahead of time, Gaara wigging out over seeing his own blood genuinely startled me.

6. I was glad to see that Sasuke still remembers how to use other jutsu than Chidori. When Temari started fighting him I was afraid the show writers would forget he HAD any jutsu other than Chidori tbh. Like Naruto and his many versions of the same jutsu (see: all the clone spam variations, all the harem jutsu variations, and all the many MANY different rasengan variations).

#Secret Engima Rambles #SE rants #naruto #SE watches anime #Salty SE is Salty #surprisingly I am actually enjoying the show #i just get a steady build up of salt and eyerolling over the plot holes #and need to expel it before continuing to watch the show #still confused why people think this is somehow better than boruto #at least boruto remembers that its characters can DO THINGS #other than sit and look shocked at different angles for minutes on end

[maximumjinx]

Ladybug’s Finale Chapter 3

1, 2

Adrien woke up the next morning before daylight, which wasn’t unusual for him. It felt a little lonely without Plagg snuggled next to him (because despite his outward nature the kwami did, in fact, like to cuddle). He had said his good-byes to the black cat after Ladybug swung him to his window, and knew it wouldn’t be for long. 

Adrien quietly got dressed, favoring a plain black t-shirt and dark green joggers instead of the usual designer clothing Nathalie would lay out for him. This felt far more comfortable. He wrote a quick note to Nathalie that he would be going to school early for study group, then had Gorilla drop him off at the front steps. The sun just began to rise above the city skyline, and as soon as the coast was clear Adrien began his walk to the address only 3 blocks away. 

It...was a massage parlor. Had Ladybug given him the right address? Before he could knock, a small black mass flew through the door and into Adrien’s neck, the door opening moments after. 

“Kid, I know it’s necessary but Shelly here doesn’t like to snuggle and I miss that big, fluffy bed of yours.” Plagg whined, already nestling comfortably into Adrien’s hair. 

The Guardian smiled kindly from the doorway, a small green kwami looking unamused at Plagg’s antics. 

“My name is not Shelly, and you stink of Camembert.” He spoke, small paw over his nose in disgust. 

“Now boys, I won’t tolerate bickering.” The Guardian turned, motioning Adrien to come inside. “It’s nice to see you again Chat Noir. Ladybug filled me in when she dropped the black cat miraculous here last night.”

Adrien quietly wandered in, taking in the surroundings. 

“Yeah, uh- yes.” Plagg gently nudged his cheek. “I want to be a better Chat Noir, one that can stand by Ladybug’s side with pride.”

“You’ve been having trouble lately?” 

“I...got in my own way. I had a lot of feelings that I couldn’t work out, and I put it on Ladybug to deal with them. I see now it wasn’t fair to do that. I don’t want to be a hinderance to her.” She’s probably the only one to really care about me. 

Adrien didn’t know what else to say.

“Training is not easy. You will become tired, and sore. More so than you currently are.”

“I still want to do it. I need to.” Adrien was determined, he had managed to skip and get out of extra activities before, and if he’s quite honest, he feels no more motivation to please his father. 

“Good.” Master Fu nodded, and brought him to a small room in the back of the parlor. Mats lined the floor, there were staffs, sand bags, and other gym equipment neatly organized on the back wall. 

“It is not the training rooms of the temple, but it will do.” Fu walked up to Adrien, hand clasped tightly around something. 

“I usually do not tolerate when a holder reveals their identity. It becomes too dangerous.” Adrien held his breath. “You made the choice knowing it could end with the miraculous being taken from you. Yet you are here, making the effort to be worthy of it once again.” 

Fu smiled, a glint in his eye. “I knew I picked a good Chat Noir.”

Adrien let out his air in relief. Then stood straighter. 

“Please Master, give me everything you’ve got. I have caused Ladybug too much trouble to get off this easily.” He patted Plagg’s head. “I’ve got catching up to do.”

~~

For a 186 year old man, the Guardian was incredibly spritely. Adrien winced, his thighs aching with each step he took up the school steps. The foyer was clear of students, most already in classes as the bell was going to ring any moment. Adrien took his time up the stairs, thoroughly exhausted before the day really began. He entered his classroom just as the bell rang. 

The class gave him a confused look. He looked tired, he was in sweats, his hair was messy from Plagg nuzzling in it all morning, and most of all, he completely ignored Lila and her friends in the front row to climb to the last row in the back. He sat next to Marinette, who looked at him with wide eyes, and gave her a small smile while Bustier began class. 

He would’ve relished in the reactions more if he didn’t immediately pass out during the first lecture. 

He was gently poked awake an hour later. 

He opened one eye, Marinette watching him with furrowed brows and a finger still to his cheek. 

“It’s only been five minutes into break and everyone keeps staring.”

“Including you, I see.” Adrien grinned, and lifted his head off the desk, stretching. Marinette cheeks flushed for a moment, the hem of his shirt rising just enough to see a sliver of abdomen. 

(She may not have the same feelings for Adrien, but she was still human damn it.)

“Why are you sitting back here?” She asked, when he settled.

“Well-”

“Adrien, why are you sitting up there?” Nino called, already making his way up as Bustier left for their small break.

Alya and Lila weren’t far behind. Alya gave Marinette a small smile, but stayed close by Rossi’s side. 

“Adrien, I thought you were going to help me with my notes, you know how bad my wrist is!” Lila pouted, rubbing her arm tentatively. The rest of the class watched on, curious to the blonde’s unusual actions.

Adrien only shrugged. He felt sudden relief in not feeling the need to please his father, and in turn not having to please any that he didn’t care for. 

“Marinette is my friend, and I wanted her to keep me company. Lila has her hearing issue,” he narrowed his eyes at the girl, but continued on, “so I came to the back. Worked in a nap too, felt nice.”

The class began to murmur.

“That’s not like you dude, you never slack off in school.” Nino looked even more confused. Lila gasped dramatically.

“Is Marinette a bad influence on you Adrien? Just because she's late to class and with schoolwork doesn’t mean you should follow suit!” 

Marinette’s stare suddenly dulled, and her lips sealed tightly. Adrien however, wasn’t going to let that slide. Not anymore.

“Marinette is the second best student in this class, right behind Max. She always has been.” Adrien crossed his arms in front of his chest. “She’s selfless, hardworking, and kind. I would appreciate it if you didn’t accuse her of anything otherwise.” 

Lila looked as if she had been slapped. 

Marinette was trying to not smile. 

“I don’t think Lila was trying to accuse Marinette, Adrien.” Alya was quick to defend her. 

“I’m just protecting my friends.” He shrugged.

“Am I not your friend, Adrien?” Lila cried, knowing he couldn’t refuse her if he wanted to stay on his father’s good side. Pity for her. 

“Nope.” He popped. The class stilled.

“But you guys do shoots together. You hang out all the time.” Alix piped up. 

“Yeah, but personally? I’m not her friend, and I don’t want to pretend I am anymore.”

“That isn’t nice Adrien, I thought you were better than that.” Alya snapped. Lila was so shocked she didn’t have time to conjure tears. 

Marinette remained silent, looking at the exchange without reaction. Adrien felt fire in the pit of his belly. 

“I thought you were better than that too Alya.” He snapped. “I will always be there for my friends. But I won’t extend that kindness to those that hurt them.”

It looked like there may have been more to say, but Ms. Bustier entered and called the class to settle for Algebra. 

The trio made their way back to their seats, unsure of what just happened. 

“No more high road?” Adrien turned back to the girl next to him, a small smirk on her features. One she’s been holding back. 

“Hey I took etiquette classes, however I handle Lila I will do it with class.” 

“Oh, I’m sure.” She mused.

“I should have done this sooner. I’m sorry.” Adrien thought back to his talk with Ladybug. “I can’t make it up to you in a day. But I’ll try to everyday until I deserve your friendship.”

She looked back at the teacher, a few notes in her notebook. 

“I’ll try not to make it too hard for you.” Marinette glanced back, “but I appreciate the company.”

Adrien felt a flush of relief. He must be more tired and out of shape than he thought, his heart was beating unusually fast.

--TAGLIST--

@shannaro-sakura @uninspired-writer @magic-miraculous @mividaexo  @juhavs @salsyy301 @liamnl @reblog-trasher @autumnhunter1 @grimmhallow31 @f0xylegs @amelyhot @marichat00 @peachedpocky @sturchling @elmokingkong @corabeth11 @akana-sama @ephemeral-firefly

#it's short lol sorry #if I missed you in the tags or you wanna be tag just ask! comment tag pls :) #maximumjinx #writing #ml salt #miraculous ladybug #ladybug #chat noir #master fu #tikki #plagg #Lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ml fic #Ladybug's Finale #adrienette

[itssolonelyhere]

I just want to put something out there... I know we were told growing up that ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’. That’s a good sentiment to live by, yet is not always realistic. I think words can hurt far more than sticks and stones ever could. Since the beginning of time, words have had the power to move masses and change lives, for the better or worse. With that power comes responsibility (thanks Uncle Ben). Please remember there’s an actual human being on the opposite end of these rectangular screens we stare at all the time. You never know what they’re going through, and your words can have a profound impact on them. Sometimes a person's problems or pain is like a tower of cards and the little comment you left can tip the balance and cause everything to crash down around them. You never know. These days, a sentence can make a person’s day or completely ruin it. Just keep that in mind before making a move. Staying anonymous to protect yourself from retaliation or taking responsibility for your words doesn’t give anyone the right to abuse that feature.  

Look how that behavior has affected the K-POP industry. Idols receive so much unwarranted criticism and ‘hate’ for no legitimate reason on top of their stressful life, that some have taken their own lives to escape. People hide behind usernames and anonymous so often and unleash a barrage of terrible words and pent-up anger on those that don’t deserve it without considering how it might affect them. We’re all very real people, whether just fanfic writers or idols. 

I write to express myself and let out a mountain of emotions and ideas that otherwise can’t come out. In a sense, it’s my break from reality... If you don’t like the pairing I write for or what happens in my stories, PLEASE move on! Don’t send me PM’s about this or that. I know Sakura is with Sasuke in canon (God help me). Yes, I know all about Harley Quinn (we all saw how that ends), so stop right there.

Guess what? I DON’T CARE!!! I write for myself and the few people that enjoy it and support me. I’m completely open for any discussions about everything, but not when it involves insults or trying to blast me with no real context. This is fiction and it revolves around a world each writer creates. Whether you can handle that world is a different story. I love dark J and no one’s going to change my mind. To me, that’s the real Joker and if you want to reject that part, then you really don’t appreciate his character. I’ll be the first one to admit there are so many brilliant writers that truly do him justice in a way I’m incapable of. I try to do the best with what I have. I’m not a natural-born writer with a flair for words like the people I look up to. I have dyslexia and English isn’t my first language and I’ve never really been an artistic person (like ever). I tried my hand at it a few years ago, then lost my passion. The beginning of this year, my life completely changed and during that process, I decided to try again. I’m nowhere near the best and that’s fine. It’s not like anyone’s paying to read my shit, after all. 

The thing is that if you don’t like what I write, move along. Don’t try to make me or anyone else feel bad about what we do. Yeah, I write J that kills and tortures people with zero empathy. That’s what he does in the movie too. He’s mentally unstable and lashes out towards people. Surprise, surprise. The man is a dark character and that’s always been expressed in EVERY media adaption of him. If you don’t like that he’s rough or manipulative towards the female character in my stories, that’s too bad. I think so many amazing people get a lot of undeserving shit for writing him in character because some don’t want to accept his true nature. I love him and he’s a bad guy, but does that make me a bad person? NO! We can all live and thrive in the same community without tearing each other apart. You can write/read any version you like, just don’t cause harm to others that don’t share your interests. I’d never tell anyone what they can/can’t enjoy, so please give me the same courtesy. 

#writers #fanfcition #online bullying #take a deep breath #take a long walk off a short pier #I don't care #joker x sakura #crack pairings #the dark knight #dark character #JokeSaku