#this is very much giving him ''konoha trying to 'help' him when he was imprisoned after the war'' vibes

[mixelation]

wait okay i DID fall asleep days ago when i said i would post about this and then was too busy to Blog. but here are some points on the tori/minato au

it is time travel late game plasticity!tori. so just assume she can basically do anything she wants with fuinjutsu (with sufficient time/resources) but she's not a ninja. instead she's just in ame midway through the third shinobi war one day. which SUCKS-- ame is a fucking mess and tori is essentially homeless and no one knows her. so tori's first idea is that she'll LEAVE ame, get to the coast, and then take a boat somewhere with no war. unfortunately this is means crossing through active ninja war zones

the Mood for tori in this is: imagine her muddy and damp at all times. she is floundering around the elemental nations mainly by attaching herself to other civilian groups trying to relocate and, when necessary, scamming ninja. her ability to take down ninja is all over the place, but if she tricks you into making the wrong move, you WILL end up stuck in an unbreakable barrier or dying horribly and she will take your things.

and then the mood for minato is: he's like 19-20, so he's young and more reckless with less direction than i usually write him. he is only JUST now getting an international reputation for hiraishin related shenanigans. he feels dusty and overworked all the time, but also he currently has no strong ties to konoha as a physical place (jiraiya and his genin teammates are rarely there due to war, he and kushina are buddies but not dating, and he hasn't been assigned team 7 yet). so basically he's loyal to konoha but he's not like.... eager to get back or anything. he's fine fucking around in weird corners of the world during his down time. he is basically a Nice Guy but he has no problem with murder as the quickest and easier solution.

the meetcute:

tori is good at what she does but her scams/lies/manipulations obviously don't always work, and failing to trick a ninja can end with dire consequences. she has 'died' a couple times, been imprisoned and moved by ninja and civilian groups AWAY from her goals and had to escape, etc

she is currently having a Very Bad Time. she's been captured by ninja and they're actively harassing/humiliating her. she doesn't have an opportunity to DO anything bout this so she is quite upset

minato shows up and murders the ninja. this has nothing to do with tori's presence-- it's his mission to clear enemies in the area.

minato doesn't care THAT much about helping random civilians who aren't even fire country, but he IS very good and smiling prettily and asking people if they're okay.

he asks tori if she has a safe place to go. she lies and says yes bc she doesn't want to find out what happens if the fucking YELLOW FLASH talks to her for longer than necessary.

but also she is. she is very flustered. she's not used to being saved with no strings attached. he's handsome and being kind to her. she's SO upset

they part ways. tori stomps off into the woods and she's COLD and LOST ALL HER SUPPLIES because she ran away before she could LOOT THE CORPSES.

and! the worst part is!! she keeps having idle fantasies about if she HAD said she needed help and minato? helping her?? WHY WOULD HE HELP HER. how would he 'help' her. she bets it would feel good

she INTENTIONALLY gets herself recaptured while she knows he's in the area just to be saved again. except this time she's a small group of people and he gives the same exact speech and offers help to everyone? he does not seem to recognize her even though she keeps thinking about him? tori NOT special???

tori: okay so he's psychological torturing me tori: guess i should.... kill him....? tori: only if we ever meet again though. tori: which we probably won't

so while this interaction will haunt tori for months, minato mostly forgets about it immediately. however there ARE mounting rumors that SOMEONE has a fuinjutsu master running around. it's unclear which village is responsible for it. jiraiya's investigations indicate it's probably a wandering-nin because the things this person is doing make no SENSE from a 'village at war' perspective, because he's following around tori's wildly inconsistent path of destruction. jiraiya only even cares because a few times she's been forced to leave behind active seals, and they're? insane looking???

so the sequence of events that ends up happening is:

minato is in the same area as tori, because he's helping hunt down this mysterious fuinjutsu user. he ends up chasing a bunch of ninja out of a civilian village because it is, in fact, more convenient to him if civilians like him and let him use their resources. he gives them the same speech he always does about are they okay and everyone is safe now. one of the villagers, a young woman, approaches him and is like "hey can you help with this weird ninja technique down by the river, it's killing the fish?" and minato is like "yeah sure" and he follows her down the river and voila! one of the weird seals he's looking for!

and then? somehow?? he ends up IN the river AND the river is fucking BOILING. he gets out because he can fucking teleport, but he hasn't been spamming his hiraishin as much as he will in the future and he ends up having to teleport pretty far away. he's decently injured because BOILING so he seeks medical attention and doesn't go back for a few days. but when he DOES the girl is gone and the villagers are like "oh yeah we have no idea who that was"

tori: hi sorry, you seem to have not noticed i'm the main character. die horribly, i guess

minato: i think the renegade fuinjutsu user is..... a random civilian? jiraiya: proposterous jiraiya: that makes no sense all of konoha leadership: nope, sounds wrong

so now it's minato's personal mission to refind tori, despite konoha leadership's orders to drop it, because he's 100% sure SHE is the mysterious fuinjutsu user. i don't think it would actually take him that long because he is a highly competent ninja and tori is tricksy but she's also... a walking disaster. (basically, she's good at getting herself out of immediate problems, but she's bad at long-term problems, so she does things like "flee before hiding evidence of insane fuinjutsu" and "gives her name as Cup Noodles to more than one person")

meanwhile, tori is wandering around backwater hot water country like, "i did it. i fixed my feelings on the yellow flash. u_u" and he shows up again like "hello!!!" and she's like "NO FUCK"

the problems minato immediately runs into are:

he doesn't actually have specific orders on what to DO about tori, on account of konoha thinking she has to be some sort of bad ass ninja. the game plan for the mysterious fuinjutsu master is basically just "identify and then report back" and he already did that

he COULD just drag her in and sit her down with a yamanaka, and then probably jiraiya would be like "huh, good work, kid" and he would get another accolade for excellent service he doesn't care about. but, consider: he wants to know WTF is up with her, how her seals work, and also how is she doing them if she's not a ninja

he figures out pretty quickly that they HAVE met before, twice, and she targeted him specifically to try and boil him alive. he's had ninja fixate on him before but.... the disconnect between tori's perceived threat and how close she got to boiling him alive is absurd

he's

he's kind of into it?

so the mood then is: tori is being casually stalked by the yellow flash because he just thinks she's neat. she's wildly conflicted about this because she enjoys his attention way too much, but also, she hates how he makes her feel. she hates that her life is 90% being uncomfortable and terrified of being randomly murdered, and she HATES how minato being around makes all of that go away. she hates that she likes fucking around with fuinjutsu with him. she starts doing stuff that will self-sabotage her own quest to LEAVE THE CONTINENT just to get his attention.

the get-together:

tori gets herself into hot water that makes her go "oh, hmm, i may have fucked up for good this time"

current scenario i'm imagining (some rotating needed): iwa is ALSO onto Insane Rando Fuinjutsu User running around, and they end up grabbing tori and moving her into like. an actual field prison for ninja, in a major iwa camp in one of the smaller countries. the rumor among the other captives (mostly konoha ninja) is that they'll be moved to iwa proper eventually, and tori is.... pretty sure she's actually fucked forever if she ends up in iwa

but! she has other prisoners! who are ninja! and she's like: "look, despite knowing i can do fuinjutsu, they don't seem to have the slightest idea HOW i've been doing it, because i can still make a blood seal whenever" and she gets to be an integral part of an escape plan!

but she gets left behind/immediately recaptured because no one ACTUALLY cares about her and helping her >:(

i might change this but ONE concept i have for how this pans out is that hiruzen's non-asuma child (konohamaru's parent) is one of the captives. so it's a VERY politically important captive who isn't necessarily very badass by themselves. so the mood is like "this person needs to be rescued, but they're not like some A-tier person who can rescue themselves," which is why minato himself gets sent in

tori, while she's being smacked around by iwa leadership for being a part of the escape attempt that lost them their most valuable captive, realizes that she did actually fuck up in attempting to escape, because she HAD a shot at Konoha rescuing her if she stuck with the other captives, but now those captives are free, and no one is coming for her

MEANWHILE, minato has connected witht he escaped konoha-nin and pieced together that tori was with them but they left her behind

minato: oh minato: BRB

and i've decided in THIS au, THIS is minato's "kills 1000+ Iwa-nin in one shot" moment

so he shows up, covered in blood, kills the guy who's been torturing her, and is like "tori, are you okay?" and it's his speech he gives everyone except he's not using his pretty smile she now KNOWS is fake and he's tenderly wiping blood off her face

and tori is just. SO fucking weak to this. you became the most lethal ninja in history? for h e r?! 🥺🥺🥺

and then they make out 😌

i'm not sure how the rest of the story goes. i think minato's preferred way forward would be for tori to go into konoha's employment, but i don't think she'd like that. but also she suddenly is less interested in leaving the continent so now she maybe has to fix some things?

tori: oh you have a genin team now? um unrelated but there is a cave near kannabi bridge with an old man you must kill minato: wh minato: why do you sound like like a wizard giving me a quest minato, a month later, finding Uchiha Madara in a cave: minato: minato: TORI WHAT THE FUCK

but anyway after that when she's like "we have to find a plant guy and kill him too" then minato is 100% on board because she is. some sort of witch?

also she lets him draws a hiraishin marker on her For Safety and he's weirdly horny about it

#fic: plasticity #tori/minato #for this one i liked synchronicity or complicity #TBH i'd like it if i had a NEW oc/si for this story but idk how to do it without losing several of my favorite aspects of this story #like i could make a kushina!SI who's a renegade fuinjutsu user but then you lose #the part where it's a ???? bonkers reveal and ALSO i feel like i'd have to address the destruction of uzushio #and ALSO with tori i don't have to do a lot of character work to explain why she thinks incredible violence is super romantic #asynchronicity

[raichoose-moved]

“ ... ”

#this is very much giving him ''konoha trying to 'help' him when he was imprisoned after the war'' vibes #''we just want to know what's going through your head!! why do you care about / love / remain loyal to oro?? #we only want to help you!! never mind that WE are the ones who hurt YOU'' #(also forgive the meta ; not trying to godmod!! i just see Parallels -) #i heard it through the grapevine ( dash commentary ) #and i say welcome to the show ( ic ) #your love is like bad medicine ( kabuto yakushi ) #let's embrace the future in store ( v ; boruto )

[absolutelyinvinciblebritishgent]

What if the Sound Trio survived and became Leaf ninjas?

Headcanons under the cut (bitch, it’s a lot of headcanons)

~ Chunin Exam Finals/Invasion~

Dosu was shown to be suspicious of Orochimaru because of the whole Sasuke/curse mark thing and seemed like he wasn’t wanting to be a part of Orochimaru’s shit anymore so he’s the one who realizes something is up

Rather than face Gaara he somehow finds out about sand’s allegiance with sound (overhearing Baki and Kabuto on the way to Gaara, eavesdropping on Orochimaru [because, again, sus], etc...) and that’s what pushes him to defect from sound (also how he manages to live)

Dosu, Zaku, and Kin aren’t necessarily close, but in the anime Dosu did sort of say he was gonna get revenge on behalf of Zaku for what happened to his arms so there is a sense of something there (whether it be friendship, camaraderie, or just wanting to stick together to survive... idk) and Dosu tells his teammates what’s up and convinces them that they gotta GTFO

Zaku is a little more difficult to convince because why would Orochimaru do that to him? He saved Zaku from being a street rat, he gave Zaku power

Dosu ain’t having it and is like “if you wish to stay behind then that is your decision, in the end it is better for us to not have to carry any dead weight” (obviously referring to Zaku’s inability to do anything because of his arms)

Dosu then proceeds to tell Zaku how he no longer serves a purpose without his arms and he was nice enough to still want to take Zaku with him, Orochimaru would not be so kind

Zaku is upset because he knows Dosu has a point and they all leave

They (read: Dosu) decide that their best chance of survival is staying in Konoha because, the minute they leave, the sound village/Orochimaru will be gunning for their asses and also they’d be missing-nin, so others would try to kill them too

But what can they do to assure they don’t get imprisoned or killed due to having worked under Orochimaru? Rat out the sound village and give all the information they know/found out about the invasion and sand’s involvement

Third Hokage is a cool dude and also was Orochimaru’s teacher so he knows the kind of power this bitch can have over people which is why he agrees to let the sound trio stay and have them watched by Anbu

Dosu does not participate in the chunin exam finals because witness protection, or something

The invasion still happens because Orochimaru ain’t stupid. His “pawns” are nowhere to be found so it’s likely they’re betraying him, so obviously he makes changes to the plan

Dosu, Kin, and Zaku do not participate in fighting off the invasion because, uh, super strict house arrest orders???

Third Hokage dies and this FREAKS the trio out because a) oh shit Orochimaru actually did it and b) we’re only allowed to be here because of him, so what’s going to happen to us

Council is deciding what to do with them and has them staying hidden/as they were, but what’s more important to them is finding Tsunade and having her take over as Hokage so the trio are just anxiously chilling

Tsunade is Hokage now and she decides to let them stay because they turned their backs on Orochimaru and also she trusts Sarutobi’s judgment on letting them stay initially, but they are still going to be watched by Anbu to be sure

Naruto and co. find out about the trio and they are PISSED because “not only did you try to kill Sasuke, not only are you from the village that attacked us, not only did you work for Orochimaru but you did nothing to defend Konoha during the invasion. If you want to be a part of this village then you should have helped”

Tsunade tells these bitches to simmer down. They were under Anbu house arrest. She’s Hokage and they need to respect her decision. Also Zaku, let’s fix your arms.

~Sasuke Retrieval Arc~

Everyone is immediately on the trio’s ass because “we knew you couldn’t be trusted”

Tsunade has to tell everyone to stfu again

The trio want to go (to prove themselves) and feel they can be of assistance but Tsunade is like Catherine of Aragon because she says there’s no no no no NO WAY. It’s already a dangerous mission, it might be more so for them because Orochimaru is probably after their heads for betraying him and knows all of their skills

Everything about the arc is the same until the point where Shikamaru, Kiba, and Lee need help. Instead of the Sand Siblings being the ones to arrive it’s the sound trio

Zaku saves Kiba... mainly because I imagine them being friends once the trio are accepted and I just want this to be the beginning of their friendship. How he saves him idk because I’m not creative when it comes to fights

Kin saves Shikamaru. Again idk how. Zaku’s slicing sounds waves make more sense here because they work similar to Temari’s fan but I want it to be Kin because kunoichi vs. kunoichi, genjutsu vs. genjutsu, and also the idea of Kin saving the guy who beat her in such an embarrassing way does something to me, but also is a sort of redemption? I just want this battle to show off how skilled Kin can be because she was very underutilized and kinda weak in the original story and I love her so much, she deserves to do cool shit. So let her outsmart Tayuya and, in a way, she is outsmarting Shikamaru because he had no more plans to fall back on

Dosu saves Lee. Again, idk how and, again, I think Zaku’s slicing sound waves would be better here because they can keep Kimimaro (a close range fighter) at bay but I guess seeing Dosu and Kimimaro throwing hands would be cool. And then you have that redemption moment with Lee because Dosu kicked his ass in the forest of death and now he’s saving Lee!

After the mission, despite its failure, the trio are accepted as leaf shinobi and are introduced to their new sensei: cue Anko crashing through the window with a big sign introducing herself again

Similarly to the moment when Naruto spoke out and Anko threw a kunai at him, Zaku gives a snide comment and Anko is immediately at his throat, and then she’s like “JK! But don’t say that again you little shit!”

Anko was chosen to lead the trio due to her past with Orochimaru and because of that she can better understand them

~Other Headcanons~

It took the Konoha 12 a while to accept the trio. The first ones to accept them were Kiba, Lee, and Shikamaru (duh) but also Choji and even Naruto. Choji became cool with them when he found out Shikamaru was cool with them because he trusts Shikamaru’s judgment, and despite originally trying to kill his teammate, Naruto accepts them because they came out and helped so that means they’re a-okay in his book. Neji was slightly taken aback but also accepted them pretty quickly. Basically, the retrieval team was like “yeah okay” and vouch for them.

The ones who took the longest to come around were Ino and Sakura because did y’all just forget what happened at the forest of death???

As I said, I imagine Kiba and Zaku being friends. Mainly because I feel they have similar personalities in the sense that they’re both pretty cocky, boisterous, and talk shit. I imagine them kinda being like rivals in the sense of they’re always trying to one up each other

Zaku is still not fond of Shino because of the whole bugs in arms thing so whenever Shino is around Zaku is just like “I hate your teammate” to Kiba

Kin/Shikamaru could potentially replace the Temari/Shikamaru relationship. Both Kin and Temari are very similar in the sense of being an ex-villain, being viewed as scarier/more intense compared to the Konoha girls, being older by a couple years, and they both lost (well, Temari technically won but we all know she lost) to Shikamaru. Because of this the Kin/Shikamaru relationship wouldn’t be all that different to how the Temari/Shikamaru relationship is shown

That being said I love the sand siblings and don’t want them gone and because of how similar I feel Kin and Temari are they become really good friends and Kin enjoys when Temari visits. They both make Shikamaru’s life hell though. Double Trouble™️

Also I said potentially because I like exploring the idea of Kin/Zaku or Kin/Dosu (:

Dosu and Shino actually get along really well (much to the dismay of Zaku). They’re the type of people where they can sit in silence with each other and it’s just chill. And when they have to work together they kinda have flawless teamwork and don’t even need to speak to know what the other plans on doing

Kin and Sakura actually get along now? They’re not best friends by any means but they can be civil and respect each other

Team Kurenai and Team Sand are the teams that the trio get along with the best/most easily tho

Kin cut her hair to her lower back. Cue everyone cracking jokes about Neji and Kin looking the same from behind. Kin stops tying her hair after that

The trio have really well trained ears because back in Otogakure they had to learn to pick up on the subtlest of sounds in order to spy on enemies and communicate at such a low volume that to any normal ear sounds like silence but to them the message is loud and clear

Because of this they’re all amazing singers (Dosu is the best tho because he has the best trained ear. Seriously, being able to tell what someone is writing based on the sounds of their pencil? Skills.) and everyone likes hearing them sing.

That being said, despite being from the land of sound they didn’t actually know any songs because the sound village doesn’t really do music. It was forbidden because no one is allowed joy in the land of sound. Jk. But it did have to do with depriving people of normalcy because Orochimaru was creating an army of followers

This little singing/music tidbit was discovered by Naruto and he took it upon himself to show the trio music. It wasn’t all good music, but it’s music!

Also, despite being the best singer, Dosu doesn’t really do it. Dude doesn’t even hum. He’ll only sing if Kin and Zaku start pestering or if Anko wants him to

The first (and only) time Kin and Zaku saw Dosu cry was shortly after they became leaf shinobi. Anko and Tsunade were telling the team how brave it was for them to leave Orochimaru and sound behind, and Anko especially complimented Dosu on taking him and his team out of that situation. Kin and Zaku had been trying to hold back tears and keep up their tough image but the minute they saw Dosu crying, not trying to wipe away his tears or hide them or anything they lost it

No one talks about their little crying session. It’s a secret

Despite getting his arms fixed by Tsunade, Zaku still has problems with them, especially his right one (I think that’s the one that got blown off) and needs to get them treated consistently. Partly due to the fact they he didn’t give himself all the time to heal after Tsunade fixed him because he went to help the retrieval team and, mainly, because of Orochimaru’s experiments. Like, essentially Zaku’s air tube surgery was actually kind of botched and, for lack of a better term, experimental, and is fucking with the nerves and muscles and chakra in his arms and kinda eating away at them. And the crazy damage he took from getting his arms blown off only fucked everything up more

Eventually Zaku gets a better version of his air tube in his left arm and has to completely replace the right arm with a cool prosthetic that lets him do stronger/cooler jutsus

Kin has combined singing with her genjutsu and has created a sort of mind control jutsu... I may or may not have gotten this idea while listening to Come Little Children and remembering that Sarah Sanderson would control kids with song

The trio think Sasuke is a fUCKING DUMBASS for willingly going with Orochimaru. Like, bitch we had to leave that no good asshole for the betterment of our lives and you just waltz out of Konoha and straight into his arms?! What is you doing Uchiha?!

#naruto #zaku abumi #dosu kinuta #kin tsuchi #anko mitarashi #team dosu #team sound #sound trio #otogakure #konoha #konoha 12 #naruto uzumaki #kiba inuzuka #shikamaru nara #fan art #my art #headcanons #so many headcanons #too many headcanons

[inrainprose]

Isn't sad how all those children preferred to live in a dark cave, caged, all being used as test subject for Orochimaru's bizarre experiments, living like animals, than in their natal villages with their "companions"?

F***ING WEBSITE FROM HELL I F***ING DELETED THAT F***ING META BECAUSE I CLICKED BACKSPACE ONE TIME TO MANY F**K THIS okay here we go again because I thought hard about this and I’m not gonna let it go.

SO. I think Orochimaru is a far more interesting character when written as a cult leader for outcasts than with just the children-snatching psychopath view, because we don’t get the impression that he coerces people into following him. There’s no doubt he did some abducting but that’s not the core of his recruitment strategy.

It was a strong theme at the beginning of the story with Zabuza and Haku – how far would you go for the first person to ever show you kindness and give you safety, even if it was for selfish reasons, even if they’re terrible people? I seem to recall Naruto thinking something along the lines of “I was lucky it was Iruka for me, had it been someone else…” and relating to Haku’s loyalty to Zabuza despite knowing he was just a mean to an end. It makes for great AUs too – what if Naruto had latched onto someone less recommendable than nice Iruka? It's too bad that line of thinking was dropped because it also served as a harsh criticism of their world, the fact that it produces so many bitter, abandoned orphans that have no choice but to turn to brutal mercenaries and unhinged scientists. The shinobi world created many of its own enemies, within and outside the villages.

I don’t think the kids “prefer” to live that way, but they would still be starving in the streets or abused by their village without Orochimaru, so it’s normal to do whatever he wants in return, right? Including kill or fight each other to death or subject themselves to whatever he wants to test on them… Of course it’s textbook recipe for abuse, the “you owe me” card. He takes full advantage of this, that they have nowhere else to go, that they will owe him. He also makes it even harder for them to go back, what with the body modifications and making it to every village’s shit list with the killing and stuff he has them do.

(more under the cut cause that got a bit out of hand)

He basically runs a cult – he’s shown to be charismatic, having a great power of attraction and persuasion, and he doesn’t treat them that badly, I mean in a way we often see bad guys do, being belittling and acing them off for fun just to show he’s eeeeevil. He does give them what they want, safety, shelter, power, companionship, purpose. I can imagine him playing the benevolent card for a while before introducing his newest refugee to the downside of getting under his wing. He preys on the vulnerable and they come willingly.

It’s most likely their only option, including once they’re in and realize they’re really not into this after all. It’s not like any of them was ever offered a way out – what would they do if they left, who would help them? The shinobi world doesn’t seem big on rehabilitation, for all Naruto’s “villain-turning-good” powers. Most of them pay their “redemption” and their return to the light by death anyway. Would be too hard to actually question their morality and choices and see what they would become if they went back to the world…

Ironically enough the only one who sort of gets that is Orochimaru lmao but it doesn’t count because there was no redemption nor questioning of any kind they just decided he got to stay and not be held accountable for any of his actions. And I don’t know why any of us is surprised by this actually or why we expected better we should be used to this by now. Ah. Moving on.

As the kids grow up, they would either develop a stronger sense of morality/self-worth and wouldn’t be able to go along with this shit anymore, no matter how grateful they are to him, or they would stay blindly loyal. Or they would just be dead, dying, or imprisoned and unable to escape heh. I guess some would also take a deeper turn because since this world sucks so much and abandoned them why wouldn’t they wreak havoc in it on his orders? He must play on this too because he IS outside and against the system and it would attract those who seek revenge against it, even if he serves his own interests above the "Strike back at the System" cause. It served him well when he was in Konoha after all and isn’t that his biggest grievance in the end? That he played within its constraint and was still cast out, because he crossed a line he didn’t even know was there? We don’t get a feeling that he’s inherently against the whole child-soldiers/kill for hire/waging pointless wars thing, on the contrary it suits him quite well, but the problem was the hypocrisy, that they condone those things but still try to take the moral high ground.

I’m sorry but I can only imagine Orochimaru being like “assassination ok torture for information ok civilian casualties ok sacrifice anything for the village including your health life and those of your friends ok train to death and do whatever it takes to get stronger ok experiment on people… no?” I’m not trying to justify his actions but just, how is anyone surprised by how some of them turned out? I think we saw people like this among his followers, you know who were trained to kill from a young age, but when they got a taste for it and went outside the mission frame, the villages were like "huh huh no no” and they went ???? excuse me how was I supposed to cope with being made into an assassin as seven apart from convincing myself that this was all fine and fun actually? And of course the classic “I lived in a cage/I was driven from my home at 5/I was enslaved, and this guy comes around and offers a way out was I just supposed to say no?”.

(This apply to Sasuke too by the way, because had this boy been given some freaking support as a child he wouldn’t have made it his lifelong goal to kill his brother while disregarding absolutely everything else in his life and Orochimaru played him like a damn flute and someone should just have… seen this coming. Or just NOT have the entire Uchiha clan pointlessly wiped off but that’s another point entirely)

The lines of who is good and who is bad in Naruto are very foggy. Murder is not a criterion, child abuse either, so what? At some point we have to acknowledge that the characters who are "good" in Naruto are simply the ones we're told are on the good guys' side. I mean it’s a valid morality system – being good means serving your village. Whatever you do to that end is okay. It’s exactly Danzo’s mentality and it's easy to see where it comes from, it is how their world is built. It’s also how they manage to say with a straight face that Itachi was a good guy actually, and you can build a story on that, you can put it into question.

But the story doesn’t commit to this. It still tries to tell us that being mean and killing people is bad, when half of those characters are paid assassins for freak’s sake, when the good guys have an entire clan build on arbitrary slavery, when they massacred one of their own clan. Once again it started right with Zabuza, when they make the characters (and us) realize that the only thing opposing them is that they have different employers. Zabuza isn’t bad because he’s a mean guy who kills people, he’s bad because he gets in the way of their mission. Of course he conveniently works for an asshole while they work for the guy trying to lift his community from its shithole, but that’s not why they help him. They help him because he pays them to so.

Anyway, going back to the topic at hand and concluding this long-ass rant, it’s hard to infer whether Orochimaru sees them solely as pawns and expendables bodies or if he has any form of attachment to them or some to them. I found his writing to be very inconsistent and not compelling at all because it never dwells into these topics, and the narration can’t make up its mind about him. But I don't like to cast him as just a one-dimensional evil psychopath because that's… bad, y’know, and I don’t think the number of people willing to follow him should be dismissed. In many ways Orochimaru and his people him are a direct product of their world

That got out of hand really fast but. Well. You’re right. It’s sad.

#ask #askinrain #naruto #naruto meta #orochimaru #why do i spend so much brain juice on this story #when i know the story didn't #but anway #that's this on that #rambling #will i ever answer that kind of ask with some chill #probably not #tw cult #tw abuse #i guess #it's orochimaru after all #Anonymous

[britishassistant]

But I Like One Piece (9)

It takes her a long time to get Okaa-sama back inside.

There’s masks watching from the trees as she closes the door, and she can spot more through all the windows, glimpses of white against dark leaves.

She closes the door and locks it.

Then she draws the blinds on all of the windows, as though that will act as a barrier somehow.

Her mother is still weeping softly downstairs.

She slides down a wall, trying to choke back sobs herself. She can’t do this. Not now. She needs to think, to plan, not—not cry like a helpless little eight year old.

She is mentally twenty, she needs to act like it.

She pinches her arms, hard, until the tears in her eyes are from the pain instead.

Think, Ketsugi. How can you convince the authorities of Otou-sama’s innocence without getting yourself and Okaa-sama locked up as well?

The easiest way would be to catch the real culprit.

But she has no idea what actually happened yet, let alone who could’ve done it. If she tries to start snooping around the crime scene for clues, she’ll probably be caught and imprisoned for suspicious behavior. And then Okaa-sama would be all alone, so that’s out.

She could go on strike.

Not a hunger one, but she could sit outside the Hokage’s office with a cardboard sign? Naruto, Lee, Chouji and Sakura would sit with her, she’s sure. Maybe even all of their lunchtime group.

And then the masks will take them, like they’d taken Naruto and Lee, all of her friends vanishing in swirls of leaves, never to be seen again—

She has to bite down on her knee, teeth digging into the flesh awkwardly, to keep herself from screaming.

She briefly entertains a fantasy of going around and beating masks up until they tell her where Otou-sama is, and then staging a dramatic rescue complete with a dynamic entry and exit.

No, she decides, swallowing the metallic taste in her mouth. She’s nowhere near strong enough for that, no matter how much she’s improved under Gai-sensei’s and her father’s training. The masks would just hurt her again.

So if she can’t find the true culprit, or peacefully protest his imprisonment, or rescue Otou-sama by force, what can she do?

She gnaws at her lower lip.

...There really isn’t anything, is there?

Everything she can think of would end up with them imprisoned as well, or worse. Konoha’s not like her last life, with laws and foundations and charities against illegal incarceration. They don’t even have a police force anymore, since all the Uchiha were the police and all the Uchiha are dead.

Things like bail or lawyers or civil rights are probably about as substantial as a pipe dream here.

That must be why Okaa-sama’s crying so much.

Because she knows that the people who took Otou-sama have all the power here, and anything they try to do to get him back could mean he’s forced to stay captive for longer instead, to punish them for disobedience.

All they can do is keep their heads down and try not to show any aggression or resentment and hope obedience translates into loyalty and innocence in the eyes of the right people.

They’re just immigrants after all. They have no power in a village that doesn’t want them here.

She troops downstairs, knee stinging with the movement.

She takes the portion on the plate out of the oven, and switches the oven off. She gently puts it onto a smaller plate and covers it in foil, waiting for it to cool before she puts it into the fridge. She washes off the big plate and puts it back in the cupboard where it lives.

She does not consider giving the meal to someone else or eating it herself. Otou-sama is coming back. It’ll...just take him a little while, that’s all.

She goes back upstairs and brushes her teeth and puts on her little nightie.

By the time she comes back down, the food’s cooled enough to safely be put in the fridge.

She lingers in the doorway of the living room. “Okaa-sama?”

Her mother lifts her head from her arms. Her eyes are swollen and red, and her thick brown hair is disheveled. “Hm?”

“Can I sleep with you in the big bed tonight?” She asks, ears burning, painfully aware that she hasn’t done so since she was two and would wake up screaming from dreams about her old family and best friend and robbers with itchy trigger fingers.

“Oh sweetheart.” Her mother murmurs. “Of course. Just let Okaa-san get ready for bed, alright?”

“Okay.” She says. She goes back upstairs.

She sits and rubs spit into the little teethmarks on her knee, so the sluggishly bleeding punctures will scab over and she won’t get blood on her parents’ sheets.

They’ve stopped bleeding and she’s crawled under the covers and dozing by the time Okaa-sama finally comes upstairs and begins washing up for bed.

Her mother hugs her close in bed, her hair dampening under the onslaught of silent weeping.

Hey Franky, Usopp, Sanji and Luffy. She prays silently. I know this is a lot to ask, but please, please, please. Let Otou-sama come home safe. Me and Okaa-sama can’t do anything, so please. Help us by doing what we can’t.

“Psst!”

She rolls over in bed, eyes feeling too heavy to open.

“Psst! Little girl! What was it...Ketsugi Mayu-san!”

She wrinkles her nose, blinking and rubbing the sleep out of one eye.

There’s a turtle on her pillow. It’s little, and green with yellow swirls on it’s shell.

But still. Turtle.

“Y’r a t’rtle.” She slurs.

The turtle looks very indignant (can turtles do that?) and straightens its head. “I.” It whispers, in a very self-important tone. “Am a tortoise.”

“Y’r a t’rt’se.” She corrects agreeably. Then pauses. “Didj’ou jus’ talk?”

“Yes I did. Honestly girl, haven’t you ever seen a summons before?” The tortoise complains.

“Whassa summons?” She asks, rubbing her other eye.

The tortoise mutters something that sounds a little unkind about civilian families. “You can call this one Jimichi. I have come from Gai-sama, bearing a message for Ketsugi Mayu-san.”

Okaa-sama shifts restlessly behind her.

She looks behind her at her mother, and then back to the tortoise. “May I pick you up, Jimichi-san?”

Jimichi-san looks like he’s about to protest when Okaa-sama lets out a soft little sob in her sleep. “Ooh—alright then, just this once, mind!”

She carries the tortoise into her bedroom and sets him down on her bed, kneeling in front of him.

“Are you hungry, Jimichi-san? Would you like some water or anything?”

The tortoise looks considering, before shaking his little wrinkly head. “No, thank you. I will be fine, so long as I complete my mission.”

She sits back on her heels to listen, trying to ignore the little pinpricks of pain in her knee.

“Gai-sama wishes to tell you he will be out of the village for the next week or so—he is currently in pursuit of the thieves who broke into Hokage Tower earlier today. He conveys his regards to Ketsugi Jirou and Chie, and expects you to keep up your most youthful training with Uzumaki Naruto-kun and Rock Lee-kun.” The tortoise took a breath.

“Are Naruto and Lee alright, Jimichi-san?” She bursts out, hardly able to control herself.

The tortoise shoots her a withering look. “How should I know? Yūcho and Katsu were sent to talk to them, not me.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I-I just haven’t seen them since the mask took them away a-aft-after—” She swallows, and makes herself continue even if her voice sounds small. “—After he said my father was being held in Interrogation.”

There’s a quiet inhale.

“Has your father been doing anything that warrants this suspicion?” Jimichi-san asks.

She frowns. “Of course not. If he were going to do it, Otou-sama would’ve talked it over Okaa-sama and come up with a plan to get her and me and Naruto out if he got caught—he loves her too much not to. And both of them are too much in love with Gai-sensei to hurt the village he loves like this.”

“What.” Jimichi-san squeaks.

There’s a soft snap from the tree in next door’s garden. Maybe a stray cat?

“I know.” She whispers, barely stifling giggles. “It’s so embarrassing—at breakfast t-they always pine over hi-his e-eve-every w-wo—”

Ah. She’s crying. She rubs furiously at her face, but it’s not stopping, why won’t it stop—

“Oh—blow.” Jimichi-san sighs. “...if I find out what happened to Uzumaki Naruto and Rock Lee, will you stop making this racket?”

She sniffs miserably. “‘M sorry.”

He gives a disdainful huff before retracting into his shell.

There’s two puffs of smoke, and then there’s a yellow tortoise with blue swirls on its shell and a purple one with red swirls on her bed.

“Jimi, dude, what gives?” The yellow one says.

“I am not your ‘dude’, Yūcho!” Jimichi-san hisses. “My name is Jimichi! And keep your voice down, you numbskull!”

“Awright, awright, don’t get’cha panties in a twist, jeez.” Yūcho-san says without lowering his voice very much at all. “‘Sup little dude?”

“Hello.” She replies, biting her lower lip to keep from laughing. Don’t think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, don’t think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, don’t—

“U-um.” The purple one whispers. “Why are we here, Jimichi-san? Was there a problem with delivering your message?”

“Wh-of course there wasn’t!” Jimichi-san blusters. “My message was delivered with all due promptness and clarity, wasn’t it, Ketsugi-san?”

“Yes Jimichi-san.” She nods. “I’m Ketsugi Mayu. It’s nice to meet you, Yūcho-san, Katsu-san.”

The purple one—Katsu-san— startles a little. “Eh, nice to meet you too. Um.”

“Oh fuck.” Yūcho-san stares at her. “You’re the one who’s dad is de—”

Jimichi-san somehow rockets himself across her duvet to slam into Yūcho-san and send him spinning like a top. “Don’t you dare use those words in front of a little girl, you idiot!!”

She gapes as Yūcho-san gradually slows and begins groaning complaints, not quite sure what to do or how to stop it if this somehow turns into a tortoise-brawl on top of her bed.

Don’t think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Jimichi-san stands. “Honestly. Ketsugi-san asked me to call you here because she was worried about Uzumaki Naruto-kun and Rock Lee-kun, and here you are, wasting her time. Now, did you two deliver your messages successfully to your recipients or didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, dude!” Yūcho-san protests. “Blondie was in his apartment and got the message loud and clear!”

“Um, I also was able to locate Lee-san at the Orphanage.” Kastu-san volunteers softly. “He was deep in thought, but was not actively distressed.”

She sighs. Well, she’ll take what she can get. “Thank you for your help, Yūcho-san, Katsu-san, Jimichi-san.” She bows at the waist.

“Ah, i-it’s no problem.” Katsu-san stutters, while Yūcho-san cheers, “Hey, happy to help!”

Jimichi-san lets out a little huff. “Well, you just keep your head down and your nose clean, alright? You’ll be no good to anyone if you’re in trouble too. Now run along back to bed, go on.”

She stands and bows to them again. The three tortoises all vanish in puffs of smoke.

It feels awful, trying to get up at her normal time the next morning.

She rubs the sleep from her swollen eyes, and tucks the blanket back in around her mother. Okaa-sama hadn’t even stirred during the night. Little furrows still crease her brow in sleep.

She kisses the crown of her mother’s head, and leaves the house as quietly as she can.

She keeps her eyes on her shoes and doesn’t look up at where she can feel the masks watching her.

Naruto hasn’t set up any traps this morning. She knocks on his door, the sound jarring in the quiet of dawn.

His eyes are bloodshot and red, making the blue look even bluer.

“I wan’ ‘Tou-san.” He mumbles.

She reaches out and hugs him tight, pretending she doesn’t feel his shoulders shaking as she strokes his back.

“I know.” She murmurs. “I want him too.”

Even Lee is subdued compared to his usual exuberance.

He’s trying his best. He takes both of them by the shoulders and says, “Don’t worry! Gai-sensei will definitely find the culprit soon and free your father from his most unyouthful imprisonment!”

Naruto’s face crumples even more at that for some reason, so she does her best to smile back at Lee for the both of them. “Yeah. Thanks, Lee.”

Since Lee’s the oldest and the most like Gai-sensei in temperament, it’s unanimously decided that he will be the one to lead the group’s exercises.

He’s not as hard a task-master as Gai-sensei, dropping the number of laps they have to do around Konoha by five every time Naruto yawns. They end up doing only one hundred of the original one hundred and fifty.

They’re running through the basic kata for what will eventually be a Dynamic Entry once their leg muscles are built up enough when it hits her.

She stops dead.

Unfortunately, her momentum doesn’t, so she wavers on her toes before her leg buckles and she crashes to the ground.

“Mayu-chan!”

“I’m okay!” She unfolds herself and sits up, looking into two pairs of worried eyes. “I’m fine—just remembered something and got distracted is all.”

“What is it?” Lee asks as Naruto plops down beside her.

She opens her mouth, and closes it. She looks away, ears and neck burning with embarrassment.

“I—” Her voice cracks, and she has to swallow. “I...may have forgotten to make us lunch last night?”

Lee decides that the best thing to do is run another lap of Konoha before going back to her house to make lunch together.

She readily agrees. She doesn’t think she could stand it if she had to work in a silent kitchen. Not today.

There are more people up and about now.

It may just be paranoia, but she could swear that many of them were whispering and pointing at her.

She keeps her eyes down and does her best to ignore this as she ignores the masks.

The house is still dark when she lets them in. Well, Okaa-sama does need her sleep.

They decide to make something quick and easy for lunch.

They have plenty of bacon, and some spring greens left over from yesterday’s miso soup. So while she parboils and shocks the vegetables, Lee stirs the bacon around in the pan, and Naruto puts what may be a little too much honey mustard on slices of bread.

Okaa-sama comes down sometime during when she’s patting the spring greens dry.

Her mother won’t stop touching, whether it’s ruffling Lee’s hair, giving her kisses on the cheek, or hugging Naruto.

Naruto latches onto Okaa-sama like an octopus with his arms and legs. Her mother promptly heaves him up to sit on her hip, showing no sign of strain at carrying around an eight year old boy, and begins to prepare breakfast around them.

By the time the sandwiches are assembled and put into the lunchboxes with sides of cherry tomatoes and pudding cups for dessert, there’s barely enough time to run through the basic strikes her father was teaching her.

Lee’s enthusiasm about her training is...well-intentioned if ill-advised.

“No, I’m not going to hit you with the bokken! It’ll really hurt!” She argues.

“Do not worry, Mayu-chan! I am sure that I will be able to block adequately so I am not injured!” Lee says cheerfully, giving her a thumbs up.

“I’m telling you, even blocking this will give you bruises!!” She yells back, exasperated. “Okaa-sama! Tell him!”

Okaa-sama smiles at them as Naruto giggles weakly, hitching him higher. “I think Mayu-chan is right about this, Lee-kun. Come on in both of you, breakfast is ready.”

The Academy is buzzing with rumors

Apparently what happened yesterday was a theft—though whether anything got taken or not or if the theft was combined with an attempt on the Hokage’s life is hotly debated.

The thief—or thieves’—target was apparently a scroll of some kind, which apparently contained some insanely strong, killer jutsu from the Nidaime’s time. Or the secret to eternal life. Or the Shodaime’s ultimate bloodline ability. Or all the money in Konoha’s treasury.

For some reason everyone pulls a face when one of the civilian kids volunteers the last option.

There’s also plenty of argument about who the culprits are. A lot of people think it was the Demolition Squad from Iwa, given the huge explosion. Others say it wasn’t flashy enough to be Iwa, that it had to be missing-nin from Suna. Still more say that there’s no way it’d be Suna, that the only people strong enough to get through Konoha’s defenses were the Seven Swordsmen of Kiri.

One or two say it might’ve been Uchiha Itachi, come back to test his strength against the Hokage, but glares from their lunchtime group quickly shut that up.

There’s a general consensus that it had to be an inside job though. That the culprits, whoever they were, needed somebody in Konoha to know where their prize was and how to get to it.

“But we saw that blonde guy yesterday.” Kiba insists. “It’s obvious that was one of the thieves!”

“That doesn’t discount the possibility of there being someone in Konoha who helped them.” Shikamaru drawls. “After all, how could an outsider who’s never lived here know anything?”

Something niggles in her brain, but she focuses on eating her sandwich.

Ino sighs. “Daddy’s had to do so much overtime at his work because of this stupid thing.”

She narrowly avoids flinching, and asks, “What does this have to do with your dad doing overtime at the flower shop?”

Theres’s a silence.

“What?” Ino says, confusion written all over her face.

She shrugs. She doesn’t think she said anything weird...

“Mayu.” Shikamaru says slowly. “What is it you think Ino’s family does?”

She takes another bite that tastes like cardboard and carefully thinks over her answer. “...Flower shop ninja?”

Ino snorts and Hinata begins giggling quietly, while Sakura stares at her. She shifts in her seat.

“Right.” Shikamaru says, squinting at her. “Okay. And Chouji’s family? Or Kiba’s.”

Oh, she knows these. “Chef ninja and dog ninja.” She replies confidently.

Chouji shrugs, nods, and bites into an onigiri while Kiba cheers, pulling Akamaru off his head for cuddles and doggy kisses.

“My family?” Sasuke cuts in, bags under his eyes. He looks like crap.

She meets his gaze head on. “Police ninja.” Then she puts the other half of her sandwich and her cherry tomatoes into his lunchbox.

He looks down at it, grunts, and bites into the sandwich. Then makes a face. “Too much mustard.”

“Blame Naruto.” She says, grinning at the boy in question’s mildly irritated “Hey!”

“Mine, Shino’s and Hinata’s families?” Shikamaru asks, head now cradled in his hands.

She frowns. “Insect ninja...” She points at Shino, who inclines his head, “I have no idea about Hinata...Sleepy ninja?”

Ino and Kiba promptly crack up. Even Chouji chuckles a bit.

Shikamaru’s head drops through his hands and thunks on the table. “How have you lived in Konoha your whole life and still know nothing?!”

“I know some things!” She argues, flushing in embarrassment. “It’s just—knowing what food you like is more important than where you come from, right?”

There’s a moment of silence as everyone stares at her.

Then Hinata goes red as Chouji hums next to her, a quiet, happy sound, and Shikamaru mutters “Troublesome,” under his breath as everyone focuses back on eating.

#but i like one piece #naruto #one piece #reincarnation #isekai #naruto uzumaki #rock lee #maito gai #yamato tenzo #anbu tenzo #sakura haruno #ino yamanaka #sasuke uchiha #nara shikamaru #choji akimichi #kiba inuzuka #akamaru #shino aburame #hinata hyuga #naruto oc #ketsugi mayu #tortoise #tortoise summons #teenage mutant ninja turtles

[isolavirtuosa]

Starting Over (For Real?) 1-3

Sequel to Starting Over and Starting Over (Again).

[fanfiction] NaruSasu

Whose dream is it now?

Starting Over (For Real?)

Isola Virtuosa

 - 1 -

  When I woke up this time, I was still inside of the tree’s roots.  I took a deep breath, trying to shake off the memories of yet another fake world that I’d been imprisoned in for who knows how long.  This was reality.  I was trapped inside of a tree, having all of my chakra sapped away.  The first thing I needed to do was get out of here before I didn’t have enough chakra to power my rinnegan.

And yet, how had I been able to get enough chakra to activate my rinnegan in the first place?

The warmth in my chest was growing, like my chakra was increasing rather than decreasing, yet I still felt the gentle drain of it as it left my body and went into the tree.

The more I came back into reality, the more I started to realize that what I thought was part of the roots was actually a human hand, a human torso, a human leg.

“Naruto,” I tried to say, but I don’t think any sound came out.  I tried to move, but I felt like I was bound in place.  I focused on the chakra that Naruto was feeding into me, gathering it into a chidori and blowing a hole through the roots that were trapping us.

I gasped as real air hit my lungs, but Naruto didn’t as much as stir.  I tried to tear out of the pod, but my arm felt like lead.  I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and concentrating my chakra again.  Then we were falling.  It must not have been very high, but after landing feet first, I immediately fell backwards and hit my head.  All I saw was white.

Naruto groaned, still attached to my torso.

I managed to get my voice to crack, but nothing more.

“Saaaa,” Naruto croaked, and I felt him trying to move.

My vision started to clear slowly.  It was still too bright out for my eyes to adjust.  I was suddenly overwhelmed by the chakra pouring into my body.  I gasped, trying to tell Naruto to stop.

“Rin…” he whispered.  “Rinnegaa…”

He was right.  The most important thing right now was my rinnegan.

“My… legs,” he rasped.

This was hopeless.  Neither of us could walk, our muscles so severely atrophied.  What was the point of waking up if we were just going to get sucked back in, starting over again and again and again in this endless cycle?

“Sasuke,” Naruto said, dissolving into a coughing fit.  “Sas…” he started coughing again.  “Sasuke, don’t… give up…”

“…s… the poin…t?” I forced through my ragged throat.

Naruto’s hand slammed into mine.  He flopped it around some more until he could curl his fingers around mine.  “Seal.”

“It…” I tried to get the words to come out.  “Won’t.  Work.”

“Hafta try.”

I wanted to scream.  I had tried.  Twice already.  Third time was not the charm.  We were going to die here.  Even if we released the jutsu, we couldn’t move and there was no one coming to save us.  We would die from exposure.

“Want… to… go… back?” Naruto asked, croaking each word out slowly.

Live in a world that gave you what you thought you wanted, or die.

I tried to remember the Sage’s words and slowly guided Naruto’s hand into the rat seal with mine.

It felt like it couldn’t be this easy.

“How do we even know if this is real?” I tried to shout, my voice barely coming out above a whisper.

“We have to believe,” Naruto said into my chest, his head so heavy he couldn’t lift it.

Of course the real Naruto would say something stupid like that.

So I believed.

 - 2 -

  “So this is how I’m going to die,” I muttered through cracked lips.  After we had released the seal, the God Tree had started to wither away.  We were no longer under constant peril of being swallowed up by a carnivorous tree.  Now we were starving, dehydrated, and incapable of so much as sitting up.  The sun had set and risen again, the both of us fading in and out of consciousness.

“I bet I can live longer than you,” Naruto said, laughing and coughing.

“I’d like to see you try,” I rasped.

“I am gonna live so hard,” he replied.

I squeezed his hand, our fingers still curled together from when we performed the seal, though Naruto had somehow managed to finally roll himself off of my chest and onto his back.  Help wasn’t coming.  Everyone else had been trapped in the tree same as we had, with the same atrophying effects.  We were miles from anyone, with no chance of someone stumbling upon us in a rescue effort.  I only hoped that the scavengers would pick our bones clean so no one would realize how embarrassingly I had indulged myself in my last moments.

“I wish it would rain,” Naruto murmured, licking his lips again.

“You’re just making it worse,” I scolded him.

“Whaddya mean?!”

“The moisture from your lips… evaporates…” I started to trail off, feeling myself being drawn into sleep again.

“Please stay with me,” Naruto said quietly, snapping me back awake.

I felt too tired to even answer him.  I put all my effort into squeezing his hand.

“At least we saved the world,” he said, squeezing back.

“Whatever’s left of it…” I managed to get out.

“Why do you have to be so damn pessimistic?!”

I smiled and it hurt.

Naruto sighed, then went quiet.

“…Naruto?”

He didn’t answer.

I felt myself drifting.

Someone was standing over us.

I was appalled that I hadn’t sensed their approach even in my near-death state.  Then I realized that I couldn’t feel her chakra.

“They’re still alive!” she called over her shoulder.

There were others.

Just like that, we were being taken back to Konoha.

I woke up in someone’s living room, an IV in my arm.

“Easy,” Naruto said, squeezing my hand.

I let the chakra I’d been building up disperse, trusting in him completely that we were safe.

Then I remembered that he wasn’t my Naruto.  This man sitting next to me with a ridiculous beard was practically a stranger, someone I hadn’t really and truly spoken with in almost four years.  Or was it five, even six now?  More?

“How long?” I rasped at him.

“Almost two years,” he said.  He was still holding my hand.

It wasn’t quite as bad as I’d imagined, since I’d lived through several years in the Infinite Tsukuyomi.  “You look ridiculous.”

Naruto grinned.  “Look who’s talking.  I’m not surprised that Uchihas are terrible at growing beards, though.  That’s what you get for being pretty like a lady.”

I stared at him.

His grin faltered and he retracted his hand.  “S-sorry, I’m just…  I’m used to you being… different.”

“I get it,” I said, turning away from him and finally taking in our surroundings in more detail.  We were in a living room with futons laid out across the floor, though ours were the only ones currently occupied.  We both had IVs feeding into us, but I was surprised by how easily I could move.  My muscles weren’t as deteriorated as I’d expected from being in a coma for over a year.

“There was a whatsit uh paralytic in the tree,” Naruto said, and I could feel his eyes following my every movement.  “That’s why we couldn’t really move.  That’s uh what you were wondering, right?”

Stop reading my mind, I thought.  Stop acting like you know everything about me.

“So uh it seems like some people were immune to the Infinite Tsukuyomi and uh ya know they were all just like chillin’ and watchin’ over the tree while the world went to hell and then we released the seal and they saw all the bodies bein’ freed and started rescuin’ everyone and they found Kakashi-sensei and he told ’em where ta look for us and uh yeah so uh yeah.”

I sat up.  It took more effort than I would have liked, but I did it, letting the blanket pool in my lap as I turned to stare at Naruto.  “Do I make you nervous?”

He let out a very high-pitched laugh.

I didn’t even know where to start.

“I don’t know how to act around you,” he said quietly.  “I was playing with my kids and now I’m in the ruins of Konoha with… nothing…”  He choked on the last word, his entire face crumbling.

I looked away and waited.

“You were out for a while, but I was able to get a lot of information from Ms. Miharu,” he said, calm again.  His tone was starting to sound more like an adult and less like a tongue-tied child.  “This is her house.  There were about twenty people in Konoha who were immune to the Infinite Tsukuyomi, all non-ninjas, and they’ve just been trying to survive for the last couple of years.  They’ve done some trading with survivors from other towns and villages, but food and skilled professions like doctors have been scarce, so it seems like it’s been pretty tough.”

I wondered if they hadn’t been better off without us.  “I want to leave.”

“Where the hell did that come from?!”

“I don’t know these people who are supposedly taking care of us, first of all,” I said, already feeling my blood pressure rising from Naruto’s flailing and whining.  “Second of all, I’m a missing nin and there is no possible way that I can stay here anyway.”

“Uh, where are you gonna go?” Naruto asked, scratching his nose.  “There’s nothing out there.”

“There’s nothing here, either.”

“There’s me.”

“Just what I always wanted.”

“Are you being sarcastic?!”

I looked at him.

“Your chakra is depleted and you’re missing an arm, you’re in no condition to be going anywhere,” he said with a frown.

“I’ve been missing an arm for years,” I said.

“So the reality of missing an arm is exactly the same as the dream world?” Naruto asked.  His tone was getting a little too sassy for my taste.  “Because it’s completely different for me.  The balance isn’t what I expected, and my brain keeps telling me that I feel pain where my arm used to be.”

He wasn’t wrong.  “I’m still leaving.”

“Dressed like that?” he said, and it was true that my clothes had been torn, my belt had been lost, and I looked like- “A stripper who had a fight with a tailed-beast and lost?”

“Who the hell is a stripper?”

“You!  You are a stripper!  I can literally see your titties!”

“I feel like I’ve walked in at an awkward moment,” the woman standing in the doorway said.

“It’s always awkward with us,” Naruto said with a grin.

“Oh, dear…” she said, looking between us.  “Mr. Uchiha, it’s nice to see you awake.  I’m sorry about the hack job I did with the IVs, I’m not actually a nurse…  And I’ve got some clothes for you to change into if you’d like, I just didn’t want to be undressing and redressing you without your consent.  I’m Miharu, by the way.  Pleasure to meet you.”

“What’s in the IV?” I asked abruptly.

“Ah, it’s some nutrients and such, but before there was also the anti-paralytic to get your body moving again,” she explained, bustling around the room.  She came back over to me with a set of pajamas.

I eyed them disdainfully before accepting them.  “And how did a non-nurse go about developing an anti-paralytic for the God Tree?”

“You’re so rude,” Naruto muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, that wasn’t me,” Miharu explained.  “There was a scientist who came from Suna.  You see, we tried to cut y’all down from that tree, but even if we pulled you out of those pods, you just wouldn’t wake up and you eventually got sucked back in.  But that scientist and some others tried studying you these last few months, and came up with the anti-paralytic for the day that y’all might wake up.”

“I see,” I said.  I still didn’t trust her, though my gut said she was harmless.

“Gosh, you must really just want to wash up and finally be rid of those rags,” she said, going to dig through a drawer and coming up with a couple of towels.  “We don’t have running water, but we’ve got a well and some buckets if you want to go wait in the bathroom.  It’s probably gonna be tough to walk right now, but the others that we rescued way before you are starting to get on their feet again.  And then there’s Mr. Uzumaki here, who just defies reality, doesn’t he?”

“Demon fox,” Naruto said, patting his stomach.  “Kurama’s actually a really helpful guy when it comes to getting injured.  Anyway, I’ll help you go up the stairs, Sas’.”

I glared at him.

Miharu started removing our IVs.

“Do you like sleeping in your own blood and filth?” Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“I don’t need your help,” I said.  I pushed myself up onto my knees, wobbling a little but keeping it together.  I tried to bring one leg up, but it didn’t want to move.

“Why don’t I start hauling those buckets for you?” Naruto offered.

“I would be much obliged,” Miharu said, and the two left.

Fuck, I hated him.  Being respectful and not playing on my embarrassment.  What other horrible traits had he developed in the dream world?

I couldn’t stand.  I crawled to the couch awkwardly and pulled myself up.

“Sasuke.”

I kept my back to him as he loomed in the doorway.

“Let’s go upstairs?”

It was humiliating as he settled my arm over his shoulder and hoisted me up.  My legs did not want to work properly, taking staggering steps even when Naruto was taking most of the weight.

He sat me on a stool in the shower and moved to undress me.

“No.”

He looked at me.

“You can go,” I said dismissively.

“Good, ’cause you smell awful,” he said, his shoulders sagging with rejection.  “I’ll be outside the door if you need anything.”

I waited until the door had shut fully before I moved my arm painfully in the motions of undressing.  Clearly our muscles had been kept active somehow, but they were still stiff and hard to move.

I tossed the clothes on the side of the tub and started washing up with the bar of soap that I’d been given.

It quickly became apparent that I could not lift the bucket to rinse myself.

I thought about calling Naruto.

Like I would ever ask that idiot for a favor.  It was bad enough he’d half carried me up the stairs.

I moved the water out of the bucket with my chakra, which was a waste and would probably set my recovery back, but Uchihas had their pride.

I banged on the door when I was done dressing, and Naruto opened it almost immediately.

“How long was I asleep?” I finally asked as he helped me down the stairs.

“Four days.”

“Fuck,” I muttered.  I’d started to suspect, but that was a long time to be unconscious and vulnerable in an enemy village.

“I stayed with you,” he offered quietly.  “I wouldn’t let anything… and anyway, most of the ninjas are still laid up.”

“I need to get out of here,” I asserted.

“Sasuke…”

“Nice and clean?” Miharu asked from the bottom of the stairs.  “I can put in another IV, or are you up to tryin’ some solid food?”

I didn’t want to pump unknown liquids into my body, but I also didn’t want to eat food from an unknown source.  Not that I was excessively paranoid.

I was just the right amount of paranoid.

“Ms. Miharu’s a great cook,” Naruto said, a grin stretching across his face.  I tried not to be blinded by it.

“Well, I don’t know about all that, but I could make you some broth to ease your stomach,” she offered.

“Fine,” I said gruffly.

“Thank you,” Naruto said, giving her a sweet smile.

She disappeared into the next room.

I frowned at him.

“What?  Just because you have no manners doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t.”

“I hate when you do that.”

“Do what?!”

I sat heavily on the couch, shoving him away.

He sat on the arm, as close to me as possible.  He opened his mouth to speak, and then our eyes met.

We both looked away.

I needed to get out of here.

 - 3 -

  Kakashi came to visit on the third day.

“You look awful,” I informed him.

“As do you,” he said, grinning away under his mask.

I’d finally shaved my farce of a beard, but I couldn’t really disagree with him.  We all looked like ghosts of our former selves.

Kakashi continued to grin, not saying anything.

“Did you want something?” I asked irritably.  He was the first person I’d seen besides Naruto and Miharu, and I realized I was fine with not seeing anyone ever.

“Just checking in on your recovery,” he hummed.  “Naruto said you were still having trouble walking.”

I looked at him.

“Oh, I’ve been appointed to act in the hokage’s stead while she recovers,” he said, like I’d asked him a question.

“Making sure I’m not getting into trouble?” I scowled.

“No, that’s why Naruto’s here,” he answered.

It suddenly seemed very obvious.

“And if I try to leave?”

“He’ll stop you,” he said cheerfully.

“Because those are his orders.”

Kakashi actually laughed at that.  “Well, yes, they’re his orders, but I don’t think Naruto needs orders to chase you halfway around the world.”

I felt… betrayed.

Some of the mirth left his eyes.  “Don’t start doubting him now.”

I was fool to think that the village in ruins meant that the conspiracy was dead.

“Sasuke,” Kakashi said sharply.  “He is on your side.  He wouldn’t even leave your damn side to help with the village when he’s the only fully-functioning ninja in all of Konoha.  He chose you.”

I didn’t care what he had to say.  It had been worrying at the back of my mind, why Naruto and I were the only two patients staying in this house that had clearly been prepared for so many more.  I told myself that it was because this place was so far on the outskirts of town, so far away from the hospital staff and the necessary supplies.  My mind loved to rationalize when it came to Naruto.

He was my weakness, and I was tired of it.

“What’s that look for?” Naruto asked, his grin faltering as he strolled into the room.

I turned away from him.

“Mm, well, he knows,” Kakashi explained.

“Knows what?” he asked, stooping in front of me and leaning in so his face was right in front of mine.

“That you’re spying on him.”

“I’m not spying on him!” Naruto cried, eyes darting to Kakashi, then frantically back to me.  “I’m not spying on you!”

I would have gotten up and left if I could walk.

“Senseeeei,” Naruto whined, still looking between us.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” Kakashi asked, taking out a book.

“I was working my way up to it!  Our relationship’s all weird and awkward ’cause of the stupid Tsukuyomi.”

“That’s why your relationship is weird and awkward?” Kakashi snorted.  He licked his thumb to turn the page.

“Are you gonna tell us what happened in your dream world?” Naruto asked, trying to cross his arms over his chest, realizing he only had one, and losing his balance.  He stumbled back into a standing position, trying to play it off like it hadn’t happened.

“I’m sure you can figure it out,” Kakashi said with a shrug.

“Uh… how?”

“Use that brain of yours.”

“What brain?” I muttered.

“Don’t you start,” Naruto said, frowning at me.

I blinked.  First of all, I was angry with him.  Second of all, the normal Naruto response would be, ‘what the hell was that, bastard?!’, accompanied by yelling and flailing.

I tried to stand up, my legs shaking.

“Hey, take it easy,” he said, catching my arm.  My weight caused him to stumble, but he held us both up.

���This isn’t real,” I said, trying to push him away.  I ended up falling.

“Uh…”

I crawled towards the door.  It was a struggle to open it, but then I was outside.  I looked into the sky, searching desperately.

“No one else has shown signs of psychosis,” Kakashi was reasoning behind me.

“Yeah, but he’s lost it,” Naruto said, and suddenly he was there hauling me to my feet.  “What’s gotten into you, are you gonna crawl all the way across the border?”

“The moon,” I said.  “Where’s the goddamn moon?”

“Uh, I dunno, wherever it goes during the daytime?”

“It has to be here somewhere!” I snapped, leaning my neck backwards and searching the sky.

Naruto was struggling to keep us both up and finally just sat us on the ground.  “What are you doing?  What’s going on?  Talk to me…”

I finally looked at him when I felt his hand touch my cheek.  “This isn’t real,” I said flatly.

“You keep saying that, and I keep thinking you’re nuts, so…”

“Don’t you get it, we’re still in the Tsukuyomi!” I said, pinching his cheek until he let go of me.

“Uh, no,” Naruto said.  “You got us out, remember?”

“Why am I even bothering?” I muttered.  “You’re just a stupid figment of my imagination.”

“I think I take offense to that,” he said, scratching the back of his neck.

I started moving away from him.  Did I have to see the moon to wake up, or was it just enough to realize?  I put all of my chakra into my rinnegan.

“Are you gearing up for a battle?” Naruto asked, chuckling nervously.

He looked so damn real.

“Hey,” he said.  His eyes probed mine, and then he reached out his hand again, this time catching me by the back of the neck and pulling me close until our foreheads touched.  “I’m pretty sure I’m real.”

Of course he was touching me, of course he was staring into my eyes with that overwhelming sincerity of his.  Because that’s what I wanted, so that’s what the world gave me.

“I mean, I’d know if I wasn’t real,” he continued, his brow scrunching up.  He laughed nervously.  “Of course I’d know.”

“You’re not,” I said, closing my eyes.  I couldn’t take anymore blue.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re not you,” I whispered.  “You’re who I want you to be.”

“This is who you want me to be?” Naruto asked, sounding confused.  “I mean, I’m just the same as always, just… I dunno…  I’m me, Sas’.  Come on.  Look at me.”

I didn’t open my eyes.

His sigh brushed across my lips.

I closed my eyes more tightly, goosebumps ghosting up my arm.

“Sorry,” Naruto said, abruptly moving away.

I was an idiot.  I needed to find the moon.  I needed to get out of here.  I needed to do these things immediately, but I felt rooted to the spot, my eyes still closed.

“You’re freaking me out,” Naruto finally said.

I slid my eyes open.

“This isn’t the Infinite Tsukuyomi,” he stated.

“How would you know?” I asked dismissively.

“’Cause,” he said.

I looked at him.

“I mean, we escaped, right?  We woke up outside of the tree.”

“It wasn’t real the first time, why would it be this time?”

“Whaddya mean, the first time?” he asked, scratching his nose.  Then he frowned.  “Oh, that dream.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

He took a breath and let it out sharply.  “You pulled me down once before, right?  We weren’t together.  In the tree.  Before.  The first time or whatever.  You woke up and pulled me down, yeah?”

“You remember?”

“Yeah.”

There was so much pain and loss in his face that I looked away.

“Your arm was… it looked really bad, and you just passed out,” he said.  “I couldn’t wake you up and then everything went black and I woke up back in my bed like nothing had happened.”

“You went back into the same dream world?” I asked.

“Yeah, didn’t you?”

“I woke up because I knew it wasn’t real,” I said, rolling my eyes.  “Why are you so stupid?”

“Why are you so rude?” Naruto shot back, nudging me with his foot.

I turned to look at him.  “This is my third dream world.”

“It’s not a dream,” he said, kicking at me again, but this time I caught his leg.

“How do you know that?” I snarled at him.

“I don’t!”

“Oh,” I said, dropping his leg.

“But arguing about it in the middle of Ms. Miharu’s garden isn’t going to do anything about it!”

I wanted to break down, to throw myself into his arm, to scream and shout and cry, but I was an Uchiha.  “The moon isn’t visible, now, anyway.”

Naruto looked at me.

I waited for him to figure it out and come help me to my feet.

We struggled back inside without a word.  We were never good at the words part.

“Why are you still here?” Naruto groaned as he sat me on the couch next to Kakashi.

I had been about to say the same thing.

“Just making sure you’re not off killing each other,” he replied, but even with a smile it sounded serious.

“That was a million years ago,” Naruto said, waving it off.

“Only two, actually,” Kakashi pointed out.  “But I remember it like it was only yesterday.”

Naruto sat on the arm of the couch next to me, his arm draped along the back of it.  “We’ve all lived completely different lives since then.  Sasuke apparently had two of them.”

“And did one of those two lives change how he felt?”

“Duh,” Naruto said, then shot a glance towards me.  “Right?”

I looked at him.

“You don’t want to kill me anymore,” he said, trying to sound confident.

“I don’t.”

“See,” Naruto said, beaming at Kakashi.

“When will I be exiled?” I asked.

Kakashi’s smile seemed to widen.  “How can I exile you from a place that doesn’t even exist?”

Naruto looked dumbfounded, and for once we were in agreement.  This wasn’t part of the Tsukuyomi script, and even I had no idea about what was going on.

“I’m here as the acting hokage, but to be honest the title no longer has any meaning.”

“What are you going on about, Sensei?!” Naruto cried, jumping to his feet.  “Of course it has meaning, it’s...” he hesitated.  “Well, it has meaning anyway!”

“Konoha no longer exists,” Kakashi said.  “The village is in ruins, most of the ninja are incapacitated, and there isn’t enough food to feed all of us.”

“So I’m not exiled… because there’s no place to exile me from…?”

“You were always the smart one,” Kakashi said, standing up and patting me on the head.

I scowled at him to cover up my confusion.

“This was a nice visit,” Kakashi hummed sauntering to the door.

“S-sensei!” Naruto stuttered, chasing after him.  “You can’t mean… but how can… I don’t…”

Kakashi grinned before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

#narusasu #isola starting over #i ain't even gonna lie this is so slow until like chapter 20

[grimmjowkurosakidrake]

Rice wine

Sumary: Sequel to Sharp edges! Sasuke and Sakura start a journey back to Konoha alongside Itachi.

Characters: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Itachi Uchiha, Tsunade, Kakashi.

Relationships: Sasuke Uchiha/Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha & Itachi Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake & Yamato.

For the Sasusaku month day 9: Rice wine.

Previous

————————————————————————————————————

Before his fight with Orochimaru, Sasuke carefully lies the weakened girl to rest on his bed, mindful of her wounds he cleans her blood stained body to prevent further infections just as he used to do as a child through the cage bars.

Then, he installs various traps around and outside of the room, he even summons Aoda with strict orders to guard the door and protect her from anyone who isn’t Sasuke.

The fight against his kidnapper is seriously anticlimactic, Sasuke spent almost his entire life believing Orochimaru was the strongest man on earth, his training was hard and demandant from the start. In his childhood days, he never could defeat the sannin. But somewhere around his fourteen birthday he stopped demanding his weekly fights with Sasuke.

That should have been a clue.

Apparently, the consequence from years of desecrating his body, mind and soul, is that the snake no longer presents himself as the fearful foe he was in his prime years. Sasuke easily defeats him by will alone. Consuming his life essence just as Orochimaru tries to consume him.

But after going back to his room Sakura isn’t awake anymore, and nothing Sasuke does manages to rouse her for more than a little moment, until she falls unconscious again.

In the end he’s forced to carry her the whole trip until they arrive at the meeting point Itachi instructed him to reach in the few days after defeating Orochimaru.

“Who is she?” Demands his brother in a cold, impassive tone of voice when he sees Sasuke walking with girl sleeping on his back.

“She’s Sakura,” answers Sasuke. “She’s a child of Konoha, too.” Itachi arches his brown in a silent command to elaborate. “She was kidnapped by Kabuto, Orochimaru’s right hand man just few years after me. She was being kept in a cage.”

“This is a problem.” Mutters Itachi. “The fifth Hokage has been very accommodating by allowing us to come back to Konoha even after everything. She wasn’t in our plans.”

“Allowing us?” He was under the impression Itachi and himself were welcome into their home village.

He carefully removes Sakura from his back and instead takes her in his arms and sits with her body held close to his chest.

“I became a missing nin after we lost you. I deflected as son as I was notified of your kidnapping. You were also listed as a missing nin when the news of a Sharingan wielder teen working with Orochimaru reached the grapevine.” He confesses. “But I’ve been doing undercover jobs for the current Hogake in an effort to afford us a place back in Konoha. It’s just... This girl, I didn’t plan for anyone but ourselves.”

“But we can take her with us... Right?” He’s sacrificed so much for her, she’s been such a constant in his life for the longest time. Sasuke can't imagine a life without the responsibility of taking care of her.

“Yes,” sighs Itachi, “but we should wake her up first. She needs to eat or at least drink some water.”

He opens a bottle of rice wine under Sakura’s nose. The sweet, tangy smell is enough to wake her up with a start. She struggles against Sasuke’s hold on her waist, but she’s weak like this, after years of malnutrition, dehydration and cruel imprisonment, she can’t even walk by herself, least of all fight Sasuke’s embrace on her.

“You’re going to be just fine, Sakura-san.” Soothes Itachi, petting her sweaty, pink hair.

He’s being uncharacteristically kind. All of Sasuke’s meeting with his brother has given him the impression of a forceful and cold man. Maybe he’s traditional, maybe he fully believes in giving girls a special treatment. Or maybe Sakura’s pitiful appearance has warmed his heart.

After feeding Sakura pieces of bread and some water, in order to no upset her small stomach. Sasuke bathes her in a river nearby instructed by his brother, who will send a message to his Hokage with a crow summon, about the new addition to their group.

They will start their journey back to Konoha in the morning and she needs to regain some strength.

—————————————————————————————

A few days after she receives Itachi’s message, Tsunade holds a reunion with Konoha’s Jonin teachers.

“Why did you summon us, Hokage-sama,” drawls Asuma, taking a drag of the cigarette Kurenai instructed him to drop before entering the Hokage’s office.

Kakashi hadn’t spared his superior one single look. Too engrossed in his smut to even pay attention to the group. Yamato, the new addition, won’t leave his side, nervous as ever and trying to find comfort on his listless sempai.

“I called you here because I will reopen Naruto’s case.” This grants her the room’s whole attention.

“Why?” Demands Kakashi. “no team has been able to handle him. Not even Kurenai’s cell.”

“Besides the kid is doing well as a Genin, he’s allowed to do higher classification missions, there’s no need to reopen his case.” Reasons Asuma.

“Uchiha Itachi is coming back to village with his little brother.” The information doesn’t sit well with everybody, but they all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. “The brat will need a team, and I think it would be good for the both of them to work together as a team.”

“But who would even agree to take care of Naruto Uzumaki and Orochimaru’s boy?” Asks Kakashi amused.

“I’m glad you asked, Hatake.” Her smile is sadistic as she looks pointedly at him “You and Yamato will be their teachers.”

“Why would Kakashi-sempai need my help?” His admiration and respect clear.

“The Uchiha boys are coming with another prisoner of Orochimaru. She’s been kept captive all of her life.” She explains “I believe she will be needing empathy and someone to help her with the basics of returning to society.”

Yamato has some experience with that specific sort of trauma, he can’t promise he will be of much help to the girl, no if his own precarious return to society is anything to go by. But he can sympathise.

“They will arrive to Konoha in a week. Be ready.”

“Yes!” They bow their agreement.

“And Kakashi.” She stops the lazy man. “Be sure to notify Naruto. Will you?”

“Will do Hokage-sama.” Obeys reluctant, the Jonin.

Next

#sasusaku fic #sasusaku #Sasuke Uchiha #Sakura Haruno #fanfiction #fanfic #Sasusaku month #Ssm19 #Sasusaku month 2019

[avenger-hawk]

I've seen people call Itachi a ''mindrapist'' countless times now and I'm so confused by the term?? What do they mean? That's a tad too extreme a word for something like his lies to Sasuke isn't it? And he's never done anything like that with genjutsu either.. Do you have any ideas what they might be referring to?

Actually Itachi didn’t just lie to Sasuke, he full-on manipulated him over and over, and he did use genjutsu on him. A lot.

Before I reply I’ll point out something for those who only think in black/white terms. As much as I loathe anti-Itachi arguments (especially the blind Konoha dog Itachi one), I also don’t like the martyr-only Itachi ones. I don’t overlook his dark side. I like his dark side, it’s what makes him complex and fascinating. It’s what sets the lenghts he’d go to keep Sasuke alive and safe, even if it means hurting him, the very person he wants to protect. It’s part of the confidence, the arrogance even, of a genius who’s so many steps ahead of everyone that (after Shisui’s death) he thinks that no one knows better than him, it’s what despite he knew how evil Danzo was, made him fall for his blackmail and manipulation, since he couldn’t allow him to harm Sasuke in any way, since his only weakness was his love for Sasuke, a love so strong that made him sacrifice his whole clan to spare him from death, even though his love hurt his little brother more than anyone else’s.

(in case it’s not clear, this is not an antiitachi post although it’s not a pro-martyr Itachi thing either. Also some anti-ending, anti-naruto, anti-kakashi, anti-s*kura under the cut. Can’t help it.)

Compared to part 1, especially ep. 84, Shippuuden episodes/chapters toned Itachi’s actions down, especially after the truth was revealed, highlighting the real reason behind them and not showing the most extreme details anymore.

Itachi used tsukuyomi on child Sasuke right after the massacre, to show him a fake version of him killing his parents. In retrospective, he sure didn’t use a full tsukuyomi since Sasuke woke up too soon from it and was able to move and even try to attack him/go after him, but the scene itself shows him barely conscious, weak and drooling, while the elder was looming over him, even punching him hard when he made it to get up on his feet.

Itachi used full tsukuyomi when he met Sasuke at the inn, something that wasn’t supposed to happen, but since it did happen he couldn’t risk to blow his cover and make his brother understand the truth. He ignored Sasuke at first, but when his little brother insisted he pointed out that he still wasn’t strong enough, because he lacked hatred. He tried to fuel his hatred against him, taunting him and beating him up with such brutality that even Kisame was surprised, as his partner never got physical with anyone. He didn’t need to be physical, being a genjutsu user. (my personal interpretation of this is that Itachi needed physical contact with Sasuke, so badly that the only way he could allow himself to indulge in it was through violence) And at the end of the beating, he grabbed Sasuke by the throat and shoved him against the wall, and leaning on him he cast Tsukuyomi to show him the fake version of the massacre over and over, so much that Sasuke was rendered unconscious and hospitalized for days.

Itachi used tsukuyomi again during their fight, first to show Sasuke how Mangekyou came to exist, with Madara and Izuna’s story, that turned out to be fake, but most of it all he used it to make Sasuke believe that he was plucking his eyes out. His intent was clear, he wanted to corner Sasuke so that he’d use the curse mark, so that he could free him, and he wanted Sasuke’s hatred to be unwavering, so that he’d kill him.

Lastly, fearing that despite his measures to keep Sasuke away from the man he knew as Madara, he planned to use kotoamatsukami on him, “giving” Shisui’s crow to an unknowing Naruto, so that if Sasuke got to know the truth and decided to attack Konoha, that genjutsu would have prevented him from doing so, conditioning (brainwashing him) to protect it instead. I already talked about this and I don’t intend to do it again, it’s a controversial plan, and it’s a wrong thing indeed, but in my opinion he didn’t do it out of loyalty towards Konoha, but more because he didn’t want Sasuke to become an enemy of the village because it meant being sentenced to death, not having any stability or safety, becoming a rogue like him, which was the opposite of what he wanted for him.

Like Sasuke understood Itachi and forgave him as soon as he was told the truth, because he loved him so, so much, even though I am aware of the immense suffering, the anger and fear and despair he went through, the scr it left on him and that will never really heal, I won’t talk sh*t about Itachi anyway, because it’s Konoha’s fault, because Itachi was alone, in difficult times, facing difficult decisions, whose goal was to keep him alive and safe, unlike Naruto or Kakashi (I won’t even mention S*kura because she is irrelevant. fight me) who claimed to want to save Sasuke, who, in times of peace (or in the end of a war), manipulated, imprisoned, guilt tripped and tamed him into submission.

#I watched like 15 eps from part 1. the massacre/uchiha brothers' ones are on my list #vivalarevolution #vivalarevolution: in his defense #vivalarevolution: a love that is more than love #Anonymous #anti-ending #anti-sakura #anti-naruto #manipulation #no but really. seeing things from sasuke's pov is heartbreaking. his tragedy is so huge and personal and terrible #and rewatching the massacre episode and imagining him all alone and lost is heartbreaking #fuck konoha

[raendown]

The Sound of Silence

@letliv3 *pokepoke* Hey guess what? The conspiracy continues! @thetoxicstrawberry and I thought you could use a present as well so we cooked up a little more MadaKaka using #179 from these prompts, “First one to make a noise loses.”

Hope this makes dealing with this apartment issues just a little bit easier to deal with! 

Under the cut or also available on AO3!

Madara’s grumpy anger could be felt from three streets away so Kakashi wasn’t really all that surprised to have the man corner him up against the wall behind the ramen stand. He gave a content little hum and a happy smile.

“Maa, is there a problem?” he asked. Madara snarled and bared his teeth. Kakashi was glad of the mask that covered his amused smile.

“What is it about that disgustingly cheerful green nincompoop that keeps you running back to him?”

His mask was also good for muffling the tiny chokes of laughter that he couldn’t keep contained. Kakashi tilted his head as if confused.

“Huh? Oh you mean Gai? I’m not sure I know what you mean, Madara.” There was very little Kakashi enjoyed more than teasing this man. Coming back to life after decades of being dead didn’t phase him. Being imprisoned in the village he had once abandoned didn’t phase him. Having his chakra sealed away possibly indefinitely didn’t phase him. But watching Kakashi ignore him in favor of taking part in the latest ridiculous challenge with Gai drove him absolutely up the wall.

“I mean I want to know what it is about that loud buffoon that encourages you to ignore me – me!” Madara looked about two second away from stomping his foot like a child. “It was I that asked you to dine with me yet you spend the entire evening bending to his juvenile whims!”

“He’s my friend.” Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly, undaunted by the way Madara was looming over him to trap him against the wall. “We like having contests. Challenges. It’s fun!”

He could almost physically watch Madara taking the bait, puffing himself up as if the idea that just struck him was his own inspiration. “If a challenge is what interests you then I am more than capable of matching you in whatever contest you desire.”

Hook, line, and sinker. Kakashi’s smile turned in to a feral grin as Madara shoved his own foot in his mouth without even realizing it.

“Oh?”

“Indeed. Challenge me; I’m surely a better match for whatever you have in mind than that…man.” Madara uttered that last word with such disdain that it was comical. He truly hated Might Gai for no reason other than the fact that Kakashi was good friends with him.

The two of them had been dancing around each other for months in what was possibly the strangest courtship that Konoha had ever seen. Kakashi was more than aware where they were heading but he was having much too much fun with this stage to try and push for anything more. Watching the other man get jealous and snap at him for not paying him as much attention as he wanted was the highlight of his every day.

Not to mention, teasing Madara was just plain fun. He liked to think he was smart but he just made it so easy – too easy for someone like Kakashi.

“Alright then. First one to make to a noise loses!”

Not laughing at the absolutely flabbergasted expression on Madara’s face was extremely difficult but he managed, arranging his expression in to a happy, carefree beam. Madara’s jaw nearly dropped right off his face as he stared, stunned. He opened his mouth to say something and froze with one finger raised, about to make a point. Kakashi waggled his eyebrows teasingly. Mark this round down as a point to him.

Madara ground his jaw in frustration. Kakashi didn’t seem to be taking him as seriously as he had wanted but he did set a challenge and Uchihas do not back down from a challenge, especially one as simple as this. He glared, filled with determination. He was going to win this challenge and then he was going to set Kakashi straight about just who he should be spending his time with. Idiotic green…idiots…were not worthy of someone like the last Hatake, not when Madara himself was available and willing and very much desired all of Kakashi’s attention for himself.

He twitched suddenly at the feeling of something pressing in to his side. Looking down he saw Kakashi’s hand, one finger extended, and watched as it poked him in the side again. When he looked up to give the younger man a flat, unimpressed look he saw mirth dancing in Kakashi’s eyes. He was enjoying this. He was enjoying his attempt to make a fool out of the man who had once brought entire clans to their knees.

Kakashi poked him a third time and Madara snapped a hand out to grasp his wrist, taking hold of the other one as well when it tried to come in from the opposite direction. The two of them stood there and stared at each other in silence, each willing the other to cave first and make some sort of sound.

When Kakashi’s fingers wriggled around to tickle at his wrists Madara decided that if he was going to win then he was going to win big. He pushed Kakashi’s wrists apart until his limbs were spread in a half spread eagle position and stepped in between them, bringing his body close to that of the man he had trapped before him. Kakashi’s eyes widened at the sudden proximity but he stayed quiet. Madara planned to change that.

A soft thunk could be heard when he leaned forward and Kakashi reflexively leaned away until his head hit the wooden slats behind him. Their faces hovered only inches away from each other, both unable to say anything to break the rising tension as Madara smirked, getting closer and closer. He took another step forward, bringing their chests just close enough that he could feel the quickening of Kakashi’s breath and the racing of his heart. He had never been more grateful that he was no longer allowed to wear his armor around the village.

His own eyes fluttered shut as he pressed their lips together for the first time through the layer of that damnable mask and the moment they kiss Madara can already taste victory. More satisfying than that, though, was the feeling of Kakashi’s fingers clenching around his own and the way he seemed to curve his entire body in to Madara’s in an involuntary effort to get closer.

Still no noise, however, so Madara stepped up his game. He put everything he had in to that first kiss, briefly squeezing Kakashi’s hands before releasing them and settling them on the younger man’s waist, thumbs reaching up under his vest to stroke the skin there in small circles. Kakashi shivered under his touch and latched on to his arms, nearly bruising his biceps with the tightness of his grip. He was pressing back in to the kiss with encouraging fervor and Madara wished he could remove the cotton barrier between them so he could lick his way inside Kakashi’s mouth, suck on his tongue, bite at his lips – anything, everything. He wanted to devour this man. He wanted to crawl inside of him and make a home right next to his heart where he could feel the love he desperately hoped was there for him.

While his thumbs had elicited quite a nice reaction it hadn’t exactly been the moan or whimper he had been hoping for. Time to dial it up to eleven. Madara wondered just how far he could take this before he would be stopped. Their little hiding spot wasn’t too far out of the public eye and with no words there was no way to ascertain the boundaries of whatever their relationship had just upgraded to.

He had always been one for pushing boundaries, however, so he felt no qualms with tugging at the ties holding Kakashi’s trousers on his hips. He felt the younger man’s spine stiffening and his hands clenching tighter yet no move was made to stop him as he tugged the material down. His fingers brushed bare skin underneath as he did so and he couldn’t contain a shiver of his own. Kakashi, apparently, had not worn underwear today. How delightful.

The look on Kakashi’s face when Madara suddenly backed out of his grip and dropped to both knees was something he wished he could activate his Sharingan and memorize forever. But he couldn’t so he didn’t wasted time with wishing. Instead he lowered his eyes to the half-hard cock now level with his face, admiring the shape of it, the way the pale skin was nearly translucent. He leaned forward without warning and took it in his mouth, sucking it down like the sweetest of treats.

Kakashi went up on his toes, spine arching backwards and hands flying out to weave in to Madara’s thick hair with a deathly tight grip. Air rushed out of his mouth in an audible exhale but Madara figured that didn’t really count. One couldn’t help breathing, really. So he ignored that miniscule transgression and bent himself to his task, bobbing and sucking, fondling Kakashi’s balls with one hand while the other stroked and pressed on his perineum.

It was mere moments before Kakashi was trembling beneath his touch and when he looked up he could see that pretty silver head thrashing from side to side. Part of his mask had been caught in his mouth as he harshly bit at his own lip in an effort to stay silent. That simply wouldn’t do, Madara noted. He’d told Kakashi he was man enough to win this challenge and win it he would!

He lengthened the motion of his bobbing head, sinking lower on his delicious treat only to pull back until just the tip was encased in his lips, allowing his tongue to swirl around the frenulum with teasing licks. Kakashi’s hips worked with his rhythm even as he felt the younger man trying to hold himself back. The hands in his hair pulled and tugged, each tiny jolt of pain only serving to excite him. He swallowed Kakashi down with more enthusiasm than he’d given to anything in a long time, paying no mind to the way saliva had started to drip along his chin and run down to Kakashi’s sacs.

He felt the quivering of the thighs surrounding his head and worked faster, taking one of his hands away to reach up and encircle the short length of cock that wouldn’t fit in his mouth, stroking in time. Kakashi panted above him and thudded his own head backwards a few times, almost like he was trying to hold on to sanity using any method he could.

It didn’t work.

Madara’s hand twisted around Kakashi in a firm grip, his lips sank down with a swirling tongue following after, and his other hand pressed firmly against that wonderful point just behind the testicles. Kakashi’s entire body went rigid and as he doubled over with ecstasy he lost their challenge with a single breathy cry.

“Madara!”

The man in question felt a surge of wild triumph rip through him even as he felt hot cum spurting down his throat. He didn’t even hesitate to drink it down, lapping and sucking to milk his companion for every last drop. Kakashi jerked and shook, small whimpers slipping out now that he had already given in.

He waited until Kakashi had softened in his mouth to pull away, craning his neck to look up at the other man and still feeling twenty feet tall. He smirked, a vicious expression that made Kakashi’s eyes roll back and thighs clench all over again.

“I win,” Madara murmured quietly. Kakashi didn’t answer, still gasping and shaking. “And I think since I won your little challenge I should get some sort of reward, yes?”

He stood from his kneeling position and captured Kakashi’s mouth in a victory kiss while his hands idly tucked his lover back in to his trousers and pulled them in to place. Kakashi kissed him back without hesitation, docilely allowing himself to be manhandled and redressed. When they parted he looked more than a little dazed.

“Reward. Yeah. ‘Kay.” He blinked slowly, looking completely wrecked even with so little of his face visible. “Wow.”

Madara preened. “That was only the beginning, love.” If that was all it took to impress he couldn’t wait to show off what other skills he had in his arsenal.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Kakashi admitted. He seemed to be slowly regained the ability to form coherent thought as he narrowed his eyes playfully. “What sort of reward did you have in mind?” Madara chuckled darkly and lifted Kakashi chin with one finger.

“I think we would need a more private venue for me to show you that,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to alarm the general public when you start screaming my name.”

An eager light appeared in Kakashi’s eyes and Madara felt a rush of affection.

As they disappeared in a puff of smoke to seek out the privacy he had suggested, Madara sent a silent thanks to Might Gai as well as a smug jeer of victory. Kakashi belong to him now and no idiotic green eyesore was going to separate them, challenges or no challenges.

#rae writes #195 writing prompts #madakaka #madara #kakashi #fanfiction #naruto shippuden

[sns-tropes]

fic: my heart held in your hands - chapter 1

summary:   The war is over and Sasuke finally comes home. But Konoha wont let a missing-nin back into their midst without leashing him first. Naruto sticks by his side the whole time.

pairing: sasuke/naruto (ninja!verse) post-698

rating: Mature

word count: 3,778

warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, panic attacks, eventual explicit content in later chapters

It was easy for Naruto. For some reason he couldn't feel any pain where he’d lost an arm. There was a ghosted feeling where it should be, giving him the impression that it was truly detached from the rest of him. It wasn't his priority. He reached over, sitting up with effort he didn't know he had left in him. He took Sasuke’s hand in his. He was mirrored. Their arms. Gone. It felt so foolish now. He knew that their battle was inevitable. But this one was so much different. This one held a certain hopeful light at the end of the tunnel that this truly was the very last strain. He wasn’t going to cry. But he felt like he could, just from relief alone.

Sasuke wasn't going to pull his hand away from Naruto. He didn't flinch in the slightest. He just tightened his grip on Naruto’s hand with what little strength he had left.

“Does it hurt?” Naruto asked him, nodding towards his missing limb.

He squeezed Naruto's hand tighter. “Not so much.”

Sakura and Kakashi were coming up over the ruble that laid on the field  from their destructive ways.

She healed them the best that she could. Naruto's arm was blown to bits. Unrecoverable. She stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound with ease. Sasuke’s could be salvaged. But just when Sakura gave the impression that she would reattach it, he stopped her.

“I don't want it.”

She looked confused, maybe a little hurt. She didn't understand. Probably couldn't if she tried.  She opened her mouth yet no words came. She looked to Kakashi for any sign. To help her make sense of it.

“Leave it, Sakura.” He told her, knowingly.

She sighed with a bittersweet smile. Her eyes might have been watering, but it didn't matter. She had her friends back and they were alive. It was enough. Even though there was a indecipherable pang of alarm in her heart when her gaze fell on their intertwined hands. Still, it was enough.

It was going to be a long road to recovery. For them and everyone else who made it.

And Naruto hated hospitals.

The last time Naruto was in a hospital with Sasuke they ended up fighting on the roof. And not for sport. Sasuke had something to prove back then. He was just as determined as Naruto. When it came to showing what he was worth, he only seemed to take one person into account. Whether he realized it or not.

Shikamaru walked through the door and into the shared hospital room. It was Naruto’s request. Sasuke didn't protest. He probably didn't want to let him out of his sight again. Oddly he felt inclined to comply with Naruto's wishes, which was fairly new to him.

Shikamaru placed two cups of coffee on the side table. Sakura said they shouldn't have any while they're healing. But Naruto craved it just because she said he couldn't. Sasuke never cared much for it, but sipped it nonetheless.

He stood there in between their beds, nose twitching at the strong smell of linen and antiseptic.

“Hn. Haven't had this view in a while.”

Sasuke and Naruto couldn't help but turn their heads to look at each other.

“You guys are ridiculous.” He scoffed lightheartedly. He might have been laughing at them. No, he was definitely laughing at them. “Oh man, and you did it to yourselves too.”

They really have no room for a comment. He's not wrong. They did do this to each other. They fought, and screamed, and cried, and bled. They've handicapped each other. But Naruto wouldn't change any of it. Not a single moment of it.

He was about to leave and he stopped at the doorway. His expression hardened and he turned to Sasuke.

“It's good to see you, Sasuke.” He meant it. He really did. “But some advice; not everyone in the village  can say the same.”

A warning. Sasuke would be stupid to take it lightly.

Upon his leave, Naruto looked worried. “I hadn't thought about that.” He whispered to Sasuke as he fiddled with the sheets.

“It's not  your problem. Don't worry.” He stated simply.

“It is my problem. I am worried.” Naruto wasn't used to this. Neither of them were. The battle and the injuries and even the resolve had made them so open and raw. And they didn't really know what to do about that.

“Idiot. Nothing I can't handle.”

Naruto knew that. He knew Sasuke could handle it. He could handle anything. But that knowledge didn't reassure him like he wished it did.

They heal quick like always and they're out of the hospital fast and easy.

Sasuke insisted on living in the Uchiha  compound. He vowed to fix anything that needed to be tended to by hand and maintain it. Naruto thought it was a bad idea, because this was to start over not go backwards. Anything that caused pain was unnecessary.

Naruto could almost feel how heavy Sasuke’s heart was as he stood next to him behind the yellow tape and boarded up archway.

He watched Sasuke go, treading lightly behind him.

It's all dust and cobwebs and caked up dirt. Sasuke spends a lot of time in the yards, trying to will himself to enter his childhood home. It's been so long. He looked like he struggling, forcing himself to go in. Naruto steps in front of him.

“Don't force if it doesn't feel right.” Naruto told him carefully.

Sasuke regards him with a scoff, and then flees away from his gaze. He knows he means well but it's not enough to ease his impatience. He is forcing himself and he's fully aware of it.

He walks inside through the main doors. He wants to be fine but Naruto always sees right through his strains.

He doesn't go in his or Itachi's bedroom. It doesn't feel like he's supposed to. He's back here but he still wants to lock it all away.

He's walking through the home when suddenly it sneaks up on him. He can still see feint bloodstains on the hardwood flooring. This is where it happened, and he hasn't looked at it since.

He drops down to his knees, fingertips dragging across the stains. His chest is tight and he can't tell if it's the beginning of a cry.

Naruto crowds in behind him. His chin resting on his shoulder and his only arm draping around the other. An awkward hug to say the least.

“Do you forgive him?” Comes the sudden whisper in Sasuke’s ear.

Sasuke doesn't have to think about it. “I do.” He sighs shakily.

They sit like that for a moment touching those horrible stains before Naruto pulls him up.

They leave quietly. Sasuke goes agrees to live with Naruto in his apartment just like he said he wouldn't.

They both sat in the empty council room, waiting for their former teacher and newly appointed hokage.

He looked at the both of them sat side by side. One arm missing from each.

“You two look ridiculous.”

Everyone seemed to be saying that lately.

“Hey!” Naruto stood up suddenly. “They're battle scars! We look like hardened men of war.”

“Please stop.” Sasuke quipped. Naruto could almost feel Sasuke rolling his eyes.

Kakashi took a seat and he started to brief them on what to expect in the next few months. Most of it was boring. All business. War aftermaths.

“Sasuke,” Kakashi grabbed his attention. “The council expressed to me… Very aggressively, that they worry about your residence here in the village. Regardless of your helpful part in the war efforts.”

Sasuke didn't speak, he knew there was more that Kakashi had to say. He wasn't surprised by any of it.

Naruto found himself dejected as he wished they had their hands. Just so he could take Sasuke's in his.

“They've regarded my favoring of you, which I obviously do, as grounds of accusation for me dismissing any crimes that they might find you guilty of.”

If he had to endure any kind of imprisonment, he would surely leave before they could enforce it. Naruto knew that. Kakashi knew that. It was unspoken.

“So with that said, I've requested a pardon due to your assistance to the village. It was voted on. In your favor. By a landslide.”

Sasuke leaned back in his chair, suddenly feeling very old. “And the catch?” He questioned.  Because there was always a catch.

Kakashi smirked. “Supervision.”

“What the fuck does that entail?” He spouted out.

“What kind of supervision?” Naruto scoffed, squinting at Kakashi.

“STOP while you're ahead. Both of you.” He focuses on Naruto. “They've taken into account that you two will be living together in close quarters, and that has eased them. However, because of previous lapses in judgment on your part, they require a weekly inspection,” he held up air quotes on ‘inspection,’ which made Naruto's stomach suddenly  hurt.

“It's a check up. To make sure Sasuke stays in line.”

“Well they're wasting their damn time.” Sasuke told him nonchalantly. Sasuke knew he didn't need any babysitting. He didn't mind Naruto so much, that was fine. But weekly check ups? That just felt like pure ridicule. In fact he might be more stable now than he's ever been. He still had a lot to work on, but he was trying.

“This is excessive.” Naruto added. Normally Naruto wouldn't protest as long as he got his way. But he didn't want Sasuke to feel like the village miscreant. It's not exactly a good start.

Kakashi laughed at him, and both of their heads snapped up. “You're complaining? You're literally going to be with Sasuke twenty-four-seven. And it's council-ordered. This is like a wet dream for you, Naruto.”

For once, Naruto had nothing to say. It felt futile to protest, in fear that he might just mess this whole thing up. Sasuke noticed the flush on his face. Naruto's reaction was comforting to him  in a strange, unfamiliar way.

“And as for your arms, Tsunade is nearly finished with the prosthetics.”

For some reason, neither of them had much of a reaction to that information. Naruto didn't care about his arm. He would figure it out. Sasuke didn't care for his either. The prosthetics were insisted upon by Sakura and Tsunade.

“Is that all?” Sasuke asked.

“Yeah, that's all. You can go to your love-nest now. Expect a visit by noon tomorrow.” Kakashi cackled.

Naruto leaned over to mumble in Sasuke’s space. “He's enjoying this.”

“Of course he fucking is.”

"And Sasuke…” Kakashi started ominously, “this is a second chance. At everything. Don't mess it up.”

Sasuke liked Shikamaru’s advice better.

Sasuke thinks Naruto's apartment suits him perfectly. It’s organized but somehow cluttered at the same time. Like everything is its proper place, but so many of his belongings are just unnecessary.

Not that it mattered to Sasuke. He didn't have that many belongings so he didn't require much room. However he didn't take the apartments setup into account. It's a single room. Bed on one side, kitchen on the other. Door to the bathroom. Privacy was obviously going to be a foreign concept in here.

It was already dark out and Naruto was heating some water. Sasuke sat at the small table and watched as he poured it into two cups of ramen. It was difficult to do one handed, but like everything else, he manages.

“When do you sleep?” Naruto asked.

“Rarely.” Sasuke mumbled.

“You ass. I meant what time?”

Sasuke shrugs. Naruto decides not to press further. He twirls his noodles around with his chop sticks. He just looks so… depressed. And Naruto is not used  to that. Maybe cynical, sure. Angry, yeah. Rude? Cold shoulder? Insulting? Always.

But this look of sadness. That's not something he wants to see.

“Don't look at me like that.” Sasuke hissed.

Naruto was taken aback, dropping his chopsticks into the cup. “Look at you like what?”

“Like you feel sorry for me.”

“I don't.”

It wasn't that he felt sorry for Sasuke because he didn't. He felt pure regret. He wanted him to be okay. Because before he ever cared about his own happiness, he wanted it for Sasuke more. Maybe if he could have shown him that, things would have turned out differently. It's hard to make him understand that he knows what he's feeling. He's been to that dark place. Feeling rejected, cast out, and alone.

“I don't feel sorry for you. But you're always shouldering everything by yourself. Don't you get tired of it?” He rasped. This was Naruto's way of being subtle. And he was very, very bad at it. Beating around the bush never got either of them anywhere.

“You're the same. Should you really be asking me that?” He retorted.

And he was right.

“I want you to be okay.” He didn't think those words would be as difficult to say as they felt. It came out without much thought, but thankfully he didn’t regret saying it. He was sure of himself.

Sasuke let out the loudest sigh Naruto has ever heard. “I am okay.”

“Are you though? This is… All so fucking weird and I just feel like you're gonna snap at any given moment.”

Sasuke was prone to sudden outbursts and occasional maniacal laughter. But thankfully this time it was soft. Soft, reassuring laughter.

“I'm not gonna snap.” He's smiling. Naruto loved it when he smiled. It might be his favorite in the whole world. “I'm okay. More than I have been.”

“Well, good!” Naruto felt flustered now. “Now eat your damn food. I'll tie you up and force feed you. I'm so serious.”

“I believe you.” Sasuke rolled his eyes and forced himself to take several bites of his food.

Surprisingly, Sasuke didn't feel as awkward as he thought he would when he settled down into Naruto's bed.

He's never really slept through the night. Sometimes he doesn't sleep at all. Just rests his body while his mind stays awake. He was aware that things weren't heathy that way, but he had been so obsessive back then. His guard was always up.

He's trying. He's really trying to be normal again. Not that he was ever abnormal, maybe just a little erratic.

He's tired of dreaming of Itachi when he shuts his eyes and let's his mind drift once in a while. As he closes his eyes He tries to will himself to think of something else. Anything else. Because even though he got to see his brother one last time, albeit his withering corpse-like appearance, he still feels like there is something unfinished.

Even though he looked him in the eyes and told him how much he loves him, there is still a hollow cold space in his heart that he can never seem to be rid of. Sometimes, rarely, he finds himself wishing that Itachi would have taken his life as well. He dreams of his small child-like self  laid out across the smooth boards of their compound next to his parents, decorated with crimson, never to wake again. But these dreams, they don't feel like nightmares. When he wakes, it feels like maybe that's how things were supposed to be. Sometimes he still wants to die. He never really cared for what happens to him after all of his intentions came to fruition.

There's a rustle in the blankets, and a blond head of hair is turning over in the softness of the pillows. Sasuke can see the bright shining blue of his eyes as clear as ever in the gleam of the moons light. He feels like they're 8 years old again. Back then, on the planks of the dock, Naruto's eyes felt like the most comforting thing in the world. It seems that they still haven't lost that spark from all those years ago. It dispels his thoughts of Itachi and death.

“I can't sleep.” Naruto whispers. He doesn't know why he whispers, it's only them.

“Count sheep.” He whispers back.

"You can't sleep either.” He smiles. “Do you get nightmares and stuff?”

Sasuke is not going to answer that question at all. But he's sure the answer shows on his face.

“I get them too.” Naruto sighs, and his smile is gone. “About you.”

“What about me?” He can't help but ask.

“You're always dying.” He jostles the covers around a little. He might have just gotten a little closer. Sasuke can't be too sure. “You're always dying and I'm powerless. Every time… I wake up I don't  know if you’re okay, or if you…” His breath hitches. “We're hurt, or even alive.”

Sasuke feels guilt suddenly. Guilt that he's felt so rarely that it was easy for him to push it back down in the past. He’s hurt Naruto. Not on purpose, never on purpose. But through circumstance. Either he was trying to kill him or make him his very last priority. He's been horribly inconsistent with him and he's never regretted it more in this very moment. He doesn't want to hurt him anymore.

“When I started thinking about it too much… it was like  I couldn't breathe.” He scooted. Always closer. “I just can't believe that you're actually here with me…”

Sasuke was still silent. It was hard to talk back. Because he knew he would say something that he could never live down. It looked like Naruto was shaking. It looked like maybe it was happening now, given that Naruto's breathing seemed irregular.

“I'm sorry- I'm sorry I'll stop. Just- sorry.” And he's turning around and away from Sasuke.

Sasuke stops him. Pulls him closer. He was never one for words. Not really. He tugged at Naruto and pulled him to his chest. Naruto folded into him like it was the only thing he's ever really wanted from him.

Sasuke can't remember that last time he had a hug. A proper one. This felt like more than that. It pains him to think that he could have always had this. He's missed Naruto more than he ever though possible. Because No matter where he went, no matter the people he knew, no one would ever love him as much as Naruto. It was so unconditional, and even though it may have taken him forever, he's finally starting to understand why.

He feels a soft tremble and slight hitch of breath from Naruto.

“Are you crying?” He asks Naruto without ridicule.

“Yeah. Guess I am. A little.” Naruto laughs. He's never been more relieved in his life. Sasuke is here with him, alive and breathing and in his arms. He has his best friend back. He's never given up, but he never knew if his determination would reach a resolve. He didn't know if he would really be able to keep going, keep fighting, if Sasuke wasn't going to be  at the end of his road.

He is. He's here.

Sasuke holds him tight, pressing his chest against him, his only arm wrapped around him  completely. It feels nice to touch Naruto. For the first time in a long time he's touching him without hurting him. There's no intent to strike or burn or injure and it's so relieving that it's come to this.

“I'm not leaving.” Sasuke says in his ear. “Not this time.” There's a slight painful veer in in his soft tone. Naruto is dozing, but notices and huffs out a distressed breath.

He means it. Naruto almost doesn't believe what he hears. But the silence that follows is somehow reassuring. Sasuke's hand running softly though his hair, is all the convincing he needs.

It's still taking some getting used to. He doesn't know if he'll be able to touch him like this regularly without hesitation. But he feels like Naruto needs the comfort, and he has to start somewhere.

They fall asleep like that. Real sleep. The kind where they don't wake up with a cold sweat and a racing heart. The kind where in the morning, you don't want to get out of bed. The kind that Naruto hoped would come every night after this one.

As Naruto’s consciousness ebbs away he can't help but have his last thought be a troublesome one. The thought that Sasuke could disappear again is so real in his mind. But he saves it for later. Puts it off. He'll put a lot of things off if just to have this a little longer.

It's late. And while there's two scarred up and battle worn shinobi fast asleep under a blanket, Sakura is across the village knocking on the hokage’s office door.

She's antsy and impatient. The relief she thought she would feel when Sasuke returned home has slowly ebbed into anxious worry over the passing hours.

“Come in.” Comes a muffled voice from behind the door.

Sakura opens the door and strides over to Kakashi’s desk, taking a place in the chair in front of him.

He's trifling through paperwork, stacks and stacks of it. He lifts his gaze to regard her twisted expression.

"Stressed?" he asks her sarcastically.

She doesn't waste any time. “The tapes are broken at the Uchiha compound.” She says expectantly, waiting for him to answer.

"So they are.” He tufts. “You should've figured they would be.”

She makes a small humming sound.

"Don't worry.” He says, finally looking up at her properly. “He's with Naruto. He's living with him for now.”

It doesn't ease her thoughts.

“They'll kill each other.” She scoffs. “Sooner or later.” She doesn't like the way the words sound when they leave her mouth.

“Don't jinx it.” He says, like he isn't taking her seriously.

“How can you think this is a good idea?” She asks him incredulously, crossing her arms.

He puts his pen down and leans back in his seat.

“I'm the last person to baby anyone. You know that.”

She waits for him to continue, becoming more fidgety by the second. He has that tone like she's being excessive or ridiculous.

“He needs to heal. Make up for all the lost time. And most importantly find his purpose. He's in limbo right now. And We both know Naruto is more than capable of helping him get there.”

She sighs out frustrated. “I… Know. But it seems…”

“It seems like you're paranoid. And tired. So get some sleep and let me worry about the rest.”

She hates being cut off, but she could never argue with Kakashi. It's just not something she does. So she leaves his office trying to to convince herself that this is for the best.

It doesn't work.

#fanfiction #fic #sasunaru #narusasu #sns #mhhinyh #fanfic #sasuke #naruto #jeni

[akatsuki-no-tsuki]

Proposed Timeline for the Akatsuki

Alright, so I’ve had a bit of a nap since this- so it’s onto the promised part two~

The Akatsuki, according to everything I’ve ever been able to find on it, was supposedly founded after the Third Shinobi World War (which we have already established ended a maximum of 1 year before Naruto was born and was definitely over by the time Naruto was born). That basically gives us a general starting point for when it makes sense for the civil war in Amegakure to break out.

In my opinion (though it is certainly just a single possibility) I think Nagato spent the 3-4 years between Yahiko’s death and the war’s conclusion to hone his abilities as Pein (Pein as an entity was likely conceived more around the time of Yahiko’s death as Yahiko is one of the Pein bodies.) This time period gives Nagato a chance to adapt to his new way of life, develop his warped ideals into the new Akatsuki, gather the other five who would become part of his Six Paths of Pein, and perfect his usage of the abilities he unlocked. How much Obito is involved in this is a little questionable, but we do know from flashbacks and statements that Obito and Zetsu are involved with the Akatsuki from a very early point.

Basically, my personal theory is that within a time period of less than a year after the Third Shinobi World War (when Hanzō‘s forces would still be weakened from the war) Pein launched his civil war and effective take-over. How long this war lasted isn’t something I am too confident about, but I do believe Pein had won the civil war in Amegakure before the Akatsuki started operations. It makes more sense for Nagato and Konan to finish one war before preparing for the next and also offers Amegakure as a sort of base of operations for the Akatsuki to fall back onto. In addition, I think the potential protection of a country is something that adds to the Akatsuki’s appeal- If they planned to recruit criminals from the start then the promise of protection (despite not being from a major shinobi village) is something extremely valuable.

So then, the question begins: When did the Akatsuki form?

The furthest bookmark we have is when Orochimaru is stated to have left the Akatsuki 10 years ago during part 2. The problem isn’t so much that it makes no sense for Orochimaru to have been involved with the Akatsuki then (assuming the civil war in Amegakure was launched soon after the Third Shinobi World War concluded and was won not long afterwards, we have the Akatsuki potentially forming as early as the year Naruto was born, or six years prior to this date of Orochimaru supposedly leaving the Akatsuki. The problem with this time frame is rather the fact of Orochimaru leaving the Akatsuki as a result of his loss to Itachi.

With Itachi, we know his joining of the Akatsuki is linked to the killing of his clan. At the time Itachi was 13 years old, which places this event as 8 years before the Orochimaru statement was made. In order for Orochimaru to have left 10 years ago, and to have fought Itachi leading up to that point, Itachi would have been 11 years old at the time. Which um... Doesn’t make sense. Itachi’s backstory is something rather extensively known, so I am fairly confident in stating that the earliest Orochimaru could have left the Akatsuki is 8 years prior to that statement being made.

In Naruto “10 years” pretty much never means 10 years. It’s like a rough estimate for anything that happened in a period of time that was long enough to be history but recent enough not to be ancient. However, just for the sake of fun- What if that statement was meant to be more of an’ Orochimaru joined the Akatsuki 10 years ago? Assuming that ends up being a vaguely accurate statement (and knowing Orochimaru leaves Konoha at 1 year before Naruto’s birth at the earliest thanks to Minato having been installed as the fourth Hokage instead of him at some point prior to Orochimaru’s leaving) We get a bookmark of the Akatsuki being a thing 6 years after Naruto’s birth with Orochimaru leaving circa 8 years after Naruto’s birth. 

The other vague bookmark we are given in this direction is Sasori’s leaving of Sunagakure. He is stated in the beginning of Shippuden to have left Sunagakure 20 years ago- Which actually makes me realize a flaw in my age system...Naruto’s group is 15 at the start of Shippuden and if Sasori was 35 at the time of his death then he is actually closer to 20 years older than Naruto. This means Sasori left Suna around the time Naruto was born and the war had concluded. We can assume from a lot of things that Sasori was one of the first members recruited, but that doesn’t help narrow down the Akatsuki’s formation date much more than ‘after Naruto was born, but before Naruto was 6′.

Konan, Nagato, Zetsu, and Obito don’t have any good landmark points for this time period either... With Deidara all we know is that Itachi, Kisame, and Sasori were already members by the time he was recruited and Orochimaru had presumably left already as Deidara was to be his replacement. (Which, once again, doesn’t narrow things down much more than Deidara joining some point after/during the time Naruto was 8 years old). Hidan is pretty useless too since he is the last member to join the Akatsuki and depending on media referenanced potentially doesn’t even join the Akatsuki until after pre-shippuden. Kakuzu doesn’t offer much help either since he was imprisoned after fighting Hashirama who had died years before this Akatsuki was even an idea in Nagato’s head, and left Taki after escaping from that.

Which leaves our only hopeful marker (that I am aware of) as Kisame’s joining. Now this in itself is going to be problematic since he is recruited into the Akatsuki after killing Fuguki and taking Samehada- But I’m not sure how to place it... We know Yagura was the acting Mizukage at the time and that Obito had him under his control. Yagura’s rule was largely marked by the “bloody mist” but even pinpointing that is hard... In part one Kakashi states that Zabuza forced the bloody mist into an end 10 years ago (and remember that 10 years ago thing?) when he was still just a kid who hadn’t yet entered the academy himself. Problem is that Zabuza is 26 at the time this statement is made, so either Zabuza’s age is a mistake or 10 years was meant to mean 20. [Personally, I’m not sure which to give more credit to]. Soooo if we move on to Yagura himself- He was the three-tails Jinchuriki after Rin (supposedly) which would mean he was not a Jinchuriki until around the time the Third Shinobi World War concluded. Since extracting a Bijuu from a Jinchuriki results in their death, this is really the only time frame that works? If we assume the bloody mist era did, in fact, end around 10 years prior to part 1, then we get the rough estimate of the bloody mist coming to a close around the time Naruto is 2. Trying to narrow this down further, we know Ao recognized that Yagura was being controlled with the Byakugan he obtained during the Third Shinobi World war- Though I am not sure if we have any other details. So trying a different angle, Mei is seen as a marker of change for Kiri- Given that she, herself has kekkei genkais, she’d likely end the war on them. So in we usher Haku and Kimimaro- Haku is 3 years older than Naruto, while Kimimaro is (i believe) 2 (though it could possibly be 3 years as well, I don’t remember when the Chunin exam arc takes place). Haku and Kimimaro were both children when this kekkei genkai war was going on- And we know Orochimaru found Kimimaro while Zabuza found Haku... That means these events have to occur after Zabuza kills a graduating class but before Mei becomes Mizukage- And, it is also likely Orochimaru takes in Kimimaro prior to his own joining of the Akatsuki. Guessing Kimi might have been 5 when Orochimaru found him- That would give us the marker of around 3 years after Naruto was born. To give more wiggle room let’s go with Kimi being 8 and this marker being 6 - it still theoretically works with Orochimaru joining the Akatsuki around then. Essentially, we can narrow Kisame’s joining down to some point after the third shinobi world war and probably around the time Orochimaru possibly joined- (ugh. so much for that bloody mist end thing being helpful).

Basically all we know for sure from this:

* Nagato, under the alias of Pein, launches a civil war in Amegakure after the Third Shinobi World War 

* This war is won some time between the war’s conclusion (12 years before the series’ start) and when the Akatsuki is formed.

* The Akatsuki’s exact start-up date is unknown. Nagato and Konan were members from the previous Akatsuki, with Obito and Zetsu essentially supporting and sparking the new one (The Akatsuki, to this extent, could have potentially formed before or during the Amegakure civil war).

* Going off of rough estimates, Orochimaru and Kisame might have joined the Akatsuki around 6 years prior to the start of the series- Sasori and Kakuzu, who had left their villages years prior to this point, were also likely recruited around this time. (There is circumstantial evidence (such as Kakuzu not being present at Deidara’s recruitment, and non-manga media not showing him in most early-Akatsuki flashbacks) however, to make Kakuzu’s joining date closer to that of Deidara’s.

* If nothing else is true, we know that Itachi joined the Akatsuki 8 years prior to the start of the series.

* Orochimaru gets into a conflict with Itachi and leaves the Akatsuki at some point after Itachi joins, assuming this is somewhat immediate, he leaves 8 years prior to the start of the series. Orochimaru’s leaving means he needs to be replaced and Deidara is recruited (8 years prior to the start of series at the earliest) 

* Kakuzu has numerous partners before Hidan, and Hidan is mentioned to be the newest member of the Akatsuki during Shippuden- Manga canon potentially indicates that Hidan was not a member until during the gap between part one and part two, but even if this is not the case he is recruited at some point during or after 8 years prior to the start of the series at the earliest.

* The start of the Akatsuki was likely rather hush hush, it was probably not until a full 10 member list (or 9, rather, with Orochimaru leaving) was created that the Akatsuki made enough moves to be noticable, making this time frame approximately 8 or so years before the series starts.

* By the series start, they are well-known enough for rumors to be circulating about them; by the start of Shippuden their existence is practically common knowledge.