(2/3) I want to say that Shikako is a Xatu?? Psychic type, sees the future. (It also “eyes the sun’s movement” a lot) I’m torn between that and Azelf (the latter can learn explosion! woa) And Ino is totally a Florges or Milotic! No questions there aha. Sakura’s a shiny Lopunny who goes into Mega-form when doing her super strength! aaaa it’s so much fun to play in your pokemon!au. Hope you don’t mind that I’m just rambling all over the place. (> v <)
(3/3) I guess my ideas isn’t really “if they were a pokemon, what ‘mon would they be.’ Rather, it’s what fits them best? Like, sure ninetales = kurama, and fire-types can be just as spunky and exuberant, but ninetales is a wise, mystical, almost deity-like pokemon, and that doesn’t really fit Naruto’s character. Ampharos might be a bit of a stretch, but I find their type & special characteristics to be more appropriate, yea?
No worries, anon, ranting about Dreaming of Sunshine and Pokemon is one of my favorite things 😉
The Pokemon teams in my AU were more representative of the characters’ abilities than their personalities, so I never really thought about it. I mean, the clan kids have their “clan Pokemon” of Sawsbuck and Politoed and Talonflame, etc. etc., but I suppose as Pokemon themselves it’d be different.
Like the difference between the normal Pokemon games and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, I guess?
At the same time, though, I do like the idea of them being their clan Pokemon and just having different personalities. Like, Shikamaru and Shikako are both Deerling, but Shikako is super adventurous while Shikamaru’s just… nah, I’m gonna chill here. And then whenever someone is exasperated with him they’d be like “Are you a Deerling or are you a Slakoth?”
Although Ino as a Grumpig doesn’t work so well, even though that is what I have as the Yamanaka clan Pokemon. Maybe a Delcatty? She never really had a Feebas phase, so probably not a Milotic… Unless she’s just the most fabulous Grumpig that every lived.
And I figure Sakura would probably be within the Chansey line given they’re healing and the super powerful physical attacks…
But, yeah, I haven’t really thought about making them Pokemon. It’s an interesting idea, anon!
Thanks! I’ll try to check it out–I just linked the newer googledoc index page over @dosbysilverqueen but it appears to be requiring permission now? Or is my link wrong? It worked a few days ago… T_T
A/N: Hm… I kinda want to both brainstorm and write a ficlet for this prompt, because the idea is very lovely (as per usual, dona) but the brainstorm I have is different than the ficlet I want to write?
Like the ficlet is just a straight up narrative prose exploring the idea of some Nara children being changelings and why their clan are the exception, etc. etc. Whereas the brainstorm is a more expansive plotty thing about how having a changeling character would affect the story.
Hm, I guess they’re not necessarily exclusive to each other so let’s do both… ficlet first!
~
To say that the Shodaime Hokage created the forests around what would become the sight of Konohagakure is an exaggeration at best and an outright lie at worst.
It’s true that the Hashirama trees are the first type that villagers learn to identify as children–prevalent in most parks and training grounds, a protective ring around the walls–but the forest itself is far older than that; far greater.
Far less human.
///
Yoshino is in labor for a grueling forty six hours–more blood, sweat, and tears than even the worst battle–but she knows it’ll be worth it, prays to every god she can think of that it’ll be worth it.
When finally it’s done, that last exhausting push, she can barely catch her breath, barely stay awake, and yet she claws at consciousness desperately.
Why is there only one baby crying?
///
The Nara clan live close to the earth: their herds and their trees and theirs shadows upon the ground. They are intelligent, taking their own time and space, and for that they are looked upon fondly.
Most of the time, that’s a good thing.
///
There is a tree, deep within the Nara clan compound, old and gnarled and kept secret.
In that tree, there is a hollow, cleaned monthly but left empty.
Tonight, with Kasuga and Sembei at his back, Shikaku places the small, shrouded bundle inside.
///
It has been a long time since the Nara clan were given a gift from the other side.
An honor and risk, both.
The rest of the village has no idea what they’re in for.
—
OKAY! So, now it’s brainstorm time.
I made it vague because I wasn’t sure if, because you specified Shikamaru, you wanted him to be the changeling or if you wanted his POV of changeling!Shikako… or, I guess, now that I think of it, if you even wanted DoS? Whoops.
Anyway! The ficlet above would be the prequel basically laying down the groundwork of your prompt for a much larger story. What that story is, I’m not entirely sure…
Actually, I’m thinking something like Danzo has somehow gotten to the other side and that’s where a lot of his ROOT soldiers are from–changeling children that weren’t so blessed to be placed with the Nara clan, which sort of explains the affinity Shikako has with Sai, etc. etc–and the Fae kind of point Shikako in that direction and just, go wild, dispense our wrath…
… but I’m worried I’m focusing too much on Danzo as the big bad. I mean, the Fae could also be GREATLY DISPLEASED with the giant evil bijuu eating statue and that’s another task the whispers in Shikako’s mind point her towards.
I do like the idea that while the Nara are the only ones who get changeling children as a sort of active, deliberate exchange, there are other places (including outside of Konoha) where changeling children appear where there isn’t any established and known protocols for it. And so, like how Naruto has his not-so-secret society of jinchuuriki, Shikako has a slightly-more-secret society of changelings.
Sai is one, definitely. I’m thinking also Juugo? And maaybe Isaribi to incorporate her more into the story… I don’t think there’d be any overlaps in changelings and jinchuuriki (the only exception might be Sora at the Fire Temple who is only a partial jinchuuriki or something like that?)
Hm…
I mean, this would be in Shikamaru’s POV so as to match your prompt and also him as an outsider but close observer of this phenomenon would lend itself well into the whole–changelings LOOK human, but they aren’t, kind of thing. Yes, they’re mostly taught how to interact in a socially acceptable way, but they’re still Other.
Actually, now I wonder if even the bijuu are a little scared of the Fae (and, by association, the changelings) because chakra is a relatively new power in the world. The bijuu aren’t that old in comparison to the Fae. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FURTHER 😀
Awesome! A brainstorm AND a ficlet! I love this so much- I totally hadn’t thought about the ROOT thing. …Man, the Fae could be PISSED about that. And …not concerned, but irritated at the instruction of the Juno. Yes, irritated. (Your suggestion also now has me wondering about the au of this au, where Shikamaru finds out HE’s the changeling. Oooh.) But I love the Shikako-Sai connection you did there. And for some reason I am thinking about the logistics of hiding this from the hospital. (Either the Nara blatantly take over that wing of the hospital, or Tsunade is left affronted that the Nara never go to the hospital for childbirth. Which makes one wonder if other clans try to take over one aspect of village administration/services in order to conceal/uphold their dealings with the Fae.)
…Wow, imagine if BOTH twins were Fae. Brings the ‘and one looks like the mother and one looks like the father’ to a whole new creepy level, right? Some Fae thing they do so that the babies blend in- maybe it involves a blood sacrifice from the parents. Or- no. Just the little bundle at the root of the tree. That’s enough to work with.
I think it makes more sense if Shikako alone is the Fae, though. Does she even know it? Maybe not. She tries very hard to be ‘normal,’ for a chageling.
…I kind of wonder if Orochimaru was a changeling. And maybe that was what got Danzo interested in them.
Shikamaru as the changeling would be absolutely fascinating. Because Shikako is the “weird” one as compared to Shikamaru who is very traditionally Nara. But is he really? Or, rather, what is it to be Nara as compared to Fae?
After all, they do have the favor of the Fae, have had previously received changeling children as a gift. Perhaps it’s because they’re so similar?
There’s a post going around about how changeling children from the past were most likely autistic children which society at the time couldn’t put into any other words but having been swapped with a Fae child. And, well, the Nara are very… hm… the new Maori word for autism is “his or her own time and space” which I feel does describe the Nara clan as a whole.
They let their members grow as they feel, don’t push them to think one way or another, they’re very supportive when a member finds their calling, used to members switching between hyper-focus and scattered distraction. Cloud watching could very well be a way to reduce stimuli…
I think there are probably enough Nara who work in the hospital that whenever one is pregnant and giving birth, it’s not at all difficult to swap Nara nurses and medics into the delivery. Especially when it’s the clan head’s wife giving birth? It wouldn’t at all be suspicious for any Nara hospital staff to involve themselves in such a clan critical pregnancy, so then it wouldn’t be necessary to take over the maternity ward (just borrow it, for a little while).
Ooh, Orochimaru as a changeling… that makes a lot of sense, actually! Unfortunately for him, the Nara clan head at the time of his childhood hadn’t been as observant, or perhaps thought the stillborns for changelings swap was a myth, or was very clannish and didn’t consider it his responsibility to help. And it would, as you said, give an interesting spin on his relationship with Danzo and also his defection from Akatsuki. He’s definitely a Dark Fae, or a Fallen Fae, or whatever the terminology might be for a changeling that has broken so many Rules that the Fae no longer claim him as their own. Although maybe he redeems himself in their eyes (which explains better why he’s still walking around doing whatever he wants in Boruto)?
I’m a little hesitant about Gaara being a changeling as well as a jinchuuriki… maybe he’s of Fae descent? Like, Karura could’ve been a changeling… which explains why she died in childbirth (the bijuu chakra sealed into the as of yet unborn Gaara seeped into her own system, weakening her) but also how she was able to imbue her protection/love into his sand even after her death. And how cool would it be if that’s where Temari’s EXTREME WIND BADASSERY came from?
Shikaku is a very tolerant father, I feel like. Or, rather, accepting the fact that his clan has a weird trading system with the Fae means he’s just a very tolerant, not-easily-shaken man.
😀 Thank you! I’ve been considering doing it for a while, but hadn’t taken the plunge until recently.
Part of it is a belated birthday gift to myself (postponed due to my sister’s wedding), part a reward for the Love Edition script, and part quarter life crisis?
I did originally posit Butterfree instead of Beautifly, though, because I have a soft spot for the classics and also I was concerned about Wurmple’s whole… “it might turn into a Beautifly but it might turn into a Dustox instead” and there’s no real way to control that on a massive scale which the Akimichi would want to since the Butterfree is their clan Pokemon.
Just got home from traveling, anon, so I appreciate this ask as a quick post for today. Also, thank you! I’m oddly proud of the DoS Pokemon ‘verse even if it’s mostly ranting and brainstorms.
Team Eight I have some ideas for, but not as concrete as Team Seven or Team Ten (given the “screen time” for those two teams are way more than the others) so the following are pretty quick and less specific than those ones… [[will maybe add more detailed reasoning later?]]
Hinata:
Kirlia (to become a Gardevoir–the Hyuuga clan Pokemon are Ralts and are generally trained towards becoming Gallade)
Whismur
Buneary
Litleo
Audino
Togepi
–
Shino:
Ninjask (and Shedinja)
Pinsir
Volbeat
Kricketune
Scyther
Heracross
–
Kiba:
Lycanroc (as Akamaru, particularly Midnight Form as the equivalent of when he eats soldier pills) … but after that I don’t really know since I gave Kakashi the all dog team… I guess if I could break down Kiba and Akamaru’s attacks/abilities into Pokemon equivalents?
This kinda harkens to this fake fic summary in which Shikako simultaneously lives four distinct lives and only her choices are what make them different. So in All You Have to Do (Is Stay), there is a reality which is DoS(ish), one which is her getting overly involved from the beginning (probably ending up with her on a very stressful genin team with Kabuto), one which she takes a half step back and doesn’t want to mess with canon so she gets a team with “extras” (Team Medic!AU!AU), and one in which she goes AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE and joins the Fire Temple monks.
Monk!Shikako is maybe most like what you’re describing, I think. Except in your version, instead of Shikako knowing about the different AUs (because she lives them all) they are all discrete realities and it’s other people who travel across and find her. Which would be pretty appealing as a story, anon.
I feel like, though, that even if she tries to avoid the plot it still finds her somehow. Like, I mean, at the Fire Temple, maybe she and Sora (who is basically a Naruto-Sasuke fusion) become reluctant friends and together they do extracurricular training in trying to control his pseudo-jinchuuriki status, which may or may not help out when Akatsuki comes around? I don’t know.
And I’m also not sure much attachment Fire Temple monks are allowed to have. They’re obviously not the “enlightenment comes from total isolation” but I’m also not sure if, for example, by joining the temple Shikako had to forfeit her Nara status. Most likely she did have to forfeit any claim to heiress (and maybe some cruel and politically inclined rumors suspect that Shikaku deliberately sent his chakra hypersensitive child to the temple so that would be the case) but perhaps she does get to keep some attachment to her family. Even then, she’s probably not the first Nara to join the temple (maybe full time, yes, but Chiriku didn’t seem at all confused by her request for the month-long sabbatical).
What I’m saying is, I wonder if she’s allowed to visit Konoha and accidentally get involved with the plot despite her efforts. Like… since Chiriku used to be part of the Twelve Guardian Ninja–even though that particular organization did not end well–maybe he’s training Shikako to be his successor?
And so she is tasked with “lower risk” guard duty of the Fire Daimyo’s family members–I mean, the Fire Lady canonically hires Konoha genin to catch Tora frequently enough that everyone hates it–or brought along as Chiriku’s apprentice to protect the royal retinue during the Konoha Chuunin Exams. And look how that ended up.
While I do enjoy the imagery and, no doubt, absolute terror that would invoke, I’m not sure it’s something Shikako would want to do given her canonical dislike of bugs and a more general concern about stinging insects inside her body.
Also, pretty sure you can’t store living things in seals?
But you know who IS a bug-based kunoichi who is cute enough that swarm of insects coming out of her mouth would be horrifying and cripplingly effective? Chiyako.
And since, well, I kinda like the idea of her being a more combat Aburame than Shino (whose hive is more tracking/intel gathering) swarms of bees/wasps would be preeeetty great for her.
Other things being shot out of Shikako’s mouth at high speeds would be pretty fun. Never mind the fact that she could do a human Water Gun (in the Pokemon sense) if she tweaks the speed and pressure of the canonical water seals, just her shooting out random food at her enemy (if, for example, her arms are tied so she can’t do any jutsu, she’d just shoot out, like, ration bars and bewilder her opponents). Smoke would be fairly effective for a similar reason, if she can figure out how to harvest enough for a seal, and that way she can turn into her shadow form without anyone seeing.
I got several grown up coloring books from various relatives and because I enjoy making things more difficult for myself even though I am incredibly lazy I decided that, instead of just coloring them with some very nice color pencils, to embroider them.
JackSGreyson Says 