Tag: brainstorm

if you could choose anyone from your gem au to become a permafusion, who would it be?

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

The problem is, the Earth bound Team Seven gems are only two (and a half), and while there are the extended Team Seven gems that join them later, none of them really fit as a permafusion to me.

On Home world, though, whatever type of gems Kotetsu and Izumo are–they’d be a permafusion if they could be (maybe the Home world culture is different regarding non-matching fusions, or maybe Kotetsu and Izumo are the same gem type…)

~

@kuipernebula: As a random suggestion (I haven’t followed this AU though, so sorry if this is covered) but Sakura could be a permafusion, with pre-time-skip!Sakura and Inner!Sakura as her two component gems.
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Ooh! Good point, kuiper… I do have Sakura as a gem (instead of human like most of the Konoha Twelve), more specifically Morganite (because it’s light pink and is connected with healing and such) but maybe instead Sakura is a permafusion Beryl and her two component gems are Morganite and one of the other Beryl types (I’m thinking Bixbite, Heliodor, or Aquamarine)?

“delicacy in layers”, friendship is a mutual con verse, dos!! have fun writing and thanks for doing the prompt!! (i do hope the ask got sent)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Because Friendship Is A (Mutual) Con ‘verse is so heavily based on Leverage [which, again, I cannot recommend more highly. It’s on both Hulu and Netflix] this would have to be another one of those intricate, wheels within wheels, Rube Goldberg-esque heists where each part of the mission is steadily foiled but it turns out that success actually relies on being caught somehow. But because I am not as skilled a writers as the writing team from the show, I don’t what exactly that would be.

It would be grifter centric, which means its probably Kakashi centric because of all of the members of extended Team Seven he’s the only one who canonically grifted someone (though Sukea is a filler episode/omake).

Then again, Naruto’s oft forgotten flare for henge would make him a good grifter, too… They probably all overlap in roles eventually, but to start off with probably Kakashi is their main grifter (and he is the man of many masks so…)

Or maybe it’s about a grifting-heavy mission. All the different ways the team members successfully (or not) grift.

I’m also getting very strong kimono vibes. Like the fancy multi-layered kind that nobility wear which kind of harkens to this post but doesn’t necessarily require it so…

I have a feeling that this is an Uchiha related mission, probably Itachi but possibly Madara/Obito instead, and Sasuke’s “grift” is “himself but not a criminal” so… or maybe that’s one of the complications? Like, Sasuke’s “role” is “Uchiha heir” but then Itachi shows up and that puts his “cover” in danger because Itachi wasn’t supposed to be here and now they’re in danger of the mark catching wind that there are two Uchiha heirs running around. (And Itachi is not a criminal in this AU, but he’s definitely not as unaware as Sasuke probably hopes).

Yeah, that feels better.

I also want to involve Kurenai somehow because layers invokes genjutsu so maybe it’s something like:

Kurenai, a famous actress, is marrying Asuma, the son of a highly ranked politician, but someone is trying to interfere with the happy couple via blackmail or something and it’s Team Seven’s mission to find/destroy the evidence that is being used to blackmail and also make sure the wedding stays on track?

Maybe this is a mission as a favor/wedding gift to Asuma? Like, Asuma doesn’t quite know about Team Seven’s criminal inclinations, but he knows something is worrying Kurenai and he mentions it to Kakashi (who had awkwardly opted out of being Best Man–it’s Gai, btw) who is like. I can do this thing for my friend.

Yeah! I am really liking this now 😀

Anyway here’s the summary (short to match the Seven Deadly Sins installment):

Delicacy In Layers

All relationships have complications. Team Seven is proof of that.

I feel like, in Remember to Sleep, Sasuke would be a good choice for the “does cybernetics make you less human” question, where the tropes about getting cybernetics make you less empathetic and more evil come into play. Especially with the “family madness” that comes with the Uchiha Sharingan and Mangekyou stuff. Especially since Sasuke seems like a generally good person, before the curse seal and the desire for the Mangekyou sort of screw him up in a major way.

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

donapoetrypassion:

jacksgreysays:

anonymous: Oh, I love the Reminder to dream verse! What about kakashi in that AU? and does Shikako ever create robots or AI?

Yeah, that sounds about right. There’s a lot of “the human brain isn’t designed to do this” in regards to the Sharingan, and their clan history is full of… dubious self/family-experimentation. (I think the Byakugan’s a little different, mostly because the Hyuuga probably have satellites which their Byakugan link to as opposed to the Sharingan which is entirely self-contained).

Ooh, Kakashi. I actually think he’s a private detective–he thinks he’s Noir-esque, but really he’s kind of just like in canon where he’s a walking disaster of a human being. I don’t think he has the Sharingan, per se, but Obito might have given him something LIKE the Sharingan? Or only one part of the overly engineered cybernetic amalgamation that is the Sharingan. Which is still enough to get some of the neat tricks, with a significant decrease in the mental problems.

Also, I like the idea that while he’s frequently on really tawdry or minor jobs (find my cat, is my spouse cheating on me, etc. etc.) he became a private detective in order to figure out the truth of what happened to the Uzumaki-Namikaze family. Which puts him on track to enter the story since, hey, there’s an android that maybe looks like your dead teacher. And that might also draw in Sasuke into the story since I imagine the Uchiha keep an eye on Kakashi (but so long as he’s seen as a frumpy string bean no one really thinks he’s a threat) so they tend to assign it to the rookie. Which is obviously Sasuke in this case.

If Shikako does make robots/AI, they’re probably the deer summons. Or she names her security system Heijomaru, she has the equivalent of a Roomba named Nagaoka, and Gemmei is her own coding language? I’m not sure.

I’m imagining a slightly backstory for AI!Nagaoka…. So, Shikako’s condition is pretty rare. And many safety features for children (access to the updated city map, the emergency alert system, the bus passes, signals to change the light at a crosswalk, FIND MOM apps) are activated via cybertech/ a simple signal from your Basic implants… which Shikako doesn’t HAVE. Has never had. Sure, there were workarounds (although the easiest thing was to just have Shikamaru or Ino do all that for her).

But maybe smol!Shikako (early middle school, maybe?) built Nagaoka as her ‘seeing eye deer’, to help her out when she’s using public transportation and not privately arranged (and thus, very expensive) transportation. Maybe she doesn’t really need Nagaoka now so much, but keeps him around anyway? His AI was excellently designed considering the age of his creator, but he’s very much a ‘young child’ AI, albeit one more responsible than most because of the ‘handicap accessibility’ aspects of his programming.

I’m wondering what kind of arrangements had to be made for Shikako’s schooling.

(And also wondering how Shikamaru’s arm ties into her not going home for a while.) Thing is, RIGHT after the accident, I think she stayed close. She worked on his arm; maybe even deferred most of her other projects. Then… oh.

Then there was another accident.

She doesn’t mention the details to her family, of course. No need to worry anyone. It wasn’t public- it was in the labs, at night.

She was fine, anyway- she’d left the building and forgotten to register herself as leaving.

And it doesn’t seem to twig anyone’s attention as a suspicious thing. Lab accidents in their school happen; they work with dangerous stuff, sometimes.

A shame it destroyed most of her work in the lab; bad timing, too, with that virus that was in the school servers.

With a normal researcher, or course it would have been nothing to recreate the project despite that- but Shikako had to tearfully admit that she doesn’t have the kind of cybernetic-assisted immediate -notetaking that would allow her to recreate her work on the Gelel project the way someone else would.

(And her work on the project had been better than anyone else assigned to the study, although once or twice her equipment had picked up too much- more than the top-large proto-AI the team was studying. Other signals. (…One in particular, oddly bifurcated. Like glass it was, clear and true, speared the yeah no AI she’s seen had been separated.)

Not quite a lie- Shikako would have to recreate her project solely using her brain and her (downright primeval) handwritten coded notebook, which is definitely not the way “someone else would” do it.

It is not the first time Shikako uses her handicap to her advantage, nor the first time people assume an inability to use cybernetics somehow make her a less reliable scientist. But it kind of hurts to have it work.

She distances herself from her family afterwards- just a bit, just in case it wasn’t enough and she still looks like a threat-

And, well.

It’s after that she finds Naruto.

Ack, now Nagaoka Feels™?!?! Dona, please. It’s too cute.

Was Nagaoka’s processor/drive on a bracelet? And then, in solidarity, Ino and Sakura also wore bracelets (and because Ino did it, it became fashionable, so everyone wanted bracelets and to this day its still something that middle school girls do).

In regards to schooling arrangements, I myself am wondering what Lee’s inability to use chakra is translated to in this ‘verse, how it differs from Shikako’s “hypersensitivity,” and what the school had to arrange for him…

Ooh, what IS Gelel in this ‘verse? (And for that matter, what is Jashin? O_O)

I feel like, in Remember to Sleep, Sasuke would be a good choice for the “does cybernetics make you less human” question, where the tropes about getting cybernetics make you less empathetic and more evil come into play. Especially with the “family madness” that comes with the Uchiha Sharingan and Mangekyou stuff. Especially since Sasuke seems like a generally good person, before the curse seal and the desire for the Mangekyou sort of screw him up in a major way.

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

anonymous: Oh, I love the Reminder to dream verse! What about kakashi in that AU? and does Shikako ever create robots or AI?

Yeah, that sounds about right. There’s a lot of “the human brain isn’t designed to do this” in regards to the Sharingan, and their clan history is full of… dubious self/family-experimentation. (I think the Byakugan’s a little different, mostly because the Hyuuga probably have satellites which their Byakugan link to as opposed to the Sharingan which is entirely self-contained).

Ooh, Kakashi. I actually think he’s a private detective–he thinks he’s Noir-esque, but really he’s kind of just like in canon where he’s a walking disaster of a human being. I don’t think he has the Sharingan, per se, but Obito might have given him something LIKE the Sharingan? Or only one part of the overly engineered cybernetic amalgamation that is the Sharingan. Which is still enough to get some of the neat tricks, with a significant decrease in the mental problems.

Also, I like the idea that while he’s frequently on really tawdry or minor jobs (find my cat, is my spouse cheating on me, etc. etc.) he became a private detective in order to figure out the truth of what happened to the Uzumaki-Namikaze family. Which puts him on track to enter the story since, hey, there’s an android that maybe looks like your dead teacher. And that might also draw in Sasuke into the story since I imagine the Uchiha keep an eye on Kakashi (but so long as he’s seen as a frumpy string bean no one really thinks he’s a threat) so they tend to assign it to the rookie. Which is obviously Sasuke in this case.

If Shikako does make robots/AI, they’re probably the deer summons. Or she names her security system Heijomaru, she has the equivalent of a Roomba named Nagaoka, and Gemmei is her own coding language? I’m not sure.

So in the reminder to dream au what would have happened to his parents lab? Attacked by the corrupt police with Kurama? Oh maybe the tailed beasts are actually part of an ancient entity that the police stumbled upon and had put a piece in an Android to try and control. The one they used to attack Naruto’s parents escaped so they uploaded it along with Naruto?

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

donapoetrypassion:

Ooh… maybe the Hyuuga own this universe’s equivalent of Google Map (and related apps)? Mapping and visual technology in general.

Maybe the Aburame cornered the market on robotic substitutes for pollinating insects (and have special preserves where they keep the endangered species called ‘bees’ alive).
I’m trying to think of a non-creepy Yamanaka specialty- something that fits them having a happy, cheery public face of a company, with the potential for some darker applications.

And ‘forensic scent analysis’ might have been my first thought for Inuzaka, but it alone just doesn’t seem to FIT them as a clan. Maybe they help dogs adjust to prosthetics and cyber implants? Vetinary cyber implants with a side specialty in scent implants?

Did I mention how much I love your headcanons of Shikako not being able to tolerate any implants at all- not even an ID chip. (Hey, maybe that’s part of the reason she needs Naruto for some things. Most ports to the ‘net aren’t ‘handicap accessible.’ And not just those. For security reasons, some DOORWAYS don’t even accept outside-the-body identification chips- not without Shikako having to use the equivalent of an intercom and going through some extra steps.

Maybe, in addition to Shikako’s guilt over Shikamaru’s arm, Shikamaru is feeling newly overprotective of Shikako due to this incident. (Maybe it wasn’t a fan who attacked so much as it was a -rather unhinged- attempt at corporate sabotage. And maybe, like DOS, Shikamaru is overprotective in a way that causes some problems with their relationship.

(Shikamaru has lived with his-sister-living-with-her-handicap for most of his life. He never considered it a big deal until his accident, when he looked between his bionic arm and her flesh one and realized… SHE wouldn’t have been able to get a replacement. She would have been stuck with only one hand. Forever. And worse- what if it hadn’t been her arm that was injured? What if it had been her eyes, or her lungs, or her heart? He could lose her. So very easily.)

jacksgreysays:

@donapoetrypassion’s questions:
(I’m just gonna float some ideas/questions your ways as they occur to me): Shikamaru has a new cybernetic arm- in this verse, how did he lose his flesh one?

Does Shikako’s hypersensitivity diagnosis have an in-universe equivalent?

Oooh… Danzo’s stolen mind-control eye… in a universe where so much runs on robotics and (presumably) many people have robotic limbs…

If the word ‘enslaved’ possibly applies to Naruto, what word applies to this world’s equivalent of Sai? And why?

Shikako seems like an adult with a job- that do the other Konoha 12 do?

(Does the internet affect what kind of shogi/strategy games Shikamaru plays? Who he plays? Are there competitions? Is he a professional shogi player who doesn’t actually need an income from another kind of job?)

(As you can see, I took that invitation and ran with it. I’ll stop bugging you now, though.)

Oh wow, okay, I totally asked for this and I’m grateful for the questions, so let me just wade through these first… (Also, dona, your questions are in no way bugging me. Actually your questions almost always make me contemplate deeper ramifications for my AUs, so thanks!)

I’m still not entirely sure what happened to Naruto’s parents exactly, but I do think they were probably working on something to do with the Kyuubi. The problem is I don’t know what it is exactly, either, beyond something like a… sentient “nature-made” AI. Like… something on the scope of the internet. Or The Machine from Person of Interest. A sort of cybernetic eldritch horror that lives in machines and consumes code… so maybe the bijuu are a virus?

Um, yeah. So whatever Kyuubi is, the Uchiha probably had some kind of secret epic code to control it and the Kyuubi in turn took over the lab Naruto’s parents were working in?

Maybe they were working on putting the Kyuubi in a robot body so it could properly “live” except the Uchiha found out about it, wanted the Kyuubi robot, tried to buy it from Naruto’s parents, and ended up just taking it by force. Leading to the deaths of the Namikaze-Uzumaki family. (Unsure if I also want Naruto to have physically died but been uploaded into the robot body along with the Kyuubi, or if he’s still alive but doesn’t know it and his body has some kind of uplink connecting him with the Kyuubi robot body).

Shikamaru probably lost his flesh arm in an incident involving Shikako. I’m thinking something like… a tech expo and an overzealous rival/fan attacked her? But then Shikamaru got on the way and so there’s still guilt on Shikako’s end, as per canon–maybe this was pretty recent and the reason why she hasn’t gone home for family dinners in a while?

Shikako’s hypersensitivity diagnosis… it might be that she can’t have any cybernetic implants/mods. I know in cyberpunk universes, nearly everyone is modded to some extent, so the people who aren’t are unusual for some reason. Everyone has a ID chip, at the very least, but Shikako doesn’t even have that? (Which does make it a little ironic that she’s a genius with cybernetics)

Yup. Danzo’s got a Sharingan. I think in this AU the Uchiha clan are still alive, but Danzo might have stolen more the design for the Sharingan than actually plucking out Shisui’s eyeball. Then again, that imagery is gruesome enough to fit him.

“Enslaved” does also fit Sai, though perhaps it’s more… oh no… “groomed.” Danzo’s ROOT are actually human, but they have an implant that basically lets him wipe their memories and such and turn them into meat puppets.

All of the Konoha Twelve? I guess it depends mostly on what the clans would be in this ‘verse… except for Sakura who is, like in canon, a doctor/medic, TenTen who is also an mechanical engineer (though not so much cybernetics), and Lee who… what does Gai do?

As for the clans, they are probably like companies (or yakuza crime families) in the sense that the clan as a whole runs a business and the clan heads/heirs are probably the CEOs/training to be CEOs or are major shareholders who CAN live off the company but decide to work anyway. So for example, the Nara clan is probably a huge pharmaceuticals company (beginning to branch into cybernetics due to Shikako) but Shikamaru is also a professional shogi player.

Hm… what do the other clans do?

@panegyricwilliwaw: The Akimichi run high density hydroponic farms that supply food in cities

I always figured that the Akimichi were probably the wealthiest of the clans, so them having farms and a monopoly of the food supply matches. Like, if the Akimichi were even vaguely evil, it’d be so concerning, but since they’re not (OR ARE THEY?!) no one really minds.

Ooh, I like the Hyuuga one. I was trying to figure out how to make their Byakugan different from the Sharingan so that works really well! Sharingan can control cybernetics/robotics/code(?) but the Byakugan is mostly about AR and mapping–so the foundation of their abilities aren’t from their eyes so much as it is from a satellite (and since the Uchiha can’t see the satellite without becoming astronauts, the Byakugan is immune to the Sharingan?)

The Aburame are nanotech, I think, more than literal robot bugs. Which is similar enough to the Nara clan’s specialty that they don’t really have many dealings with each other, but different enough that they aren’t direct rivals. Or maybe they’re programmers for information hives?

Alternatively, it might be the Inuzuka that do AI. So probably the most advanced AI (barring whatever the bijuu are) aren’t sentient, but they designed around people. Distinct, but complementary. Maybe as a show of faith/training, all Inuzuka kids are raised alongside a learning AI which is their respective ninken. I do also like veterinary cyber implants, though.

Ooh, yeah, the Yamanaka. They have to edge that line of creepy yet fabulous. But there’s also the urge to match their specialty with the Akimichi food monopoly and the Nara pharmaceuticals (and cybernetics) so that their clans are still the perfect trio… That’s tough. Hrm… Unless they’re all “cyber security” and frequently jump between white and black hat hackers. Or maybe they have something to do with the ID chips… I suppose it depends on how extensive the level of cybernetics is in this ‘verse. I’m not saying they can go full on master puppeteer with other people via their ID chips, but I’m also not NOT saying that they’re the only ones who can break into the encryption on the ID chips so…

The idea of a “null” in cyberpunk or fantasy AUs have always appealed to me to some extent. Especially when a character’s lack of cybernetics or magic turns out to be useful in the future. Like they have no magic, so much so that they create an anti-magic field around themselves. Or because Shikako has no cybernetics whatsoever she can sneak into a highly secure place that scans for intruders via ID chips, which are always on so long as the person is alive, so to come security systems Shikako doesn’t even register.

Early on they probably do use the ruse that Naruto is Shikako’s “guide robot” when Naruto wants to go out and see the world and Shikako’s super paranoid that whoever Naruto ran away from would come looking for him.

Nara Twin Feels™ T_T why you gotta play me like this, dona?

So in the reminder to dream au what would have happened to his parents lab? Attacked by the corrupt police with Kurama? Oh maybe the tailed beasts are actually part of an ancient entity that the police stumbled upon and had put a piece in an Android to try and control. The one they used to attack Naruto’s parents escaped so they uploaded it along with Naruto?

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

@donapoetrypassion’s questions:
(I’m just gonna float some ideas/questions your ways as they occur to me): Shikamaru has a new cybernetic arm- in this verse, how did he lose his flesh one?

Does Shikako’s hypersensitivity diagnosis have an in-universe equivalent?

Oooh… Danzo’s stolen mind-control eye… in a universe where so much runs on robotics and (presumably) many people have robotic limbs…

If the word ‘enslaved’ possibly applies to Naruto, what word applies to this world’s equivalent of Sai? And why?

Shikako seems like an adult with a job- that do the other Konoha 12 do?

(Does the internet affect what kind of shogi/strategy games Shikamaru plays? Who he plays? Are there competitions? Is he a professional shogi player who doesn’t actually need an income from another kind of job?)

(As you can see, I took that invitation and ran with it. I’ll stop bugging you now, though.)

Oh wow, okay, I totally asked for this and I’m grateful for the questions, so let me just wade through these first… (Also, dona, your questions are in no way bugging me. Actually your questions almost always make me contemplate deeper ramifications for my AUs, so thanks!)

I’m still not entirely sure what happened to Naruto’s parents exactly, but I do think they were probably working on something to do with the Kyuubi. The problem is I don’t know what it is exactly, either, beyond something like a… sentient “nature-made” AI. Like… something on the scope of the internet. Or The Machine from Person of Interest. A sort of cybernetic eldritch horror that lives in machines and consumes code… so maybe the bijuu are a virus?

Um, yeah. So whatever Kyuubi is, the Uchiha probably had some kind of secret epic code to control it and the Kyuubi in turn took over the lab Naruto’s parents were working in?

Maybe they were working on putting the Kyuubi in a robot body so it could properly “live” except the Uchiha found out about it, wanted the Kyuubi robot, tried to buy it from Naruto’s parents, and ended up just taking it by force. Leading to the deaths of the Namikaze-Uzumaki family. (Unsure if I also want Naruto to have physically died but been uploaded into the robot body along with the Kyuubi, or if he’s still alive but doesn’t know it and his body has some kind of uplink connecting him with the Kyuubi robot body).

Shikamaru probably lost his flesh arm in an incident involving Shikako. I’m thinking something like… a tech expo and an overzealous rival/fan attacked her? But then Shikamaru got on the way and so there’s still guilt on Shikako’s end, as per canon–maybe this was pretty recent and the reason why she hasn’t gone home for family dinners in a while?

Shikako’s hypersensitivity diagnosis… it might be that she can’t have any cybernetic implants/mods. I know in cyberpunk universes, nearly everyone is modded to some extent, so the people who aren’t are unusual for some reason. Everyone has a ID chip, at the very least, but Shikako doesn’t even have that? (Which does make it a little ironic that she’s a genius with cybernetics)

Yup. Danzo’s got a Sharingan. I think in this AU the Uchiha clan are still alive, but Danzo might have stolen more the design for the Sharingan than actually plucking out Shisui’s eyeball. Then again, that imagery is gruesome enough to fit him.

“Enslaved” does also fit Sai, though perhaps it’s more… oh no… “groomed.” Danzo’s ROOT are actually human, but they have an implant that basically lets him wipe their memories and such and turn them into meat puppets.

All of the Konoha Twelve? I guess it depends mostly on what the clans would be in this ‘verse… except for Sakura who is, like in canon, a doctor/medic, TenTen who is also an mechanical engineer (though not so much cybernetics), and Lee who… what does Gai do?

As for the clans, they are probably like companies (or yakuza crime families) in the sense that the clan as a whole runs a business and the clan heads/heirs are probably the CEOs/training to be CEOs or are major shareholders who CAN live off the company but decide to work anyway. So for example, the Nara clan is probably a huge pharmaceuticals company (beginning to branch into cybernetics due to Shikako) but Shikamaru is also a professional shogi player.

Hm… what do the other clans do?

“reminder to sleep”, narukako (it can be the waking up starstruck verse or some team bonding!!), dos; thank you!!

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

This is a sci-fi!AU. It has to be.

Sleep is such a natural biological imperative that unless it’s a literal matter of insomnia (which doesn’t lead to much) or divinity/jinchuuriki status making it unnecessary. But even then, aren’t there poetic thoughts about gods and monsters sleeping?

So sci-fi. More specifically robots/androids/cyborgs. Even more specifically, Naruto as an impossible android and Shikako as a genius robotics engineer (and Sasuke from a family with OP cybernetic eyes who may be the corrupt police force behind the company that illegally funded/created/enslaved Naruto?)

And we can even put in insomnia with workaholic!engineer!Shikako and divinity/jinchuuriki status if you do the whole “deus ex machina” and what are the bijuu in this ‘verse anyway? Ghost code? Sentient AI? Unstoppable viruses?

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of “what does it mean to be human, anyway?”

Of course its revealed that Naruto was actually human but his parents had to upload his mind/replace his entire body with machinery because… Kyuubi?

Anyway.

Sci-fi domestic shenanigans! Naruto not being very good at housework because he doesn’t need to eat and he’s lived in the labs/basement without stuff. Shikako being okay at housework but not really having much time because SCIENCE! But eventually they develop a rhythm.

Shikako decreasing her workaholic tendencies because, hey, its not fair that Naruto has never done *insert normal activity here* so they go out to the park or to the ocean etc. etc. She goes home for dinner for the first time in months(?) and while her family doesn’t presume he’s her boyfriend, they do think he’s good for her.

Although Shikaku does stare at Naruto like he’s seeing a ghost. (He looks an awful lot like another genius robotics engineer he once knew, and maybe Shikaku’s worried his daughter might go down that same path. Although I’m not yet sure what that path was…)

Here’s a summary:

Remember To Sleep

In which there are no electric sheep, but maybe androids do dream.

Or, Naruto has hopes and a hoard of mysteries, Shikako works for a brighter future, and somehow, someway, they meet in the middle.

(Please ask me questions about this ‘verse, everyone, because I want to know more about it too but I sometimes don’t develop headcanons until my brain is stimulated and I really don’t know what direction to go in for this because there are so many possibilities…)

… AH! I JUST REALIZED I READ YOUR PROMPT WRONG! It’s reminder not remember! Sorry, anon!

Shikako/Deidara “Trapped in the Lightbulb Fixation” which was my mishearing of lyrics to Irresistible but does not need to be a reference

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Oh man, okay.  I’ve already discussed how Shikako is aro/demi-romantic so this is… really. This is a crack pair. I just cannot see it happening in canon in any way, and it’d have to be in an AU so far removed from canon that I just…

Okay. Let’s see.

Erm…

Is this one-sided Shikako/Deidara? I mean, the song lyrics don’t necessarily specify? And it’s… uh…

I feel like this is an age/role swap!AU plus a… superhero AU? But not the Insuperable superhero!AU… I guess more like Big Hero 6? In the sense that it’s technically in the Marvel Universe but also kind of its own thing?

So Konoha Twelve would be older and the Avengers equivalent (in that, they’re famous and well-established, etc. etc.) but the Akatsuki would be not evil, and also students who become heroes but only on a small scale?

Agh, I don’t know, does that make sense?

And so Deidara’s a Shikako fanboy and totally jumps on the chance to be a hero like her and tries to emulate her explosion abilities with his own clay bombs… I think I just made Deidara into Honey Lemon?

So it would be more about how AU²!Akatsuki become misfit heroes and at the end get to meet the members of Konoha Twelve who are basically like “good job kids” and that’s… all I’ve got, sorry anon, this is really outside of my scope I think. :/

Trapped In The Lightbulb Fixation

One day, Deidara’s going to be a famous badass billionaire artist/hero and impress Iron Hart. Today, he has to try not to get kicked out of his chem lab for causing an explosion.

Or, how Deidara and his friends stumble into heroism and learn the cost of power (here’s a hint: it starts with an R and ends with an -esponsibility)

I just discovered from this summary I wrote that Shikako is apparently the Iron Man equivalent? Hart as in deer, but maybe a pun on heart because the Gelel stone is powering her arc reactor? Okay then… sure.

“the dark side of the moon”, dos, include sai please?

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So my brain first went to Infinite Tsukuyomi because that’s how I filled the last “dark side of the moon” prompt I received but that’s not really sustainable for a full fic summary, so…

I know there are already a lot of amazing ROOT!Shikako fics which have gone in varying, fascinating directions, but I think that’s what would best match this prompt title. And also because the request for Sai and there’s only so many options that gives me. Aaand as a title it’s a nice foil to Dreaming of Sunshine, even though usually I thematically link Moon to Sasuke.

Which might be part of it, too?

(By the way, I don’t know if I’m rehashing someone else’s ideas but if I am, sorry…)

So Shikako tries to interfere with the Uchiha Massacre (by befriending Itachi?) and ends up in Danzo’s clutches. But maybe not a full time thing–I’m still pretty sure that Yamanaka Fuu had to be trained in the clan mind jutsu, so he couldn’t be completely disappeared off to the bowels of Konoha like with Torune and the many orphans–so she still gets to go home and learn shadow jutsu and despair about all the secrets she’s keeping from her family 🙂

Which gives an interesting twist on her determination to learn fuinjutsu if she’s got the secrecy seal on her tongue (… maybe not somewhere so obvious, but the idea applies).

Sai would act as her ROOT partner/handler (while she secretly acts as Itachi’s Konoha contact/handler?) and when the canon time for Academy graduation comes around, she’s still put on a genin team with Naruto and Sasuke as per canon but maybe she goes on more dangerous with Sai on nights after D-ranks with Team Seven?

Hrm… nah, I’m not liking that too much. There’s too many wheels and it’s not really feasible.

Sai is definitely still Shikako’s ROOT partner/handler (after they both killed off their respective training partners?) and I do think she’s only a part time ROOT member–in that, she’s still part of the Nara clan–but maybe she was ordered to flunk out of the Academy “because of chakra hypersensitivity” or Danzo used his influence to put her on Team One and have them failed? Yeah, having her on Team Seven AND a ROOT member would be way too much to juggle.

And any connection with Itachi would be minor or for much later in the fic. Maybe Itachi remembers the little girl who tried to help him, or maybe he doesn’t, but he definitely finds it suspicious that she’s one of Danzo’s agents so…

I wonder if Danzo tries to train her as a higher functioning agent–possibly his successor, if he were a smidge less delusional–and so her “surface” job is his assistant or something like that. And, well, even if he doesn’t want her as his philosophical successor, then having one of the two possible candidates for Jounin Commander in his pocket is a pretty smart idea.

Yeah, just a lot of precarious maneuvering as a secret ROOT member, trying to build up enough hard evidence to take out Danzo and making sure Sai doesn’t get punished for her own overreaches (Danzo normally isn’t one for whipping boys since that requires emotional attachment on one side, at least, but in this case it’s highly effective). The good news is, Sai probably begins his journey to emotional development and mental liberation much earlier. The bad news is, neither of them get to express that while under Danzo’s command for obvious reasons. So it’s just both of them mentally suffering, but at least they suffer together?

the dark side of the moon

Secrets and silence and synchronous rotations.

Shikako and Sai dance to someone else’s tune and try to stay alive the whole way through.

Oh, and help save the world–that’s important, too.

“find me where the wild things are,” dos dragon rider au, shikaara??

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Uh… dragon rider!AU… I had to go back in my catalogue and since they’re not tagged by anything in particular it took me a while to find them, but here are those posts.

So to stay compatible with those previous posts of dragon rider!AU, Team Seven is the crew of Pakkun–the Hatake clan’s middleweight dragon–and Gaara is the captain of a near-feral Shukaku who is Sand’s heavyweight.

Hrm… how do I get Shikaara from this set up?

It’s gotta be a Gelel thing, right?

Then again, minus Kakashi, Team Seven and Pakkun were canonically fighting Shukaku during the Konoha Chuunin Exam/Sand and Sound Invasion so it could be a situation in which middleweight Pakkun takes on heavyweight Shukaku without his captain, and… nah, that’s their first meeting how would I make that Shikaara? Unless it’s just an adaptation of canon Shikako and Gaara interactions into this dragon rider!AU, but that’s not very…

ARGH! I think I’ve been falling into a trap with these brainstorms of trying to stick too closely to canon or something I’ve already done, and that’s not fair at all!

So I’m going to disregard all that and go with what I would write in a sideways world without previous posts to hold me down:

find me where the wild things are

Beyond the forest,
over the mountains,
across the desert dry,
Is a land full of
adventure where both
humans and dragons fly.

Or, Shikako comes from a clan of ground walkers, but that’s not what will save her friends.

A little bit of the already established dragon rider!AU mixed with some fairy tale-esque vibes. I think this version of dragon rider!AU would draw more heavily from the How To Train Your Dragon mythos than Temeraire.

I like the idea that there is a different story going on between Naruto, Sasuke, the Kyuubi, and the Akatsuki madness which Shikako is trying to extricate them from but won’t actually be part of until, like, “book two” of this imaginary now-trilogy.

Book one is about Shikako traveling to Sand where she knows other dragon riders are in order to petition their help or something, and she meets Gaara not knowing he is both the prince and the rider of Sand’s strongest dragon until the time for her official royal audience which, because bureaucracy, is a few weeks away.

Possibly Gelel is a dragon that Shikako stumbles upon and bonds with–alternatively it’s some magical technique which can calm/heal/control dragons? Unsure. Whatever it is, she uses it on Shukaku to his and Sand’s benefit which bumps her up in the petition queue (understandably).

And then there’s the “reveal” when Gaara commits to helping her, and while she’s grateful for that she’s also somewhat hurt that he “lied” to her about his identity, etc. etc.