Tag: naruto

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

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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??

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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.

this isnt a fake fic prompt but more of a have you ever thought about what would happen if sasunaru was canon in dos and how shikako would react to it? (post-canon maybe?)

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Yes? I mean I have briefly considered how the SasuNaru ship in DoS would differ from in canon, but I never consider any ship canon unless its actually written by SQ or actual canon (for example Yoshino/Shikaku).

I don’t think Sasuke and Naruto having a relationship would necessarily be something Shikako is overly surprised by, but its not as if she’s preoccupied with the live lives of her friends–after all, she didn’t know when Shikamaru and TenTen started dating but she didn’t have a huge reaction either.

Especially if its post-canon. SQ has already said DoS (and Shikako) are running up to a particular point in canon, so the travesty that is Chapter 700 wouldn’t apply which means Shikako has no expectations of what canon relationships Naruto may end up with and even less expectations about DoS Naruto’s relationships.

So yes, I’ve thought of it, but nothing extensive or interesting.

I.. had the weirdest dream of Shikako and Shikamaru as the two main leads in the Barbie: Princess and the Pauper film (my childhood!! Haha) I legit had the entire film play in my sleep. It was oddly satisfying/amusing. (I actually went to rewatch the movie when I woke up. Super cringey CGI, but still enjoyable haha. The songs are stuck in my head for whatever reason) (Also… Princess&Pauper!AU prompt? Just to make this ask relevant haha. (You can ignore this if you want))

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Cool? Not one of my own childhood movies, but I was always fond of how the Barbie movie franchise looked at any and all fairy tales and was like–hell yeah, we’re doing that somehow. Doesn’t matter if there aren’t any female characters traditionally, stick a heroine in that story.

Can’t really think of how a Princess/Prince&Pauper!AU would work because who looks enough like someone else to… 

Oh, wait… Sasuke and Sai?

Maybe that’s Sai’s fairy tale origin in Tamed?

My first thought on reading the idea of a person in a ceremonial deer mask was something like, “Why would Kakashi be involved in this sort of…?” Because, for some reason, my brain thought for a second that only Kakashi ever wore masks. Or, following that chain of logic, every person in a mask is actually Kakashi.

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Hahahaha! 😀

As soon as you put on a mask, you’ve joined the Kakashi hive mind: Kakashi is all, all are Kakashi.

Maybe it’s a running joke in ANBU–any unidentified masked people are called Kakashi, and while eventually it becomes a sort of “oh, of course, scarecrows that makes sense” the truth is it’s referring to the one, the only, infinite masks himself.

I am now wondering about a Majora’s Mask fusion/crossover, but unsure where I’d go with that…

Hello again! For the Deer Summons and Christmas Fake fic’s title, I think that “An (Almost) Relaxing Day” would suit it ☺️

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Christmas doesn’t quite jive with Naruto world’s culture, but there is an annual festival held in December in Nara, Japan, called the Kasuga Wakamiya On-Matsuri which I think would be a suitable winter holiday substitution that the deer summons would be involved with.

Let’s see, the festival IRL is nearly a millennia old and was meant to offer prayers to eradicate an epidemic and ask for rich harvest. Which could easily be reimagined as how the Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka alliance becomes solidified (or changes from servitude to friendship) when the three of them came together to stop a plague and pool resources.

Seeing as how Shikako is the first full summoner in a long time (canonically, Sembei-obaasan hasn’t been able to summon Heijomaru for a while) there’s probably a role that the deer summons used to have in the festival that has gone undone for several years, or modified to use regular deer (who, while no doubt smart and friendly to people, are not as capable as sentient ninken), or human stand-in for the summons (like a chosen person wearing a ceremonial deer mask).

So I guess it’d be a lot of clan lore, a lot of world building, a lot of Shikako being trolled by Sembei-obaa and all the other elderly clan members sending the youngins off on various errands. Team Ten is also greatly trolled by the respective clan elders.

Maybe also being trolled by Heijomaru? Shikako having to keep track of Nagaoka (because as the youngest member of the Sika Tribe, he plays an important role in the festival?) which as a very excitable fawn is extremely difficult.

Basically “backstage” mishaps for the festival featuring the deer summons and clan mythology. Maybe there’s a parade through Konoha with the deer summons at the front (which I’m sure Shikako is suuuuuper fond of) except Nagaoka is missing and Heijomaru and Sembei-obaa are just watching, amused, as the youngins run around trying to find the meaning of Christmas. I mean, the meaning of friendship?

An (Almost) Relaxing Day

‘Twas the day before festival, when all through the compound,
the young leader of the parade was nowhere to be found.
His summoner searched in the village displeased,
knowing the venture would not pass with ease…

… it did not.

(No, I would not write the entire thing in that format. Just this summary. Which, embarrassingly, took me a disgusting amount of time.)

“ALL YOU HAVE TO DO (IS STAY)” WHAT THE FFCCKKCK. WHAT THE HECK. I FEEL VERY MENTALLY STRESSED OUT AND EXHAUSTED JUST THINKING ABOUT THAT SUMMARY. (The things we do to Shikako. :( Jfc it tripped me THe fuck up. This precious child. (I actually would lOVE to read this verse because it sounds like so much SUFFERING. (I swear I love Shikako.)))

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😀

Riiiiiiiiiight?!?!?!

Like. It’s stressful but it’s also kind of fun?

I would really recommend reading Watches ‘verse (unless BBC Sherlock is not your thing, understandable, given the way it’s gone downhill, though this fic was written before said swan dive), because it has the same sort of mental gymnastics that really good time travel fic does but… without time travel.

I think I’d put her fourth reality as a Fire Temple monk, though. Just for that well of calm and serenity because four lives in the possible vicinity of Danzo is TOO MUCH, and I also like the idea of the monks figuring out something’s going on with her but not saying anything until it becomes a danger to her. Because monks, or at least the Fire Temple versions (not those awful Jashin monks), are great. And being able to explore the world of Naruto and ninjutsu and militaristic societies from a culture of pacifism might be a fun exercise in world building/analysis.

A pair of titles, if that’s okay? I Am a Rock (I am an Island), and I am a Rock (On Top of the Sand). They’re both references to songs, Simon and Garfunkel’s “I am a Rock” and Mother Mother’s “Wrecking Ball”, respectively. But I was thinking that they’d make a good set of titles for a comparison between Naruto and Gaara, and dealing with themes of isolation and building on unsteady foundations (except that sand is not unsteady for Gaara)?

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…

I probably should have responded to this earlier, anon, but I think this is one of those cases where there’s not much for me to do in response to this prompt seeing as how you already have an idea for what you want for these fic titles.

Sorry, anon.

Don’t get me wrong, I love these titles and the way you’ve set them up as companion character studies between Naruto and Gaara. But I don’t think I can do anything with them.

It looks like you’ve got the beginning of a fantastic series of fics and I for one would love to read it if you go on and write them, anon. You have a pretty clear idea and you’ve put a lot of thought into it. I don’t think I’m needed at all here.

(If you like, you can try sending in another prompt even though the event is closed, and hopefully I can answer that one.)

“all you have to do is stay” – dos shikako-centric team 7 please?

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… mrgh…

I can’t just do a wanderlust!Team Seven, or a wanderlust!Shikako with the rest of Team Seven kind of waiting patiently for her, because I already wrote those and it’s a little too on the nose, isn’t it? So a more abstract interpretation of the title…

I’ve also already done time travel (to different eras, and for different characters and AUs)…

You know for some reason this title reminds me of Watches ‘verse by bendingsignpost. (It’s a BBC Sherlock fic in which John Watson revolves through four different realities whenever he falls asleep. It makes more sense in the fic, and because it was written/finished before season 3 it’s great)

Because what’s better than Shikako stressed out by the oncoming dangerous future? Shikako stressed out by FOUR oncoming dangerous futures. 😀 (My heart’s beginning to beat faster just thinking of it because I’m so horrified by the thought but also, perversely, delighted).

So I guess I’d borrow a little from Reshuffle the Deck for alternative realities mostly because the only thing I can think of that would be Shikako’s most immediate/visible difference would be her genin team.

So one is canon DoS, in which Shikako is on Team Seven with Naruto and Sasuke. One is probably Team Medic!AU!AU, where she is on Team One with Youbirin Nohara and Jiro Watanabe (because this would be a good outsider/baseline/boring reality, I think).

One would probably be the “I’m going to interfere in everything early on” reality–the Cloud v Hyuuga issue, Danzo and the Uchiha massacre, going full on prodigy–to various degrees of success and would thus lead to the most nerve-wracking reality of being on a team with Kabuto.

And the last one would… well, in Watches ‘verse, John has two “calm” realities to offset the more exciting ones and one of them he doesn’t join the army, so I guess I can mirror that in which she doesn’t become a shinobi. Whether that means she goes to the civilian school or the Fire Temple is kind of up in the air. Hm… probably civilian school because that way she’d stay in Konoha? Then again, having the monks of the Fire Temple basically act as her therapists in an alternate reality (and also a surprisingly strong ally against Akatsuki with the heads up) is very satisfying, too. Danzo can’t touch her here. She’s safe.

So on top of being reincarnated from a different world, Shikako’s got another secret of rotating through different realities. On the one hand, quadruple the amount of things to keep track of, but on the other hand she can use the different realities to plan ahead. Ironically, I now realize that one of the repeated phrases in Watches ‘verse is that John “no longer dreams” and DoS is titled… well… Dreaming of Sunshine… so… O_O

Anyway, here’s the summary:

All You Have To Do (Is Stay)

She wakes up in a different reality, in a different body, in a different life. She goes to sleep thinking she is dreaming–or tries to, anyway.

She wakes up, and wakes up, and wakes up, and realizes she will never dream again.