I kiiiinda ranted about something similar/related to this earlier (pre-Kinokawa’s birth, but the concept could still hold easily I think). It’s pretty short but it was fun to reread nonetheless, so hopefully you also enjoy it, anon 🙂
Tag: naruto
oh mmyyyyyyy gooooodddddddneeeesssss. that latest shikako snippet? whoa! just whoa!! i’m a mess????
😀 Yay! That’s what I was going for, anon.
it was an idea that snowballed–I went literal with the heart matter, then @donapoetrypassion added some spirituality to it (along with prompting the They Call It (Soulless) ficlet), so then I figured since we were escalating I might as well raise to divinity (or, rather, lower to devilry?)
One night -many years and many midnight bargains later- the man at the crossroads is Shikamaru Nara.
“You have a child,” what’s left of his sister says, frowning. “Why are you doing this?” Her voice is too flat. Her face is too young. It’s been that way for quite awhile.
He still loves her. Even the her she is without a heart.
And he does have a child. A little boy, Shikadai. Baby-powder sweet and gummy-smiled.
But this is about responsibility as much as love. Shikamaru’s little boy will grow up in this world. Shikamaru can’t let it be a worse one than his was, growing up.
(It’s about love, too. He’d looked in the photo albums, and found what he thought was Shikadai, giving another gummy smile while holding the hand of someone just out of the picture. But the picture was too old, and Shikamaru had never smiled like that as an infant. He’d looked at the picture of his sister, his baby boy’s aunt who shared his smile, and realized what he lost. What they all had.)
It was Temari, really, who gave him the idea. The notion that a siblings’ heart was something he could get back. It was Kankuro who gave him the stories of puppeteers losing too much of thrmselves, or just enough.
There’s risk in this. Maybe too much. But he did at least have the sense to talk this decision over with his wife, and she approved of him trying. (He’s glad he married Temari. He can’t imagine anyone else really… understanding. What it means to love someone who might not be in a place to return that. What it means to hope.)
Shikamaru Nara has to give up something. He has to give up something real, to even have a chance at his sister back.
But he won’t make his sister’s mistake. He won’t give up too much.
…This will work.
“I’m not giving up my heart, or my soul, or my life,” Shikamaru Nara says calmly. “I’m giving up my other arm.”
(Shikako cries. When she gets back. When they stagger home. When her parents hug her. When a wide-eyed teenage Kino treats her gently. She hates crying, but does it like she’s pouring out all the things she didn’t get to feel for years.
She is.
As for the grief, and self blame- and shameful gratitude- of Shikamaru getting her soul back (at the cost of his other arm, his last one, no, please, no)… she feels so much she doesn’t know what to do with it.
She comes back to a world where the war is over. Where her friends are figuring out how to be not just adults but parents, and she’s figuring out how not to be the Shikabane-hime.
No one says much, about her having a soul now. It’s not exactly public knowledge that she didn’t.
They notice that she ages properly now, for a given value of properly. Growing taller, face growing thinner, and one day, nearly a year later, Shikako notices a white streak in her hair. Tsunade tells her that her strange stop-start aging was likely a side-effect of losing all that life energy as a child. Her life span might be a decade shorter. Not more. (It won’t be longer. Not as long as she had feared. Shikako goes home and cries in relief, in her bed where no one else can see her. Then she gets up and goes back to her life).
AHHHHHHH! SHIKAMARU TAKING ON A DEVIL TO GET HIS SISTER BACK! And, like, why wouldn’t he? He already took on a god. (Never mind they were both sort of his sister also)
Heart and Soul (the crossroads remix), (2018-03-14)
A human without a heart–without a soul–is no longer human. Without that integral piece they are, at best, empty husks.
(At worst, they are monsters.)
But she stopped being human before she gave away her heart:
What do you call a god without a soul?
—
After, Shikako is different.
That is not so surprising. Inoichi was expecting a much more drastic change in Shikamaru, after all, and so having one twin be more noticeably affected by the… incident… only makes sense.
Shikako is different, After. Inoichi keeps an eye out for the twins, both personally–they are nearly as dear to him as Ino–and professionally.
She is harsher, more ruthless. On missions, it is not so easy to tell: it could be attributed to the rising international tensions, or the stress of her undeniably eventful career catching up, or even just growing up. The name Shikabane-hime spreads–it is no longer a silly joke, even inside the village.
She hardly smiles anymore.
Inoichi notices something in Shikako, but he doesn’t know enough for the truth.
—
The Shinigami works in trade: a life given as payment, a life taken in exchange.
Phrased that way, it almost seems balanced.
But it is not death for life; death only begets more death.
—
Be careful what you wish for: even if you get what you want to the letter, you might not get what you need in spirit. And even then, beware your intentions; strength of will is not just an expression.
There is power in determination, in desperation. But there is also weakness.
In that battle that nearly destroyed them, Shikako wished for two things. She made the mistake of intrinsically linking them together: she wanted to save her brother, and so she needed to be stronger.
She gave her heart as payment.
What was taken in exchange?
—
There were thousands of people in Land of Hot Springs.
They did not go to Jashin.
Death only begets more death.
Shikabane has some catching up to do.
—
There is a man kneeling at an intersection, hands pushing dirt into a hole in the ground that contains a box. The box contains several items which physically have little worth–a picture, more dirt, a small bone, a small cluster of flowers soon to die–but they have value combined, intangibly, unnaturally.
The man wants something–power or time or wealth or knowledge–it matters not. He’ll get it, the box he’s just buried guarantees it, but he’ll regret it.
He looks up, dirt under his fingernails, still on his knees, to see a figure that had not been present just moments ago.
It is small, in the shape of a young girl with mostly nondescript features. It has dark eyes–not the way a human might–like ink and shadow and the utter absence of that which is human.
For a moment, he considers backing down: there is a fate in those eyes that he is not sure he wants to meet. But then the figure speaks, offers him that which drove him out here in the middle of the night, blinks away the ink and shadow.
He makes the deal; his heart’s desire for his soul.
(Just as well, it was already too late for him)
—
A human without a heart–without a soul–is no longer human.
A would-have-been-god without a soul? You know what they’re called.
~
A/N: A sort of… remix fic response to @donapoetrypassion’s follow-up fic for this ficlet that I wrote as a response to dona’s prompt… so… yeah…
~tiny and vague demon!Shikako concept~
Heart and Soul
A few months ago, Jacksgreyson wrote a really awesome ficlet
in response to a prompt of mine.This is the follow-up thank-you fic I‘ve been meaning to write
for ages.Heart and Soul
“Put your heart, mind, and soul, into even your smallest
acts. This is the secret of success.” -Swami Sivanada“This is just one of
me, but in different places.”- Shikako Nara to her father. Dreaming of
Sunshine, Chapter 88“I wouldn’t recommend
using it. But that’s a decision you’ll have to make in the field, based on the
information you have at the time.” –Shikaku Nara to his daughter. Dreaming
of Sunshine, Chapter 89.___________________________________________________________________________
When the twins came back from the front, Shikako had a
perfect circle of scarred skin and healed fractures tracing itself across her
lungs, her spine, her ribs. Her recently regrown heart fit exactly in the
center.Shikamaru had his sister’s heart.
The Konoha transplant program is very advanced.
They’ve done kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and
thymus. They’ve done bones, tendons, corneae, skin, nerves and veins. They’ve
done hands, arms, legs, and feet.They don’t transplant hearts. (Sasori had, after all, been able to function as a puppet with only his
heart remaining.) Commonly held wisdom is that a heart transplant would be
about as useless to the transplant recipient as transplanting a brain.Common wisdom is wrong.
At least, in the case of the Nara twins.
Tsunade was cursing her most unpredictable special jounin
even as she stabilized both twins.The boy’s case was especially difficult. But since his
chakra system wasn’t being poisoned or overwritten by his new eighth gate -and his
new eighth gate wasn’t destabilizing into oblivion- Tsunade counted her
blessings.Both brats even managed to briefly wake up and answer basic
questions about missions she had assigned Team Ten or Team Seven, which Tsunade
considered a flat-out miracle.Still. Best to confirm things
before sharing the good news with her Jounin Commander.Inoichi did not despair when he was briefed on the
circumstances surrounding the upcoming mindscan on his teammate’s son, because
he was an optimist with some experience in the success rate of desperate Nara.He was confident that Shikako would have been able to save
(at least something of) her brother.Even so, at best
he had expected Shikamaru Nara to be as confused and shaken and fundamentally changed as Ino had been, at her most
vulnerable. (At best.)Inoichi had been prepared to
offer Shikaku platitudes of his son finding a new normal, support for Shikako
as she adjusted to her changed sibling.He was not prepared to find an
only slightly shaken (and only from the memories of his injury), only slightly
confused (and only from slipping in and out of consciousness), and otherwise completely
unchanged Shikamaru Nara.He was not prepared to find no
trace of Shikako Nara in her brother’s mind.(He’d have to look more closely
next time.)“Shadow Split,” Shikaku cursed, when he was briefed. A heart
was not a soulless thing, to be traded away like any other organ.Once you’ve accepted the necessity of trading away (a piece
of) your soul, what choices are left? Giving away as little as possible. Or as
little-missed as possible. And protecting that which was precious enough to
trade (a piece of) your soul for.But what piece, exactly, had his daughter given away?
“Is this even a mind-scan?” Shikamaru asked, on the fifth
session. He slouched in his (probably imaginary) body, picking at the (probably
imaginary) grass, looking at the (not imaginary but definitely not physically
present) figure of his honorary uncle.Inoichi gave him a reassuring smile. “Not a traditional one.
But some of the …lighter variants of mental contact can be more useful for certain
check-ups.”Shikamaru didn’t have a problem with Inochi-oiji’s visits.
He practiced with Ino often enough that he wasn’t uncomfortable with mental
techniques. And he knew Inochi was trying to help- even if he was being
frustratingly close-lipped about how
he was helping. But this was the fifth session in almost four weeks, and it was
getting annoying.“Have you found what you’re looking for yet?” Shikamaru
grumped.“I think I have a
lead, now,” Inoichi said calmly, with another annoyingly reassuring smile.
“Would you mind showing me to the village? I’d like to check the Hokage Tower
first.”Shikamaru showed him to the (probably imaginary) village,
which was creepily empty of both people and animals. Then he gestured at the
(probably imaginary) Hokage Tower. “Is that where we’re heading?”But Inoichi wasn’t looking at the Hokage Tower. He was
looking at the swing by the Academy.It was empty, of course.
It was also moving.
“That’s… odd.” Shikamaru managed.
Inoichi glanced at him. “It’s a lead. And it’s something we
have to look into, because I suspect this is something you need to know. But
it’s also nothing to be afraid of, Shikamaru.”Shikamaru nodded.
Shikamaru followed Inoichi past the empty swing, into the
empty hallways of the Tower, into the classroom. The same classroom
Iruka-sensei had taught them all, for years.Inoichi sighed when he entered it.
“Why are we here?” Shikamaru asked.
“The human mind is a place that demands honesty,” Inoichi
said, but he didn’t seem to be speaking to Shikamaru. “I was always going to
find this place eventually.”Inoichi was looking at the far wall as he spoke, and he
walked straight toward the back. Where Shikamaru had used to sit, beside
Shikako and Chouji.“Come up, please,” Inoichi asked, looking at something just
past one of the last desks. His tone was gentle. But also tired, exasperated.
Not expecting his order to be followed.Inoichi tried again. “Nara techniques require self-knowledge.
If you keep hiding, Shikamaru is never going to be able to safely use any kind
of Shadow technique again.”A little crumped up ball of paper hit Inoichi’s face.
Another almost got caught in his blonde hair before falling to the floor.Shikamaru slowly made his own way to the back of the room.
Inoichi sighed at the thing Shikamaru still couldn’t yet
see. He reached down underneath the desk and pulled up a seven-year-old
Shikako. She was glaring with her most sullen expression.But this was Shikamaru’s mind. Why would- what was-
Shikamaru sat down and tried to
breathe.It was imaginary air, it wasn’t
real- nothing here was real except him and Inoichi and his too-small-sister-
but the breaths helped calm him. Steady him.Shikamaru came out of his panic attack to find that he was
still sitting on top of one of the desks, looking at his sister’s soul. Or a
piece of it, anyway.“Shikamaru needed a new heart. And a new eighth chakra gate.
But you knew a human heart without a soul attached wouldn’t have a working eighth gate. So you found
another solution.” There was no judgement in Inoichi’s voice. Neither
condemnation or approval. He seemed to be examining Shikako’s face carefully.Inoichi’s voice gentled. “Do you understand what happened?
Where you are?”Shikako rolled her eyes. “Yes. Obviously. I was trying
not to interfere.” She crossed her
arms defiantly. Her mulish expression flickered into uncertainty as she glanced
at Shikamaru. Just for an instant.“Why are you seven?” Shikamaru asked.
Shikako stilled. When she answered, she seemed to be
choosing her words carefully. “I’m seven because… because this is the age I was
when I made an important decision. I made another important decision when you
needed a new heart. The decisions …in some ways were similar.”“And did you make the right choice?” Inoichi asked.
“Yes,” Shikako
hissed. But she glanced uncertainly at Shikamaru again.“My body can regenerate,” she rallied. “And I’m not a part
of Shikako that- well. Shikako doesn’t like to remember being me, so it’s not
like being here is going to make a big difference personality-wise. Giving you
my heart was definitely the right
decision.”Something sad flickered across her face. “And I can’t say I
regret making the other one. It’s not like the result was unexpected.” There
was something flat about her voice, like she was suppressing some strong
emotion.She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening
them again. “I don’t know why you came,” she told Inoichi, and there was real
pain underneath the hostility in her voice. “I just want Shikamaru to be okay.
I want him to be himself.”“Do you think I can just leave
you here?” Shikamaru rasped. “Do you think I can let you be alone?” He reached out a hand-Inoichi caught it with a warning glance. Shikamaru resisted
the urge to dodge, to continue forward until Shikako was tucked up against his
chest.She was small and
she was hurting and she was- she
would never have an existence besides the space inside of his mind. The rest of
his sister might, but not this part.“I can teach you two how to interact safely, though that
might take a little time,” Inoichi said to both of them. Then he turned to
Shikako. “I understand that you don’t want to hurt him accidentally. It’s good
that you’re careful. But this isn’t an answer, either.”Shikako swallowed. “Okay.”
“I hope it’s all right with both of you if we start
tomorrow,” Inoichi said. It wasn’t really a question.Still. “Why tomorrow?” Shikamaru managed to get out. It was
difficult to keep his tone from edging towards tense impatience.“Believe it or not, this meeting has been a pretty big
strain on both of you. I’ve eased things, somewhat. But two sets of spiritual
energies interacting within the same body is something best carefully monitored
until the two of you reach a balance. Giving Shikamaru all sensory input from
and the control over the body is still a type of balance, Shikako,” Inoichi added,
in response to Shikako’s scowl.He stood up.
He hesitated a moment. “If you can- is there anything you
can tell me about the Shikako outside that might be different now?”For a moment, Shikako looked terrible insecure. And then the
moment was gone as if it had never been. “She still loves Shikamaru. A lot. She wouldn’t like, let a bunch of
Konoha babies die if just sitting there doing nothing meant Shikamaru was going
to be safer. But- Shikamaru wouldn’t want that anyway. And the Shikako outside
would still do- almost anything for him. Just not absolutely everything.” She looked away from Inoichi. Towards Shikamaru.
“You know we both- we both-“ Her eyes were wet and so, so wide.“I know,” Shikamaru said softly. He wished this was a real
place. He wished- he wished he could hold her.
That he didn’t have to wait until Inoichi ‘taught them how to interact
safely.’ His sister had torn out her heart and ripped apart her soul to keep
him alive, and she was trying to tell him both parts loved him. As if he didn’t
know. “I’ve always known”“How are you feeling?” Dad asked, as Shikamaru blinked into
awareness.Like my heart is breaking, Shikamaru didn’t answer.
As much as the discovery had been painful, Shikamaru was now
well on the path to recovery. But the success didn’t ease Inoichi’s mind much
at all, and he was quiet as he walked home.Inside-Shikako had so easily Split from the rest of herself
because she had remained unacknowledged and hidden even within Shikako, likely
for quite some time. What had she said? That the rest of Shikako didn’t like to
remember being her.And she’d distinguished the other Shikako from herself by
implying that Shikako would do less for Shikamaru. That Shikako would not let
Konoha babies die, even if doing nothing made Shikamaru safer. Implying that
inside-Shikako might.…That was not the kind of self-knowledge that came in
advance of action.Worst of all, inside-Shikako looked …seven, at most. And she
acted like a seven-year-old Shikako,
albeit a terrified and angry version. Almost as if that piece of Shikako Nara
had had never been accepted or understood or integrated into the whole.Inside-Shikako was clearly an aspect of personality that had
crystalized in some single, terrible moment. And aspect Shikako hated and
feared- but needed. Because the moment might happen again. Because that moment
had so marked her that it had frozen a piece of her forever, and plunged the
rest into desperate denial.No, Inoichi would not be sleeping well tonight.
AHHHH!!! Follow up fic from dona! (✿ ♥‿♥)
(I love your Inoichi voice so much!)
Outside POVs and consequences for this fic
Hey there. Would you ever write a story where Shikako has to travel to the Land of HotSprings and see the damage she’s caused and the amount of lives she helped took? cause, ya know, I like when Shikako is in despair lol. I love Shikako but it can be argued, she has done more bad than good, for, uh, existing. However, I won’t change anything about Shikako, flaws and all.
@hbkmzk says: Hey! Thanks for the response. I’m anything but a writer but I’ll try. I have to admit, I’m curious with the idea of Shikako being a god. Maybe her shadow contained a God of vengeance and after her first shadow-split, the god has slowly been trying to take over her? I choose god of vengeance because since after her first shadow-split her, Shikako has been more vengeful? Example, Shikamaru’s arm incident or the logistic sealing scroll nightmare. That being said, you are correct. I don’t really see her returning to the land of Hot Springs or having a mission at that area. However, what if her shadow controlled by this God of Vengeance flea to The Land of Hot Springs the next time she shadow-split. This will force Shikako to travel to the land of Hot Springs. The god of vengeance probably went to the land of Hot Springs because it wanted to see the damage done to the monk for what they did to Aoba.
I tried, lol. I don’t know how helpful this is. Hopefully it makes sense to you
~
Imagine a bird, young and not yet able to fly, feathers soft and downy.
Imagine this bird is part of a mighty flock, the youngest and smallest and least of its members, but still part of it nonetheless.
Now imagine that flock is decimated–struck down nearly to its entirety–all for that young, flightless, useless baby bird…
… and the one that killed the rest.
In the wild, the baby bird would do its best to avoid that which had orphaned it. Would fear the beating of wings and the sharp cries of fellow birds.
That baby bird would certainly never devote the rest of its life to growing strong enough to kill that which had destroyed its flock.
Vengeance is such a human concept.
~
Shikako dreams.
In the rare moments she allows herself to sleep–mind too frazzled and paranoid and weighed down to do more than quick dozes–she dreams.
She dreams of the void, that which calls to every Nara. She dreams of the forest, her friends and the village. She dreams of the sun, Naruto so far away and the future drawing ever closer.
Sometimes she dreams of gray skies, razed ground, ash swirling on the wind.
She wakes to the taste of blood on her tongue.
~
Gelel is a young god comprised mainly of starlight, human ingenuity, and sacrifice. But even young gods can make their mark on the earth, life springing where once there was only death.
Imagine, then, what an old god might do.
~
I would kill anyone who hurts you, Shikako thinks, even as the silence stretches long and tense, I have killed those who have hurt you.
But that is not what Shikamaru wants to hear from her.
She doesn’t know how else to express her love.
~
The Cult of Jashin is old–older than the villages, older than the Sage of Six Paths, older even than the Empire of Gelel now ancient history, dust under the feet of the Elemental Nations.
But the cult itself is young, barely an eye blink, compared to the entity they revere, for Jashin is timeless. An elder god, ageless and unknowable.
But not undefeatable.
The blast radius where the Land of Hot Springs once was is a perfectly flat circle, there are no objects for the weakly filtered sunlight to cast shadows. And yet, at the center, where not even the bravest of shinobi have dared to tread, a shadow writhes and grows.
~
She couldn’t save Aoba, but at least she could do one thing for him.
~
Naruto is so forgiving. Too forgiving, she thinks sometimes, his ideals too impractical and too impossible.
But somehow he turns his enemies, those who would harm him, into allies–into friends–and so for him revenge is not only unwanted but also unnecessary.
Meanwhile Kakashi’s pain has always been a part of him, but the convoluted tangle of blame leaves no target for her.
Sasuke, though, is an entirely different story:
She interfered with his life not to stop him–she is more than happy to help him seek revenge–she just wants to make sure he does so carefully, correctly, and completely.
~
Nemesis, the inescapable. Goddess of revenge. She who enacts retribution against those guilty of hubris.
~
Vengeance is a very human concept and humans, in the grand scheme of things, are a new presence in the universe.
But gods transcend time.
Chaos and destruction and suffering may be older, but vengeance is more potent, more powerful…
… and she grows stronger with every victory.
~
Yes… maybe? Well…
My immediate thought was to make it related to this ficlet aka, post-canon Kankurou and Shikako hanging out and trying to be less traumatized together.
And like, it would be sort of… Shikako goes to hang out in Sand ostensibly to research the Gelel phenom (and blow up shit in the desert and make a glass canyon) and Kankurou hangs around and is a Theatre Nerd and then when she finally is more at peace with herself, the two of them go back to Konoha and stop by Land of Hot Springs on the way…
Except then I checked the Naruto world map and that makes no geographic sense for Kankurou and Shikako to stop by Land of Hot Springs on their way back from Sand because it is on the opposite side of Land of Fire so…
I mean, I guess they could just be traveling around together for funsies? Like… she’s also been researching other places and Kankurou probably produced an international hit and there’s some pyrotechnics in his show which he might as well have Sparky do anyway…
But that’s kinda… I mean, don’t get me wrong. A lot of my favorite DoS ficlets are the canon-ish semi-compliant chapter responses / future speculation but I think what I just described above is more about Shikako getting closure from the whole shinobi lifestyle as opposed to specifically the Land of Hot Springs (although that is, in its way, the first unstoppable horror).
So I think for something more Land of Hot Springs centric… OH!
So you brought up how Shikako’s existence has done more harm than good in the world and combined with just the whole celestial back and forth of Jashin vs little god that occurred during that arc and also the whole vibe of this asx box event, especially yesterday’s post about mobius stories, I guess what I’m leading into is:
What if Shikako were Jashin?
Or, maybe, not Jashin specifically, but a god of chaos/destruction/suffering. (Although, the thought of little baby Shikako being born with the mark of Jashin on her forehead and it fading as she grows such that she doesn’t know about it, is pretty fun. Because then there’s the cool opportunity of Shikaku RECOGNIZING the symbol when Tsunade brings him in on the situation and it’s kind of this balance in which Shikaku the father and Shikaku the jounin commander are at odds. I mean, of course his father side is going to win–but still. Internal conflict and outside POV for unknowing literal god Shikako is GREAT)
The main problem with Shikako returning to Land of Hot Springs is that I’m pretty certain that everyone with even the slightest inkling of her mission and the aftermath take great pains to ensure that she NEVER HAS TO GO BACK THERE. So either she’s going behind everyone’s back to do so which… hm… canon Shikako would not want to any time soon, but perhaps literal-god-of-chaos-destruction-and-suffering!Shikako feels compelled to do so (either as a Jashin version, to go with that mobius vibe, in which she returns to the beginning and the end or as a non-Jashin version in which the god within her surveys the place of her victory against an older god and also one of her “greatest” acts) or this is, again, a post-canon future fic where people aren’t guarding her against herself as much.
I… would very much like to write this, hbkmzk, but I think I need. Hm… if you’re interested in this ‘verse, please send in a follow up prompt of maybe three or four other outside POVs or maybe a few details you’d like to add to this ‘verse or even a cool title/quote? Or, like, just ask me a few questions about this ‘verse and me coming up with the answers should be able to do the same. It’s like… this fic is almost there but I just need a few more pieces for that final push.
~
Help me out with this ficlet/check out the Ask Box Would You Ever!
A/N: Not quite what you want, but hopefully I’ve captured the vibe. Thanks for playing along with me 🙂
Hey there. Would you ever write a story where Shikako has to travel to the Land of HotSprings and see the damage she’s caused and the amount of lives she helped took? cause, ya know, I like when Shikako is in despair lol. I love Shikako but it can be argued, she has done more bad than good, for, uh, existing. However, I won’t change anything about Shikako, flaws and all.
Yes… maybe? Well…
My immediate thought was to make it related to this ficlet aka, post-canon Kankurou and Shikako hanging out and trying to be less traumatized together.
And like, it would be sort of… Shikako goes to hang out in Sand ostensibly to research the Gelel phenom (and blow up shit in the desert and make a glass canyon) and Kankurou hangs around and is a Theatre Nerd and then when she finally is more at peace with herself, the two of them go back to Konoha and stop by Land of Hot Springs on the way…
Except then I checked the Naruto world map and that makes no geographic sense for Kankurou and Shikako to stop by Land of Hot Springs on their way back from Sand because it is on the opposite side of Land of Fire so…
I mean, I guess they could just be traveling around together for funsies? Like… she’s also been researching other places and Kankurou probably produced an international hit and there’s some pyrotechnics in his show which he might as well have Sparky do anyway…
But that’s kinda… I mean, don’t get me wrong. A lot of my favorite DoS ficlets are the canon-ish semi-compliant chapter responses / future speculation but I think what I just described above is more about Shikako getting closure from the whole shinobi lifestyle as opposed to specifically the Land of Hot Springs (although that is, in its way, the first unstoppable horror).
So I think for something more Land of Hot Springs centric… OH!
So you brought up how Shikako’s existence has done more harm than good in the world and combined with just the whole celestial back and forth of Jashin vs little god that occurred during that arc and also the whole vibe of this asx box event, especially yesterday’s post about mobius stories, I guess what I’m leading into is:
What if Shikako were Jashin?
Or, maybe, not Jashin specifically, but a god of chaos/destruction/suffering. (Although, the thought of little baby Shikako being born with the mark of Jashin on her forehead and it fading as she grows such that she doesn’t know about it, is pretty fun. Because then there’s the cool opportunity of Shikaku RECOGNIZING the symbol when Tsunade brings him in on the situation and it’s kind of this balance in which Shikaku the father and Shikaku the jounin commander are at odds. I mean, of course his father side is going to win–but still. Internal conflict and outside POV for unknowing literal god Shikako is GREAT)
The main problem with Shikako returning to Land of Hot Springs is that I’m pretty certain that everyone with even the slightest inkling of her mission and the aftermath take great pains to ensure that she NEVER HAS TO GO BACK THERE. So either she’s going behind everyone’s back to do so which… hm… canon Shikako would not want to any time soon, but perhaps literal-god-of-chaos-destruction-and-suffering!Shikako feels compelled to do so (either as a Jashin version, to go with that mobius vibe, in which she returns to the beginning and the end or as a non-Jashin version in which the god within her surveys the place of her victory against an older god and also one of her “greatest” acts) or this is, again, a post-canon future fic where people aren’t guarding her against herself as much.
I… would very much like to write this, hbkmzk, but I think I need. Hm… if you’re interested in this ‘verse, please send in a follow up prompt of maybe three or four other outside POVs or maybe a few details you’d like to add to this ‘verse or even a cool title/quote? Or, like, just ask me a few questions about this ‘verse and me coming up with the answers should be able to do the same. It’s like… this fic is almost there but I just need a few more pieces for that final push.
~
Help me out with this ficlet/check out the Ask Box Would You Ever!
Would u ever write yoshino and sasuke interacting? Weather its canon dos or an au his ever so slow intergation into the nara fam is smth about alot
Yeeeeees. Yes I would.
I think really the only hesitation is that I’m not sure, as you mentioned, which ‘verse it should be in?
They have/would have a very interesting dynamic given that Sasuke deliberately curated his existence around his clan (or lack thereof) while Yoshino is a non-clan kunoichi married into one. It’s very different backgrounds. But they are united in their love/concern for Shikako which I imagine helps cross that bridge. And I think because of that, Yoshino helps Sasuke be himself as a person and not just the heir to a clan of madness and murder.
Which–that boy very much needs any help he can get.
That being said, here’s some small ficlets in various ‘verses because… funsies.
~
(DoS canon compliant)
Yoshino watches the boy, watches as he tries–so hesitant, so clumsy–to play along with her daughter’s whimsical mood. It is a bittersweet feeling, more bitter than sweet to be fair, that burbles up within her.
She smiles and tries to make sure there is no sadness on her face.
A part of her is ashamed. The Last Uchiha is not a person: the Last Uchiha is a symbol, an ideal, a risk in the making. The Last Uchiha certainly isn’t a child who doesn’t remember what it’s like to have family dinners. The Last Uchiha isn’t a younger brother who never learned to stand up for himself. The Last Uchiha couldn’t be this boy in her house so broken and scared but trying, trying so hard, in need of just one person to look beyond that title and see the truth.
There was no Last Uchiha, there was only Sasuke, struggling under the burden of his name.
Yoshino draws closer, places a hand on Shikako’s shoulder–a close yet not close enough proxy for the comforting hug she wants to give to her daughter’s teammate instead. Sasuke still startles at affection, though at least he no longer looks as hunted as used to in the beginning.
“Will you be staying over for dinner?” Yoshino asks, no pressure one way or the other. Still, he dithers, and so she has to add, “I bought some wonderful fresh tomatoes at the market.”
Neither her husband or any of her children have any strong feelings for tomatoes.
After another considering beat, Sasuke nods.
///
Something about the situation still sits uneasily with Yoshino, even though she’s received assurances from everyone involved.
Fugaku and Mikoto are kinder than she had expected–than she had feared–polite nearly to the point of stiffness, but just as shocked by the proposal as she and Shikaku had been. Originally they were suspicious–perhaps they had heard about Shikako’s hypersensitivity–but soon enough they became not only accepting but excited… relieved?… at the idea.
Shikaku, she knows, only wants what is best for their daughter. He has no doubt run through all the possible outcomes and decided that if this is something Shikako wants–and it is, even after the tediousness of the discussions, something their daughter wants–then of course he will do his best to arrange this engagement.
Never mind their own rocky history with such things. Never mind that Shikako is still a child and yet devoted to this plan with a steely determination that has nothing to do with a newly blossoming crush.
Sasuke is a good boy, sweet and intelligent. He may one day be a good husband; Yoshino would understand her daughter having a crush on him. But Sasuke as a person barely seems to factor into the equation at all.
“Hello, Yoshino-san,” Sasuke greets her when she opens the door. She guides him inside and prepares some tea while he waits for Shikako. He is shy and a little nervous and halfway in love with her daughter already.
“Take care of your heart,” Yoshino says, warns, but does not ward off: she may be fond of Sasuke but Shikako is her daughter.
“Not Shikako’s?” Sasuke asks, innocently curious.
She shakes her head. No, it’s not her heart that Yoshino is worried about.
///
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Yoshino-san says, and Sasuke glances up at her confused.
They are sitting at Shikako’s hospital bedside–a distressingly frequent settings for them–and until this moment Yoshino-san has been silent. Even during Tsunade-sama’s explanation, right before the Hokage left to deal with–in her words–literally any other patient.
“You don’t think they’re beautiful?” Yoshino-san asks, prompting Sasuke into responding lest he be considered rude.
“Think what is beautiful?”
Yoshino-san eyes him carefully and Sasuke has to remember to keep breathing: it’s far from hostile, but the assessing gaze is different than what he’s used to from Shikako. Similar to Shikamaru’s pointed analysis.
“Tsunade-sama’s wings, of course,” Yoshino-san says simply, as if she weren’t turning his world on its ear.
During his occasional research he was never able to find even a reference to the wings–for her to just casually mention them…
“You can see them, too?”
… he’s not alone.
~
Would you ever write a fic set in the “(They Call It) Soulless” ‘verse? (Caretaker!Shikako in a universe where most people start getting soulmarks as babies, blanks are either killed as babies or monstrously consume spiritual energy/souls from everyone around (including themselves), and she discovers her younger brother Shikamaru is a blank the night their parents die. She feeds him (eventually, recycles) her own spiritual energy and hides the truth of his condition from everyone, including him.
Whoa! O_O Okay! I… did not know this ‘verse existed… let me go check that out real quick. I mean, I know about Caretaker!Shikako, but not about this particular iteration of it so… wow.
To the index page I go~~
…
Okay dona, I had to do some sleuthing because soulmate/soul mark stuff is no longer on the main index page since it’s become it’s own forum thread, but I thiiiink I’ve found what you’re talking about over on this index post.
Are there only the three installments? If not, uh… then this answer is only based on these three installments:
OH MY GOD. OOOOOOOOHHHHH MYYYYYYY GOOOOOOODDD!!!
DONA! WHAT?!?!!? DONA WHAT?!?!?! DONA WHAT DID YOU MAKE ME READ? WHAT ARE THESE FEELINGS YOU MADE ME FEEL? WHY AM I CRYING?!?! GODDAMNIT, DONA!
The feels! You always know how to get me with them feels, dona.
I’m gonna say yes, because it is an amazing ‘verse, and because I’ve said yes, here is your ficlet:
~
The first time Kako agrees to take a mission that will bring her more than a day away from Konoha (away from Kamaru) she is fourteen years old.
She is fourteen when she meets–and fights and kills–her first (real) Soulless.
The gnawing, gaping hunger claws at her even as she fights, even as she burns away at its empty vessel. It is excruciating, her teammates have fallen, screaming, the agony of their souls being torn out of them, breath into the void. She thinks, for the briefest of moments, that she might finally understand why there is a set procedure for babies without soul marks .
But she immediately bats the betrayal away, shreds it before it can take hold. It is because of Kamaru that she can pull through. The thought of Kamaru, figuratively and literally:
She cannot die out here, not when Kamaru still needs her, not when she hasn’t figured out a cure not yet.
But also the way Kamaru needs her, the manipulation of her own spiritual energy to sustain him, recycling it out and through and back in, that she can withstand what the rest of her squad cannot.
Genma-taicho bursts through the treetops, hoping for the best but expecting the worst and gets something in between.
She is fourteen years old when she earns her first service ribbon for surviving (killing) a Soulless.
It is not her last.
—
Genma keeps a better eye out for Kako Kinokawa after that. Guilt at first, then curiosity, then honest fondness.
Chouza-sensei was friends with her father, which in the convoluted bonds of Konoha teams, makes her something like a cousin.
A better cousin, hopefully, though considering his competition in the Nara clan… it’s not exactly difficult.
—
The second time goes, arguably, both worse and better.
Worse because she makes the mistake of letting it touch her. She screams.
She cares less about the nails tearing across her face and more about the way her life essence is being peeled away in vicious layers.
She kills it. (She has to)
Nobody (else) dies.
—
Gai’s specialty is taijutsu.
He is ineffective against Soulless.
But he was as much a student of Chouza-sensei as Genma, and just because he cannot help Kako in this matter does not mean he cannot help her at all.
—
The third she doesn’t remember so well.
“Severe head trauma,” the medic tells her when she wakes up in Konoha General, that stupidly familiar box with a stupidly familiar service ribbon on the night stand beside her and Kamaru curled up on the visitor’s chair, his hand gripped tight around hers.
“It must have been worse than previously reported,” the medic continues, “It took you much longer to wake up than expected. Your brother visited every day.”
Kako can only remember bits and pieces of the mission, much less the fight with the Soulless.
Spiritual energy contains memories.
The third she remembers mostly as a catalyst: she has to improve her control, it must be perfect–no, beyond perfect–she has to be able to do it unconsciously.
—
Jiraiya returns to the village a few months ahead of schedule.
It’s hard to follow up on rumors of Konoha’s enemies when all everyone wants to talk about is the shinobi from Konoha who specializes in killing Soulless, so he may as well meet her for himself.
Better now than later.
—
For one horrific, heart wrenching second, she thinks the Soulless screeching across her senses from the Forest of Death is Kamaru.
It can’t be, she tries to reason with herself, he can last so much longer now, it’s only been a few days.
A few days of exertion. Of high stress situations and jutsu use. He’d eat through the energy she gave him at a much faster rate.
No! It’s not Kamaru. It’s not. She won’t let it be
She enters the Forest of Death, Anko and ANBU on her trail, but until she locks eyes on the Soulless, she’s sickened, doesn’t know if she’ll be able to go through with it.
It’s not Kamaru. She knew it.
But Kamaru is there, too close for her comfort, frozen the way the other kiddies of Konoha are (she forgets, sometimes, that not everyone has built up the same resistance she has.)
It’s wearing the Oto headband, the soulless husks of its former teammates already collapsed around it.
She doesn’t hesitate.
—
Long ago, Orochimaru was just a little boy, smart and, more importantly, curious about how the world worked.
But then his parents died and instead he turned inward. Surely, there must be a better way to solve the problem of Soulless?
(Does this sound at all familiar?)
—
She feels bad about dragging TenTen into the fifth.
She hopes TenTen’s first service ribbon is her only service ribbon.
No one else should have to go through what Kako has.
—
After Tsunade is sworn in, she gets a breakdown of her forces. For genin and chuunin it’s enough to know them as rough figures per department–she’ll familiarize herself with them as needed, she doesn’t have the time to go further than that–but for those ranked higher than that, she needs to know the individuals and their specialties to effectively utilize them. Thankfully, most shinobi only get up to chuunin, and so the list of tokujou and jounin is not too long.
For the most part, the specialties are to be expected: a few medics, a few genjutsu users, some intel, some sensors.
“What is this?” Tsunade asks, finger tapping next to Kinokawa, Kako. She doesn’t recognize the symbol beside it–it might be a new one, it has been a few decades since she’s had to actually do paperwork.
Her Jounin Commander, a Nara of course, scans where she points. A furrow between his eyebrows appears then disappears, quick as a flash.
“Slayer,” Nara says, because why use a full sentence when a single word is much less troublesome? “Five Soulless,” he elaborates.
Tsunade blinks in surprise. With that context in mind, she takes a closer look. She remembers the tales her grandmother used to tell her as a child.
Not a new symbol, no.
An old one.
—
Konoha deals with the problem of infants-born-Soulless in the traditional, practical manner as it always has.
But there were Soulless before that.
If Kako is successful, there won’t be any after.
~
A/N: I kinda jumped about in places, so it’s not as coherent or cohesive a ficlet as I would like. I had a lot of different ideas tugging at me for this ‘verse and I also wasn’t sure which iteration of Caretaker!Shikako this was (like her teammates, for example, if this Kako would push so hard and graduation early with Itachi or would she hold back since she has to be able to take care of Kamaru?)
Anyway, I hope you liked it 🙂
Would you ever write that for better for worse/desperate endavours mash up u talked about during the for better for worse brainstorm?
((For Better For Worse brainstorm post))
Ooh, starting off with the hard ones, anon. Hm, to be honest? The heart says yes. The brain says no. And I think given that it shakes out to a maybe, I should at the very least do a brainstorm.
But here’s why the brain says no, first:
A) Ideally, in order to do a mash up of two fics, the two fics should probably be written before doing said mash up – but, I mean, that’s hand waved away because mostly that’s to get the necessary background/premise across and I suppose so long as someone reads the brainstorm first or I insert it into the mash up fic then I should be okay…
B) It’s Kakashi. DOUBLED.
And, okay, so. I love Kakashi. He is my favorite disaster string bean. And I definitely know that he’s internally always mourning and externally irreverently apathetic, but it’s somehow very difficult for me to capture his voice. I know what a good one sounds like when I read (definitely looking at wafflelate/frolic’s Kakashi voice which is phenomenal!) but I can’t quite seem to grasp it for myself.
I mean, those are the main two, really. I have a few more world-building issues… but those are less concerns and more puzzles that I’d happily sink my mental teeth into for a few minutes/hours (primarily how to structure the Tsukuyomi coherently).
…
Now as for a proper brainstorm for the mash up… hm… I don’t know what else would be in this that I haven’t already at least briefly mentioned in either the original FBFW and Desperate Endeavors brainstorms.
Maybe if I do more of an outline storyboard kind of thing?
First Scene: Kakashi, at the beginning of Tsukuyomi, the canon awful experience of being drawn up and stabbed a whole lot by Itachi. And given that this is Kakashi who is like, the worst at not antagonizing people with how casually dismissive he is, no doubt he’s not going to make a sound even if it’s ~LITERAL TORTURE~. That is, until the Itachis announce that they’re going to do it all over again. And at that point Kakashi probably says something like “I’d rather you not.” Or something to that effect, coughed out in bloody gasps but still dryly unimpressed.
Except it’s not just the one Kakashi that says this. It’s BOTH Kakashis. And so Kakashi, the Kakashi that we’ve been in the POV of, finally notices that he’s not the only one getting tortured. End scene.
Second Scene: Flashback. Snippets of canon!Kakashi’s life as he Dreams of DoS!Kakashi’s life. And, like, for a good decade or so after the Dreams start they’re pretty much the same (because I’m gonna go off the idea that Dreams only start happening when an Anomaly, aka Shikako, exists to create a difference between worlds. Or, rather, it starts after the Kyuubi event which most people think is the cause but actually it’s the Shrödinger’s Shikako who died due to Kyuubi chakra exposure in one world but survived in the other because of SQ soul) since Kakashi never directly interacts with Shikako until graduation. But he does see differences between how happy Naruto is, or his occasional interactions with Shikaku vary a bit. And I think actually this first flashback “scene” would end after canon!Kakashi wakes up from Dreaming of his assigned team genin being VERY DIFFERENT.
Third Scene: Both Kakashis, now highly aware (and unimpressed) with each other, sort of plan how to escape. In a version of this torture in which they are by themselves, I don’t think they would bother, but I think being with another person (even if that other person is himself) would sort of spur on his “can’t let anyone else see how much I hate myself and think I deserve awful things” (because Gai once told him that that’s maybe not so good to air out in public and if GAI thinks something shouldn’t be screamed to the village en masse then it’s probably something to be suppressed violently). And at first they don’t quite understand what’s happening (but Kakashi is a very smart string bean) and as soon as one of them says something like–Itachi’s not going to be satisfied with just me. He’ll go after my adorable little genin. And canon!Kakashi would say something like, “Sasuke would throw himself headfirst into this situation.” And DoS!Kakashi responds with something like, “Not if Shikako beats him to it.” Boom. That’s the difference between the two of them.
Fourth Scene: Some more flashbacks from canon!Kakashi’s POV of living in canon but Dreaming of DoS and preferring the latter (because… oh canon… you had so much potential). And however someone with a better Kakashi voice would say he would express (or not) his envy at DoS!Kakashi. And he Dreams of how the Chuunin Exams shook out differently in DoS (although, he did Dream of the warning that Orochimaru was there, so in the month of preparing, he did pass along Shikako’s warning and such so the village does fare off better than actual!canon). And I think there’s definitely some canon Kakashi and Sasuke training where they both wake up from Dreaming out in the desert and stoically don’t mention how in their Dreams yesterday Shikako trained with them. Anyway, etc. etc. The morning before Itachi arrives to ruin everything, canon!Kakashi wakes up from a Dream and idly wishes that he could meet Shikako. He is about to get that wish.
Fifth Scene: The Kakashis, both being geniuses (genii?) even better than Itachi (also, these Itachis are weird pre-programmed automatons so they’re especially inferior) do manage to escape. Now they just have to find their adorable students. Canon!Kakashi tries not to passive aggressive too much about HOW DARE DOS!KAKASHI PUT SHIKAKO IN DANGER SHE’S PROBABLY THE BEST THING THAT’S HAPPENED TO HIM IN LITERAL DECADES, but DoS!Kakashi is just like. Hypocritical much? I don’t know. I’d use the word snark, but that seems too friendly for where they’re at right now. And arguing is a little too active. Sniping at each other, maybe? I dunno. But that segues straight into…
Sixth Scene: Shikako, seven years old, running away from an Itachi automaton.
(It’s at this point where I’m not sure if I would switch POVs to see what Shikako did to escape her torture bubble or stick to the canon!Kakashi POV since that’s what the past five scenes have been. But regardless of if it’s show via Shikako’s POV or tell to canon!Kakashi’s POV, it kind of is just that Shikako and Sasuke’s torture bubbles were near each other (since they were intended to be the same thing) and like with the Kakashis Shikako could hear Sasuke. Unfortunately, Sasuke–being the traumatized literal child that he is–couldn’t hear Shikako. So Shikako could “escape” her torture bubble, but when she tried to break Sasuke out of his, the Itachi automaton programmed to torture her wouldn’t let her. So she was tactically retreating to plan a better attack when she stumbled upon the Kakashis.)
Which then segues into…
Seventh Scene: Story time has delayed all of them and now the horde of Itachi automatons have caught up. At first they try to run, but eventually the Kakashis have to fight while tossing Shikako back and forth to each other because she is in the body of her 6/7 year old self and has very short legs. canon!Kakshi has a thought, something about how–even though he was berating his DoS self for not protecting her–now that he’s partially responsible for not getting Shikako killed he is absolutely terrified of fucking up. (Because… Kakashi) And a very powerful thought of “I can’t let her die.”
Eight Scene: Flashback. The day after what would have been the family dinner post Wave mission at the Nara household. canon!Kakashi doesn’t mean to loiter outside the Nara clan compound like the most awkward and sad string bean that he is, but he just Dreamt of the best night of his life. He was actually happy. And that hasn’t happened since… shit. Before Obito died? And the Nara guards (or watchers) vaguely understand because it’s no surprise that everyone in the Nara clan Dreams of what it would be like if the daughter had survived and know that Kakashi would have been her teacher, but they don’t exactly know why today he is loitering. Except Yoshino does. And she comes to the gate and invites Kakashi for tea in such a way that he can’t awkwardly run away from, as is his usual response, and so there’s the two of them. Staring at a camera that doesn’t have a picture of DoS Team Seven. It’s all very sad and very lovely.
Ninth Scene: Haha! Tricked you, I just didn’t want to write an entire fight scene. 😛 Anyway, the Kakashis successfully defeat this batch of Itachi automatons but being paranoid for good reason means they suspect that more are incoming. Shikako is a little nauseated from being thrown around like a hot potato during the fight, but she takes charge because otherwise the two Kakashis would get too caught up in their passive aggressive fight to get anything done. They have to figure out how to save Sasuke from his torture bubble.
… and then I would end it here because open endings are cool… and also it’s at this point that I have no idea what to do next. I mean do they save Sasuke immediately or do they have to outsmart the Itachi automatons because they’re all acting the way the immune system does.
Basically I’m trying to figure out whether or not they should have Sasuke with them while they go around on their information scavenger hunt. Would it be better to for Sasuke to know that Danzo ordered the Uchiha Massacre because they were planning a coup? Or is it something that canon!Kakashi has to decide whether or not to share? (Oh god, Kakashi is going to fuck this decision up real bad no matter what he chooses)
~
Legends of Sunshine (2018-02-09)
Three-Sentence Fic: Hibiki and the Kuwabara Clan
~
Her earliest days are spent quietly in the corner of various rooms of the onsen depending on who is available to watch her. Or, at least, anyone who is not too busy with their own duties to keep an occasional eye out for a single child prone to silent daydreaming.
Hibiki grows up as isolated a person can while being a member of a clan nearly one hundred strong.
—
The problem is that the nearest in age to her are either infants–too small and young to provide much in the way of playmates–or away in the village, soon to be genin and functional adults in the eyes of shinobi culture.
Between the one child who will soon be off to the academy anyway and the five babies who require near constant monitoring, it is no surprise which the clan caretaker prioritizes.
Still, it’s a little lonely.
—
Or perhaps the problem is her parents: so successful yet so far away. Her mother, Tamaki, the clan’s representative in the capitol–fierce and graceful, both–her father, Mitsuru, mostly brilliant, sometimes absentminded, but always devoted to his wife.
But if them being in the capitol is what is best for the clan, then of course that is what is best for her.
—
Hibiki is four years old when she chooses Shokupan… or when Shokupan chooses her.
To this day they can’t quite agree.
Regardless, it is the best day of their lives.
—
(The day they meet Suki is a close second, but that is a story for another time)
—
Before she goes to the academy, Hibiki meets her uncle Atsushi just the once.
She is trying to sneak an entire watermelon out of the kitchens for Shokupan, who is far too fat and spoiled already, the shape of it bulging unconvincingly under her shirt.
She is not sure who is more surprised, but she is certain that she’s been caught, wide-eyed and ready to drop her ill gotten gains–but all he does, besides huff a soft, amused laugh, is pat her on the head and continue on his way.
—
The next time they meet is a decade later:
She is a fully fledged genin of Takigakure, contributing in her own way to the Kuwabara clan.
And he is the head of said clan, informing her that she is one of the candidates to become his heir.
—
Hibiki loves her clan–how could she not? They have given her everything, have given her Shokupan, have given her what she needs to become a successful shinobi; one who will be strong enough to see a world she had only ever daydreamed of as that small, lonely child.
Hibiki loves her clan–this is not the problem.
~
A/N: Some three sentence fic about Hibiki and her clan for the Legends of Sunshine RPG.
… I also only now realize that Hibiki and Haru of (En)Closure have the same last name… hm…
JackSGreyson Says 