Tag: naruto

All You Have To Do (Is Stay), Chapter 1 (2018-02-07)

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Chapter 1: Settling In (For The Long Haul)

—

The first day Shikako wakes up in the Fire Temple dormitories is a Tuesday.

She is, depending on how one counts it, both five years old and twenty years old. If her existence continues the way it has since being reborn (and reborn and reborn and reborn) she’ll be simultaneously twelve and forty eight by the time the events of the story she knows will come to pass. In this lifetime she has said goodbye to Konoha, to her family, and to any culpability for what will happen in the future–she has removed herself from the situation entirely. Or so she hopes.

Still, being free from the fetters of canon does not mean this life will be a vacation. She is serious about learning the ways of the Fire monks, ready to do whatever is needed to prove herself as an initiate. As is, she has her work cut out for her:

She is, it seems, an anomaly amongst the novices. Most of her peers are orphans or from impoverished families who cannot afford to feed them. They are not forced into monasticism–it is a satisfactory, if repetitive way of life–but considering the other option for most them are to live on the streets and starve, well.

In contrast, she had a family who could take care of her. The resources and opportunities to do near anything she pleased, anything else besides become a monk. Not much guessing is needed to see why her choice to join the temple is bewildering. Frustrating, to some.

Of course, that shouldn’t matter–or so says Sister Annai, the monk in charge of guiding novices, “The past is to be learned from,” she says to the group of five year olds facing the first day of the rest of their lives, “not held against each other. Here, we are family. Here, we are the same. It is through unity that we achieve enlightenment.”

Some of her fellow novices seem mesmerized or, at the very least, captivated by the thought of family. Shikako tries not to feel too skeptical about this speech. She is, after all, here to learn, and surely doubting Sister Annai’s words will only make her stand out more.

“At this time you are separate, unconnected; different backgrounds and experiences causing conflict between you and others. But today you all start on the same path, together. And tomorrow and everyday after that you will wake up and continue on that same path, together.”

It’s overall a nice sentiment, though a little concerning in some places. She’s not sure how much the other novices have absorbed, given they are actually children and not whatever she is stuck in a child’s body, but probably it is a message that will be repeated in the future.

That night, after a full day of learning what will eventually become routine, Shikako goes to sleep in the Fire Temple dormitories. It is Tuesday.

The next day she wakes up in Konoha, in her bedroom next to Shikamaru’s. It is Tuesday. (Again.)

So much for waking up tomorrow on the same path as everyone else.

—

The next three days–all of them Tuesdays. (All of them the same Tuesday)–are practically identical.

She may be able to change what she does–what clothes she wears, what books she reads, what she doodles in the margins of her notes during class–but that does not change what happens around her. Mum will burst into her room at the same exact time, Shikamaru will make the same exact complaining quip about mornings, and Iruka-sensei will give the same exact lesson about the geography of the Elemental Nations.

The first time around is the easiest, everything is honestly new to her, and so she reacts honestly. The first time around she is startled by Mum’s loud entry, wrangling herself into clothes as Mum does the same to Shikamaru next door. The first time around she laughs at Shikamaru’s complaining, responds with a one liner of her own. The first time around she… well, the lesson on geography is boring no matter which lifetime it is–she read about that months (years?) ago–but the first time around she at least tries to pretend she’s paying attention to Iruka-sensei.

The second time around her reactions are different. In bed she’s rolled up into a ball, head under her pillow, muffling Mum’s entry–it’s not her scolding that gets Shikako up but the sudden lack of blanket and pillow, vanished with a no-nonsense tug. On their way to the Academy, she will laugh at Shikamaru’s complaint but offer nothing else in return. In class, she reads a book on medicinal herbs and what regions they can be found and figures it is close enough.

The third time around…

Mum opens the door, reprimand on her tongue, only to find that Shikako is already dressed. Shikamaru’s complaint gets a short sigh in response. Iruka-sensei’s lesson is accompanied by the soft snores of not one but both Nara twins.

This is not fair to anyone. This is not sustainable.

It was easier before. Without the structure of the Academy, the only people she were beholden to were her family and, later, Chouji through Shikamaru. Her parents did not particularly mind if she read one book instead of another. Once she made sure she didn’t interfere with Shikamaru befriending Chouji in all of her lifetimes, they were willing enough to cloudwatch in different spots.

Even with the Fire Temple being her source of novelty in her quadrupled existence–ironic the thought may be, considering every day at the Fire Temple is designed to be the same–three times a lifetime of more and more people doing the same exact thing is unbearable.

She needs to make another, bigger change.

—

The opportunity, horrifyingly enough, presents itself on Friday, three days (almost two weeks) after she both did and did not become a Fire Temple monk:

Itachi Uchiha picks up his little brother from the Academy.

Well, she did want to make a big change; Shikako walks up to the most lethal and stressed out preteen ever and introduces herself.

She has less than two years (eight years?) to stop the Uchiha Massacre.

~

A/N: … my spite is dwindling which is now both a good and bad thing? I mean, being spiteful isn’t exactly ideal, but it was such a good motivator! Aaaaah, we’ll see what happens… I’m sure I’ll probably get frustrated again soon enough. It is that time of year so…

edit: I realize now that this naming/numbering system might be confusing. This is Chapter 1, yes, but there is a Prologue before this that should hopefully make things clearer!

All You Have To Do (Is Stay), Prologue (2018-02-06)

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Prologue: Waking Up (Is Hard To Do)

—

All humans in the final moments of their lives are united by a single thought: I want to live.

This is not always actually true. Sometimes it is just the body hijacking the brain, a visceral desire to survive; a last ditch effort to spur a person into moving, into healing, anything for a few moments more. Other times it is fear of the unknown. What happens after death is a mystery, after all, and surely better the suffering we know than one we do not. And other times still it is just a person’s earthly attachments that make them cling in that final way–who will feed my cat, my best friend’s birthday is this weekend, my family will be devastated–but those slip away easily.

However, sometimes it is true. Sometimes a person will want to live. Sometimes a person dies before they think it is their time and they will want, wholeheartedly, to remain in the world of the living as terrible and wretched as it may be.

Some people are lucky and they get what they want: an ambulance with sirens screaming, EMTs surrounding them lifting them up, telling them it will be okay. Gurney wheeled down a hallway with lights so bright it sears their eyes, doctors and nurses yelling across to each other incomprehensible acronyms and numbers, the codes for a miracle.

Despite all this, it could be for naught. Monitors flatlined, a single resounding tone in a bubble of silence.

Some people are lucky and they get what they want, if only for a few moments.

Some people are unlucky and get what they want for lifetimes after that.

—

Shikako wakes up after dying and it is one of the worst experiences of her life.

She will not realize the irony of this thought for some time.

Of course, she does not yet know that her name is Shikako, either, only knows of who she was before she died and those awful moments during her death. Waking up after that is much like it, blind and bewildered, uncomfortable to the point of screaming and, seemingly, endless.

It will take her a while to figure out that she has been reborn–reincarnated to be more accurate–it will take her a little while longer to figure out she has been reborn four times.

Infancy is monotonous and drags on for a small eternity. Quadruple it? It is no surprise that when the opportunity came to make changes to her life, she took it.

She knows where and when she is–how could she not with Shikamaru right there, the biggest and most important piece of the puzzle–and sure it is fine to make little changes to her days, different clothes and drawings and books to read, but it is not enough. She is reliving a lie four times over and she just wants something for herself.

She has four lives, surely she’s allowed to be selfish in one of them. Selfish and afraid for she knows what is coming, what dangers await in the lifestyle of her family.

But she loves chakra too much to give it up, and that is its own kind of selfishness.

And so when the time comes, it is not a choice between Shogakkou and the Academy.

No, Shogakkou was never an option.

When the time comes, she makes the same choice three times. And a different choice entirely just once:

For once in Shikako Nara’s bizarrely quadrupled existence, she wakes up in a place entirely new. In one of Shikako Nara’s four lifetimes, she decides to become a monk of the Fire Temple.

—

She made one selfish, safe choice and when she wakes up the next day back in Konoha she immediately feels guilty. She knows what is coming and isn’t it her moral responsibility to do what she can to alleviate the suffering of those around her? How could she just run away like that?

But that decision has been made. Doesn’t mean she can’t make more–and, for all that this new quadrupled existence is its own kind of hell, there is a upside to it. She can make a very different choice and still stick to her previous one without any conflicts.

In this lifetime she chooses to do everything in her power to fix what she can.

It’ll be two years, a graduation, and arguably the worst genin team placement ever before she regrets this.

—

The differences between the remaining two lifetimes come about not out of any deliberate decisions on her part. It just makes sense to use her quadrupled existence efficiently, is all.

In one lifetime she is learning the ways of a Fire Temple monk, complete with their own unique techniques and traditions. In another she is already graduated, just the newest in Konoha’s long history of prodigies, completing D-ranks alongside Kabuto Yakushi of all people and trying not to give up any of her many secrets.

In the remaining two, she gets bored easily. Self-study helps with that. And it just makes sense to split up subjects: medicine and genjutsu in one lifetime, ninjutsu and sealing in the another. It also doesn’t hurt that, in the first, she actually pays attention to lessons; awake and, if not eager, then interested to learn what she had passed up for the Fire Temple and early graduation. In the second, those lectures are redundant, but she is much better during taijutsu spars–knowing what her opponent will do before they do makes it so easy, even if it does seem like cheating.

The Academy, despite all their faults, does actually try to make genin teams based on what they think would be best for their students.

It is only somewhat of a surprise when, in one lifetime, Shikako is put on Team One with a Nohara and one of the few boys in the class to show potential in genjutsu.

It’s a much more substantial surprise when, the next day and a lifetime over, she’s put on Team Seven instead.

—

All humans at the end of their lives think: I want to live.

Nobody suspects it might be granted like this.

~

A/N: Apparently spite-writing is a thing, because I’m still a little angry from yesterday and I’m just like… well… you don’t like this thing I worked hard on? I’M GONNA WRITE STUFF THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR SHOW!

So… here you go. 

I was narcissistically reading through some of my older brainstorms and happened upon the All You Have To Do (Is Stay) post and since the Guide series is also about a dimension-hopping Shikako (though in an entirely different way) I guess my brain was in the right state to tackle it.

I wrote it on google docs first before transferring it here (as opposed to my usual method of writing on a Sticky and transferring) and I guess there’s something to be said about using a different medium because there’s a slight difference in style.

Maybe I’ll experiment with this?

Character Statistics: (In)Difference, Team Nobori

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Genin

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Chuunin

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Jounin

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Mikoto

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Kushina

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Hizashi

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~

A/N: aka Team Pretty Longhaired Parents. Nobori = banner/flag or, alternatively, rising/ascending (completely different kanji, of course) which just feels right.

aka Team Kiyoshi for (in)Difference purposes, because the idea of Kiyoshi having to deal with these three as bratty preteens is hilarious to me.

For Konoha Team Designation purposes, I think they’re either a Team Two or a Team Nine (not for pun reasons, unfortunately). Neither Mikoto or Hizashi are “heavy-hitter” level, and while Kushina DEFINITELY is, I don’t think the village (at this point in time) wants to throw their only jinchuuriki/Uzumaki into the middle of battle. And besides I’m pretty sure Team Jiraiya (that is, the genin team that Minato was on) would have been the Team Seven of their generation?

I’ll admit I cheated a little bit by using each of their respective sons’ stats as a base and then tweaking as needed.

Also, not that this is really all that important, but I imagine these points in time being right at the beginning of their genin/chuunin/jounin careers. So, more accurately, the “Genin” stats are when they graduate from the Academy. “Chuunin” stats are when they first get promoted to chuunin, same with jounin. So the 29/29.5 of their “Jounin” stats are not their peak abilities.

Shikako Nara’s Guide To Delinquency and Military Insurrection, 2/? (2018-02-03)

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(Rule Two: those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash)

Mikoto is checking the perimeter.

Checking the perimeter–ha! what an unnecessary thing to do with a Hyuuga on her team. The last time she actually checked the perimeter was probably during practice missions in the Academy, before she got assigned on a team with one of strongest Byakugan users and a chakra sensor whose range is only rivaled by her insane capacity.

Even with the near endless amount of ROOT teams after them, blank porcelain masks to match their blank emotionless faces, there’s no real reason for Mikoto to check the perimeter.

As if it weren’t just an excuse to get some space from her teammates, just a moment of manufactured solitude to breath and enjoy the cool, quiet night air and internally freak the fuck out over her life choices.

Defect from Konoha?! What the fuck was she thinking? She spent YEARS proving her worth to her assbackwards, misogynistic clan elders–clawing her way up to a jounin ranking despite their opinions about retiring at chuunin to bear children and contribute to the clan–and… well, actually, put like that it’s maybe more of a surprise that she didn’t defect earlier.

But she was willing to put up with all that bullshit because she did, despite the elders, love her clan and her village. She loved being a shinobi of Konoha.

But she loves her friends more.

Even when it’s been nearly a month on the run from Creepy Councilor Shimura’s hunter-nins trying to drag them back for, no doubt, imprisonment and torture and experimentation and, eventually, execution.

For her and Hizashi, at least. Konoha’s not going to execute their only Uzumaki and jinchuuriki.

But just because Konoha would never kill Kushina, doesn’t mean they would never hurt her. Or haven’t ever done so before.

And Hizashi may be one of the strongest Byakugan users in the village, one of the Hyuuga clan head’s sons even, but he’s not the right son. Not the one who lucked into the Main Family, free from a slavery seal that could and would be used against him. By his own clan.

By his own twin brother.

And of course, Kushina couldn’t leave that alone. And no one has ever built a seal that a trained Uzumaki didn’t consider absolute child’s play.

But every action has its consequences–it seems like these past few months have been nothing but dealing with consequences–and now they’re on the run from creepy Councilor Shimura’s minions in the middle of nowhere chasing some rumors about some other Uzumaki in the hopes that…

In the hopes of what?

This other Uzumaki will see Kushina and fall over themselves to welcome a long lost relative? Haven’t they just escaped from a village full of awful relatives?

And even if this other Uzumaki were the welcoming sort, whose to say they’d even be powerful enough to protect them from the full wrath of Konoha?

Mikoto loves her village, she does, even now, but Konoha–for all their reputation as the friendly one–is not one for mercy.

A part of her foolishly, futilely, wishes for their jounin sensei. Wishes that Kiyoshi-sensei were still alive to make everything better–to sweep in and make the problem go away with a few select whispers in certain ears and a convoluted exchange of favors amongst the village’s different departments.

But they are far from Konoha, further still from being those silly little genin trailing admiringly in their sensei’s wake, and anyway how selfish is she? She should be wishing that Kiyoshi-sensei were still alive for little Kakashi’s sake, not to cover up for their own grown-ass mistakes.

Although, if Mikoto is being honest, she’d probably do the same exact thing because  she does, actually, love her friends.

It’s a presence more than a sound that catches her attention, and her hypervigilance has her activating her Sharingan immediately.

The girl who steps into her line of sight is not a ROOT agent–or if she is, she’s a level higher than the rest–because her facial features shift into an actual human expression. Bizarrely, that expression is an almost sheepish resignation.

Mikoto spots Hizashi lurking in the trees behind their visitor ready to pounce while Kushina comes barreling in with all the subtlety and grace of a wounded water buffalo.

The girl just sighs as if she weren’t surrounded by three Konoha jounin.

Sorry, three former Konoha jounin.

“Okay…” the girl says, not bothered whatsoever, “I was supposed to be on my way to Wind Country right now, but the three of you seem to be in some kind of trouble…”

Mikoto catches the brief flicker of annoyance on Hizashi’s face before he shrugs and drops down to the ground, no use in hiding if she already knows he’s there.

“… and given that I just killed a team of ROOT flunkies who were headed in this direction, and all of your headbands have those super fashionable lines across the leaf, I’m pretty sure I know what the problem is, and I thought I should at the very least offer my services,” the girl rambles on, ignoring the surprised and confused glances Mikoto exchanges with her teammates.

“What are you even talking about?” Kushina asks, patience finally giving way to frustration.

Now it’s the girl’s turn to look surprised and confused. She looks at them like they should already know:

“The assassination of Danzo Shimura, of course.”

~

A/N: Shikako just barging and dropping cool one liners and breaking the minds of everyone around her. So hip.

Anyway, just a little personal headcanon for Team… uh… I dunno, Pretty Long-haired Parents. Specifically, Mikoto Uchiha, Hizashi Hyuuga, and Kushina Uzumaki. The timing probably doesn’t work–and Kushina was probably not on a team or Hizashi was on a different team or whatever whatever–but according to SQ “the timeline is made up and facts don’t matter” so I can do whatever I want.

I mean, not as much as Shikako can do whatever she wants, but still.

Speaking of, not that it much matters (I probably could have deleted that paragraph, tbh, but I just wanted it so much) but their jounin sensei is my (In)Difference OC Kiyoshi Utsugi who is also Kakashi’s mom–hence why I tagged it here even if it’s not canon for that either.

I dunno! I just wanted cool team combos!

I’ll probably do a Character Stats post for this bunch also.

Character Statistics: (In)Difference, Team White Fang

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Genin

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Chuunin

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Jounin

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Sakumo Hatake

Hozue Kedouin

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Atsumi Kurama

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~

A/N: So I wrote this thing about that mission that Sakumo went on that was doomed to fail and thus start a war and I had to make teammates for him, and I already headcanon-ed that his teammates on that doomed mission were also his genin teammates (which is why he was especially reluctant to let them die for the mission). And then I got very fond of the OCs I made for Sakumo’s teammates and what kind of people they must have been (and why they distanced themselves from him after he saved their lives). And while I haven’t written for (In)Difference recently, I figured it would be a good idea to make the teammates more concrete, hence these stats.

So, introducing Hozue Kedouin of an anime-only clan of face copiers/shape shifters and Atsumi Kurama of another anime-only clan of genjutsu specialists.

I thought it would be interesting if, part of the reason why Sakumo was so famous individually–along with him just being a VERY good shinobi, that is–was if both of his teammates just specialized in essentially being invisible. His role on the team is as the obvious tank-y heavy-hitter while his teammates are more behind the scenes and sneaky. Unsure if this makes them a Team Two or a Team Five, according to my list of Konoha Team Designations, but I quite liked the set up and I think I’m going to keep it as such until otherwise disproven by canon (and even then, I may just ignore canon).

I mean, he IS a consistently “better” shinobi than both of his teammates and (if you’ll compare to the character stat posts for the Sannin and Team TenChiKoku) others in his generation as per canon (he individually had a reputation as strong as the Sannin during the Second War) but mostly because he’s very well rounded. He doesn’t fall into the trap of “specializing” in any given direction and also he’s just very good physically.

Shikako Nara’s Guide To Delinquency and Military Insurrection, 1/? (2018-01-28)

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(Rule One: No Dying)

Sakumo represses a grunt of pain as he drops to the ground, poorly bandaged slashes on his back throbbing to the rhythm of his own heartbeat. This sucks. This mission sucks. They might actually die this time

“Well if you think that then we’re definitely fucked,” Hozue murmurs in her own voice. Which only goes to show how well and truly fucked they are–the Kedouin clan’s identity copying techniques are flawless… within a certain duration of time.

Hozue is the clan’s pride and joy: she can maintain an identity for almost two weeks.

This mission was supposed to be five days.

“You’re both terrible,” Atsumi complains. This is not unusual. Atsumi is always complaining. She enjoys it. Especially when she hasn’t slept for nearly seventy two hours. But that’s what she gets for being one of the best–the only and true best, sorry–genjutsu user in the village, “You’re both terrible,” she repeats, “and I can’t believe I’m going to die with you.”

“You’re not going to die with us,” Sakumo says, never mind his own earlier prediction.

Hozue snorts, “Yeah, Atsumi, you’re not going to die with us,” She looks at Sakumo with the wrong eyes in the wrong face, but her voice is as clear and certain as ever, “You’re going to die with me. One of us can still complete this mission if the other two act as decoys… and only one of us has a kid back home.”

Sakumo bares his teeth–lupine habit, as if he could bite into the thought and squeeze the life out of it. Yes, he has a son at home–a son with no mother, no real pack to watch over him–but ever since their genin years he has been the protector of the team.

He cannot just abandon that. Them.

In another universe–in many other universes–he doesn’t. He will think he has found a way to win this impossible situation, to protect his teammates and return to his son. He will fail the mission, bringing all three of them home, only to find that he has started a war. His teammates will distance themselves from him, his son will be ashamed of him, and he will think there is only one way to redeem his honor.

In these universes, he will never know that their mission was always going to fail. That his team was sent on a mission designed to fail from the start because someone in the village wanted a war.

In a few universes he makes a different choice. In these few universes he still will not abandon his teammates, but he will agree that one of them could complete the impossible mission through the sacrifice of the others:

Hozue might return and take Kakashi under her wing for a brief, blessed, bizarre few months, before being sent out on yet another mission. She will not trust these people on her team, and she is right not to–Hozue dies from a sword through the back. The mission fails, the war starts.

Atsumi might return to the village terribly suspicious of all the issues that cropped up during the mission that killed her friends. For her teammate’s son’s safety, she does not get close to him but she makes sure he is cared for. She gets very close to the truth before dying of natural causes.

In even fewer universes, he makes yet a different choice to complete the mission at the cost of his convictions… only to be ambushed on the way home by shinobi in blank masks who will take advantage of his lone and weakened state. They will return to Konoha and report to their master who will send them on yet another mission to start his war.

For the most part, no versions of this story end happily. But this particular universe is not one of those versions.

“Huh,” says a completely unfamiliar voice from beyond Atsumi’s genjutsu. All three of them turn to look, startled.

It is a girl, barely a teenager, in a practical shinobi outfit and shadows across her face despite the angle of the light. She is, impossibly, staring at all three of them.

“I think this is the earliest I’ve ever been,” she says, which doesn’t explain anything but isn’t exactly threatening. Sakumo lurches into an awkward crouch between the stranger and his team anyway.

The girl tilts her head to the side, considering, before nodding to herself. “I could use a few tour guides,” it’s such a ludicrous non sequitur that for a moment the three of them have no idea how to respond.

“Well come on, let’s go stop a war.”

~

A/N: Inspired by wafflelate’s The Many Gardens of Shikabane-hime in which Shikako travels through a bunch of dimensions in a (futile?) attempt to get back home and wreaks havoc and acts of anti-Danzo destruction on par with natural disasters. She has an undeniable fond spot for Kakashi in both of wafflelate’s threads, so I figure it might extend a little bit to Hatake version 1.0.

I’m pretty sure future installments will be other teams’ near misses because of my commitment issues. Though I am weirdly fond of this team for all that I made up two of them just now: Hozue Kedouin–the Kedouin Clan is an anime-only clan of face copiers/shape shifters who I’ve tweaked to be much cooler than canon, and Atsumi Kurama of the same minor genjutsu clan that Yakumo is part of, yes.

I had considered a Nohara, but then I’d have to deal with the sudden feels that crop up of the idea that in a better world Kakashi and Rin would have been raised like cousins or something if Sakumo had a Nohara teammate.

And I mostly like the idea that Sakumo is by default the most truthful of his team because he’s the only one whose clan abilities have nothing to do with deception. And, also, him being the Kiba to Hozue’s Hinata and Atsumi’s Shino, kind of. I DUNNO?!

Ascendant (2018-01-24)

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Tobirama-sensei chooses Hiruzen and something you didn’t even know existed within you shatters.

Everything after that is just collateral damage.

—

The first is an accident.

Or, at least, that’s what the report will say.

A training accident, two wartime soldiers unable to readjust to peacetime sparring.

A misunderstanding, you say, still covered in your teammate’s blood. You thought it was a genjutsu, luring you into a false sense of security.

It’s not completely improbable, is the thing. Kagami is–was–the most mischievous of the now disassembled Team Tobirama, with a flare for genjutsu and tricks. A smile and bright captivating eyes that had nothing to do with the Sharingan.

An Uchiha that even the most stalwart Senju trusted.

The first is an accident.

Decades down the line, you’re not certain if that’s true anymore.

—

Second and third are easy, the wrong words whispered at the right time.

You are not the only one who got skipped over.

Why Hiruzen? How is he more worthy than us? Were we not all students of the Hokage?

Politics, you’ll hiss at them, a blade sliding between ribs right into their hearts.

An enticing weapon, but ultimately a trap.

Shisui’s eye is a redundancy.

—

Fourth bows out before you can do anything.

Torifu was there during the first, he remembers it as well as you do.

Better maybe.

He steps aside and for that you turn your attention away from him, from his clan, and their vassals.

In your last moments, you will wonder if that was your fatal mistake.

—

For a while, you think that is enough. Prove your worth and sweep away those in front of you, it is only a matter of time before Hiruzen’s weakness provides an opportunity.

But time does not stand still. Soon fifth through seventh arise.

Children, compared to you. Literally. Hiruzen’s students. What do they know of war? Of sacrifice? They do not have the experience.

But youth and talent–and pedigree in young Tsunade’s case–is not something so easily dismissed.

For now you can do nothing–nothing overt, at least–but they are primed to tear themselves apart.

It doesn’t take much to help that along.

—

Eighth, you almost regret.

He is the youngest, certainly, but you were once a child in war–surely if your sensei’s grand nephew were actually worthy, he would have survived.

Perhaps it’s the loss of the Mokuton that you regret.

—

The ninth was never truly a threat, a dreaming boy with no real claim.

But Konoha was built on dreams and you will not let some upstart stand in your way.

—

The White Fang of Konoha, a silly moniker that somehow strikes fear into enemy hearts.

As formidable on his own as Hiruzen’s brats are altogether.

No, this won’t do at all.

It is not enough for him to die, you need to destroy him utterly–his career, his reputation, his spirit.

You are ruthless with the tenth.

—

Every so often, you push them along–fifth and sixth and seventh succumbing to their own flaws–weaknesses that would have been exploited by enemies of Konoha.

Cowardice, fear, so quick to run away from what should be her only priority.

Obsessive and vain, so easy to distract and lead astray.

Foolish and sentimental, desperate for approval.

You are protecting your village by exposing them–what else reason could there be?

—

(You overreached with The Salamander, the man who titled Hiruzen’s students. You thought it would be a simple trade of services, a mutual extermination of brats.

But foreign shinobi are hardly worth the effort; the deal is dropped.

Konoha first.)

—

(Uzushio is a separate matter, but their lives are long and their memories longer.

Mito-sama was always biased against you.

Konoha will never be able to achieve its true potential with them forever poised above.)

—

Time marches on.

You uproot those you can, prune those you can’t, but they sprout like weeds beneath your feet.

That absolute infant that Hiruzen chooses may have made a name for himself during the war, but he is nothing more than dandelion fluff easily blown away in the breeze.

Konoha is better off without him.

—

You remember the first.

Uchiha that even the most stalwart Senju could trust.

There might as well be no more Senju, but the sentiment applies. Shisui follows in Kagami’s footsteps and the clan head’s brat has far too much potential.

You remember the first.

You remember that Konoha was built by two clans.

One is near to extinct. Surely the village can also survive without the other.

—

Hiruzen is old, weighed down by years and loss and having to put on the hat for a second time.

Or so he says.

You wouldn’t know, you’ve never worn it.

He is so completely unaware of all that you do for Konoha, so blind and soft. He walks amongst the villagers, a kindly, foolish grandfather instead of the unyielding pillar of strength that he should be.

He is a disgrace.

(He was your friend, once.

Now he is forever imprisoned within the belly of the Shinigami.)

—

(Kagami was your friend, once, too.)

—

Everything is just collateral damage.

~

A/N: … EURAGHRURH!! I’m disgusted with myself. But, okay, like. This is not meant to be apologetic or sympathizing for Danzo–I literally just wanted to experiment and see if I could get into his headspace and it… I dunno. Did it work? YEURGH, gross gross gross.

Brought about because of the massive hate-on for Danzo that’s going on in the discord, and the ongoing theory that he sabotaged every prospective Hokage candidate in the past fifty years. If it’s not clear who is who: 1 – Kagami Uchiha, 2 – Homura Mitokado, 3 – Koharu Utatane, and 4 – Torifu Akimichi were the other members of Team Tobirama. 5 – Tsunade, 6 – Orochimaru, 7 – Jiraiya. 8 – Nawaki (aka Tsunade’s younger brother). 9 – Dan Katou (aka Tsunade’s boyfriend). 10 – Sakumo Hatake. And then Minato who did succeed at getting the hat because his career trajectory was frankly ludicrous and too quick for Danzo to squash. And then Shisui and Itachi because those dang Uchiha.

I am not too keen on the ending (as per usual for me) given that I didn’t think I should end at the Chuunin Exams but I didn’t want to get into the whole Tsunade is Godaime and the whole constant undermining of her authority, even though I did kind of want to get to the point where Danzo dies? Should I have just stopped at the whole Uchiha it comes full circle thing? … maybe…

Arguably, if you ignore the line in the Torifu section, then this could be Naruto-canon compliant? But obviously I wrote it with DoS in mind. And I am hoping that Shikako is at least tangentially involved in Danzo’s downfall which is another reason why I didn’t go past the Chuunin Exams because… I have no idea what that downfall is going to look like. Fantastic, I assume.

Externality 7b/? (2018-01-21)

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She is none too gently herded into the classroom after the healing session, left to wait along with the rest of her classmates who have finished before her or who had minimal injuries.

In the light of day and the civilizing influence of four walls and a ceiling, the last few hours of the exam seems less like a thrilling midnight battle and more like a bunch of children causing a ruckus. A skirmish at best rather than the high stakes fight it had seemed at the time.

She can feel a different, embarrassed kind of fever flush across her face.

Tetsuki refuses to meet anyone’s gaze and goes to sit over in the corner that most everyone else seems to be avoiding. That it’s nowhere near her usual seat means nothing.

Naruto Uzumaki grins at her.

She gives a quick, sheepish smile in return.

But it’s a tense couple of minutes as more and more classmates are brought in–everyone silent and heavy and waiting for the other shoe to fall–before finally Yanagi-sensei and Hinoura-sensei enter with displeased and unimpressed expressions.

Well, Yanagi-sensei at least, especially as he begins lecturing them all. Hinoura-sensei instead looks somewhat amused.

Tetsuki glowers at him–if the situation was anyone’s fault, it was his!

She holds onto that righteous anger throughout Yanagi-sensei’s lecture, through the assessment of her classmates, lining up one by one and presenting their tokens or lack thereof…

… until he gets to the first student who ought to have had an armband and has nothing instead.

“Report,” Yanagi-sensei says, but instead of standing up at attention and dutifully relaying everything that happened in the past three days, that classmate faces the ground and mutters something unintelligible.

Even in the tense atmosphere, some of the other students laugh.

“Are you not a future shinobi of Konoha?” Yanagi-sensei asks. He is fond of rhetorical questions, giving a student just enough rope to hang themselves with.

There is more laughter, but with a distinctly nervous tinge.

“I said, report.”

“Rock Lee took it from me,” their classmate says finally, grit out through clenched teeth.

Yeah, Tetsuki thinks to herself, she wouldn’t want to admit getting beat up by the class dead last either.

Externality 7a/? (2018-01-19)

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Tetsuki sits sullenly, drained and yet somehow simultaneously full of fury, while a member of Konoha’s Medic Corps attends to the absolute mess she’s made of herself.

In the spirit of synergy that the village loves to espouse, the different departments are intrinsically attuned and linked to each other. In this case, the Medic Corps practical healing lessons are scheduled for just after the Academy’s trimester exams.

The medic in front of her–still a boy himself, only a few years older than her at most–clicks his tongue in disapproval, “You couldn’t figure out a smarter way?”

Tetsuki would bristle at that, but the wash of cool healing chakra on her injuries is far too soothing. She says nothing instead.

“Well, at least you’re not the worst off we’ve had today,” he continues, and she wonders if this is part of Medic Corps training, bedside manner in way of gossip. When she makes a noise of curiosity, he elaborates–no, she wasn’t the worst off they’ve had today. She got away relatively easy in the mayhem of that last battle, a broken nose and a couple of bone bruises being the worst of her injuries.

They had to bring in a Hyuuga medic to undo the Jyuuken blocks on some of the students–but that was to be expected with Neji Hyuuga in their class. What was unusual was that they also had to bring in someone from the Genjutsu Squad.

“For what?” she asks, voice a little nasally sounding despite the healing.

“Rock Lee,” says the medic with a sigh in his tone, a shrug on his shoulders, “He’s as terrible at genjutsu as ever, can’t break them on his own,” he continues familiar and exasperated.

Her first reaction is a wordless wave of guilt.

The second is a realization: the medic is younger than she previously thought

The forehead protector and the Medic Corps uniform make him look older, closer to an adult than the year separating them should provide. He has a purpose, a place in the village beyond just being a mere student.

She wonders if she might also be the same when she graduates…

… if she graduates, that is.

~

A/N: Cameo of another OC for funsies

Externality 6e/? (2018-01-18)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

In the orphanage, family is an impossible dream. Adoption an unheard of miracle, passed down as whispers from the older children to the younger in the dark of the night. The closest thing to bedtime stories they get.

But a team is more attainable and nearly as good–better, if you believe the propaganda. Good teammates will be in your thoughts and in your heart, have your back and your trust.

Together, the ideal team functions seamlessly, different parts of a greater whole. Together, the ideal team can easily defeat an army ten times their size.

They are not an ideal team.

They are not even a team.

Frankly, in all the chaos, it’s hard to tell if they’re on the same side.

Tetsuki jerks backward to avoid a hit, only to duck and get knee to the nose while avoiding a set of shuriken from the treetops. They embed themselves perfectly into her opponent’s calf–he howls in pain and she definitely takes the opportunity kick out at his other leg, bringing him down completely–but they could have easily stuck into her shoulder instead.

TenTen’s aim is perfect, but it doesn’t account for allies getting her way.

Naruto Uzumaki learned this the hard way, kunai sticking out of his shoulder until he pulled it out and used it for himself.

The both of them are absolutely filthy by this point: dirt and blood, a fair share of it their own, staining their clothes. Neji Hyuuga doesn’t have this problem–a neat pile of paralyzed bodies clustered at his feet.

There’s so much going on–so many people and weapons and other metallic knickknacks, zippers and buttons and jewelry–that Tetsuki can’t tell if any of them have tokens on them. She doesn’t have the time to more thoroughly search them, either, not when for every opponent she takes down another two pop up.

It’s no longer just the mob they’re fighting at this point–the ruckus of large scale battle attracting the more active and eager of their classmates. Only the light of the moon and the occasional flash bang illuminates the space, with clashing kunai and the scent of blood in the air, it really is like a true shinobi battle.

At this point, it barely has anything to do with the exam, hidden grudges bubbling up easily without adult supervision. Tetsuki herself is not entirely immune to the fever of battle:

“Hey you,” she says to the sensible son of a bitch Komadori. All the warning she provides before punching him right in his surprised face. But tit for tat is not the way of shinobi, grudges are not resolved by simply balancing the equation, and so what should have been a simple surprise hit becomes a prolonged fight.

This time Tetsuki uses everything she has, doesn’t limit herself or conserve energy for running away. Genjutsu falls over him in layers, shrouding his senses, but his memory and practiced motions pull him through, chakra flaring to throw off her efforts. She responds feral, brutal, and so does he.

They are still fighting when TenTen runs out of weapons, the clearing liberally sprinkled with her efforts, and she has to drop into the fray herself. They are still fighting when Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga stumble into each other–the latter’s Byakugan deactivated for some reason–and are forced to literally fight back to back. They are still fighting when the sun rises, sky blazing orange, and the exam officially ends.

They are fighting up until Yanagi-sensei and Hinoura-sensei bodily pull them apart, well-rested adult selves easily lifting their exhausted child bodies, and it’s as if she suddenly wakes up.

Her entire body throbs furiously, painfully, adrenaline wearing off and leaving her with the consequences of her actions. She squirms in Yanagi-sensei’s hold to search for Naruto Uzumaki, to meet his eyes and apologize because–she forgot about the exam. Forgot about his objective and the token. Forgot about him.

Failed him.