Tag: naruto

The Queen’s Guard (2016-08-02)

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A/N: completed version of this post

~

Here’s the thing about being a member of the Hokage’s Guard: you are no longer a shinobi.

Or, rather, you are no longer just a shinobi.

It’s different than being ANBU–a little less, a little more. You are still yourself, but yourself has changed. Rather than getting hidden behind masks and callsigns, the Hokage’s Guard have faces and names that are out in the open yet overshadowed by their charge.

The Hokage’s Guard are chosen for a specific reason, because the Hokage’s Guard will never be more than that. They are the ones who survive, but don’t thrive. They are the ones who are steady and reliable, not flashy or impossible.

They are bodyguards to someone stronger than themselves and that means they were never meant for legends. Only footnotes if they get written in at all.

It’s not a bad role to have, necessarily. Not the most glamorous, but not all shinobi are made for that kind of life. And there is honor in being the Hokage’s last line of defense.

So long as your Hokage doesn’t die before you, that is.

—

This generation has a lot riding on them; a lot of expectations to live up to, a lot of sins and debt just waiting to be collected.

It’s not their fault, but that’s just how life is.

“We can’t do it,” Raido says, scarred face made grimmer with a furrowed brow. Beside him, Genma’s mouth is a flat line around his senbon. Iwashi, too, is a silent show of long-seated wounds.

It’s not often that shinobi–regular, non-elite jounin shinobi, that is–will refuse the Hokage. But this is a special case, and it helps that the Sandaime is only asking, not ordering.

Hiruzen sighs, less out of frustration and more out of grief.

“It wasn’t your fault, any of you,” he says, though it’s something he’s repeated many times before, “You did what you could–”

“Not everything,” Iwashi murmurs, interrupting just like usual–another thing that these three are given leeway with, “we’re still alive.”

Hiruzen sighs once more.

“Gai would be a good choice,” Genma suggests, sidestepping the drama and getting to the heart of the matter. A quality that makes–made–him a good choice for the Hokage’s Guard, “He’ll teach them well. They won’t–” fail, he doesn’t say; reconsiders, says instead, “–I trust him.”

The other two members of the disbanded Yondaime’s Guard nod in agreement, before they all leave at Hiruzen’s dismissal.

He has done poorly by those three, blinded by his own mourning and the sudden reclamation of a burden he’d thought passed on for good.

But the next Hokage’s Guard will be better–better trained, better treated, better prepared–they will be slated for this duty from the beginning of their shinobi careers and they will know, each step of the way, what kind of person their Hokage is.

Hiruzen isn’t sure who exactly their Hokage will be quite yet–though he has hopes for one in particular–but he knows it will be someone in next year’s graduating class.

For now, he’ll do his best to make the team from this year’s graduating class an unstoppable Hokage’s Guard.

—

The Godaime is still a little uncomfortable in her new position.

But that’s okay, so are her Guards.

After all, while the Sandaime might have prepared for the eventuality of succession, he didn’t plan for this exact scenario. Or for it to happen so soon–the Hokage and her Guards all barely teenagers.

But maybe it’s better this way, for the Guards to grow around their Hokage. To watch her become the legend she will one day be remembered for, to walk with her every step of the way. To know their Hokage not as a hero, but as a peer and a friend; a precious person to protect.

A nice thought, perhaps, but nice thoughts won’t protect the Hokage from assassination attempts. Of which there will, no doubt, be many.

Konoha has weathered the invasion well, has regrouped it’s strongest shinobi together, and lanced a corrupt organization from their core. They are by no means vulnerable, but they’ve also put a giant target on an untested child.

The Sandaime had become Hokage as a youth as well, be had been through war. Had shown all of the Elemental Nations his strength, had earned the hat undeniably.

The Godaime is not there yet, and neither are her Guards.

The Yondaime’s Guard might have to come out of retirement.

—

Despite Kakashi’s completely unsubtle preference, he cannot actually follow his student around for the rest of their lives as the most lethal guard dog ever.

Heh.

Jokes aside, Konoha cannot afford to have one of it’s strongest and most famous shinobi stuck in the village essentially babysitting the Hokage in her stronghold.

The same applies to Gai.

The truth of the matter is, it doesn’t really matter that his team isn’t yet chuunin–poor match ups and attitudes on their parts, anyway–it’s time for him to let them go. He knew from the beginning what he was training them for and it’s time for them to step up and for him to step back.

“Believe in them,” Genma says, looking unperturbed in the face of Gai and mini-Gai’s tears. That’s what being on a genin team with Maito Gai does to a person, “Believe in yourself, you’ve taught them well.”

Which begins a whole new bout of crying. But at least it’s more of the heartfelt kind rather than heartbreak.

Raido and Iwashi glance awkwardly at the remaining two genin, both of them thankfully not wailing and clinging to their sensei. Youthfully.

“You get used to it,” TenTen shrugs, almost eerily similar to Genma, no doubt having grown her own Gai and Lee-proof ways of coping. Neji scoffs but doesn’t disagree.

Iwashi turns to Genma, “You’re getting the mini-Gai.”

—

It’s not so much teaching or training as it is advising. None of the Yondaime’s Guard have Byakugan, and it’s safe to say that Lee is could probably kick all of their asses in taijutsu. And, given that TenTen survived being on a team with Gai and his mini-me, there’s no telling what kind of horrors she’s been put through for the past year and a half.

So mostly, it’s just advice. Passing on the baton, in a way. Just some veterans giving their successors some pointers. Ushering in the new generation, so to speak.

“I need to be drunk, like, five hours ago,” Raido moans, settling into the bar stool and immediately dropping his head in the curve of his arms.

Iwashi, already seated with his hands pressed to his temples, just grunts in acknowledgement.

“That bad?” Genma asks, smirk curling around his senbon.

“It’s my own damn fault,” Raido says, only looking up when the soft tap of a cup on the bar signals incoming alcohol, “I mentioned the Hiraishin and she just kept asking questions about it and–” he shudders, “Definitely Gai’s student.”

“And the Hyuuga?” Genma prompts Iwashi, who just sighs and downs the remains of his drink in response. Genma chuckles.

Raido eyes him, confused and possibly a little jealous, “How come you’re not all–” gesturing abstractly to his head, then at Iwashi.

“Lee’s a good kid,” he says, vague and unhelpful, “Gai did well…” he pauses, considers, gets to the heart of the matter. “They’ll be great.”

Iwashi waves the bartender for refills and raises his glass for a toast. “To the Hokage’s Guard,” he says, rueful smile on his face.

It’s not teaching or training or advice, not really. It’s closure, is what it is.

And maybe just a little bit redemption.

Raido and Genma mimic him, drinks and rueful smiles all.

“To the Hokage’s Guard.”

~

A/N: Okay so here’s the completed version, by which I mean I tried to continue it but I had no idea it would go in this direction and then I was just like… well, okay then. This has very little Shikako and Team Gai in it even though, given the title, it ought to be about them.

I dunno, I’ll post it to ao3 later, I guess…

Dreaming One Shots — now on ao3!

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jacksgreysays:

jacksgreysays:

Combining all of my Dreaming of Sunshine recursive one shots into one collection called Dreaming One Shots on archiveofourown.

For now this includes:

  1. Becoming a Legend
  2. Stories of Ancient Gods
  3. Netsui/Shikako Three Sentence Fic
  4. Dropped Off Stitches (On The Loom Of Fate)

Check it out here!

Have also uploaded:

5.  Chances Gone By
6.  You and Me and Baby (Makes Fifteen)

Have also uploaded:

7.  Winter in the Fields
8.  Semi-Phenomenal, Nearly Cosmic

Down Every Road: Or, Some Ways Shikako and Sasuke Get Together, 2/? (2016-06-06)

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jacksgreysays:

(two: hunter and nukenin)

—

She couldn’t have stopped him.

Maybe it’s something she’d always known, albeit subconsciously, still so aware of her circumstances, of the future she only knew as fiction.

Some things cannot be changed.

She stopped him from going to Orochimaru–oh, that was the easy part. What is some stranger with false promises in comparison to his team–his friends? How could poisonous words and double-edged power ever compare to their history of trusting each other and facing dangers together, side by side?

No, that was the easy part. This Sasuke–her Sasuke, the Sasuke that she tied to herself and to Naruto with delicate strands of loyalty and friendship and vulnerability–would never leave Konoha for Orochimaru.

But that doesn’t mean he would never leave for a different reason. And if Orochimaru–some stranger who only ever spoke to Sasuke once, and in a fight at that–couldn’t match their importance as Sasuke’s teammates, then how would their short time together as friends compare to his clan? To blood and to revenge and to finally putting old ghosts to rest.

Sasuke wouldn’t leave Konoha–leave her–for Orochimaru. But for Itachi? For family? To fulfill the only goal he’s ever allowed himself to have?

Sasuke goes. Shikako stays.

She has never felt so insignificant in her life.

—

She thinks maybe the worst part about all of this is that she still doesn’t know what she should have done instead. If she handled it wrong, or if there just never was a right way to go about it. An imaginary series of actions and words that would have resulted in a bearable fall out.

But she had tried, at least, to prepare Sasuke for the truth, to minimize the impact. Little hints and whispered warnings; should she have done more?

Could she even have done so? Danzo waiting and watching, Sai sent years before he was meant to appear. Sasuke made paranoid by her own, seemingly inexplicable, suspicions. Had she made it worse instead?

The truth would have come out, one way or another. That at least she couldn’t and wouldn’t change. She had even tried to reveal it on her own–the most tenuous connections she could make, grasping at threads and hoping they wouldn’t snap–but not without risking her own secret.

And maybe that’s what the problem was. She knew everything there was to know about Sasuke–knew him better than he knew himself, even–but she hadn’t been willing to give him anything of herself. She was always holding back: maybe he could sense that.

Maybe it was easy for him to let go because she had never given him anything to keep.

—

When the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre is revealed, to say things went south would be a vast understatement.

Of course, things went differently this time around than she remembers. Or perhaps the political fall out wasn’t worth the ink on paper, especially not in an action-packed story loved for it’s characters.

But, unsurprisingly, there was turmoil amongst the clans–for obvious reasons, Danzo’s plots leading to nauseating implications. Even if she isn’t the clan heir, she had gotten tangled up in her family’s reactions–her father had been jounin commander, then, too. Had heard rumors of the Uchiha clan’s discontent, but hadn’t realized the extent of it, hadn’t been included in the response.

That relief–and how horrifying, that she had ever considered the opposite to even feel relieved–had been a slight breath, not even a sigh, before again she had been swept up in the consequences.

Clan politics is one thing, but for Sasuke? It was only ever going to be personal.

—

Sasuke goes. Shikako stays.

But only long enough to prepare herself–learn and train and plan. Maybe she couldn’t have stopped him, maybe some things cannot be changed.

Maybe it’s too late to reach out, to offer herself to him and hope that their brief shared history–moments of honesty and scraps of affection and their bond of trust, strained as it has become–will be enough to make him come back.

But she’ll be damned if she isn’t going to at least try.

~

A/N: So it’s… not really how they get together so much as… Shikako chases down Sasuke. Actually, it’s not even that either… but it still works, I think?

For @book14reader who wanted “regrets” and all I could think of was, well, she couldn’t save him completely: Orochimaru is one thing, but family? How could she compete against that? Especially Itachi. But even Obito/Madara are technically his family, too.

And I know, the style’s not the same as the first installment, but it really seemed to flow better like this and, well, considering each installment is basically separate, I don’t HAVE to make each part the same.

I will add this to ao3… later.

Further Down Road Two, (2016-07-25)

There’s always been something about Shikako.

Something between him and Shikako, to be more specific. Not. Not romantic. Not really. (Not yet?) But something…

It’s different than what’s between her and Naruto, though it’s similar in a way. The three of them intertwined.

If Naruto is the flames of a Grand Fireball, then Sasuke is the shuriken hidden within, and Shikako the shadow that stretches behind their enemies.

He didn’t need to be guided and encouraged like Naruto; he and Shikako are–not opposites, but not the same–complements, maybe, set on paths that wind around each other. Different trees in the same forest.

Equals, at least.

He thought the thing between them was trust.

She said wait. He asked why.

She wouldn’t answer.

He thinks that’s when it all started falling apart.

—

He thinks about regret and failure and betrayal. (He’s always thinking about that) Usually it’s featuring That Man and That Night, but lately it’s been about more recent decisions. (Mistakes.)

Maybe the worst part isn’t that she knew and didn’t tell him. Maybe the worst part is that as he left, she understood.

Second children of the clan head–similar but not the same. If it had been her clan, what would she have done?

She had known the entire time that the true killer of his clan was sitting secure in Konoha, his influence stretching throughout the village. She had suspected so early on, but hadn’t warned him at all.

He trusts her enough to know that it wasn’t out of ill will. Knows that her clan wasn’t involved in the destruction of his clan. But she still hadn’t told him the truth.

Did she not trust him to keep it a secret? Did she not trust him to watch her back? Did she not trust him to handle the truth?

Had she ever trusted him?

—

In all of Konoha, she was the most important to him. That still holds, even despite the strained thing between them.

But fractured trust and friendship doesn’t hold a candle to family and revenge. Nothing ever has, nothing ever will.

One man ruined Konoha for all the Uchiha.

One girl, no matter how impressive or important, cannot make up for it.

—

But she chases him. Their eyes meet. They fight.

She speaks, but it’s nothing like Naruto’s sermons. It’s facts and reasoning and logic, but no less emotional for it. His teammate’s suspicions finally out in the open.

The answers he asked for, a little too late.

Or is it?

Can he change his path once more? Can he return to when they were complements instead of at crossroads? Can trust be repaired?

She says wait. He asks why.

This time, she answers.

~

A/N: For the anon who wanted Shikako meeting up with missing-nin Sasuke… but I guess this is more like vague rantings from Sasuke’s POV instead…

I’ll add this to ao3 later?

I worry about Shikasuke having a child together. Uchihas usually get a lot of emotional turbulence (Pretty aure that’s canon? Might also be the Curse of Hatred, tho I don’t know about it too well), and I feel like that won’t mix well with the Nara’s thing with souls and shadows and the need to be at peace with yourself (else you’d fall into black/the shadows eat you, i guess).

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Oh man, a biological Shikasuke child? Well, actually, even an adopted Shikasuke child I’d be a little worried about.

Mostly because as they are still such children themselves right now (even with Shikako’s reincarnation, she’s a teenager up against monsters and murderers and that’s really… she comes off as a very mature and mostly rational teenager, but still a teenager) and I’m hesitant to extrapolate what kind of adults and thus what kind of parents they’d be.

(I mean, I guess if I were to write something like this it would be Shikasuke child traveling back in time (or, alternatively, Shikako/Team Seven traveling forward in time) so that Shikasuke child meets Shikako when they’re all the same age.

Which would actually be kind of hilarious and… I mean, it’s happened before hasn’t it? Naruto travelled back in time to meet his parents in the anime, right? And he doesn’t even have the penchant for fuinjutsu experimentation or possible Mangekyou Sharingan omnipotence that Shikako and Sasuke do.)

Uh, anyway. I guess the thing is that on a purely biological point, an Uchiha-Nara child would be pretty dangerous. The Sharingan mixed with a spiritual predisposition for shadows? I would not want to be on the wrong end of that kunai. But I guess you can consider the mix of genes in three ways: either the child will have a genetic preference towards either the Uchiha traits or the Nara traits, the child will have both with lesser intensity than their parents, or the child will have a unique combination of the two.

(I mean, can you imagine how horrifying it would be if all the kid needed to do was connect to your shadow and you get sucked into an unbreakable genjutsu? WHYYYYY? Or, alternatively, all you need is eye contact and this kid has control of your body? OMG O_O )

That being said the other “clan traits” of the Uchiha and Nara–being powerful but emotionally unstable vs being intelligent and lazy–would probably end up in a kid that, yes, would be at risk of both clans’ psychological problems.

But you also have to consider that a lot of Sasuke’s emotional problems are because he legitimately has PTSD and basically raised himself at the scene of his family’s murder. Like… it’s surprising he’s as well adjusted as he is in canon before the Orochimaru bite.

This child would (hopefully) have at least one parent around growing up (seeing as how both of them are essentially un-killable) and possibly biological/honorary uncles and aunts, grandparents, and the entire Nara clan (Which might as well be the entire Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka alliance) so there’s no chance of this kid ending up like Sasuke because that’s a fairly individual set of circumstances that will almost definitely not crop up again.

Will this child possibly end up like their parent because of a different reason (like Boruto basically acting like Naruto, not because he’s an orphaned pariah but because his dad is probs depressed and bad at parenting)? Yes, maybe. But I think this kid, especially seeing as how their mother was integral in making the Rookie Nine/Ten more cohesive than canon, will be the “it takes a village” kind of child than the simultaneously-put-on-a-pedestal-but-considered-a-potential-walking-bomb that was Sasuke’s childhood.

Actually, I guess maybe I should try to extrapolate what Sasuke and Shikako might be as parents… but another reason why that’s so hard for me is that I don’t actually think they want to be parents. Like, sure, Sasuke wants to “revive his clan” but that’s a lot different from “having and raising a child.” Whereas Shikako, during the babysitting missions they had early on, had been good at it but had also not been super keen on it.

That being said. DoS Sasuke wouldn’t be weirdly exiled from Konoha like canon!Sasuke is, so he would be around more for their kid’s childhood than for Sarada’s. Which is not to say that he’d be around all the time (maybe his village lockdown days will ingrain him with a sense of wanderlust, or maybe he really will just settle down okay in Konoha without the driving need to get stronger/revenge always pushing him forward) but definitely more often.

Ditto with Shikako. I mean, I kind of wrote a thing about what I thought a future/epilogue Shikako might be like but that’s literally only one of many possibilities. She, too, may prefer settling down since, presumably, the Akatsuki/Danzo/Madara/Kaguya threat has been taken care of. And we have seen her be especially academic–when not in danger, her tendency seems to be to research and invent–and staying in a peaceful Konoha would help with that.

I don’t know, anon, it’s still a little difficult for me to imagine. I mean… I actually think–if they are both active parents and, more importantly, the two primary guardians–that Sasuke would be the one who is better at the emotional matters than Shikako. Like, if that child gets scared? Shikako would probably reassure them that there’s nothing to be afraid of–which isn’t bad parenting–but Sasuke would be the one to coach that kid through their fear, be like “if there is a monster under the bed, we will do this and this so the monster can’t get you” (and then proceed to teach their child Grand Fireball, probably) which is acknowledged to be a better method of dealing with your child’s fears.

Just… conscientious snake versus rabid badger, you know?

I think this kid will be scary. I think this kid will be smart and emotional and ruthless. I think this kid will probably overstep their limits on multiple occasions, will fall into the black at least once, will hurt people around them when they’re angry. But that’s what a lot of kids are like–probably both in the Naruto world and in the real world.

This kid will have the advantage of having a loving support system. This kid will probably love their friends and family fiercely, will be loyal and the best person to have beside you in a fight and watching your back. This kid will probably invent jutsu that impress, bewilder, and exasperate people because do you know how much paperwork this is going to be? Let’s be honest, this kid will probably end up being the Hachidaime or best friends with the Hachidaime and will make their parents (and uncles and aunts and grandparents) hella proud.

So I don’t think we need to worry too much, anon, I think this child is going to be alright 🙂

edit: Wrote a bit about “Sakako Uchiha” in this ficlet here!

Stars Also Dream, a DoSxSW crossover series 2/? (2016-07-21)

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This high up in the mountains, with the air so thin of oxygen and the cold stinging at your exposed skin, you think you might be happy.

You follow after your master faithfully, only a little jealous of the way she uses the Force to stay above the snow instead of falling into it with every step like you do.

Master Bant has promised she’ll teach you how to do it, and she’s never lied to you before.

(There’s a first time for everything, though you eventually learn the trick. But it’s from a shinobi, not a jedi, and an entirely different life later.)

For a handful of years she is your entire world even as you travel through the vast galaxy on missions from the Council. Even as war rages between the Grand Army and the Separatists. Even as she sends you off on your own more and more frequently–it’s because she trusts you to negotiate on her behalf, not because she thinks you can’t handle yourself in a fight.

She’s your entire world even as she sends you away one last time, jettisoned in a medical escape pod before you can protest, the clone troops suddenly turning on your master.

You scream and scream, futilely raging against the duraplex, when your bond with your master flickers out. Silently, softly.

Your entire world gone.

(You later realize that you loved Master Bant. She was the closest thing you had to a mother, even after the Kinokawas adopt you.)

You’re never as happy like you were then–a child, despite your abilities and the war–but that doesn’t mean you never feel happiness again. It takes a long time, years and years, before you get that again–like a person can be your whole world no matter where you are or what you do. And you’re lucky enough this time that it’s two.

You are exhausted, short of breath and in pain, but as the medics put your twins in your arms, you think you’re just as light headed and joyful as when you were a young padawan following in your master’s nonexistent footprints.

~

A/N: Tiny thing because I’m still trying to figure out stuff for this series. Such as:

I was debating who to make Yoshino’s jedi master and was stuck between Bant Eerin or Bultar Swan because… reasons… but decided on Bant because it’s been confirmed that she does get an unknown/unnamed padawan while Bultar doesn’t. Also Bultar is killed by a fellow jedi (which… wtf) and that would kinda not work so well with my plans.

Also… I’m being suuuuper vague on ages and times because trust me, I tried to do the math, and it doesn’t really work out unless Yoshino somehow doesn’t age for a few years (which, I mean, medical escape pod, who knows… stasis?) or I go into the whole time dilation/space travel/not aging thing which could also work? Mreh…

How To Adult Properly (And Maybe Heal Some People While We’re At It), a series of Team Medic ficlets 3/? (2016-07-19)

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“Oh,” says the guy, eyes gone shiny and wide, like he’s two breaths away from swooning. As it is, a flush begins to spread across his cheeks and he begins fidgeting with the ends of his fingerless gloves. “I’d like that, Watanabe-san,” he says with a shy smile which isn’t unattractive at all.

“Please,” Jiro says, flashing a charming smile of his own which Sakura has actually caught him practicing in their bathroom mirror, “Call me Jiro,” he requests, before placing a hand on the other’s resting between them on the bar.

Jiro’s latest conquest really does look like he’s about to faint, eyes fluttering like out of a cheap romance novel.

Youbirin looks like he’s about to gag, though he hides it quickly enough behind his drink.

Sakura rolls her eyes, but they both stay silent while their teammate works his magic and gets the guy’s number and promise of a future date. Once he leaves out of earshot, however, they’re free to let loose.

“Oh my god,” Sakura bursts out, syllables stretched out in conflictingly amused horror, while Youbirin follows through on his impulse and gives mock retching noises.

“What?” Jiro protests, “It’s not my fault I’ve got game and both of you don’t.”

“That was not game, Jiro,” she scoffs, “Come on,” she scoffs, “That guy was way too easy to need any kind of game.”

Youbirin, backing her up, leans in close and flutters his eyelashes uncontrollably. “Isn’t this a symptom of electrocution? I mean, you’d know, Jiro-san,” he says, an exaggerated simper on the honorific.

“Medic-nin are so impressive,” Sakura adds, her own fluttering eyelids making Jiro laugh.

“Hey, low hanging fruit, right?” he asks with a smirk.

“I know you want something to be low hanging,” she quips back, pleased when she hears both Jiro and Youbirin sputter into their drinks.

“Sakura!” Jiro chokes out, appalled.

Youbirin, because he’s one step away from being uncultured swine, simultaneously wipes up his chin with his sleeve and holds out a hand for a high five.

She magnanimously deigns him with one.

“You guys are the worst,” Jiro mutters, but he waves over the bartender for another round, and that’s almost as good as him telling them he loves them.

“Lies,” Youbirin says,“we are the best,” and since Jiro doesn’t say anything to the contrary then it must be true.

Once they’ve been settled with new drinks, Sakura smacks Jiro on the shoulder to get his attention. She’s not actually trying to hurt him, but her super strength is kind of her default state, so he still winces at the impact.

“Feel free to go after your new beau,” she suggests, because why shouldn’t she live vicariously through one of her best friends. Part of her embarrassment at how easily Jiro was able to pick up that guy is because they’ve all collectively had so little free time that none of them have gotten anywhere near as close to getting laid as that in a shamefully long time.

“But what about–” Jiro gestures at all three of them, because each of them getting free time is rare, but all of them getting free time at the same time? Is damn near impossible.

“Don’t sweat it,” Youbirin says easily, probably feeling the same thing she is, “Sakura and I can get drunk by our lonesome and talk about how we apparently lack any game whatsoever.”

“If you’re sure?” Jiro asks, expression only a little bit guilty, and already standing up from his seat.

“Go on, already,” she says, shooing him away. As he leaves, she calls out after him, “And remember, if you bring him back to our place, no sex in the common areas!”

“Especially not the kitchen!” Youbirin adds, obnoxiously loud.

Jiro flips them off without turning around, otherwise acting as if he can’t hear their heckling.

She and Youbirin just laugh.

~

A/N: short thing based on a true story…

Stars Also Dream, a DoSxSW crossover series 1/? (2016-07-18)

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You dream, sometimes, of your childhood. When the night winds blow through the trees and the place in bed beside yours has been cold for too long.

Before, you found your time occupied by your training, by your husband, by your children. Too busy and too tired to remember. But now your twins have grown and the house is empty; your husband no longer there to soothe you back to sleep. You find your mind restless and impatient.

Memories you’ve long buried begin to bubble back up to the surface, battles and war on a larger scale than you’ve become accustomed. A different family lost, betrayed. Your own history hidden away for protection–though you’re never sure for whose.

Sometimes, you dream.

You dream of Coruscant, the buzz of so many people, the Force flowing playfully through you and your fellow initiates. You dream of the Room of a Thousand Fountains, sleeping alongside your clan members, of trying to hide your excitement lest the masters sense your emotions. You dreamed of becoming a Jedi Knight someday, eager to see the rest of the galaxy.

One day, you dreamed, you’d see other planets and fight evil and know that you were part of something much larger than yourself. Part of a grand tradition, celestial and intimidatingly beautiful.

You dreamed, then, of your future. You dream, now, of your past.

You think, at first, it is merely regret plaguing you. The thought of yet another child of yours never knowing the truth of the world–of their heritage. But it creeps into your mind during the day, every time you look up at the sky, and that sense you’ve carefully blocked off blows open wide and frightened and full of warning.

Chakra is unusual, something that took you years to adjust to, but the Force?

The Force has always been with you.

~

A/N: Based off this fake fic summary brainstorming Yoshino as a secret jedi. I’m not super sure where I’m going with this, really… mrgh… I just wanted to give it a try but it was harder than I thought it would be.

The Queen’s Guard [incomplete], (2016-07-15)

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Here’s the thing about being a member of the Hokage’s Guard: you are no longer a shinobi.

Or, rather, you are no longer just a shinobi.

It’s different than being ANBU, a little less, a little more. You are still yourself, but yourself has changed. Rather than getting hidden behind masks and callsigns, the Hokage’s Guard are faces and names that are out in the open yet overshadowed by their charge.

The Hokage’s Guard are chosen for a specific reason, because the Hokage’s Guard will never be more than that. They are the ones who survive, but don’t thrive. They are the ones who are steady and reliable, but not flashy or impossible.

They are bodyguards to someone stronger than themselves and that means they were never meant for legends. Only footnotes if they get written in at all.

It’s not a bad role to have, necessarily. Not the most glamorous, but not all shinobi are made for that kind of life. And there is honor in being the Hokage’s last line of defense.

So long as your Hokage doesn’t die before you, that is.

—

This generation has a lot riding on them; a lot of expectations to live up to, a lot of sins and debt just waiting in the wings.

It’s not their fault, but that’s just how life is.

“We can’t do it,” Raido says, scarred face made grimmer with a furrowed brow. Beside him, Genma’s mouth is a flat line around his senbon. Iwashi, too, is a silent show of long-seated wounds.

It’s not often that shinobi–regular, non-elite jounin shinobi, that is–will refuse the Hokage. But this is a special case, and it helps that the Sandaime is only asking, not ordering.

Hiruzen sighs, less out of frustration and more out of grief.

“It wasn’t your fault, any of you,” he says, though it’s something he’s repeated many times before, “You did what you could–”

“Not everything,” Iwashi murmurs, interrupting just like usual–another thing that these three are given leeway with, “we’re still alive.”

Hiruzen sighs once more.

“Gai would be a good choice,” Genma suggests, sidestepping the drama and getting to the heart of the matter. A quality that makes–made–him a good choice for the Hokage’s Guard, “He’ll teach them well. They won’t–” fail, he doesn’t say; reconsiders, says instead, “–I trust him.”

The other two members of the disbanded Yondaime’s Guard nod in agreement, before they all leave at Hiruzen’s dismissal.

He has done poorly by those three, blinded by his own mourning and the sudden reclaiming of a burden he’d thought passed on for good.

But the next Hokage’s Guard will be better–better trained, better treated, better prepared–they will be slated for this duty from the beginning of their shinobi careers and they will know, each step of the way, what kind of person their Hokage is.

Hiruzen isn’t sure who exactly their Hokage will be quite yet–though he has hopes for one in particular–but he knows it will be someone in next year’s graduating class.

For now, he’ll do his best to make the team from this year’s graduating class an unstoppable Hokage’s Guard.

—

The Godaime is still a little uncomfortable in her new position.

But that’s okay, so are her Guards.

After all, while the Sandaime might have prepared for this eventuality, he didn’t plan for this exact scenario. Or for it to happen so soon; the Hokage and her Guards all barely teenagers.

But maybe it’s better this way, for the Guards to grow around their Hokage. To watch her become the legend, to walk with her every step of the way. To know their Hokage not as a hero, but as a peer and a friend.

A precious person to protect.

~

A/N: ugh, writing is hard now (now the question is, is it writer’s block or is it the concussion? OR IS IT BOTH?)

I had some Hokage’s Guard feels because of the amazing Genma centric series The Life And Times of a Shinobi Den Mother which is a lot less cracky and a lot more feels and tears inducing than the title sounds, though I didn’t get to do a whole Yondaime Guard passing on the torch to Team Gai thing because I got a headache and had to stop.

But basically I was thinking, since in The Queen’s Council basically everyone of the Rookie Nine is going to be represented because they are clan heads, then what is Team Gai going to be. And then, well… yeah.

I think I might come back to this and add some more before posting it onto ao3. But since it’s already past midnight and my head hurts have this for now.

Fake Fic Summaries, 17/? the Jedi Yoshino edition (2016-07-05)

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A/N: Okay, so, now that I consider this in the light of day it’s a little… out there. But I still do need to set it free and I mean, eccentric doesn’t necessarily mean bad, so let’s go:

~

Yoshino Kinokawa, Jedi of Konoha

You’ve spent over half your life trying to forget where you came from, making a respectable living on this strange Outer Rim planet where the Force is called chakra and there is no such thing as Light side or Dark side.

But of course, the past has a way of catching up to even the fastest runaways: the Empire encroaches and somehow your daughter has found a lightsaber.

Maybe it’s time to stop being a shinobi and start being a jedi again.

Okay, stick with me: so you know how I once made that mega-huge possible DoS crossovers/fusions post and thought that there’s no reason why the Naruto world couldn’t be some weird planet within the same galaxy as Star Wars? Well, I figured out when in the timeline I want it to be. And while I still don’t quite know what the plot might be, I just thought it would be interesting to explore this avenue.

In particular, Yoshino as a padawan whose Jedi Master sacrificed themselves to let her escape Order 66 / Vader. I have this idea that chakra is technically the Force (since it’s something that everyone has but in varying levels, but also something that one can train and improve in, and also also something that is in everything but not everyone can access that) but maybe a little bit different? Like… maybe alternating current vs direct current? Or  clockwise vs counterclockwise? So the entire Naruto planet is kind of hidden from normal Force users unless you literally crash into it (as young padawan Yoshino did in an escape pod).

I’m guessing she was probably a really young padawan when this happened. Like just barely got a Master and sort of young when she was chosen (because some of Shikako’s badassery is probably genetic). So she becomes a padawan at ten at the tail end of the Clone Wars and at eleven is when Palpatine takes control of basically the entire galaxy and she flees to the Naruto planet.

Jedi mind tricks on a nice civilian couple who have always wanted a daughter and frequently do business in Konoha leads to Yoshino encountering her first shinobi and deciding that that’s what she wants to do. It’s familiar enough to being a jedi that it’s comforting, but different enough that she won’t be constantly reminded of how the rest of the galaxy is hunting down her people and slaughtering them en masse.

(Force, she knew some of those children–she had helped out with some of the younger creches. And Anakin Skywalker–everyone’s hero, The Chosen One–had just killed them all)

It’s not the usual route, but I’m thinking not all shinobi have to actually go to the Academy. I mean, obviously it helps–if you graduate from there, you are immediately a genin, and you’re taught a lot of shinobi common knowledge–but it’s not actually necessary. You definitely won’t end up on a jounin led team if you’re not at the Academy, but so few do anyway that it’s not such a big loss.

The Genin Corps takes applicants the same way the Medic Corps does, though there’s probably a qualification test as well as training classes if you pass before being shuffled into the massive labor pool of Konoha (which is one of the ways you end up with middle aged genin taking the chuunin exams for the first time). A lot of Yoshino’s early days as a shinobi are trying to adapt to this strange planet–though thankfully she is of an age with the Academy graduates that she befriends a few and they give her a baseline of what she should do/know.

She doesn’t catch Shikaku’s eye until as written in Sunshine Sidestories chapter 17 but that isn’t to say that other canon characters don’t make cameos.

As for what the summary implies… well. I kinda do and also kinda don’t want the Nara twins to meet the Skywalker twins. Because on the one hand–twins meeting twins! Shikako and Luke as the accidental jedi, Shikamaru and Leia as the ones who don’t really get this weird spiritual nonsense but like hell are they going to let their sibling run into danger without them.

But on the other hand, I do actually want this story to be more focused on Yoshino and how she has to reconcile her past and her present. And also, I like the idea that she is this tiny middle-aged jedi-shinobi who is kicking ass while also pregnant (because ~DoS canon~) so she just has the weirdest food cravings which the Rebel Alliance just caters to without complaint because she is one of the two jedi that they have and unlike Luke she actually knows what the hell she’s doing and has experience in leading missions and stuff.

I probably need to watch Clone Wars and Rebels so I can get a feel for the Star Wars mythos and figure out who on that side makes cameos or not, because while it’s set during Episodes IV-VI I don’t actually want Yoshino to interfere too much with that?

I HAVE NO IDEA. I just thought it would be cool?

Some random thoughts I might include somehow:

  • Yoshino, due to being from a more technologically advanced society, is actually the accidental inventor of a lot of gadgets in the Naruto world. Like, cameras probably, and maybe radio… Which is why people aren’t too surprised when Shikako does the same.
  • Tobirama’s Sword of the Thunder God is not itself a lightsaber but an attempt to copy one after having seen a real jedi’s lightsaber when he was younger (probably, there had been a “first contact” type mission to see if they should include the Naruto world in the Republic, but given the whole Warring Clans, the Jedi Council mostly forgot about it even if their use of the Force was fascinating).
  • Kushina DEFINITELY is going to appear and she and Yoshino are going to have “displaced from a destroyed home” feelings… though Yoshino can’t be completely truthful that her home is on a different planet entirely. But it’s basically public info that Yoshino is adopted by the Kinokawas, so not too much lying (Shikako gets it from her mom).
  • Jedi mind tricks don’t work on Yamanaka (but they do work on Uchiha?)
  • Badass and pregnant Yoshino working alongside badass and pregnant Shara Bey (aka Poe Dameron’s mother)

Actually… this might be cool, maybe I’ll come back to this in the future.

edit: attempting this fic, apparently, with the title “Stars Also Dream”