A/N: Hm… I kinda want to both brainstorm and write a ficlet for this prompt, because the idea is very lovely (as per usual, dona) but the brainstorm I have is different than the ficlet I want to write?
Like the ficlet is just a straight up narrative prose exploring the idea of some Nara children being changelings and why their clan are the exception, etc. etc. Whereas the brainstorm is a more expansive plotty thing about how having a changeling character would affect the story.
Hm, I guess they’re not necessarily exclusive to each other so let’s do both… ficlet first!
~
To say that the Shodaime Hokage created the forests around what would become the sight of Konohagakure is an exaggeration at best and an outright lie at worst.
It’s true that the Hashirama trees are the first type that villagers learn to identify as children–prevalent in most parks and training grounds, a protective ring around the walls–but the forest itself is far older than that; far greater.
Far less human.
///
Yoshino is in labor for a grueling forty six hours–more blood, sweat, and tears than even the worst battle–but she knows it’ll be worth it, prays to every god she can think of that it’ll be worth it.
When finally it’s done, that last exhausting push, she can barely catch her breath, barely stay awake, and yet she claws at consciousness desperately.
Why is there only one baby crying?
///
The Nara clan live close to the earth: their herds and their trees and theirs shadows upon the ground. They are intelligent, taking their own time and space, and for that they are looked upon fondly.
Most of the time, that’s a good thing.
///
There is a tree, deep within the Nara clan compound, old and gnarled and kept secret.
In that tree, there is a hollow, cleaned monthly but left empty.
Tonight, with Kasuga and Sembei at his back, Shikaku places the small, shrouded bundle inside.
///
It has been a long time since the Nara clan were given a gift from the other side.
An honor and risk, both.
The rest of the village has no idea what they’re in for.
—
OKAY! So, now it’s brainstorm time.
I made it vague because I wasn’t sure if, because you specified Shikamaru, you wanted him to be the changeling or if you wanted his POV of changeling!Shikako… or, I guess, now that I think of it, if you even wanted DoS? Whoops.
Anyway! The ficlet above would be the prequel basically laying down the groundwork of your prompt for a much larger story. What that story is, I’m not entirely sure…
Actually, I’m thinking something like Danzo has somehow gotten to the other side and that’s where a lot of his ROOT soldiers are from–changeling children that weren’t so blessed to be placed with the Nara clan, which sort of explains the affinity Shikako has with Sai, etc. etc–and the Fae kind of point Shikako in that direction and just, go wild, dispense our wrath…
… but I’m worried I’m focusing too much on Danzo as the big bad. I mean, the Fae could also be GREATLY DISPLEASED with the giant evil bijuu eating statue and that’s another task the whispers in Shikako’s mind point her towards.
I do like the idea that while the Nara are the only ones who get changeling children as a sort of active, deliberate exchange, there are other places (including outside of Konoha) where changeling children appear where there isn’t any established and known protocols for it. And so, like how Naruto has his not-so-secret society of jinchuuriki, Shikako has a slightly-more-secret society of changelings.
Sai is one, definitely. I’m thinking also Juugo? And maaybe Isaribi to incorporate her more into the story… I don’t think there’d be any overlaps in changelings and jinchuuriki (the only exception might be Sora at the Fire Temple who is only a partial jinchuuriki or something like that?)
Hm…
I mean, this would be in Shikamaru’s POV so as to match your prompt and also him as an outsider but close observer of this phenomenon would lend itself well into the whole–changelings LOOK human, but they aren’t, kind of thing. Yes, they’re mostly taught how to interact in a socially acceptable way, but they’re still Other.
Actually, now I wonder if even the bijuu are a little scared of the Fae (and, by association, the changelings) because chakra is a relatively new power in the world. The bijuu aren’t that old in comparison to the Fae. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FURTHER 😀
Awesome! A brainstorm AND a ficlet! I love this so much- I totally hadn’t thought about the ROOT thing. …Man, the Fae could be PISSED about that. And …not concerned, but irritated at the instruction of the Juno. Yes, irritated. (Your suggestion also now has me wondering about the au of this au, where Shikamaru finds out HE’s the changeling. Oooh.) But I love the Shikako-Sai connection you did there. And for some reason I am thinking about the logistics of hiding this from the hospital. (Either the Nara blatantly take over that wing of the hospital, or Tsunade is left affronted that the Nara never go to the hospital for childbirth. Which makes one wonder if other clans try to take over one aspect of village administration/services in order to conceal/uphold their dealings with the Fae.)
…Wow, imagine if BOTH twins were Fae. Brings the ‘and one looks like the mother and one looks like the father’ to a whole new creepy level, right? Some Fae thing they do so that the babies blend in- maybe it involves a blood sacrifice from the parents. Or- no. Just the little bundle at the root of the tree. That’s enough to work with.
I think it makes more sense if Shikako alone is the Fae, though. Does she even know it? Maybe not. She tries very hard to be ‘normal,’ for a chageling.
…I kind of wonder if Orochimaru was a changeling. And maybe that was what got Danzo interested in them.
Shikamaru as the changeling would be absolutely fascinating. Because Shikako is the “weird” one as compared to Shikamaru who is very traditionally Nara. But is he really? Or, rather, what is it to be Nara as compared to Fae?
After all, they do have the favor of the Fae, have had previously received changeling children as a gift. Perhaps it’s because they’re so similar?
There’s a post going around about how changeling children from the past were most likely autistic children which society at the time couldn’t put into any other words but having been swapped with a Fae child. And, well, the Nara are very… hm… the new Maori word for autism is “his or her own time and space” which I feel does describe the Nara clan as a whole.
They let their members grow as they feel, don’t push them to think one way or another, they’re very supportive when a member finds their calling, used to members switching between hyper-focus and scattered distraction. Cloud watching could very well be a way to reduce stimuli…
I think there are probably enough Nara who work in the hospital that whenever one is pregnant and giving birth, it’s not at all difficult to swap Nara nurses and medics into the delivery. Especially when it’s the clan head’s wife giving birth? It wouldn’t at all be suspicious for any Nara hospital staff to involve themselves in such a clan critical pregnancy, so then it wouldn’t be necessary to take over the maternity ward (just borrow it, for a little while).
Ooh, Orochimaru as a changeling… that makes a lot of sense, actually! Unfortunately for him, the Nara clan head at the time of his childhood hadn’t been as observant, or perhaps thought the stillborns for changelings swap was a myth, or was very clannish and didn’t consider it his responsibility to help. And it would, as you said, give an interesting spin on his relationship with Danzo and also his defection from Akatsuki. He’s definitely a Dark Fae, or a Fallen Fae, or whatever the terminology might be for a changeling that has broken so many Rules that the Fae no longer claim him as their own. Although maybe he redeems himself in their eyes (which explains better why he’s still walking around doing whatever he wants in Boruto)?
I’m a little hesitant about Gaara being a changeling as well as a jinchuuriki… maybe he’s of Fae descent? Like, Karura could’ve been a changeling… which explains why she died in childbirth (the bijuu chakra sealed into the as of yet unborn Gaara seeped into her own system, weakening her) but also how she was able to imbue her protection/love into his sand even after her death. And how cool would it be if that’s where Temari’s EXTREME WIND BADASSERY came from?
Shikaku is a very tolerant father, I feel like. Or, rather, accepting the fact that his clan has a weird trading system with the Fae means he’s just a very tolerant, not-easily-shaken man.
Adding a note or two: Fae are rather possessive. Which would explain some of Shikamaru’s actions/ thought process after the Gelel arc.
Also I don’t think Orochimaru actually broke the Rules of Fae
He may twist words and make the sky seem green but he doesn’t lie, even when he has a seal on his tongue keeping him from speaking truth. Even his experiments with the Jugo’s blood-limit (that Orochimaru benefits from but that’ could be seen him working towards what he said he would that’s fae to) he acts as his name and within his power, and he doesn’t try to mess with Fae courts (not established courts anyway) and the actions he takes are very much in the Human Realm.
He even takes in others that were in some ways abandoned or betrayed (Kimimaro being one example). Which fae are acknowledged to do
just thoughts to add
Even before the Gelel arc, Shikamaru’s concern over Shikako could read as fae-influenced possessiveness–though it is also just the whole “my sister is nearly dying on a monthly basis and then one time ACTUALLY dies” situation.
I think there’s a certain generalization that can be applied if Shikamaru is the changeling because his personality is notably VERY in line with Nara-typical personalities which means A LOT of Nara over the years have been changelings/are descended from those changelings. Whereas if Shikako is the changeling then her unusual determination for a Nara matches up with those rare enough (but memorable enough) Nara who make the “motivated Nara” quote a significantly prevalent saying.
I dunno, I’m kind of waffling back and forth on this matter. Because the idea that the Nara as a whole all have even some percentage of fae ancestry is kind of fun. But also the idea that it isn’t so common, and they’re still just Like That is also very fun. And, like, there’s a certain level of tolerance if the “second-born” non-heir is a changeling, but I feel like there might be some backlash if the heir is the changeling.
… Then again, the idea of Asuma having to deal with changeling Shikamaru is hilarious to me for some reason. Kakashi is already on a team with a bunch of weirdoes, he’s used to it. Asuma would just be staring at Shikamaru–who he has specifically been training to be team leader–in utter bewilderment as his genin follow the strangest (fae) whims. AAAAAHHHH I don’t know
… True, true. Orochimaru is one of those characters whose Watsonian motivations must be more complex and fascinating than the Doylist reasons behind his actions. So the idea that he’s beholden to laws that aren’t human is absolutely compelling. All of the partnerships/promises he makes then breaks does give off a very mercurial vibe, and the fact that he doesn’t seem to be majorly punished for any of them does kind of go with the idea that his sense of honor/justice is somehow beyond human reproach. And that would explain why he is walking around in Boruto if he’s “only” broken human laws and those don’t really apply to fae/changelings.
I loosely follow @blackkatmagic’s fanon that Orochimaru’s backstory is as tragic as Tsunade’s with some added deliberate manipulation from Danzo to ruin one of the potential Hokage candidates, so Orochimaru can’t be as completely evil as we see on the surface (although there’s definitely a point where his actions are nobody’s fault but his own, and he doesn’t get held accountable for those at all). I suppose if I were more ambitious I would try to do an Orochimaru centered fic about his progression to cold, but that’s a lot of nuance that I’m not sure I can do…
I’m going to assume you mean Naruto canon when you say original timeline, because otherwise to go through all of my fandoms would be O_O
I think there’s a difference in handling the knowledge in an internal/emotional way vs handling the knowledge in an external/make-changes kind of way. The first largely depends on how a person finds out–whether it’s something that, in the case of DoS, Shikako tells them or, somehow they find out from, like, a vision from beyond or a canon character dimension travelling and exposition dumping from there–whereas the second depends on their resources (whether they even have the ability to make changes on a significant scale) and personality (whether they would even want to.
Like, I’ve mentioned previously that Shino would make a good confidante for Shikako, not because he would particularly make a lot of changes, but because he would, if not believe Shikako immediately, then at the very least accept the knowledge with a certain level of proof (which is easy enough considering the Aburame’s history with Danzo.) So he’d be the first type of “handling” the knowledge of canon.
All that being said… I kinda want to do both for all of them mostly because this prompt would help me further conceptualize characters in a way I hadn’t considered before. So, both Emotional Handling and Influential Handling for DoS, Externality, (In)Difference, and Counterpoise? Hm, if there’s another series you’re interesting in, lionhead, just let me know and I can add that later.
Dreaming of Sunshine:
Emotional Handling – I’m going to stick with Shino for this one, actually. Regardless of if he finds out from Shikako or from some other means. Second place I would say Ibiki, but I’m reluctant to do even that much because of my own fanon that Ibiki and Yoshino are BFFs so he probably would be second hand messed up by the changes of Yoshino’s family composition.
Influential Handling – I don’t know if there is a singular person I would say is best for this, but the ones I’m thinking of all have a certain… flavor to them. In no particular order: Iruka, Ibiki, Aoba, and Shizune. And the thing they all have in common is that they have influence within the village but not the combat prowess to handle S-rank nin by themselves. So they would have to make changes with a softer touch. Would Iruka emotionally handle canon knowledge well? NO WAY. But he is in the position to not only influence Naruto (and other former students) directly but also to affect administrative decisions. Also, Danzo would never think of Iruka as a threat.
Ibiki, Aoba, and Shizune would probably handle the knowledge with better grace than Iruka, but they don’t have that direct connection with the kids that Iruka does. And this could be a positive and a negative, but they’re all also better than Iruka combat wise so they may be tempted to make changes in person which may cause them to bite off more than they can chew.
—
Externality:
So the thing about Externality is that even I haven’t decided whether or not Tetsuki knows about canon, or how–was Naruto a manga in the KHR world or can she perceive the canon version of the world in her dreams?–so I’m going to exclude her for now.
Emotional Handling – Weirdly enough, I think Naruto would handle it best. Not because he would use it, but because he would be galvanized into doing better. Whether that means keeping Sasuke in Konoha or being a better teammate to Tetsuki and Komadori or making sure to protect the people he couldn’t save in canon. Although, I suppose it depends on WHEN he gets the knowledge. Like, if he gets it before the canon graduation time, then it’s unprovable and basically a really weird dream to him–why would he be on a team without Tetsuki and Komadori?–but if its after canon graduation time, that is, after a genin-for-a-year Naruto gets put on a team with recent graduates Sasuke and Sakura, then he might take it as a challenge.
Influential Handling – Ibiki, Aoba, and Shizune for the same reasons as in DoS–since Externality is in a similar vein of OC–but instead of Iruka, since he isn’t the teacher for Testuki, Komadori, and Team Gai’s year, I would add Anko to the list.
Specifically after Tetsuki has joined Intel/T&I. Well, I mean, Anko knowing about Orochimaru’s future movements is already pretty good influence-wise (although, I’m concerned that Konoha would be “concerned” about how she got that information) but if it’s after Tetsuki has joined Intel/T&I and become Anko’s kouhai then Anko will know that she can use Tetsuki to act on her behalf as well as passing Orochimaru’s future movements along to Ibiki and such.
And I guess, for similar reasons, Tsunade would be good but only after she’s already become Hokage. Because her hands are tied as far as throwing down directly with Akatsuki since she has a damn village to run, but she’ll know that Tetsuki is a piece on the board that she can use in a myriad of ways.
—
(In)Difference
Since Kiyoshi definitely knows about canon and is trying her utmost to not get involved during her first decade and a half, then doing an abrupt 180 and getting overly involved in specific people’s lives, I’m going to exclude her.
This probably won’t make much sense given I haven’t actually written enough of (In)Difference to have a firm timeline and, unlike Externality and Counterpoise, it doesn’t follow the usual stations of canon. Which brings up the main point: except for a few flashback type situations, most of canon happens decades in the future. Any changes, even minute, will have massive consequences. Additionally, in a way, it’s harder to prove but easier to stomach so… hm… let’s see…
Emotional Handling – When they’re younger, genin/chuunin age or so, Orochimaru would handle it best. Not because he really believes Kiyoshi (if it is, indeed, coming from Kiyoshi) but because on the unlikely chance that it is true then he is still capable of course-correcting. Also, if he was, as I suspect, Nawaki’s jounin-sensei (or captain, if we’re going with wartime terminology) then being able to prevent his death–which Kiyoshi somehow does–will help a lot in keeping him sane and not completely evil.
Team White Fang would also handle it okay but only as a team. I don’t know why I feel certain about this, but, I dunno, they’re 2/3 my characters so there.
Influential Handling – Actually, all of the above wouldn’t be too bad in terms of influencing things. Orochimaru, obviously, just has to not be a complete sociopath and never work with Danzo (or, even, just kill Danzo outright) and already he’ll make the future a better place. And Team White Fang is either A) Sakumo, father of Kakashi who is in line to affect ALL the things or B+C) a shape-shifter and genjutsu mistress. So, not too hard to make changes. But I think the BEST person to make changes might be Nawaki.
Because just him being alive would mean so much in terms of Senju presence. And even if he doesn’t have Wood Release (but which I’ve written that he does so…) what his continued existence means for Tsunade and Kushina personally (who can then influence Naruto directly or not). Or what his continued existence might mean for the Uchiha clan… I suppose it’s more a potential of influence than actual influence, I guess.
—
Counterpoise
Konran definitely doesn’t know about canon. Immediately I know she would emotionally handle it the worst, because basically it’s a world in which her twin brother isn’t even a twin or a brother. Here comes an existential crisis. Because she’d emotionally handle it the worst, I’d be reluctant to predict how she’d handle it influentially. Obviously she’s in position to influence Naruto most directly, but will she want to? Will she do so in a positive way? I don’t know.
Emotional Handling – Zakuro. Hands down. I considered Ringo, because of the two Ringo is the “calmer” one, but then I realized: he’s a medic. He’s a taijutsu using medic. He’s as pacifistic and selfless as a shinobi can be. If he did believe the canon knowledge, however he got it, he would view all the deaths in canon and try his best to prevent them and only destroy himself.
Zakuro, in contrast, is a genjutsu and trap specialist. He knows that perception is more important than reality and for all his brash personality, he can be patient. Traps don’t always get sprung–it’s about preparing for possibilities, not getting directly involved. Zakuro wouldn’t lose himself to the knowledge. He’d take it, absorb it, learn from it, adapt.
The only hitch in this is that he wouldn’t want to keep the knowledge a secret from his teammates, but given their personalities, he would have to. So it’s not the knowledge itself that he would have trouble handling.
But to be clear, Zakuro is ony best at emotional handling. He’s not really in a position to make significant enough changes, for all that he has the mindset to do it.
Influential Handling – … the three people who I think could best utilize the knowledge and make changes are also the three people (besides Konran and Naruto) who would emotionally handle the knowledge poorly. Ringo is one of them–because for all he is the same rank as Zakuro, he does have sort of bonds with both Obito, though he doesn’t really know it, and Kakashi, and if he can figure out how to leverage said bonds he can mitigate a lot of suffering on their and everyone’s parts.
The other two are Kakashi and Jiraiya. The reason why I didn’t bring them up in previous series is because the nature of canon vs Counterpoise is a missing Uzumaki child. Minato’s child. And yes, it’s true, that shouldn’t be such a big deal seeing as how they they ignored Naruto in canon. But I wonder how much of that was the Sandaime’s terribad “don’t discuss the Kyuubi even though everyone and their monkey summons know about it” and how much of that was the village plausibly denying Naruto’s heritage.
So DoS brings up how Naruto could have been named Uzumaki because of his jinchuuriki status not because he’s actually related to Kushina. Additionally I’ve read somewhere that some people thought Naruto took Minato’s appearance because the Kyuubi was being deliberately cruel and kitsune are all about shapeshifting (which is why Naruto’s specialty before kage bushin is henge). And also, while I don’t know how canonical this is, there’s the idea floating around that Minato and Kushina kept the pregnancy a secret so enemy villages couldn’t find out and such. So, like, the village could have just been handwaving the obvious connections between Naruto and his parents. And because Kakashi and Jiraiya don’t get involved with him, there’s nothing to contradict that.
But Konran doesn’t have the Kyuubi. Konran has bright red hair and goes by the name Uzumaki. Konran is so undeniably Kushina’s child that there is no handwaving this away. It’s for this reason that I’m kind of playing around with the idea that the Cloud ambassador tried to kidnap Konran in addition to/instead of Hinata (which also explains why Konran becomes so desperate to keep her hair hidden when she’s a genin).
Anyway. That incident and the lack of plausible deniability means that Kakashi and Jiraiya kind of have to get involved and canon knowledge would only help them if they would get off their asses and do something. Don’t get me wrong, love the characters. But they are capable of making great change, they just need a massive shove to do so.
~
A/N: Uh… that got long and rant-y towards the end. Hopefully this was what you were looking for, lionheadbookends, and if not feel free to send another ask my way 🙂
It wasn’t so much that you come here only for GATP that was the problem as the idea that there might not be “any point” to coming here without it. And, yes, true–what is the point to going to any website time after time if there are no updates? Although, arguably, sometimes looking on past archived content is pretty fun–but there are also many ways to avail yourself to notifications that don’t include what and how you did so.
I don’t know if you’re anonymous because you don’t want me to know who you are (which is something that is baffling to me, but I already went over my concerns about anon status and continuous conversations here) but it’s not that difficult to get an account on the hellsite that is tumblr and follow me so as to get my posts on your dash. (And that last post, or even this post, I would be able to respond to you privately and directly if you de-anoned). Additionally, there’s also subscribing on the archiveofourown cross-posting which I already linked to you previously.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m berating you, anon. I am honestly pleased to know that someone likes my writing to want to check in on it for updates. I myself am a huge fan of a lot of different authors and their WIPs, and I frequently look at my bookmarks with a quiet sort of desperate plea for them to be updated–it’s just part of being in a fandom.
Hey anon, I’m glad to hear you enjoy my writing–or, at least, the AU that is Gambling Away The Past.
Unfortunately for you, I am not a very consistent writer. Fortunately for you, GATP is not on hiatus. I probably will eventually write more for that series in the future, but it’s really as prompts or my schedule or even my fickle will to write takes me.
Also, anon: I’m not secretly withholding fic from you. I tend to post chapters/sections whenever I complete them and considering they aren’t that long anyway, I usually write in single bursts and post immediately after.
But I would like to say this, anon, and I’m sure you probably didn’t mean it in that way: but I’m sorry you don’t think anything else I post is worth your time. Your phrasing made it seem like you think you’re entitled to something I do in my spare time–which, I’ll admit, I have had less of recently–and which is something I do for my own enjoyment. I’m sorry I can’t generate as much content as you or even I, myself, would like.
If you’re really just checking here for the fic and for none of the person that comes with it, I’d suggest going over to my archiveofourown and subscribing to that. I cross-post there over there because it’s neater for readers and that way when I do update, you’ll know. It’s not always an immediate but, again, this is something I do in my spare time.
Hey lionheadbookends! Luckily you caught me in the limited window of free time, so I’m able to answer your ask now though I’m not entirely sure how much help I’ll be:
I’m honored that you thought of me in relation to poetry, but I’ll be honest… I don’t really know much about it at all. Usually the poetry I post up here is kind of stream of consciousness burbling up from my mind when no narrative can convey what I want it to, and except for here on tumblr (and, technically, the cross-posting onto ao3) I don’t really publish my work anywhere. I mean, I guess technically I don’t publish my work at all since even my few “real world writing” is in play format and so not published per se so much as performed a bit and then not at all.
I guess mostly it depends on what you want the poetry to be. Generally my poetry is me expressing (usually negative) emotions or concepts to declutter my brain so when I post it onto tumblr it’s almost like me throwing letters in bottles out into the ocean. It’s nice if someone reads them and enjoys them, but ultimately the act of writing it was all I wanted–everything else is inconsequential to my goal.
So what would you like your poetry to be? Is it something you want to use to convey a specific message to people (or particular person)? Is it something you want to use as a foundation for future works?
If it’s the last, I think even those other attempts at poetry that “stuttered out before [completion]” could be helpful as a way to build upon and improve your writing. This is mostly anecdotal advice, and somewhat cliché at that, but writing is very much something you have to practice to improve upon, like exercising a muscle, and as seen with me in the past few months, if you don’t use it, it does become more difficult.
… as I said before, I don’t think this is of much help, but I’m glad to hear you’ve written a poem that you’re satisfied with! I think that–your personal satisfaction with what you’ve written–is what is most important, especially with poetry which is so emotionally charged and intimate.
MY AUGUST IS ALREADY SO EXHAUSTING AND IT’S ONLY THE FIRST O_O
But, also, this is what I’m acting in! If you’re in the area, check it out here
First night is tomorrow–or, technically, tonight! Come out, come out, if you can 😀
(I’ll be real, here. Under a cut and in parentheses and italicized, because I want to express myself but I don’t want it to be the main thing, you know?
These past few weeks, I haven’t been my best, mentally. I’m sure some of you might have figured out my tendency for reverse seasonal depression–or overstimulation leading to depression during the warmer, brighter months instead of the usual–and I thought this year I had managed to avoid the most of it. But most likely that was more of a postponement due to being part of The Geek Show and gaining friends and getting more involved with the Bindlestiff community.
It caught up to me in the tail end of July and hit me hard these past few weeks.
But yesterday I managed to have a breakthrough of sorts. In part because I was able to FINALLY clean my room–which does help, more than you’d think–but mostly because I think I realized I was trying so hard to be okay instead of just letting myself not be okay. There are some things I can’t fix, but if I can make the slightest efforts towards the things I can, it helps.
My daily post has long since ceased to be a habit, broken and unlikely to come back anytime soon. But even if I can’t churn out the same amount of creative content as I used to, I hope I will continue to improve in quality–whether that be here or in my real life endeavors.
If you’ve read this far–thank you for your understanding and support. I know I would be so much worse off were it not for this blog and the feedback and interactions I’ve had with all of you, and a lot of my progress and improvement is founded on the courage and inspiration I draw from here.
“Not bad, Sparky,” Kankurou says once the most devoted fans have left, giggling to themselves and satisfied. Some of them glance his way curiously, but most are too focused on the autographed paraphernalia clutched in their hands.
She blinks at him, overly polite and practiced smile still pasted on her face. Best actress of their generation his ass. “Would you like me to sign something for you, Kazekage-sama?” she asks, gesturing with the marker still in her hand. “There might be some posters left over if you didn’t bring anything with you.”
Kankurou raises a brow at her, “And would that be as Kako Heijo or Shikako Nara?”
Her smile drops, replaced with a displeased wrinkling of her nose. Finally a real emotion from her.
“What do you want?” she asks, finally leaving the roped off section at the theater’s back exit. A flimsy cage for one of the continent’s most powerful shinobi, but somehow the only one that she deigns to be contained within.
“I like to consider myself a patron of the arts,” he answers with a shrug, before walking into step beside her. There are a few paparazzi lingering at the end of the alleyway, ready to pounce, but one look at Kako Heijo’s current conversation partner makes them turn their cameras away.
Suna still has a harsh reputation, after all, no matter what attempts were made to ameliorate that. And it doesn’t help that Kankurou’s own ascension to the hat was particularly bloody. None of it by his hand or command, of course, but sometimes the truth can be the less believable explanation.
Sparky scoffs at his response, but doesn’t do anything to escape from his presence.
The silence as they go from theater to hotel isn’t comfortable by any means, but neither is it fraught or tense. The issues between them have long ago been settled, if unfortunately, and now there is nothing but the ruins of their shared ties.
If asked twenty years ago, he would not have guessed correctly on which of the two of them would be an internationally acclaimed performer and which would be a kage, but here they are.
Both of them trapped in roles neither of them wanted.
At the hotel, Sparky’s manager flutters in her direction, immediately jabbering about bodyguards and scheduling and exposure while carefully trying not to get too close to Kankurou. For that, he grins and enjoys the way the civilian flinches back.
“Don’t be a bully,” Sparky berates, distinctly ignoring all of her manager’s own admonishments.
“Leaf nin, always so soft hearted,” Kankurou responds, never mind that they both know it to be anything but true.
After all, shinobi and actors don’t deal in the truth.
~
A/N: … well this was a fucking weird return from my hiatus… uh… yeah.
I’ll be honest, some of my delay is the QAF show, but a lot of is was that I didn’t really know how to fill this and then… this happened?
Some kind of dark future fic in which, Kankurou ends up Kazekage and Shikako becomes world renowned actress Kako Heijo.
I have a sort of backstory for this world/how these roles came about if anyone’s interested?
Uh, sorry for the VERY BLEAK and VERY BELATED fill anon. Also sort of for that other anon who asked for theater kid Kankurou headcanons even though I’m not really doing a headcanon event at this time…
A LOT OF DEATH, BASICALLY. The timeline is as such:
Ebizo–because he is really really old and his sister has already died–passes. This isn’t a surprise and it doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue at first, but what this means is that there is no longer even the slightest bit of a leader amongst the council and that particular branch of the Suna government go, if not full dark, then shady.
Gaara somehow also dies/disappears under mysterious circumstances. It’s not too out there what with, I imagine, Gaara’s frequent trips to the Garden and the fact that no one really thinks anything can hurt him in the desert. I mean. Akatsuki is no longer a problem. And in a way I think Gaara’s trips through the desert and to the Garden are almost spiritual in nature (that boy would have made an excellent monk, I think)
Because of Gaara’s death/disappearance, the succession of Kazekage becomes an issue. The previously mentioned split/shady council basically go into civil war over which of the remaining siblings should become Kazekage. Temari is more suited, but she’s already married into the Nara clan of Konoha. Kankurou is considered “more loyal” but less suited.
Some enterprising council member decides to take matters into their own(?) hands and have Temari’s ties to Konoha severed… by having Shikamaru assassinated.
Unsurprisingly, this does not go as planned. Temari DEFINITELY does not want to go back to Suna for sure. That council member is found and arrested, and in the way of poltics/preventing war, offered to Konoha for them to punish as fit.
Naruto might already be Hokage by this point.
Naruto does not believe in capital punishment.
Many people, Temari and Shikako especially, object to this leniency.
But Temari has to think about Shikadai first (maybe?). Shikako doesn’t.
That council member does not get to live the rest of their life in prison as Naruto planned. That council member is found brutally murdered, in pieces, in front of the Hokage tower.
There is no proof as to who it was, but its a fairly open secret. Some people think Shikako went too far, some people think she has enacted the justice that Naruto failed to deliver. Because the Konoha Twelve are in position of power at this point in their life, this causes noticeable conflict within the village.
While Shikako still thinks Naruto was wrong about his handling of the Suna council member, she didn’t do this to overthrow him and so she removes herself from the picture entirely by pulling a more extreme Tsunade and renouncing her name entirely. Now she is the actress Kako Heijo (because Kinokawa Nara will be interim Nara clan head until Shikadai is grown).
… AND THAT’S THE BLEAK AND EXTENSIVE BACKSTORY FOR THIS BLEAK AND TINY FILL.
I think what you’re describing is more a style/technique than a plot concept.
The essence of a twist is to make everything up to that point mean something else entirely with the new context and so a second reread would be, inherently, different because the reader is informed of what will happen. So what you’ve described in the second half of your prompt is inherent to having a twist.
The first half, though, is interesting because… hm… a mobius-esque/circular structure does not necessarily require a twist. It CAN be that the mobius-esque/circule structure IS the twist (in that, plot twist, the beginning is the ending the characters are caught in an infinite loop) but that is not MANDATORY.
I think it depends on the… vibe? atmosphere?… that is the beginning/ending. If there mobius nature of the story is something that the readers realize (with, perhaps, dawning horror) then that is a twist. If it’s something the readers already know (and accept peacefully) then it’s not a twist, it’s just how the story is written.
But as I said before, anon, this is more of a style/technique than a plot concept, and while I think it would be cool to write I don’t know if I have the skill or appropriate story that would best suit this kind of structure.
I mean, given the recurring themes of this ask box event (or what few asks got through) this would be some kind of time travel / reincarnation / legacy inherited and passed down through the ages…
[Oh shit. This explains my bizarre choices in fanfiction rereads–lately I’ve been (re)reading Dark Is Rising and Inuyasha fic which are not fandoms I would normally associate with each other, but they do kind of have the above mentioned themes, I suppose.]
I mean, okay, in the twist of dawning horror type of story, the easiest thing I can think of is that the hero goes through their adventure and somehow becomes their own villain. Either time travel or non-chronological reincarnation, the hero decides that they have to preserve the timeline by living the villain’s life and then it turns out that there never was an “original villain,” just the hero fighting themselves over and over.
… but that’s not really something that would compel a person to reread it, would it? It’d be more of a “stunned and horrified, let me chew on the concept” sort of reaction, wouldn’t it?
I mean, having already brought up my current binge-reading of Dark Is Rising fic, I’ve always kind of wanted to write a fic in which Will Stanton, as the last Old One, goes back in time to teach Merlin, as the first Old One, because they are canonically part of a Circle. I had vague thoughts about making it a crossover with BBC Merlin and somehow incorporating canonical “normal childhood friend Will” into it, but then I stopped watching BBC Merlin after season two so…
But using that as an example as well as other!anon’s (or, at least, I think you’re a different anon?) missing “out-of-order student/teacher relationship” concept it’d be a whole I taught you but you were my teacher but I’m teaching you cycle. We are both teacher and student, ad nauseum. But in order to get that draw to reread it’d only be one character’s POV as they are teaching the other character and slowly realizing that their student was their teacher via flashbacks and “my teacher said their teacher once ended a war by pretending a crab was god and that sounded like an exaggeration because I definitely didn’t find any records of that, but desperate times call for desperate measures holy shit I can’t believe that worked.”
So that way it’d be more compelling to reread and see what little hints are sprinkled throughout.
All that being said, anon, maybe one day I’ll write something using this technique, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near that level yet… But thank you for the prompt, and again Happy Birthday! 😀
While not as disastrous as Ilvermorny (Lavaeudeen for life!) I’m not very keen on the HP canon of Mahoutokoro or, at least, not as a magical commuter school that somehow has the smallest student body of the eleven great wizarding school. The Hogwarts student body was fucking tiny, no way does the only Japanese magical school have less than that. I’d like to tweak it slightly–so that it just makes more sense–that Mahoutokoro is the only all-magical UNIVERSITY of Japan (though some of the other universities also have magical departments/classes available).
Actually, now that I’ve said that, I kind like the idea of magical education for younger magicians being the equivalent of an after school club or a cram school or a special class that only certain students take (advanced placement or art or foreign languages, etc). So the “main characters” that would be the Konoha Thirteen in DoS would still go to the same school as civilians/genin corps characters but they’d be in the magic club/class.
Which means that the different villages are different schools in different regions of Japan… which means this has the same set up of a sports shounen manga but instead of sports it’s magic?
Uhhhhhh… now I can’t unsee it.
I mean, a lot of sports manga practically give their characters magic powers ANYWAY, so we might as well just go straight there.
LET’S WIN NATIONALS, KONOHA~!
I don’t think I’d want to do Quidditch–only because it’s not very conducive to three person teams, and it originates from the UK anyway–so maybe it’s magical dueling? But that also doesn’t really go with three person teams… Or, alternatively, that’s pretty bloodthirsty for a sport for kids.
Maybe I’ll make up some new sport. Something like magical capture the flag so it’s not just straight up FIGHTING. (I mean, pro-bending in Avatar LoK WAS a thing, but not all that keen on it, either)
Anyway, so the point is… while magic is an important part of their lives (and maybe even THE MOST important part of their lives) they still live amongst non-magical people, unlike in HP.
I also don’t particularly like the whole wooden wands thing. Though I don’t particularly want all Japanese magicians to do wandless magic (it’d basically be ninjutsu and kind of defeats the purpose of transferring it into the HP verse). Maybe part of learning magic is finding/making your own conduit. Which sort of explains why Naruto starts off pretty bad (like all shounen sports protagonists) because for the longest time he just can’t find one that can withstand the sheer amount of power he has. Whereas the equivalent of Shikako’s burgeoning fuinjutsu mastery would be her NOT needing her conduit all the time. Sasuke, as with most Uchiha, has a very traditional mirror conduit–because Sharingan = Mirror Wheel Eye?
Though there are still things that carry over from HP. Like, while it’s not AS huge a deal as it is in Britain, blood purity is still an issue depending on which clan you’re from. The Nara twins are probably halfbloods–but only the worst of the elders really care–but so is Neji which is a HUGE problem for the Hyuuga (especially considering he’s originally more talented than Hinata who is pureblooded).
I mean, I sort of joke about the sports shounen manga thing, so I suppose I could go in the more serious direction of Japan having a real bad Dark Lord problem given Orochimaru, Itachi, Pein/Nagato, Obito/Madara, and Kaguya… (although, the Golden trio never had to fight a literal goddess so that’s pretty cool I guess… although, although, the Golden Trio would probably be pretty good at the three person magical sport I’ll have to make up)
Hm… I guess it depends. Am I just transposing the DoS plot into the HP world, or just the characters?
(2/2) These days, I wouldn’t go back more than a couple months, if that. I’ve made a dear, dear friend; she and I started dating, even, and I don’t want to take any chance that we wouldn’t meet–it’s worth the potentialities and “what if"s of a live lived with more experience. But I don’t know if that’s selfish of me, or if being willing to go back in time and start over is more selfish, you know?
I sometimes have this thought as well, anon. Except my reasoning is a little more pessimistic, perhaps. Like: “I’ve done nothing significant with my life, if I went back in time I would try to be a better version of myself.”
Now, in my slightly less depressed but still pessimistic thoughts I think “my life hasn’t been completely awful, who’s to say if I went back and changed things that I wouldn’t just make things terrible or, worse, just end up doing the same exact thing.”
And so basically, I suppose what I’m saying is that being satisfied with your life–accepting what’s happened and how it’s shaped you–is a sign that you’re doing better. That mentally and emotionally, you’ve forgiven yourself, though I doubt you were at fault at all–there is always an amount of guilt that comes from losing someone close to you.
I for one am happy for you that you’ve met someone–someone that makes you want to live this life, this timeline. I don’t think it’s selfish of you at all, even if you were capable of time travel.
You’re allowed to be happy, anon, you’re allowed to be satisfied with your life.
Yes it’s sad to have lost loved ones, that will always be a wound that scars us, but not being constantly weighed down by regret and grief is not the same as being selfish.
I don’t know if this is reassuring for you, anon, or it it’s helpful in anyway, but thank you for sharing and I hope this life continues to be one you want to embrace.
JackSGreyson Says 