1243, Team 7 + Reasons To Keep Living AU

The sun is shining
and the birds are singing


and because today is the very last day
they will sing forever.
(listen while you can)

Something is strange about the town of Konoha, though you’re not sure what exactly. It niggles at the top of your head, a phantom thought that is there one moment and gone the next.

But you stay silent. Who are you to cast judgement on these people, on their lives? Especially when they’ve been so hospitable.

They will aid you as best they can, so long as you do not look too closely.

The stranger is the first of a wave, coincidentally, soon after follows a troop of hunters on orders from the emperor.

Eternal life in exchange for killing a god.

They just need a weapon strong enough to do so.

Your father is restless. Prowling around and making ominous statements more than usual, picking fights with the other clans and snapping his fangs at empty air.

You do not dare sneaking into the town while he’s like this, possessively paranoid, constantly on your tail.

You don’t understand what’s happening. You’ve never seen him like this before.

Something terrible is coming.

You’ve never seen him afraid.

The stranger is your responsibility, and she’s an interesting one at first–you’ve grown tired of the same people and the same rhythms. The stranger is a breath of fresh air in your stagnant life, and you appreciate the change.

But you notice, after the second day, that there is more to this duty your family has assigned you. You are more distraction than tour guide, and vice versa, it seems.

Your brother and your parents stop talking whenever you enter a room, stranger at your side or not.

They do not trust you.

Heijomaru was the one that brought you here, footsteps certain for a reason beyond your knowledge.

Still, you have faith.

The town does not have what you need, or if they do they aren’t saying.

To the forest you go, then.

~

A/N: it’s been a while since I watched Princess Mononoke, though it is one of my favorites…

I’d love to see anon’s idea about Down Every Road!Grass Chunin Exams, because enraged and emotional Sasuke is always a delight to see. As for other prompts… (Can I just list a bunch? Pick & choose as you please) Some insight on their interactions; maybe Ino/Naruto, or Itachi seeing their mutual desire to protect Sasuke? Or maybe an older Sasuke on a long mission and sending a hawk summon with a letter or sumthing to Shikako? Basically anything is gr8, because Shikasuke is consuming my soul ;o;

I love you the way a knife loves a heart
the way a bomb loves a crowd
the way your mother warned you about, essentially.
(the way a human loves another human)

“… you planned this,” Sasuke says, realization dawning on him far too late. For years, his life goal finally achieved–but what does that matter when it was never really his own? At the core of all his steely determination just crumbling ash.

The sword falls from his hand.

“You…” he retreats, half a step then another, aborted movements, stumbling. Graceless and confused. He can feel his eyes burning, searing the image into his mind forever. “You… why would you–I don’t…”

The sword falls from his hand, but it doesn’t go far. The blade trapped between muscles and ribs and vital organs.

“I love you,” he says, denial and desperation, “Why would you–why would I. I don’t understand. I love you. I–”

Shikako gives a wet, bloody cough, as red as his eyes.

Mangekyo Sharingan. Sasuke needs it if he’s ever going to survive.

“I know.”

///

She is the most dangerous thing in his life.

Of course she is.

How can she ever protect him from all the people that want to harm him if she isn’t powerful enough to stop them.

She is only so dangerous because she loves him.

(She worked hard for that role.)

Naruto is the hero, this she cannot, will not touch–she can help him, sharpen the edge, but she cannot change him

Sasuke, on the other hand, was meant to be the antihero. That, she took between her own two hands and ripped to pieces. He was hers to forge anew, molten metal reshaped and folded, impurities burned out, making something even stronger.

But what is a blade that will not cut?

What is a sword without it’s wielder?

What is a curse of ultimate power without the betrayal that makes it so?

(Itachi had the right idea, but failed at the execution)

///

In order for fire to thrive, something first must burn.

///

~

A/N: … I actually wrote this pseudo a softer world style poem in response to the actual a softer world self prompt which kinda dictated the direction this went in… so…

jacksgreysays:

Oh, wow, anon. This is a lot! Okay… let me see if I can unpack this:

1) enraged/emotional/protective Sasuke (does it have to be Grass Chuunin Exams?)

2-4) Ino, Naruto, and Itachi’s POV of Shikasuke

Or, alternatively,

5) Ino, Naruto, Itachi and Shikako bonding over being part of the “protect Sasuke” squad

Or, even more alternatively,

6) Ino, Naruto, and Itachi bonding over being part of the “get Shikako and Sasuke together” squad

And then finally,

7) long distance relationship Shikasuke (via letter writing and unamused summons, no doubt)

Did I get everything? Well, these all sound like pretty good ideas, anon, though I may make first prompt outside of the Grass Chuunin Exam context, if that’s okay.

Thanks! 😀

i am the most dangerous thing in your life
of course I am
only because I love you so.
(i worked hard for that role)

… very dark… my bad… 

I’m terribly sorry, anon, that it’s taken me OVER A YEAR (?!!?!) to finally fill your prompt. And not even properly. And also not even all of them? This one is only number 5. :/ Sorry about that.

I think breaking it down into so many separate prompts made it far too intimidating for me and it’s been lurking at the tope of my unfilled prompts doc ever so ominously.

I hope you enjoy this VERY belated and terribly short and quite unrelated fill.

Man, I could read about how Sasuke is g o n e for Shikako ALL DAY. I love the Road One snippets. Also, congrats for getting in to the writing workshop! I hope you have fun and learn something useful.

Thanks! (For both!) 😀

Regardless of whether or not they end up together, I just cannot unsee Sasuke being in love with Shikako so it’s not HARD to get into his head but its also a little embarrassing because… boy, please, a little restraint. (Nah, I’m just kidding. It’s way too amusing to interpret Sasuke as a lovestruck fool. And I mean that in the fondest of ways)

The writing workshop is very much for scripts–which I only have limited, unofficial experience in–as opposed to prose narrative which I do here and have developed more so it’ll definitely be a change of pace for me.

One of my many many “fantasies” is to write a podcast much in the style of Welcome to Nightvale, so this is a step in the right direction for sure.

prompt(kinda): where Shikako’s mum stuffs her into a kimono with all the bells and whistles, while sasuke is looking on awe-struck and shika’s just in the bavkground giving him the suspiscious stink-eye

jacksgreysays:

… OOooooOOOH!! I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH THIS! 😀

I’ll have to research some things, though. (Either that or make up some stuff–then again, this is fanfiction, is that not what I’m supposed to do?) And it wouldn’t be compatible with certain other ficlets of mine.

Excellent prompt, flamingosspace!

(I’m also a little bit drunk right now, so hopefully what I’m thinking will still look fantastic in the light of day)

I do not believe in love at first sight.
But god damn.

(Look at you.)

(Very Far Down Road One)

Sasuke keeps his face forward, barely breathing, trying not to meet the gaze of Shikamaru who would, if he could, set Sasuke on fire with the force of his glare or at the very least stab him a couple of times.

Sasuke also does not want to meet Shikaku-san’s eyes which, while not as sharp as his son’s, are probably far more intimidating.

The heads of the Akimichi and Yamanaka clans are no less formidable.

Really, he ought to just consider that half of the room off limits and focus on his half which are full of his family who are happy for him on this day and don’t want him to die a horrific, bloody death…

… and there’s Shisui making faces in an embarrassing and unconvincing attempt to hide his tears of joy; Aniki who is barely stifling his laughter into their mother’s similarly vibrating shoulder; and Father whose stalwart resistance to slapping his nephew upside the head is manifesting itself as a twitching eye and throbbing forehead vein.

Facing forward it is.

The strains of music begin, finally, the procession entering: priests in full garb, then the bridal party in their own colorful kimono. Naruto and Kakashi near to the end holding up paper parasols in front of then–finally, please–above…

Beautiful. Radiant. Mesmerizing.

If he was barely breathing before, then he’s definitely stopped now.

… Shikako. Stunning in her white wedding kimono, the hood and the makeup unable to hide her soft but honest smile.

He can feel the responding smile grow on his face, and he knows he must look like an absolute awestruck idiot, but he doesn’t care.

Today is not about looking cool or not getting killed by his in-laws or the continuing mortification he gets from his family. Today (finally finally finally) he’s marrying the woman he loves.

~

A/N: Uh, so… I’m doing some belated “spring cleaning” on my massive list of unfilled DoS prompts and decided to combine it with the a softer world prompts because they are very lovely and why not?

Here’s some cheesy wedding fic for you, flamingosspace (aka @blooming-stars? It’s been so long since you originally asked that your name has changed?!) apologies for the VERY LATE (and kinda short) response.

469 for never lookin’ to come back?

It was a sweet day when I realized
legal and illegal had nothing to do with
right and wrong.
(Smash the state? Nah. I’ll just ignore it and hope it ignores me.)

(Never Lookin’ To Come Back)

If asked, each of them would say that it was the other who started it.

The smuggling, that is.

Sure, Kiba was the one who “found” that first crate of rations–marked as heading towards ROOT training facilities (and if they needed it so badly, they should have kept better track of it.) He was just being a dutiful XO when he brought it to the captain.

What happened after that was entirely her decision.

“I couldn’t just let that town starve,” she argues, magnanimous for a fleeting moment before continuing with, “… and we needed to offload it somehow.”

Kiba laughs, no matter how many times he’s heard it and the fact that he was there for it. It’s the telling of the story that makes it great, not the event itself.

///

According to the system, Lee has violated his parole.

The fact that someone as good and kind as Lee could ever even be arrested shows how flawed the system really is. The citizens of the small moon Lee calls home would say, too strict.

They would not say corrupt.

(Lee was arrested for defending a young girl from the mayor’s unwanted attentions.)

Not out loud, anyway.

The people of his hometown loved him, loved him enough to pool together their meager money and send him far away in a ship that could use another hand and didn’t look too closely at one’s legal background.

One day, Lee will go back home and free them from tyranny–until then, he sends the townspeople money and always wears the ugly orange leg warmers they send back.

///

No one outside of the Organization is actually sure what they are.

(“I’m putting my money on fancy hookers,” Kiba says, grin sharp and toothy and itching for a fight.

Not even the blankness of his face can mask the sheer irritation in Sasuke’s eyes.

“You better hope so,” TenTen responds, shifting over on the bench where Shino has kindly enough made space, “because if you’re wrong, you’re really gonna get it.”)

They’re beautiful and well trained, always on the arm of influential people and frequently at the scene of major incidents. Twice, they’ve had to make a quick get away at Sasuke’s behest, hours before news broke of some scandal and a sudden death.

Shikako learns it’s better not to ask.

Still, he does have very good connections to various port authorities, and so long as he pays his rent on time, she doesn’t mind what he might get up to.

///

According to the system, Naruto doesn’t exist.

If they knew he did, they’d kill him immediately.

None of them know it yet, but the most illegal thing on their ship isn’t the Hyuuga chancellor’s missing daughter, or the crates and crates of contraband.

No, it’s the key to the Core’s greatest and worst secret: the conspiracy to end all conspiracies.

The truth behind the destruction of Uzushio–the would have been fifth member of the core planets.

~

A/N: Just little sprinkles of backstory–I didn’t think TenTen would be an outright criminal, and Shino works more outside the law than against it so…

Thanks for the prompt, anon! 😀

1, with platonic Shikako/Sasuke/Naruto

Our love is a forest fire
and we are the little things
that live in the trees.
(Today is the most exciting last day of our lives)

(Reasons To Keep Living)

The forests around the growing town of Konoha are haunted. At night, there are sounds and shapes and lights and movements that make their way out of the thick curtain of trees; it is eerie and fearsome and beautiful.

If a man goes into the forest, he is never heard from again–or so it is said.

Good thing you are no man.

///

The stranger has travelled from far away lands, dressed in strange clothes and riding a long horned deer.

She comes in search of a cure for her brother and she knows she is in the right place:

Either it will be found in the town at the forefront of progress, or it will be in the forest of magic and miracles.

///

All your life you have been told to stay away from the forest. There are dangerous things in there, beasts and monsters and horrors–a good son would not make his parents worry so, just look at your brother, what an upstanding young man.

But they are too enamored by him to notice you, and you are ever so curious about what secrets are within.

When you are told to act as the stranger’s guide, you see an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream.

///

You’ve been to the town before–it’s your best kept secret, because if your father knew, he’d eat you, just as he’s always said.

You love the forest, of course you do, it’s your home: the cave where you and your father curl up together for warmth, the rivers where the otter clan chatter and play their tricks, up in the treetops the monkey clan howl and down below the boar clan stampede.

You love your home, but you want to see the world outside of it.

///

The kodama come out at sunset, when the Shishigami walks the forest and begins to transform; they watch and click their curious little heads, observing a phenomena that has happened daily for centuries and yet is still so breathtaking.

Sometimes, the fox boy joins them, head tilting in unison, mesmerized.

Sometimes, from the very top of the town walls, the second son can see the top of the Night Walker’s head breaching the canopy.

They both wait, though they don’t know it, for the stranger to arrive.

~

A/N: Out of order sections–they were written as I thought of them, sorry, and it seemed weird every time I tried to put them in chronological order.

I don’t know about you, anon, but I got very strong Princess Mononoke vibes from the prompt? Or was that just me? Regardless, new AU! 😀

… I might have turned Naruto and Sasuke into Disney princesses what with the whole “wanting to see the world outside my forest/town/castle.”

In Tamed, do you think Sasuke has to hold on to his fury and his vengeance to stay awake, or his he clear of it once he’s woken … or maybe he’s clear of it, but (because of the trauma) can’t really differentiate between normal tiredness and the way the curse came upon him?

I think, in a parallel of canon, Itachi did “spare” Sasuke from the entirety of the curse. So, since in this AU he put the entire kingdom to sleep instead of killing everyone, Sasuke’s sleep curse is probably a partial thing with a set of conditionals to break it or something like that? So it was weaker to begin with and he broke it himself because of Vengeance.

But, as you said, there is the trauma side of it which probably causes him to avoid sleeping in exchange for obsessive training. Or just really persistent insomnia.

46, platonic team 7+kakashi, that one fairy tale au with big bad wolf kakashi i think u talked about a while back

We are terrible for each other, and, yes, we are a disaster.
But tell me your heart doesn’t race for a hurricane or a burning building.
I’d rather die terrified than live forever.
(mistakes aren’t always regrets)

(Tamed)

“My brother had magic,” Sasuke says, muted, staring into the campfire. Naruto and Shikako look at him, attentive and enraptured: Sasuke never talks about his past.

Kakashi looks away–he already knows this story.

“My parents. Our entire kingdom. They were so proud,” The words are stilted, as if dragged out of him, but he pushes through, “The first prince in generations to have magic…”

The silence is so long that for a moment they think he’s stopped, that’s all he will say on the matter.

“…it overwhelmed him, turned him mad. He cursed everyone.” Sasuke closes his eyes, clenches his fists, “That’s why I have to kill him.”

He stands up quickly–the sudden movement causing the other two to flinch back–and stalks off.

“Not too far,” Kakashi calls after him, getting only a dismissive grunt in return, but he does stay within shouting distance and returns to their campsite after an hour.

He is still silent, sullen. For the next two days, the three of them don’t hear another word from Sasuke, but at heart his mood isn’t regret.

It’s relief.

///

He doesn’t know it, but Naruto comes from a long line of legends: foresters who protected children who strayed off the path, knights who slew monsters, seventh sons who cured kings, princesses that outsmarted trickster demons, all the way to heroes whose names grew beyond any single act.

They were there whenever an injustice needed to be righted. They were on the front lines in wars against evil. They were wanderers who faced the worst the world had to offer and gave their all to make it better.

And then they gave some more.

Sometimes, fortune favors the bold.

Other times, fortune is feckless and all consuming, taking and taking and granting only rarely with the highest interest rate.

Kakashi knows, but will never tell him: on the day of Naruto’s birth, despite all the sacrifice that was made, that debt harshly grew.

He is the last of his line: any luck that falls his way will exact balance upon him…

… and on his precious people.

///

Shikako does not have a tragic background. Her lifestyle has always been, if not gentle, then fair and without strife.

She has enjoyed much from her station and she knows, one day, that she will have to take up the duties expected of her and return the privileges that have been afforded her.

But not yet.

“Please,” Shikako whispers, small hand clutching at the rough fabric of his cloak, “Not yet.”

He doesn’t know where the misunderstanding arose–Shikako intent on fleeing an unwanted arranged marriage, her father sending search parties and hiring an, if he’s going to be honest, overpriced hunter to make sure she hasn’t been taken against her will–but it’s both a hilarious and heartening situation that he thinks he’ll keep track of.

That is what he does, after all.

“The world can be a scary and overwhelming place for young highborn ladies,” he says, just to gauge her mettle. If she really can’t hack it, he’ll deliver her to the Nara stronghold himself.

The same hand that clung to his cloak for comfort now tugs sharply, jerking him down closer to her level. He bends with it, because why not?

“I may be a lady,” she responds, quiet but fierce; she brings her free hand between them, and in her palm blooms a small green flame “but I’m far from helpless.”

~

A/N: Are they a train crash waiting to happen? MAYBE?!

Sorry for the late response, sociallinkmax, I had the first part done and then got waaaaay swamped with RL… stuff.

I was debating whether or not Big Bad Wolf Kakashi was literal or figurative or a mix of both (like some kind of Ladyhawke situation?) so I just went the ambiguous route.

Number + Character/Ship + (optional) AU –> my ask box

[If anyone else wants to do a softer world prompt that isn’t on the list, you can just send the page id number for the original comic instead.]

This is kinda random, but I’ve had this in my head for a couple days now. Something really, REALLY bugs me about the Uchiha Massacre. Was Sasuke REALLY the last remaining Uchiha? Are you telling me that there was no Uchiha that was having an affair that lead to a bastard child? In a family of Trained Military Police, there was not a single person who was able to minimize at least a LITTLE damage, hid, or who played dead? Root didn’t have an Uchiha member (*stares suspiciously at Sai*)? (P1)

jacksgreysays:

definitelynotaminion:

hiruma-musouka:

(p2) Also, was not a single Uchiha on the mission roster/on a mission, at the time? Or outside of the district for whatever reason? Kids sneaking out to play, teens going to visit a sweet-heart, shinobi out for some late-night training? REALLY? And the Uchiha was NOT A SMALL FAMILY. They were spared the losses of Kurama’s attack due to Danzo. People slip through cracks with those kinds of numbers. Sorry for the rant, but this has been bugging me lately.

(p3 an apologies for further comment) Also, was not a single medic able to do SOMETHING? We have blood replenishers, soldier pills, organ transplants, and so much more. Did not a single medic TRY to save the wounded they found? And someone HAD to have noticed the smell of GALONS OF BLOOD and/or have heard Sasuke SCREAMING, so medics would be called. The premise of the IN-VILLAGE massacre is believable with several individuals. Not with a major clan of 100-200+ members like I think they had.

Welcome to reason 27543782 for why that segment of the manga doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I wonder about these things. Canon tends to handwave things like logic which exasperates me, but on the other hand, this train wreck of weird writing decisions is partly why we linger on it so much as a hobby.

So let’s have fun going over a few of the points you brought up.

Keep reading

I mean I get that Tobi and Itachi were prodigious near Kage-level shinobi but MISS ME with the idea that nobody not one even fought back

An Uchiha attacked in her own district wouldn’t fight for her life. She’d launch a fireball into the sky or set a house on fire, wake the clan, alert the village.

In a family district like that one scream would wake several others– a scream in a real life residential neighborhood has me looking out the window for any obvious crime or injuries going on; in a compound literally only composed of my blood relatives? Fuck you, I’d be out the Goddamn door so fast you’d think I’d teleported. In the political environment after the HYUUGA AFFAIR? At a time when you think most people don’t like the Uchiha?

So miss me with not one mother clutching a child and making it to the administration building. Can you even stop someone mid shunshin? Once they get that teleport jutsu off its like bye Cuz

Someone from Kumo literally snatched Hinata off the street and Hizashi had to be traded away to prevent world war 4. Go fuck yourself the Uchiha didn’t have protocols in place for their children dying in the night. And yeah maybe Itachi the traitor knew about those but ugh. Ugh.

So unrealistic you know?

Anyway Uchiha slipped through the cracks, bastards cropped up, people were on missions, and there’s still at least a dozen active Shinobi on the roster. And the kids who made it? Join the fuck up. It’s like the explosion of Vulcan federation members after the death of the planet. We were decimated but instead of joining the conservation effort we are going to fight and rebel and win against those who would see us gone tbh

Fucking fight me

Um… I don’t mean this in a hostile fighting way, but I wonder if there’s a way to resolve Sasuke as “the last Uchiha” and the impossibility of Itachi (and Obito) literally massacring the entire clan if you go into a matter of semantics?

As previously said, there has to have been some people who slipped through the cracks, but none who would own up to it (or know to do so, if you want to consider the possibility that Danzo did steal all of the non-Sasuke children). For some reason, their prodigy has seemingly just cracked and murdered, if not everyone, then a large majority of people named Uchiha. If I’d survived that, I’d sure as hell no longer go by that name, either. So there’s no more Uchiha clan as an organized entity. There are probably other Uchiha blooded, but none who would want to lay claim to the name (and baggage) that comes with it.

Also, while the Uchiha clan didn’t have the same set up of Main Family vs Branch Family as the Hyuuga did, it’s very likely that they had an internal hierarchy of some sort. Itachi as clan heir and then, arguably, clan head after he killed his own father and the various elders, has an authority over the fate of the clan. Those who did survive probably, understandably, took his actions as officially ending the clan. Sasuke, being a child, wouldn’t have known who the majority of his clan members were (I have an extended family of several dozen, and I only know at most thirty) and even if he did legally become clan head as of becoming a genin/adult, he wouldn’t know what resources (and possible “excommunicated” members”) were available to him.

However, I do think there weren’t that many survivors. Of the approximately 200-300 members I think at most two dozen would have survived (minus, again, the children that Danzo likely could have swooped in and absconded with). Because consider that most (if not all) of the Konoha Military Police Force was Uchiha–it contributes to the isolationism and the hoarding of power Danzo goaded/framed them with–which means that when an in-village disturbance occurs, it’s the KMP that respond (not the ANBU). 

Konoha is a huge village, so if we compare it to a modern city, then it’s not terribly surprising that none of the other clans didn’t respond. Not only is it an Uchiha matter, isolated to the Uchiha sector which is physically secluded from the rest of the village, but it’s assumed that the police will take care of it? And, well, the KMP responding to the noise would help Itachi/Obito/Danzo with the massacre.

Of course there are some Uchiha in the general shinobi forces, but I wouldn’t think more than a few dozen, and if this really was something that was premeditated, then Itachi/Obito/Danzo would have waited until most of them were in the village.

(It’s also very possible that, since the Uchiha elders were actually planning a coup, they were the ones who recalled all of the Uchiha members to have a meeting of sorts–possibly under the cover of some kind of holiday maybe? The Mangekyo forms are named after Japanese deities after all–and so Itachi/Obito/Danzo would know to strike during that time)

The clan was ready for a kidnapping, or even Konoha ANBU attacking them. They weren’t prepared for their own clan heir to go berserk.

Although that now makes me wonder how exactly Itachi went about it. Obviously he exaggerated how effective he was (to hide Obito’s existence) to Sasuke during the first Tsukuyomi, but perhaps it wasn’t as gory as it seemed. Maybe Itachi, polite and quiet and known by everyone in the clan, went to each house and did it silently. As in, he knocked on the door and greeted them, made as if he had a message from the elders regarding the coup. And of course they would let the clan heir come in, would prepare tea and snacks for him, wouldn’t think twice about turning their back to one of their own.

And if Itachi really was as skilled as he’s meant to be, genjutsu-wise or assassination-wise, then he could do this quietly. Yes, all it takes is one person to raise an alarm, but if you break it down into households, then it’s three to six trusting, unprepared people against the clan prodigy who has planned everything out. The next house over won’t hear anything, won’t find it odd when Itachi shows up at their house in a few minutes, they’re expecting a secret message from the clan head/elders regarding the coup, they’d probably even set up privacy seals to further make everything quiet.

… so I guess what I’m saying is, a little of both? It’s unrealistic to think that Sasuke is literally the only survivor, but Itachi and Obito taking out hundreds of people just the two of them is fairly feasible.

Also, given in canon Sasuke went even more insane and defected from Konoha a few months after becoming a genin/official adult/legal clan head, it’s not surprising that any survivors just continued to stay quiet.

The more I think about it, the more probable it is that there are in fact surviving Uchiha (again, in blood, not in name).

Primarily in the form of people with mixed heritage who, unlike Izumi Uchiha, were not invited back into the clan or refused the invitation after the Kyuubi attack. Like, it makes sense for Izumi (who was a child) and her mother (who was the Uchiha in the marriage) to accept the reconciliation after the death of her father–they lost a part of their household and needed that support structure–but there must have been others with Uchiha heritage who had been older than Izumi or who were additional generations removed who wanted nothing to do with the clan.

(Which sort of bodes well for a repopulation program, if Konoha isn’t completely put off by the madness that was Itachi and canon Sasuke’s defection, because it’s not trying to recreate the Sharingan with just Sasuke’s descendants.)

But I definitely agree with OP that Danzo must have taken the Uchiha kids for himself. And not just because Sai looks suspiciously like Sasuke (though I wouldn’t be surprised if he had partial Uchiha heritage), but because that whole “trainees must kill their partner to graduate thing” is, yes, a copy paste from Kiri’s graduation pre-Zabuza to reduce sentimentality in child soldiers, but it makes way more tactical sense when you consider that Danzo knows about the Mangekyo. He’s trying to forcibly activate the Mangekyo in his brainwashed child soldiers.

And it’s very believable that he would have had the opportunity to get the Uchiha kids either before or after Itachi and Obito kill all the adults. There might have been an Uchiha afterschool program for kids younger than Sasuke (or even same age and older, but his propensity for private training was a pre-massacre thing)–which isn’t unbelievable if both parents were still working shinobi. Itachi might have just thrown a mass genjutsu up and then Danzo had ROOT agents go in and scoop them all up during the massacre.

Or however Danzo was able to get his hands on a dozen Sharingan eyes–if there were other child survivors, they had far less political/emotional influence and wouldn’t have been as actively looked for/protected. Danzo knew ahead of time that the massacre was going to happen, so of course he’d put his own people on the clean up crew or on the hospital rotation, and really its only Sasuke that has to be publicly acknowledged as the messenger of “Itachi’s defection” and as the “last Uchiha,” upholder of the clan name.

42 + Sasuke and Shikako + Time Loop!AU

I would love you more
if you were someone who could love me.

(buy your love by playing make believe)

The first go around, Shikako doesn’t trust him. Not completely.

That’s fine–Sasuke doesn’t trust her completely either. (Not yet)

He wants power more than he wants her trust, and so he succumbs to the temptation. Takes the serpent’s offer. Follows the destined, straying path.

He becomes more powerful than he could ever dream.

The first go around, he hasn’t yet learned that Shikako’s trust will make him even more so.

///

The second go around, he’s in shock.

He must be.

That can be the only explanation for why he lets his family die.

It’s less about revenge and more about self-destruction when he follows that same, straying destiny.

///

The third go around is when he starts trying to change things. Hope, like poison, coursing through his veins.

But for all his suffering he doesn’t know enough (not yet) and so it’s all just empty flailing.

///

Fourth through sixth he starts to suspect that he’s not the only one who knows what’s going on.

Shikako reacts differently from everyone else, reacts the way someone whose expectations have gone unfulfilled.

Which means she has expectations.

Beyond the expectations for Sasuke Uchiha, youngest son of Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha. Beyond the expectations for Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha’s younger brother. Beyond the expectations for Sasuke Uchiha, best fighter, most popular boy, and second ranked student of his class.

She knows something.

And as he’s learned over and over again, knowledge is what he desperately needs.

///

The seventh, Shikako disappears.

He only speaks to her once: two children on a playground, not even at the Academy yet, no possible threat to anyone.

The official report is that Cloud ninja took her, but Sasuke isn’t that foolish boy he once was.

(It was Danzo, of course it was; he’s the only one Shikako ever truly feared. And for good reason.)

He never forgives himself for that one.

///

Eighth is about atonement.

(Aren’t they all about atonement?)

He focuses on his friends, on their happiness and their safety.

He is kind and he is loved and he is killed very early on.

(But not after Shikako, this he makes certain)

The world is not a peaceful place. (Not yet)

He has to make it so.

///

After a while, it becomes less about succeeding–whatever that might mean–and more about learning.

He learns, in depth, about the Uchiha clan politics (and later decides not to revive the system)

He learns, no matter how heartbreaking, about his brother’s internal struggles (after so many lives, he knows that Itachi was just a child torn in too many directions).

He learns, to his own surprise, about the ghosts of Kakashi’s past (the traumas as much a part of him as the Sharingan in his eye socket).

He learns, pieced together from crumbs and rubble, far more about Naruto’s heritage than he himself ever does (how much grief would they all be spared if Sasuke could actually travel through time instead of just loop).

But most of all, he learns about Shikako.

///

Power is nothing without wisdom.

~

A/N: … this was going to be a very different ficlet, anon, about Sasuke and Shikako’s relationship in different loops. Except then I realized that I have the Down Every Road series and a lot of the things I was coming up with would fit better there rather than in a specific ‘verse in which Sasuke was looping.

And also it’d get kinda skeezy after a while.

Erm. But it does kinda make this anticlimactic, I suppose…

:/

It was a lovely prompt, anon, I’m just sorry I couldn’t do it justice.

Number + Character/Ship + (optional) AU –> my ask box

[If anyone else wants to do a softer world prompt that isn’t on the list, you can just send the page id number for the original comic instead.]