Tag: sasuke uchiha

14 – Poly!Lucky Sevens

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…
I think I’ve got fireflies
where my caution should be.
(Instead of slowing down, I just shine brighter)

—

(Insuperable)

She’s thrown through a wall–one, two, three–comes to a rolling, tumbling stop against the crumpled steel of a dumpster.

She groans, body shrieking in pain–her floating ribs are probably broken, shit, and her vision is hazy with a definite concussion–but at least she’s still alive. Her armor has held up well: TenTen is definitely getting a raise.

A roar sounds through the streets, reverberating and ominous, straight out of her childhood nightmares of monsters under her bed.

What she wouldn’t give to be asleep in her bed right now.

Shikako coughs, brick dust and rubble in the air, ribs protesting angrily. She steels herself. Flipping onto her hands and knees nearly makes her weep.

She can’t do this.

Human criminals are one thing–she’s better trained and better equipped than anyone on the street–but creatures of this size? Rogues with superhuman abilities? Magic and other things beyond the laws of physics?

She can’t do this alone.

—

An extraterrestrial object crashes into Konoha’s Central Park during an R&D presentation to the board–Shikako’s presence is mandatory no matter how many wide-eyed looks of panic she exchanges with TenTen.

And so when the alien emerges, blindfolded and shackled but rampaging madly, it’s not The Dark Knight that makes first contact, but a graffiti artist on the run from the cops.

A graffiti artist that also happens to be a demigod.

By the time the presentation is over–rushed through as quickly as possible, but still far too long–the rampage turned battle has expanded to downtown Konoha.

Shikako arrives on scene and curses, futilely: there are news cameras–stupid and brave–and a ring of police cars–less stupid, but braver–lights spinning a dizzying red and blue.

Most of her power comes from reputation, the growing rumors of an urban legend that haunts the nights and minds of criminals. This is so public, too public, out in the bright glaring sunshine.

The officers that spot her, rumbling motorcycle engine loud and impatient, face their weapons her way for a moment. The Dark Knight, after all, is still a wanted vigilante–one that has caused conflicting opinions within the force. But their captain is quick to brush them off, in part for her benefit, but mostly for theirs.

“I hope you have better firepower than we do,” the captain says, opening up the barrier with a wave, “Because both of them are bulletproof.”

She does, but that’s not what is going to resolve this.

She goes through, prepared to enter the fray even if it means surrounding herself by people who want to throw her in prison, because maybe there’s a way to salvage this situation.

~

A/N: … I didn’t get to the actual relationship so much as it is the set up to it? Sorry, anon… 

Also I did try to write a third section to this but it didn’t fit so well and I already felt like this was taking too long so there’s a paragraph under the cut. I may use that eventually if I write more Insuperable, but so I don’t lose it I’ll just hide it here.

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.]

The walls of their headquarters are covered in paint. Vibrant swirling colors and symbols that don’t match any living language. Naruto sees these shapes in his dreams, grasping at images that evaporate during his waking hours.

He is desperate for any hint of his past.

Sasuke wishes he could forget his own.

Character Statistics: Dreaming of Sunshine, Team Seven – (Rough Draft)

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edit2: okay, so I went through EVERYONE (Teams 8, 10, and Gai as well) to properly compare and I did tweak a little more of Team 7 (not much, but enough that it’s different) so I’ll just do a new post with a “clean” version of this and also the other teams. Thanks for your patience, everyone!

A/N: I am still doing the a softer ask box event, but the current prompt I’m on is trickier than the previous ones and also I’ve been having trouble sleeping which means I do silly things like make charts for fanfiction characters. I may do this for the other teams, but for now here’s Team Seven (plus Sakura for comparison).

Statistics are based on the First, Second, and Third Databooks except instead of “Handseals” I’ve made a “Special” which is literally anything beyond what an average non-clan shinobi might have; such as the shinobi that don’t end up on jounin led teams. Unless it’s something overt or physical (such as the Byakugan or ninken/kikaichu) then even clan kids will have 1 for Special at the time of First because they haven’t mastered their clan jutsu or awakened their dormant abilities.

It’s also my understanding that for all of the stats 1 is the baseline (except, for some reason, Sakura’s first Strength which is 0.5, but it makes more sense when you consider that Lee has 0.5 Ninjutsu and 0.5 Genjutsu. This has extremely worrying implications for early Sakura–was she purposefully staying undernourished or something to look nicer? Minimizing muscle tone because it wasn’t feminine enough?)

First reflects them right when they graduate, Second is roughly during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, and Third is Shippuden. I did tweak some of the canon stats in the Second and Third to reflect the changes Shikako has made to the DoS characters (for example, Naruto’s Intelligence is slightly higher and Sakura begins training with Tsunade much earlier, etc. etc.).

For obvious reason, there’s no Shikako stats, but I’ve kept within the range of her teammates’ when all their points are totaled and, maybe as a larger guideline, she’s never stronger than Kakashi in anything–she matches him eventually in certain categories but never outrightly surpasses him which feels right?

Team Seven First

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(Naruto’s Special is 1 because nobody wants to consider his jinchuuriki status whatsoever. Shikako’s is 1.5 due to her burgeoning talent/interest in fuinjutsu, Sasuke’s is 1.5 more because of his potential Sharingan which he hasn’t activated yet as of graduation.)

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Team Seven Second

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Team Seven Third

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And then individual stat charts so you can see how they’ve grown 😀

The nice things about these radar style charts is that you can easily point out what a person’s weakness is? The more convex a person’s chart, the more balanced they are. So for example, Kakashi is pretty strong, but he could do with more Stamina. Shikako as well (and Strength, too). Naruto very much so needs to improve in Genjutsu, whereas Sasuke is fairly well rounded. You can tell quite easily, comparing Sakura’s First vs Second vs Third stats, how much she improves all around and the shape of her chart becomes more and more convex and balanced.

Kakashi Stats

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Shikako Stats

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Naruto Stats

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Sasuke Stats

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Sakura Stats

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I have the stats for the other teams, if anyone’s interested I might make posts of them later, though it’s VERY clear that Team Seven is so over powered. I mean, obviously. They’re the powerhouses and legends in the making, of course, but it’s so drastic a difference it seems frankly unrealistic? Maybe I’ll come back later and scale it down to match better?

edit: … yeah, I think I might have boosted Shikako’s stats unrealistically to match the boys. I do think she should still be in a small range with them, but might have focused too much on the sum total and not on what’s necessarily in character to focus on? Namely, I might have upped her Strength too much in Third… let me just tweak that. (Shikako’s Third Strength, changed from 3 to 2.5 Third TOTAL changed from 32 to 31.5). I mean, unless she gets something like the chakra burst punch? Or some other strength enhancing/strength maintaining technique (such as the anti-muscle-atrophy jutsu)? But Tsunade has already told Sakura not to share the chakra burst punch at the very least, and I feel like Shikako canonically would rather work on developing more techniques for a wider variety than grinding Strength. 

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)

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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.

51. “I don’t know if your wings are real / but I’ve never seen you without them / and I follow you everywhere.” Fire Fallow Cultivation

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I don’t know if your wings are real,
but I’ve never seen you without them,
and I follow you everywhere.
(you have a nice living room)

—

When eight year old Sasuke wakes up after his aniki… after That Man killed… After…

When Sasuke wakes up After, hollowed out and muddled and crushed under the weight of his own grief, he thinks maybe he’s just dreaming. Not about what happened–he knows the truth–but now, currently.

Either that or maybe, instead of sparing him, That Man really did kill him. Maybe he’s dead.

The medic who checks on him has wings, feathery and small and light brown like a sparrow’s. He’s never heard of a bloodline like that. He must be dreaming, then.

He is not.

—

It takes a while for him to figure out what is happening, mostly because there are so many possible explanations for it and, frankly, he has other more obvious matters to worry about. But on the few occasions when everything grows to be too much, or he needs to just take a break, or on those lighter days when he can pretend that this mystery is the greatest problem in his life, he can ponder it freely.

It’s not a bloodline: The medic from that first day was civilian born, and more besides, he sees other people with wings around Konoha, none of whom are related to each other whatsoever and some of whom are in different clans.

It’s not a genjutsu either, he’s already learned how to dispel them with a kai, and the hospital would never let a patient leave while they’re under one.

He wonders for a while if maybe it’s the Sharingan. Other people can’t seem to see it, not even the Hyuuga, and its not as if it’s so far a leap.

But he doesn’t remember anyone from his clan talking about wings Before, and besides… he doesn’t have the Sharingan yet.

—

Not everyone has wings and, while he hasn’t exactly been taking notes, there doesn’t necessarily seem to be any correlation between the person and their wings’ size or colors.

Some people match what he’d think of them:

Kakashi-sensei has small, grey wings. A little darker than his hair but just as messy, feathers ruffled and out of alignment. Frequently they look like they’re broken, except they can’t be because they’re not real.

Naruto’s are a riot of color–though not yellow like his hair–they’re always up and reaching as if, maybe this time he’ll actually be able to fly.

Some people don’t:

Sai’s wings are fluffy, a white so bright they nearly hurt to look at, and constantly moving around.

Sakura’s are sleek, plumage dark but iridescent like the surface of a bubble in the sun. They only flare out when she’s angry, but are otherwise still for the most part.

Yamato-taicho doesn’t have wings–which somehow doesn’t seem like much of a surprise–but neither does Shikako, which is one.

Sasuke doesn’t either, and he’s not sure how he feels about that.

—

Tsunade-sama’s wings are massive, wide enough to touch either end of the Hokage’s office at the same time, and ever so expressive. There’s a few patchy, ragged places, but her wings don’t look any less magnificent for them.

He’s never seen her in battle–not one outside the political arena, that is–but he thinks such a sight would be awe inspiring.

This is what a Hokage is, this is what a Hokage should be.

(The Sandaime visited Sasuke in the hospital, once, After, but before the wings became his norm. Now, looking back, Sasuke remembers that there were no wings behind the robe and hat.)

He may be Hawk, but Tsunade-sama is the one who looks like she could rule the skies.

—

(The first time he sees wings without feathers, skeletal and horrific, sharply painful things, they are jutting out of Orochimaru.

The second time they’re on the back of That Man, a terrible silhouette to an already nightmarish figure.

It doesn’t take much to figure out what that means.)

—

Whenever he uses his Sharingan, Sasuke can no longer see the wings.

He’s not sure how he feels about that, either.

~

A/N: Um… so… very little Tsunade in this, anon, except for the section with Sasuke’s fanboying, but I guess my brain caught more on the “wings” part of the prompt and ran away with it. Please enjoy, regardless.

Highly influenced by the BBC Sherlock fic (written in 2010, so before all the awfulness of the later seasons) called A City on the Head of a Pin by Mad_Maudlin. I tweaked it a bit so that going bad didn’t lead to bat like wings but rather just skeletons.

Because bats are cool and fuzzy and great.

I guess if you really tilt your head and squint this isn’t necessarily canon noncompliant? (And if you tilt your head the other way and clap three times you can maybe consider this as part of the Walking Around aka Sakako Uchiha ‘verse. Sakako sees dead people, Sasuke sees angels in the living.)

Number + 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.]

967 ‘When I look at you / all I can see / are the mistakes / we’re going to make. / (The future’s so bright.)’ Parents of the Walking Around-verse

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When I look at you all I can see
…
are the mistakes we’re going to make.
(The future’s so bright.)

—

“She loves me!” Naruto says, a wild smile bright on his face. After a beat–maybe too long of one–he continues, “And I love her!”

Shikako tries to keep the skepticism off her face, Sasuke doesn’t even bother.

“You love everyone, idiot,” he scoffs, but its softened by a rueful tone. He of all people knows and has benefited from Naruto’s boundless affection. “Doesn’t mean you should marry them.”

Shikako presses her lips into a flat line, catching her retort before it can be said. This isn’t about her and Sasuke and her unfavorable opinion of marriage, this is about Naruto.

His smile dims and his brow furrows, but his eyes are no less wild, “What are you saying?”

“Hinata is a great person,” Shikako goes for a more delicate approach, “And we both like her, of course we do, she’s our friend…”

She pauses, trying to find the right words.

“… we want you to be happy. If being married to Hinata will make both of you happy, then… we’re happy for you.”

Naruto smiles again, small but earnest, and he wraps her up in a hug. Sasuke attempts to meet her eyes over his shoulder, but she looks away.

She already knows what he’s trying to say.

///

It’s dark when Sakura goes home, sun long set and the village night life already in full swing. She creeps into the house and knows it doesn’t really matter–not in the heart of the Yamanaka compound, where everyone including her wife is a sensor–but surely it’s the thought that counts?

Or perhaps Ino is still mad at her, because it’s Sai alone who sits at the table, a plate of dinner wrapped up for her.

So obviously caught, she murmurs, “I’m home.”

“Welcome home,” Sai responds, words and smile placid, and gestures to the plate. Once it’s heated, she sits down next to him and pushes the food around instead of eating.

Silence reigns.

“Are you mad at me too?” she asks.

He shakes his head.

“… did I hurt you?” she asks again, almost timid.

Again, he shakes his head, “It’s not my place to be mad or hurt by your decision.”

He sounds honest, and Sakura does believe him, but she still feels the need to explain herself. “I… it’s not that I don’t–you would be an amazing father, Sai. And I would love it if you were to help parent my child.

“But I. This is my project. My chance to make a mark on Konoha. And I’m not doing this out of some lingering feelings for Sasuke-kun, Ino’s just being vicious, but–”

Sai puts a hand on Sakura’s and she stops rambling, “I would be honored to treat any child of yours as my own, no matter who their father is.”

~

A/N: Uh so… two different takes on the prompt, but hopefully you enjoy it, anon? (I personally like NarutoxHinata in fanfic–in which their relationship is better fleshed out for obvious reasons (DAMN IT, KISHIMOTO)–but in canon I’m just like… oh… oh dear… ooooh this is painful. This isn’t meant to be NaruHina bashing, and I apologize if it comes off as such)

I was also considering doing a third one with Chocho’s birth and the whole “hey, we were at war with Cloud not that long ago and now one of our noble clan’s future head is half Cloud” but, uh, seeing as how I don’t know how that will go or even much about Cloud nin at all I decided not to.

Number + 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 like what this anon did]

(If you’re only doing the ones on the post feel free to ignore, but) this Softer World makes me thing of Friendship Is A Mutual Con: “All aboard the friend ship! / Today we’re carrying munitions / and no running lights. / (I’ll be the Imo this time. You can be the Mont-Blanc.)”

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All aboard the friend ship!
Today we’re carrying munitions
and no running lights.
(I’ll be the Imo this time. You can be the Mont-Blanc.)

—

It was only ever supposed to be temporary.

(There are sirens and screaming. The roaring of the flames. Dust and smoke in the air.)

Sakura knew this coming in: it was just a favor for a friend, a learning experience.

(Beneath her hands, a man screams, blood gushing out around the piece of rebar through his shoulder.)

And she has learned a lot, advanced her own skills not only in healing and fighting, but in grifting and hacking and stealing. She’s had fun and she cares for her teammates. She doesn’t regret any of it.

(She stabilizes him as best as she can–it’s not fatal, not with ambulances on the way, he’ll be brought to a hospital soon and they can do more for him there–and moves on to the next person.)

But it was only meant to be temporary.

(When she’s done with triage, she leaves with one of the ambulances, holding the hand of a woman who might lose her leg tonight.

The explosion was far too big–nothing at all like the controlled blast that was part of the plan–and no one is answering on the comms.

She follows protocol and gets out.)

—

The explosion knocks both of them off their feet. Sai drops his gun.

Yamato doesn’t.

“Don’t,” he warns, simply, barrel aimed perfectly even if he is awkwardly crouched against the wall and his head is aching from the collision.

Sai raises his hands, moves away from where his gun lies by his feet slow and calm and as expressionless as ever.

“Was it you?” Yamato asks, uncaring of the encroaching fire and the heat and the ringing in his ears. “Interpol showed up before the alarms went off. There’s no way they could have come here so fast unless they were warned ahead of time.”

He would know. He used to be one.

Sai doesn’t deny it, Yamato cocks his gun. They’ll probably both burn to death if they don’t leave now, but Yamato isn’t willing to leave that up to chance.

“Kakashi-taicho told me to.”

—

“Teammates don’t keep secrets from each other,” Sasuke grits out, praying to any god that’s listening that the ropes don’t snap. His arms are killing him, and he can see from the look on Naruto’s face that the harness is becoming painful.

The rig is only designed for one person’s weight–maybe two, tops, but definitely not three.

Shikako doesn’t answer.

“I’ll drop you,” Sasuke threatens, but doesn’t mean it. If it were a shorter fall, maybe, but at this height–this many stories up–it would kill her.

“I was trying to keep you safe,” she says, finally, and while she doesn’t really think Sasuke will drop her, she coils the rope in her free hand just in case.

Sasuke dismisses it immediately, “What, by keeping us in the dark?”

“Well… I mean. That is kind of my thing.”

Naruto snorts. Or maybe that’s a grunt of pain.

“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Sasuke scolds.

“This isn’t the time for arguing either,” Naruto wheezes out, and both of his teammates focus, “We need to get out of here.”

The elevator shaft was an impromptu haven, sliding doors heavy enough to save them from the blast, but it very well might be their death if  they don’t figure a way out of this mess.

—

Kakashi sits at a table, a dim lamp the only source of light in the room.

Across from him is a dead man.

“It’s nothing personal,” says the dead man, smile on his face.

It’s a struggle to put a matching smile on his own, but Kakashi isn’t a grifter in name only. “Of course not,” he says, casual and cool and not at all what he feels.

“What’s a little sabotage between friends?”

~

A/N: I have no concrete idea of what is or isn’t canon in the Friendship Is A (Mutual) Con ‘verse, so I don’t know if the “dead man” is Obito or… I don’t know.

Basically, this would be one of the season finale type episodes in Leverage–the one in which everything honestly goes to shit and the crew barely make it out alive (and have to disperse for several months before reuniting and getting even).

Thanks for the prompt, anon!

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

31+DOS+ platonic team seven

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I love the way your face lights up
when someone says,
“It might be dangerous.”
(I am glad we are friends.)

—

(Tamed)

Sasuke smirks, Naruto laughs, and Shikako tries to suppress an unprofessional giggle–it’s not their clients’ fault that they’ve hired a team of adrenaline junkies.

“We’ll be fine,” she assures them, perfectly polite smile on her face, before the three of them set off.

Supposedly there’s a monster in the forest preying on the citizens of the town, a behemoth with claws and teeth and no real solid description: it’s just as well, they’ve been kind of bored lately.

/

(Strong In The Real Way)

“You’re a researcher, not a fighter,” Sasuke says, trying to discourage her, trying to protect her.

“I’m a scientist,” she corrects, “danger isn’t unfamiliar to me.” She steps forward to complete the line–her and Sasuke and Naruto, ready to take on whatever force Home World may be sending, “We’ll both stand with you, Naruto”

Naruto looks over at the two of them–surprised and more than a little touched, eyes suspiciously shiny–and grins.

/

(Remember To Sleep)

The old Uzushio stomping grounds are a nightmare ghost town–teeming with erratic Uzumaki tech and an unstoppable electromagnetic field–but it might hold a clue about Naruto’s past and that’s all the reason Shikako needs to make the trip.

“What are you doing here, bastard?” Naruto shouts, more surprised than actually angry–it’s just as well they’re not aiming for stealth right now.

“As if I’ll let the two of you go without me,” Sasuke scoffs, “Who knows what kind of trouble you’d get into.”

/

(Call On Your Angels)

“You said that about the last one, too, but the worst that happened was that thunderstorm knocking over a tree and almost flattening Sasuke,” Naruto responds when Shikako brings up her newest expedition.

Sasuke glares at him, “Yeah. How boring,” he says, deadpan, but he starts packing up his stuff alongside Naruto–she’s honestly a little surprised. “Even if it is just looking at rocks all day, of course we’re coming with you.”

Unfortunately–or maybe fortunately–it is not just looking at rocks.

/

(Insuperable)

“This is my city, all the people I love live here,” she says, gearing up, “I may not have powers like either of you, but I’m going to do what I can to defend my home.”

Shikako is human walking alongside an alien and a demigod, ready to take on an ancient horror.

She can’t fly–urban myths aside–but they hold out their hands to her and she soars.

~

A/N: Thanks for the prompt, oliviaphoenix! I don’t know if this is the format I’ll be taking with the all of the prompts for the a softer ask box event, but for this one in particular it felt right.

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

Painted Red (To Fit Right In), (2017-04-04)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Naruto looks at her, head tilted to the side. He’s not smiling, but his face is still a comfort nonetheless–things went to shit when he was gone, and she knows his presence doesn’t automatically mean things will get better, but it’s a gut feeling, a visceral reaction. Naruto is here, he’ll do his best to keep all of them safe.

Optimism for the end of the world.

“Well, what do you want to do?”

—

She didn’t think much of it, at first.

Hostilities between the villages had already been increasing, war councils and updated procedures already in place. Fast tracked promotions, and greater interest in an otherwise dying science.

A buffer nation being attacked would cause concern even without totality of the destruction, the mystery of the circumstances.

She thought it was a logical progression of international tension; she thought it was natural.

It could not be further from that.

—

Sasuke had been on bodyguard duty when things finally came to a head.

Without a Hokage, there’s no one to hold him to that.

Without a Hokage, there’s no one to to relieve him of it, either, he’d argue.

“Don’t worry about me,” he would add, even in the early days when she was more dead weight than help, life energy pulled out of her and slow to replenish. He was taking double watches, kept running perimeters, running himself ragged.

It was just the two of them, then, surrounded by the shades of what used to be home.

—

In her old world, there had been plenty of media surrounding the idea:

The end of the world. The fall out of a major disaster. Post-apocalyptic survivors trying to scrape out an existence.

She believed, maybe, in her most paranoid yet fanciful imaginings, that it would be Edo Tensei. She knew that there was a very real possibility that zombies could happen because they had already happened, there was a technique to make them happen. It was why she had squirreled away notes on it, why she kept at her fuinjutsu studies–driven less by her original wonder, and more by a preparatory fear.

She was right about the what.

She was wrong about the how.

—

They are in Sora-ku when Kakashi-sensei finds them, along with a horde of mindlessly aggressive ex black marketeers.

It’s not as if they’re particularly hard to fight–nothing on the caliber of the reavers made from shinobi stock–but despite the seeming abandoned state of the city, there are many of them. Empty skyscrapers a good place to hide a community of smugglers and criminals, like maggots infesting the corpse of a fallen animal.

For a second, she thinks Kakashi is one, too. Stops a beat too long and nearly gets bitten for it, but his movements aren’t jerky and uncontrolled–somehow, impossibly, he’s still himself.

“I was just in the neighborhood,” he’ll say with a shrug, as if he weren’t sent to the frontline and unheard from for months. As if they weren’t miles out of the way from Konoha.

He doesn’t hug them back, but he doesn’t eel out of it, either.

—

She shut the gate, hijacked the ritual, blew up the foundation.

Jashin could not enter. Could not come to their world and consume it in its entirety the way the cultists had planned.

But that doesn’t mean nothing had come through.

Aggression and suffering and pain. Bloodlust threading through the air of an already highly militaristic society.

There wasn’t so much another world war as it was a world riot, a rampage.

She was immune (hello little god) because she had been at ground zero, she had been the last sacrifice, she had been the key.

Only inside her own mind does she think maybe a quick destruction would have been better than this.

~

A/N: … I guess, just some quick thoughts after reading some zombie things which led me to remembering this anon’s ask and, surprisingly, this cute post about how different MBTI people say “I love you.”

Team Seven’s MBTI designations I did over here, but basically I was working with:

Naruto – E(N/s)FP
“well what do you want to do?”
“i picked these for you”
“stay there, i’ll come get you”

Sasuke – IS(T/f)J
“don’t worry about me”
“i’m proud of you”
“that’s okay, i bought two”

Kakashi – IST(P/j)
“stay over”
“you might like this”
“i was just in the neighborhood”

(Kakashi’s is so perfect for him, I’m dying).

I did want to include Naruto’s “Stay there, I’ll come get you,” but I figured him showing up even though he started halfway across the world with Jiraiya is enough?

Uh. Sorry about the whole melancholic mood lately, y’all, it’s that time of year and work has been brutal. :/

I really liked your Tsunade and Sasuke analysis- such an interesting dynamic! And of course I laugh that Sasuke causes the fewest problems when we all know how hat could have gone.

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

Sasuke is the problem child that never was, Tsunade has no idea what kind of bullet she dodged there ;D

Like with many things that Kishi dropped, the echoing legacies between the Senju and Uchiha clans is a fascinating idea to play around with. Especially with “last of their clan” Sasuke and Tsunade. So, thanks! I’m glad you liked it, anon 🙂