#Buntan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

waitmyturtles · 8 months

Text

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Manner of Death, and What is a BL Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I cover Manner of Death, a MaxTul crime show that leads us to wonder if we can call it a true BL.]

FINALLY! Yeeeeeeah! I’ve waited a while to get this one out, and I’m so excited to finally drop this review: this is going to be a fun one. Let’s pour one out for the retired homey, Tul Pakorn, as I dive into Manner of Death! (MaxTul after a weekend of PerthChimon and FirstKhao, huh? GIMME!)

So, first things first: I cannot remember who exactly recommended Manner of Death for inclusion on the OGMMTVC watchlist. I APOLOGIZE. I am going to GUESS that it was a combo of @manogirl and @miscellar (and if I’m wrong, friends, please forgive me, and whoever really suggested it, give yourselves flowers in the comments so I can give you a high-five!). In any case, though, as I’ve mentioned previously, @manogirl gets the OGMMTVC Trophy for Hyping a Homey To One of the Best Ships Ever, for real -- MG, your repping on MaxTul has paid DIVIDENDS in my life, DIVIDENDS! I LOVE MAXTUL. I love them, your honors! And they are important, historically, for reasons illuminated below.

Okay, ha, with that out of the way, Manner of Death as a show gets included on the OGMMTVC list because, as was discussed in the comments of my review of Together With Me, MoD may or may not be a BL by way of the “rules” of the genre. The majority commentary on MoD established that MoD was a show that had BL elements in a crime genre-based show that served as an influence for future genre shows in Not Me and KinnPorsche.

Now, I will note, during my MoD liveblogging, that @true-unicorn-queen came thru to say -- actually, it IS a BL (thank you, TUQ, for jumping in the comments!). I am really going to enjoy digging into this, and I think there are some good examples that serve as evidence on both sides of the argument. A little outline to help us out, maestro:

1) The frame of this piece is going to center on whether we call MoD a “genre” show of another kind that’s not TECHNICALLY a BL (like a crime story, or a workplace drama), vs. whether we call it a BL because there were quite a few BL tropes in it, and I’ll also talk about 2) Why I think this argument works by way of who worked on this show (and who may have influenced this show), 3) The general excellence of the acting of this show (...okay, we’ll gently poke Tul a bit, ha), and 4) Touching a bit on the conversation of whether or not MoD impacted future genre shows,

along with some other floating bits about MoD and its wild ending, ha.

Off the bat, I think this show worked because it played with successful elements of BOTH the crime genre AND the BL genre. It was like, fusion television. The actual twists and turns of the mystery (I will try to not give away too much if you haven’t seen it yet!) were FABULOUSLY done, and I love suspecting everyone during stories like this. Hell, I was suspecting Oat, for heaven’s sake!

So regarding the is-it-a-BL-or-not conversation: I’m not a person who dabbles in binaries and hardcore definitions. I really think art is best when it is dynamic and NOT definitively binary -- when art is influenced by many things, by many elements, by many tentacles. (You’ll notice that this is why I LOVE this OGMMTVC project.) I really felt that I enjoyed MoD, purely as a fan, in part because this show used the best elements of the crime and BL genres to construct a story that was exciting, that was SMART, that was driven and crisp -- and most importantly, that was not DRAGGED or HELD BACK by EXPECTATIONS of EITHER genre.

I myself would not call MoD a BL, in part because I don’t want to set up expectations that it needed to MEET certain elements of the genre in order to CALL IT a BL. BUT -- to @true-unicorn-queen‘s point -- maybe I GET to call it a BL, because it used BL tropes so well? I’m not going to quibble in this too much (and honestly, if folks have thoughts on this, jump into the comments, because I think the conversation around this will automatically be fascinating and interesting).

I want to also add that MoD shares many elements with another well-known crime show that is also not a BL, but arguably BL-adjacent -- Jojo Tichakorn’s 3 Will Be Free. 3 Will Be Free is ABSOLUTELY NOT a BL. But what 3WBF established -- on GMMTV! -- was a show that was not CENTERED in queerness or a queer romance story. It was, instead, INCLUSIVE of queerness as a GIVEN of the environment and community in which the show was set. I thought this was groundbreaking for the GMMTV network.

Like I wrote recently about YYY, and akin to 3WBF, Manner of Death, very importantly in its writing, did not hew to a NEED to CENTER the burgeoning queer romance between Bun and Tan -- which I think many would argue is a necessary element of a BL. Their relationship was an important ELEMENT to the show, but it wasn’t a CENTER of the show -- until the end, when we got a bunch of fan service flowers..... and fuckin’ gun whips with a proposal, but let’s leave that alone for another sec, HA.

I really liked YYY for its macro-level commentary about what BL creators and performers face, by way of pressure, of NEEDING to include and/or CENTER a relationship in a BL. The character of Porpla served as a symbol of that internal and external pressure on BL shows to be ABOUT the romance.

Manner of Death just... didn’t deal with that. The center of the story was: who killed Jane? That was it. It was a murder mystery, first and foremost, with two dudes falling in love as a side story.

I’m shaking my head in wonder at this, because Manner of Death did the love side story much differently than 3WBF, all while paying homage and respect to the inclusion of queerness within the show itself. How did the show do it?

As y’all know from my MoD liveblogging, I totally marveled at how WELL this show included some important BL tropes. We had tender gay uncles AND a side couple IN THE SAME SCENE! ThatSorn were a NATURAL side couple, great chemistry, GREAT comedy, and BunTan totally knew what was up with them. Utterly cute! And I cackled at some other tropes, including BunTan choosing to MAKE OUT instead of checking the LAPTOP THEY STOLE from BUSTING A CAR WINDOW, lol.

The inclusion of these tropes was done VERY well, VERY sophisticatedly. Unlike 3WBF, where I did not expect to see BL tropes -- because 3WBF’s crime story was clearly not a home for BL tropes, at all -- I LOVED SEEING THEM in Manner of Death. It was like seeing old friends again.

I wanted to know what was up with that. So to MDL I went, and found that Title Nirattisai is MoD’s screenwriter. I knew I knew that name, and I went a-clickin’, and went -- AHHHH.

Title is the screenwriter of He’s Coming To Me. THE SCREENWRITER OF *HE’S COMING TO ME!!!* And he, along with Au Kornprom, wrote Dark Blue Kiss. As we know -- they are both Aof Noppharnach shows of the highest order.

WELL, WELL, FUCKING WELL! That solves THAT mystery. Why is the writing of Manner of Death so great? Why does it balance a crime genre story so well with the very best of BL tropes?

It’s because we have a writer in Title who defied and/or played with BL tropes in HCTM and DBK. HCTM, as I’ve previously established, was WELL AHEAD OF ITS TIME by way of storytelling, mood, and BL genre subversion. DBK was the first GMMTV BL to focus on an ONGOING and ESTABLISHED relationship -- à la Still 2gether, later in GMMTV’s history, but a decision that goes against the grain of your usual BL assumptions in seeing a relationship BEGIN, complete with flirtation, with longing, with yearning, etc.

Title is a screenwriter who is CLEARLY comfortable with playing outside of the boundaries of BL expectations -- HCTM is DEFINITIVE of that position. Again, I wondered broadly why Manner of Death was just such a GOOD and watchable show. It’s because its writing was flowing, seamless, and SMART. And I think Title knew, that by centering the show in CRIME and MYSTERY, as opposed to romance, that he could actually play around with expectations of BL romance in a new and singular way.

This is some cool-ass shit. 3WBF established that you could lead a crime story and include queerness. Manner of Death took this a touch further, and brought BACK the very best of BL tropes within a crime frame. BRILLIANT. And, listen. I have He’s Coming To Me on the OGMMTVC list as a BL. If we continue to extrapolate this argument, then -- I might contradict myself, and agree with @true-unicorn-queen, and maybe call Manner of Death a BL. In the end, I’ll give this argument to whoever wants to pick it up, because for me -- MoD was just a good damn SHOW that used mystery, BL, and romance tremendously well in its composition. And that’s why I think it was so successful.

(One last tiny note on this: let me not forget to note the director of Manner of Death is Ma-Deaw Chookiat, the director and screenwriter of Dew the Movie. He, like Title, is certainly someone who plays on the very interesting fringes and intersections of the BL genre.)

For my pure simpy pleasure, I also thought MaxTul were way better in this than in Together With Me, Max especially. (As I’ve now established -- MoD was an excellent show itself, with the script of Together With Me being shaky at best, except for dear Yihwa.) I previously noted that there were some little fumbles in Tul’s acting in MoD, but nothing that kept me from enjoying the show. But Max was REALLY damn good. AND: listen. I mean, I love how jocky both of these guys were in the show, but Max REALLY did fighting and gun stuff and like, physical crime stuff VERY well. It was exciting -- he didn’t seem like he was doing it for the first time. If the show felt like it nailed CBS primetime shit like, I dunno, Hawaii Five-O or whatever, by way of its fight scenes, then I call that a win. I CLEARLY don’t normally watch those kinds of shows, HA, but I’ll watch a crime show if it has MaxTul in it, dammit!

Really quickly, on the point about whether or not MoD had an influence on future genre shows like Not Me and KinnPorsche: I will await my Not Me viewing, and my rewatch of KP, to make that final judgement, and I promise I’ll include MoD analyses in both those reviews. I think this is an important conversation to have continuing over the course of the OGMMTVC project, because aligned with this conversation is still a lingering awareness and analysis of the pressures that BL creators face and struggle with vis à vis romance, as I mentioned before. This is a struggle that continues to this day, as we most recently saw in Tee Bundit’s Step By Step, and whether or not that show was meant to be a romance, a workplace drama, and/or a macro-commentary on BL and BL expectations. I’ll be watching Not Me for the first time -- and I was not aware, at all, of any of these kinds of pressures when I first watched KinnPorsche. I’d like to go in fresh with both shows to be aware of what they WEREN’T doing by way of tropes to create very unique art, and to understand if and how Manner of Death opened that door.

One other floating point: à la A Tale of Thousand Stars that follows Manner of Death, MoD is centered in the rural town of Viang Phra Mork, showing off Thailand’s gorgeous northern scenery. I actually didn’t fully put this together until I had moved on to ATOTS on the OGMMTVC list, but as I was watching MoD, I loved that over the course of the show, many of the characters, especially Rungtiva, were shown wearing more ethnic Thai-inspired clothes, just like Khama and the villagers in ATOTS. I love that over the course of the OGMMTVC, we have gotten to see more and more deep dives into Thailand and Thai culture (Moonlight Chicken being another excellent example). Y’all who follow my blog know that I’m particularly interested in tracking Thai politics and Thai cuisine in our shows, and any bits of Thai culture that I can glom onto in our shows is so welcome. I loved it, and I’ll refer more to this in my ATOTS rewatch review.

Finally, oh finally: MoD’s ending, HA. FIRST OFF: I mean, THE WEDDING, GAH. COME ONNNN. What a lovely farewell to MaxTul. At that point, I think it was assumed that we’d see them one more time in Transplant, but alas. But I really loved that we got to see BunTan in full-circle commitment.

And that proposal. Y’all. Y’ALL. I. WAS. DYING. So not only did that proposal NOT NEED GUN WHIPS, LOL, but as @kattahj pointed out to me, the proposal included GIVING SORAWIT/SORN A GUN, which, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Listen. I didn’t get into the actual deep meat of the show itself, of the UTTER success of the mystery story, in part because I don’t want to give it away for folks who haven’t watched it yet. But -- if you haven’t watched it, please watch Manner of Death. It’s a wonderful break from the BL norm, done absolutely wonderfully by a stellar screenwriter in Title, acted very well by Max, acted very attractively by MaxTul, and the supporting cast was spot on. I know I’ll be checking out Triage at some point to say my final-final farewell to Tul Pakorn, and I wish him all the very best in his next career. We’ll see Max and Toptap next in The Outing, and while that show looks -- confusing? -- I’ll definitely be following it for Max, to see what’s next up in his career. (I hope his health is doing better.) MoD kicked ass, with that classic MaxTul heat, crime, intrigue, AND romance, and it was an utterly successful show that’s absolutely worth celebrating.

[We’re truckin’! I’m making process on my review queue: we have my A Tale of Thousand Stars rewatch review dropping next week, with Lovely Writer after that, and then a double-review of Last Twilight in Phuket and I Promised You The Moon. I’m also going to squeeze in a review of The Warp Effect on Thursday for that Only Friends-flava.

Not Me, 55:15 Never Too Late, and Bad Buddy/Our Skyy 2 rewatch on the horizon. Boom boom boom!

List below. As ever, feedback to ya gal is welcome!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (review coming) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review coming) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review coming) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review coming) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) 31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 39) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 40) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 41) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults) 42) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 43) Only Friends (2023)]

#manner of death #manner of death meta #he's coming to me #max nattapol #tul pakorn #maxtul #bun x tan #tan x bun #buntan #bl tropes #thai bl tropes #the old gmmtv challenge #turtles catches up with old gmmtv #turtles catches up with thai BLs #turtles catches up with the essential BLs #ogmmtvc

24 notes · View notes

thequeenofsastiel · 1 year

Text

#my polls #maxtul #mileapo #tanbunn #tanbun #buntan #bunntan #kornknock #knockkorn #manner of death #together with me #KinnPorsche

10 notes · View notes

otonokuni · 2 years

Text

I’m just going to say it now. This Boruto arc (the great sea battle of Kirigakure) is the most twisted Boruto arc we’ve gotten so far. Whether you like it or hate it, it’s very impactful and the results will NOT be forgotten by Boruto and the others.

It’s not empty filler. It’s going to shake the new generation of shinobi and maybe even the entire ninja world.

#boruto #kirigakure #Kawaki #kagura karatachi #Hebiichigo #Buntan #the great sea battle of kirigakure #boruto 246 #Chojuro #the writing isn’t the best #but there is meaning and symbolism and this is the beginning of something

50 notes · View notes

ladyuchiha96 · 2 years

Text

Hold On To Me

(post time skip)

Angst, more angst, fluff, first kiss and ohh

Boruto lay awake in his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. It was anniversary of Kagura's death, and none of those who witnessed it were with him today.

All of them scattered on missions, it was only him and Sarada in the village, and Sarada had been called to the Hokage's office.

She came to his house at dawn to pull him out of bed and drag him to the Post Office. He was grateful.

This was the first year they couldn't be there for the memorial. All roads between the Five Great Nations have been blocked for safety reasons, so they sent Buntan a telegram.

You know we would have come.

Sarada was restless. She wanted to say more, but didn't know how to transform what she felt into words, and Boruto didn't know what he felt at all.

He only knew that he would have given everything to be there today, for Kagura had been his friend, and his death had left a wound that never quite healed.

They signed it as Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.

Buntan's response came late in the afternoon, just before the Post Office closed. It said,

We know. He knows it too. Thank you, Sarada.

Sarada's jaw clenched when he brought it to her to read. She pursed her lips and didn't speak a word.

How Buntan knew it was Sarada who sent the telegram was out of Boruto's grasp, but she did know, and Sarada didn't manage to pull herself together for the rest of the evening.

Deaf for everything he said, she kept looking out the window of Thunder Burger, as if her soul could somehow reach the Hidden Mist.

This is unbearable, Boruto thought as he sat up in his bed. Before he knew it, he was on his way to Sarada's.

He found her in the hallway of her apartment in her pajamas, putting on shoes.

"What are you doing?" he asked her bluntly.

"What does it look like?" she retorted, taking them off. "We're going to sleep." Boruto almost smiled.

Embarrassed beyond explanation, she motioned for him to follow her and then put him in her bed, laying behind him so that she was the big spoon.

Most people felt safer when being held, but not Sarada. That night she held on to Boruto like her life depended on it, and in the morning he woke up to her drawing circles on his back with the tip of her finger.

Having felt the change in his breathing, her hand stilled, palm flat between his shoulder-blades.

" 'Morning," he hummed, eyes still closed.

" 'Morning," she murmured back.

Too wrapped in sleep for sensible conversation, he reached behind with his arm, seeking her body.

Sarada gently pushed his arm away, but a moment later the bed creaked as she shifted her weight to move closer to him, snuggling into his back so that he couldn't see her face. Her hand rested on his ribs.

She cleared her throat. "You know this wasn't just about Kagura, right?"

"I know," he murmured, covering her hand with his own.

"Thank you," she whispered. "For being there for me."

They lay in silence for a full minute. She thought he had dozed off again when he said, in a quite clear voice, "I needed you too, you know."

At that Sarada propped herself on her elbow so that she could see him.

"Really?" she asked, utterly serious.

Boruto turned on his back, allowing her a better view.

"Really," he confirmed. The look in his eyes was similar to the one he had when his father was killed.

He sat up slowly, scratching the edge of his jaw, like he always did when he was nervous. "Sarada?"

She blinked at him, moving into a siting position as well. "What is it?"

"In case something happens -"

"No."

"Let me finish. In case something happens - I want you to know that when we're in danger - " he paused, "my first thought is of you. Where you are and if you're safe. Yes," he added, seeing her expression change, "I know you can take care of yourself. You are one of the most powerful people I ever met. I'm just saying. My first thought is of you."

Her throat tightened. "And mine is of you," she said quietly, and it was the utmost truth. "It always has been."

Boruto looked at her in surprise, but something about her expression must have reassured him. He nodded, more to himself than to her.

Heart pounding in her ears, Sarada drew closer, wrapping her fingers around his neck. Feeling his quickened heartbeat under her palm, she kissed his forehead, then his temple and his cheekbone.

"Sarada?" he asked again.

She fought back a smile. "Hm?"

"Can I kiss you?"

She nodded, realizing that her throat has tightened to the point where it was difficult to speak, but this was Boruto, and she had loved him her whole life.

Sarada froze, making herself repeat that last thought.

I have loved him my whole life.

Boruto kissed her then, breaking all of her thoughts into stardust. She gasped softly, leaning into him, excitement coursing through her. It wasn't like she imagined it would be.

It was weird, and warm and wet, and a little clumsy, but it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Masterlist

#borusara #boruto x sarada #boruto uzumaki #uzumaki boruto #sarada uchiha #uchiha sarada #borusara fluff #boruto next generation #kagura #boruto fanfiction #boruto naruto next generations #buntan #kagura's death

39 notes · View notes

geekygirl24 · 2 years

Link

Prompt from Lila: This time I'd appreciate it if u could write about Tan hearing about Bun's accident and him being in the hospital! THXXX so muchhh!!!

I am assuming this is the scene after Bun was attacked in his home in episode 2 :)

#Manner of death #TanBun #buntan #tan x bun #bun x tan

9 notes · View notes

khaotunq · 1 year

Text

Maybe we'll need to find something to do to pass the time. Max Nattapol as Tan and Tul Pakorn as Bun (Manner of Death, 2020)

380 notes · View notes

captnswilson · 2 years

Photo

PRIDE MONTH CELEBRATION: FAVORITE BL DRAMA COUPLES

#bl drama #bldramaedit #lgbt #lgbtedit #kinnporsche #patpran #seanwhite #danyok #buntan #kuealian #blueming #we best love #history 3: trapped #to my star #mine

690 notes · View notes

apathetic-tortoise · 2 months

Text

Tan, texting: Hey can you pick me up I’m drunk

Tan, texting: Oh you don't have to anymore. I'm home now

Bunn: Yes, I'm aware of that after dropping you off at home

#inncorrect quotes #manner of death #bunn #tan #buntan

12 notes · View notes

coolgalaxygarden · 2 years

Text

Sarada and Buntan,two rivals,working together.

#shonen #boruto #fantasy #team konohamaru #neo uchiha clan #Sarada Uchiha #Buntan #neo seven swordsmen of the mist #performing the Lightning style: Lightning ball #latest episode #Buntan Kurosuki

10 notes · View notes

migila · 2 years

Text

Fic time! Boruto time! ...Without Boruto himself

Spoiler warning: Spoilers up to Boruto episode 248

For a Greater Cause

Buntan stares at the corpse at her feet, still bleeding out despite the man having died already. This was it; it was done. She’d gotten her revenge. What was getting one’s revenge supposed to feel like? Once she got her revenge for Kagura, whatever it made her feel had been overshadowed by her grief over Hebiichigo’s death, but now, while there had been injuries, there had been no deaths on her side. The only one who died today was Shizuma, and yet she felt nothing. Just… empty. She wasn’t glad, but by no means was she sad, either.

Wanting something else to think about, or more like just something to think about, she looks at the person who had helped her with her hunt from the corner of her eye. A chuunin from Konoha, Metal Lee of Team 5. He had joined her, with the Hokage’s permission, in her hunt a few weeks back when she’d finally gotten a reliable lead on where to find her target. Shizuma had caused no trouble to Konoha aside from that one time on Sarada’s class’s field trip years ago as far as she knew, so it was odd for the Hokage to send someone to help. That was enough to tell Buntan that it hadn’t been the man’s own idea; Metal must’ve requested this. Why, she was not sure, but she was grateful for the help; she wasn’t sure if she could’ve done this alone.

“Why did you come to help me?” she should be saying thank you instead of questioning his motives, but the doubt and need for answers comes far more naturally to her.

Metal, having also stared at the body until now, looks up to her.

“If Miss Hebiichigo was still here, she would’ve lent you a hand. But she’s not, and that’s because I couldn’t protect her.”

Ah, so he was still stuck on that, blaming himself of the girl’s untimely death. It’s not like he was entirely wrong, but if he was to blame, then so was she. They’d both been there, so they’d both failed to protect her.

“It wasn’t your fault” Buntan says “Not any more than it was the fault of the rest of us. We were there too, I was there, yet I let her die. We all let her die.”

Needless to say, comforting people wasn’t her strong point. Metal says nothing, and they stand there for a long while until he starts to move the body in front of them. She doesn’t need to ask; she can tell he’s preparing for a burial. She’s not all that sure that Shizuma deserves one, but doesn’t say it, and joins the man.

Once they’re done, Buntan feels ready to go home and leave this all behind; it was over. However, seeing Metal stare at the grave in silence keeps her from voicing her desire to leave. She senses he’s not done with whatever he came here to do, something aside from just helping her.

“Can I burden you with a secret?” he asks all of sudden. Buntan is surprised by the sudden question, but doesn’t think much of it, even though calling it a burden strongly implies that it isn’t something happy. And she owes him, though even if she didn’t, she would’ve probably still given the same answer: “Sure.”

“I’m leaving Konoha” he says, lifting his gaze from the grave, his intense, pitch-black eyes meeting her own “I’m going rogue.”

What had Buntan been expecting him to say? It certainly hadn’t been that, that much she knew.

“Rogue? Why?” and why was he telling it to her? Did he think she wouldn’t try stopping him? Not that he was wrong, and she wouldn’t rat him out, either. Not her village, not her problem, but she did have the urge to know why he’d make such a decision.

“Do you know why Miss Hebiichigo became a shinobi?” he asks.

“…I asked her about it once. Her answer was “because I’m good at killing.”” at the time, Buntan had been sure there was more to it, but she hadn’t asked. Should she have? She was starting to feel like Metal knew something she didn’t.

“Yes, that’s right. She followed the shinobi who’d praised her for her ability to kill after she’d accidentally killed a runaway shinobi. That was the first, and for a long time only, thing she had been praised for.”

Buntan hadn’t known that. She didn’t know much of Hebiichigo’s life before they met, other than it hadn’t been an easy one, and even that she only knew by observing her, not because of something the girl herself had told. But for one reason or the other, she’d told Metal.

“She became a shinobi and honed her skill to kill because she thought it was the only thing, she was good for, because no one gave her a chance to think otherwise, to try something else. There are lots of people like her out there, and I want to help them. For her sake; no one deserves a fate like hers, dying without getting to try out other paths in her life, without really even getting to see that they were there!”

She could understand what he was saying, or at least she thought she could, and she respected his desire to help complete strangers, even though that was anything but her style, yet it didn’t answer the most important question.

“But why go rogue? Wouldn’t it be easier to help others as a shinobi? You would have your team and your friends to help you, and you wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted down for being a rogue ninja.”

“I would if I could; I already tried” Metal says, visibly deflating as the light leaves his eyes. He looks away “I talked about this with Denki and Iwabe. They understood, and we brought this up to our teacher and even the Hokage. They said they understood what we meant, but that it was important to have strong new shinobi available for the village’s sake, so encouraging everyone with talent to become shinobi was necessary. And that even though we do that, no one’s forced to become shinobi. And I’m sure that’s true for those of us born in the village, those privileged enough to have choices in front of us right from the start, but what about the ones with talent who have nothing, the ones like Hebiichigo? They’ll take the chance when given one, and no one bothers to let them think of other paths in life. That’s what I want to change. I want to give people like that a chance to decide for themselves, before any village can get their hands on them and make them think being a shinobi is the only choice they have!”

Buntan stares. She had not expected such a passionate speech. But how was Metal planning on doing it all?

“At first, I thought that I could still do things on my own and with my team, help people from outside the village that are recruited, but others caught up to it soon and told us to stop. We were just telling people there were other options for them, too, yet we weren’t allowed to do that. Who would’ve it harmed if one or two people occasionally chose differently?! It’s about their lives!”

The sharp toothed woman couldn’t agree more, but was the situation really as bad as Metal made it seem? The Seventh Hokage was known for his soft heart; wouldn’t he back Metal up in this? She voiced her thoughts, but the boy shook his head furiously.

“The Hokage himself told us to stop; that’s why Iwabe and Denki quit. I know that he has to do what he sees as the best for the village, but I can’t think like that, I can’t stop thinking about the individual people who might be able to make themselves better lives if they just got the chance!”

So, the Hokage was no longer as soft as in the stories. Had his age and the world caught up to him, getting rid of his naivety? Or had the stories ever been true in the first place? Buntan didn’t know, and probably never would.

“Well, the Hokage isn’t naïve. That’s good, considering that he has a lot of people to lead. But you are. How do you plan to find such people? And to avoid those chasing you? How will you get money to live? Do you have any plan on how to go about this?”

Metal gives her a heated glare, but while the boy knows how to give a convincing speech, he lacks the ability to intimidate.

“Of course, I have plans!” he defends “I’ll leave while pretending to go on a vacation, so I’ll have a head start! After I don’t come back in time, it’ll still take a while for them to understand that I left on purpose! I have savings; I’ll get by with those for a while, and I can do small jobs here and there. If I keep low profile, it’ll make it difficult for anyone to find me. I’ll- “

Metal rambled on, and while there were a lot of risks and what ifs, Buntan was pleasantly surprised about how well he had thought things out.

“And what if I go rat you out to the Mizukage right now? He’d report it all to the Hokage. What would you do then?” she asks while he’s midsentence and Metal stops talking. But to her surprise, he doesn’t seem worried.

“You won’t; that’s not what you’re like” he says, sure of himself “That’s why I chose you.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. Buntan was a lot of things, not all of them good, but she wasn’t a snitch. She wouldn’t rat out a friend.

“Why did you tell me all this in the first place?” a thought occurs to her “Is this why you helped me to get my revenge? To make me feel indebted to you so that I would follow you?”

“What? No!” Metal looks absolutely mortified by the idea. It’s not like Buntan had seriously considered it in the first place, but with how genuinely he denies it, what little doubt she did have leaves, too. But he had to have some reason “I could never expect that out of you or anyone else! I just… needed to…”

He trails off, and Buntan recalls where this conversation started from.

“Can I burden you with a secret?”

“You wanted someone to know the truth” she says. Metal nods, visibly relieved, but also embarrassed if the pink hue on his cheeks was anything to go by “You wanted someone to know that you aren’t doing this out of selfishness or some greed. You wanted there to be someone who didn’t judge you, but you needed it to be someone who wouldn’t try to stop you.”

“Yes, exactly!” Metal confirms, but his smile leaves as soon as it came “But I now realize that it was a bad idea; it’s unfair to push a burden like this on someone. I’m sor-“

“Don’t” Buntan cuts him off fast, and Metal snaps his jaw shut “Don’t say you’re sorry, I… I’m glad you told me, that you trusted me.”

And she wasn’t going to spit on that trust, even though she felt like she really should, for Metal’s own sake. Not that she’d actually go and tell the Mizukage, but maybe Boruto or Sarada… if only Kagura was still alive, she’d definitely tell him.

“But are you sure you want to do this? Kyohõ and I got off as easily as we did due to Kagura’s insistence, our young age and the fact that our actions were limited to Kirigakure and the Land of Water. You might have friends in high places, but you aren’t a child anymore, and if you really want to avoid being caught, you’ll have to leave the Land of Fire. If you do this, there’ll be no going back.”

“I know. It’s not like this is some sudden impulse, most certainly not. I thought of it long and hard before coming to this decision. I have to do this.”

They stared in to each other’s eyes, and the always so earnest boy’s, or more like a man’s, really, gaze didn’t waver. His mind was set.

“…Visit Kagura and Hebiichigo when you start” Buntan settled on saying “You might not have a safe chance to do so for a long time afterwards.”

“Right! I will!” Metal says, and even while she doesn’t know him very well, even Buntan can tell he’s relieved she’s not trying to talk him out of it. He’s like an open book, which makes her wonder if his friends and family will eventually notice that something’s wrong and stop him. She’s not sure if she should hope for that to happen or not.

In the end, it only takes three weeks for Metal to arrive at the graves of their friends. Buntan’s on a lookout high up in the tree when he does so. He doesn’t notice her, causing the woman to scoff. It’s not like she was in plain sight, but if he was going rogue, he’d need to learn to pay attention to his surroundings at all ti-

“Did you come to see me off, Miss Buntan?”

She blinks, surprised. So, he had noticed her, simply not acknowledging her presence until now. She supposes she didn’t give him enough credit. She jumps down, landing directly behind him.

“I came to see if you could really pull this off. No one suspected anything?” she asks. She hadn’t thought he’d change his mind, but she had been sure that someone, probably Boruto, would notice something being wrong and would confront him about it.

Metal turns to face her.

“They seemed to notice that something was wrong, but I just claimed to be a little tired. Taking some time off fit well with that, too. And I made sure I wasn’t followed, many times, so there is no need to worry about that.”

With that, he picks up the bag at his feet.

“I wish you well from now on. To Kyohõ too, of course. But now, I must be on my way.”

Buntan smirks. That was her cue.

“Great” she says, walking over to the tree and taking her own bag from where it’s hidden from sight just right “Let’s go, then.”

Metal stares. Blinks, then stares some more, before what she said sinks in.

“What? No no, I never asked you to come along, I told you that didn’t I?” he panics, waving his arms around “I only told you because- I mean- “

“I know” Buntan assures, closing the distance between them to put a hand on his shoulder “I know you didn’t. This is my own choice. This is what I want to do. After Shizuma died, I didn’t feel any sense of relief or happiness, I just felt empty. I had no idea what to do. But now I do; you gave me something to feel about again.”

“But going rogue- didn’t you work so hard back then so that you wouldn’t be chased down? All the work that Kagura put in to getting you your freedom- “

“Has been put to good use during these few years, but it’s time to let go” she interrupts him yet again “Following the orders of someone sitting safe in his office while subordinates risk their lives isn’t for me, anyway.”

“Then what about Kyohõ? If you leave, then his whole team- “

Buntan interrupts him by putting two fingers in to her mouth and whistling, shutting him up. Only a few seconds later, Kyohõ walks up to them with a bag thrown over his shoulder.

“He’s coming too”

“What? But-?”

“I can’t leave Buntan alone, and I want to help people like Hebiichigo, too” this time it’s Kyohõ who interrupts the soon to be rogue ninja’s speech “I want to do this.”

“We had a long talk about this, and we’re not changing our minds” Buntan smirks “You’re stuck with us.”

Metal stares at them. Buntan is prepared to argue some more if he still tries to change their minds, but it turns out to be unnecessary.

“Alright, I’ll be counting on you, then” he bows deep, dramatical as usual “Thank you for joining me!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever” Buntan says, still not used to his overflowing honesty despite having known him for years. No wonder Hebiichigo always found it awkward “One question, though.”

“Yes?”

“What’s with the clothes?” she can’t help but ask. This was the first time ever that she saw Metal wearing something else than a ridiculous green jumpsuit. He was still in a similar outfit, but this time it was black.

“Ah, this? I couldn’t possibly dishonor the Great Green Beasts of Konoha by wearing the usual when I go rogue. Leaving Konoha means leaving behind that, too.”

She recalled him defending the ridiculous garment heatedly when it had been made fun of, and he’d worn it so much; it was obviously important to him. He had made sacrifices for this, unlike her or Kyohõ; after all, they had nothing to sacrifice. Many people in this world had nothing to sacrifice, aside from their lives.

It was people like that that they were setting out to help.

“Kagura must be rolling in his grave by now, but let’s do this” Buntan says, holding her fist out “For Hebiichigo, and for those like her.”

“For Hebiichigo” the two chorus as their fists hit hers.

#because fuck the government #sending those kids to die while the adults just stand by #yes I have issues with the hidden villages #boruto naruto next generations #metal lee #buntan #kyohõ #hebiichigo #fic #fan fiction #would've really liked to see someone GOOD going rogue simply because the system sucked

9 notes · View notes