#anbu part 3 is coming i swear

[rookie98writes]

it's totally fine and normal to write 75% of a fic over two days and then barely touch it for six weeks, right?

#rookie rants #anbu part 3 is coming i swear #and the worst part is that i'm really proud of what i have so far?? #like the situation and plot is all solid and i literally just have to connect a few dots that all take place during the smut #which is arguably the most fun part to write? for me at least? #i guess it depends on my mood #ugh now i'm recognizing that i might have felt less attractive recently and thereby less likely to be fucked?? #idk my day-to-day has been stressful for like two months #nothing catastrophic or anything but enough to make me feel irresponsible for focusing on my little writing hobby #but i shall work through those issues and will one day post a new story! #thank you for visiting the tags i love you

[issybee06]

Because…

Part ii

Warnings: swearing, smoking, underage drinking, trauma but it's ✨trauma✨, bad flirting, uncomfortable conversations, bro Kakashi is still 18…just a baby, TI building shenanigans, insomnia, coffee addiction…thats a warning right?

Eunoia

(n.) beautiful thinking;a well mind

…………………………………………………………………..……

I sigh, squeezing the bridge of my nose as I push back from the lad bench. It was 3 in the fucking morning and I was still here in this tiny lab.

Anbu had returned home two days ago, severely wounded, with one of their comrades dead. They had been in the Stone Country when they encountered their enemy and a new poison. A new poison meant a new threat, and that meant I was pulled from my 3-day break on the first day.

My head fell back and I looked up at the grey ceiling, closing my eyes when the fluorescent light began to sting. Yeah…this is better than fieldwork my ass.

It could be worse, I reminded myself as I unconsciously reached for my chest to press the grey fabric... This is why I picked this job.

Groaning, I stand up. I look down at my notes, all scribbled and messy, 1/3 of it was Japanese, another was fucking scroll marking and the rest was just chicken scratch…how the fuck was I supposed to read that when I could see straight?

That's a problem for future me, I think as I walk out of the lab, closing the door firmly behind me. I don’t bother with turning the lights off…I’m coming back. Walking down the hall, I stuff my hands into my pockets.

Moving to the kitchen, I open the cabinets to grab the unground coffee beans before dumping my version of a cup into the machine.

I grab a glass bear bottle, dumping the residue into the sink before washing it out and then filling it with water. I fill the coffee maker with water, before pressing the button, filling the quiet quarters with the irritating grinding.

Sliding to the ground, I sit with my back against the cabinet. TI was…grey. The walls, the uniforms, everything was grey. The only colorful thing here was the people, I smirk slightly.

“SENSEI!!”

The world was on fire, licking at my face and burning my hands.

Konoha was gone, flattened by the heels of the fox demon. Houses, trees, hills, and buildings all whipped away like crumbs on a table by the claws and nine swishing tails.

I go to run, only to be dragged back by arms circling my waist.

“Let me go! I can save them! I CAN SAVE THEM!!!”

“Don't be stupid!”

Kakashi…he pulled me close to his chest as tears cleaned the dirt and ash off my face. I sob, falling to the ground and he falls with me, burying his face into my hair to hide his tears.

“…there's nothing we can do.”

BEEP BEEP BEEP

“Mother fucker…?”

I open my eyes, pulling myself up to see that the coffee was done.

“Oh fuck yes, come to mama.”

I grab a mug, pouring the black liquid into it, “you are going to keep my body functional…”

Inhaling, I move back down the hall to the lab. Looking down, my eyes droop at seeing my chicken scratch notes. You know what? Inoichi can just use his freaky mind powers to pick at my brain.

I sit back down, taking a sip before placing the cup on the desk. I lean on my hand, mental deciphering the notes as I switch back and forth between the papers and the microscope.

This poison…it isn’t like anything I’ve studied before.

When Inoichi, Ibiki and I had gone to the Autopsy of the Anbu member it was too hard to look…he was almost interlay eaten away on one side; skin, muscle and bone.

The poison had disintegrated him, but when we took the samples and stored them in the glass test tubes…nothing happened.

This poison only ate away at living tissue, and not just flesh but also flora too I had come to realize after running a few test.

I reach for a tube, holding it up to the light.The poison was oddly pretty…it was an almost impossible electric blue, reminding me of chakra almost.

My job was to break this sucker down, find out what made it tick, then use my finding to conduct an antidote with the help of the medical core.

“Fucking chemistry…” I sigh, placing the tube back and replacing it with my coffee.

As I sip, the lab door opens.

“Setsuko-Chan…is my shift done already?”

The young women blushes, adjusting her glasses, “I-I’m truly sorry I’m late Senju-Hime! I promise it won’t hap-”

I raise my hand, continuing to chug the coffee down. She shuts her mouth, gulping.

I place the empty cup down, giving her a smile, “don’t worry about it, I get into my groove around this time anyways.”

She breathes out a sigh of relief and I can’t help but raise my brow at this kid. She’s a Chunin, fresh Chunin, that Inoichi recruited after seeing her skills in making laxative drugs out of berries during the forest part of the exams. I thought she was hilarious, I knew one of the kids she got, and I think that’s why I liked her.

I stand, grabbing my old notes and handing her the clearer ones.

“Here’s my findings, coffees in the pot-don’t accidentally drink the poison…I’ve done that once.”

She makes a concern face as I walk past her, heading to the front to clock out.

It’s still winter, I think to myself as snow lightly flutters down from the sky. The walk back to the apartment, thank the gods, isn’t that long but I can’t seem to stop myself from dragging my feet as I walk. My shift…was from 3pm to 3am, you do the math, and I was really starting to feel those fucking hours.

I was praying silently that Genma would leave me the fuck alone when I got home, he never did and always seemed to break something in our shared apartment.

My relationship with Genma…i wouldn’t ever say I was closer to the lay back brunette then our other childhood teammate Gai, but we just understood each other a little more.

Nothing about our relationship was sexual, he just didn’t want to buy and pay rent for an apartment and I understood that. We shared the rent, 50/50 and split the chores somewhat evenly. He did the cleaning while I cooked, I was not going to let someone who burns water cook in my kitchen.

We had offered Gai a room in the apartment, but then Kakashi bought his own apartment and Gai just had to beat his rival by buy a bigger one.

I stop, looking over at the bright lights of the 24-hour open food shop that was set up for Shinobi. I didn’t want to cook…but I had only drank coffee and ate food pills while working to minimize how much cross contamination could happen in the lab, and I was starving.

Heading in, I raise a hand in creating to the shop owner who smiled in return. I move to the frozen food, eyes zeroing in on the microwaveable soup dumplings. They were shitty, but so good at the same time.

I grab two boxes, knowing Genma was going to bitch and complain if I didn’t get him something. I also grab two soda bottles, more coffee beans, and a can of cat food for my cat, not me.

I head to the register and the old man smiles, “hard work today?”

I smile kindly, “yes, but it’s worth it right?”

The old man nods, “you Shinobi do a great service to the village, remember that.”

He hands me my spoils in s paper bag, and I pay up. Walking out, I give him another wave before making a B-line towards the apartment.

I sigh, opening the door but furrow my brows when I find not only Genma up, but also four other shinobi that do not pay rent, in the living room playing cards.

“Genma…it’s 3 fucking 30.”

He grins and the others snap their necks to look at me. My confusion fades and I sigh, “of course it’s you guys, hi Gai-kun.”

Gai grins, a faint blush on his cheeks from the Saké. Next to him on the couch is Kakashi, which is a surprise, in the armchair sits Ebisu and on the floor is Asuma who is smoking what looks like to be his third cigarette.

Ebisus face turns crimson and I raise a brow, shutting the door. Ebisu always seemed to have a crush on me-well, he did have a crush on any woman who breaths-but I never understood why…I punched him in the face when we were kids.

Genma jumps up, drunkenly giving me a wet kiss on my cheek.

“Hime~ come play cards with us! I know for a fact you’re a better gambler then your cousin!”

I duck under his arm, “ no can do, Babes, I’m crashing. But I brought food.”

Asuma and Gai perk up, getting up to see what to had.

“That’s a relief-don’t look at my cards Ebisu!”

“Gods Asuma! I wasn’t!” Ebisu groan, also getting up.

Kakashi stayed on the couch, eye staring straight as his sneaked sips of his Saké. I frown at him, opening the packages of soup dumplings. The boys hover, sitting on the counter top and island as I cook for them. I knew Kakashi was watching, I could feel his eyes burning the back of my head.

Dishing out the food, I give the boys a tired smile.

“Welp, I’m beat…don’t stay up drinking again.” I warn, walking to my room as the shinobi in my living room all but jump on the food.

I pulling off the lab coat, then the grey TI jacket revealing my white tank top and the sealing that began on my back, can up onto my shoulders and wrapped around my arms.

I sigh in relief, those grey jackets were heavy and uncomfortable. Unbuttoning my pants, I hear a soft tap on my door.

I open it, and a soft blush rises to my face when I see Kakashi leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. It wasn’t a commanding look, quite frankly he looked like he was about to bolt if I spooked him.

“Can I help you?”

He clenched, then unclenched his jaw, “…the poison, do you have any new leads?”

Ah, work. I had almost forgotten he was apart of the small circle of people who knew of the poison.

I wave him in, “yeah, come in we can go over it.”

I nods, stiffly walking in. I close the door behind me and walk over to my desk were I had sent my jacket down. Fishing threw the large pocket, I pull out my notes.

Blushing, I hand them over, “sorry…when I get tired I switch between real words and sealing symbols…and then just random shit.”

Kakashi looked over the messy writing, and if he couldn’t read it he didn’t voice it, all he did was look over at me with his tired eye, “…I remember you used to switch between kanji and Fūinjutsu symbols, old habit?”

I blush harder, not thinking he’d remember something like that-hell, even Genma would forget and get pissed trying to read my notes.

He looked away, his milky skin showing just a bit of color. He sunk into my desk chair, lifting his hitae-ate to reveal his gifted eye.

I move to my bed, flopping down on it as I waited for him to finish storing all my notes into his memory. I felt a small shift, and was treated with a high pitch meow as my cat decided to show himself.

I smile, scratching behind his brown eye as his big blue eyes blinked slowly at me. He purred, flopping onto his side and I continued to pet him, almost therapeutic like.

Kakashi made a noise and I look over at him, but his eyes stayed away.

“I…uh, Arigatō.”

I snort, “it’s fine, Kakashi. You don’t have to thank me.”

He made a face, and my eyes soften. He was raised right, Sakumo made sure of that. Kakashi had been a little shit when we were growing up together, but over the years as he grew he began to fall more and more back into his father’s teachings (whether he knew it or not).

I sit up, and Kakashis eye stays on me, “when’d you get a cat?”

I look down at the rag doll, smiling.

“My Kaa-San got him for me when he was a kitten…birthday present.”

Kakashi nodded, and the air went tense again as we both couldn’t seem to decide if we wanted to have our eyes stay locked or if they were going to wander.

“…does he have a name?”

Was this 20 questions? How much did he drink…?

Sober Kakashi wouldn’t bother with this, he would have left by now, and I don’t just mean my room but the whole apartment. Sober Kakashi wouldn’t be sitting at my desk, cheeks red.

“…his name is Saké.”

He snorts.

He fucking snorts at that.

“You named you cat after an alcoholic beverage?”

My legs cross and I wave my hand, “no, no. I didn’t name him, Genma did! I wasn’t even home when my Kaa-San dropped him off!”

Kakashi shakes his head, softly chuckling and I smile back. He really did have a nice laugh…

He stands, and I do too. My cheeks pink when I have to look up to meet his eyes.

He grew since joining the ANBU…

We stare at each other, both of our faces slightly flushed. We haven’t seen each other since Gais birthday, and that was a month ago. He had been close back then too, so close.

“…I should go.”

I release my breath, nodding, “Y-yeah, it’s getting late.”

He gulps, brushing past me as he reaches for the door nob. He twists it, but doesn’t open it.

“…I could read your notes, I understood it.”

And then he’s gone.

#kakashi x reader #hatake kakashi x reader #naruto #naruto shippuden #anbu kakashi x reader #genma shiranui #kakashi hatake x reader #might gai #asuma sarutobi #ebisu

[shycoconutt]

I Found My Light: Chapter 3 (Kakashi x Reader)

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

A/n: Sorry for the delay! Wasn't sure where I wanted to go with this but it came to me in the shower (as all good ideas do). Hope you enjoy it! This story is far from over.

Summary: You attend the group training session where, to your dismay, Kakashi is in attendance.

Word Count: 1800

Warnings: fem!reader, SFW (but won't be in future chapters), violence, angst

Fanart!: Please check out this fanart inspired by this fic by the talented @szamasza <3

If this training session goes like any other typical training session, you are in for a long one. Training usually begins around mid-day and lasts several hours until everyone feels like they’re on the brink of death. Then, when face down in the dirt, Asuma tries to convince everyone to head to the bar on the main street that gives discounts to shinobi. After a few minutes of resounding I’m-too-tireds and maybe-next-times, everyone gives in and spends the remainder of the night into the next morning crammed in a booth getting absolutely sloshed.

This night was like any other night, except not because your anxiety was at an all-time high.

Kakashi showed up about an hour into training, aloof as ever. You were deep in your spar with Genma when you saw him out of the corner of your eye. Genma must have noticed your distraction, as he didn’t hesitate to spit his senbon at you with full force. Luckily you were refocused in less than a second and caught it between your fingers.

“Nice try, buddy,” you teased him, “It’s going to take more than that to throw me off.”

Genma raised his eyebrow at you. “I don’t know, (y/n), you seemed a little distracted,” he teased.

And just like that, you were back at each other’s throats.

Kakashi ended up finding a spot sparing Gai. Typical of him, as usually Gai is the only one who can keep up ability-wise. Although, Kakashi hasn’t seen how much you’ve grown and a part of you is hoping you’ll get a chance at him. You still have yet to use your chakra sword-whip, your most brutal weapon, in front of your fellow shinobi. It’s remained in its sheath strapped across your back, waiting to be used against the most brutal opponent.

“Alright, alright,” Genma pants, curled up on the ground holding his left side where you just landed a forceful kick, “Please show me some mercy, (y/n).”

“Only if you admit that I’m a better shinobi than you in every way,” you say smugly, crossing your arms across your chest.

“Yes, you are a better shinobi than me in every way. You're stealthy, quick, strong, intelligent, adaptable, beautiful, and, most of all, kind. Which is why you’ll give me my senbon back.” He pleas, still laying on the ground with his hand out to you.

“Mmm, fine,” you tease, pulling the senbon from your hair where you used it to hold it in a bun. “It does make a great hair accessory though. I think I might have to get one for myself.” You help Gemma back up to his feet and stick the metal needle back into his mouth.

He gives you a smirk, still grasping onto your hand. “You should see my collection. I have at least two hundred of these,” he boasts, taking the senbon out of his mouth to twirl it in his fingers. “I‘ll make sure to pick one out for you.”

“I would be honored.” You smile warmly, squeezing his hand.

At this moment you could sense a set of eyes staring at you from the other side of the training field. Well, one eye, you should say, as Kakashi is staring directly at you while he holds Gai in a headlock. His expression is unreadable as his eyes flicker from you to Genma and then back to you. You could swear that you saw his shoulders drop a bit before he brought his attention back to Gai who is currently struggling to breathe in his grasp.

“Ka-ka-shi-ple-ase-le-t-me-go-” Gai gasps, holding onto Kakashi’s arms currently wrapped around his neck. Kakashi’s eyes widen when his attention is brought back to his opponent and he immediately releases Gai from his grasp. With a thud, Gai drops to the floor and sucks in one big breath.

“Are you trying to kill him?!” Kurenai yells as she runs to tend to Gai who is sitting on the ground rubbing his neck. Everyone else on the field stops what they’re doing when they notice the commotion and circle around Gai wondering what happened.

“I’m sorry-” Kakashi starts, hands back in his pockets still staring at Gai wide-eyed.

“Apologies are unnecessary my rival!” Gai cuts in, still gasping for air. “Flashes of my youth came to me as I was falling out of consciousness. It reminded me how much there is to live for. I thank you for the near-death experience, Kakashi!” Gai quickly recovers and stands up, dusting the dirt from his green jumpsuit. “You win this round, but I wouldn’t get used to it!” Gai challenges, holding out a hand for Kakashi to shake.

“Yeah, sure Gai.” Kakashi agrees sheepishly, accepting Gai’s hand.

“Damn, Kakashi.” Genma starts, a smug smile pulling at his mouth. “The Anbu made you a pretty ruthless fighter, huh? I didn’t realize friend-killer Kakashi applied to us too.”

You could hear everyone in the circle try to hold in their gasps after registering Genma’s statement. Kakashi’s whole body stiffened and you could see the appearance of a grimace form under his mask. He is visibly uncomfortable. Yet, instead of looking at Genma who just addressed him, he is looking at you.

You suck in a breath, feeling terrible for Kakashi. Rumors spread, nicknames are formed, it’s all a part of being a shinobi. But “friend-killer Kakashi” is on a whole other level of petty.

That jerk.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Genma?” You turn to him and yell. “What makes you think you can say shit like that?”

“Oh c’mon!” Genma retorts. “We were all thinking it! This is the first time he’s been back training with us since the Anbu. You’ve heard what people have said about him. I’m surprised one of us isn’t already dead!”

This time no one was able to hold in their reactions as gasps escaped everyone in the circle.

You are fuming.

“Actually, Genma, the only one you should be worried about killing you is me because I am a second away from shoving that stupid senbon down your throat.” You take a step forward, challenging him.

“Hey, hey,” Genma retreats, taking a step back with his hands up in defense. “I was just trying to look out for us, for you especially. I mean out of all of us, you should be the most concerned. You know, with the whole situation that happened with Ri-”

You close the gap between you and Genma in seconds, grabbing the collar of his vest, you yank the senbon from his mouth and hold it against his throat.

“If you finish that sentence it will be the last words you ever speak.” You threaten. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You have no idea the details of what Kakashi has been through. What Rin went through. What I went through. It isn’t your place to speak about a situation you know nothing of. So do us all a favor and shut up.” You let go of his vest and shove him back a couple steps.

“Wow, damn, okay, sorry.” Genma apologizes, a hint of annoyance in his voice. “I was just joking around. There’s no need to be so serious about it, (y/n).”

“My hand went through Rin’s heart,” Kakashi speaks up from his silence. “There’s nothing to joke about.”

Hearing Kakashi speak this hard truth sends a sharp pain through your heart, and you instinctively grasp onto the part of your shirt lying over your chest.

You turn and look back at Kakashi, who meets your eyes.

Pain.

So much pain.

You turn to step towards him, but he’s already retreating from the circle.

“I think that’s it for me today guys. I’ll catch you around another time.” Kakashi says as he turns away from the group giving you one last glance. Heading towards the forest, he reaches around to his pouch and pulls out his Icha Icha novel, bringing it in front of him to pick up where he left off.

After a few silent beats, Asuma claps his hands together to bring attention to him.

“So,” he starts, “drinks anyone?”

Everyone immediately becomes more relaxed now that the focus has shifted. You, on the other hand, are feeling so tense that you start to hear ringing in your ears. You get that Asuma is just trying to relieve the tension in the group, but you can’t help but be annoyed that he’s trying to move on from what just happened so quickly.

Kurenai meets your gaze and can read your annoyance. She gives you a pleading look that says drop it for now, (y/n).

Everyone in the circle, including Genma, give a resounding “yes” and head in the opposite direction of Kakashi back towards the village. You're left alone standing in the middle of the grounds as they make their way out.

“(Y/n), are you coming?” Kurenai calls out to you.

You contemplate for a second and begin to wave her off.

“I think I’m going to stay here for a minute. You guys go on ahead, I’ll meet up with you later,” you reply. Honestly, you have no intention of getting back together with them, as any place where Genma is hanging out is the last place you want to be.

“Okay,” Asuma shouts back at you, “we will be at that one bar on main.”

“As always.” you joke back, trying to sound light-hearted.

Once they are out of sight you turn to look back at the trees that Kakashi exited through. You have absolutely no idea where he could be headed to or how fast he could be traveling through the trees. It might be a waste of time to head out after him. After all, if Kakashi doesn’t want to be found, you have no chance of finding him.

Feeling slightly defeated, you plop down to the ground and sit criss-cross in the dirt. You sit up straight and put both of your hands palm-up on each knee. Taking a deep breath in, you feel the breeze rustle through your hair. Taking a deep breath out, you hear the sound of the trees flowing in the wind.

If he wants to talk, he will come to me. In the meantime, I will meditate.

The next time you open your eyes, it’s dark out.

Damn, how many hours have passed?

You close your eyes.

More time passes.

The next time you open your eyes, Kakashi is sitting a few feet across from you mirroring your position.

His eyes are open.

As if your thoughts are mirroring each other as well, you both speak in unison.

“I’m sorry.”

#kakashi #kakashi hatake #kakashi fanfic #kakashi fanfiction #kakashi x reader #hatake kakashi #kakashi fluff #kakashi imagine #naruto fanfiction #kakashi x you #kakashi x y/n #kakashi one shot #kakashi x yn #kakashi sensei #i found my light

[hatake-no-sharingan]

The Jinchuuriki (Minato x Reader)

Summary: Canon divergent AU. Danzo steals the two Uzumaki sisters from their village and seals the Kyuubi inside one of them. He separates them and keeps the Jinchuuriki captive in the Root headquarters. When she grows up alone, until the Hokage orders Danzo to have her trained to fight. Her new tutor arrives, and he’s nothing like she expected. He’s kind and he cares for her. His name is Minato.

Characters: Y/N (Female Reader as the Jinchuuriki), Minato, Danzo, and Kushina

A/N: To the lovely @itsao-mine for requesting and waiting so long, I apologize, you’re my most loyal reader. I hope you really do enjoy this, because it took me so long to write. I think it’s a warm story that you’ll like. To everyone else, I hope you love this story too. I apologize in advance for my incompetence in writing fight scenes. Remember requests are open. Enjoy and be kind <3

Word Count: 4,624

The Jinchuuriki

“From now on, you’re not sisters anymore” you didn’t understand what the man was saying. His face instilled a deep fear in you, as you imagined farfetched stories about how he got that ugly scar on his chin. His uncovered eye made you uneasy, and the covered one, even more.

You clutched Kushina’s hand tighter with your own small one, and looked at her in search of the reassurance that this man was lying.

You and your sister had been plucked from your home, your village, and everything you knew by this man and brought to the Leaf Village without any explanation about it. The only thing you knew was that something in your Uzumaki lineage made you the perfect vessel for a weapon that the Leaf Elders were desperate to keep and control. Your 8 year old brain didn’t fully grasp what this meant, but Kushina and you’d overheard that in a conversation two of the ANBU ninjas had on your way to your new village.

You noticed a streak of sadness cross your sister’s face and your stomach twisted inside you. The man, Danzo they called him, harshly grabbed both yours and your sister’s wrists and tore your hands apart. He handed each of you to a masked ninja, a rabbit and a bear, and you never saw each other again.

They put you through the worst nightmare you couldn’t even have imagined. They locked you up in a dark room, and when they finally let you see light, it was only to painfully seal a demon in you, using the techniques stolen from your family.

You felt the beast stir inside you at night. Now, alone, you cried yourself to sleep and imagined Kushina’s arms wrapped around you, her soft voice singing slightly off-key the lullaby your aunt had taught you, while the personification of hate growled from within your gut.

The first months were pure hell to you, you’d go on rampages and destroy everything in sight, using the beast’s chakra and your own rage. This earned you being put in a cell and chained with chakra suppressing metals. Then, it was just you and him. The Kyuubi became your only company, aside from the guard who slipped your food through the slot once a day who’d never even glanced at you.

The Kyuubi hated you and you hated him, however you soon discovered that you both hated Danzo and Root, the people who’d turned him into a weapon and you into a vessel, even more. The realization brought you two closer. Eventually, he saw himself in your pain and told you that as you were missing a sister, he was missing siblings too.

They’d also been turned into weapons, and you assumed, that wherever Kushina was, she was probably being used to meet this organization’s needs. Though a part of you still liked to imagine that while you were here, she was back home. Her skin soaking up the rays of the sun, her beautiful red hair flowing with the wind, as she ran across the village, to the place where you’d both built a tree house and told stories about other worlds you’d one day go to.

“Listen to me, child” the beast, no, Kurama, told you “I’m willing to lend you my power if you’ll use it carefully and wisely. Only if you promise me, swear to me, that you’ll use it to destroy those who wronged us” and with that, you sealed your fate.

After that day, you became the docile Jinchuuriki Danzo wanted you to be, and earned his trust.

One day, we are going to bite back  and he won’t notice until it’s too late.

That was 13 years ago.

Danzo had brought someone who trained you as a medical ninja. You didn’t know their name, not even what their face looked like, it was always fully covered, and you knew they were holding back in their teachings.  You helped your teacher heal the injured Root members who came back from missions, serving only as a minor assistant. They had only taught you how to do basic things like heal cuts faster or mend a broken bone, but they never let you learn any just that required a large amount of chakra usage. Still, you obeyed silently.

You were almost sure Danzo no longer saw you as a threat, and the many years that had passed since you last had a rampage, put him in a comfortable spot. However you were still surprised when he appeared in your room just before you were going to sleep and announced

“The Hokage and the elders are pressuring me by saying that it’s about time you learned to defend yourself, after all, you just turned 21 and you don’t know much about fighting. Tomorrow a ninja sent by them will be coming to start training you here on grounds. He’ll be staying here as long as it takes for you to be at least competent in deflecting a few attacks. However, this won’t be free for you. If you want to train, you’d better get information about Sarutobi from him, and pass it on to me. I can’t refuse their orders, but I can’t help it if you have some sort of accident that puts you in a temporary physical (idk the word for this)”

Your blood runs cold in your veins. You know he wasn’t joking, when he made a threat he went through with it. You just nodded and assured him that you’d try to get any information for him. He left as fast as he came, and spent the rest of the night imagining what your new tutor would be like.

Would they be as impersonal as your medical tutor? Without an identity? A name? Or would it be someone as scary as Danzo? That would make it hard for you to get the information you had to pass on to him. You couldn’t lose this chance to train. It was the moment you and Kurama had been waiting for.

When you enter the training room you expect so many things, except what you see. A cheerful smile meets your sight, bright yellow hair with the ability to light the whole room up, and a silky warm voice.

“You must be Y/N” he says “so pleased to meet you. I’m Minato and I’ll be tutoring you under the Hokage’s orders.”

You’re shocked to be met with such kindness. It’s been so long since someone spoke to you like you were an actual person, that you don’t really know what to say.

“Do you have any previous knowledge on controlling chakra or doing any sort of jutsu? I just want to know where to start so you feel comfortable.”

Again, you stay silent. Nobody has thought about your wellbeing in so long, and this stranger is worried about you feeling uncomfortable. He’s perceptive, so he notices your stiff posture and your nerves.

“Hey it’s okay, we don’t have to do much today. You can just walk around the room and play a bit with the equipment so you get used to it. I’ll just stay in a corner until you feel more comfortable in my presence.”

“No—“ you quickly say “walk around with me. Please. Show me how to be a Kunoichi.”

“Alright” he chuckles a bit. “Let me show you the ninja packs first.”

He reaches for one of them and proceeds to pull out a few weapons. He names all of them to you and lets you hold them.

Then he explains a few basic concepts on fighting and has you do some simple exercises to control chakra. Since you know medical ninjutsu, it’s easy for you, but at the end of the practice, you’re still tired.

The first training session gave you a feeling of intrigue, and you start looking forward to the rest. Each day, you start enjoying it more and you get better.

Minato is a patient and determined teacher, and he starts becoming the only friend you’ve had.

You two start joking around during the sessions, and time flies by while you’re with him.

He has you practice different concepts, and also train your body so you have more physical endurance.

When he sees you getting better, he starts challenging you to different competitions. Some test strength, others speed, and your favorite, strategical thinking, Minato almost always wins, but you’re satisfied to notice you’re getting better each time.

Once he challenges you to a race, and he takes you outside for it, but the middle of the way, you step on a rock and twist your ankle.

“Damn! Next time I’ll get ya! Yaknow??” You shout after him.

He comes back to scoop you up from the ground. You thought it was such a gentlemanly action, until you hear him let out a loud laughter.

“Why are you laughing?” You ask, your cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“Nothing bad I swear” he chuckles again “It’s just, the way you talk. It reminds me of a good friend of mine. Actually you remind me a lot of her. She’s as feisty as you, and also very talented.”

He says as he carries you back.

“Kushina” you whisper. “She’s alive”

“What? You know her?” A single tear rolls down your cheek.

“I once knew her.” You say simply “Can you tell me more about her?”

His heart softens when he sees your pleading eyes.

“Sure, if you want me to. I don’t really know what to say though” he starts.

You arrive at your room and he settles you down on the bed.

“Is she happy?”

“I guess so. She’s a fighter. She used to get bullied, for her red hair” You remember how her soft strands felt in your fingers. All your childhood you’d envied her beautiful hair, now you longed to run your hands through it once more. You couldn’t believe people would make fun of her for such a beautiful trait. “She kicked all their asses though, and she made friends. True ones.”

“Like you?”

“Yeah”

He spent the whole evening telling you stories about your sister, making you laugh like you hadn’t done in so long. He brought you sweets he stole from the kitchen, as he went to pick up more ice for your ankle, and he stayed with you, to help you heal.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you got injured today, so we can still see each other tomorrow”

You smile and nod. If Danzo knew you couldn’t train, he’d bar you from your time with Minato. He already tried to reduce your training time too much, only because Minato insisted you needed more practice, arguing that it was harder for you to learn these things as an adult.

You rest for three days. Minato is more than happy to share more stories about your sister, and also some about his three young students he’s very attached to.

“Kakashi is full of sadness, but he has a huge heart. Obito is a bit clumsy, but he’s the full spirit of the team, he’ll do great things someday. Finally, Rin is the glue holding them together, she’s reliable and kind. You’d love them.” All this kept you wondering what life was like outside these quarters. Minato’s stories were full of magic, and they made you so happy. He tends to you perfectly and then in a flash, your ankle is as good as new. He starts training you again, and it becomes your favorite time of the day. You can feel your body get stronger each time. He lets you practice different types of jutsu and you’re happy to discover that while they’re challenging, it’s very rewarding to master them. The confidence between you and your tutor grows, as well as your own self confidence. Maybe your goal of fighting your captor is closer than you think.

“Why do they keep you here?” He asks puzzled after you finish taking down one of his shadow clones with the shuriken jutsu he taught you “Why didn’t you go to the academy, and instead waited until this age to learn how to fight? You’re clearly a natural, it would’ve helped so much if we could have gotten you on a shinobi team.”

“Minato, there’s something I need to tell you.” The words scrape your throat, but you gather the courage to spit them out anyway “I’m being kept here as a prisoner, ever since I was chosen as the nine tails jinchuuriki”

He furrows his brow, clearly not understanding what you just said. Fear crawls through your veins and you instantly regret saying that. He’ll stop seeing me the same way now.

“Kushina is the Jinchuuriki”

“No, that’s not possible, there’s only one Kurama, and it’s sealed inside me”

“Everyone in the village knows she’s the Jinchuuriki, Y/N, even the Hokage has acknowledged it” he says it with such certainty that you almost believe it for a minute. Maybe the beast inside you was imaginary all along, but then he goes pale. Pale as if he’d seen a ghost, no, worse, as if he’d just found an answer to this confusion.

“No, the Hokage is the one who ordered Danzo to keep me here.”

Minato pauses for a second

“Y/N, I need you to do something for me,” there’s not much you feel you can do but you nod once, waiting for his instruction “can you call the Kyuubi forth and let him speak to me?” “His name is Kurama, he doesn’t like being called Kyuubi” you snap, and then clasp a hand over your mouth as you realize how rude you’re being to the only person that you know who truly cares about you.

“It’s okay, I know it’s hard. Don’t worry about me” he smiles and warmth spreads in your chest “I’ll be kind to him”

You believe him, and Kurama does too, so you switch.

“Kid” he says simply

“So it’s true”

“It depends”

“On what?”

“On what you think is the truth”

“The truth is that Y/N is the real Jinchuuriki, and that Danzo lied to the Hokage and the whole village by telling them Kushina was your vessel. The fact here is that the Jinchuuriki out there is a lie, and he’s keeping the real one hidden”

“You’re a smart one, and yes, there’s truth among your words.  The question is, are you going to stop Danzo before he turns us into a weapon with no self control? I can lend Y/N my power, but I can’t fight for her if she doesn’t make her body strong first. If she doesn’t learn how to properly control chakra, it’ll be for nothing”

Kurama switches with you again, and the worried expression in Minato’s face triggers something in you.

He explains everything to you. Root has been telling everyone including the Hokage your sister is the Jinchuuriki, while keeping you hidden here. Most likely Danzo has a plan to use you later to gain more power. The realization makes your stomach drop to your knees.

“I’m scared” you say.

“Shh as long as I’m with you, you’ll be okay. I’ll protect you. We���ll stop Danzo together, the only thing we need to do is make your body stronger, but it’ll be easy since you’re already naturally talented.”

You feel so confident because of him, that without thinking you press your lips against his. He’s startled for a second, but then he moves, responding to your body. With that kiss, you give yourself to him. His hands travel to your waist, holding you tight, telling you, you’re something he’s not willing to lose.

You tangle your hands in his hair, and he utters a soft groan in response. Encouraged, you deepen the kiss and press your warm body closer to his. Your tongues dance hot around one another, coordinating perfectly between longing and pleasure. You stroke his neck, then grasp the collar of his shirt. His hands start to travel under your shirt, sending an ecstatic feeling through your body. You moan, thrusting your hips forward, needing to feel his touch everywhere. But when he realizes what he’s doing, he breaks the kiss, leaving your mouth cold with his own mouth’s absence.  

He presses his forehead against yours, and stares deeply into your eyes, seeing right through to your very soul. His eyes transport you to a place where nothing can touch you, where you feel safe.

“Tell me to stop, and I’ll stop.”

“Minato, I want you. I want this. Please.”

You see a golden spark in his eyes, and he smiles relieved, it’s clear he wants this as much as you.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything”

You always thought being touched by someone would be scary, but now, standing with him here, desire overcomes you. Love, overcomes you. He is the person you want to spend every single moment of the day with, and give it all to. Something in you knows

“Promise me that if you feel unsafe, or it hurts, or you simply don’t want to do it anymore, you’ll tell me.”

How much he cares for you makes your heart melt, you nod, giving him the confirmation he needs, and this time it’s him who initiates the kiss. Just like that, in a small corner of the training room where nobody can see you and nobody can hear you, where it’s just you two, Minato makes your inexperienced, touch starved body, feel loved for the first time.

The month passes in a breeze. You keep training together, and gaining more control over your own body.  Minato says that you’re learning at an extraordinary speed, but part of it, you owe it to Kurama. He’s been lending you chakra and helping you every step, and you feel the bond between you get stronger.

Aside from that, Minato has been feeling uneasy by the discovery on Danzo’s deception, however he couldn’t report anything until he knew more.

Spying on Danzo proved less difficult than he initially thought it would be. He knew Danzo felt confident here in his territory, and though he’d mistrusted him since he arrived on the Hokage’s orders, Danzo thought he was being smarter than Minato. That’s why he’d grown careless, and now as Minato was walking back to his quarters, he heard a subordinate address the man.

“Lord Danzo, I have disturbing news for you”

Minato walked closer to the room to hear better, effectively disguising himself against the wall.

“What is it this time? Can we deal with it?” Danzo replied.

“It’s the Jinchuuriki”

Minato’s heart stopped for a second at the mention of you.

“What in the world has that cursed girl done now?” he says with an annoyed sigh “She’s been more trouble than she’s worth”

His subordinate kept quiet, unsure if he should go on with the report.

“Well? Out with it” Danzo ordered, exasperated.

“She’s…” the subordinate trembles, in response to the rage he already feels coming “pregnant”

Minato’s brain goes blank, all that he can think of now is getting you and his unborn child out of here.

Danzo’s visible eye rages, but his demeanor remains calm.

“We just found out, during her routine check up.” The ninja explains.

“But how?” Danzo asks, more to himself than to the other person, after a few seconds it dawns on him “That damned Minato. It seems he’s not only training our weapon.”

The old man thinks for a bit, then says

“Bring the other girl. It’s about time we got rid of this one. After all she’s been nothing but a disappointment.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Get everything ready to extract and seal the beast into the new vessel tonight. Oh and don’t tell Sarutobi anything. After all, he thinks the girl we have here is the back up. We’ll just say she died under mysterious circumstances, and turn the one he thinks is the Jinchuuriki into the actual Jinchuuriki. Nobody needs to know I’ve had the Kyuubi hidden here all along.”

Minato has no more time. He has to do something before they hurt you.

Stay calm, he tells himself. He takes a deep breath, and when his hands stop shaking, he teleports to your room, where you are already getting into bed.

“Minato?” You say at the sight of him “What are you doing here? If Danzo knows you’re here he’ll punish us both”

“Y/N, we don’t have much time, you’re in danger”

“What? What do you mean? Why?”

“Do you feel different somehow? Physically I mean”

“Well, I haven’t really thought about it. I guess I’ve been more tired than usual, and I’ve had a bit of nausea, but it’s because of the strain my body’s been through with the training, right? It happens to everybody. Plus I just had my regular check up with the other medical ninjas and they said I was fine.”

“Y/N, I really hate to tell you the news this way, because it should be something happy, but, I just overheard Danzo and another shinobi talking. You’re pregnant.”

Your body feels numb, and the whole world starts spinning around you.

“I’m what?” You whisper. Tears have started flowing and you place your hands on your belly. The only thing you can feel now is fear, for the little life growing inside of you, product of the deep love Minato and you feel for each other.

“Hey beautiful, be happy.” He reaches out and wipes the tears from your cheeks “We’re going to raise this child together, I promise, we’ll get married and Kushina can be your bridesmaid. You’ll be together again. I’m going to get you both out of here now, but we need to act fast.”

You don’t spare another moment, you trust him completely, so you’re willing to do anything he tells you. You look at him determined.

“I trust you. Let’s do it, but let me fight too, I know I’m strong enough now.”

“But the baby”

This time it’s Kurama who answers

“Will be fine. I’ll make a shield of chakra and he’ll be protected. Both Y/N and him.” Minato thanks him, and you also feel grateful towards the creature who’s been living inside you for so long. You can’t believe how close you’ve grown to him, he’s not a weapon and you won’t let Danzo turn him into one.

You take Minato’s hand and he teleports the two of you to the entrance of the  Root Headquarters.

Danzo and a dozen of his Root subordinates are already there waiting for you.

“I knew you’d try to steal my tailed beast once you found out I had it here. I just didn’t know you’d put a brat in his vessel. You’re a quick one, Yellow Flash” Danzo mocks Minato. “However, you can’t teleport your way out of here. You know my barrier blocks all of your markers outside of it.”

Minato’s grip on your hand tightens, but you see he’s still calm, not playing into Danzo’s game.

“I’m sorry, but you won’t be taking my best weapon tonight. The new vessel is already on her way, and by the time she arrives, this one and your unborn kid will be dead. Seize them and start the extraction of the beast.” He orders his fighters.

A dozen of the most skilled, battle seasoned ninja charge towards you and though you thought you’d be ready for this, you find yourself frozen.

A glance from Minato, however, gives you all the courage you need.

“I know you can do it. Just remember what we did during training. I’ve got your back.”

So, the fighting starts.

Minato moves gracefully, only aiming to injure, not to kill. Preserving his rage only for Danzo. In just a few minutes, he manages to disable 4 enemies, giving you two the advantage.

You’re less agile than him, which is understandable, due to your inexperience, but Kurama’s strength makes up for it. You only manage to fight off one enemy, using the jutsu Minato taught you, realizing just how effective it is and feeling proud of yourself for being able to defend the attacks.

While you’re fighting his ninja, Danzo is only watching from afar. It seems his confidence diminishes with each shinobi that is taken down by you, but it’s not enough to wipe the smug smile from his face.

With trouble, you take on two more enemies, barely getting by. You wipe a little blood from your face, and reach instinctively towards your stomach, as if the gesture could reassure the baby everything would be alright.

Minato, already finished with the other Root agents, charges towards Danzo and engages in a fight with him.

The old man is more skilled than you’d imagined. Their bodies move at a fast speed, and you can barely keep up with what’s happening. The fight is too confusing for you to follow, but at some point you’re able to notice that Minato has a slight advantage. Younger, faster, and more skilled, the man you love is giving everything to protect his family against the man who would kill you.

Suddenly there’s a flash of red, and you can’t tell whose blood it is.

Your heart stops.

Minato is on the ground, pale and bleeding from a large cut on his back.

“Y/N stay away!” He shouts

You don’t understand how Danzo managed to hurt him this way, but you don’t care.

You call Kurama, and feel his power rushing through you.

Your mind goes blank with anger, and hot chakra seeps out of you, transforming you into a small version of the Kyuubi.

Then you attack Danzo with all your might.

It’s over in a few seconds. His body is barely recognizable after you’re finished with him.

You go back to being yourself, kurama’s power retreating into you.

Your body feels heavy and then you lose consciousness.

When you open your eyes again, there’s a bright light in your face. You rub your eyes and try to adjust.

“Minato?”

“He’s alive, Y/N” a familiar voice says “Thankfully you three are alive. Nobody can hurt you anymore”

“Kushina” you say as her soft hand reaches rub your belly “I’ve missed you so much”

“And I’ve missed you, little sister” she replies “There’s so much I have to tell you and so much you have to tell me, but all in due time. The good thing is you’re awake now and in good hands. We’re in the Konoha hospital, there’s only kind people here”

You can see her face now. She’s grown to become so beautiful, and you experience a type of peace you haven’t felt in so long.

“Minato is already in rehabilitation, he’s very strong, yaknow? That’s why the baby you’re carrying survived, must be his Namikaze genes combined with your Uzumaki ones”

“Kushina, I’d like you to be the baby’s godmother. I want us to be a family again”

She grips your hand tighter in response and nods happily

“Of course we will be”

Days later, when you’re finally out of the hospital, Minato and you get married in a small ceremony. Only his closest friends, his three students –Kakashi, Obito and Rin– and your sister are present, but that is all you need. You wear a simple dress that Kushina helped you embroider with a beautiful flowery pattern. You let your hair loose, and put a single white orchid close to your left ear. It’s the happiest day of your life. Minato looks dashing as ever, and he receives you with that wonderful smile of his, ready to join his life to yours forever.

8 months later, you both welcome your son. You decide to name him Naruto.

#naruto #naruto fic #naruto imagines #minato #minato namikaze #minato headcanons #minato fluff #minato x reader #minato x y/n #minato oneshot #minato fanfic

[ofmorninglory]

WIP snippets

Thanks to @espoir-et-reves for tagging me in this! Let's see what's in my WIP folder that I can share!

after the war ch. 5 - team 7 centric, Naruto

Kakashi makes it home much later than usual. The lights are already off in all of the kid’s rooms, but the one in Yamato’s study is still bright. He doesn’t know the actual hour, but he does know it’s too late for his partner to be working on any wood. He also knows Yamato had been out on a mission until earlier today--there’s no way the man has any energy left to actually carve.

Defeated and more than a little irritable, Kakashi drags his feet into his home and right towards the door of his partner’s workshop. Pakkun greets him as he passes before the door, but doesn’t offer to follow him, eyes downcast. He wonders for a second if his ninken had attempted to pull Yamato from his work only to be shut down immediately by the wood user’s cold stare. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that happened, but Kakashi sets the thought aside in favor of steeling himself for what’s to come.

Yamato would often get like this after missions, but it had been a while since Kakashi had been the unwilling spectator of his strange moods. Ever since he had become commander of the ANBU forces, the Mokuton user had remained in Konoha for the most part. Kakashi hadn’t done that on purpose, he swears, but he had to admit that knowing Yamato would be usually stationed at home gave him peace of mind. Even better, Kakashi knew that the missions Yamato had been taking on were mostly related to re-building and diplomatic security. It meant less injuries, and better yet, it meant he’d see less of that neutral, unresponsive Tenzo that usually came back from difficult missions. It was good for everyone involved.

As he reaches the door, the Rokudaime takes in a shuddering breath, and pushes into the room with the kindest smile he can muster. Yamato is curled almost protectively around the piece of wood he’s working on, the soft sounds of his carving almost rhythmic in the stillness of the room. Kakashi clicks the door closed behind him, trying to be as soft and careful as is humanly possible to reach Yamato sitting in the middle of the room.

fake married au (+wandavision au) I was supposed to finish for Jax's birthday - bluepulse, Young Justice

“You look like you saw a ghost,” Bart laughs upon seeing his face, and Jaime feels like his “husband” just knows what’s going on in his head. “Calm down, Blue. Whatever this is, it’s obviously not real.”

Something clicks in Jaime’s brain. Like a memory unlocked that he can’t reach. “What did you say?”

Bart quirks an eyebrow at him. “This isn’t real. Don’t you think so?”

“No,” Jaime shakes his head. “Not about that. What did you call me?”

“Uh,” Bart’s hand slides off from the doorknob to the floor, his body following suit as he leans to one side. “Blue?”

“Yeah, that!” Jaime exclaims. His tie suddenly makes a lot more sense. There’s a thought just in the tip of his tongue. “I think I’m--”

The doorbell cuts his statement short. Both men snap to attention, standing up from their positions in record time. Through one of the square glass panels on the door, Jaime catches black hair and blue eyes. Something in the back of his head screams at him--the color red overtaking his senses for a second.

Jason.

“Jay!” Jaime greets just as he opens the door. He can’t remember who this person is, exactly, but the smile he is answered with is enough to show him that at least he knows his name. “What--uh--what brings you here so early?”

“Did I just see you both pop up from the floor?” Jason grins toothily at them both, looking pointedly at Bart, who is tucking his shirt back in his pants where it had been pulled out in the tussle to get back up. “You naughty children--I know you haven’t been married for so long, but shouldn’t your honeymoon phase be over?”

Bart laughs, cheeks dusted a rosey pink. “Is it ever really over, Jaybird?”

“With you,” Jason says as he sidesteps around Jaime to walk into their home. “I don’t think it is.”

astronomy (? - ushisuga, Haikyuu!!

“Okay, hold on a minute, Ushijima,” Koushi whirls over his axis, taking a step back so he doesn’t have to crane his neck so far up. “Let’s just--let’s take a moment, yeah?”

The confusion in Ushijima’s face is more than evident. Koushi feels like maybe this is what mothers feel like when their toddlers are learning about the world for the first time. Ushiwaka may have been one of Japan’s top 3 spikers, and captain of the strongest powerhouse school in the Miyagi prefecture, but he sure was obtuse when it came to his feelings and those of other people.

Suga doesn’t know why that makes him upset.

“Let’s take a moment, then.”

They stand there for a while, both of them at a loss for words, before Suga finally takes the plunge.

“Ushijima,” he says, voice even, but avoiding golden eyes. “Do you like me?”

The answer doesn’t come immediately, which makes Sugawara a little nervous, but when he turns to peek at Ushijima through lowered lashes, he finds the man’s cheeks alight with the most endearing shade of pink. It does something to his stomach.

“Perhaps I do,” Ushijima begins. “I’ve never really--well, I don’t really know what liking someone entails, but I know it’s different, getting to talk to you and spend time with you.”

“So you’re unsure of your feelings?” Suga prods further. “And you still want to drag me into this? Whatever this is?”

The question sounds a little more forceful than he’d intended. His companion pays him no mind.

“I’ve been told some things are worth taking a risk for,” the ace says, with an air of finality to his tone. “I think this is a risk I’d enjoy figuring out. With you. If you’d have me.”

How sincere can a man get? Koushi has the smallest inkling that he might end up getting his heart broken if he doesn’t thread carefully.

Me? Having a million different WIPs for a million different fandoms? Please, that's UNHEARD of! I'm tagging @distance-of-song, @bluepulsebluepulse, @paintingwithdarkness, @teatitty and @schweeeppess, if you guys have any WIPs to share!

#long post #i used the new tumblr editor for this bcs i was curious JAJAJA #did i have too much fun using colors? YES. #but do tell me if this makes it a bitch to read or see on your dashes #;about the author

[cityofblurbs]

Favorite Sakura Fics

Gaara x Sakura

Best Present Ever by paws-bells

GaaSaku. The cliched method of locking two quarrelsome lovers together in a room works after all, as Sakura and Gaara are about to discover. How could it not, when one is covered in only a towel and the other is not as apathetic as he appears to be?

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Walking Togetherby Zelha

Following the same themes as the other collections, it’s now up to Gaara to figure out how to handle an arranged marriage with a pink-haired medic that somehow, he doesn’t mind to have around, bad temper and all. His siblings are all too amused by this.

Rated: M - Chapters: 15 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Kakashi x Sakura

25 KakaSaku Moments by hikomokushi

25 drabble prompts, written using the prompts from the kakasakudrabble community on livejournal. Various themes, ratings and situations. KakashixSakura Disclaimer: Written strictly for entertainment. I do not own Naruto, nor the characters.

Rated: M - Chapters: 25 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

A Series of Firsts by leafygirl

A series of moments that happen between Sakura and Kakashi on a rotation at an ANBU camp as they discover their dynamic has changed over the years. One Shot. Mature content.

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Chidori no Jutsu by Lucibell

Kakashi Hatake had never known that coming home could feel so good. KakaSaku. Oneshot.

Rated: K+ - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Closest Thing to Family by Silberias

As Hatake Kakashi, General of the 3rd Division, looks around the battlefield after their victory he only wants to see the faces of his family. Crossposted on Ao3.

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Double Edged by nimblnymph

Seduction is like a double edged sword. You never know when you'll go from being the seducer to being the seduced. KakaSaku.

Rated: M - Chapters: 27 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Even a Blind Pig by rabid behemoth

It can be tough to keep secrets from a village full of ninjas. Particularly when Ino's on the prowl. [Set post-4th Shinobi War] [KakaSaku]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Fated by leafygirl

Sakura runs from her past as Kakashi wants to run from life. Naruto and Genma witness the painful trials their friends must go through. Kakasaku Sasusaku - Please be aware there are multiple serious main character deaths. You will probably cry. This story has angst/tragedy/romance and maybe not in that order.

Rated: M - Chapters: 23 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Fated – Alternate Ending by leafygirl

This is an alternate ending to the story "Fated". Read the original first. These three chapters are an alternative ending to the last three chapters of the original story.

Rated: T - Chapters: 3 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Feeling Youby cutecrazyice

It started with a kiss...a touch...a stroke. Now the lines are blurred, and the borders are being crossed - and nothing has ever been more delicious. KakaSaku

Rated: M - Chapters: 23 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Flaming Heart by Creidhe

An unexpected incident, sends Sakura into the past. She has a chance at saving everything, but as the wise say 'Playing with the hands of times brings you the most deadly consequences,' However, Sakura was not one to be intimidated ...

Rated: T - Chapters: 26 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Flow of Life by Ebil Chameleon

He didn't love her. He couldn't love her. He couldn't get attached. But his heart was betraying him. Building bonds that were irreversible. It was love. SasuSaku Chapter 46: Our Finale.

Rated: M - Chapters: 46 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

To Grow a Garden by Wolfy Tales

"So what do you think about having a kid with me, Sakura?" - A family focused one-shot [KakaSaku]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Heart of Patience by alifestylechoice

Kurenai grinned, a small laugh escaping. "Hatake Kakashi, in love. Who'd've thought." Kakasaku, Kakashi x Sakura

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

House Calls by Spoiled Sweet

Always the Team Mom, Sakura opens up her home as a clinic for the hospital-phobic ninja of Konoha. At the same time, her relationship with Kakashi begins to evolve in a way she never expected. M for swearing and later content.

Rated: M - Chapters: 40 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

I Found You Missing by Wolfy Tales

'They're asking us because these soldiers have absolutely no one left to write home to,' Sakura thought with a frown. So she signs up for the Shinobi Letter Exchange, not realizing how large the consequences would be. - AUish one-shot [KakaSaku]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

In Case of Blue Scroll by Leola Majora

In Case of Blue Scroll the Hokage must lock himself in his office and pull his hair out as what he thought were memories of a long lost love turn out to be the memories of a mission he was about to assign his former student, Sakura Haruno.

Rated: M - Chapters: 12 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Just Try by Erika Hearken

The struggles we all face are sometimes almost too much to bear. In those times, everyone needs someone to lean on. Sakura finds that someone wasn't quite to far away after all. In fact, he's been right there all along. And he's ever ready to be that someone she can lean on. Warning: there is a character death.

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Left Behind by Trinnerti

They first stopped training with her, then slowly she was pushed out of the missions before she vanished from their lives. Now seeing her stronger than ever they couldn't stop but feeling guilty. Will their friendship blow up again or will this be the end?

Rated: T - Chapters: 28 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Life Informs Life by Silberias

When Kakashi was 5 years old his father defended him, and when Kakashi was 20 years old he defended his father. And then a fiery woman named Sakura bashed her way into his life and when Kakashi was 50 years old he was glad of it. Parallel views of a life. Crossposted to Ao3

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Packmate by Aria Illusine

Pakkun finally gets tired of Kakashi doing nothing about his attraction to Sakura, and takes matters into his own hands...er...paws. With the rest of Kakashi's summons pack to help! KakaSaku Complete

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Paths by Spoiled Sweet

No one said it would be easy to be a Hatake. One-shots centering on Sakura, Kakashi, and their offspring.

Rated: T - Chapters: 11 - Complete or Incomplete: Incomplete

Point of Grace by Shadow.of.Illusion

“Why can’t you just leave me be?” A muffled sigh answered her question, and she found her gaze suddenly riveted to Kakashi’s cloth-covered mouth. “That’s a very good question, Sakura.” KakaSaku

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Puppies and Babies by Gentlewatersoul

A holiday one shot. Happy Holidays.

Rated: K - Chapters: 1- Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Respect and Understanding by ronny-of-yore

[Complete] 24yr. old Sakura tries to join Anbu. She must seek the help of two old teammates to do so. Will she find love while in the ranks of the elite? A story on how respect can slowly change to love. Kakasaku

Rated: M - Chapters: 17 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Samadhi by Zelha

As the New Year is around the corner, our favorite kunoichi wonders what to do with a suddenly elusive lover of hers. And, of course, she has all the answers she needs ... in some well-known books. KakaSaku, of course!

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Sequential by Winter Ashby

Sometimes, the only way to understand how everything went wrong is to go back to the beginning. [Kakashi & Sakura]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Seven Flowers by bluefurcape

Love doesn’t need words.

Rated: K+ - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Sinch in Time by Blade Redwind

Six years pass. Jiraiya & Naruto left Leaf. Sasuke & Kakashi left too. Sakura's been working with Tsunade. Paths cross as the men return. And somehow the three ninja find themselves hurled twenty years in the past. Summary inside.

Rated: M - Chapters: 68 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Some Light Reading by J-Pop Princess

Sakura's curiosity gets the best of her and she finds herself reading one of Kakashi's Icha Icha books. Little does she know that reading it will result in a world of experimentation on both their parts.

Rated: M - Chapters: 6 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Something Worth fighting For by Spindelhona

Homage to Wolfy Tales I found you missing. This is my version of Kakashi Hatakes' side of the story: War's ugly. But so is Life. You have to remind yourself there's still things worth fighting for. Assuming there is. Unless they're all dead and you're practically homeless. And yet, you have to carry on. You're needed. Is that enough?

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Star of Silver, Heart of Tinby J-Pop Princess

Written for the Kaka/Saku Fairytale contest! Kakashi had never seen the pink haired nurse before that day, but the fact that she wore an eye patch just like him gave them something in common. Or at least that's what he thought.

Rated: T - Chapters: 3 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

The Window by SilverShine

Kakasaku Sakura always wanted to see Kakashi unmasked. This was a bit much though...

Rated: M - Chapters: 21 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Three Blossoms by SilverShine

[KakaSaku] Two and a half years is a long time. Time enough for a blossom tree to bloom three times. Time enough for a child to become a girl, but not enough to become an adult. Time for a heart to crack in loneliness, but not enough time for it to heal.

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Torn by Blade Redwind

Kakashi's past comes back to haunt him when he finds himself facing the prospect of sponsoring Sakura for ANBU where seduction missions are not optional, but required. Now... Complete summary inside.

Rated: M - Chapters: 24 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Unbroken by princezsupastr

When Sakura finds herself facing a rogue ninja, she never dreamed that she would end up fourteen years in the past. Trapped in a Konoha where she must hide her true identity, she runs into a familiar face, except he doesn't seem familiar at all.

Rated: M - Chapters: 26 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Welcome Home by Wonderfoal

[KakaSaku] [oneshot] Sakura is having his baby. Too bad he doesn’t know it.

Rated: K+ - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Will of Fireby Cynchick

Forced to flee their village and the new regime, the loyal shinobi of Konoha must find a way to preserve their way of life and take back their home. As they fight for their future, Team Seven struggles to overcome the past. KakaSaku

Rated: M - Chapters: 26 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Winner Takes All by Clearheart

Heartbroken for the last time, Sakura swears off all relationships. But even as she makes this vow her team-mates take notice of her exceptional skill and beauty. It's not long before there's a fierce competition for her heart. Team 7, KakaSaku.

Rated: M - Chapters: 11 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Neji x Sakura

A Last Request by Mikami

NejiSaku. Uchiha Sasuke’s death, though unforeseen, was not in vain after the final mission of his life. His last words were taken in by the most unexpected comrade, Hyuga Neji.“ Don’t let her be unhappy, Hyuga...”

Rated: M - Chapters: 12 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Affaire de Coeur by Lady Silvamord

Affaire de Coeur: affair of the heart. Not here, exactly, nor anywhere too far away, instances in the lives of two very different people. Drabble series. [30: the last chapter.]

Rated: T - Chapters: 30 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Brought Together by purple-peach

At war with Sound, Neji and Sakura unexpectedly begin to discover common ground and comfort within each other. COMPLETE. NejiSaku

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Cages by Winter Ashby

Neji examines the new cage he's managed to twist his wounded soul into and the pink and green that haunt him at every turn. He wonders what she would taste like. [Neji & Sakura]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Midnight Snack by Zelha

In which Sakura has a craving, Neji is pretty much uptight, and the rest of the Hyuuga Clan is holding back their laughter at their resident tensai. AU NejiSaku crackish smut.

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Promises by Winter Ashby

Neji and Sakura return from the resque Gaara arc, but it looks like they've been hiding something. [Neji & Sakura]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Revelation by paws-bells

NejiSaku Revelations are dangerous things, as Sakura was just starting to find out. They could turn turn your peaceful life upside down and inside out, even if it wasn't your revelation in the first place. Damn Neji.

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Secrets by Winter Ashby

Rough hands and green eyes meet in the dead of night. It was a mistake she never should have let happen, but now she dreams of him and all the dark secrets he holds for her. Someday this will all end, but not tonight… [Neji & Sakura]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Silver and Emerald Days by Zelha

Silver and Emerald Days is a drabble collection by Celtic Oak and Zelha. Neji now lives with Sakura, as their partnership has escalated to another level. Companionship and brilliant love among the two genii. Various ratings.

Rated: M - Chapters: 15 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Three Days Till Home by Winter Ashby

Three days can be a very long time to get home and out of the sun, especially now that Sakura holds a precious piece of information. But, in the presence of the right person, perhaps three days isn't quite long enough… [Neji & Sakura]

Rated: K+ - Chapters: 3 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Tis the Season by Zelha

Set after Silver and Emerald Days. Neji and Sakura, a bit of Christmas loving and some major fluff for this joyful season. Smut alert.

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Sasuke x Sakura

A Full Circle by Lady Momo

Years after his desertion, Haruno Sakura realizes that she and Uchiha Sasuke never did have an ending. But on a stormy, rainy night, as she hangs on the verge of death, she realizes that they never had a beginning either.

Rated: M - Chapters: 12 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

A Highly Contested Topic by Annie Sparklecakes

SasuSaku. He's not lonely, he says, Because he has her. In which Sakura desperately tries to form a bond, and Sasuke grows more and more attached by the day. He won't admit it, but the truth doesn't lie.

Rated: T - Chapters: 3 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

A Twist in Time by wolf08

With Konoha on the verge of destruction, Sakura is sent on a last-resort mission to save her world by traveling to the past. Join her in coping with her old body's shortcomings, testing the natural laws of time, falling in love all over again, and rediscovering who she is. Time-travel. SasuSaku. REAL publication date: Jan 2015

Rated: M - Chapters: 12 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

An Uchiha Christmas Carol by Blade Redwind

Visited by three Ghosts in a Narutoverse version of Dicken's classic tale, Sasuke must endure a front seat view of his life, past, present and future to ultimately decide if his actions, his goals, are really worth pursuing. 4 part one-shot.

Rated: T - Chapters: 4 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Contradicted by HauntedAngel

I was nineteen. I had just passed my Jonin exam. And then I met him..."You conceited, stuck-up, selfish, pathetic excuse of a man!" Unfortunately it took four years and a war for us to fall in love. SasuSaku. EDIT: First chapter now available in Vietnamese! Check out my profile for the link.

Rated: T - Chapters: 24 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Devotion by Annie Sparklecakes

No one ever expected their story to be perfect, because they were Sasuke and Sakura, and things could never be easy for them. But still Sakura hoped, Naruto lied, and Sasuke was sorry. [SasuSaku]

Rated: T - Chapters: 4 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Flow of Life by Ebil Cahmeleon

He didn't love her. He couldn't love her. He couldn't get attached. But his heart was betraying him. Building bonds that were irreversible. It was love. SasuSaku Chapter 46: Our Finale.

Rated: M - Chapters: 46 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Incomplete by letmeannoyyoutoday

AU. Sasu/Saku. When her father told her she would have to marry a guy she knew nothing about, just because that was the best for their family, she knew she couldn't say no, just like she knew she wouldn't be happy. She just never imagined it to be that bad.

Rated: M - Chapters: 39 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Next Contestant by Annie Sparklecakes

When she was 12, Sakura was always protected by her team. Now she's older and stronger, but they're still protective. [Team Seven oneshot][Implied SasuSaku]

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Shades of Grey by Lady Hanaka

Sakura knew that Sasuke would hate her when she brought him back to Konoha, but she was willing to let him do so, as long as he came back. She hoped she could save him from his darkness...but more than that, she hoped he could save her from her own.

Rated: M - Chapters: 26 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Sleepwalking Past Hope by dezmari

"I came back." He managed to speak. "Years too late. I stopped caring, I stopped trying, and by now I just don't care. You, Sasuke Uchiha, don't mean a thing to me anymore." -R&R-

Rated: T - Chapters: 11 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Stay by SouthSideStory

Sakura begs him not to go, so Sasuke stays. And year by year he falls a little more in love with the girl he couldn't leave behind. (AU in which Sasuke never abandons Konoha.)

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

The Perfect Dream by elle6778

When the dream to reunite Team 7 ends, it is surprisingly easy to bury the pain and carry on. But how long can one pretend? SasuSaku.

Rated: T - Chapters: 4 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Two Seconds Away from Home by rawrchelle

Sasuke/Sakura. Non-massacre. You don't need to be extraordinary to have an extraordinary story.

Rated: T - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Variance by dances.with.sunflowers

Life. Sasuke is back, her team is always gone, and the hospital is a grave. Sakuracentric. Updated weekly. COMPLETE!

Rated: T - Chapters: 25 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Shikamaru x Sakura

Hero by Winter Ashbury

Shikamaru reminds Sakura of someone she's tried to forget, because he's an avenger now. But he's also different, because he turns to Sakura in a moment of weakness and she sees him for the first time for what he really is. A Hero. [Shikamaru & Sakura]

Rated: K - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Shisui x Sakura

Training Grounds ThirtySevenby KatMaxKu

Oneshot. AU. Nonmass. Haruno Sakura would have done anything to get her favorite training spot back, but she didn't realize the gravity of her determination...The outtake "The Black Hawk" is up!

Rated: M - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Itachi x Sakura

Mendoususei by Naz-G

Sakura, an S Class Jounin and medic, one of the most powerful Konoha has ever had. Her legendary Team 7 are all part of ANBU. Life's good. Only 1 problem: she's steadily falling for her stoic, gorgeous sex god of a captain. *Sigh*, mendoukusei, ne?

Rated: M - Chapters: 35 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Mango Sorbet by Itaweasel-hime

She needed someone to lean on, and he really did not know what he wanted. All he knew was that they had been brought together by a carton of mango sorbet. Non-mass AU.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

A Continuous Circle by JUCHKO

Sakura accidentally stumbles upon the Akatsuki hideout and is forced to use a scroll that was for 'last resorts only'. The scroll takes her to the past, back before the massacre. Rated T just in case. ItachiXSakura Time travel. Sequel up: And the Circle Comes Round. Sister story to Kindred Spirits.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 41 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

And the Circle Comes Round by JUCHKO

Sakura returns, only to find that the old woman was telling the truth. Now she's been captured by the Akatsuki for reasons unknown. Her heart is torn between love, hate, and the mass confusion that comes of finding out things she never wanted to be true.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 60 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Crimson Genii by Zelha

Crimson Genii is a oneshot collection that follows the same themes as Silver and Emerald Days. This time, Itachi and Sakura show how they try to cope with life, duty... and their hidden relationship. Various ratings, Non-Massacre, AU.

Rated: M  - Chapters:15 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

This is my way as a ninja by paws-bells

ItaSaku Prequel to heart strings. To protect her most precious person, Sakura would willingly give her life. Itachi wasn't about to let her die, though.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Heart Strings by paws-bells

ItaSaku. Follow up to This is my way as a ninja. When all seems lost, hope comes in the most unexpected of ways. She was never going to be free of him, and for that he was never going to let her go.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

Curtain call the final act by paws-bells

ItaSaku Sequel to heart strings. They were never meant to be together. Fate was doing everything possible to tear them apart, but one thing binds them closer than never before. As long as hope never dies, life continues to blossom.

Rated: M  - Chapters: 19 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

The Chance by elle6778

Sakura discovers just how different it is to go on a mission led by Uchiha Itachi. Non-massacre AU.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

The Course of True Love by Annie Sparklecakes

It never did run smooth, and it holds true for Itachi and Sakura. But maybe they'll get their happily-ever-after... eventually. Non-massacre AU. ItaSaku. Oneshot.

Rated: T  - Chapters: 1 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

The Way of the Wind by just enough

ANBU Captain Uchiha Itachi had things well planned out, until a medic-nin with ridiculous hair went and made herself interesting. Sakura insisted she was just doing her job, but Itachi didn't quite see it that way. Non-massacre. Sakura/Itachi.

Rated: M  - Chapters: 25 - Complete or Incomplete: Complete

#naruto #naruto fanfiction #sakura haruno #sakura haruno fanfiction #mine

[hazusreaderinserts]

Legacy [Naruto Reader-Insert]

You’re definitely a Yamanaka, aren’t you?

Family and Village secrets run rampant. All you wanna do is survive long enough to see Naruto become Hokage and to find out who you really are.

[Fem! Reader x Various]

Warnings: Long plot. Slow-burn. The slowest of the burn.

Crossposted on Wattpad and Quotev. Masterlist

Chapter 9 Trouble in Paradise

A/N: Gave up on formatting.

You wake up to the sensation of several somethings hitting and tickling a few parts of your face. You grunt and try to brush whatever that's hitting your face away but they just kept bouncing back to tickle you.

Then you hear someone groan beside you. It is a very familiar voice, with a particular timbre to it that you recognize. Hound? Your mind went into overdrive. What is he doing here? Where am I?

You quickly roused to consciousness and your bleary eyes finally recognized the room that you're in. There's no mistake. It's Brother's hospital room.

Hound's head lolls onto your shoulder and from your angle you could see a peek of his features underneath his mask. He definitely looks younger when he's sleeping.

Your opinion of his features have not changed since 3 years ago, you still think he's quite attractive despite half of his face and eyes are hidden by a face-cloth (mask? You didn't really know what to call it anymore). You still don't know why he hides his face.

To be honest, he still has that sort of child-like purity about him, but only while he is asleep.

You reach out with your fingers to brush his hair out from his eye but he stops you.

You jump in your seat.

"Uhh. Good morning?" You say with a hint of nervousness in your voice.

"Mm. Morning." Hound looks up at you with bleary eyes. You don't think his brain is functioning yet

He's speaking in that 'super-sexy-i-just-woke-up-drawl'. It sends small shivers down your spine and you don't really know why that elicits a reaction out of you. 

Maybe you had a thing for deep voices.

"Move, your hair is tickling me." You nudge his head back to the opposite side of his chair. Hound's head rolls back and he just makes some noncommittal grunts when he realizes that it's just you. Pushing his head away. Like he is a pest or something (yes, yes he is).

You've never gotten this intimate with anyone before. Or at least been in this intimate position where you wake up to see someone else's face the first thing in the morning. Mother or Brother hasn't slept beside you ever since you were two or three.

The thought is kinda nice, waking up to someone you like but uh. Hound is much, much older than you and he'd be considered a cradle robber (also not family, not age appropriate)

You actually have looked through his files after you vowed to investigate Brother's chaperone. In one of the bingo books the Yamanaka got from a nin from Kiri, they call him Konoha's Loyal Dog ( Seems pretty fitting since his handle is Hound and he handles hounds (ninja-dogs)). You snigger softly at your own joke.

You also refuse to call him by his actual name, at least for now.

You think it's ironic. Dog summoner with a dog-like ANBU handle, who is also suitably monikered as Konoha's Loyal Dog, with capitals. Capitals! The bingo books from other Hidden Villages aren't a joke.

And he's probably going to be assigned to you as your guard dog. Hah!

You hope not. He got pulled out of ANBU to do teaching gigs as a Jounin but he hasn't passed any of his teams yet ( or so you read, in his dossier. Also yes the Yamanaka's keep dossiers on everyone. His is particularly thick.).

He half-opens his eye to give you a tired look and adjusted his body to a more comfortable position. And promptly fell back asleep. You're half laughing internally and half nervous as hell at the absurdity of the situation.

But one question, how on earth is he so comfortable with sleeping in room that has so many vulnerable spots? Then something hits you. This is his home village, he should be able to just relax. Just because he's one of the strongest ninja, doesn't mean he has to be on guard all the time.

This is something that you needed more time ponder on.

You slide out of the chair and give Brother a kiss on the forehead, whispering a soft good morning against his cold skin and ran as fast as you could to the Nara compound.

It's barely dawn so you think you can make it before he wakes up. He's an early sleeper and an early riser, but you think he just likes procrastinating on the bed with his favourite novel before sleeping and he likes the feeling of lying down in bed for a while to watch the clouds and the sky as the sun rises.                                                             ____

Shikamaru gets startled awake by a dull thud by his window. Even though he likes sleeping a lot, he's kinda a light sleeper. He's only pretending to sleep in the academy, what he's really doing with his eyes closed is thinking about random things (and Ino, sometimes).

He grabs the kunai he keeps his pillow and angled it defensively. Unfortunately, he's also quite prepared for situations ( read, paranoid).

The thought that this is a Shinobi village doesn't really cross his mind so the only thing this protects him from is you. And rogue ninja, but he trusts Konoha security. So mostly just you.

He sees you tumbling through his window in a less than graceful way. You land on your feet noiselessly and you strike a pose, like nobody is looking at you. Nobody would if Shikamaru is still asleep. 

He isn't. He's wide awake.

You stare at the Nara boy with widened eyes, looking like he's just caught you staring at one of the older Uchiha boys (back when they were a thing, they are certainly not a thing anymore because you know, Itachi) with an expression of curiosity and infatuation.

In your defense, Uchiha boys are all quite handsome in a traditional way.

And Shikamaru stares back, with an equally shocked expression.

"Uhh, I thought you were asleep." You deadpan, still frozen in that silly pose you decided to strike when you rolled in.

Shikamaru lowers his kunai and gives you the stinkiest eyes he can muster with his half-asleep cognitive functions, "You're really something, you know that mouse? Why didn't you come over to talk yesterday? Choji and I had a big fucking bribe, which you don't get now by the way, laid out for you to make you talk."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," Your voice got all choked up. "Sorry I couldn't make it, I caught a cold and had to stay in."

It feels nice when your friends worry about you and heck, Shikamaru is a worrier. The biggest worrier you know. And a complainer. You appreciate everything he says because he tells it to you straight. When he's not being the laziest person around.

What you really mean is that you got cornered into a room filled with oppressive people and they had to Intimidate you into reciting the oath under some sort of influence. Mind, body and soul. The same mantra that the Yamanaka Shinobi recite when they're learning how to transfer their soul into someone else via Shintenshin.

Was that the essence of what they wanted to do with the oath and the drink? Hokage's Balls.

Your mind, body and soul belongs to the Yamanaka now since you accepted the oath and you'd have to swear another blood oath to the village once you graduate and become genin.

You were basically trapped into something you couldn't refuse. You can't tell Shikamaru anything though, it's an oath of silence and besides, Keirai probably had someone watching you day and night.

Maybe he is watching you right now.

Shikamaru rolls his eyes and voices out his usual complaint, "Ugh how troublesome. You know I can tell when you're lying right?" Yes he totally can, but he doesn't call you out on it unless it is important. And this is important.

You 'hm'ed and give him a noncommittal shrug, plopping yourself on the foot of Shikamaru's bed. Sometimes you think that the Nara boy would prefer the futon since he has pretty traditional tastes but then again he got a really cushy mattress and it's much more thicker than the fluffiest futon.

You like the futon better. It reminds you not to get complacent and you like sleeping on hard-ish ground.

Shikamaru swings out of his covers in his cotton jammies with little clouds printed on them and sits up. You give him a pointed look and raise an eyebrow, to which he responds with red on his cheeks and an indignant half-shout, "They're my favourite okay? They're really comfy."

You didn't doubt that, but still. An amused giggle escapes from your lips before you know it and he turns bright red again.

"Hey, what did you wanna tell me?" You make yourself comfy on the bed, pulling both your legs up to cross them. The obi sits a little tight on your waist, but you didn't mind.

"Choji and I are worried about you, you idiot mouse. We know something happened all those years ago and you seemed like you were fine until recently when everything friggin' crashed and burned for you like a fireball jutsu gone wrong." He looks at you with those eyes that make you think he is begging you to wake up and see that you can rely on him.

You can. But you don't really wanna talk about how you are being watched 24/7 like you have a camera following your every move and listening to your every word.

The Nara clan has always traditionally been the head of the the Shinobi Counter Intelligence and with Shikamaru's father actually being the head, you don't want to take any chances. See, the difference between the T&I Bureau and SCI is that T&I is mostly an internal affair and SCI handles everything that is external to the village, although both of them will send teams outside to collect intelligence (SCI collects and prevents).

You remember what Shisui had said. Your chakra is different. Noticeable. Every sensor in a 100 mile radius of Konoha will be able to find you. Good for you that you're stuck in a clan specializing in sensors.

You feel really bitter about the whole thing.

"I uh, don't want to talk about it." You look at your lap with sheepish smile.

Shikamaru continues like he didn't hear you say that you don't want to talk about it. "And then Ino comes to me, crying about what you said to her and that's not very nice of you."

It's no secret between Choji and you that Shikamaru has a soft spot for Ino. Maybe a bit more than a soft spot but it's not really a secret anymore. It's been an unrequited crush for more than three years and Ino only has Sasuke Uchiha in her eyes. So uhh. An impasse. Ino doesn't know about Shikamaru's feelings.

You roll your eyes. You're still a little upset at Ino about how insensitive she's been. Just like Father. Mother practically lives at the hospital now. You know that Father has something to do with that. Isolate you, so you don't have anyone to talk to about this.

"I'll deal with her when I've calmed down. Don't you think I deserve some slack after the things that actually happened to me?" You say, plainly. You really didn't come here to be yelled at. Shikamaru will always take Ino's side. He always does.

Would it kill him to take your side sometimes?

Shikamaru sees the expression on your face and he bites back whatever he is going to say next. You look like you are about to cry. 

The sun is about to rise and he's still in his cloud jammies. He throws the covers over you completely, "What a drag, you should stay in there until you apologize to Ino." Shikamaru scratches the back of his head.

"Get out. I'm going to change and I don't want you in the room when I do." Shikamaru finally says after like five minutes of continuous scratching. You're not deaf, you can hear perfectly fine under the blanket.

"Yeah. Yeah, I should go. I'll see you in class, maybe." Your voice comes out a little more choked than you'd like and you proceed to throw the covers over him entirely and focusing your chakra to bring you to the place you haven't visited in two years.

                                                           ____

It's a blur of colours again and you land on your feet in a clearing near the Naka River. You've gotten used to Shisui's brand of Shunshin and you finally figure out how it actually works.

The afterimage is actually a chakra shell the shape of you. As in, you flicker forward so fast that it leaves a thin chakra shell that has your likeness and that's probably how Shisui has the illusion of moving so fast that he is able to make 'clones' of himself.

You slowly trudge towards the roundest rock in the cleaning, a ray of light filtering through the grassy canopy of trees that seem to function as a soft spotlight shining directly over it. It's the only reason why you picked that spot.

You hop up to sit on it, eyes closed to enjoy the gentle warmth that the ray of light brings.

"Hey, Shisui. It's been a while. I know I haven't visited you in a year..." You whisper under your breath and you start talking about the various things that happened to you so far. Like your initiation. And how you don't know how to bring up the Uchiha Massacre to Sasuke.

You had read that he had thrown himself into the Naka River, but his body was never found. You think it's a fitting spot to make a honorary grave for him. youtrynottothinkaboutthefactthattheydidntfindabodythereisnobodyhecouldbealivesomewherehesstillalivethereisnobody

Sasuke became really withdrawn and more broody after the incident to the point where you couldn't say he is fully sane anymore. Sometimes he trains himself so hard that he's on the verge of killing himself.

You know him well enough that every action of his leads up to a singular conclusion. And it's very disconcerting. It honestly worries you a lot. He was broken for a long period of time but that grief turned into anger. He doesn't talk about it nor does he want to.

That was his coping mechanism and you don't know if it's healthy or not (not that your own way of coping is healthy either, but you didn't want to kill yourself constantly. Wait, maybe you did).

You don't expect him to be okay really, his entire family was killed by his brother and he saw. He saw Itachi drive the sword into his mother's body. He saw the bloodthirsty expression Itachi had as he did it. And something in him changed. But mostly, you just want to talk to him about it to really understand what he's thinking about.

You tell Shisui that you really miss him. Even this little glade reminds you of him. You miss the way he smiles at you when you finally got something right. The way his eyes crinkle when you show him some inane thing that you did just because. The way he says your name when he wants to wake you up from a nap.

Yeah, those things you missed. And you couldn't see them anymore.

You're also confused by what Itachi did that night, he was loyal to the Village, loyal to Hound and loyal to the Hokage. His motives confounded you and kept you up at nights mostly. And in those late hours of the night, you see Sasuke ambling around with that look on his face. You know that face that he has when he's brooding.

You spend half your morning catching Shisui up with everything recent about your life and you end up being late to class, which Iruka-sensei doesn't find particularly amusing.

#naruto #naruto imagine #naruto reader insert #Naruto Reader-Insert #Multi-Chapter #multi chaptered #reader insert #reader-insert #x reader #anime x reader #reader x various #The dumpster fire that is my early chapters. #Help. #it gets better i promise

[jjgrace42]

Samsaric - Chapter 1

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Jejune

[Jejune—adj. 1: without interest or significance; dull; insipid 2: juvenile; immature; childish 3: lacking knowledge or experience; uninformed]

At first, I was surprised to find that the idea of killing really didn’t bother me. The thought had hit me the day after my minor (or major, if you want to look at it that way) panic attack. Neko had bandaged my hand and I’d been left with Naruto in our crib, sorting through my existential crisis. The very idea of being reincarnated into an anime, of all things, was so ridiculous that I wanted to laugh. In fact, I did try to laugh once I finished crying, but my infant lungs made it come out more as a dying elephant sound. So I kept quiet after that.

With the acceptance of the fact that this was my life now came a very important question: Did I want to be a ninja? My gut reaction was yes. Of course I wanted to be a ninja. Who wouldn’t want the ability to walk on water and summon fire at will? But then I forced myself to think it through; being a ninja would mean, eventually, killing people. Would I be okay with that?

I rolled over as well as my baby muscles would allow and stared at Naruto as he slumbered on. In the anime, his life had turned out okay in the end—a wife, kids, the accomplishment of his childhood dream, and even relatively stable peace between the nations. But to get there he’d had to go through a lot of pain—growing up alone, being abandoned by his teammate, losing his godfather, seeing his Village crushed, and even watching his friends fall in a war. Now that I was there, at least one of those things would be different without me having to even try. Naruto would not be alone, this time. This time, I would be with him.

But that still left all the other pain. Could I really sit back and let it all take place? Could I really sit back and watch him suffer? No. For better or for worse, Naruto was my brother. How could I willingly and knowingly let that happen to him? Becoming a ninja was a must if I wanted to be a part of his life. Becoming a ninja was necessary to protect him.

You’ll have to kill, a part of me whispered. You’ll have to take lives. Are you really strong enough to do that?

Naruto made a strange hiccuping sound in his sleep and his tiny button nose scrunched up as he continued to dream. I fumbled with my unruly and underdeveloped muscles for a moment, but managed to reach out and grip his little hand in my tiny one. He was so small, and that was how I decided.

For him, I replied, I’ll always be strong enough.

— — — — —

Solid food, I decided, was a blessing to all mankind. While I was thankful for the formula the ANBU—as I had come to recognize the masked figures as—fed me, I was even more thankful to see the carrots that Mokin was cutting for Naruto and me as we sat in our highchairs, waiting. Naturally, I was much more patient than Naruto, who was wailing angrily in response to his predicament. Uma stood by his chair, desperately waving his hands in an attempt to calm him down.

Mokin chuckled and said something to his fellow shinobi. I was only able to understand a few of the words—learning a new language without a textbook was incredibly hard—but from what I could gather, he was telling Uma to stop scaring Naruto. To which Uma replied with a string of words that Mokin promptly scolded him for. Noting that those were probably swear words, I tucked them away in my mind for future use.

“Dinner is served!” Mokin announced loudly, prancing back over to us. He held out a plate of the food for Uma and then carried the remaining dish over to me. “Open up,” he said, repeating the words I’d heard dozens of times in the past months.

The carrot was mushy and probably more than a little overcooked. But I didn’t particularly mind. I was just happy to have something in my mouth that had more flavor than sweetened cardboard. Another wail from Naruto made Mokin turn away to address Uma again and I realized I had two options; I could get Mokin’s attention and make him keep feeding me, or I could behave like the independent young lady that I was and feed myself. So I reached out and, after several jerky movements and accidental acts of punching myself in the nose, I managed to get a tiny handful of food into my mouth.

Mokin continued to lecture Uma about frightening his charge as I finished feeding myself. When I was done, my stomach was still hungry for more and I felt my mouth pull in a frown. Mokin was still distracted. I made a pitiful whining sound to try to get my attention, but he didn’t even turn towards me, now in what seemed like an argument with the other ANBU.

Frankly, I’d had enough.

With an angry grunt, I reached out, grabbed a fistful of Mokin’s lengthy brown hair, and yanked with all of my infantile strength. With a yelp, he turned back to me. I could see how wide his eyes were behind his mask. Mustering the best scowl I could, I pointed at the empty plate in front of me and then in the general direction of my mouth. He blinked slowly at me and then turned his head towards Uma. “Kids supposed to do that?”

Uma shrugged.

And that was when I realized that if I had been left with anyone other than the not-child-savvy ANBU, the secret of my reincarnated status would probably not have lasted very long.

— — — — —

Learning to walk when your legs have the muscle tone of overcooked noodles is an incredibly difficult task. I had never experienced anything more frustrating than my own muscles refusing to cooperate with my demands. Currently, I was tightly clutching the bars of my crib, curling and uncurling my toes as I studied the distance between me and Neko, who was crouched a good few feet away with her arms held out towards me. Naruto was across the room playing on his back with one of the toys we’d finally been given. I glanced towards him once and then back towards Neko. She nodded encouragingly. “Come on, Mirai-chan!”

I took a deep breath and released the crib, taking a tentative step forward. My knee bent for a moment but I quickly tensed it up so I wouldn’t fall. Neko kept speaking, and I only recognized some of the words. It took an embarrassing amount of time to close the gap between us, but finally I stumbled into her arms.

“Good job!” Neko squealed, sweeping me up and jumping to her feet.

— — — — —

My first word was, in my personal opinion, an adorable, if bastardized, version of my brother’s name.

“Na’to,” I squeaked out, my voice box and tongue completely unwilling to comply with what I was trying to say. I reached out for my brother and firmly grasped his tiny hand in my own. He stared at me, as confused as ever.

Beside me, Mokin froze. Ever so slowly, the brunet set down the senbon he was tending to and turned to me and my twin. His dark eyes bore into me and I blinked. “Say that again,” he ordered.

I pointed at the blond next to me. “Na’to,” I repeated, my mouth twisting the name all wrong. I frowned, but my butchering of the word didn’t seem to upset my caretaker. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Don’t get me wrong, ANBU aren’t exactly the best people to raise kids from infancy. But it would be a lie to say they didn’t care for us. We were utterly, completely, and hopelessly adored.

And so when the fact that I had just said my first word finally registered inside his head, Mokin shot to the door and started yelling for everyone else in the building. They arrived in a flood and I only recognized some of the masks. Not to say that they’d never taken care of me, but my vision had only been good enough to remember specific features within the past couple months. So I scanned my gaze across them, desperately searching for identifying marks that would let me know who some of them were. Maybe I could recognize them from the anime.

“Mirai-chan,” Mokin urged, and man if I wasn’t getting good as understanding Japanese. “Say it again.”

And I complied, which resulted in an entire room of cooing ANBU—an experience that would have been endearing if it wasn’t so traumatizing. So I desperately tried to block out the killers’ adoring sounds and instead returned to my search. And then I wondered how I had missed him. He stuck out in the group—slightly shorter than the rest, but with bright hair that was essentially a beacon. Without another thought, I released my brother and began to toddle towards him. I could hear their words fading away as they watched me curiously.

I reached him, ignoring the way his entire body tensed and how he stepped back. Instead, I grinned up at him with the few teeth I had and clutched desperately to his shinobi pants. I could hear Neko behind me, saying, “C’mon, Inu, pick her up.”

I cocked my head to the side. Inu? That cleared up the who dog mask versus wolf mask war I’d had when writing my fanfics. No matter. I kept my grin intact. “‘Nu!”

He blinked down at me, clearly terrified. “ . . . what?”

“‘Nu!” I said again, hating the fact that I couldn’t squeeze out the first syllable.

“She’s saying your name!” someone squealed. “The cutest thing!”

He hesitated only a moment longer before bending down to lift me. His hands were surprisingly calloused and worn for someone so young, but I guess I should have expected it. The teen cradled me carefully against his chest, as if afraid I would break if not handled correctly. I shifted in his grasp and reached for his covered face, ignoring the way he stiffened. I pressed my hand against the mask. “‘Nu,” I repeated firmly, staring into his widened eye.

Suddenly everyone else surged forwards, clamoring to hold me and introduce themselves. But I shied away and twisted my chubby hands in his sleeves. It was clear in that moment that I had claimed him as mine.

— — — — —

Even though I knew intellectually that Naruto would be developing at the pace of a normal child, he was so much slower than me at figuring things out that it was terribly frustrating, and sometimes downright painful. Getting him to say his first word was a huge stress on my childish patience.

Teaching him to walk, though, was like pulling teeth.

“‘mon, Nato,” I urged, waving him towards me.

He looked at me askance, wobbling uncertainly as he tried to remain standing. Then he turned towards me and my heart stopped. Was he actually going to—

One of the toys on the floor caught his attention and he dropped back down to the ground and reached for it, gurgling happily. I sighed and crossed my arms, pouting. Behind me, I heard a nervous chuckle and looked back to see Inu—or rather, Kakashi—sitting cross-legged in the same spot he’d chosen when he’d come in to watch over us two hours ago. I glanced around for a moment and then reached for the closest thing to me—The Slug Princess, a children’s book about Tsunade and currently my favorite story that I had access to. “Wead,” I demanded, shoving the book towards Kakashi. Then I clumsily climbed in his lap, all too aware of the way he tensed at my touch.

After a moment, he reluctantly cleared his throat and reached for the book. “Okay,” he murmured. “If that’s what you want.”

He read the story uncertainly, stopping in all the wrong places as if wanting to give me plenty of chances to ask him to be done. But instead, I used those moments of silence to trace the kanji he’d just read with my chubby fingers. Learning how to speak Japanese was hard enough. Learning how to read and write it was going to be even more difficult, so I might as well get a head start while I still could. When he finished, the story was nervously set aside and I didn’t move. For a few minutes, I watched as my twin drooled over his toy blocks before sighing and turning just enough so that I could look up at Kakashi’s ANBU mask.

“‘Nu-nii?”

I could see his open eye widen at my honorific. “Hai, Mirai-chan?”

“What shi-no-bi?” I asked, gripping his hand tight and marveling at how tiny I was compared to him.

“Maybe you should ask Neko instead. Or Mokin.”

I glared up at him. “No. ‘Splain.”

He sighed heavily and shifted me in his arms. “Well . . . . Shinobi are people who protect and serve their Village.”

It took me a moment to decipher all the foreign words. “Village?”

“It’s a place, like Konoha.”

“‘lace?”

“And people. A Village is the people you fight for.”

I nodded and reached up to play with his soft, white hair. I wondered what my hair looked like. I could feel it, but it was short and I was left without anything to determine its color. Was I blonde? That would definitely be different from Sophie’s almost-black mane. Did I have the same blue in my eyes as my brother?

“Mirai-chan?”

I blinked, realizing I’d been staring at nothing. After offering him a huge grin, I spoke in all of my infant wisdom.

“Me be shi-no-bi.”

— — — — —

Despite the fact that his status was announced quite obviously by the old-style robes and hat he wore, it took me longer than I cared to admit to realize that it was the Hokage visiting us. Maybe it’s the lack of wrinkles, I mused. He always looked older in the anime. It is quite a while before I met him in the story. A good eleven or twelve years, right?

“Well, look here.” He smiled that old, grandfatherly smile. “Konichiwa, Mirai-chan, Naruto-chan. I’m Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage.”

I squinted at him, rocking back and forth on my rear end as I absently played with one of our blocks. After a moment, I tried to repeat what he’d said. “‘aru’obi ‘ru’en. ‘okage.”

“Rarararararararararararara,” Naruto contributed, for which I gave him a beaming grin.

The Hokage chuckled and patted me gently on the head. “It seems you two are growing up to be two strong little shinobi, aren’t you?”

Naruto blinked at him cluelessly. I had to keep from frowning. Shinobi. Was that all he saw us as? We weren’t even a year old!

“Well, seeing as it’s your birthday, I got each of you something.”

I pulled up short. Did that mean that . . . we were a year old? Had I really been in this other world for twelve months?

“And . . . tada!” He proudly held out two stuffed animals—a bright orange and green frog and a black and grey dog. “Each of you gets one of these. I hopes this makes up for me not seeing you in the past year.”

I stared at him and Naruto started crawling towards the brightly colored frog, drawn in by it’s neon-like hues.

“Oh, what am I saying,” the Hokage murmured under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear him. “You’re too young to understand me anyway.”

I forced back a frown and reached for the dog with chubby hands. “‘rigato,” I told him.

He chuckled and patted me on the head again. I resisted a scowl. I really didn’t like it when he did that. “I must get going, you two. I’ll see you again soon. Have fun.” With that, he swept out of the room. I stared after him, surprised to find that after that little meeting, I wasn’t particularly fond of the Hokage. But he did give us toys—something other than the repetitive wooden blocks to entertain ourselves with. I glanced towards Naruto to find him gnawing happily away at one of his frog’s legs. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Well, well, what do you have there?” a cheery voice asked.

I turned to grin up at Neko. I held out my dog. “Pig!”

She laughed lightly and knelt down. “No, no, Mirai-chan. That’s a dog.”

I nodded seriously. “Know.” I pointed at myself. “Mirai.” Then at the stuffed animal. “Pig.”

She blinked. “Its . . . name is Pig?”

I nodded rapidly, happy that she understood.

“But why? It’s not a pig.”

“Know! ‘at why funny!” With that, I burst into hysterical giggled and rolled backwards, clutching my toy to my chest.

“Rrremmmshhhii?”

I blinked and rocked back to my feet, turning towards the mutilated sounds. What in the world was that?

“Marrrrrannna.”

“Nato?” I questioned, staring at my brother as he clutched his frog to his chest and watched me.

He frowned and tried again. “Mmmiii . . . rai?”

I stared. He grinned.

“Rai!”

I tackled him, my emotions getting the better of me as I cried like the child I was.

— — — — —

Unlike Naruto, I quickly learned to abuse the freedom that walking, running, and jumping gave me. While he was often content to sit down and watch me, all while chewing on his frog, Ribbit, I entertained myself with active movement. The childish part of me insisted that I do it because it was fun. The older, more logical part of me argued that it was a good opportunity for training to be a shinobi in the future. Which would be exactly why I ended up jumping over Pig again and again for an hour, all while singing I’m a Little Teapot as best I could in Japanese and humming the parts I couldn’t translate.

It’s practice for regulating your breathing, that logical part of me said. It feels like flying! the other part said. I wasn’t sure if I should have been disturbed or not that it was so easy for me to act like an little kid.

Uma chuckled and set aside the kunai he’d been sharpening, picking up another one. “What’s that song, Mirai-chan? I’ve never heard it before.”

I stopped, breathing hard and stooping down to grab Pig. “‘ade it!” I announced proudly. My other possible answer was I learned it in my past life, but for some reason I didn’t think that would go over well. Then I toddled over to him and plopped down in front of the weapons he had laid out. Part of me liked that he didn’t make me move away, because I wasn’t dumb enough to mess with the sharp blades. But another part of me was upset with him. What if Naruto had walked over instead? Naruto didn’t know what would happen if he picked up a knife.

“Whaddis?” I asked, pointing.

“Kunai,” Uma told me. “Shinobi use them to fight.”

I nodded and pointed at the stack of weapons he hadn’t got to get. “‘at?”

“Those are shuriken. They’re used for fighting too, but you can only throw those. You can’t fight hand-to-hand while holding them.”

I blinked at him and then nodded. Honestly, it was painfully clear that ANBU had no idea how a child was supposed to develop. What had the Hokage been thinking, putting us with them? Not that I minded, of course, because it meant I could advance quicker than I could have if I had been trying to be a convincing baby. Then I settled on my next question. “‘ight?”

“Fight.” He nodded. “You’ll learn how to do it someday. Here in a few years, you’ll probably start learning taijutsu.”

Well, that wouldn’t do. “‘ears?”

“Yep. A few years.”

I shook my head stubbornly at him. “Now.”

He blinked and I studied the patterns on his mask as he collected himself. “Now? Mirai-chan, you’re tiny. You wouldn’t be able to.”

That cinched it. I was pulling out my ultimate weapon. I opened my eyes as wide as I could and let my bottom lip tremble. Puppy eyes activated. Uma visibly leaned away, taken off guard.

“Mirai-chan, I . . . .”

Upping cuteness. “Pwease?”

He stared at me for a moment longer before sighing heavily and packing up his weapons. “I’ll take you to Inu,” he said begrudgingly. “He started training around your age, so he probably knows what to do.” He tucked his things away and then moved over to scoop Naruto up. “Let’s go find ‘im, then.” He motioned to me and I toddled after him as fast as I could, scrambling to make my infant legs keep up with his long strides. Noting that we were obviously going to Kakashi’s room, I tried to commit the route to memory for later use.

“Hey, Inu.” Uma pushed the door open and I noted irritably that the fifteen-year-old had already gotten his ANBU mask in place by the time I saw him. “You started training when you were their age, right?”

Kakashi made an agreeing sound in the back of his throat, sitting down on the edge of his bed. I walked unsteadily towards him and he watched me for a moment. When I reached him, I held out my arms. “Up! Up!”

He reached down and lifted me into his arms. Then he turned towards Uma. “We’re not training them. They’re too young. You saw what that did to me.”

Uma scoffed dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Trust me, it wasn’t my idea. But Mirai has been very insistent, so maybe if we start ‘em off on something easy? Maybe it’ll satisfy her enough until she’s older.”

I resisted a snort, playing with the half-done latches on Kakashi’s armor. Either he’d been getting ready for a mission or he’d been just returning from one. I sniffed and wrinkled my nose at the strong smell of iron. Blood. He must have just returned. With that information, I began undoing the armor the rest of the way as best as I could with my chubby fingers. He didn’t seem to really notice, instead seeming to think over Uma’s words.

Finally he sighed. “Alright. We can start her off with some stretches and maybe the bare bones basics of the Academy kata, if that’s really what she wants.”

I beamed up at him. “Yep!” And with that, I managed to undo the shoulder strap and I shoved the armor aside. Kakashi jerked in surprise as it fell off his other shoulder and it took him a moment to actually pull it the rest of the way off. He eyed me and then nodded. “Alright. I’ll get cleaned up and I’ll teach you, okay?”

I grinned. “Yay!”

Uma cleared his throat. “I’ll take Naruto back to their room, since he really doesn’t seem interested. Have fun with your little prodigy, okay?”

Kakashi grunted at that as Uma left and closed the door. I blinked. Prodigy? Oh, dear Kami, was that what I was being labeled as, now? That couldn’t be good.

He set me on the ground and eyed me for a moment as I petted Pig. Then he sighed. “Stay right here, alright? I’m know you’re smart enough to do that.”

I looked up at him with wide eyes and nodded.

“Good girl. I’ll be right back.” With that, he disappeared into his bathroom and I could hear the shower start running moments later.

I looked around the room, taking in how amazingly bare it was. He had a few shuriken and kunai laying about, but they were too high for me to reach. There were no pictures and nothing personal to mark that it was his. All in all, it was painfully sad.

I realized with a jolt that the smell of blood was still very, very strong. It was odd, because my sense of smell had never been this good in my last life. I scowled at the armor left on his bed and the red clearly stained on it—the source of the smell. The smell of blood in and of itself didn’t bother me, but the fact that it was Kakashi’s blood made me unexplainably angry. I forced myself to concentrate on something else by combing the dust out of Pig’s fur—ANBU HQ didn’t exactly have the cleanest floors.

The shower shut off and I looked up, waiting. Only a little bit later, the door opened and I grinned. “‘Nu-nii!”

Then I stopped short in shock when I realized that even though he still wore his half-face mask, his ANBU mask was nowhere to be seen. “‘Nu-nii?” I asked curiously. I knew it was him, of course, but seeing his face so suddenly took me off-guard.

He moved forward and knelt in front of me. “You sure you want to train, Mirai-chan?”

I reached out and brushed my chubby fingers against the scar that crossed his closed eye. Then I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

He sighed heavily. “Okay. We’ll start with some stretches, alright?”

It was hard to make my nineteen-month-old body cooperate, but I followed the routine to the best of my ability. He was patient with me, guiding me through the various stretches and giving me plenty of time to rest when I needed it. Finally, we moved on to kata and he did his best to help me remember the steps. When we were done, he gave me that famous eye-smile and patted me on the head. For some reason, I didn’t mind it as much as when the Sandaime did it.

“Good job, Mirai-chan.”

I beamed at him, resisting the overwhelming urge to yawn. Then I squished Pig against my chest and held my other arm out. “Up! Up!”

He chuckled and swept me up into his arms. “Alright, alright.” Kakashi shifted his grasp on me so that he could sit down on his bed and lean against the headboard. I snuggled myself against his chest, sighing contentedly. After a moment, I quietly asked, “Story?”

“You didn’t bring any books,” he rumbled, and I giggled at the way I could feel it in his chest.

“You tell story,” I insisted, peering up at him. “Pwease?”

He sighed heavily. “I don’t really know any stories, Mirai-chan.”

Puppy dog eyes, activated.

Another heavy sigh. “Alright, I’ll think of something.” I closed my eyes and could feel him rest his hand on my head again as he thought. After a few minutes of silence, he began. “There is one that my father told me when I was young. It’s called The Boy Who Cried Bijuu.”

I giggled. Who would have thought that this universe would have stories so obviously similar to the fairy tales I’d grown up with? So I let him talk and fell asleep amid his quiet words and the smell of woodsmoke that always seemed to be around him.

— — — — —

It started out as a simple dream, or maybe it was more of a memory. It had my family, my old family, just as I remembered them. I’d been trying to forget, or maybe I’d been just trying to move on. Either way, I hadn’t thought about them in a long time. It hurt too much.

“Oi, Sophie!” Daniel leaned across the table and flicked me in the forehead. “Are you even listening to me?”

I blinked and pulled out my earphones, looking up from my computer screen. “Whaddya want?”

His face pulled into a scowl. “You were completely ignoring everything I was saying, weren’t you?”

“Well, duh,” I muttered. “It’s my day off and I’m exhausted. Why are you bothering me?”

“Brynn wanted help with her homework, but I kinda suck at English. Do you think you could help her?”

I groaned, letting my head drop onto the table. “Why can’t Mom or Dad help her?”

“They’re on a date. C’mon, Soph.”

A sigh. “Fine, fine. No problem.”

“Great! I’ll go get her!” He hurried off.

With an angry moan, I shut my computer and turned around. “Alright, Brynnie. What’s—” I stopped short, blinking. “What the hell is this?” I stumbled backwards, reaching back for the table to brace myself. Nothing was there and I tumbled to the ground, coughing on the dust it kicked up. My head hit the hard-packed dirt and I found the sky above me spinning. And in the middle of all that darkness was a blood-red moon.

Someone was screaming and I scrambled to my knees, fingers digging into the ground as I stared at the carnage around me. So many bodies and broken bones and terrified faces. And in the distance, looming above it all, was the Juubi.

“What the hell is going on!” I shrieked, my heart trying to drum its way through my ribcage. “What is—” And then my breath turned to dry, sticky ice in my mouth as I stared at the body no more than five feet away from me. His body was almost unrecognizable, his hair so matted with blood that it was impossible to tell what color it really was. But the whisker marks on his cheeks were unmistakeable. “N-nato?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t move. He didn’t breathe.

My heart had stopped and I could only stare, could only wish I wasn’t seeing what was in front of me. “No, no, no, no. Nato? Please talk to me. Nato? Nato!”

“Mirai-chan, shhh. It’s okay.”

My throat burned with my tears as I sobbed, digging my hands into Pig and desperately fighting against the bile turning over in my stomach. What kind of sick dream had that been? Why would my brain turn on me so much as to think that I could change things so horribly that Naruto would—

“Mirai-chan?”

I jumped at the voice, squeaking in a completely undignified way. When I flailed wildly and fell backwards, however, I was caught and I found myself pressed up against something warm. A hand rubbed gently against my back and I could hear someone hushing me. I tried to stifle my tears but they just ended up choking me and I couldn’t help but wail. I heard the door creak open, but even that couldn’t make me stop.

“Inu, what’s going on?” a void hissed, and I vaguely recognized it as Mokin.

“Nightmare,” Kakashi murmured, his voice rumbling in his chest. The sound calmed me and I managed to silence my sobs, breaths shaky as I curled my chubby fingers into his shirt.

“Maybe we should get her back in her crib.”

I felt another pair of hands hook under my arms and I whined pitifully, tightening my grip. “No,” I whimpered. “No, no.”

The hands paused and then retreated. Kakashi’s voice rumbled again. “Let her stay.”

Mokin sighed and a moment later I could hear the door creak closed. Kakashi shifted me in his arms and I finally released his shirt, rubbing my dry eyes. “‘Nu-nii?”

“I’m right here, Mirai-chan.”

I blinked to clear my hazy vision and looked up at him. He eye-smiled at me and patted my head again. “How you feeling, little one?”

“‘kay,” I mumbled, curling up in his lap and petting Pig’s ears.

“What was your nightmare about?”

I shook my head and rubbed my face again, wincing at the dried drool that had crusted around my mouth. “Ewwwww,” I muttered.

He chuckled and held me close as he stood up and paced towards the bathroom. “Alright, alright, let’s get you cleaned up.” He pushed opened the door and set me on the counter. And that was the first time in this life that I’d seen a mirror.

Seeing myself in this body was . . . interesting. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to look like, but this most definitely wasn’t it. I lacked the snow-white paleness to my skin that I’d had in my old life, and it’d been replaced with a bronze tan similar to Naruto’s. After that, I was suddenly hit by the fact that I was undeniably Uzumaki Kushina’s daughter.

My hair was a mess of scarlet that barely brushed against the tips of my ears, marking me as an Uzumaki for all to see. Beneath my fiery mane, I stared back at myself from sharp, violet eyes. Most definitely not what I had expected. My small, pudgy fingers brushed over the whisker marks etched into my cheeks. I couldn’t even recognize myself.

“Here we go,” Kakashi murmured, wetting a cloth and scrubbing my cheeks clean. I made a face, watching in fascination at the way it looked in the mirror. He arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s you, Mirai-chan.”

After a moment, I finally regained my senses. Then I giggled. “Not look like Nato.”

— — — — —

“Rai,” Naruto whined, rolling around on the floor next to me and repeatedly hitting me with his frog, whom he’d lovingly named Ribbit. “Raaaaaaiiii!”

I hummed in response, reaching out blindly to ruffle his golden hair. “Hai, Nato?” I asked distractedly, turning the worn page of my book. I traced the faded kanji with my free hand, muttering the words under my breath as I read them. I knew The Slug Princess by heart—I’d made Kakashi read it to me hundreds of times, after all—and that only helped in my journey to learn how to read.

“Raaaaaaiiiiii!”

I tore my gaze away from the book to meet my brother’s wide-eyed gaze. He pouted, his way of showing me that he was upset with the way I was ignoring him “Gomen, Nato.” I shut the tattered book and set it aside.

Seeing that he had my full attention, he beamed and scrambled to his feet. “Play?” he asked excitedly.

I thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “Hide ‘n’ seek?”

“Yeah!” He bounced. “I hide?”

I nodded. “Go!”

He scrambled off, Ribbit in hand, and I closed my eyes, starting to count to thirty. When I was done, I leapt to my feet. “‘kay!” I yelled, letting him know I was coming, clutching Pig tightly to my chest, I ran out of the room and searched for his chakra signature.

Naruto, I’d found, was like a beacon of energy. I’d discovered a little while back that it made him easier to find. The ANBU never let their chakra shields slip, of course, so I never sensed anything from them. And the bijuu chakra coursing through my brother made him basically the only light in a dark room. It hurt a little, or more than a little. At first it felt like someone was rubbing sandpaper along the inside of my skin, but I got used to it. It made me feel better to know that I could always find him with that. At least until he was old enough to learn how to shield it.

Sensing him to the left, I turned that way and marched purposefully down the hallway. “Nato!” I called. I froze when I heard a giggle from a room several doors ahead. He’d gotten Neko to hide him, then? I skipped towards the door and knocked. “Nato! Ya there?”

“Well, konichiwa, Mirai-chan.”

I squeaked in surprised at the unexpected voice and tumbled backwards, holding Pig up in front of my face as protection. Then I peeked over his ears and blinked up at the man standing in front of me, flanked by two ANBU. “Uhhhh, konichiwa,” I offered nervously. I recognized him, of course, but it would probably raise several red flags if I showed that I remembered him from a three minute visit when I was twelve months old.

“I know you don’t remember me, but I’m Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage. I gave you and your brother those stuffed animals on your birthday last year.”

I blinked at him and then nodded once. Neko’s door creaked open and the masked ANBU ushered my brother out before bowing to the Sarutobi. “Hokage-sama.”

Naruto stumbled forward and latched onto my arm. “Rai, who is dat?”

“Hokage,” I told him simple. Then I poked Ribbit. “Gave ya dat.”

Naruto lit up and stared up at the Hokage in awe. “Weally?”

The Sandaime nodded and knelt down to our level with a smile. “Well, since it’s your second birthday today, I’ve brought you more presents.” This time he brought out two, large wrapped presents. “One for each of you.” He held the yellow-wrapped present out to Naruto and the red-wrapped on to me.

I took my gift and turned to watch Naruto as he ripped his open. He gasped and let out a delighted squeal. “Lookie!” He pulled out the fluffy, bright orange blanket and pressed his face into it. “Soft!”

I giggled and reached out, rubbing my fingers across it. Then he waved at my present. “Open!”

“‘kay,” I murmured, ripping off the paper and grinning at the blanket it exposed—identical to Naruto’s in every way except for the fact that it was a dark purple. I turned and bowed. “Arigato!”

The Hokage smiled widely and patted me on the head. My lips pulled down, but I forced a smile for him. He nodded distractedly and patted Naruto on the head as well. “Well, I must be going. I do hope you two enjoy your presents.”

I watched as he retreated, something angry stirring in the pit of my stomach. But I was distracted from that when someone picked me up. I squeaked in surprise, desperately holding onto Pig and my blanket. My nostrils filled with the familiar smell of roasted pumpkin and I relaxed as Mokin chuckled. “Alright, time for bed, you two,” he sang, scooping Naruto up in his other arm.

I felt the familiar cool draft as we entered out room and Mokin carried us over to our shared crib. He lowered me down into it first and Naruto whined until he joined me. Mokin chuckled and moved towards the door, flicking off the light. “Sleep well, you two.”

Naruto nestled up right away in a messy pile with his blanket and stuffed animal. I fluffed out my blanket and wrapped it around my shoulders before tucking Pig to my chest. With that done, I curled protectively around him and kissed his forehead. “Night, Nato.”

“Night,” he mumbled.

With that, I closed my eyes and fell right asleep, knowing my brother was safe.

— — — — —

Nightmares were something I was very familiar with. In my last life, I’d struggled with anxiety and depression, both of which had contributed to bad dreams. My night terrors ranged from low grades to flashbacks to the time another girl snapped my leg in half. Dying hadn’t helped with that, nor had the fact that my brain had decided to come up with the awful possibility of me losing Naruto because I wasn’t strong enough.

So I wasn’t terribly surprised when I awoke the night of my second birthday, drenched in sweat with my lips parted in a silent scream. My body jolted as I snapped out of the dream and then I froze, worried that I’d woken Naruto. I listened carefully to his even breathing. He was still asleep.

I uncurled from around him, my muscles cramped from holding that position for so long. It took me only a split second to make my decision, and by then I’d already tossed Pig and my blanket over the side of our crib. Climbing out was difficult, especially with my tiny frame, but eventually I managed it. Curling my toes against the cold concrete floor, I wrapped my blanket around my shoulders and it trailed behind me as I toddled out into the hall, Pig clutched to my chest. I walked the path I’d taken dozens of times in the past few months. I reached the room I’d been looked for and pushed on the door, surprised when it gave way and swung open.

“‘Nu-nii?” I asked quietly, stepping into the room. I glanced around as I moved farther inside. “‘Nu-nii?”

There was no answer.

He’d left for a mission a couple days before, but he should have been back earlier that day. Frowning, I moved over to his bed and scrambled to get up on top of it. I tightened my blanket around myself and snuggled against his pillows, breathing in the smell of woodsmoke. I didn’t fall asleep, too afraid of the nightmares that would be waiting for me. Instead, I relaxed and waited.

A while later—it had probably been hours, but I wasn’t sure—I heard the door open. Something clattered loudly to the floor and the door slammed shut. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and focused in on the figure moving towards the bathroom. “‘Nu-nii?” I asked quietly, resisting a yawn.

He froze. Then he very slowly turned towards me. “Mirai-chan,” he slurred. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“‘ightmare.” I hugged Pig to my chest and sniffed at the strong smell of blood in the air. “You ‘urt?”

“A little,” he conceded. He turned back towards the bathroom. “I’ll be back as soon as I can be, alright?”

“‘kay,” I murmured. He flicked the light on in the bathroom and I just barely got a glimpse of the red staining his midsection before he closed the door. I frowned worriedly, straining my ears to listen. Anything I might have heard was drowned out when he started the shower.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but finally the door opened again and Kakashi stepped out, scrubbing his hair with a towel. I couldn’t help but stare. He was shirtless and, even though his torso was covered in layer after layer of bandages, his face was completely bare. I giggled and he glanced sideways at me with his one open eye. “Yes, Mirai-chan?”

“You’re cute!” I chirped, beaming at him.

The sixteen-year-old stared blankly at me for a moment before making a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. He moved over to the bed and flicked on the lamp before tossing his towel aside. “Do you want to talk about your nightmare?” he asked me, patting me on the head in greeting.

I shook my head. “No,” I said in a small voice.

Kakashi paused. “Alright.” Then he eye-smiled at me. “I’ve got a present for you, little one.” He turned and dug through his dresser for a moment before pulling out a badly wrapped present and pushing it towards me. “I got a present for Naruto, too—a pair of goggles—but I don’t think it’d be a good idea to wake him right now.”

I giggled at that and picked up the present. I tore excitedly at the wrapping paper and lit up when I saw what was inside. “The Slug Princess!”

He chuckled and sat on the bed as well, wadding up the torn paper and tossing it aside. “I noticed your old book was pretty beat up.”

“Arigato, Niisan!” I announced loudly, throwing myself at him and hugging him tightly around his middle. He wrapped an arm tightly around me to keep me still and I felt him take the book from my hands. He set it aside and then pushed Pig into my arms before spreading the blanket over my shoulders. He clicked the lamp off.

And I fell asleep.

— — — — —

We were two and a half when we finally went outside. It started off as a normal day. After lunch came and went, Naruto and I were deeply involved in a very serious game of two-player tag. Our playtime was interrupted when Naruto was chasing me down the hallway and I was very suddenly swept up into Mokin’s arms. Naruto screeched to a stop. “Hey! No fair!”

Mokin chuckled, the sound echoing oddly behind his mask. “Hey, you two. Inu and I are gonna go get some training in. Want to come watch?”

I blinked at him. Was he asking what I thought he was?

Naruto frowned. “Trainin’?”

“Yep. Outside.”

My brother’s eyes widened dramatically and he dragged his goggles down from his forehead to cover his eyes. “Outside? Yeah! Yeah!”

Inu stepped out of his room, adjusting the way his ANBU mask sat over his face. “Well?”

“Naruto-chan seems excited,” Mokin announced. “What about you, Mirai-chan?”

I barely even thought about it. “Yeah!”

Kakashi picked Naruto up and turned down the hall, leading the way. “Now, listen you two, you’ll need to stay where we put you, okay? If you move around to much, it’ll be dangerous, understand?”

Naruto just looked confused, but I nodded. “Hai!”

And then I saw the sun for the first time in this life.

I squinted at the sudden bright light, just then realizing how dark ANBU HQ was inside. Naruto started laughing, staring wide-eyed around at everyone as we moved. He kept pointing things out excitedly and having Kakashi name them for him.

“Whassat?”

“That’s a tree, Naruto-chan.”

“Whassat?”

“That’s another tree.”

“Whassat?”

“Tree.”

“Wha—”

“Tree.”

I giggled at their conversation and paused, feeling something pricking at my senses. It was familiar. It felt like when I sensed Naruto’s chakra, but it was weaker, almost like it was farther away. I glanced towards the left, where the feeling was coming from. Was that the Village? The farther away from it we moved, the less I could feel it.

Before I could think on it further, Mokin set me down next to Naruto under the shade of a tree. “Don’t move from here, alright?” The brunet ANBU nodded and then moved a safe distance away with Kakashi. I watched for a moment as they began warming up with kata, then I glanced to the side. “Hey, Nato—”

He wasn’t there.

Panic rammed against my ribcage and suddenly it as hard to breathe. “Nato? Nato!”

“Rai! Lookie!”

I whipped around to where his voice came from and found him sitting in front of a bush a few feet away, making a crown of leaves and sticks for Ribbit. I breathed a sigh of relief, adrenaline still burning in my veins. I crawled over to him and pulled him into a hug. “Don’t scare me like that,” I ordered.

He blinked up at me in confusion. “‘kay?”

I sighed and released him. Then something burned against my senses and I yelped in surprised, flailing and falling backwards. Naruto’s eyes widened. “Rai? Rai! Rai!”

And suddenly the burning stopped and large arms lifted me. “Mirai? Mirai, what’s wrong?”

I couldn’t answer. The pain was gone, but I still found it difficult to breathe and the hysteria still very much alive. I felt a huge weight crushing down on my chest and I gasped desperately. Something pressed against my forehead and I could no longer hear coherent voices, just a blur of sounds.

When I woke up again, I didn’t recognize where I was. The first thing I did was the same thing I did every morning—I reached out for Naruto’s chakra to make sure I knew where he was.

He wasn’t there.

My eyes snapped open and I jerked up, already glancing wildly around. “Nato? Nato!”

The person in the chair by my bed flinched awake. “Mirai-chan! Hey, hey, calm down, it’s okay. Naruto is back at HQ with everyone else.”

It took me a moment to register Kakashi’s words, but then I took a deep breath to calm myself. I looked around the room. “Where?”

“You’re in the hospital,” Kakashi said quietly. “Mirai-chan . . . . Do you know what chakra is?”

I nodded. “Uma told me.”

“Good. Now, the doctors said that you’re chakra hypersensitive. That means you’re very reactive to it. Does that make sense?”

I blinked at him. He really had now idea how to talk with a child’s vocabulary. But I nodded slowly. “Kinda.”

“Alright. They said that doesn’t mean you can’t be a ninja, but just that it’ll be hard for you to get used to feeling chakra. Okay? But they also said you’ll probably make a great chakra sensor someday.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Cha-ka-ra sensor?”

He nodded. “It means being able to feel chakra. That way it’s easy to find or recognize people.”

I squinted at him and nodded once. “‘kay. Wha’ happened?”

“I used a jutsu with a lot of chakra. It seems your system overreacted to it and tried to shut down in response.”

“Uh-huh.” I frowned. “Nato ‘kay?”

Kakashi chuckled and patted me on the head. “Yes. Naruto is just fine.”

�� — — — —

First/Previous Chapter — Next Chapter

#Samsaric Fanfic #Uzumaki Mirai #Uzumaki Naruto #ANBU #Hatake Kakashi #Fanfiction #Fanfic #Naruto Fanfiction #Naruto Fanfic

[takiwiings-blog]

mymothershumility ❤

SEND A URL AND I WILL ANSWER THE FOLLOWING;

@mymothershumility

DO I FOLLOW THEM?:  YESSS if i ever cease to do so come to rescue because it’s probably a rosy impostor.  WHY DID I FOLLOW THEM?: IS THERE A REASON NOT TO FOLLOW??? Okay but Liz is the person I’ve known longest on tumblr. (about five years???) But we started rping in the DC fandom on my Nightingale from Static Shock. And omg literally the first nicest, quality, awesome human being I met on this site. YesDO WE ROLE PLAY?:  NO AND WE NEED TO CHANGE THIS ON FU AND ON MARI/MAI! DO I WANT TO ROLE PLAY WITH THEM: YES it is a need.AN AU IDEA FOR OUR MUSES:  OKKAYYY I KNOW YOU HAVEN’T REALLY WATCHED NARUTO BUUT I CAN TOTALLY SEE LAIRA AS THIS AWESOME JONIN SENSEI OR MAYBE EVEN PART OF AN ELITE ANBU GROUP (THEY ARE VERY SECRET AND SCARY SHH) AND LIKE BEING IN CHARGE OF PROTECTING FUU AND THEN TRAVELING WITH HER. PROTECTING HER FROM THE ATKASKI AND HAVING TO PUT UP WITH HER. LIIZZ YES LETS TO ITT! ALSO FOR DC G.L VERSE I CAN SEE FUU BEING GIVEN TO LAIRA AS A ROOKIE AND HAVING TO TRAIN HER AND LAIRA SUDDENLY FIGURING OUT ‘THIS GIRL HAS A LIVING BEAST INSIDE OF HER. THAT’S WHY WE KEEP GETTING ATTACKED. LOVELY.” AND IDK A WHOLE LOT OF SHENNANIGANS LAIRA HAS TO PUT UP WITH. A SONG FOR OUR MUSES:  For some reason Taylor Swift’s song I knew you were trouble when you walked in popped to my head. And it goes both ways for them. Not in the shipping sort of sense, but in the omg i knew you oozed trouble for me when you walked through that door.DO I SHIP OUR MUSES?: As Sensei-Student only.WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE MUN:  LIZ YOU’RE AN AMAZING AND WONDERFUL HUMAN BEING. I’m soo glad you’ve sticked with me all this time even though I randomly disappear or throw my new muses at you. OVERALL OPINION: I GIVE YOU THE ALLL TIME RECOMMENDATION FOR EVERYONE. NO MATTER THE FANDOM I SWEAR RPING WITH LIZ IS AN AWESOME WRITING EXPERIENCE. BLOG RATE: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 +++++++

#scrolls; #i know there is a lot of caps #but i was the only way to portray my enthusiasm. #mymothershumility

[the-roadkill-cafe]

Throwing a Stone In a River Part 4

Summary: When Sakura graduates from the academy, she suddenly finds her head invaded by the ghost of Uchiha Shisui. Her inner is gone, but not forgotten, and she struggles with impulse control more than ever before. But also, Shisui gives a lot of unsolicited advice - useful and otherwise - and does not shut the fuck up. He’s not thrilled about current events.

Rating: T

Author’s Notes: First of all, I’d like to thank @tozettewrites for allowing me use of her prompt and for coming up with the idea. The story would not exist without her. This story would also not exist without @jaycrowind, who cheered me on and nagged me as needed in order to get the writing done, only to immediately beta it for me so it looked presentable. Thank you so, so much. Thanks also to @phoenixyfriend, who became an impromptu sounding board and whom I bombarded with many many questions. Finally, thanks to @surfacage, who was probably very surprised when a random stranger popped up in their messages asking about Shisui, but very graciously answered my questions. Thanks for helping me out, and thanks for all the artwork you do for the Naruto fandom.

Chapter Tags/Warnings: discussion of suicide, discussion of eye trauma/gouging, manipulation, hallucinations, loss of bodily autonomy

If you think I've missed a tag or that one should be added, please let me know. Thanks!

Many many thanks to @jaycrowind for beta'ing, @elenathehun, @phoenixyfriend, and @jaycrowind for their ideas and suggestions, and @beyondthemoor for her cheerleading. They're responsible for pushing me into finishing this chapter.

Previous Part: Part 3

In the end, Sakura decided to compromise with Shisui and ordered lunch at a tempura stall, gratefully consuming a full plate’s worth of fried vegetables and shrimp. She still spitefully ordered a small bowl of anmitsu for dessert though and savored every morsel. If he didn’t like being in her slow body that liked to eat anmitsu, he could get out.

‘I really, really don’t think it works like that,’ Shisui paused. ‘I don’t even know how I got stuck inside you in the first place! Trust me, there are more interesting ways to be inside someone else’s body.’

‘What?’ Sakura blinked out into space, her spoon held half way between the bowl and her mouth.

‘Oh, oh shit, you’re like, twelve, right? Pretend you didn’t hear that. I mean, it’s not like you even know what it is-‘

Sakura cut Shisui off. ‘Did you just make a sex joke?’

‘It slipped out! I swear I’m not trying to be creepy.’

Sakura let Shisui stew in silence for a few moments. It wasn’t like the joke had been about her. Still, if the only way she had to make Shisui watch his mouth was by letting him think she thought he was a creepy pervert, she’d take it.

‘I,’ Sakura began once she thought he had waited long enough, ‘am not an idiot. I do in fact know what sex is.’

‘Are you sure about the first part? Because I could’ve sworn that you forgot to check if you could cut yourself loose from some ropes,’ he replied.

‘If you don’t shut up about that I’m going to order some dango for the walk back.’

‘Fine, geez, can’t make a joke around here…’

Sakura ignored him for the sake of her own sanity. All she wanted to do was enjoy her anmitsu in peace and maybe drink a gallon of water. She definitely didn’t want to spend her lunch bickering with a ghostly voice inside her head. If he even was a ghost, which she still wasn’t entirely convinced of.

The rest of her lunch would’ve passed without incident, except that after Sakura had paid her bill, she decided to use the bathroom. As she locked the stall behind her, it didn’t take her long to realize her conundrum.

‘Can…can you actually see what I see?’ Sakura asked, facing the stall door awkwardly.

Luckily for her dignity, Shisui seemed to recognize the problem immediately. ‘I…yeah. As long as your body can perceive it, I can too.’

Sakura fingered with the zipper to her dress as her face gradually grew warm. It shouldn’t be that difficult to use the bathroom with her eyes shut, right…?

‘I’ve definitely seen worse things in my life than a girl using the bathroom.’ Shisui said dryly.

‘That’s not the point! How am I supposed to use the bathroom with a boy in my head?!’ Sakura wailed. She fought the temptation to stomp her foot.

‘Well first you sit down on the toilet seat,’ Shisui began with a snide voice.

‘If you weren’t already dead I’d kill you myself,’ snapped Sakura. She glanced quickly around the stall and then determinedly shut her eyes.

‘Ooh, yes, I’m so terrified of a twelve year old genin.’

Sakura managed not to screech like a tea kettle, but it was a close thing. Instead she pulled on the zipper to her dress.

‘Should I hum or something?’

‘Be quiet, I’m busy trying to pretend you don’t exist.’

Several awkward minutes later, Sakura left the bathroom. She knew her face had to be clashing horribly with her hair but she couldn’t bring herself to calm down. That was the worst experience ever.

‘Let’s just…pretend this never happened,’ Shisui said.

Well at least they finally agreed on something for once. Then again, Sakura supposed it had to be equally uncomfortable for Shisui to be in a girl’s body, and one several years younger than him apparently, as it was for her to have a boy in her head.

Having plenty of time left before Kakashi expected her back at the training grounds, Sakura ambled back. At this point the double layered vision she had walking through the village was no longer surprising. Given the apparently supernatural nature of Shisui’s possession of her, Sakura supposed this might be her new normal.

‘Is what I’m seeing…your memories?’

‘I think so. It’s reasonable; you’re already getting some kind of bleed over from me,’ replied Shisui.

Sakura observed the faded, ghostly images with renewed interest. Depending on when Shisui died and how much older than her he was, she could gain a new insight on what the village looked like before disasters like the Kyuubi. As that thought came to mind, Sakura flicked her eyes to the horizon again, hoping to catch another glimpse of the dreaded bijuu. It wasn’t like she’d get another chance to see the now dead Kyuubi, and without fear of danger at that. Unfortunately for Sakura, the terrifying mirage did not appear.

For a moment Sakura was tempted to ask Shisui about the Kyuubi or even the Third Shinobi War, but just as the intent began to coalesce into actual words in her mind, an image of her parents, waking up exhausted from the nightmares they still had over a decade later surfaced. She grimaced. Shisui probably wanted to answer those kinds of questions just as much as her parents wanted to, which was to say, not at all.

Instead she asked, ‘So if you weren’t a desk chuunin but a jounin, what were your specializations? How were you usually deployed?’

‘My specializations changed based on who you talked to,’ Shisui said with a chuckle. ‘If I were to describe it…hmm, probably a kenjutsu user supplemented by mid-range ninjutsu and genjutsu. I was a burst melee front line shinobi, usually deployed for either assassinations or sabotage, though sometimes I also accompanied intelligence gathering missions as well, either as a specialist or as the muscle.’

If he had been a burst melee shinobi, it was no wonder he emphasized speed so much. Burst melee shinobi were unlike sustained melee shinobi in that, despite their strong offense, they couldn’t keep it up for extended periods of time. Whatever they chose to specialize in, all burst melee shinobi dispatched their enemies as quickly as possible. Depending on the squad, they either acted as a secondary offensive force to sustained melee shinobi, or they remained behind with medical squads and other support shinobi.

‘But why would other people not describe your specializations the same way?’

Shisui hummed thoughtfully. ‘Based on certain abilities I had, there were assumptions people made about what I was and wasn’t capable of doing, and how I preferred to fight. Other people had a tendency to think I focused more on either ninjutsu or genjutsu. I was no slouch, of course, but I knew others who were true masters in those areas. I’m much more generalized by comparison.’

Sakura frowned as she continued to make her way to the training grounds. The topic inadvertently turned Sakura’s thoughts away from asking Shisui more questions and towards her own team. Her quick mind glossed over what she knew of Kakashi, which was more than she thought. Yesterday she only knew that he was a weird shinobi that, despite all appearances, was definitely a part of the elite. Now she knew he was a former ANBU member and in spite of his smaller reserves of chakra, was considered a sustained melee shinobi that specialized in ninjutsu.

It was too soon for Sakura to tell what Naruto was going to choose to specialize in, but based on his stamina alone he would also be meant for ongoing combat. Sasuke at this point could choose to either be a solid all around mid to close range fighter, or focus on improving his ninjutsu, of which she knew he did the best in amongst their class. Which just left her. Sakura clenched her fists.

If nothing else, today highlighted that Sakura didn’t have much of anything that was useable in the field. She was the least physically capable of her team, not just in speed and strength but also in taijutsu; she had no ninjutsu whatsoever; genjutsu was a mystery…Sakura was becoming mortified to realize that the only thing she was good at was memorizing things and battle strategy and tactics. She was a paper ninja.

‘I’m…a terrible shinobi…’

‘Yeah,’ Shisui replied. ‘But a lot of genin are. That’s what training and your jounin instructor is for. Not everyone gets to start out as a talented genius.’

‘But where do I even start? I need to fix everything,’ Sakura said.

‘Well, you start with physical conditioning.’ Shisui paused. ‘Like getting faster.’

Sakura huffed out loud. ‘Ugh, how did I know you were going to say that?’

‘A strong body is the foundation to being a strong shinobi.’

She sulkily seated herself at the base of a tree in the wide training grounds Team 7 had trained in earlier. Naruto and Sasuke weren’t back yet, and if Kakashi was, she couldn’t sense him. Now that she had eaten and rested for awhile, she felt significantly better, though her legs still felt a little like jelly. It was as good a time as any to work through what direction she wanted to take her shinobi career. She flicked her thumbs back and forth while she thought.

As much as Shisui’s suggestion rankled, it was probably the best solution for now. Sakura didn’t have any idea what she wanted to be, as a shinobi. There was more to it than just taking missions and completing the objective. There were all the administrative shinobi, usually semi-retired or with career ending injuries, peppered with able-bodied shinobi to help defend the village in case of an attack. There was the medical corps, where she would have her choice of becoming a hospital medical ninja or a combat medical ninja. ANBU, the Academy, Intelligence, Research and Development…there were plenty of places for shinobi other than on the front lines.

‘It might help if you remember why you want to be a shinobi in the first place,’ said Shisui.

Sakura scowled at the air. ‘Can you not listen to my thoughts for five minutes? And why can you hear mine but I can’t hear yours anyway?’

‘Probably something to do with the Yin chakra. It’s the chakra of mental and spiritual energy. I’m not really an expert on it, like some fuinjutsu specialists, or the Yamanaka or Nara,’ Shisui answered. ‘I don’t exactly go looking through your memories or your thoughts, you know. They just appear. Especially your thoughts. Try meditating or something, maybe that will fix it.’

She dropped her head back against the tree. Physical training, meditation, none of that mattered if she didn’t also pick up a few jutsu along the way. Both of her parents had earth nature chakra, so she probably did too. Doton jutsu were good. They were mostly defensive, which would complement the offensive nature of her teammates. She should learn a few genjutsu too. She didn’t know if her parents knew much in the way of genjutsu, but they’d probably teach her some Doton ninjutsu if she asked and proved she was taking her shinobi training seriously.

But before she could follow that train of thought, she heard the faint sounds of bickering. It was soon followed by Naruto and Sasuke walking down the path. Sakura felt her brows rise. Did they actually eat together, or had they met each other on the way back? Either scenario was surprising. The fact that they were arguing was at least familiar to her.

Naruto waved when he saw her. “Oi! Sakura-chan! Are you ready for the mission?”

‘Mission?’ Sakura blinked. She reviewed the events before lunch and realized she didn’t actually know why Kakashi had asked them to return after lunch. At the time, Shisui had been criticizing her performance during training.

Naruto didn’t seem to notice her confusion. “Heh, this will be so easy. We won’t even need Sasuke. Between you and me, we’ll have this done in no time!”

“All you two would do is slow me down anyway. I’m better off doing it alone,” Sasuke said.

Sakura ignored her two teammates. She was sure at some point it’d get hammered into their skulls that they needed to work together as a team; no need for her to remind them.

‘I wonder what kind of mission we’re going to have.’

‘Something boring and awful. All missions for genin are terrible, it’s a fact of life,’ Shisui answered.

‘Oh yeah? What are they like?’ Sakura asked Shisui.

He made a non-committal noise. ‘Oh, you know, body retrieval, trap and bomb dismantling, chasing cats, that sort of thing. Just stuff that’s a pain in the ass but needs to be done.’

‘One of those things is not like the other, Shisui,’ Sakura said dryly. ‘You’re just messing with me, right? We’re not even in the middle of a war, there are no bodies to get from anywhere. Besides, Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t send three green genin out into an active battle zone, right? Shisui? Hey, I’m talking to y—’

Her internal tirade was cut off by Kakashi’s sudden appearance. Thankfully, he had foregone the chakra smoke this time. “Well, I see we all managed to get here on time. Hopefully you’ve had a full lunch, because we have quite the mission today. I made sure to get an extra special one, for our first time as a team.”

The three of them crowded a little closer to Kakashi. Naruto and Sasuke seemed excited, Naruto moreso than Sasuke, but Sakura found she couldn’t be with Shisui’s answer still weighing on her mind. She kept going over what she knew about various kinds of traps and how to properly disarm them, along with proper storage techniques for corpses.

Kakashi held up a scroll. “Today...” he paused dramatically, “we have been asked to finish roofing someone’s house.”

There was a beat of silence as they processed his words. Then almost as one their shoulders slumped, though Sakura’s did for reasons different than her teammates’.

“What? That’s crap!” Naruto shouted. “We should be doing something like defeating a corrupt daimyou and his army of samurai, or rescuing a princess! Not roofing someone’s house!”

Sasuke didn’t say anything but his expression clearly communicated his disgruntlement.

For her part, Sakura was relieved. Roofing sounded a little disappointing and not at all what she had been expecting but it was a better option than what Shisui had said.

‘I knew you were just joking,’ Sakura told Shisui.

‘You say that now,’ he replied.

“Maa, well, everyone needs to do their part, and sometimes your part is helping to repair someone’s house,” Kakashi replied. “A local construction crew has a few members out sick or otherwise unavailable, and they need more people to finish a client’s house. That’s where you three come in.”

“This is really a mission that genin take?” Sasuke asked dubiously. His brow furrowed as he crossed his arms. As Sakura glanced at him, an image of a small, slightly chubby, sulky Sasuke superimposed itself over her teammate. Her lips twitched and she felt a sudden swell of affection and nostalgia. She had the vague impression that he had hardly changed at all.

“It’s not just a mission genin take – it’s the mission you’re all going to complete.” Kakashi’s mask shifted as he smiled. She didn’t trust it for one second. There had to be a catch.

Fifteen minutes later, and Sakura found out that the catch was that the construction crew wasn’t just missing a few people – everyone but the manager had skipped out of work for the last few days and Team 7 had to do the majority of the work and have it finished by the following day. The house in question was a typical home of Konoha, with one flat section of roof for shinobi to run across and the rest gently sloping towards the ground for rain runoff. They learned this in between the manager’s profuse apologies and angry side comments about his unreliable crew.

“I’m sorry for such short notice, shinobi-san,” the craggy-faced manager said. “You just can’t trust those lazy Wave bastards that have been flocking here lately. My apologies for the language, sweetheart.” The last bit he directed at Sakura.

“It’s no trouble at all, Iwase-san. My team is ready for the work; they’ll have it finished in no time,” Kakashi reassured the man.

He bowed in response. “You shinobi are a bit pricey, but I hear great things about you lot. Finish it up today, and you’ll be getting my crews’ paychecks.”

“We’ll be sure to do an excellent job. You heard Iwase-san, kids. Get to work,” Kakashi said.

The three of them began to fasten the tool kits that were scattered around and nimbly climb up the ladders to the roof of the house. Just as Sakura was nearly at the top, she heard Iwase-san talking to Kakashi.

“Are you sure that little miss should be up there?”

Kakashi, however, had already pulled out his book and was reading it without a care in the world. “Hm?”

“I mean, shouldn’t she be doing more delicate work? Like bringing the boys some refreshments?”

On the roof, as Sakura pulled off sections of old tile, she felt her blood boil. She had gone  through the same exact training as Sasuke and Naruto at the Academy, and had passed the same test. She was as much of a shinobi as they were. As she pulled up a particularly stubborn piece of tile, she imagined it was Iwase’s face.

‘I’ll show him delicate work!’ Sakura scowled down at the roof.

‘Easy now. You can’t actually kill your client. Calm down and work out your frustration later; save your energy for the mission,’ said Shisui.

‘I don’t need you to tell me that!’ She snapped.

The internal exchange caused her to miss Kakashi’s response, if there was any, but she didn’t miss the way Naruto looked from Iwase to her.

He shuffled closer. “Oi, Sakura-chan. That roof guy is right; it’s okay if you don’t want to help us fix this stupid house. I know girls get tired faster and you’ve trained hard already today. You can just relax because I’ll have this done in no time!”

Sakura flushed with shame and embarrassment.  ‘Even Naruto thinks I can’t do this!’

She glanced at Sasuke to see his reaction. There was no way he hadn’t heard Naruto’s words. Naruto’s lowest volume was only just short of a full yell after all.

But Sasuke only started working on his section of the roof, ignoring them entirely. She bit her lip. Did that mean Sasuke agreed with Naruto? Or was it that he thought she could work on her own? Sakura wilted.

‘So you’re just going to give up?’ Shisui prodded. ‘I thought you were going to prove your client wrong?’

Sakura gritted her teeth and gripped the tool kit hard between her hands. As much as she hated to admit it, Shisui was right. She was tired, true, but she hated giving up even more than she wanted to skip their ridiculous mission.

“That’s okay Naruto,” Sakura finally said, smiling a poisonously sweet smile. “If you can manage not to let your stupidity stop you from being a shinobi, I’m sure being a girl won’t keep me from finishing this mission.”

She leaned in close and dropped her smile as she grabbed his jacket. “Now if you don’t leave me alone, I’ll throw you off the roof.” Then she shoved him away from her so she could start roofing.

As she worked, her foul mood only increased. The respite given to her from lunch only lasted her so long. Before Sakura knew it, she was exhausted and her limbs were trembling with strain. It turned out roofing was really hard work. Not only that, the temperature peaked as the sun reached high overhead. There was no breeze to provide relief and Sakura refused to be the first to ask for a quick break. Sweat dripped down her face and arms, causing her to stop every few minutes to wipe it away.

Nearby, it seemed Sasuke and Naruto had similar thoughts. Both worked relentlessly, and every few tiles they pulled up, they would glance up to check the other’s progress before throwing themselves back into it at a seemingly faster pace than before. Sakura huffed to herself. Boys. She couldn’t deny that their rivalry was going to help them finish the mission faster, but they were also going to exhaust themselves. On a real mission, they’d get themselves killed.

‘Now that’s the way you should be thinking during a mission.’

‘That’s enough out of the peanut gallery.’

In short order, the three genin were collecting small stacks of new tile to nail into the roof. Their collective poor mood had only grown as Kakashi and Iwase both sat in the shade, one drinking from a canteen of undoubtedly icy water and the other reading and occasionally giggling to himself. It was with this cloud hanging over them that things finally came to an explosive head when Sasuke brushed into Naruto, causing him to slip on the roof and drop his stack of tiles.

“Hey, bastard! You did that on purpose!” Naruto shouted as his tiles clattered to the ground below.

Sakura rolled her eyes and knelt down to start hammering in the wood tiles. It was about time they started fighting; they could hardly go a few hours without it.

“Don’t blame me for your incompetence,” Sasuke snapped. “You can do that all on your own.”

Naruto stepped closer into Sasuke’s space. Sakura eyed them warily. An argument was one thing, but they weren’t actually going to have a fist fight on a roof, were they?

“You bumped into me and made me drop my tiles because I’m beating you. I’m not stupid!” he insisted.

‘That’s debatable,’ Sakura thought uncharitably.

‘No need to be so mean, Sakura.’

Shisui sounded awfully amused for someone who was telling her not to be mean to her teammates. In the background, Naruto and Sasuke continued to argue.

Sakura diligently hammered in her tiles one by one. Even though it was beginning to cool at long last, she was completely covered in sweat, making her job difficult. She cursed as the hammer slid in her slippery hand and she hit her thumb.

She sucked her thumb and hissed when she pulled it out to peer down at it. It was a bright angry red and throbbed in time with her heart beat. As she finally considered stopping for some water and to ice her finger, the voices of her teammates crescendoed.

‘Sakura, duck!’

‘What?’

Sakura looked up instinctively at Shisui’s warning. She had just enough time to take in Sasuke dodging a tile that Naruto had flung at him before it hit her squarely on her accursed forehead.

Sakura reeled almost drunkenly, stars bursting across her vision. She tipped backwards and began to slide down towards the edge of the roof. Only some reflexive instinct had her flailing and grasping at the roof until her balance recovered enough for her to ensure she wouldn’t fall off.

There were twin surges of anger inside her and she was caught between the urge to clutch her head and do something about her teammates. A barely coherent impression of ‘those damn brats!’ and the burning desire to hurt them decided it for her and before she knew what she was doing, Sakura grabbed one of her own tiles and threw it with unerring accuracy at Naruto. He yelped when it connected with his chest and the force of it knocked him on his behind. A nasty part of her wished he had fallen off the roof.

In her head, Shisui was a fuzzy, static ball of irritation that made her aching head feel that much worse, which was compounded by her still throbbing thumb. Her other hand twitched with a need to punch her teammates that was not entirely her own.

“You moron!” Sakura’s voice was ragged as she struggled not to scream. “You hit me in the head!”

Naruto staggered to his feet. “H-hey, Sakura-chan, it was just an accident, I didn’t mean to—”

Sakura cut him off. “What did I tell you about leaving me alone?” She too climbed to her feet and started stalking towards Naruto.

Down below, Iwase was watching the exchange warily.

“Hey, shinobi-san, I think you need to do something about your kids. That little miss looks like she’s ready to murder someone,” he said.

Kakashi hummed a bit, unconcerned. “I’m sure they’ll sort it out. These sorts of things happen all the time with new teams.”

Back on the roof, Sakura seized Naruto’s ear. She twisted it roughly as she pulled him towards the edge of the roof, her temper lending her strength.

“No, Sakura-chan, don’t throw me off the roof!” Naruto squealed, his voice breaking on the high pitch.

“Too bad!” She snarled.

As she strode towards the edge, her foot kicked Sasuke’s tiles.

“Hey!” Sasuke jerked as his tiles went tumbling down the roof to the ground below.

‘This is going to be such a disaster.’

‘Shut up, I’ve had it with everyone!’

“Don’t get me caught up in your stupidity,” Sasuke continued.

Sakura stopped. “This wouldn’t have happened if you two weren’t so stupid.” She insisted. She tightened her grip as Naruto tried to squirm out of her hold.

“Don’t blame me because you’re too slow to dodge a brick.” Sasuke’s hands clenched and unclenched reflexively. He didn’t seem to know if it was appropriate to grab her the way he would Naruto. Or maybe he was just trying to keep himself from shaking her. Sakura bared her teeth. The way she was feeling, she wished he would. She would throw him off the roof too.

And then his words registered. For a moment, all seemed to go silent. And then she heard Shisui snicker in her head.

“I’m not slow!” she roared.

She lunged towards Sasuke with her free hand. She should’ve known better; he was far more agile than she, and dodged her easily. What he failed to account for was the slant of the roof. As he tilted backwards dangerously, his arms began to pinwheel. At the sight, Sakura momentarily forgot her anger.

“Sasuke-kun!”

His hand grabbed her shirt. The three of them only had a split second to stare and realize the coming consequences before Sasuke’s weight pulled them all over the edge of the roof.

The three of them lay tangled together, wheezing and groaning in a pile of limbs. Sakura had been lucky; she landed across Naruto and Sasuke, both of whom had taken the brunt of the fall, along with her weight.

“I think you ripped my ear off,” Naruto whimpered.

“You deserve it, moron,” Sasuke snapped back.

Sakura kicked her foot without seeing who she was aiming at. “Both of you, shut up.”

‘I told you this was going to be a disaster.’

‘You can shut up too.’

A shadow fell over them. Sakura looked up to see Kakashi staring down at them. “Now what have we all learned today?” he asked them brightly.

The three of them stared at Kakashi, all simmering with resentment and loathing.

“If you don’t learn to work together as a team,” Kakashi said, “you’re going to fall off a roof.”

Sakura rolled off Naruto and Sasuke and left them to figure out how to untangle themselves. She had a roof to finish and she planned on going home sometime today.  Sasuke and Naruto soon followed her, and they resumed their work in stony silence.

By the time they finished, lunch was little more than a daydream and Sakura’s stomach was a gnawing pit of hunger, desperate for dinner. But the house was completely roofed and their client was pleased. Sakura might have felt more of a sense of accomplishment when she was handed her cut of the mission pay if her body weren’t aching everywhere.

Kakashi clapped his hands with faux cheer as he considered them all. “This has been such an illuminating day, hasn’t it? I think we’ve all learned a lot.”

‘I learned a lot about how much I want to punt my teammates all the way across the continent,’ Sakura grumped to herself.

“You’ve all worked very hard today and I look forward to seeing the same effort tomorrow,” Kakashi said, his solitary eye crinkling. In it, Sakura swore she saw the depths of hell. “So I will see you tomorrow at six am sharp.”

He reached out to ruffle hers and Naruto’s hair. As his hand reached towards her, panic suddenly spiked in her throat. She saw an image of someone else’s fingers moving towards her, grasping at her eye. Or was it her own hand? Blood was dripping down her face and she could hear water and she couldn’t stop the hand she was going to lose her eye no no no no

Sakura broke out of her paralysis and slapped away Kakashi’s hand. It hovered in the air for a moment and she could clearly sense his surprise. And then he let it fall away and acted as if she hadn’t done anything at all.

“Bye now.” With a wave, Kakashi disappeared.

Naruto and Sasuke were staring at her. She swallowed hard underneath their scrutiny. “It’s just been such a long day, and I didn’t want him messing up my hair,” she laughed weakly, trying to play off her sudden panic.

“Your hair is already a mess from sweating all day,” Sasuke pointed out bluntly.

“Well it’s not like I know where his hands have been or anything!” Sakura said as she grasped for excuses. “So, I have to get home now. See you tomorrow, Sasuke-kun! And you too, Naruto,” she added as an afterthought. With that, she dashed off into the darkening night.

Her jelly legs and bone deep exhaustion made the trip home longer than usual, but when Sakura came home, the house was filled with the smell of dinner. Her mouth watered in response.

Shisui chanted an unending litany of ‘food food food’ as the smell registered for him as well. She rolled her eyes. He was awfully concerned about food for a guy who was dead.

‘It tastes good,’ he said defensively. ‘I don’t need to be alive to appreciate the finer things in life.’

‘You are going to be murder on my weight loss plan,’ Sakura said.

Thankfully for her sanity, Shisui quieted down again when she sat down for dinner. She was able to make it through the meal and some conversation with her parents peacefully, and in fact she was almost able to forget that there was a ghost in her head. Instead, she got to be a normal twelve year old, complaining to her parents about her awful team and her weird jounin instructor.

After dinner, Sakura trudged upstairs for the bath. One of her parents had already drawn it earlier, so all Sakura had to do was wash herself off before she could relax in its soothing warmth.

Of course, once she was in the bathroom, she found herself facing the same dilemma as she had earlier that day, but even worse.

‘How am I supposed to take a bath with you in my head?’

‘Try closing your eyes again?’ Shisui suggested. Sakura groaned into her hands.

‘I can’t just close my eyes the entire time I take a bath.’ Sakura dropped her head against the wall.

‘Well, you can either get over it and take a bath, or just never take one ever again and reek for the rest of your life,’ he said.

Sakura shifted in place. It wasn’t that different from public bathhouses. There were some that didn’t separate by gender, even in Konoha. And she really wanted to soak before she went to bed.

‘Fine. But don’t you dare make fun of what I look like, or I’ll eat anmitsu for the rest of this week.’

Sakura stripped off her clothes and Shisui remained blissfully quiet. She paused while she folded her clothes, feeling suspicious of his obliging silence, but nothing was forthcoming. A few seconds later she was seated on the low stool and scrubbing away the day’s grime and sweat. Underneath the warm spray, her muscles loosened gratefully.

Once she was properly washed off, Sakura climbed into the deep bath tub and let herself relax and start to contemplate the day’s events. She stared unseeing at the pale islands that were her knees. Water dripped down her back from her pinned hair. The combination of water and her lowered guard resulted in a deluge of thoughts that weren’t her own.

-the clan never had a chance to begin with, he had been working against them the entire time-

-his hand ripped out his eye while he used the other one to brutally beat his body-

-he wasn’t one of the prized shinobi of the clan for nothing, and he needed to get away to warn him-

-no one could have his other eye, it was too dangerous-

Suddenly the impressions seemed to jerk inside her head and then Shisui’s presence seemed to expand in her head.

‘What did you just see?’ his voice was dark and heavy with intent. Sakura pulled her legs close as she processed the mental images. She had known all along, hadn’t she, that someone had hurt Shisui very badly before he died.

‘I said, what did you see? Tell me now Sakura,’ he demanded.

Sakura ignored his words. ‘Who…,’ she swallowed. ‘Who ripped out your eye, Shisui?’

His mental presence seemed to break in an odd way that Sakura instinctively associated with shock. It solidified again and this time was a nearly impenetrable wall that hid thoughts behind it which Sakura could not discern.

When he spoke again, his voice was hard and even, and for the first time she really believed he was a jounin. ‘What makes you think someone took my eye?’

‘I saw it,’ she answered in a small voice. ‘And then… and then you gave the ANBU boy your other eye. You…’ She furrowed her brow as she recalled her nightmare.

‘You told him he was your best friend and that you were giving it to him for safe keeping.’ Sakura’s voice became shrill as her horror mounted. ‘You gave him your eye! And then you jumped into the Naka River! I saw it!’

‘You saw how I died?’ Shisui pressed.

‘It was a little confusing; I had a nightmare about it, it was so awful, I couldn’t move at all except to pull my left eye out and give it to the boy. But I didn’t see very well what happened before then.’ Sakura hesitated a little. Shisui sounded slightly calmer. It was no wonder that his death was a sensitive topic. ‘Shisui… would you like to talk about it? Is that why you came back? To get revenge on the person who took your eye?’

Shisui’s presence remained impassive for a long time, so long in fact, that Sakura thought that maybe he hadn’t heard her or had fallen asleep. And then she felt him sort of shudder, or maybe ripple, and then she felt grief begin to emanate from him as his mental presence shrank in on itself.

‘I… forgive me, Sakura, I just can’t talk about it. It’s too difficult. Please, let it alone.’

‘Oh.’ There was a part of Sakura that wanted to keep pushing. What about the ANBU boy with Shisui’s other eye? Why did Shisui feel the need to commit suicide? And surely he would want to confront the person responsible for hurting him in the first place? Then again, the only way Shisui could do that was through her, and if this person could maim a jounin and escape, then killing her would be too easy.

Shisui’s plea struck a chord in her. It was clear his death was too new and he hadn’t come to grips with it. It probably bothered him that she was reliving it. It seemed like it was a private, intimate thing, and here was Sakura, watching it and picking at the scabs with hardly a care at all for how Shisui might feel about it.

‘I’m sorry,’ she offered lamely.

‘It’s fine. How about you just go to sleep now. You have to wake up early tomorrow, after all.’ With Sakura’s acquiescence to Shisui’s request, his voice became normal again and no longer the oppressive thing it was before.

Sakura made a noise of agreement. She climbed out of the tub and proceeded to finish her nightly routine.

Eventually she made it into her bed, collapsing into it with a grateful sigh. She could only imagine what kind of awful training and missions would be in store for her tomorrow. And that was before Naruto did something stupid to make things worse or Shisui started in on his nagging comments. She curled up beneath her covers and closed her eyes. But for now, sleep.

Not long afterward, the nightmares started.

#roadkill writes #throwing a stone in a river #haruno sakura #uchiha shisui #sakura ft shisui