#and honestly itachi just looks old in general

[mixelation]

some itachi + romance meta for reborn au ->

so, my personal headcanon for itachi is that he has a lot of little idle romantic fantasies about a nondescript fantasy partner, but it takes a pretty big push for him to go "oh, i love this person." he's open to sex if his partner wants it, but he doesn't really care about it otherwise. in other words, he'd be into a romantic partner if he happened upon one (and, like, he didn't have four thousand other high-priority problems the relationship would be incompatible with), but he's not actively looking and he doesn't really need one to be happy.

in an AU where the massacre didn't happen, I think he'd be open to dating. but in mutagenicity, he DID live through the massacre and being in akatsuki, and he IS mentally 20+ years older than he looks, and oh my god, please don't make him talk to children. especially uchiha children he killed in previous life. please.

i don't think all ninja clans necessarily cling to old fashioned traditions about marriage and bloodlines, but i like the idea of some of them hanging around for Shenanigans. like no one would really care if itachi were gay, as long as he quietly kept his boyfriend as a boyfriend and married someone capable of childbirth and made that new heir. they don't even care if the heir is female! progress :)

but also itachi has a mysterious genetic disease so they're like. hmm yeah okay you may marry outside of the clan. (desperately start researching if there's some sort of Test for sharigan babies)

mikoto has of course Noticed itachi just like.... isn't interested? in even talking to other teens?? so she wants to get him started kind of early. listen itachi, marriage will be SO much easier if you've dated your bride and figured out someone you actually like. also if you don't find one i will simply find one for you at some certain age and you will have no say in the matter.

the first few times she sends him on dates she just socially manipulates a situation where somehow he ends up alone with a girl mikoto likes. the girl is almost always very accomplished for her age, polite, pretty. literally nothing is wrong with her except she's 16 and itachi hates strangers. like, he's fine with them. he can put on a smile and be polite for a limited amount of time. but Inner Itachi is so fucking mean and fucked up, getting socially close to people almost always makes them hate him (for valid reasons) and then also his date is 16. so mikoto keeps putting him in a position where he's inevitably going to make a poor teenaged girl cry because he told her she'll never get promoted to jounin because her mission completion rate is mediocre, which he does often feel bad about, but also he cannot do anything about his horrible personality and cannot help himself. and then even if he likes her, what is he supposed to do? be like "yeah i'm just going to tell you my opinion and it will come out blunt and mean and also i'll be right and refuse to apologize, it's because of my deeply fucked up past life where the state told me i had to pick between murdering my entire family or letting my family destroy everything i care about, sorry about that." no! obviously he can't do that!!!

and his feelings about mikoto in general just, like, insane. she had her hand in supporting the coup in his previous life, but she raised him and loved him, but also she let him kill her so he'd see it in his nightmares constantly, and this mikoto didn't do any of that but he still sees her in his dreams and she is EQUALLY socially manipulative in this timeline, and honestly this is sort of making his feelings about her even more insane, but obviously he can't talk to her about it. so he needs to figure out way to dodge this whole dating situation in order to avoid uchiha massacre #2

so one day he's stealing dango right off tori's plate while she's in the bathroom, and he's like. holy fuck. tori is a girl, and she's not even going to get upset i'm about to do this to her. and then she comes back and is like "why the fuck did you steal my food" and he tells her it's because she did a disproportionately low amount of substandard work on the mission and hence deserves less of the mission budget. and she DOES rub the inside of his sleeping bag down with poison ivy but she also doesn't fucking cry.

itachi, flipping his sleeping bag inside out: perfect. we're dating now. <3

tori is NOT mikoto's top pick because she's a wild card and not the easily controlled nice girl mikoto was aiming for, but. at least itachi seems to actually like her? and she hasn't come crying to mikoto about how her son horrible yet, so. she's even got a decent amount of social clout for (checks note) a defector from another village who seems to go out of her way to be annoying and unlikable. mikoto isn't really thrilled but she backs off

dating is basically nothing like itachi's idle fantasies because tori is also deeply messed up, and also itachi spent a VERY long time in the other timeline convinced she was going to blab his secrets and Ruin Everything and he really wanted to kill her, but also that DID translate into a weird sort of respect pretty early on in this timeline, and they can have actual conversations about stuff. she helped him kill danzo, no questions asked. they like watching bad movies and dragging them to pieces together. she willingly reads his favorite book. they say mean shit to each other and it's fine because they've mutually accepted the other is just like this. it's comfortable. also pointing tori'a ability to ruin everything for everyone is so nice when pointed at someone itachi doesn't like

so even once itachi is old enough he can date Actual Adults, tori is like, "hey are you going to break up with me?" and he's like, "........no?" and she's like "okay." and they move in together and have separate bedrooms and tori attempts to kill him at least twice over burning food so bad it won't come off the pot, but it's comfortable and they're both happy

(and also itachi realizes tori fucking loves going along with bits, so if he tells her he wants to do some stupid romantic thing, she will just go along with it and have fun. wild)

i think they get married kind of late For The Setting (like very late twenties) because it takes tori years to figure out their illegal test tube baby and they just don't really see the point without the baby. mikoto finds this immensely frustrating. but at least they're on the same page, even if it's the WRONG PAGE

#reborn au

[theheirofthesharingan]

the itachi's fandom full of proshippers..... they got him 💔 sigh

I don't really get how is that a bad thing? A piece of media and the characters associated with it will have all sorts of fans, and unless someone forces you (I mean in general, not you as an individual, anon) to watch/read their content, you should be okay with what kind of content they're creating. If you're not okay with it, you can still hold a negative opinion on the matter without making it look like it's the end of the world. If Naruto was a live-action movie/TV series and people started to create content on the actors, like they do with boy bands, that involves real life people, I would have a problem with it. But exploring themes through the lines drawn on paper who cannot exist in real world isn't the end of everything.

I'm not going into moral and psychological implications of pro-shipping, but in the simplest terms, if you don't like Itachi fans creating the "problematic" content you can always choose to ignore it. That's what I do.

Fiction is fiction. Yes, many people do get inspired from it and end up doing horrible things. But fanworks alone aren't responsible for that. They don't even have that much reach beyond a few thousand people on the internet. There are plenty of slasher movies. I don't like them personally. There are books dealing with darker themes as well that anti-shippers would not like. Again - one can ignore it instead of hounding the authors.

In my country a minor girl was paired up with a 37-year-old man for a romantic drama. That's one of the things pro shippers are accused of. A pro-shipper might or might not be okay with this in real life. We don't know. Who knows an anti-shipper who preaches morals on Twitter like a valiant keyboard warrier and fights "depraved" people is okay with it too?

In short, you can't assume anything about people on the internet from the things they create outside of their daily routine. The thing you can do is curate the content you want to explore and your own experiences. Much like you don't owe them anything, they don't owe you anything either.

I don't talk about shipping on my blog not because I'm against people exploring any of this, but because in general I'm uninterested in this aspect of Itachi and his relationships with other characters. Itachi and Sasuke's bonding can be deep without any romantic/sexual undertones to it. Shisui and Itachi were friends and kids before Shisui's death. And I don't think Itachi ever had the time to think what he wanted in his life in romantic terms before it all went wrong. Kisame and Itachi just make me uncomfortable. In canon they don't have anything going on.

If people want to explore these things about Itachi and his bonding with other characters it's okay, honestly. You can ignore it and focus on the kind of things you like. And if there's not enough of it you can create it too. There's always an audience for everything.

#itachi #itachi uchiha #shipping #anon #ask

[secret-engima]

Wait wait, can I hear more about the itachi not using shisui’s eye thoughts? Because honestly, for a character that’s supposed to be a pacifist, itachi seems to be written much more like an Angel of Death esque serial killer?

Uhhhhhhh okay I'll try to get this down before tumblr makes me wanna gouge my eyes out (why is dark mode just as painful to look at as light mode make it stopppp)

-It is very clear that Itachi was originally intended to be a Pure Evil character with different motivations. In Naruto OG we *really* have no reason to think he is anything other than a nutjob who murdered his family and tortured his brother for the lols. NOW. This isn't actually an irredeemable factor for him as a character, with a show as long as Naruto it is perfectly possible to rewrite him and tweak him into a tragic villain or even the tragic hero Kishi wanted us to later believe he was. *IF* proper work is done to explain why the so called pacifist resorted to so much violence.

-Which obviously never explicitly happens even though with how Itachi's backstory is set up it honestly wouldn't be that hard.

-Moving on from the meta perspective may I put forth to you this answer to All the Itachi Questions:

-Danzo.

-No seriously. I already suspected this when I was reading just the fanfic, but actually watching the arc where we see Itachi's spiral there are some Key Things I noticed happening that are literally never mentioned or expanded on that would make Itachi choosing Massacre over Brainwashing make perfect sense.

-Gonna have to backtrack just a bit for this, but when I say that Danzo wanted the Uchiha dead, I *mean he wanted them dead*. Not just in a "the village and the Uchiha were starting to butt heads anyway and he took preemptive murder action" way but like- "intentional years long plan to kill off this entire clan" way.

-One of the big things that fueled the rumor that the Uchiha were at fault for the Kyuubi attack, other than the old story of Madara controlling the Kyuubi, is that the Uchiha were not present for the defense against the Kyuubi. A lot of clans took heavy losses trying to fend the biju off or drive it out of the village until Minato could arrive, but the Uchiha were literally not there, and people got suspicious as to why. The answer is literally Danzo. Fugaku was planning to marshal the Uchiha *because* he hoped he and his clan would be able to mass genjutsu the Kyuubi into being docile, but at the last minute he received orders from *Danzo* through one of his Root, to instead take his clan and.

-Guard the civilian underground shelters and the village outskirts "in case an enemy tries to sneak in in the chaos". I'm sorry but uh. YOUR CHUUNIN COULD DO THAT WHILE THE PEOPLE WITH MIND CONTROL POWERS HELP WITH THE BIJU PROBLEM? But no. Danzo specifically ordered them to the two places they could not help against the Kyuubi and would be mostly out of sight/would be accused of using civilians as an excuse to save their own skins.

-No explanation is ever given to the general populace for why the Uchiha were not there, even though it was a direct order from the man who was, at the time, Sarutobi's known SiC and primary advisor. All Sarutobi would have to do is say 'they were following my orders' and it would clear up. He does not. Which indicates that Sarutobi *possibly* did not even known Danzo did what he did, and the Uchiha never told the Hokage because Danzo is his SiC and this would not be the first time people just assumed Danzo is operating on Sarutobi's orders/permission.

-We see multiple mULTIPLE times in this arc that over the course of literal years, starting from the Kyuubi attack and on to the Massacre, that Danzo was intentionally orchestrating the tension in the village. The isolation of the Uchiha compound wasn't Tobirama, it was Danzo, who had them relocated post the Kyuubi attack for "better reconstruction of the village". They were so far removed they were outside the chakra barrier/radar thing that Pain used Itachi's passcode for in the Pain Arc. That's how far removed they were from the village proper. They were under 24 hr, intense surveillance, cameras on their streets, watch towers hidden around their compound border, cameras even looking *into* the windows of their houses. And they were aware of it, because the Uchiha are not dumb and also have really good vision thank you. They can see that. Their one foundational position in the village, the Police Force, was being forcibly and slowly taken from them with Danzo pushing Sarutobi to insist they take on officers from other clans like Inuzuka and Aburame, and some of their traditional patrol beats were being straight up reassigned to ANBU. You know, the guys who are supposed to be busy assassinating Konoha's enemies, not breaking up bar brawls.

-I could go on with this but if you actually watch that arc and watch Danzo, he is very intentionally *trying* to force the Uchiha to plot a coup. He is trying to get an excuse to kill them all. AND on top of that, we already know he has a sharingan eye already, yes even before Shisui. In fact he steals Shisui's eye because his current one is going blind *presumably from overuse*, which means he's already spent who knows how long subtly influencing/genjutsuing Sarutobi and other high ranked shinobi into looking the other way or agreeing with him on policy stuff.

-Enter *Itachi* and Shisui, who are trying to juggle this entire situation at ages like- 11 and maybe 14 when this starts and later Itachi at a lonely 13 by the end. Every time they come up with advice on how to help lower clan tensions to Sarutobi, Danzo railroads it and makes the situation worse instead. There's literal dialogue for it, where he'll interrupt them or just later on dismiss the idea and bully Sarutobi (who lets himself be bullied) into doing something else that is clearly just going to make the Uchiha madder.

-Somewhere about ... halfway I'd guess? Halfway at the earliest through this train wreck, Itachi gets pulled from Kakashi's ANBU squad and given, by Sarutobi, *to Danzo* and his ROOT shinobi, who at the time were not only known about by Sarutobi but implicitly approved of, they've worked alongside normal ANBU for several missions in the past. So now Itachi, the pacifist, the clan heir, the linchpin to this entire disaster, is directly under the command of Danzo Eye-Stealer and Genjutsu User Shimura, is within his reach and probably in his presence for *long periods of time* to receive orders/get pontificated at. Remember that point.

-Okay so now, NOW we get to Shisui's eye and Itachi not using it. To start with, Itachi was fully on board with Shisui's plan, he *wanted* this plan to work, he and Shisui were gonna meet up, go to the Clan Head, and do the thing. But Shisui, poor naive soul, reported to Danzo first, to inform him that "hey we're going to fix this problem". Danzo's response is to attack Shisui and rip out his eye to replace his now mostly blind current sharingan. Shisui runs, suicide by dramatics yada yada, his dying words are for Itachi to take his remaining eye and DO THEIR PLAN.

-Itachi straight up ... does not do it. In canon there is no actual reason stated. I don't thing we even get Itachi doing a long-winded monologue (which Kishi usually adores doing to kill us with boredom) about why he thinks the plan will fail. Instead we hit a *timeskip* of anything from a few weeks to possibly a few months, and then we have Itachi approaching "Madara" for assistance in the massacre.

-Madara who, iirc, Danzo is also aware of, I believe he bargained with Madara at least once in canon for something but I don't remember where that shows up.

-Funny how the guy who now has a fresh new brainwashing eye suddenly is not going to be responsible for the final blow to the Uchiha. Funny how the 13 year old who is under his direct command and influence goes from wanting to fix the problem without bloodshed to *recruiting a rogue shinobi* to help kill everyone, and then handily removing himself from the village entirely to go spy on the Akatsuki and make himself Konoha's enemy #1 for years to come.

-Funny how no one ever heard the massacre take place, and how the Uchiha compound was already conveniently outside the barrier radar so no one would notice the Uchiha chakra signatures going out en masse.

-Funny, how the first people on the scene of the massacre? Are Danzo and his root agents.

-Funny, isn't it, that the man with years of experience using a stolen eye to influence people in secret suddenly has everything he wants, and the talented but much less experienced *child* directly under his command goes against all his previous ideals of pacifism to do something that will fully benefit Danzo and then removing himself from the situation entirely to serve as a spy against Danzo's other potential problems.

-Funny isn't it that the one thing Itachi loved enough to defy orders for, Sasuke, almost *died* from the trauma of the Tsukuyomi anyway (iirc he was in a coma for a few *days*, but that could be fanon I'm misremembering).

-Funny that, over the years, this one single loose end of Danzo's, this one last thing Itachi would be willing to destroy Danzo for even after all he has done and abandoned, is systematically isolated and then later hunted by a missing ninja who *also* spent a lot of time in the past working for Danzo. Including being able to send the Sound Four in to get him in the heart of the village without any alarms going up in the barrier radar thing. For which Danzo has the codes for his root ninja who are also now not supposed to exist.

-Funny how this one loose end keeps running into circumstances that by rights should either kill him or make him *also* a missing ninja that Konoha should hunt down, and the only thing that keeps Sasuke from being declared an enemy of the village and slaughtered for a bounty is the unanticipated attachment of Tsunade to Naruto, who loves Sasuke enough to beg for clemency for him.

-Funny how one of the *first* things Danzo does after becoming temporary Hokage is put out a bounty on this one boy that survived his plotting and was the only threat left to him from Itachi, even after Itachi has died.

-But sure. It was all Itachi's idea to massacre the clan and never use Shisui's eye to fix the problem. No sir definitely no brainwashing of a baby Uchiha involved there, nope. Nada. What are you talking about. Itachi totally did this all of his own choice and volition.

#SE asks #anon asks #Secret Engima Rambles #SE Rants #uchiha massacre #naruto #danzo shimura #hi i have thoughts and today i will be saying them. #can you tell i have issues with how ppl in canon and fanon characterize Itachi and the massacre #when danzo is #right there #with canon mind control powers

[fwooofy]

Can you bless us with some general Sasori HCs?

I'm sorry for how late this answer is, still not used to checking Tumblr - But thank you for the ask!!

Here are some of my Sasori HCs - It got a big longer than I anticipated, but I legit never shut up about Sasori lol

(Slaps the top of Hiruko) this bad boy can fit so much neurodivergence and trauma. Specifically I see him with ASD, he's somewhere on the spectrum, special interest is puppets. Sasori gives off narcissistic traits, he also has a big control issue. Things have to go this way, be done like this. Man also has routines, do not fuck with them. The shit Chiyou did to him as a child left its mark, its way more then just he hates waiting.

Human Sasori has freckles! (this one is self indulgent as a natural red head) Sasori had freckles, and its one detail he left off his puppet body. His puppet body is roughly the same size of his human form, if not a bit bulkier but its to fit tons of weapons and poisons inside himself. No one expects the short king to stab you in a vital point, it works to his advantage. If you look at Sasori and think he will be easy to take on because of his smaller stature, you've already fallen for his trap

Sasori left his village at 15, and we know he's 35 in the Anime. I personally hc him to be late teens, when we see his fight with Konan. And its somewhere in his 20's or so when he turned himself into a puppet. Oh how I wish we knew this process!!! But I like to HC that his human body is sealed away in a scroll somewhere in the back of his storage. It's roughly 17/18 in age, and probably incapacitated. If he transferred himself back into that body, he'd be weak and sick and would have to recover. The reasons he still has his human body is in the event he has to fix his puppet body and can't be in it- Ya never know (good rp material too)

During his rouge years, and when he was still human. Sasori was going on murder tours legit for 'Art Supplies' - Rouge Sasori is very different from the puppet man we know, he's free from his village, doing his art. Slaughtering villages along the way. I hc his mental health was at his lowest, and he /didn't care./ He was definitely on one, thank god Konan found him lol - Apathetic, uncaring, this is where he got his title Akasuna / Of the Red Sands

He gets along with some of the other Akatsuki members. I like to think Sasori and Kakuzu are actually decent friends/comrades. Both are one of the original Akatsuki members, along with Itachi. Both are old, some fashion of immortal, they both keep to themselves but when they cross paths they get along rather well, even if its for a short time. I'd say he also respects Itachi, but both are men a few words. No strong feelings.

Sasori actually does appreciate other forms of art, we see this in the hidden series where he and Deidara find someone who makes a specific kind of pottery, same when he fought Konan he brought up her jutsu being art. Knowing Sasori can look at other art forms, its telling about him and Deidara's fights. His opinions on Deidara's art is /personal/ - I feel like, Sasori was willing to say the sculptures themselves is art, but the second Deidara blows it up and makes that conflict with his personal art philosophies.... Is where the actual strife is. But he doesn't disregard Deidara's skill, just what he does in the end. But after so long of arguing over what /true art is/ it's now just personal beef. "Your art sucks, get a real hobby."

Sasori HATES Orochimaru. I honestly don't think these two were 'close' when Orochimaru was his partner. Honestly I think Sasori thought Orochimaru was off putting, their ideals of how to get immortality differ nor do I think Orochimaru would of cared for Sasori's art. I don't think there was any strong feelings, UNTIL Orochimaru left. Sasori suddenly was like, "FUCK THAT SNAKE FUCKER! He attacked one of our members and then went AWOL?!?!". Sasori was with Pein when Orochimaru was recruited, didn't want him to join in the first place - and I know Sasori just muttering under his breath like "I knew we never should of let him in, no one fucking listens to me. I should of killed him" - And because Oro left, they needed to find a new membber- So that means Sasori was than inconvenienced with having to find a new partner, and oooooooo he hates that snake SO MUCH.

His relationship with the Kazekage is always a fun thing to think about - and normally for me it gets into more ship / trauma related things. BUT without those themes, I think Sasori has strong, hate filled feelings for his country and its leaders. They /used/ him for this war, he was making puppets to kill. Chiyou's bullshit aside from fucking him up, this was something he grew to hate. We don't know how or when he took the Kazekage, we only know that it was hard and he left 0 trace, it's why the puppet is his favorite. With Sandaime taken, the sand spent all their recourses looking for him making them weak and easy to attack. This was part of Sasori's plan, one final fuck you to his village. As well as the bragging rights of legit stealing and now using 'The strongest kazekage known to the Sunagakure history' - I can only imagine his smug face and sense of superiority.

#Ask #Anon #Fwoofy.txt #Headcanon #Sasori #I actually love asks like this #i've just been busy #Anyway #I love Sasori #and I have many thoughts about him #please ask me more lol

[maddmuses]

Ship Wish List

(Not all Romantic, specifying when a dynamic I want isn’t)

Conner Kent -Young Justice Members (Friendship) -M’gann M’orzz -Cassandra Cain -Cassie Sandsmark -Teen Heroes in general to relate to -Clark Kent (My boy needs his father blz) -Lois Lane (he needs a mom in his life too) -Basically any Kent (family vibes, and to meet his daughter)

Martha Kent -Other kids of JL members (Just connections bls) -Witchy vibe gfs would be great in general please she is known magic strong-girl -Pretty much same on Superfam and Kentfam as Conner

Caroline Kent -Other next-gen Teen Titans plz (all kinds) -Pretty much same on Superfam and Kentfam as Conner

Cassandra Cain -Other Batfam Sibs (Family, please she needs these) -Bruce (Give this girl her dad dammit!!) -Conner Kent (#1 Boyfriend tbh) -Stephanie Brown -Rose Wilson (-confused bi noises-)

Peter Parker -Other Spider Folxs (Spider-Verse what what?) -MJ Watson -Felicia Hardy -Cindy Moon -Gwen Stacy -Kitty Pryde -Mayday Parker (I need him to be a dad or meet an alt-timeline version of the daughter he could have someday) -X-Men (I like this in general, I definitely like the idea of him being connected to other ostracized superhumans in general)

Rachel Summers -ATTENTION ALL MUTANTS (Here she is, right there) -Kitty Pryde -Mayday Parker (future timeline gfs ftw :3) -Laura Kinney  -Logan (I need surrogate dad vibes, lbr her current dad leaves things to be desired)

Gwenpool -If it’s chaotic I’d love to have it

Ty Lee -Fuck me up w/ your ATLA muses (Ty Lee needs interacts) -Also Azula ofc :3

Mina Ashido -Ochako Uraraka -Nejire Hado -Momo Yaoyorozu -Honestly I just want her to interact w/ other hero muses in general (Var.) -Could give her some adversaries in the form of villains too tho (Var.)

Isane Kotetsu -Kiyone Kotetsu (She needs to interact with her little sister!!!) -Other 4th Division Members -Rangiku (”>////////////////<” -- Isane Kotetsu (19XX-20XX)

Rukia Kuchiki -Ichigo Kurosaki (A variety of dynamics are desired but romantic too yes) -Renji (Frenemies but actually Frenemies) -Byakuya (She requires her older brother) -Orihime (Besties but also gfs???? 👀👀👀👀) -Tatsuki -Ask me about my Rukia ship tier list it’s p good -Gotei 13 (What if The Office, but it’s samurai ghosts????) -Her gf from when she was in the Shinigami academy

Byakuya Kuchiki -Same as Rukia reg. Gotei 13 (Just need coworkers tbh) -Renji (Obviously he needs his main subordinate to bully) -Kenpachi (Battle Boyfriends???? 👀👀👀) -Same as Rukia I have a ship tier list ask about it

Isshin Shiba-Kurosaki -Masaki Kurosaki -Basically any Kurosaki he needs his kids lbr -People he knew early in his time in the living world -Various Bleach muses for various reasons

Goku -Chi-Chi >:3 -His kids kindly (My Goku is still not best dad but he’s peak Goku-style dad) -ppl to fight???? -Also his besties/squad

Goba -Other Son family members -also ppl to fight -Time Patrollers to train with -also ppl to date -Hot Saiyan Girls™ 👀👀👀👀 Mun: *slaps Goba’s hands* OFF MY COMPUTER BRAT!!

Broly -Look I’m not picky here???? -Raditz might be nice -So would Cheelai tho

Itachi Uchiha (My main verse is him as Hokage) -Basically anyone from konoha should get to interact with this delight -Sasuke (he needs to make sure his brother doesn’t turn to the dark side) -Akatsuki members fs -idk about romantic ships but I’m down to clown -other Kage

Sakura Haruno -Naruto Uzumaki (besties) -Ino (😳) -Hinata -Karin -Temari -Tenten

Yuharu Kaiba -Honestly she’d love to interact with almost anyone from DM or GX, possibly even 5Ds

Toru Caushan -The Strawhats (though lbr they aren’t a crew he goes after hardcore) -Nami (I miss the old ship w/ him and missvvave but definitely open to exploring it w/ other Namis) -Kaido -other Mythical Zoan users -Any other Marine canons or OCs

Korosensei -Just give this man students plz? -Superman (I think they’d be wholesome) -Aguri Yukimura

Donovan Greyback -Lily Potter II (They’re besties your honor) -Era-dependent but honestly Donovan would love to interact w/ anyone

Hermione Granger -Other Golden Trio and GT-era Hogwarts characters -Ministry of Magic characters -Luna Lovegood (<3)

Sora -I picked him because he can interact w/ literally any verse -Could definitely go for other Destiny Island and FF chara tho

Roxas -Axel (Besties) -Xion (Also Besties) -Org XIII muses and just generally other Nobodies -Other Keybladers tbh

Vanitas -Just anyone for him to torment tbh -Wayfinder Trio -Other Villains -Disney characters who can possibly redeem him (🥺🥺🥺🥺)

Zack -Aerith -Cloud -Angeal (mentor pls) -Tifa -Basically any party member or SHINRA character

Cloud -Honestly I would like more variety but also will never say no to a Tifa or Aerith ship -Just like all kinds of ppl please

Tifa -Aerith -But also just give her gfs -Clouds are also likely ye from me -Patrons of her bar

Dante -Lady -Trish (But like, they’re brother-sister vibes) -Vergil (let him annoy his big bro) -Nero (also let him annoy his baby nephew) -Like just let me throw Dante at you

Ahri -She needs victims

Settrigh -Hey, does anyone want to work for a criminal? -Also could use interacts w/ his mum because he loves his mum

Luffy (Pending Addition, bls be patient)

Nami (Same)

Riruka (also technically a test muse let me alone about it)

#Ship Wishlist

[animeomegas]

according to what I read in one of your publications with young!sasuke,¿¡ is he capable of spying on us with itachi wherever we go ?! 😭😭

oooh god, honestly I would be dying of panic attacks knowing that that little imp is out judging any movement of ours 🤒

But what if Itachi's alpha had anxiety and panic attacks? ¿how would itachi react to that?

(anyway haha,¿how are you? I hope you're well <3)

Ahh, well Sasuke can't get everywhere, but he's certainly determined to try, and once Shisui joins him, his reach extends a lot lmao.

But if Itachi's alpha was suffering with some genuine anxiety about everything, I think he would take it a lot more seriously. He will not stand for his alpha's mental health being damaged from something he can fix.

First, he goes to Shisui. He explains that knows Shisui likes to mess with him, but that it's having a negative effect on his alpha and he needs to stop. Shisui does love teasing Itachi, but he's not a bully. He stops snooping and stops helping Sasuke spy. (He might bring this whole thing up to tease Itachi's alpha several years into the future though lol)

Getting Sasuke to stop is a little more difficult. Telling him that his stalking makes Itachi's alpha nervous will probably only encourage Sasuke tbh, so he have to take a different approach. I think Itachi would sit down with Sasuke and really talk to him about his behaviour. He would probably let Sasuke know how much he wanted to retire and stop being a ninja, even though he knows that revelation could confuse and probably hurt Sasuke.

Basically, Itachi takes it seriously. He knows how horrible a damaged mental health is, his will never be the same after what he's had to endure, and he refuses to stand by and watch his alpha suffer.

...

"Sasuke," Itachi started, addressing a 12-year-old Sasuke. He had dragged Sasuke into his bedroom for a discussion, and they were now both sitting on his bed together. "It's very important for me to talk with you about your behaviour with my mate."

"But they-" Sasuke immediately started, voice outraged.

"But they nothing," Itachi said firmly. "They have been nothing but kind to you, and they have been nothing but perfect to me. There is no reason for you to be tormenting us, and I know you're doing it on purpose, Sasuke, don't try to deny it."

"But they forced you to retire!" Sasuke shouted, losing his composure completely. "They make you stay at home! They are going to make you have pups against your will! It's awful! They're awful."

Tears started to gather around Sasuke's eyes. Itachi didn't know if they were frustrated tears or tears of sadness. Probably a combination, but either way, he couldn't help but soften at his younger brother's tears. His protectiveness really was sweet in a way.

"Calm down, Sasuke," Itachi gently ordered, reaching a hand to wipe away a tear, despite Sasuke's attempt to dodge it. "What makes you think they are forcing me to do any of that, hmm?"

"Because-Because you were the best ninja ever! Why would you choose to leave? It doesn't make sense unless they forced you!"

Itachi really didn't want to have this conversation with Sasuke. He knew how much Sasuke idolised him, idolised being a ninja in general, and he didn't want to shatter either of those views too harshly. And if he was being honest with himself, he also didn't want Sasuke view of him to change. Sasuke wasn't exactly subtle with his exclamations about how omegas who stay home and pop out pups for their alphas are stupid or being manipulated when Itachi first introduced his alpha. It... would hurt for Sasuke to start to think less of him for his decision.

"Just because someone is good at something, doesn't mean they like it," Itachi started carefully.

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke questioned, brows furrowed. "You were one of the youngest ninjas ever! You were so powerful!"

Itachi sighed and poked Sasuke in the forehead, smiling slightly at the glare he sent in return. How could he explain this without... saying too much.

"It was war... there were..." Itachi found himself frustrated at the lack of words forming. He didn't know what to say. Maybe he could talk around it. "I have worked my whole life, Sasuke, and after a while, it was clear that I wasn't happy with that. I thought about what I wanted to do and... I wanted to be at home, I wanted to spend more time with you, and I wanted to spend more time with my alpha."

"I don't understand," Sasuke whispered quietly, seemingly too taken aback by the raw emotion in Itachi's voice to shout anymore. He looked as uncomfortable as Itachi felt. Sasuke was only 12, maybe he should simplify it some more.

"Well, you're favourite food is tomatoes but I like dango instead," Itachi said, trying to keep his voice steady despite the nerves he had about what he was going to admit. "Which one of us is wrong?"

"No one, it's just opinion..." Sasuke replied, confused.

"Exactly. Being a ninja is what will make you happy, is that right?"

Sasuke nodded determinedly.

"I will be the most powerful ninja there is. I want to travel everywhere on missions, and lead teams just like you did!"

Itachi was silent for a moment before continuing.

"And... I want to stay at home," Itachi admitted quietly. "I want to worry about cooking and schedules and looking after my family. I don't want to worry about" -blood, death, his friends dying in front of him, the nightmares, the panic- "missions.

"Which one of us is wrong, Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He avoided his brother's eyes by looking at his own lap. His silence was good. It proved that he had actually listened to Itachi for once.

"I want you to think about it," Itachi said, understanding that his brother needed to compartmentalise. "Come on, mother's making dinner tonight and I'm sure she could use some help."

Sasuke nodded, shoulders relaxing at the change of topic. He obediently followed Itachi out, quieter than Itachi had seen him in months.

#young!sasuke #itachi #itachi x reader #alpha!reader #omega itachi #omega!itachi #a/b/o #omegaverse #naruto #headcanons

[animeyanderelover]

💕Can I request all the senjus,orochimaru,shisui and itachi with a s/o who managed to make themselves immortal with out consequences and they did it without experimenting but they can make other people immortal but people keep trying to kidnap them for it,also they don’t age anymore?💕

This is what pretty much Orochimaru’s dream is.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, delusions, kidnapping, manipulation, clinginess

Immortal s/o

Hashirama Senju

🌳He is quite the more supporting and encouraging person. But in this situation even he finds himself a bit unsure how to feel. Your jutsu is quite amazing and something marvelous, but Hashirama is someone who wants to spend his whole life with his darling and die later on when both of them are grey and old together, that is his dream. But with you who stopped aging long ago and will never die, this is something impossible. The clan has definitely a huge interest in you, even though they are aware that your ability will end up being terrifying if it goes into the wrong hands which is why the Leaf guards you very observingly, not wanting to risk that a rival village gets their hands on you. If their strongest shinobi would be made immortal, that would end in a catastrophe. Hashirama himself makes sure that even in his own village no one plans on abusing your powers.

🌳I do not think that Hashirama would force you to either make him immortal nor to somehow tell you that you should try to stop your powers and start aging again. Not like he won't try to convince you to eventually consider finding a way to stop being immortal and instead settle down and live with him. Given the fact that are immortal, you might lived longer than he did and for that have knowledge he and his clan do not possess which is why you're treated from the Senju and the whole village really respectfully, if they need advice they will go and ask you. Hashirama can also only do this much and so he grows more clingy since he knows that he will die whilst you will live. And so he wants to be able to have a place in your heart for all the time to come and alongside with his brother and future generations, he trusts you to protect the Leaf Village once he dies. Even if his darling is immortal, he still wants to marry them since he is traditional.

Tobirama Senju

🌊Despite him being the harsher and much more intimidating and blackmailing guy from all the Senju, he has a rather simple dream as well. He wants to marry his darling and live with them together and one day die. And his dream is messed up with all of this as well and he is quite irritated by the knowledge that you made yourself immortal. On the one hand Tobirama is eager to invent new jutsu himself so from that perspective this is beyond fascinating, a wish many people before him had and tried to work on. But in a way this is honestly way too mocking for him as well because even if his darling might have to endure harsher lessons with him, they might honestly have the relieving thought that he will die one day anyways and then they're free. It is angering because it is true and depending on how old they are, they might nag him because of his behavior and he won't be able to say much against it since he knows they have more experience than him in life.

🌊This might be an advantage you have against him next to the whole being immortal thing. He will start being more respectful once he finds out how old you really are. He literally can not help it and that is why he sometimes, under the risk of his pride, asks you for some advice. He doesn't really want to be immortal either, even though he is more curious about it than his brother is. But what he has to do is always guaranteeing that you are under high protection because he know what terrible things your powers can do when being wrongly used. He might actually try to create a jutsu similar to yours because in a way you have been inspiring him. He also will end up marrying his darling. For starters he is a pretty traditional guy so marriage has a high meaning for him as well. Additionally he is not willing to let you that easily get away with your long life, he is possessive. He just kind of wants to set a mark on you for as long as you're part of the Leaf.

Orochimaru

🐍You have literally achieved what he has been trying to complete his whole life time without even having to experiment on anything and it is thrilling for him. No wonder he is after you as soon as he has heard the rumors, being in his way fervent about it and his obsession starts before he has even met you in person. And oh, he will hunt his darling down, no matter where he has to go and who he has to kill. He wants that jutsu and that talent who created it and no one will stop him. Not going to lie, at the beginning he is a bit salty, mostly because he feels like he has been beaten since you didn't even have to use anyone, you just had pure skill. But whilst he might have lost this, he still can owe the person who had the skills and intelligence and since he will totally force you to teach him that power and make him immortal as well, you might be stuck with him forever if you do so. And the bad part here is that if you don't, he will have no problems torturing you or using you as his next vessel.

🐍You're immortal, so it's not like you will die and he takes advantage of that if you refuse to lend him a hand. If you do help him, he will show his gratitude in a rather odd way, but it's better than his sadstic side. He simply keeps you, that much has to be said already. He can't effort to lose a talent like you, the experience not even to mention. His darling becomes his very special treasure who helped him earning immortality and in return he offers them a place to stay and protection. He knows that everyone wants to have that sort of abilities and he gets rid of all of them all to gladly, he won't let anyone dare to take his special underling away from him. He just always has you tagging along with him. Sasuke gets kind of interested as well since you are indeed powerful and you might as well get close to him since he is together with Kabuto and Orochimaru the only person you will see for a long time. Depending on how long you are already alive, Orochimaru also wants to know pretty much all jutsu and other knowledge you might have.

Tsunade Senju

🐌She looks quite young for her age which comes from the fact that she uses a jutsu that makes her appear young, but she is just like everyone else. She ages and is bound to die one day. And Tsunade handles this maybe a bit worse than some others do. You gotta understand, she just thought that she finally found the one person she can manage to live together with the rest of her life only to discover that they will continue living forever. And to know that she might be only one of many to come and that she might be forgotten one day is truly not very pretty, it makes her a bit more desperate. At first she was probably scared that you used to do the same things Orochimaru did to reach your goal so she was definitely more at ease when hearing that you succeeded without having to go with such drastic methods. For that reason she refuses to let her old teammate find out about you, knowing that he will be after you if he hears that you're in the Leaf which would only give him more reasons to attack.

🐌Tsuna might find herself tempted by the thought to be made immortal from you and live for all eternity together with you, simply because she is possessive as well and wants to be finally happy with the person she loves after all her beloved people dying on her. She's not completely sure, she knows that being immortal can be as much of a curse as it can be a blessing. The the council from Konoha is quite possessive as well, knowing how valuable you are and so they might want to use your powers for more selfish reasons from time to time. This leads to arguments between Tsunade and them because she is often against such decisions, seeing that they plan on making use of you. But one thing they do agree on is keeping you save from all other forces who want you in their grip. Funnily you might be a part of the eldest yourself if you lived long enough which gives Tsunade an advantage since you are on her side and not that narrow-viewed like the other eldest are.

Shisui Uchiha

🍂At this point in his timeline his darling might as well be already part of the village or at the very least known everywhere in the hidden villages for their special jutsu which is why everyone is on some sort of hunt for them. Shisui himself honestly probably never really saw himself falling for someone who constantly dominates the spotlight like you do, maybe also because he thought, despite the fact that you look young, the age difference would make him view you more as a admirable sensei because being able to make yourself and others immortal without having to do experiments on humans needs skill and wisdom. Shisui also just knows that even if you like him as well, this is a completely impossible love since not only might the superiors forbid it, but he does not desire to be made immortal. He already knows that everyone dies sooner or later and given his job being ready to die is a must since he is constantly exposed to danger.

🍂It would only break your heart in the end which is why he kind of feels like it might be best if he stays silent about his feelings at first. He just focuses on protecting you from potential enemies who plan on kidnapping you and tries to be someone who can leighten your mood up a bit since he sympathizes that life for you must be quite tricky. If he does confesses to you because he feels like you really like him as well or you tell him you like him first, he might hesitate and voice his doubts, but can be more easily manipulated since he loves you. Shisui kind of knows that he might not be the last since he doesn't want to be made immortal and you might find after his death a new person you love. And he accepts that, he doesn't want his darling to be alone only because they can't die. But he can make sure that he leaves some sort of impression on you so you will remember him. He wants at the very least a special place in your heart.

Itachi Uchiha

🍡He did not kidnap his darling so he could have their jutsu for himself, he definitely didn't. He did it because he lost control over his emotions and given the fact that you are constantly being chased by other power-hungry persons, he got triggered too much because he knows that some will hurt you to get what they want since you can not die. And afterwards Itachi just has to be really careful so that no one will find out because you are no ordinary person. You are famous and a living legend for your achievement and it'll cause a huge motion if he is being sighted with you because everyone will know afterwards, including the Akatsuki and he can expect that Pain will definitely want you to be a part of his organization since you not only have a very gifted ability, but might also possess knowledge and forgotten jutsu from long time ago. And Itachi doesn't want to force you to live the same life as him, even if you can't be killed on such missions.

🍡Itachi knows that he doesn't have long to live anyways and he already accepted that fact, he has his plans in mind for this. So he knows he won't be there for too long to protect you from all the greedy and selfish people which is why he might plan on making Sasuke look after you once he dies and he tells you about this as well, even though he knows you can handle yourself very well on your own as well. He respects people who are older than him and for that reason he might be far more respectful to the s/o than he would be already and he isn't embarrassed about it. Similar to Shisui he also knows that after his death his darling might find someone else and he won't be angry with them for it. They shouldn't spend their whole life grieving over him since he wants them to be happy. The only person he might ever tell willingly about his darling is Kisame since he is next to his younger brother the only person he really trusts with his darling.

#yandere naruto #yandere naruto shippuden #yandere hashirama #yandere hashirama senju #yandere tobirama #yandere tobirama senju #yandere orochimaru #yandere tsunade #yandere tsunade senju #yandere shisui #yandere shisui uchiha #yandere itachi #yandere itachi uchiha

[tranquil-turbulence]

Dumb Valentine’s - SasuSaku

Happy Valentine’s Day! Sorry this is a little late - I’ve been busy all day. I hope you enjoy this little oneshot I wrote a while ago.

Five-year-old Sasuke glanced across the room, utterly bored with his new assignment. A small scowl decorated his face, and he tapped his pencil against his thigh in a steady rhythm.

February 14th was Valentine's Day, the day that every girl in school awaited eagerly - and since it was such a special holiday, their teacher Iruka told the kindergarten class that they could spend the period making valentines for a person they held special. The majority of the girls immediately got to work swiping red and pink pieces of construction paper, scribbling away and cutting them into hearts, each one sending him wistful glances in hopes of catching his eyes. It didn't take a genius like Shikamaru to know who they were making their cards for.

Bleh. Girls were weird. Sasuke's scowl momentarily deepened as he caught sight of Naruto, his best friend, scribbling on his own card with a big grin. The boy had had an obnoxious crush on another of their classmates all year up to this point. Sasuke had to bear his ranting all year about how pretty 'Sakura-chan' was and how much he liked 'Sakura-chan' and oh how he wished 'Sakura-chan' would be his girlfriend at recess. The moment they'd been given the activity, he'd boasted that Sakura would be so impressed by his card that she'd have to be his girlfriend for sure. Naruto was already co-king of the jungle gym with him, he didn't need a stupid girlfriend.

Honestly, Sasuke didn't see what the big racket was. Of course his mother seemed to hold the holiday in some regard, as he remembered her acting more giggly than usual around his father - she'd cooked both boys breakfast in cutesy little hearts and flowers, but his father got breakfast in bed. Both boys got an extra treat in their lunches and one more kiss than usual, but his father got a full-out hug (granted, Itachi did well to cover Sasuke's eyes before he could see much of what they were doing, but he figured they were just hugging).

Itachi didn't seem to mind the holiday, but he tended to get more shy around Izumi, a girl in his grade that always followed him around like Akamaru followed Kiba, dopey face and all. He didn't like Izumi, but Itachi did; sometimes Itachi would be late in walking home with him because he was too caught-up in hanging out with her. As long as she wasn't stealing his nii-san, he'd tolerate her, but he had his eye on her.

Puzzling over his own blank piece of paper, Sasuke wondered who to give a valentine to, if anyone. He could give it to his mother. She always put away his and Itachi's presents in 'keepsake boxes' that she would take out from time to time and look through with a fond eye.

But then he thought about Itachi. Iruka said 'anyone special', so big brothers counted, right? Itachi liked just about anything he gave him. Last year, for his birthday, Sasuke had given him a beetle he'd found on the sidewalk because of its cool pattern, and Itachi had put it in its own little plastic living space until it died just a week later. (He'd seemed genuinely sad that it died, too, and it made Sasuke go out and find another beetle to cheer him up. It did.)

He could even give one to his father, although he doubted the man liked him as much as he did Itachi. He never seemed to smile a lot around him, and he hardly ever reacted to presents that Sasuke gave him. Sure, his mother tried her best to console him that he really did love his presents, but his father was firmly out as a recipient. Mother and Itachi were too obvious, and his father probably wouldn’t care...

So then who...?

Sasuke looked further to his right and noticed a little pink head of hair with a bright red ribbon tied cutely in it, head down to her own paper. She, the obnoxious blonde one (who reminded him far too much of Naruto's general loudness) and another shy girl with blue-black hair whose name he couldn't quite remember (Hi- Himawari, was it?) had banded together and were chattering quietly as they made their cards. Once or twice, the blue-black girl looked over Naruto's way with blushing cheeks.

The pinkette was drawing something in red crayon on a white heart-shaped piece of construction paper, and he looked away when her bright green eyes glanced over. His cheeks flushed a little, embarrassed at getting caught.

Sakura Haruno, age five, going on six. He never talked to her outside group projects and Naruto inviting her to his house to play, and even then, she seemed kind of reclusive. She got flustered easily and was very polite to grown-ups, using the appropriate suffixes of 'Sir' or 'Ma'am' and not complaining about anything, even when he and Naruto did. The one time she was over at Sasuke's house, his mother immediately started fawning over her, calling her cute and asking her about her family. She was so impressed by Sakura's polite demeanor that she started hounding Sasuke to be more polite to his elders.

She was... annoying.

He found himself perplexed endlessly about her. Why did she annoy him so? Was it her hair? Her hair was unusual, of course, but it was such a murky pink - it reminded Sasuke of cotton candy, to his chagrin. Even though he hated sweet things, her shade of pink was just so her. She was easy to spot at recess or at lunch, especially when Naruto called for her to join them at their table. He knew the other girls gave her envious stares whenever she sat with them, but he didn't care. At least Sakura was quiet, like that blue-black girl, but less likely to faint if Naruto hugged her... which he did often. Sometimes she'd even hug Sasuke too, and it always baffled him how her hands were so soft.

Was it her thoughtfulness that annoyed him? She always smiled at him and Naruto, always brought them extra treats from her parents - apparently, her mom was a baker. She always brought some extra dumplings for Naruto, and some tomato onigiri for Sasuke. She was smart, and observant; one day she saw Sasuke tell another girl that he hated sweets, and ever since, she brought more savory snacks in her lunch for him. And boy could her mom make some tomato onigiri. It was almost better than his mom's - though he'd never tell her that, of course. It was totally against the law for someone else's mom to have better cooking than yours - well, unless she caught the stove on fire a lot like Kiba's mom did.

Was it... her? She was easily one of the prettier girls in their class, as quite a few of the boys agreed. Her problem was that she was too self-conscious, so most of her potential charm was lost. She was lucky the blonde girl had befriended her and showed her how to tie ribbons in her hair. Her bangs framed her face and gathered about her shoulders like soft pink clouds, like in those paintings that his mother liked to look at so much.

Sasuke had a bad habit of staring at people he found interesting enough to divert his attention from more important matters, and through the school year, as he became more acquainted with the girl, the more he started to stare at her. He was careful to do it when no one was looking - the last thing he wanted was for someone to confront him about it. He wasn't being rude, he was just observing. She sat by herself when she wasn't playing with Ino or sitting near the wildflowers growing along the fence with the blue-black girl (a sudden realization came to his mind, and he fought the urge to slap the desk and exclaim. Hinata! That was her name! Hinata!). Sometimes he would sit a few yards away, under the shade of a tree, and observe her reading, or picking wildflowers near the fence, or just staring up at the sky. Sometimes he wanted to go and look at clouds with her, but then he thought that no, that would be weird, and Uchihas didn’t do weird.

Letting out a quiet sigh through his nose, he looked up at the clock with a smaller frown. Iruka had said that once the long hand got to the five, they would be done with the activity. It was almost at the twelve, so he didn't have a lot of time left.

"Perfect!" Naruto stage-whispered to him, showing him his card. "Do you think Sakura-chan's gonna like it?"

Sasuke shrugged, giving it a once-over. It wasn't bad; it was a drawing of Naruto and Sakura holding hands in a grassy field, and in sloppy handwriting at the top, he'd written, 'Be my Valentine' in bright Macaroni-And-Cheese Crayola (a crayon that was definitely not as tasty as its name was, as Chouji could attest to).

Naruto scowled at his paper, pointing an accusing finger at the harmless sheet of paper. "You haven't even made one yet! You're lame!"

"I'm not lame!" Sasuke grumbled, tapping his pencil on the page. He hunched over, hiding the paper from Naruto. Dumb activity. "I'm thinking."

Rolling his eyes, the blond busied himself with trying to fold the paper perfectly.

Screwing his eyes shut, Sasuke tried to think again. Who did he want to give the stupid card to?

Sakura's voice, quiet and unsure, reached his ears, and he opened his eyes to see her calling the teacher over.

He frowned. Bit his lip. Glanced back and forth from the paper to her, to the paper again.

Letting out another sigh, he got to work on the page. Dumb card.

  "Aaaaaand time's up!" Iruka announced, making a few of the children groan in disappointment. "If any of you have made cards for a classmate, now's your time to give them. You have until the minute hand gets to ten to do so, so hurry up!"

As soon as he was done speaking, a bunch of kids jumped up from their seats and rushed around the room, and it grew loud with chattering.

Five-year-old Sakura gave one last look at her card before smiling. Surely Sasuke-kun would like her card... if she could even make it to him. She glanced up to see a group of girls around his desk, making Naruto glare in annoyance and her crush to slump over his desk.

She sighed delicately, giving Hinata a sympathetic smile. "I guess we can't give them our cards, can we?"

The girl shook her head dejectedly, reaching to put her own card in her purple backpack. "I- I guess I'll have to give mine to Naruto-kun at recess today," she replied.

Out of the crowd, Shikamaru came shuffling up to them, a bored expression on his face like always. Without much of a greeting, he handed a plain white card to Sakura with a nod. "Choosing is so troublesome..."

Sakura smiled timidly at the genius, accepting it. "Thanks, Shikamaru-san. I'm afraid I don't have one for you..."

Shrugging his shoulders loosely, the boy gestured towards Sasuke's desk with his head. "I didn't think you would. Are you gonna wait?"

"I- I guess so?" She nervously tucked a bang of hair behind her ear. "If he isn't swarmed at recess..."

Nodding once more, Shikamaru bade them goodbye and left their desks. Not too long after his departure, Kiba bounced over, handing a card to Hinata with a nervous face.

"H- here!" He exclaimed, cheeks slightly flushed pink before he ran off.

Hinata blinked in surprise, before looking down at the card. Her own face heated up as she read through it. "O... oh..."

"How cute," Sakura cooed, glancing over at the boy's direction. "Kiba likes you."

The Hyuuga girl only blushed redder. Just as she was about to open her mouth to reply, Sasuke screeching his chair back on the tile made both girls wince from the sharp noise.

Head down, the boy walked across the room, being flanked by the girls. He stopped at Sakura's desk, slapping a card down with a muttered "Here" before going up to the teacher.

The girl was horribly flustered, her entire face going red to the tips of her ears. She looked down at the card, only seeing her name on the front. Slowly opening it, she began to read to herself.

"Sakura, your hair reminds me of cotton candy. I don't like cotton candy, but I guess yours is okay.

Your ribbon is really red, like Aunt Kushina's hair, but it's less scary than hers, so I guess that's okay too.

You're not as annoying as Naruto, but you're still kind of annoying."

She blinked once, twice, before slumping down in her seat, dejected. "Uwaaa... I guess he doesn't like me after all..."

Hinata peeked over at the note with a sympathetic wince, patting her back. Neither of them noticed that her note to the boy was gone.

  Meanwhile, in the hallway on the way to the bathroom, Sasuke read through her card for a second time, his ears pink.

"To Sasuke-kun, happy valentine's day. I hope you like my card, from Sakura."

On it was a picture of him and her holding hands near some flowers, her smiling. She captured his essence pretty well.

Vaguely, he wondered about his mother's keepsake boxes. Maybe she had one she could give him. He didn't really want to part with the note, even though Valentine's day was a stupid holiday and he didn't like celebrating it.

He slipped the note in his shorts pocket before heading to the bathroom, blushing in embarrassment. Dumb activity. Dumb card. Dumb girls.

#sasusaku #alternate universe #nonmassacre #kindergarteners #valentine's day #be my valentine

[captnjacksparrow]

I heard there were rumors about Naruto being developed into seinen after Shippuden. Wouldn't that have been wonderful? I think it was such a wasted opportunity for another amazing experience. We wouldn't have any child marriages, or that recycled bs Boruto. And a challenge for Kishimoto. Although I am not sure about that last one, he kind of lost the plot towards the end there.

But even so, what a wasted opportunity.

What's your take? What could have been the implications of that?

Am just going to take this ask as an heartful rant!!!!!! 😊😊😊😊

Just because of this ask, I decided to dig deeper into his past interviews and found things that even confirmed my opinions even stronger. 

Damn you!!!! Kishimoto!!!!

Thanks to you @sneezemonster15 🤩🤩🤩. LOL. Because When your speculation becomes true, you will experience some satisfaction which is immeasurable.

[[Anything I am going to cite from an old interview, after this line of the post is something I got to knew only today. Which means I never knew about these interviews before. Probably SNS shippers knew about these long back but to me it’s a new thing.]]

I heard there were rumors about Naruto being developed into seinen after Shippuden. Wouldn't that have been wonderful?

I never heard of such development and even if they do, they already did a lot of damage in the name of Boruto. And I don't think they can tell anymore story after Shippuden in a convincing way.

For me, Shippuden is in and of itself looks like a big seinen based Manga because I believe there were certain themes which were told in part 2 that are simply not suitable for a 12 year old to comprehend. Even I was overwhelmed by such plots because it really questioned my world view.

I mean, what can a 12 year old understand about Hatred or World peace which Nagato planned to implement or Itachi's pain? Yeah, there may be very few who could understand but majority don’t and hence we could see some part of fandom who still thinks ‘Sasuke should have left alone and made to start a new Village as a Revolution, or he should’ve destroyed Konoha to dust’. Any mature audience who consumed various media and have a broad world view would never spout such nonsense. Because the real world wouldn't work that way.

he kind of lost the plot towards the end there.

He didn’t actually. I believe he was made to create that Kaguya plot as a thread to continue Borutoverse. It may not be his idea. I am just speculating. Because Kishi is a damn genius in dropping threads much earlier in the story.

Example, Uchiha Madara.

When Sasuke and Naruto battled in VoTE1, I was wondering about the statues as to who might they be?. Then Kakashi slightly hinted us that the statues represents the men who created Konoha, but they were fighting until the very end for some reason. Similar to how Naruto and Sasuke fought there. And when Madara’s name was dropped for the first time when Sasuke suppressed Kurama, it just got only better.

So, I think Kaguya was a plot which was created right when Naruto was decided to pair up with Hinata and have a baby who will lead the Next Generation. When the series was going on and on about Sharingan, all of a sudden it took a U-Turn towards Byakugan. I was like, ‘Who the fuck cares about Byakugan anyway?’

Then it all made sense after looking at the abomination called ‘Boruto’, where all the Aliens were seen having Byakugan. So, It feels like he lost the plot. But I really think he was forced to. 

So far, whatever I wrote till now was my observation. 

That Damn Kishimoto gave an interview long back which proved my hunch right.

So, You see, he was never interested in a sequel series to happen. He was just forced to. 

Do you know what was the real ending he aimed for?

In many of my posts, I wrote about how SNS was a carefully constructed bond which Kishimoto paid a lot of attention to. I mean, there’s no way we can call the chapter 698 as a Retconned one. Every clues and hints were already there.

It seems that the bastard confessed about this 15 years ago, in 2006 Shonen Jump Interview and again in 2015 NYCC comic con.

He didn’t talk about Ships and shits in any of these interviews. He already planned the ending long back when he finished Part 1. The ending with Naruto and Sasuke doing Reconciliation Seal with Hashirama and Madara statues by visualizing everything into details and that too in freaking 2006. 

[[Click the picture to see the full view]]

Reconciliation of Naruto and Sasuke was something Kishi planned long back after finishing part 1. He even visualized all the panels in detail and that's the ending he was striving towards.

It seems, he never planned about pairings and stuffs ahead as many shippers would like to claim. I am not saying he planned SNS as the endgame couple either. But I honestly think, Kishi wished for an ending similar to Chapter 699. Like without any pairing trash, finishing off with Naruto and Sasuke sharing their dreams and hopes together. 

And this is what I’ve been screaming in all my posts... That I speculate, I guess, I believe and so many similar words... that Kishi always wanted to finish with Chapter 699 and Chapter 700 feels like an afterthought.

But anyways, with Studio persuaded him into pair up his Main Characters, he was asked to write Boruto Script for one last time and it seems, that’s the only movie where he wrote the entire screenplay from A to Z. He said that Boruto movie is the ‘Pinnacle of his career’. Does it mean, ‘The Last’ movie was not his pinnacle, eh??? 

And what do I always scream about Boruto series in every posts?

That I feel like Naruto and Sasuke seems to Babysit Boruto like a parent. 

And that’s what he wanted to finish as the last chapter of Naruto.

I mean throughout the movie, there were no trace of Hinata and Sakura playing any major role in their Child’s life, instead Sasuke is seen talking fondly about Naruto to his Son, I mean Naruto’s Son. So, If he envision drawing 2 guys taking care of a child as the last chapter, then what was he trying to say?

This Kishimoto is just too sinister!!! 

And it seems, he dissed ‘The Last’ movie subtly in his own words. Like almost he claims he had no part in that movie. Well, I always had my doubt regarding that movie. Never expected Kishi would say this.

Couple of days ago, I made a post about, how Kishi never gave 2 fucks about Sakura from the beginning. I analyzed that post based on my observation by carefully reading through panels in the initial chapters and his motivations to draw the panel in a certain way. That gave me an idea of what Kishi’s style of designing a character. I never knew about this Interview thing, when I wrote that post.

It seems, in an Interview, he pretty much confirmed my view about him.

Kishi’s assistant was posed with a question, ‘How every character, no matter how bad they are, gets redeemed in some way?’

To which he answered, ‘Before even making a first appearance, Kishi will lay out how he wants the character to be, what it’s personality traits are, what was it about to do.’

So, Kishi really never planned to make Sakura redeemable. Her fate was sealed when she unveiled her grand dream in chapter 4 before her teammates.

What I would like to conclude is,

Kishi developing anything after Shippuden will not have his full heart. So, that development based on Seinen may not be true. 

Kishi planned Chapter 698 long back when he completed Part 1. He even visualized every panels about how it is going to be. So, probably Chapter 699 is where Kishi intended to end the series. Hence, the abomination you were made to see in Boruto is not his idea.

He never planned about pairings unless he was asked to. Hinata was the popular one and he just went with it. It’s not like he always intended for Naruto to end up with Hinata.

When he was asked to write a story about Boruto, he envisioned Boruto movie as the final chapter of Naruto series, if only he had the opportunity to draw this as a manga. In this movie, Naruto became an Hokage, Sasuke is a Shadow Hokage, Naruto’s son was adopted by Sasuke. Hinata and Sakura were the bench warmers. 

It seems to me that Kishi somehow wants to place Naruto and Sasuke as the face of this series towards the end. He knew that he can't make them as an official couple and when things didn't go as he planned he made them into an unofficial couple who takes cares of a boy with all the care.

Geez!!! I wish I were wrong😏😏😏😏. But all these interviews proves that I was right about many things without even realizing it was there.

#ask #naruto analysis #naruto #sasuke #anti sakura #anti hinata #antisakura #antihinata #anti boruto #sns #sasunaru #sasunarusasu

[panharmonium]

this is their “because we’re the same” moment.

this is kakashi gauging the situation and making a conscious decision to offer up private information about himself, not because it’s something he particularly likes talking about, but because it’s what the kid in front of him needs to hear.  a teacher with poorer instincts might have bristled at sasuke’s behavior, or taken it personally, but kakashi knows better than to react that way.  he isn’t upset by sasuke’s lashing out, and he doesn’t bite back - he stays quiet and collected, and he lets sasuke’s attacks roll off him like water.  then, in the same mild tone as always, he issues a calm correction, while simultaneously offering sasuke an opportunity for connection.

and just like with iruka’s confession to naruto, this connection is successful.  sasuke is visibly, dramatically affected by hearing this.  it snaps him out of his rage, and sends him into a quiet, almost abashed contemplation.

his expression softens.  his anger evaporates.  everything deflates and deescalates.  he stops shouting and starts listening.  this is the first time he’s ever been approached on this subject by somebody who can rightfully claim to know what they’re talking about.  this is the first time sasuke can’t simply discard what’s being said to him because “well, what the hell do they know, anyway?”  this is the first time he’s ever been approached by an adult who a) sees through his ‘perfect student’ act and knows exactly what’s motivating both his past successes and his current crisis, and who b) truly, honestly understands the pain he’s feeling.  

this has NEVER happened to sasuke before.  sasuke is, as far as we can see, left to fend for himself after the uchiha massacre.  he has never had an adult address his issues with him like this, honestly and in plain language and with a kind of steady compassion that is gentle and empathetic without crossing the line into indulgence (which has its place, but which isn’t the kind of guidance sasuke needs right now).  kakashi asks sasuke to hold himself accountable for his actions while at the same time saying “i understand how you feel.  i know how badly it hurts.”  he validates sasuke’s refusal to be lectured by someone who can’t possibly understand what he’s going through, even though it means sharing a piece of his history that he absolutely has not discussed with any of the other kids and that he generally tries to keep private.  he knows sasuke deserves to hear from somebody who Gets It.  he knows sasuke will refuse to listen to anyone who doesn’t get it.  he knows sasuke shouldn’t HAVE to listen to anyone who doesn’t get it - sasuke deserves better than preachy platitudes from people who can’t possibly understand how much pain he’s feeling.  

this is the most important conversation kakashi and sasuke ever have.  it’s not the first time they address this issue - kakashi started his careful foray into the Itachi Waters as far back as their preparations for the final round of the chunin exams - but this is the first time he really dives off the dock, and it’s almost an effective enough attempt to avert disaster.  sasuke stays up in that tree for hours after kakashi leaves, thinking about what he said.  we see how much of a pull sasuke’s “new comrades to help fill the void” have on him, despite how difficult it is for him to consider giving up the quest that for years has been his sole reason for existing.  

kakashi reaches sasuke during this conversation, the same way iruka is able to reach naruto.  but unlike iruka and naruto’s connection, sasuke’s situation ends up being a perfect storm of bad circumstances - kakashi is ordered out of the village just when orochimaru’s minions are about to make their move, and the connection he makes with sasuke is disrupted before it can make the kind of difference in sasuke’s life that iruka’s companionship makes in naruto’s.  and of course, we all know where things go after that.

but it still matters!  it matters that this is the last conversation they have.  the next time they meet, three years later, it’s a mirror image of this, right down to kakashi tying sasuke up with a wire.   that moment when kakashi tells him “look deep inside your heart, one more time / deep down, you know the truth” - the shot flashes to sasuke’s memory of all his old classmates, the same way sakura and naruto emerged in his mind when kakashi told him “still, we’re not all that bad off.  at least you and i have found new comrades to help fill the void.”  and then the camera zooms in for a close-up where the only thing in the frame is sasuke’s trembling lip - because he’s hurting!  even though he’s too far gone right now to come back (and he has valid reasons for this, importantly), there’s a buried part of him that still feels conflicted.  a part of him is still up in that tree, trying to decide what to do.  

the importance of sasuke finding an adult who understands what’s he dealing with and can connect to him in a way that no other grown-up has ever been able to do just CAN’T be overstated.  sasuke needs his friends - desperately, he needs them - but he’s also in desperate need of an Adult.  sasuke has been living in an absolutely fucked headspace for years and years, and he has way too much trauma/baggage to sort through on his own.  he’s sixteen years old.  he needs a grown-up to support him - and the only person he’ll ever accept in this role is somebody who understands him, someone else who lost everyone they loved, someone else who suffered at the hands of the system, someone else who hated himself and blamed himself for the deaths of the people he cared about and who somehow still made it out of the darkness without succumbing to the tempting oblivion of self-destruction.

sasuke needs to know that it’s possible to suffer the way he has suffered and still be a whole person, still live a whole life, still have loving and meaningful relationships with the people around him.  he needs to know that he can do more than just survive - that maybe he’ll have to overhaul everything he thought he knew about what it means to be “strong” or “safe” in this world, but that if he can manage to do that, then there is a way for him to be rescued from his pain, one that doesn’t involve hurting other people (or himself).  he needs to know that his life can be more than just the terrible things that happened to him.  and the only person who can teach him all of that is someone who’s already figured it out for himself.  

#long post #naruto #meta #he's like me #lotta thoughts happening in my brain right now and i'm sorry for all the meta dumps but i have a backlog from last week when i was busy #i absolutely Must talk about these things before they eat me alive

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Regarding your complaint about third Hokage :

1. The truth about Uchiha massacre is possibly hasn't been spreaded yet, because in Sasuke novel, Sasuke's monologue pointed out that Naruto didn't tell about Itachi's mission as per Itachi's will, but he told everyone that Itachi is a hero who stop Edo Tensei on war for everyone's sake. I assumed it's because the truth about massacre is heavily connected with Uchiha's coup d'etat attempt and it will open another political can of worm.

2. Hiruzen is the Hokage who build the village from Second Shinobi war, Third Shinobi war, till time of peace. With all its problem, Konoha IS peaceful, compared to Ame, Kiri, and even Iwa. Orphans in Konoha are miserable? Look at Haku and Ame trio.

3. As far as Konoha's shinobi know, the last time they met Hiruzen before his death is when he protected the village from Orochimaru's attack with Sand village and reanimated First and Second Hokage, plus he sacrificed his life to seal Orochimaru's arms. Then when they met Hiruzen again in his reanimated form, he alongside other dead Hokages protected them from Juubi attack.

It's not justification for Hiruzen's wrongdoing (he should handled Danzo and Orochimaru problems better), but just saying that it's completely understandable that Hiruzen is still respected in Konoha. And maybe it's kinda cruel for me to say it, but I don't think the truth about Uchiha massacre will sway people about Hiruzen, especially since in last war they fought with Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito (and of course the trouble duo flaunted their Sharingan powers, saying that the better world is when they all dreamed under Sharingan genjutsu, and mocked all shinobi's dedication and life). In the Konoha shinobi's eyes, Hiruzen is the one who protected them (and he is), but for them Uchiha clan are stranger at best, warmonger at worst, and O can't blame them. Unlike us they didn't have access to 6 Uchiha flashbacks (they only have one access, Obito's flashback, and after that they still demanded his death).

Meh, I think there would have been doubts and concerns had the truth come out, and I certainly think there would have been defenders (there always are) but this is also the man who

-Decided it was alright to have literal child soldiers (Kakashi was five, Gai was seven and none of their generation was over 10 when they became genin. Genin isn’t bad because most missions are in village, but chunin six year old Kakashi and Jonin 11 yr old Kakashi? 11 yr old Anbu Itachi??? Mmm)

- was the one who said that Orochimaru was born evil and actively did nothing to actually stop Orochimaru. Like he had chances to fight and stop Orochimaru before the attack on Konoha and just… didn’t. Also did shit about Danzo.

-the Hokage in power during Sakumo’s shame and honestly that should hold weight over his head because his strongest shinobi was shamed into suicide for choosing his friends. That’s BS and the fact that ideal was allowed to fester so much it led to a man’s death is horrifying and should be held over him.

- is literally the man who decided playing peacekeeper with Danzo was more important than protecting his shinobi. Kakashi was attacked by Danzo’s operatives and almost killed and when Kakashi went to him nothing was done. When Kakashi told him Danzo was planning to assassinate him? Nothing. Danzo wasn’t just trying to harm the Uchiha, but the Hokage and children of Konoha and Hiruzen did nothing. That should lose him some major status there because he wasn’t even protecting his own people from Danzo.

- regardless of the select Uchiha who did harm the world and fought against it, Itachi and Sasuke are proof that they are not how all Uchiha act and I think because of that people would have had a more mixed reaction to the Uchiha. Some of those people likely grew up with the Uchiha and were friends with them. Knew them well and laughed with them. You can’t tell me they would just hate them because of the coup

Speaking of the coup. It was only happening because of the mistreatment of the Uchiha. Had Hiruzen now pushed them off to the side allowed them to be out cast and literally slapped them into an ‘Uchiha distrect’ where they were heavily survailenced the coup may never have even been a thought in their minds. The coup had so many layers to it and a lot of it festered because of Hiruzen actions and even inactions as Hokage. If everything came to light, every little bit of what happened, peoples views of him would have been a lot more mixed and I think a lot of people may have decided that while they could recognize him as a Hokage, celebrating him wasn’t the way to go

Hiruzen wasn’t a good Hokage. He did his duty to protect Konoha yes, but he did so at the cost of innocent lives. Children were murdered in the Uchiha slaughter. Babies, because they happened to have the Uchiha bloodline. That’s sickening

I can’t believe the people of Konoha would hear about the Hokage who approved the slaughter of children and wouldn’t be sickened with him. That’s disgusting,

#suicide #suicide tw #suicide mention #massacre mention

[lavenderchedder]

Hiya! I’m sasuledelicatessen- well, I don’t know if you ship SNS but I want to know, if you do, what made you ship them? I want to know your version

Well, it's kind of long.

I've been following the Naruto franchise since 2007 and initially I was into the anime/manga for the action and the unique storyline that it presented, as well as the art-style (I’m a sucker for unique art-style). The concept of Naruto (the character) being the "underdog”, the introduction of ninjutsu and chakra and the integration of Japanese folklore into the story overall what made me sort of a Naruto addict, if you will.

Anyway...

I’ve always thought that the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke were interesting at first in Part 1. When they “accidentally” kissed, at first I thought nothing of it and chalked it up to anime humor, not knowing the huge significance that scene brought (among others) years down the line in their relationship (and the progression of the storyline). Them challanging each other, the playful bickering, teasing each other, I initially chalked it up to the whole “boys will be boys” trope until watching the end episodes in the “Land of Waves” arc of Part I. The way Sasuke sacrificed himself for a boy (Naruto) he barely knew sparked something in their relationship that will change the dynamics of the relationship moving forward...

The reasons why I ship SNS has changed since 2007, although it still stands that the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke are among the strongest bonds in the entire story. Me being a crazed teenager that I was at the time, I initially shipped them because they looked ‘cute’ or ‘hot’ together. This is when I started looking into SasuNaru fanart and fanfiction around that time, because it was such a unique pairing. The Uchiha in general are some of the most beautifully drawn characters I’ve seen, thus far. No wonder it was mentioned that it was hard drawing Sasuke back then, I mean just look at him! And well, Naruto seemed to be the only person that he ever payed attention to in the manga, and actually smiled around (because it takes ALOT to get Sasuke to show any emotion). Their interactions during the Chunin arc, how Naruto showed deep concern for Sasuke during his lowest points (when Itachi attacked Sasuke, etc), how Naruto acted around Saskue sort of sparked new beginnings of a deeper bond than I realized. And it was the same with Sasuke, how he had shared his lunch with Naruto in their first meeting despite consequences, him somehow always to Naruto’s rescue.

VotE1 is what sealed the deal for me then when I noticed that the Sasuke x Naruto bond was deeper than just a friendship. The passion and heartache they had for each other, even as they were fighting was just too intense. Noone that I’ve seen in this story had that much feelings for each other than these two. And when it was over, and Sasuke had this look in his eyes when he saw Naruto unconscious on the ground, I just knew that there was love involved, even when I just looked at their relationship as ‘cute’ ship at the time. 

Watching Shippuden to its end, after years of being away from the Naruto fandom, I began to understand what Sasuke went through and how much pain and lonliness he was actually in. The UCM was no joke and it took away what was most important to Sasuke (his family) and destroyed his deep love and admiration for Itachi. At first, I didn’t understand his character, and wrote him of as ‘emo’, annoying and obssesed with his revenge because I truly thought he was ‘ungrateful’ for what he left behind in Konoha *chuckles.* And honestly, I thought Naruto’s obsession with Sasuke was no better and believed he should’ve given up on Sasuke. But then, as I began to truly understand both characters as a whole and their backgrounds, I noticed that they can’t truly live without each other. Naruto’s “I will consume all your hatred and die with you” was said with so much passion and love, it’s hard not to look at them as just “good friends,” although their interactions at this point was more volatile, I could see that Naruto’s admiration for Sasuke grew stronger. Naruto having a panic attack over Sasuke being executed, begging on his knees for forgiveness from the Raikage, Naruto constantly having thoughts of Sasuke’s well-being to the point of obsessiveness, it made me think “ Wow! Naruto must really be in love with Sasuke.” Especially when everyone else (even Sakura of all people) seemed to give up and consider Sasuke “irredeemable.” I was even surprised at some the things Naruto said in regards to Sasuke, thinking it was weird to think of a mere ‘friend’ like this. I always saw their relationship as more twisted, violent and beautiful. Some folks may say their bond was unhealthy and one-sided (on Naruto’s end), but I think in this universe, it seems that way due to the fact that Naruto and Sasuke were both fucked up, emotionally. 

During the war arc, when both are reunited, it’s like they were back to being their old selves. Them discovering that they are indeed soulmates (in the most literal sense because they are reincarnations Hagoromo’s sons) demonstrated that both Naruto and Sasuke’s bond transcends beyond friendship and even romance (although it’s fine to look at them as either one). They were like yin and yang, the sun and moon among the stars. In their final battle at VotE2, I looked at it as them getting out their repressed feelings they had for each, because they knew that they cared loved each other too much for them to ‘kill.’ It was at that point in the end of their fight Sasuke felt the most vulnerable, probably since he was child. Other than Itachi, Naruto is the only other person to truly make Sasuke at peace, and knowing that he was never truly alone, even though it seemed that the whole world was against him. Naruto never gave up on him, and knew him on a deeper level than even those that were considered close to them (Sakura, Kakashi, etc.). When Sasuke cried, it showed to me that he was most happy being with the one he loved.

When I heard that Sakura got paired with Sasuke way back, I was very disappointed, not only because it insulted Sakura’s character and eliminated most chances for her to grow as a female character, Sasuke is a type of character that was too complex to just ‘marry off.’ Naruto was more tolerable, even though he never really gave Hinata any deep thoughts other than a friend/comrade. I knew SNS wasn’t happening, no matter the obvious signs and it being the most developed relationship in the Naruto manga. And Kishimoto kept dropping hints all over the place, giving fans hope. A homosexual relationship, even implied, is something the Shonen audience isn’t ready for right now. I do believe Masashi Kishimoto intended to have at least an open ending with the manga because honestly, the so-called “canon” pairings were not well thought out and was rushed. Sasusaku is so unbelievable and poorly written, no wonder it’s not well received among alot of the fans. Sasuke’s character was pretty ruined after Gaiden, because it ruined the potentials for a beautiful relationship (SNS) for a sequel. And so much was left unresolved. It’s all...dissapointing. 

Woah! That was long. I hope that answers your question. Long story short, yes I do ship SNS to the nth degree!

#Sasuke Uchiha #Naruto Uzumaki #SasuNaruSasu #appreciate the ask

[vulcan-highblood]

Group Project

Fandom: Naruto

Rating: G 

Pairing: Gen

Summary:  Iruka didn't realize that a baby (6-year-old) joining his class was the herald to the end of his pranking days in the Academy. But when their teacher assigns Itachi and Iruka a group project, it becomes clear that Iruka's going to have to learn how to cooperate with the little smarty-pants Uchiha. The only problem is, he's not sure Itachi's willing to cooperate with him.

Read it on AO3

Group Project Sharingan-Stealer Iruka - Part 1

There was a new kid in class, Iruka noted absently as he eased his hand under his desk, pressing a small wad of what looked like chewing gum there, fighting to keep a straight face. At the front of the classroom, Aki-sensei was scribbling on the blackboard and babbling about this… Iruka paused, doing a double take. They were getting a baby in their class!

Okay, not a literal baby, but he might as well be! He was barely half the size of everyone else in the room, with big dark eyes, soft black hair, and chubby baby cheeks. Iruka fought not to laugh - what was this kid doing in their class? They were going to graduate in a few months, why on earth would they be moving this kid into their class now?

“I hope you will all be welcoming to Itachi. We have high hopes for him - for all of you -” here Aki-sensei paused to glare at Iruka, “to pass your upcoming assessment and graduate to Genin-rank.”

Iruka didn’t bother to hide his scowl at that. He’d been held back during the last assessment because of his poor written marks. And his poor practical scores. Also probably because he’d skipped the first half of the test to try and drop water balloons on the ANBU standing outside Hokage Tower. The real trap had actually been trying to corral them into tripping a wire that would send a ink-filled balloon at them from a completely different direction, but, like all the other times he’d tried to pull one over on the ANBU, it hadn’t succeeded.

He had been scolded pretty soundly by two of them, and then frog-marched back to the Academy, only to realize that Aki-sensei hadn’t reminded them about the test the day before, so he hadn’t known to show up on time. Or maybe she had reminded them, and Iruka had slept through it? Anyway, he’d missed most of the graduation exam, and Aki-sensei wasn’t about to let him forget it. Other than harassing him about tests, though, she had precious little to say to him that wasn’t critical and honestly just obnoxious, and Iruka got enough of that at the orphanage, so was it any wonder that he tended to tune her out?

“Hey Iruka,” Mizuki whispered, “check out the new kid. He’s an Uchiha.”

Iruka rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I noticed.” It was hard to miss the fan shape on the kid’s shirt, after all. Did Mizuki really think he was that dumb? He may not be great in school, but he knew the clan crests! At least, the important ones. Mostly. Anyway, Uchiha was an easy crest to recognize because it looked like a fan.

“No, idiot, I mean,” Mizuki shot back with an irritated grimace, “He’s an Uchiha. I heard they’re the ones responsible for… you know.”

“I don’t know,” Iruka replied, frowning. “Responsible for what? They’re the military police, I’m sure they have a lot of responsibilities.”

Mizuki glanced back and forth like he was going to tell Iruka a secret, and then whispered very loudly, “They’re the ones who caused the Kyuubi attack.”

Whispers rippled across the room as eyes turned to land on the new baby in their class. They didn’t have any Uchiha kids in their year, or hadn’t, but Iruka had seen a couple of Uchihas around the academy in some of the lower classes. They didn’t seem like the sort of people to be letting nine-tailed demon foxes loose in the village, but what did Iruka know? The Uchihas mostly stuck to their own compound, except when they were in school, and Iruka couldn’t recall ever meeting one outside of school. He scowled down at the kid. If his family was responsible for that night… Iruka swallowed hard. It had been two years since that night, but sometimes his throat still burned like he’d never stopped screaming.

Slowly, he forced his eyes away from the tiny kid in the front row. What his family had done wasn’t his business, anyway. As long as he didn’t bother Iruka, he didn’t have a problem with the little kid.

Itachi Uchiha was starting to get on Iruka’s nerves. It wasn’t like the kid was

trying

to annoy him necessarily. At least, that didn’t seem to be his intent. But his very existence felt like a splinter stuck under Iruka’s skin that he couldn’t seem to dislodge, setting him on edge. And then,

then

he’d started to actively get a rise out of Iruka. It wasn’t just the way that this

tiny baby child

had waltzed into their classroom and

immediately

risen to the top of the class in test scores, or even the way he managed to

always

master everything in their practical skills work. It wasn’t even the way he was

always

raising his hand in class to answer questions, or

worse,

ask

questions, which would lead Aki-sensei on a tangent when Iruka just wanted to

go outside

and not sit at a desk and listen to a boring teacher blather on about boring rules. No, the thing that made Iruka genuinely irritated was the fact that Itachi kept

ratting him out.

It had started on the very first day. After Mizuki had made his not-so-subtle announcement about the Uchiha clan and their supposed connection to the disaster from two years ago, Itachi had taken a moment to turn and glance back at the rest of the room, his gaze sweeping over the class before frowning at Iruka. Or, more specifically, the ‘gum’ under Iruka’s desk. Then, he raised his hand.

“Yes, Itachi?” Aki-sensei said, pausing mid-lecture. “You have a question?”

“Not exactly,” Itachi answered, his dark eyes drifting back over his shoulder to peer at Iruka. “Are exploding tags allowed in this classroom?”

Iruka was going to strangle him. He’d planned this out to the letter, and now this tiny kid was going to ruin it? He gripped his pencil so hard it almost broke, widening his eyes at the little Uchiha as if to say “don’t you dare,” but the little kid seemed totally unmoved.

“No,” Aki-sensei said, her eyes drifting from Itachi up to where he was staring: Iruka’s desk. “They are not. Iruka?”

Desperately, Iruka tried to salvage the situation, lifting his hands in the air. “Look, I don’t have an exploding tag, my hands are empty-”

“He was sticking it under his desk while you were writing on the chalkboard,” Itachi interrupted. “I saw him hide it under the gum.”

“It’s not an exploding tag!” Iruka barked back, irritated.

“Oh?” Suddenly, Aki-sensei was across the room, standing beside his desk. One of her eyes twitched as she stared down at Iruka, a dangerous gleam in her stare. “And if it’s not an exploding tag, then what is it?”

… he should have seen that one coming. Iruka glared furiously at Itachi, who had already turned around in his seat and didn’t seem to notice the enraged look Iruka was tossing in his direction. If Iruka knew how to radiate a killing intent, he would have, because what was this kid’s deal? It wasn’t like he was going to be personally affected by a little stink-bomb, especially not one as weak as the one Iruka had thrown together this morning by modifying a stolen exploding tag from the training grounds. It was set to go off at a specific trigger, specifically exposure to chakra, which would probably be when Aki-sensei peeled the gum off the desk at the end of class, because he’d used some chakra to stick it right at the edges, and Aki-sensei wasn’t one for finesse, so knowing her, she’d just blast the whole thing with chakra to peel it off, and then… boom! The room would be filled with the smell of rotten eggs. It wouldn’t have bothered anyone else, just smelled up the room and probably also Aki-sensei. To match her stinking personality, because she hated Iruka and never bothered to hide her disdain, so why should anyone care if she smelled as stinky as her attitude?

“...it’s just a stink-tag,” Iruka groused. 

Aki-sensei scowled down at him, folding her arms over her chest. “If it’s just a…” she made a small confused face, “…stink-tag…” she shook her head at the unfamiliar phrase before continuing, “then, I suppose you know how to remove it without setting it off?”

Iruka nodded slowly, his mind already spinning as he re-evaluated his options. He fought to keep his expression neutral as an idea occurred to him. Really, Itachi had brought this on himself with his meddling. If he hadn’t said anything, the only person who would have been affected was Aki-sensei and her nasty attitude.

Aki-sensei was watching him with her sharp gaze. “Honestly, Iruka, sometimes I wonder why you even bother coming to class at all,” she snapped, “if all you’re going to do is make trouble, you might as well not be here.”

Iruka agreed, in a general sense. He didn’t want to be in Aki-sensei’s classroom any more than she wanted him there. But he wanted to become a ninja, a great ninja, like his parents, and that meant he had to graduate from Ninja Academy, even if it meant putting up with mean people like Aki-sensei. “Yes, sensei,” was all he said, reaching under his desk and minding his own chakra, making sure to keep it well away from the ‘gum’, peeling the sticky substance away from the desk to reveal the small tag he’d altered that morning. Then, with a smirk, he turned to face the front of the classroom, and shouted, “Hey, Itachi! Catch!” and pushed a tiny bit of his chakra into the tag as he threw it at Itachi’s head. The tag exploded before it reached the kid, really almost as it left Iruka’s hand, but it was the thought that counted, Iruka decided. The odorous smoke trailed across the room, covering mostly Iruka and Aki-sensei, but also quickly filling the entire classroom with a horrible stench.

Despite the urge to gag, Iruka had to admit the tag had worked well. Next time, he’d have to figure out a detonation timer, or distance trigger for it. It worked basically the same as a regular exploding tag, but with less concussive force and more smell, so he was fairly confident he could get it to work. He grinned, even as Aki-sensei grabbed his shoulder and shook him hard, scolding him about whatever. He wasn’t listening. Instead, as their classroom was being evacuated, amidst the coughing, choking, and streaming eyes, Iruka caught Itachi’s cool, dark gaze, and winked at him. The Uchiha looked away. Heh. Score 1: Umino Iruka.

Iruka’s detention after school to air out the classroom and scrub it top-to-bottom was worth it, he decided. Maybe next time Itachi would think twice before selling him out.

…he did not.

~~*~~

In the weeks that followed, Iruka discovered a few new facts about Uchiha Itachi.

Fact one: Itachi was a rules guy.

He didn’t particularly care what the retaliation would be, if he saw Iruka breaking a rule, he would say something and it would suck. Iruka was usually able to get away with a few pranks here and there just because Aki-sensei couldn’t prove it was him, but with Itachi’s eagle-eyes following him everywhere, it seemed like he was getting detentions nonstop. At this point, Aki-sensei had taken to making Iruka stand in the corner of the classroom and stare at the wall for a few hours after every prank. Then she had the audacity to get mad when Iruka would come in the next day without his homework! He was an older kid in the orphanage, he had chores to do, and he was spending detention staring at a wall! Maybe if she let him do his homework instead of standing around doing nothing, he’d actually be able to finish it! Not that he bothered saying as much - she would have just accused him of making excuses.

Another fact about Uchiha Itachi: He was a genius.

It was more than just how good at everything in school he was, he was also good at catching Iruka when Iruka was trying to pull a prank. He was better at that than his teachers, even! In a way, Itachi reminded Iruka of the ANBU around Hokage Tower, able to somehow spot every trap he was setting up and avoiding every piece of it as if it was nothing. Itachi seemed capable of effortlessly noticing, dismantling, and alerting the adults whenever Iruka tried to pull something, and he took it as a personal challenge. Iruka stopped caring so much about pranking Aki-sensei, who at this point had taken to ignoring him all over again. Instead, he started trying to get Itachi.

A lot of the classic pranks didn’t pan out, and Itachi just reported him to Aki-sensei, who had him stand in a corner until after dinnertime, which usually meant he’d get back to the orphanage late and have nothing to eat and still an hour or two of chores before lights-out. So after a few failed attempts, Iruka moved on from that, but he didn’t give up on the idea. As much as it sucked to go without dinner for a night here and there, he had Itachi’s attention, and he felt like maybe this was a prime way to practice his ANBU traps without alerting any actual ANBU to his early attempts. As he took his time coming up with new pranks, part of Iruka even wondered if Itachi might be enjoying himself, too. It was hard to tell.

This tied into fact three about Uchiha Itachi: He reacted to basically everything in a calm, methodical, mild manner.

Since he never seemed to respond to anything, his lack of reaction to the pranks seemed fairly normal to Iruka. Itachi never seemed especially surprised or angry, and he only really smiled when he was talking about his baby brother, Sasuke. But Iruka thought that maybe Itachi enjoyed the challenge of spotting his pranks, of reporting him to Aki-sensei, almost as much as Iruka enjoyed trying to think up new ways to get him. If he didn’t, then why would he keep doing it? Surely it was easier to just let Iruka do what he wanted.

Things continued on in this way for about a month. Iruka would set a trap, Itachi would spot it and report him to Aki-sensei, Aki-sensei would make him stand in the corner, and Iruka wouldn’t turn in his homework the next day. It became almost routine, until Aki-sensei told the class they would be doing a group homework project. Instantly, everyone started trying to grab their friends and pair up - but Aki-sensei cut them off, saying that everyone would be drawing names from a bag, instead. Starting at the front of the room, she had the students pass the bag to the student beside them, writing down the student pairs on the blackboard as they went.

At least, that’s what she did until Itachi fished out the name of his partner and read it aloud. “Umino Iruka.”

Whispers danced across the classroom. A few of the more dedicated students in the front rows whispered variations on “ouch,” and “tough break!” and “glad I’m not you!” to Itachi, who, as usual, didn’t seem to react at all.

Pressing his lips together to keep from yelling at the other kids about how he was glad he wasn’t them, Iruka clenched his fists. He knew he wasn’t a good student. He knew nobody wanted to be paired up with him when it had to do with studying. He knew that. But it still hurt to hear them say it.

Aki-sensei, meanwhile, was standing at the blackboard, her chalk hovering over the spot where she should have been writing Iruka’s name next to Itachi’s, verifying them as homework partners for the project. Instead, she was frowning. “I don’t normally do this,” she said, “But, if you’d like, Itachi, you can pick a different partner.”

Iruka felt his stomach clench. If he’d like? Of course he’d like! No one wanted to be paired up with Iruka for homework, even Mizuki had scooted over to ask someone else to be his partner before Aki-sensei had brought out the name bag. Iruka stared down at his desk, willing his face to stay neutral, not to show emotion. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to work on this project anyway, so it didn’t matter that no one wanted him. They were right not to want him, it’s not like he wanted to work on this project with anyone anyway.

“No,” came Itachi’s soft, measured voice, “I’m fine with Iruka.”

Iruka hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until it escaped in a whoosh. His head jumped up and he stared at Itachi, baffled. Why would Itachi agree to work with him if he had another choice? If it hadn’t been Itachi, Iruka was pretty sure that Aki-sensei wouldn’t have offered, but she liked Itachi, and hated Iruka. She looked even more shocked than Iruka, still standing in front of the blackboard, chalk in hand, the space next to Itachi’s name still blank.

“You’re sure,” Aki-sensei said, reluctance clear from her tone of voice.

“I am,” Itachi answered, passing the bag of names to the student to his right. “My partner is Iruka.”

And despite the fact that Iruka couldn’t stand Itachi, he felt a small bloom of something warm in his chest. Itachi hadn’t tossed him aside, even though literally everyone else in the class wouldn’t work with him unless they were forced. But Itachi had not only not been forced to work with Iruka, he’d chosen to work with Iruka even when given the alternative - encouraged to take the alternative!

Iruka, who had up to this moment intended to do nothing on the project, found himself wondering if he could clear up some time after school to work with Itachi. He’d probably miss dinner again, the orphanage was pretty strict about mealtimes. But he wanted to do something to show Itachi that he was glad not to be tossed aside, for once. It felt nice. He knew, intellectually, that Itachi hadn’t specifically requested Iruka, but after two years of being avoided, ignored, and actively rejected by most of his classmates when it came to academics… well, he didn’t want to give Itachi a reason to reject him next time.

Slowly, painfully, Aki-sensei turned and wrote Iruka’s name on the board next to Itachi’s, making a face like she’d taken a big bite of raw lemon, rind and all. Iruka grinned. He’d show her. He and Itachi would make a great team.

~~*~~

“Hey! Itachi!” Iruka called, chasing him down after class let out. “Hey,” he puffed, slowing to a walk, moving more sedately than usual to account for Itachi’s shorter legs. “When do you want to start on that project?”

Itachi blinked, turning to look up at Iruka. “What do you mean?”

Iruka frowned. “The group project. The homework assignment. The one Aki-sensei assigned today?”

A hint of red dusted Itachi’s cheeks, and his eyes dropped away from Iruka’s to gaze ahead. “Oh. I’m sorry. I wasn’t planning on working with you at all.”

Iruka felt his chest clench sharply at the words, and he froze in place, his feet seeming rooted to the ground. “What?”

Itachi stopped too, turning to look at Iruka with a vaguely baffled expression. “You never do your homework,” he explained slowly, “and I’m perfectly capable of finishing the project on my own. You don’t need to do anything.”

Iruka felt his face growing hot. “Just because I don’t turn in my homework doesn’t mean I can’t do it!” he protested. “This is a group project! I can help!”

Turning, Itachi continued walking. “I have no way of knowing that based on your current record.” He waved a hand dismissively as he continued, “It’s fine, Iruka. I’ll take care of the project, and we’ll both get a good grade for once.”

Iruka gaped at his receding figure, unable to find words amidst the maelstrom of emotions clutching him. All he could do was stand there and watch as Itachi walked off, probably heading home to his mom and his dad and his brother and all of the other things that Iruka didn’t have that Itachi probably took for granted. He didn’t need Itachi’s help to get a good grade for once, he just needed time. Furious, Iruka spun on his heel, stomping toward the orphanage with so much force that his feet were hurting by the time he arrived.

He got there in time for dinner after all, only to find that he wasn’t hungry.

~~*~~

The next morning dawned bright and early, and Iruka was peeved. It was the weekend, and usually he used his free time to dream up a prank or two for the following week, gather supplies, and run a few preliminary tests to make sure everything worked out the way he expected. Instead, as he lay on his lumpy futon in a room too full of kids that nobody wanted, he grappled with the fact that he wanted to do his homework.

He wanted to do it. He wanted to prove to Itachi that he could do it, that just because he didn’t usually do his homework didn’t mean he couldn’t. He had a copy of the instructions, how hard could it be to just do it?

Several hours later, one bout of frustrated tears, an ink-filled water balloon and some angry shouting later, Iruka realized that homework was a lot harder to finish than he’d anticipated. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t have any reference materials! He’d lost library permission for probably the rest of his life after using one of the library books in a prank that had gone vastly underappreciated, so he couldn’t look up any of the information he needed. And he didn’t have the money for notebooks, he always borrowed paper from Aki-sensei when they needed an extra sheet of paper, so he didn’t have any notes from class to look over, either. Even his prank supplies came by way of his sticky fingers, and he had a feeling that if he tried to steal reference books from the bookstore they might not like that, so much.

So, he’d cried a little, filled a water balloon with ink, snuck out, and dropped the ink bomb onto an unsuspecting passer-by on their way into Hokage Tower. Of course, the ANBU on duty weren’t entirely pleased, though one of them did tell the Chunin who’d been entering that he needed to be more aware of his surroundings, if someone like Iruka could surprise him like that. Iruka took a bit of offense at that - he was pretty good at hiding and catching people off guard, the ANBU were just even better at noticing things.

After the angry Chunin had marched off to wash the ink from his hair and the ANBU on Iruka’s left had finally let him stand up instead of holding him folded over at a 90-degree angle to ensure his apology appeared more or less sincere, Iruka turned to leave. He didn’t feel any better, and his homework still wasn’t even close to finished. He dug into his pocket, pulling out the assignment and glaring balefully at it. Maybe he could hide in the back of one of the bigger bookstores and try to read a few books before they kicked him out?

“Hey kid,” said one of the ANBU who had made him apologize to the ink-covered Chunin, “What’cha got there?” The other ANBU elbowed them in the side and hissed something, but it was too low for Iruka to hear.

“...homework,” Iruka answered the first ANBU, ignoring the second. “But I can’t go to the library, and I don’t have any books or paper at the orphanage.”

“What about your textbook?” the ANBU asked, cocking their head to the side in a manner that implied genuine curiosity.

“When I’m in class I just borrow one of the classroom books, but after I… uh…” Iruka shuffled his feet awkwardly. “Anyway, I’m not allowed to take the textbook out of the classrooms anymore.”

The second ANBU snorted at this, and the first ANBU turned to look at them with what Iruka imagined was a withering stare, although the mask did somewhat disrupt the effect. After a moment, the first ANBU turned back to Iruka. “Lemme see what you’ve got to work on,” said the ANBU, extending a hand. They unrolled the assignment, straightening up a little as they read. “Oh, well, you’re in luck, kiddo. This is a group project, so you can probably just share materials with your partner.”

Iruka wanted to sink into the ground. He swallowed hard, willing himself to lift his eyes to meet the dark space behind the bright white ANBU mask. “My partner doesn’t want to work with me,” he said, his face heating as he explained. “He said that, since I never turn in my homework, he’ll just do it all himself. But I don’t want him to do all the work! I can do it! I just wish he’d given me a chance…” Iruka said, trailing off. He swallowed hard, feeling a prickling at his eyes. Oh no, no, he was not going to cry in front of these ANBU.

“Hmm,” said the ANBU, considering the scroll. “I bet if you asked Sandaime-sama, he might let you use some of his reference books.”

Now it was the second ANBU’s turn to stare pointedly at the first. The first ANBU did not seem affected whatsoever by this reaction.

Iruka blinked, considering the suggestion. Usually, he only visited the third Hokage when he was invited over for tea, about once a month. He’d never considered asking for anything else, or stopping by when it wasn’t their monthly tea time. “You think he would let me do my homework up there?” Iruka asked, pointing to Hokage Tower.

The ANBU nodded slowly. “What do you say we head on up together and find out?”

“This is ridiculous,” the second ANBU protested, “I’m sure the Hokage is-”

“Deeply invested in the education of our new generation of shinobi, yes, I agree,” the first ANBU interrupted sharply. “It can’t hurt to ask.”

The second ANBU sighed, and returned to their post at the door. “Fine. You go on up. But for the record? I think this is-”

“Thank you for your opinion,” the first ANBU interrupted again, one hand on Iruka’s shoulder as he guided him through the door. “I’ll be back out shortly.”

The second ANBU huffed, but said nothing more.

Iruka and the ANBU walked in silence for a few moments before Iruka felt compelled to say, “You didn’t have to interrupt ANBU-san back there. I know nobody wants me around.” He forced a grin even as his stomach twisted uncomfortably. He glanced up at the ANBU, whose grip on his shoulder had tightened incrementally at the words. “I’m a nuisance. Everybody says it, it’s no secret.”

“You’re a kid,” the ANBU replied, their grip loosening slightly as they continued walking, “All kids are nuisances at one time or another. Nothing to worry about.”

Iruka had a feeling most people would disagree with that assessment, but he liked the thought that maybe it was okay to be a nuisance, at least sometimes. He’d never felt that way before, or at least, no one had ever bothered to say as much to him. “Do you really think the Hokage will let me use his books to finish my homework?”

“I don’t know,” the ANBU said honestly, “but it’s worth asking.”

Iruka nodded, and the two of them continued down the corridor in comfortable silence.

~~*~~

As it turned out, the Hokage was not only willing to let Iruka use his books, he also told him that if he ever needed reference materials, he should go to the Sarutobi residence and request access to the clan library.

“You’re welcome to use those resources any time you need them,” the Hokage told him seriously, “...so long as you don’t draw funny moustaches on all of the pictures in the scrolls,” he added with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

Iruka agreed, face heating as he realized the Hokage had heard about how Iruka had ended up with a probably-lifetime ban from the community library. After the two of them looked over Iruka’s assignment together, the Hokage sent him off to the Sarutobi residence with a list of four or five references to find and bring back. “We’ll work together,” he said. “I’ll do my paperwork, and you can do your homework. When we’re done, we can have lunch together.”

Accustomed to a five-finger-discount lunch on the typical weekend, Iruka brightened considerably at the idea of a hot meal. “Great! Thanks!”

“If you wouldn’t mind accompanying Iruka to the Sarutobi compound, ANBU-san?” the Hokage asked, turning to raise an eyebrow in the direction of the ANBU that had brought Iruka up to his office.

The ANBU bowed. “Yes sir.”

Iruka grinned as he followed the ANBU back down the stairs and across the village towards the Sarutobi compound, clenching his fist tight around the assignment. He’d show Itachi! He’d walk into the Academy on Monday with the best homework assignment of the whole class!

~~*~~

When Monday rolled around, Iruka strolled into the classroom like he owned it. Grinning wide, he walked right up to Aki-sensei’s desk and set his assignment beside the small pile of assignments that several other students had dropped off on their way into class.

Aki-sensei glanced down, her nose wrinkling slightly as she looked at Iruka’s submission. “What is this?” she asked, lifting her eyes to stare at Iruka with suspicion.

“My homework,” Iruka replied belligerently. 

“But Itachi already submitted your homework,” Aki-sensei said, glancing at the dark-haired, dark-eyed boy who was in his usual front row seat, staring at them like Iruka had grown a second head overnight.

“He submitted his version,” Iruka clarified with a grin, feeling almost excited. “This is my version.”

Now Aki-sensei looked downright worried as she picked up his assignment using only the very tips of her fingers. “Is that so?” she sneered. “So if I open this, it will contain your research project, and not, say, a stink bomb?”

Iruka scowled. “No, there’s no stink bomb.”

“Some kind of dead animal?” Aki-sensei prodded.

How uncreative! As if Iruka would do something so obvious. “Of course not,” he scoffed, insulted by the very idea. 

“Of course not,” Aki-sensei repeated, her eyes narrowed. She didn’t seem particularly convinced. “What did you do to this?” she finally demanded. “Where’s the punchline?”

“There is no punchline,” Iruka said, the sick feeling crawling back into his stomach as more and more students were walking into class, dropping their assignments on the desk, and heading to their seats. What was the big deal with his homework? Why did she have such a problem with it?

“Right,” Aki-sensei scoffed. “Well, I suppose, if there’s no prank, then you won’t mind if I do this,” she said, crushing the paper between her palms before throwing it into the wastepaper bin. 

“No!” Iruka cried, taking an involuntary step forward.

“Iruka,” Aki-sensei said sharply, “This was a group project. I will only accept one submission for the assignment. Did you really think I would take yours over Itachi’s?”

Iruka felt like he’d been hollowed out from the inside as he shook his head weakly. Of course not. Nothing he did would ever measure up to Itachi. Why had he even tried?

“Take your seat, Iruka,” Aki-sensei said sharply, “You’re holding up the class.”

Numbly, Iruka shuffled to the back of the classroom, sinking into his chair and staring ahead without really seeing anything. He didn’t fall asleep, but by the time classes were finished for the day he still hadn’t managed to focus long enough to recall a single thing from Aki-sensei’s lecture.

He moved like he was in a fog, slipping his worn school bag over his shoulder and shuffling out the door, barely able to remember to keep putting one foot in front of the other. What was the point? Why should he try at all, if it wasn’t even going to make a difference in the end? 

He kept trudging his way across town, and was nearly back to the orphanage when he heard someone calling his name.

“Iruka! Iruka!”

He turned, expecting maybe Mizuki, or Anko, or one of the other orphans who stayed in the orphanage and just wanted some company as they headed in together. Instead, he saw Itachi jogging towards him, holding a crumpled piece of paper. Iruka’s heart sank. Perfect. The last person he wanted to see after today. Why was he here? What was he doing with an old paper, and why was he chasing after Iruka, waving it around like a flag?

“What do you want?” Iruka demanded, hating that he was losing to a kid half his age, half his size, and twice as good as him at literally everything.

“I wanted to apologize,” Itachi answered, not even a little winded from his run. Showoff.

“Apologize for what?” Iruka asked, frowning a little. For being so perfect at everything?

“I underestimated you, Umino Iruka,” Itachi said, his little face drawn into a look so serious that it just ended up looking cute. For a moment, Iruka almost forgot how much he couldn’t stand the kid.

“...how so?” Iruka finally asked, sticking his hands into his pockets and staring down at this nuisance of a kid. Well. Nuisance to Iruka, anyway. He wasn’t surprised that he’d been underestimated, that was pretty much his entire life story at this point.

“This is really good work,” Itachi explained, still with that adorable serious look on his face. He extended the crumpled paper in Iruka’s direction, at which point Iruka finally realized that it wasn’t any old crumpled paper.

It was Iruka’s homework paper. The one he’d slaved over for hours. The one he’d spent almost the entire weekend in the Hokage’s office working on. The homework that Aki-sensei had crumpled up and thrown out without even bothering to look at it. “Give me that!” he snapped, his fingers closing around the paper, tugging it out of Itachi’s grasp.

The kid let it go without a fuss. “It’s really excellent work,” he said. “If you submitted work like that every day, you could probably be near the top of the class.”

“If I had time to submit work like that, maybe,” Iruka snapped back. “Some of us don’t have that luxury.” he jerked his head in the direction of the orphanage. “I have to go feed some kids and clean the bathrooms now, so…”

Itachi tilted his head, a confused look crossing his features. “You feed kids? Are they your siblings?”

Iruka laughed at that. “Nah, but they don’t have anyone else to feed them,” he answered, thinking of little Nanako with the big brown eyes and frizzy black hair who hated vegetables, of Haru, who should be able to eat on his own now but still made a huge mess when he did, and even … Naruto … the living embodiment of his parents’ killer. It was awkward, sometimes, being that close to the vessel of a monster, but he was still a kid. It was weird, but Iruka didn’t mind it, not the way some people did.

“Oh,” Itachi looked surprised. “I feed my brother, sometimes. When mom and dad aren’t home.”

Iruka considered Itachi. “Sasuke, right? Your little brother?”

An actual smile bloomed across Itachi’s face at that. “Yeah,” he said. “Sasuke.”

“Cool,” Iruka said awkwardly, crumpling the homework assignment back into a ball and shoving it into his pocket. “Well, I’m going to go… feed. Kids.”

“Okay,” Itachi said, nodding. “Oh, and Iruka?” he added, just before Iruka turned to walk away.

“Yeah?” Iruka asked, feeling his shoulders stiffen almost involuntarily. “What?”

“Next time we have a group project…” Itachi’s gaze wandered, resting on the orphanage, the trees, the sky, anything but Iruka, “Maybe we could work together?”

Iruka felt something inside him melt at that, the tension he’d been carrying all day finally loosening as he felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “Sure,” he said cautiously. “Thanks.”

Itachi nodded once to acknowledge he’d heard before turning around and gliding away, most likely heading for the Uchiha compound.

Iruka watched him go, not quite sure how to feel. Relieved that Itachi had acknowledged his effort? Frustrated that he hadn’t trusted him to do the work in the first place? Annoyed that Itachi was the one who got to decide whether or not they’d work together on a group project in the future? With a sigh, he decided it wasn’t worth worrying about. He had bathrooms to clean and toddlers to feed. Whatever else was going on in his life, he could worry about it later.

As he turned to face the orphanage, he frowned, considering the new homework Aki-Sensei had assigned today, crumpled up in his school bag. Maybe, after dinner, after his chores, he would head over to the Sarutobi library for an hour or two and see if he could at least get some of it finished by nightfall. Sure, it might be lights-out by the time he got back to the orphanage, but Iruka had gotten pretty good at sneaking past wards, and he was pretty sure he’d have no problem sneaking back into the orphanage after lights-out.

That decided, Iruka grinned and marched up the front steps of the orphanage. This time, it wasn’t a group project, so Aki-sensei would have to accept his assignment. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he handed it in.

#umino iruka #uchiha itachi #iruka fic #sharingan stealer iruka #itachi fic

[minaa-munch]

Question for mun! What do you think of Minato imitating Hashirama and how he rescued Kushina only because she was Uzumaki?

Oh boy, why’d you have to ask? [I’m kidding, I love development questions. They give my neurons a reason to not implode]. Before I address your question though, please note that I have a different interpretation of Minato. Naturally, said interpretation pertains to how I write the character and is not up for wide-scale public acceptance. To each their own, ne?

Disclaimer: Canon = manga. I rarely consider the anime on its own, though I may refer to sourced articles from reddit/quora/narutopedia/databooks. I’m very picky about my sources, since unfounded bouts of OP makes my tea taste bitter and I like my chamomile nice and refreshing, despite the claims of a certain copy nin likening it to steeped weeds. >> You know who you are.

Lets start with the times: Konoha was an established hidden village with a fair number of geniuses to its leaf adorned headband; Hiruzen’s generation, the White Fang, Konoha’s Ghost, Legendary Sanin - and the list goes on. These shinobi were role models; icons for the younger generation to follow - and to become Hokage; the best of the best, was on everyone’s bucket list. As a refugee, Uzumaki Kushina said she wanted to be Hokage to prove a point and Minato chose that time to say it too because it was akin to acknowledging her as one of Konoha.

Just because no one else said it, doesn’t mean they didn’t aim for it either. Who hadn’t learned about the legendary Shodai and the formation of the village? Who didn’t know about the honoured Uzumaki Mito who was somehow still alive whereas everyone else from her time had died? These figures, legends were heroes and idols for a lifestyle where the main trade was murder and espionage. Undoubtedly, their names and lores were used to instil a certain patriotism within the budding leaves of the village; to ensure that the new generations learned to set aside their differences and work together in the service of the Daimyo.

I digress. It wasn’t just Minato who wanted to be like the Shodai or the Nindaime, or the Legendary Professor [Sandaime], everyone did. He simply happened to have the means to make it happen: Beat the Sandaime’s record at the academy [undisputed so far], stumbled across the Nindaime’s technique and adapted it to be faster [thus hijacking the title of the fastest shinobi] and fostered a reputation on the battlefield which, true to Konoha’s brand of genius, made enemy nin soil themselves.

To say he didn’t plan on said reputation would be somewhat incorrect. Minato was a reputed [ha] genius, ne? Not on the same level as Itachi but pretty…lethal, to put it lightly. The system fostered his persona, and he outstripped it by becoming the youngest Hokage in history. That’s a worthy legend in itself, but is it legend enough to overshadow all previous Hokage?

Which brings me back to your question: Did he rescue Kushina just because she was an Uzumaki? Also interpreted as: Did he plan on marrying Uzumaki Kushina from the get-go?

Maybe. There isn’t enough evidence in canon to completely refute it; but there isn’t nearly enough to support it either. I tend to lean towards the latter since such planning would involve him honing in on Kushina as a ‘target’ since learning her clan affiliation. He was what, nine years old? Maybe ten when they met? I don’t know about you, dear anon, but I prefer a dash of realism when it comes to character studies. At that time, Minato, being the clan-less thingus that he was, was probably more invested in proving himself to his beloved Jiraiya sensei [role model x] and the Sandaime and everyone else who saw him as a genius born once every decade.

Random fun fact: Minato “stalking” Kushina is a filler in the anime. It never happened in the manga. See why sources are so important?

But then how is it possible for the parallel to be so apparent? I’ll give you two reasons; the first is a boring one called literary trope. The second one is kinda…conspiratorial. You see, when a system is as prone to birthing geniuses as Konoha’s most certainly is, the fact that there is a potential genius candidate and a Jinchuriki in the same age group becomes an opportunity. The Jinchuriki is always close to the Hokage, and the Hokage is always one who is recognised by the people.

Additional side-note: Jinchuriki goes missing; everyone panics and no one bothers to notice the cherry red strands of hair left behind by one intelligent kunoichi. No Jonin/Chunin thinks to look underneath the freaking underneath and pick up on it? Come on; this is a generation that grew up around wars. They’re not idiots. [insert nudge no jutsu here]

Case and point. Minato was well aware of his reputation [he bloodied his hands and soul for it after all], and had probably realised the nuances of the system at some point, and had grown to be sceptical of it. Consequently, he had an ego massive enough to think that he could change it for the better. [Remember when he and Naruto talk about the cycle of hatred? He indicated that he was aware of the problem, but didn’t know how to fix it because his generation had failed on that note]

Hokage? Hokage. He was well aware of how his persona might appear to the general populace. His sunny disposition and charm was probably more likened with the Shodai than anyone else. If you don’t think he took advantage of it, then you don’t know just how sneaky Konoha’s Kiiroi Senkō can be. He didn’t hail from a special clan, neither did he possess any kekkei genkai so his reputation was honestly all he had.

But to strive especially hard to mirror Hashirama and Mito? Nah. Minato was a strategist; he would use his public image to ensure Konoha’s loyalty and his popularity - and also his fearsome reputation which crossed borders thanks to all those useful rumours. Kushina had an image of her own to maintain [she was a fearsome kunoichi in her own right] - the manga doesn’t expand on their time enough to disprove or approve, so I suppose it boils down to one’s interpretation, ne? I like to think that Kushina isn’t blind enough to be manipulated by the flake she has to teach the basics of fuuin to. You can’t expect a relationship between such bull headed characters to blossom without experiences and nuances tinged with enough blood, sweat and tears - they rely on each other, anon. Kushina is one of the few people that keeps Minato sane, and Minato is probably one of the very few people who gave Kushina a sense of purpose other than that of a mere vessel.

Hashirama and Mito weren’t a fairy tale romance - theirs was initially political which turned lofty, depending on who you ask. Minato’s and Kushina’s wasn’t a sparkly re-edit either, unless said re-edits are tinged with war and the knowledge that you might not return from your next high ranking mission.

Note on Minato as the Yondaime:

If there was any Hokage he would take administrative cues from, it would be the Nindaime’s lore/records because of all the decrees Tobirama introduced to streamline the system. Minato is a strategist, and had the luxury of one Nara Shikaku, a genius of a Jonin commander, who had been at the game longer than himself. He would introduce similar reforms. Any political nuance would be treated like an occurrence on the battlefield because that’s how Minato had programmed himself to work. 

He has his goofy moments too - but only with people he knows and can trust. Their generation was kinda...mucked up, as were the generations before theirs. If you think about it, Naruto’s generation is the..second gen that grew up soft and squishable in comparison. 

#masked reporter #thanks for asking #er..don't let me get on the soap box #I get borderline salty #but hey to each their own #Namikaze Minato #Uzumaki Kushina #character study #Yondaime #Flake Sensei [Minato] #Mentions: Hashirama #Mentions: Nindaime #Mentions: Sandaime #Mentions: Jiraiya #Mentions: Mito #Mentions: MinaKushi/KushiMina #queued #because /someone/ drew nice blobs with eyes #grumpy senju sea urchins

[temarisnara]

for the meme: naruto, sakura, sasuke, kakashi

THANK YOU!!!!!!! 

naruto

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang  hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (i haven’t actually thought too much about these so i’m going with my gut here but dicey and i were talking tonight about the generational difference between naruto and jiraiya when it comes to loyalty. jiraiya grew up in a time of war and is a solider, he was trained to be loyal to the village. if it came down to it, he’d kill even tsunade if she betrayed the village. naruto is loyal to people. if sakura betrayed the village, he would never give up on her, just like he never gave up on sasuke. naruto wants to protect the village because the village is where the people he loves live. naruto’s entire narrative arc is about bonds so i’m pretty sure he’s a hufflepuff) best quality: god i just wrote a fucking essay above about it- his loyalty and bonds to other people. everyone he meets is now his friend whether they like it or not ! he was just such a lonely kid, desperate for attention, for love, for acknowledgement, anything at all. and it would’ve been so easy for him to sit in that, to let himself hate the village, to resent them- but he didn’t. he set out to prove them wrong and he did. he is so, so, so fucking good. worst quality: HIS TASTE IN MEN. okay like, on the real, it’s not his fault and boruto isn’t real but it’s such UTTER BULLSHIT that the entire fucking series he met these people who got fucked over by the village status quo and he promised them he was going to change it when he became hokage and he fucking didn’t. its BULLSHIT. it’s not his fault, that’s not him, but GOD i’m MAD. ship them with: SAKURA, sasuke, gaara, shikamaru, sai, kiba, hinata.   brotp them with: SAKURA- in fact all of the above list. he has great dynamics with them. also, kakashi, iruka, jiraiya, tsunade, choji, i like to imagine his and ino’s dynamic as fucking hilarious when they’re older. oh and i want him and karin to be annoying cousins together like PLEASE i DESERVE THIS. needs to stay away from: STOP SHIPPING HIM WITH KAKASHI!!!!!!!! ENOUGH!!!!! GO TO JAIL!!!!!!!!! misc. thoughts: that’s my fucking BABY i’ve shed SO MANY TEARS over this blonde idiot. he’s so good. 

sakura

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (again, havent thought about it before now, but my gut SCREAMs gryffindor. she’s so...punchy, and head strong, and hard working. just like. all the gryffindor traits!) best quality: sakura’s character development lives rent free in my head. like. okay. sakura always had potential. she ranked high in her classes, she had better chakra control than naruto or sasuke, mastered things quicker than them, was observant and book smart. but physically and emotionally, she was weak! she could not hold her own in battle the way naruto or sasuke could, and often her fear got in the way, if not straight up controlled her. when naruto and sasuke fought, she could do nothing but beg them to stop. when sasuke left the village, he easily knocked her out. and sakura knew she was the weak link of team 7. so she resolved to get stronger. she sought out tsunade and trained with her for four years. and like, tsunade is an insane person. sakura would break her bones and tsunade would have her keep training and just heal them later. she mastered healing. she mastered chakra control. she developed fucking superhuman strength. she refused to be the weak link anymore, to just sit back helplessly while naruto and sasuke fought. she’s from a civilian family, she has NOTHING in terms of innate ninja abilities like literally everyone else in her class, but she became the strongest female ninja of her generation and surpassed her legendary sannin mentor through sheer hard work and determination. FUCK. she’s so cool.  worst quality: again, this is NOT HER FAULT, it’s bad sexist writing, but sakura is such a fun and obnoxious character who matches naruto beat for beat, but when sasuke comes around she’s a shell of herself. even when she’s MARRIED TO HIM she doesn’t act like herself. she’s reverted back to that inflatuated 12 year old she’s long outgrown! bro, WHAT!  ship them with: NARUTO AND INO. and. ok. listen. i’ve become soft for sasuke/sakura’s potential. if sakura got to be herself with sasuke, they’d be, at the very least, FUN. and sasuke/naruto/sakura is so fun. also rock lee is so sweet, i would not have been mad if they’d been endgame. brotp them with: NARUTO AND INO. kakashi, tsunade, hinata, rock lee.  needs to stay away from: STOP!!! SHIPPING!!! KAKASHI!!! WITH!!! HIS!!! STUDENTS!!!!!!! misc. thoughts: i knew i would love sakura. look at her. she has pink hair and she punches things. 10/10. but she quickly, quickly became not just my favorite naruto character, but one of my favorite characters in all of shounen anime. the ball was dropped with her, multiple times, but she’s still such a dynamic fucking character with the best character development. 

sasuke

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life | there aren’t words to describe how i feel about him  hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (sasuke is...hard. i think the argument for gryffindor could also be made, but i’m leaning towards slytherin) best quality: i’m so tired. the thing about sasuke is....he deserved so much better than he got. i can’t tell you what his best quality is because his entire character arc is him being self destructive. he’s not fucking well!!!! the good parts of him he either tries to snuff out, or the story glosses over them to show how far he’s fallen. I think, the one good quality that refused to die, is his protectiveness. Him protecting Naruto in the Zabuza arc was such a pivotal moment for him, for his and Naruto’s relationship, for Team 7, for the story. It was the moment where everything changed. He was so desperate to protect Naruto from Itachi, he was super protective of Sakura in the forest of death, and even in Shippuden, he’s protective of team Taka, and unfortunately the moment I finally  broke and said fuck it, I love Sasuke, is when he protected Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi from the infinite tsukiyomi.  worst quality: his extremism lmao like. god. again, dicey and i have talked about this, how characters who challenge the status quo are portrayed as ~crazy~ and extremists so yet again, its BAD WRITING but also PROPAGANDA! god. but like, i’m sorry, fuck the village but he wanted to go after people who were not involved in what happened to Itachi. I understand his anger, but I wish the narrative had treated it and him with respect rather than throwing a fucking dart at a board to decide what Sasuke’s character arc was going to be about this week! ship them with: naruto, suigetsu, juugo, and again, lowkey sakura. brotp them with: naruto, sakura, kakashi, team taka, itachi needs to stay away from: STOP SHIPPING HIM WITH HIS TEACHER AND BROTHER. YALL.  misc. thoughts: i’m so fucking tired. what was kishimoto trying to do with him! i don’t understand! sasuke was right! he was fully right to hate the village, to demand change. why did kishimoto have the  village repeatedly doing heinous, evil things, validating sasuke’s resentment, but sasuke was portrayed as being in the wrong. ALSO, the ENTIRE. FUCKING. POINT. of naruto is  bonds, and how important friendship and love is, and sasuke’s entire GODDAMN NARRATIVE is about him breaking those bonds to become stronger, and destroying himself in the process, and everyone he loves telling him this isn’t the right path, and FINALLY he accepts it- and then in boruto he’s JUST. ALONE? HE HASNT MET HIS DAUGHTER IN 12 YEARS WHEN FAMILY WAS SO IMPORTANT TO HIM???? I HATE IT. I HATE IT. THIS IS SO BAD. SASUKE DESERVED BETTER.

kakashi

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff (i want to say ravenclaw and make team 7 representation of all the houses but that man is a gryffindor through and through) best quality: honestly kakashi is a lot of good things but he’s not a character i look at and go “oh i love him because he’s _____”. i love him because he’s a character who has suffered so, so much, who has depression and ptsd and truthfully he just wants to fucking die so fucking bad to the point obito has to tell him “fucking no, stay and live”, but he never gives up. he might be 3 hours late because he couldn’t find the strength to get out of bed, but he still got out of bed eventually and showed up. so, actually, i guess that’s his best quality. he keeps going. worst quality:  so like. how did he end up a teacher. i’m just wondering. LISTEN, HE LOVES HIS KIDS SO MUCH. but he is NOT well suited to teaching, he does not fucking like kids, sasuke and naruto are TRAUMATIZED and he’s just like “hm. when’s the new book of icha icha paradise coming out?” BROOOOOOOOOOOOOO ship them with: GAI IS HIS LEGAL HUSBAND AND SOULMATE. obito is his ex-boyfriend who he’ll always love an idolized version of.  brotp them with: naruto, sakura, sasuke, yamato, rin, asuma, kurenai.  needs to stay away from: [screeching] STOP! SHIPPING! HIM! WITH! CHILDREN! YOU’RE! GOING!  TO! JAIL! also i fucking hate kakashi/iruka THEY NEVER TALK?????????? WHY IS IT SO POPULAR??????  misc. thoughts: it’s fucking unfortunate how much he got to me. i knew i wouldn’t dislike him but he ended up being one of my favorite characters and i’m so mad. my reputation of hating fan favorites is on the line here!