Who *Should* Have Died From The Konoha ~12 Instead Of The One Who Did
rules:
we’re assuming they die under the same circumstances as the other guy
each one listed would have a complete storyline and their death would further the immediate plot as well as the overall narrative
i’m not “just picking characters i don’t like”
i do not condone killing characters for the sake of shock value but am considering shock as a legitimate tool in generating impact of a character’s death
miss me with “[redacted]’s death was a tragic result of the shinobi system” because no it was not. if that were true you could sub out [redacted] for any other child soldier and get the exact same impact. we know exactly why they were chosen and it’s got an (insufficient) explanation irl and in-universe.
#3. Sai
Motivation: Friendship
First of all, imagine the shock value from killing one of THE Team Kakashi members.
Cool. Now imagine Naruto’s shock at Sai sacrificing himself for him.
Sai overanalyzes normal human interaction to the point of not understanding it. He reads books about how to befriend people. He still doesn’t understand it all the time but friendship is coming more naturally to him these days. What he does understand is that Naruto is the only chance of winning this war, and he’s down, and the enemy is aiming for him, and Hinata is trying to stop them but she’s on the ground, the spears are in the air and so is Sai, and Naruto is his friend.
He doesn’t need to think about it much deeper than that.
Now imagine Sasuke “What Does ‘Friend’ Mean To You” Uchiha witnessing this, witnessing Naruto’s reaction, and the further effects this may have on his character. After all, Sai was his replacement. If Naruto feels this strongly about losing someone who was decidedly not him but his friend and teammate nevertheless then… maybe.
#2. Rock Lee
Motivation: Youth
Regardless of *how* this one plays out, no one wants to watch the determined, precious, comedic relief die; no one who’s watched this far into the show wants Rock Lee specifically to die. Huge impact already. But we can make it super duper sad because he deserves a memorable death. I see it going one of two ways.
One: Hinata doesn’t even have the time to try to shield Naruto because Rock Lee is faster. Ten-Tails barely launches the attack and Lee’s already taken/attempted to counter the hit. Perhaps this is his eight gates moment. Similar to Sai, Rock Lee would cite the power of friendship in his dramatic death speech, but he also was just… doing his duty. Truly, if you’re in the “Neji was just another tragic child soldier” camp, Rock Lee is the prime example of what I mean when I say you could sub in any child soldier, which I know sounds paradoxical but stay with me. Rock Lee’s entire personality is training harder than anyone else to benefit a system that will ultimately result in his death. If you want to make a point about child soldiers and needless lives lost, Rock Lee is the one to kill.
Two: Rock Lee doesn’t shield Hinata. He shields Neji. But not necessarily on purpose. The scene plays out exactly as written up to the moment Neji activates his byakugan, and the next frame isn’t him falling to the ground, it’s Rock Lee. The usually-somewhat-reserved Neji is devastated, probably in tears, demanding to know why he would do something like this. Rock Lee coughs up a bit of blood. “I was faster than you.” Smile. “I finally beat you…” Serene eyes fall shut. “…rival.”
And now imagine Naruto’s reaction to losing Bushy Brow. Imagine him watching Gai be brought to his knees by a blow that didn’t physically touch him. Imagine Madara incorrectly perceiving that. The implications. The foreshadowing.
#1. Shino
Motivation: Legacy
I’m gonna be real, the writers were never gonna kill off Rock Lee like that, which is the biggest reason Shino has taken the crown as Most Worthy Of A Tragic Death in my book.
This dude has a connection to both Naruto and Hinata (making him equally as good a sacrifice as Neji if that’s the canon criteria). However, unlike most other (male) characters, Shino isn’t shown to have a particularly close friendship with Naruto. The one recurring joke around Shino is that he’s so irrelevant even Naruto can’t remember his name.
But he is good friends with Hinata. And he knows she’ll spend the rest of her life miserable if Naruto dies, and that if she dies right now she will never have gotten her life’s greatest wish.
So Shino goes out in a blaze of glory, and we’ll probably insert something about how Naruto has somehow secretly inspired him all along— or maybe something cynical about how he always wanted to be included by Naruto but never was unless Kiba or Hinata were around, so he’s sacrificed himself to maintain the livelihood of everyone else while not “losing” that friendship himself— and we of course get the touching moment with Hinata (oh just imagine the drama if Shino lay dying and told Hinata “Why did I protect you? It’s simple. The reason is… for the same reason you protected him.” and we find out that the huge secret crush of the show was not Hinata toward anyone, but Shino toward Hinata, never confessing because he knew it would be futile).
Good luck forgetting his name now, Naruto. Now no one will ever forget about Shino Aburame.
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Fascism and The Leaf: Tobirama's Legacy, Pt.1
The thing is, Fascism isn't a static ideology, but rather it's a miscellaneous agglomeration of various political and philosophical ideas, which makes it a hive of contradictions. In and on itself, fascism lacks even a single essence, or quintessence, and because of this it's often used as a pars pro toto designation for several authoritarian ideologies.
The Leaf isn't just a totalitarian entity - base them as military authoritarianism if you prefer, but there's no escaping the fact that its precepts are rooted in fascism, as these boil down to a hotchpotch of antithetical ideals roughly sewn together. Many of them are in fact very blatantly inconsistent.
What I intend to do here is illustrate how the the Leaf suffered a distortion, as it was moulded into a fascistic entity after its birth, and not at its conception, with the Senju's influence (but specifically Tobirama's) being the caveat.
This'll be part one of a series of analyses. Enjoy and please do consider giving this a reblog!
Konohagakure was initially perceived as a new revolutionary order, avant-garde almost, and the Senju, especially Hashirama, were seen as the conduit for pioneering this change:
"Everyone knows that you're the driving force behind the village..."
Tobirama is such a subtly adroit manipulator, because not only is he the only one that's heavily shouldering this specific narrative, but it serves a duplicitous scope.
To devise a democratic election, one that's held exclusively for this instance, ensures consolidation of power in the hands of the Senjus, with Hashirama as Hokage.
It was always Hashirama who possessed a charisma that moved the masses, what with his jovial "golden retriever" energy, while Madara was never really the crowd-pleasing type, he himself states this and upon defeat he draws attention to the complete lack of adherents:
This doesn't necessarily equate to Madara having little to no importance within the sphere of village founding, but that Tobirama deviates the focus, diminishing Madara's contributions, to assign greater gravity to Hashirama's magnetic personality.
Hashiram admits to depending on Madara's unwavering support - he didn't solo the feat of statecraft, he's not that level of visionary - legislation, policymaking, electioneering, internal affairs, intra and inter clan relationships, foreign affairs, commerce, defence, fucking agriculture and distribution of goods even, they're all procedures that can't possibly be dealt with by one man, nor clan, alone, no matter the god-tier status!
Realistically speaking, these clans during the Warring States Period most probably ceaselessly forged bonds and fleeting alliances with one another; it purely was a matter of survival, and since they were by definition mercenaries, money: honour can go fuck itself - this, all to state that it's highly improbable that the Uchiha wouldn't do the same: so surely, surely, Madara, as head of the most gifted clan of all, was an indispensable figure when devising, say, intraclan allegiances within the village structure?
Tobirama's take is heavily objectionable, to use a euphemism. It's illogical to think that Madara would have such little impact in the creation of their, of his and Hashirama's village - wasn't this their synergistic dream since childhood, wasn't that the initial premise?
And then I've just got to love Hashirama's reaction to Madara's elucidations circa the duality of these polar opposite force, light and shadow, cooperation and conflict:
Dot, dot, dot...
... something something, the obvious and embarrassing elephant in the room that I've politely ignored and that's gone unacknowledged for several years now, deary me...
You leave Tobirama to me...
Hashirama knows that the bone of contention here is his brother's conniving ways, that this lack of collaboration is, for Madara, a point of rupture between himself and the village (I'll elaborate on this further, in seperate meta.)
Just look at the sheer unadulterated disdain here, these two absolutely loathe one another:
Unsurprisingly, here he's only addressing Hashirama - he couldn't give a rat's arse about Madara and it would hardly surprise me if the latter had been shunned from persuaded into renouncing participation in this roundtable with the daimyo. Senju access only, Uchiha access denied.
Tobirama's very obviously been interfering relentlessly, spoiling Madara's and the Uchiha's reputation, sowing discord between the two clans, and in fact most of what he propagates is based on back-fence talk alone.
Here's an example of his misuse of your run of the mill village hearsay:
"Haven't you heard the rumours about the Uchiha?"
From this, I'd gather that Tobirama hadn't quite begun dabbling in the more obscure regions of fringe pseudo-scientific research, as he has yet to bring to the table his pudding (because the proof is in the pudding, get it? Nevermind), the very same pseudo-science that leads him down the path of eugenics and genetic discrimination, which will later on serve as a basis for the Uchiha's extirpation.
For now, his discourse lacks a clincher, so it's based entirely on rumour:
This is the first symptom of Tobirama's disingenuous intent, the very same that later on is force fed into this budding system, buttressing his fascistic hold over the village...
Aversion (or fear) to difference
A fascist or impendingly fascist movement's initial appeal is one against those who are perceived as "foreign", that is to say, a fascist or prematurely fascist movement grows in credence by emotionally leveraging the general populace against an "intruder" (like Hitler did with Jews, Slavs, Roma etc).
This is a practice known as "othering", and it occurs when we draw attention to distinctions between groups of people in an effort to make us more suspicious of them, to belittle them, or to exclude them.
As a result, racism becomes an inherent part of the ideology.
Therefor, fascism grows and seeks consensus precisely by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of diversity: which is exactly what Tobirama is doing here, in the above panel.
This very specific rumour, that it's hate that magnifies an Uchiha's ocular power, derives from Tobirama's mouth. He is the perpetrator of these cleverly crafted fabrications, and it's done to create a sense of "otherness", of "us versus them", like a diligent fascist would - It generates an atmosphere of uncertainty and suspicion towards the Uchiha, such that not even Hashirama does much to shut him up.
Now, there are two steps in the othering process:
Indexing a group of individuals into categories based on perceived distinctions such as ethnicity, skin tone, religion, cultural heritage, gender, sexual orientation.
Branding that group as either inferior or threatening, or both, thus sowing dissension with a "us vs. them" mentality.
Focusing on a difference and exploiting it to undermine a feeling of resemblance or connection between individuals is hence known as othering.
By lowering empathy and stifling meaningful conversation, othering prepares the ground for prejudice or worse, persecution. When it is taken to its logical conclusion, othering can lead to one group of people rejecting that another group is even human.
Genocide doesn't occur in a vacuum, but requires years, if not decades, for a political situation to ferment and reach a pinnacle of intolerability.
In due course, this is precisely what occurs to the Uchiha: this ranking of the clan as "threatening to the village", which begins with Tobirama, is a process of othering that contributed massively to create the conditions for the genocide.
"You can never tell what they might do... So for the sake of the village's future..."
They can't be trusted, they're unstable, they're driven by unbridled hate, didn'tcha know? Won't someone please think of the Village!
Tobirama is very much aware of the lengths his brother will go to in order to ensure the village's stability: the dream of Konoha is everything to Hashirama, it's grander than himself, it holds more value than brother, friend or even his very own child ever could.
So he very conveniently brings up this assumed unpredictability at a very crucial moment, one where the two brothers are on the brink of determining Konoha's fate - and sealing their hegemony over it: cunningly, he sways his brother into accepting a fleeting phase of political suffrage by banking on his qualms and misgivings, after all, the village must succeed all:
From now on, Leaf's to be administered democratically!
It's only to be a democracy when the threat of Madara becoming leader was a true threat in Tobirama's eyes.
Popular vote will never occur ever again, as it begins and dies with Hashirama: from here on out, the Hokage, who symbolises the most potent military figure within the village and by extension the Land of Fire, is appointed solely via cronyism, and at best with the blessings of wealthy landowners, the daimyo, rather than through the druthers of the general populace (which would be the shinobi themselves).
Selective populism
It's unclear how long the Hokage clutches onto this power, but it seems to be decided by natural life-span or personal discretion, you know, until they feel like it (just as Hiruzen did - I mean, come on, he was a decrepit old fool when he succeeded Minato, couldn't he have just retired and vacated the role for someone fitter for the job? Fugaku anyone? Or, I don't know, popped his clogs off to save us the embarrassment of his second reign?) - it's safe to say that the Hokage remains in power for an indefinite period of time.
And it's not necessarily required they be the optimal choice mind you, qualities such as wisdom, intellectual aptitude, empathy, compassion, honesty are well overlooked; even sheer unadulterated power or ability isn't much appreciated, otherwise Madara would have been next in line after Hashirama - the sine qua non here is that whoever gleans leadership must have a direct connection to the Senju in some capacity.
Hashirama -> Tobirama (self-explanatory) -> Hiruzen (Tobirama's pupil) -> Minato (Jiraiya's pupil, who in turn was Hiruzen's) -> Hiruzen (again) -> Tsunade (Hiruzen's pupil and Hashirama's granddaughter) -> Kakashi (Minato's pupil) -> Naruto (both Kakashi's and Jiraiya's pupil, and Minato's son - also, protagonist of the series, kinda discounted he'd get there eventually)
Now back to the curious case of Nidaime: does anyone seriously expect us to believe that he was selected as Hokage through popular vote in the wake of Hashirama's death, that he somehow managed to garner the sympathy of the Uchiha despite ostracising them?
And yes, his persecution of the clan had begun while Hashirama was still alive, otherwise, why would the First chide him for it, as if he were exasperated at the prospect of having to nag him again, even as an impure shell of a corpse...? Perhaps because he'd griped about it ad infinitum in life? Over and over again, hm?
Or is it more likely that Tobirama affirmed the Senju's ascendance over the village, given his inherent mistrust of that one specific clan, by gradually isolating it and precluding their exponents the possibility of ever reaching political power?
Come on, the answer is so obvious, Madara was remarkably insightful with his predictions after all:
Under fascism, individuals qua individuals have no natural rights, so the "people", or shinobi, is conceived more as a quality, like this monolithic entity that expresses the "common will", which under Tobirama becomes the ideology of Will of Fire (WoF) - and since no shinobi can actually "possess" this common will, it is the supreme leader that claims to be their interpreter.
Having lost their power of delegation (or rather, never having acquired it in the first place if not only in the favour of Hashirama), average shinobis do not express their volition directly, they're simply invoked pars pro toto, to enact the role of the "people" or "citizens" as a sort of collective, or less poetically, the rank and file.
Hence, this request for popular opinion is but a facade:
Which leads us to the following...
The rejection of modernism
Same panel, but focus on a different Tobirama quote.
"These are different times compared to fathers!"
Pah, HARDLY! What changed? No, seriously, what fucking changed?
Very little, that's what. With respect to the Warring States Period, the village is negligibly any better, it just centralises violence on a grander scale!
Konoha is still financed by the more conservative landowners, who expected the village to preserve belligerent dynamics: warfare is the prime generator of capital!
And why?
Because instead of the countless chaotic and dispersed mercenary clans that engaged in perpetual conflict, the system just turns out to be a macro state of affairs: the daimyo's still there, aristocratic landowners are still there, the Kage inexplicably obeys their whims, villagers still depended on these for sustenance via the assignment of all kinds of missions, morally sound or otherwise - the shinobi apparatus by design (Tobirama's) still has to rely on a niche elitist rich for economic support: it's not auto-sufficient in any respect.
Ninja are still mercenaries, the difference being they've now systematically organised into secretive (or hidden), discriminative complexes that are categorically segregated from the outside world. That is to say, the villages and shinobi are still clannish in nature, ninja have simply upgraded from provincial war dogs to international warmongers.
So there, Hashirama's dreamland is just an ambitious war machine that thrives off of state-sponsored terrorism, one that's capable of producing mass destruction on a more efficient level.
So when compared to the previous circumstances, again, what fucking changed?
Sure the Leaf was founded in a desperate attempt to control rampant violence, because, as far as Hashirama’s understandings could lead him, unconstrained conflict between mercenary clans was the source of greater bloodshed.
But it never really even crossed his mind, be it because he lacked the foresight, or if you want, pin it down to him forcefully accepting the limits of his vision, the point is he miserably failed to think laterally, revolutionarily, as Madara did, and realise that condensing all violence into a singular superstructure (Konoha) would only result in more widespread, systematic destruction.
Madara was given the assurance by Hashirama that the role of Hokage was to be created with the specific intention of protecting people and above all children. That's what it was all about, protecting their loved ones and watching over them!
Is that what happens? Absolutely not! Despite Madara's obvious warnings, Hashirama ends up relinquishing his "Village of Peace" to a fascist!
Tobirama's the one who architects and defines the determinants of ninja creed (WoF and the tenets the Hokage must abide by - if it wasn't him personally, he at least gave his unfiltered opinion in quality of Hashirama's advisor, so it's not like it makes much difference) and military establishment: academy, chunin exams, shinobi ranking, the Konoha military police force, ANBU which is a faction of specialised shinobi granted special permission for roles such as seek and destroy and espionage etc.
Everything he devised, ideology, shinobi credo, infrastructure, it all revolves around strategic military brutality, and warfare. And the most horrific dimension in all of this? How the village takes advantage of children and subjugates in order to transform them into weapons.
Children are still exploited for military machinations: Konoha's bloody history is rife with tales of kiddie soldiers, just barely weened off their mother's teats, who've suffered mind-numbing WoF indoctrination and are sent on the battlefield to die.
Children still serve as canon fodder, just like in his father's times.
In a way, Tobirama's traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism.
Now, while fascism did revere technological advancement and the movement was proud of its industrial prowess, this was simply the surface manifestation of a philosophy rooted in "blood" and "earth".
Notice the parallels with Tobirama's supremacy? Replace "technology" with Jutsu, and "blood and earth" with "Will of Fire" and it becomes self-explanatory...
Link to part 2!
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About Shisui Uchiha
just some shower thoughts i had about him. this is very headcanon heavy and rather vague at times.
tw for talks about suicide, manipulation, trauma, abuse, etc
tagging: @uchihaharlot @pxssy-stuntin-for-itxchi @lalalover33-blog @burning-bubble @naruto-scribblings-j
Unlike Itachi, who was born during the last year of the great Shinobi war, it is safe to say that Shisui was born while it was still going on. So naturally, he was exposed to the worst side humanity had to offer, most likely traumatizing him in the process.
His mother is never mentioned, so I assume she must have died during his birth or in his early childhood. His father, most likely ravaged by illness before he even entered the battlefield, lost his left leg, leaving him with phantom pains and high medical bills. As a born shinobi, Shisui’s father lacked the funds and education to pursue any other path of career, leaving his child as the only breadwinner of his family. Shisui probably had to spend his entire childhood and youth slaving away just to keep his father and himself afloat. Additionally, he took care of a terminally i’ll man who didn’t even remember his son’s name. Of course, this would lead to Shisui being very perceptive of the psychology of the ones around him, how else could he search for a sign of his father’s state health changing?
Shisui often spent time wondering what it’s like to have a family, a family in which he is allowed to be what he is: a child. Someone who is cared for, someone who is looked after. Despite being an Uchiha, his relation to Kagami Uchiha - the Uchiha allied with Tobirama, the very person planting the seed for all the discrimination the Uchiha would face, up to a point of their genocide, would probably lead him to feel ostracized within his own clan. And like everyone of us, he is trying to find the balance between individuality and belonging - the latter being the one he lacked. His abilities as an Uchiha become a defining factor of identity for him, leading to him being willing to let a comrade via withholding aid - just on the basis of that comrade potentially being stronger than him. Once his comrade dies, the young Uchiha is ravaged by feelings of guilt, by the awareness that the blood of his friend is on his hand.
But nevertheless, he is blessed with a new Uchiha ability - the mangekyou sharingan. His entire life he had to enter a role he didn’t want to be in, robbing him of memories he could have had. So what better mangekyou ability to have than the one that alters memories, and, in extension, alters your role in the world?
Shisui’s resentment against his Uchiha identity starts bubbling up inside him again, and being a shinobi who frequents B- or even A-Rank missions as a literal teenager (how else would you pay for your father’s medical debt as a shinobi, eh?) he was closer to the village from the start. Hailed as the strong and talented Uchiha boy, taking on missions to serve his village, behind the facade a broken kid forced to grow up way too quickly. His first serious doubts begin when he is forced to kill Mukai Kohinata, a direct reflection of Shisui, just the other way around: a father wanting nothing but funds to care for his dying child.
Things don’t get better when the tension between the village and the Uchiha rise. His own brethren or the collective - who will you support? Getting into Shisui’s mind and twisting his perception of what’s right is an easy game for Danzo, almost too easy. A civil war breaking out in Konoha would be a repetition of his initial trauma - the one thing Shisui wants to prevent the most. Shisui starts feeling conflicted, until he finally stumbles upon THE miracle solution: forcefully keeping up the status quo by manipulating the leader of the revolution - an unpleasant reality, but better than the Uchiha clan’s extermination or a civil war breaking out, right? To Shisui, atleast. And honestly, who could blame him? As a ninja who graduated young, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he lacks the methodical and critical thinking outside of the parameters of violence and manipulation he is used to from Danzo and the shinobi world.
And then it happens. He agrees to suppress the revolution of his own ethnic group just for the sake of keeping up a false sense of peace, and suddenly, his co conspirators, the man that is supposed to be guarding him, leading him, suddenly abandons him and steals his eye? Shisui’s entire identity as the Uchiha boy from Konoha collapses and he doesn’t know what to think or believe anymore. In his last moments, he becomes aware of the utter pointlessness of the killing and the brutality of the shinobi system, the sheer feeling of powerless overwhelming him. At this point, death seems like a sweeter option than continuing to live powerlessly in such a system.
Shisui is a skilled ninja, but not always in contact with his emotions. Therapy is a rarity in the leaf, with even the counselors themselves not being able to give advise outside of the parameters of what’s “acceptable” in the hidden leaf.
So, what better way to hide your agony than behind a -albeit manufactured- goofy smile?
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