#like iruka is TEN. he's never seen the war and he only knows it through what his parents tell him. or other shinobi. or kids at school | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

poppymuses · 3 years

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@scnsei gets a f*cking book B)

There were always whispers among the servants. He hears them speaking, voices hushed and low, lest they be overheard by the royal family or the nobles that the whispers were typically about. Lu Ten had always been keen on listening to them. Oftentimes, silly rumors about the latest meeting, or some even about himself, had brought him a sense of relief to feel his tender age of seventeen. There were even a few late nights, where they’d stood around in the kitchen together: the crown prince and new, young servants, close to his own age, telling stories, gossiping, even laughing.

Now, he hesitates around a corner, having backtracked when he’d heard a certain name. He wonders, perhaps, if the group knew he hovered nearby. Lu Ten bites down on his lip at the words he hangs onto-- “crown prince’s tutor” and “execution”.

He swears his heart stops before he takes off, looking as calm and composed as ever, even as a sickness overtakes him, and he heads towards his bedroom, in desperate need of the safety and privacy that could only be brought by a closed door.

It shuts behind him and he presses sweaty palms against the door. He is stuck and desperate for breath. What had he done? Lu Ten had been attempting to be on his best behavior. Had Iruka done something? Said something to the wrong someone? No. No. He would never. Iruka was careful, thoughtful, to protect both of them.

(What was there to say, anyway?)

What could be done? Take the blame for an act (a word?) that he was unsure of?

Oh, how had he let this happen? How had he screwed up so colossally?

With his back to the door, he slides down until he’s sitting, pulling knees close to his chest. His thoughts are racing: what had pushed them over? would he be required to attend? forced to watch? if he reacted would Azulon do the same to him?

No--Azulon had never been one to beat around the bush. The way his grandfather referred to him (“my heir”) with such pride (like some prized possession). His treatment of Ozai, it was clear even Azulon would not decry his precious heir; the one beloved by their people, already respected by their generals and admirals. No. Lu Ten would live and he would suffer, if need be; (“there is always a lesson to be learned.”).

He stands on legs that shake beneath him and begins making his way down corridors. (What was the lesson?) The servant he’d overheard steps aside when she sees him and bows her head. How did she hear it before him? How much did they know? Had they..?

How did they know everything? He feels eyes on him as he passes, but has no interest in checking to be sure. How did they always know?

Lu Ten rounds corner after corner until he arrives at a pair of large and exquisite doors, where two imperials firebenders stand guard outside his grandfather’s bedroom. They bow, but show no other signs of acknowledgment but, still, he feels their eyes on him. He knew they gossiped just as well as the servants; the only difference was they were quieter about it.

His life was on display from the moment he was born, it hardly belonged to him. It was a spectacle for others to view.

His lifts a hand to knock.

And stops.

Fist rests against wood. The guards don’t move, they say nothing and he owes no explanation. He is their Prince, after all.

He offers something anyway.

“I need a moment.”

Heads turn, the guards exchange a look, trying to decide if the prince is asking them to leave. What was he doing? What could he possibly say? He had envisioned this a thousand times. Begging, pleading, in horrible desperation to spare Iruka’s life, all for reasons he could not fully explain. Reasons he did not want to explain. What happened between the two of them, whatever emotions passed between them, was no one’s business but their own.

Would it come to that? Would he go that far?

Lu Ten takes a breath, straightens his back, and knocks. Armor clinks as the two face forward again.

“Let him in.”

Azulon’s voice through the doors turns his stomach. A guard obliges, opens the door for him, and closes it behind him.

He walks, head buzzing, the room fuzzy around the edges, towards his grandfather. It’s easy for him to forget how old the Fire Lord really is; he looks a different man now, sitting up in his bed, reading over scrolls, versus the powerful man who ruled with no mercy in the war room. Azulon does not look up as Lu Ten approaches him, but with a simple wave of his hand, the boy stops.

“You have got nerve to disturb me without first requesting my presence, Prince Lu Ten.”

His grandfather’s golden gaze finally flicks towards him. The malice in the man’s face is not present in his eyes, he looks almost....amused? Lu Ten swallows and kneels, arm resting on his raised knee and head bowed in typical greeting. “My apologies, Fire Lord Azulon. I had no intention of interrupting--”

“Yet, you have decided to. Tell me what it is you want.”

Lu Ten lifts his head. Azulon did not like being kept waiting, and the prince realized as soon as their eyes meet that he had not prepared a word of what he intended to say. He’d always been quick witted, sharp and able to roll with whatever came his way, but he hesitates for a brief moment: knowing Iruka’s life rests in his hands, but in that moment, the look in Azulon’s eyes changes. The humor gone, replaced by certainty--smugness and anger rolled into one.

This was an expected visit.

The last lesson Azulon had taught him--restraint, was one he had learned well. The burns across his shoulder blades a constant reminder. His time with Iruka had been filled with nothing but restraint as his feelings towards the boy morphed into something entirely new to him. Lu Ten had dreamt of gentle hands wrapping his bandages, of smiles and whispers, of kisses while lying underneath his favorite tree in the city.

His voice, formal, confident, lacks the emotions that his pounding heart tells him. The room grows hotter as his body temperature increases, a nervous habit he’d never gotten control of.

“I wonder what crime my tutor has committed to deserve death. We have only executed traitors and deserters in the past, My Lord. Is there something he has done to deserve such punishment?”

He had taken Iruka there every time the pair had a chance to be together outside of the palace; they had taken to taking walks together on the days they had class together. They shared no kisses beneath the tree, but had laid apart, fingers just barely touching in the grass.

There was no one around. No one to see.

Azulon’s smile is dark.

Had he done this?

(Oh, how he wanted to kiss Iruka then.)

“Is distracting my heir not treasoness?” A pause. “Did I not warn you to restrain yourself, Prince Lu Ten? You think I have not noticed? That this common boy has made you soft. I have looked away long enough while you have conducted yourself so brazenly.” The elderly man’s brows have knitted together, and Lu Ten sees Fire Lord Azulon as he is in the War Room once more. No mercy.

“You think I have no seen the way you behave?” He scoffs. “I have shown both you and this boy mercy for allowing it to go on this long. He has no place here. I allowed you to sully yourself with the company of servants--” Lu Ten’s eyes close and he is bowing his head again, lower than before. He can hear the sneer in his grandfather’s voice without looking. “Oh, do not play shy now. You are my heir, the son of the Dragon of the West, and you will behave as such. I have seen you seek out the servants for company and thought nothing of it. Your father did the same as a boy. Now, whatever spell he has on you will be broken.You will be there. And you will give the orders to-”

“No..!”

The word leaves before he can stop them. His head snaps up from the shock, brown eyes wide. Azulon looks pleased to have caught him so off guard. “Grandfather, I--” he feels sick. Their eyes meet, Lu Ten’s chest is heaving as panic settles in. Oh, spirits, please don’t make him give the orders. Not Iruka. “Fire Lord Azulon,” he corrects himself; this was not a chat amongst family members. This was a private political meeting.

Lu Ten had the keen feeling that he did not take to being called grandfather the way he did to being called Fire Lord. He was Fire Lord Azulon first and foremost. The slip-up had clearly made him angry.

“What is the problem, Prince Lu Ten? You have ordered other men to their deaths, have you not?”

Head falls lower, his knee drops, and Lu Ten bows lower still, until his forehead is pressed against the marble of the floor. “Please, Fire Lord Azulon. Let the boy live. I’ll do anything.”

The heat around the room swells once more: candles, this time. The flames grow, brighten the room, and Lu Ten clenches his eyes shut tighter. Lu Ten’s anxious mind merely warmed the room, enough to make one sweat, but Azulon’s anger had scorched men in the past; had scorched his own grandson just a few months prior. “The time for doing anything has passed! You have had your chance.”

No. No, no, no, no.

“I had only shared the information a few hours ago and you race here to change my mind? That behavior is not befitting of the future ruler of my nation. The boy makes you weak!”

Lu Ten’s thoughts drift briefly to his grandmother, a woman long gone before his birth. He had never known her, rarely heard talk of her, beyond knowing that his own father had been named for her: Ilah and Iroh. Surely his grandfather must have had some fondness for her. Some love.

“I beg of you, Fire Lord Azulon. Anything at all. I swear to you, I’ll never see him again. All contact will cease immediately.” He presses his head against the cool marble, focuses on it. Cool against the increasing hot room, he was unsure which of them was the blame for it. Tears swell behind closed eyes and he lets out a shaky breath.

If never seeing Iruka again meant he would live, Lu Ten would suffer the remainder of his life in silence, but it was one promise he would keep.

Tears roll out the corner of his eyes, but he does not look up, cannot allow him to see him like this. “You should not be seeing him outside of your class or any supervised sessions at the palace. You truly must believe me to be a fool to not know the things you do. My mind is made up. The commoner will be put to death and you--”

“Please, no! Is it not punishment enough that I won’t see him, when you know what he means to me?” His voice raises but it cracks and quivers with fear. Desperation. He’s running out of ideas. The hands, flat in front of him, curl into fists and shake. What has he got to offer?

He does not know what Iruka means to him (goodness, kindness, in a world that has shown him very little). The way his heart felt the first time he watched Iruka talk with Zuko and Azula. It was that moment he realized he wanted to run away with them; just the four of them. His cousins, safe and happy, away from their father. All of them away from Azulon. When had he come to despise his grandfather?

“I will be by your side, I swear it. I am your heir. I have proved my loyalty to you time after time and I will do it again. I will follow in your footsteps, in my father’s footsteps. Allow me this one thing, I beg of you, Fire Lord Azulon. I will not ask you for one more thing. I will not let you down again.”

No more weakness. No more mercy.

Azulon had risen without him noticing until the footsteps near. This is too familiar. His body tenses, preparing for what happened the last time he had bowed his head so low (his back aches at the thought).

“Your weakness is like that of Fire Lord Sozin, towards the end of his life. How will you prove this to me, Prince Lu Ten? That you will not go back to your ways when I am gone.” He pauses as though he had just come up with the idea, but Lu Ten knows him well enough to know that the next words have been prepared all along. “Shall I send word to your father, to ensure he keeps you in check? Or perhaps it is better to just handle the issue at hand now, as I have said.”

He dares not look up. Think, think, think, Lu Ten, you fool. What had he to offer to the most powerful man the world had known?

“General Iroh told me when he was a boy he dreamed of taking Ba Sing Se. We will take it for you, Fire Lord Azulon. I will take it for you.” He had been training to join the military. He could outdo his father’s strongest men. He had been born to fight, to burn, to conquer like his forefathers before him. His voice steadies as he goes along: strength and confidence returning. He could do this.

“You said it was my destiny to finish the war Fire Lord Sozin started. I will finish it in Ba Sing Se. Let the boy live. That is all I ask, and I will give you everything.”

#scnsei #this is 5 fucking pages danny #i am so sorry

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quietlysatan · 5 years

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An Invincible Summer - ShanaStoryteller, AO3

Link: Here!!

Rating: T for read the warnings, but don’t worry too much because of them

Favorite Quote(s): I legit wanna tattoo this next quote on me somewhere

"Oh, the things that can be accomplished through ignorance of their impossibility,"

And this Straight Up Fact

“There’s no such thing as cheating as long as you win,” Natsu says, and the brat’s not wrong.

This one’s just funny

“Chouza,” Inoichi forces himself to say evenly, “Your teachings produced Ebisu and goddamned Gai.”

“Genma’s pretty normal though,” Chouza sighs, “I never could get through to that boy.”

Gently Gai casually caring about Kakashi’s well-being is my entire reason for living, speaking of which if someone wants to come be my Gai that’d be really fucking nice because us Kakashi’s don’t do too well on our own

He hesitates, but says, "Not that I do not find your newfound mentorship to be a most youthful endeavor, but -"

"I don't know," Kakashi interrupts his friend, "I met her while she was taking her genin exam and she, I don't know, adopted me or something. She just keeps showing up."

Gai nods thoughtfully, "Stubbornness is a useful skill to have when trying to cultivate a friendship with you." Kakashi elbows the other man, but doesn't protest besides that. "She's a good cook."

And this one because I love it when people Get It, ya’know?

That's really why he won't say anything, why he won't reveal that the Kyuubi's container and the fourth Hokage's child is still alive: they already killed him once. Naruto and Shikamaru are the same age, they would have been in the same class, and the idea that anyone could want to harm his innocent, precious son makes his blood boil

And this one, for accuracy

"This sounds like a most youthful endeavor. I will bring Anko! She will fan the flames of youth in our young Konoha blossom!"

Both Itachi and Kakashi look at Gai, horrified. "Please don't," Itachi says weakly, like he knows it'll fall on deaf ears but he has to try anyway.

"Don't worry," Gai attempts to assure them, going into his Good Guy pose, "They will produce youthful flames of feminine excellence!"

"They're going to burn down Konoha," Kakashi says flatly.

Gai's hair and teeth sparkle in the sunlight, and he doesn't attempt to deny it.

Another important one

"The world is a terrible place," she says, and she has to swallow before she speaks again, "and it's full of terrible people. But I don't have to be one of them."

I love that Natsu-chan has great balance, this is my number one favorite character trope, and I wish more people would write it

She bends down to look at him upside down, and Itachi can feel that she's not using chakra to stick onto him, and sometimes her balance just isn't logical.

I just love the idea of tiny genius Naruto, and I love that Natsu-chan is a seal master at like, fucking seven and a half lol

Itachi knows it's actually far more complicated than that, but just as he does not tell her minutia of the past shinobi wars in their history lessons, she does not overcomplicate her explanations of sealing. Usually he's grateful for that, but when she appears to break every known law to sealing and chakra, he's not.

"That's," he blinks and he's not going to tell her it's impossible because it clearly isn't, "new," he settles on.

A mood honestly

Inoichi now feels the urge to bang his head against the table top, because 'a huge pain' to Natsu is 'literally impossible' to everyone else.

Another mood honestly

Inoichi watches his former genin dig in with resignation. “When are you guys going to start picking up the tab? Feeding you all isn’t cheap you know.”

Hana swallows her mouthful, “Sensei, I am but a lone healer’s apprentice –“

“I have been a chunin less than a month,” Kabuto pouts, wounded, “and already you seek to profit-“

“Do you have any idea how much sealing paper and ink costs?” Natsu demands.

“Okay, okay,” Inoichi grumbles, but it’s not very effective considering he’s smiling, “I take it back, jeez.”

Okay so, since this is a 100k+ word fic, I’ve been doing this thing lately literally just now on this fic review where I only feature quotes from the first chapter (Depending on length.) but, I’m making an exception because I’ve never seen these three characters and my thoughts on them summed up so well by someone I don’t know which is to say anyone, no one I know cares about my interests really lol

"Maybe a little," he admits grudgingly, "Sakura's really smart, but she acts dumb for some reason. And her endurance is really bad. She probably would have been failed on that alone if she didn't have such good aim with shuriken. And Sasuke's good at like, everything, I still don't get why he didn't graduate earlier. He's just so-" Kiba rubs his hand over his face.

"So what?" Hana prompts, even though she's heard this particular complaint before.

"Sad," the genin sighs, "He's miserable all the time, and he works hard and if you yell at him for long enough he'll work with you, but - crap, I don't know. He's got this really great poker face so you think he's just a big jerk, but I can smell his emotions, the big idiot, and he's just this sad lonely kid who won't listen to anyone."

Hana hums, because if she opens her mouth she'll probably start cursing the Hokage and his dumb rules and his dumb ideas, and that is not the type of thing that leads to a long life.

Just one last quote because dudes, guys, pals, friends of mine it’s important and you should all stop and read it.

“Thanks for being cool with – everything. I’m really happy you’re not mad at me for not being honest with you.”

“You are my friend,” Gaara says warmly, “and you have always been honest about that.”

Words & Chapter(s): 136,306 words of greatness, and 6 full chapters of nicely done completion

Summary: When Naruto is five, he's gutted by a drunken civilian and presumed dead.

Six months later a girl with ash pale hair and dark blue eyes enters the Academy.

(Guys I swear on my cool as fuck username, and all around internet personality as practically satan and probably Lucifer and whatnot that nobody we like stays dead or severely injured)

Score: 13, this is one of my favorites for a reason, this is actually my second technically third time rereading this in as many weeks

Pairing(s): Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, background Haku/Zabuza, but don’t worry anything you’re thinking of is addressed quite nicely in the fic ultra background but still there’s a lot of relationships and I’m not going to tag them all

Warning(s): Naruto technically dies more than once because this is Naruto we’re talking about but they also technically don’t??? You gotta read it, but basically temporary character death, only the bad guys stay dead in this one.

Nobody knows that Naru-chan lived so there’s that angst for you, however, to be fair it’s not like this whole story is just characters mourning and crying and whatnot, at this point it’s mostly just passing thoughts and memories which, again, to be fair, does almost feel worse at times... Huh, regardless it’s not overly angsty

Kakashi is adopted whether he likes it or not by Natsu-chan, we love both of our emotionally fucked over fair-haired ninja in this house so you won’t have to worry about that sorta fic coming outta nowhere from me BTW... but anyways, Kakashi freaks out a bit, much like the abused dog he always reminds me of, but Natsu is the sweetest and most gentle, yet forceful person he could’ve possibly caught the attention of. (This is canon)

The Akatsuki are still bad, BUT ITACHI ISN’T technically SO WHO FUCKING CARES!!!! (The Massacre still happens tho...)

Mentions of The Flower District and what that implies, and also things a Kunoichi might definitely do

Oh my fucking god the Hyuga... Who would willingly do something so horrible as that? Of all the things... Warning for... The Hyuga branch family situation, it’s dealt with nearly as soon as we are informed but, gods, my blood ran cold, and my face whited out, my sister thought someone had died when she saw my face haha,,, who the fuck does this? And do they die? In canon I mean? I think I only watched up to the chunin exams or Pein’s attack, I can’t remember which tho...

Natsu cries because people are nice to her sometimes. And honestly that’s fair, I burst into to tears once because I imagined someone kissing my forehead softly so, Natsu is completely valid... Sidenote, I’m touch-starved and have no cure for this beyond younger siblings and my cat because I don’t have the ability to ask my mom for a hug without literally gross sobbing and I have A Thing about embarrassment sooooo... yeah if anyone has some therapy justu for me that’d be nice

Mentions of Gross Men that apparently want to have Natsu’s increasingly growing collection of the absolute most dangerous people she can befriend pay them a visit. And by that, I mean an old fuckwit has the gall to leer at a TEN-YEAR-OLD and a FUCKING THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD!!!!!! Ugh, I hate those kinds of pathetic worms.

On that note, there is technically underaged things going on, but they are also Ninja soooo???? They’ve killed people and are technically in their version of an army, and by the laws of their lands they’re all adults, actually I’m pretty sure by shinobi life expectancy Kakashi is middle-aged, Inoichi is a senior citizen, and Hiruzen is a walking corpse tbh

Alcoholism??? I don’t really think it is but I’m not sure, but some characters do drink often, and usually when stressed courtesy of Natsu and co. but still... I don’t actually know if it is because it doesn’t actually happen much, more like every few weeks/months

Mentions of past sexual assault, and attempted past sexual assault, neither happen in fic or to any of our main characters, the experiences are not graphic though they do talk about it in chapter five, it’s not to graphically described.

Also, a bunch of off-screen lemon

A Thing (That I copy-pasted from the author so that all of you will see it and not say a single word against it.): If you thought Natsu was too mature for her age - she has seen and been through some really horrible shit. But also: my cousin has, since he was like 4, hung out with kids that were about 4 years older than him because those were the kids that were in his neighborhood or whatever. Point being, even after he started school, his main group of friends was consistently older than him. He very quickly adapted to that, and to this day (he's 12) hangs out with that same group, and considers children his own age 'kids' because he adapted to the behavior of the group he was surrounded with. I hardly believe Natsu would be any different.

And also

4. Quick little note because some people mentioned liking my portrayal of the Sandaime. I base his decisions/motivations (and Itachi and Danzo's to a certain extent) around this quote by Clementine von Radics: "It is so hard to live half monster, to hurt everything you love by trying to protect it wrong."

Pros: Watching Natsu just casually disregard the idea of gender with little to no thought is the greatest thing anyone will ever experience beyond, I dunno, the party we’re all gonna collectively throw when soggy Cheeto dies (I still haven’t decided which song we should make chart number one when that happens)

Given that I’ve technically read this three times you should already know the writing is fucking amazing, like, whoa, mind blown type of amazing, like, wow, so good, I usually hate rereading something I’ve read before, and especially so soon after the fact but geez Louis is this fic amazing

Natsu is just as easy to fall in love with as Naruto, and they are still the same people with slightly different personalities as is to be realistically expected with a situation like Naru’s was.

Also, GENDERFLUID REPRESENTATION DONE FUCKING AMAZINGLY IS ALWAYS A PLUS!!!!!!!

The author manages to convey a very realistic genderfluid character in an incredibly believable manner, while also still keeping Natsu/Naruto themself. They’re still the Naruto that we knew and loved, but they’re different too, as is to be expected. when Natsu is a girl no-one stumbles, she is a girl without a doubt, even the author doesn’t trip up on societal expectations, and when Naruto is a boy there is next to immediate acceptance of this fact with absolutely zero (0) Zero bullshit from transphobes, which, as a genderfluid person myself, is always fucking nice to see. You’ll have to read it to know more though.

Natsu running around creating seals is honestly the greatest thing ever, and the end scene with the village made me cry a lil bit, and dammit this fic is so fucking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, there’s a scene, where Natsu heals Kakashi, and the way the author handled explaining the intimate not sexual relationship between two of my favorite characters ever is just, so subtly beautiful, the sibling-bond these two have is beautiful, and a part of me wants to cry sometimes when I read it, and usually do cry a little when I get to this scene, and only partially because of what happened directly before it.

I love the way everybody just gets up and moves past their trauma and just decides to politely ignore it, oh they still have it, they still deal with it, but they care, and they are careful about it, and even though it hurts them like a knife-wound to the kidney in slow-motion they still get back up and keep fucking going. That’s hella admirable and I can respect that, I can respect even more that they slowly but surely let themselves heal as time moves on. This fic is beautiful on so many different levels but it is this one perhaps, that is the most magnificent. Perhaps.

Sasuke is adorable and depressing and adorable and I love it. And Ino is still a bad bitch but she’s a kid so we only see it like a handful of times in the first two chapters. The Akimichi/Yamanaka/Nara are all great, and I occasionally pity Inionchicause like, he’s putting up with a well-informed seal genius that’s still hyper, a slightly frightening medic-kunoichi with giant dogs, another slightly more frightening medic-nin who isn’t the greatest fighter but damn can he be intimidating and also really good at pointing out “Certain Things” while judging you about them which, honestly, is my greatest pastime. Itachi is so sweet and then so tragic oh my gods, and Natsu never even considers giving up on him. Kakashi is so sweet, and he slowly becomes less of a beaten dog as time goes on and I just love all of these characters.

Except for Hiruzen. Well, no, I still love this particular incarnation of Hiruzen, for all that he’s got one hell of a pathetically small backbone, I get why he does shit. But that doesn’t make me happy. Still, he’s better than dumbledouchebag. Granted that’s not difficult, and you might have to actively put an effort in to be as bad as that guy, but still. Plus, his hearts in the right place, and he’s less about the greater good then... certain disgraces to teaching and being in charge of a large group of people... Hiruzen is actually kinda sweet and admits he has issues and actually has an excuse that’s understandable for the shit that he pulls which is great, if sadly uncommon.

Anyways, Sakura is terrifying, and I remembered why I had a crush on her. She’s so badass, also, she ends up Princess Mononoke basically which, honestly, is fucking great, and the best thing we could’ve asked for, I love all of these characters so much!!!

Aesthetic: It reminds me off beefy stew (We don’t eat beef, so we used vegan soy beef stuff instead, and it was just as good.) it reminds me of the warmth, and friendship, and home that I felt after my mom and I make dinner together with nothing but a little music on and jokes passing back and forth between us. It reminds me of scraping my knee and having my friends help me to their mom, it reminds me of loyalty and compassion. It reminds me of dancing outside at night, alone in the forest with nothing but the moon for company and wind for music. It reminds me of the first time I realized that I could love someone despite their gender and that I should despite mine. It reminds me of finely spun handmade lace, and all it’s delicate while also reminding me of the sturdiest of steels, it reminds me of so much. It reminds me of acceptance, and understanding, and so much more. If I were to say what food and drink it reminds me of, I’d say chicken noodle soup, and sweet lavender-lemon tea.

Music Aesthetic: So, I made a playlist while I was reading this the first time around, and instead of a gif or twenty like I would usually prefer to do I’m going to add that playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbhXmTSBbAyjk0m1b4BZUp3t0RHL83LDK

But if I were to add a gif or two it’d be these

Because something about this fic reminds me of rainy days with tea and baggy clothes.

Every time Natsu/Naruto decided to fight ever, to be honest.

#sasunaru #naruto x sasuke #Sasuke x Naruto #Satan has great taste in: SasuNaru #kakairu #Satan has great taste in: KakaIru #long fic #Long Read #over 100k #Naruto #It's another Naruto one #sasuke #fem!naruto #sorta #genderfluid!naruto #give it a chance #trust me #fic rec

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cyb-by-lang · 6 years

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Shell Game (11/?)

Kei and Hayate spend a day strolling around Mustafu and meet a friend.

“What’re we gonna do today?” Hayate asked on Sunday morning. After omurice and tea, the day was theirs. And perhaps feeling generous after the sleepover, he even did the dishes.

“I thought about visiting the beach,” Kei said, holding up her shinobi sandals. “What do you think?”

“Sure!”

Dagobah Beach Municipal Park had apparently been completely trashed before Kei moved into town. Whether due to ocean currents or people being jerks, the accumulated wreckage and waste electrical appliances of an entire civilization ended up on one poor stretch of beach. But over the course of ten months, somebody or something had stealthily removed all the trash and cleared the beach from one end to the other.

It was also within walking distance, since Hayate had gotten fairly burned out on trains the day before.

…Wait a fucking second.

Hm?

Dagobah. Uh, that’s…a planet. In Star Wars.

I do not understand the reference.

It goes…um… “Go to the Dagobah system.” Something, something, Yoda. It could be a star system, I guess?

Isobu sighed deeply, which was impressive for someone without lungs. Kei.

Yeah?

Please go to the beach. I need to see a real one again.

Kei and Hayate made it to the park pretty damned fast after Kei explained that.

In mid-spring, the ocean was still cold as all get out. Isobu wanted to head in and have Kei lie down in the surf, but she sharply vetoed that plan upon putting a toe in to test the temperature.

Meanwhile, Hayate darted down the beach with no difficulty, kicking up plumes of sand as he went. Though it probably wasn’t obvious to onlookers, Kei could feel the little pulses of chakra being emitted as her brother prevented himself from sinking too far. He wanted to goof off, not work out.

“Hey, if you want shaved ice, only one of us has money!” Kei called after him, but that was really an afterthought. Kei was still barefoot and walking in the surf, instead of living up to Isobu’s wish of swimming in the ocean at nine in the morning.

Besides, Hayate was already happily running loose at the water’s edge, arcs of spray following him as he went. The sand, apparently, wasn’t his first love after that whole Chūnin Exam incident in Suna.

It took a little longer before, belatedly, Kei realized Hayate had never seen the ocean before. With Konoha as deeply inland as it was, only shinobi tended to get out often enough or range widely enough to see all kinds of cool climates and piss off the indigenous wildlife. Hayate was still a typical curious kid in some significant ways. Kei had been to plenty of strange places, both on missions and when she counted her previous lifetime, though this gravel-free sand was still novel.

How spoiled she’d become. Not just by her opportunities here, but by what knowledge she carried in her soul.

Isobu gave a deep sigh of contentment, though Kei hadn’t rushed into the sea. He seemed to be okay with the results of today’s morning adventure.

“You can see forever like this!” Hayate declared to the sea and the encroaching gulls.

Kei called back, “Try skipping rocks! My record’s five skips!”

Hayate flashed her a breathless smile, then promptly ignored her idea to try and snatch the miniature fish lurking in the surf. To be fair, this world had more interesting things going for it than Kei.

Hayate did eventually get bored, but it took a few minutes. He also managed to feed the seagulls his tiny haul of fish fry, which made him a troop leader in their eyes for the next few minutes. Perhaps it was youth, hidden viciousness, or just pure silliness that kept him interacting with the seagulls long past the “Mine!” stage.

But once they discovered he did not, in fact, have any more food, they all abandoned him in favor of a man eating takoyaki.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished something,” Hayate said, while the poor guy was being chased to the other end of the beach.

Kei didn’t have it in her to criticize much. Instead, she said, “So, after all that training with your team, how’s your taijutsu?”

Most bladed implements bigger than kitchen knives were highly regulated in Japan, so Kei hadn’t actually been able to spar with her full complement of melee skills. On the other hand, Hayate hadn’t specifically stated that he was training with, say, Gai on weekdays. Iruka and Yūgao were perfectly nice kids, but neither was a melee powerhouse just yet. Hell, Kei had been teaching Yūgao how to use her katana before this mission cropped up, so it was hard to tell if Hayate was getting rusty.

Rust. For a kenjutsu specialist. Isobu snorted. Hah.

A pun for all occasions.

Hayate blanched. “Um…”

A not-so-nice smile stretched across Kei’s face before she managed to hide it. “Lucky for you, I think public fighting is illegal. But you’re gonna catch hell later.”

Hayate seemed to consider this, but Kei felt the spark in his chakra in the split second before he threw a punch.

Kei instantly caught his wrist and judo-flipped him into the surf for being a brat.

Now, Mustafu—how the hell had she missed that little chestnut for two months—was in the same city as UA. It was also the same city as Kei’s apartment, primarily by design, but the point was that running into classmates was not the statistical impossibility it might’ve been if she lived, say, in Hosu. Sure, the greater Tokyo area was a big place, and she didn’t really know if anybody preferred hanging around their super-special high school.

“Is that how you’re training for the Sports Festival?”

Then again, Shinsō had already randomly come across her once. For a kid who didn’t look like he slept much, he was up early on a weekend.

“Hey, Shinsō-san.” Kei waved up at him, because it appeared her purple-haired classmate was actually a cyclist on his days off. Nobody with sense would take even a folding bike into the sand, though she could see Gai making a training exercise out of it. Thus, Shinsō had propped his bike up on a railing and was leaning next to it.

Put him a bit out of splashing range, though. That wouldn’t be a problem for long, because Hayate had caught onto Kei’s lack of attention.

In fact, both of the Gekkō siblings promptly trooped up to Shinsō, though Kei used the access stairs and Hayate hurled himself up and over the railing in a single leap like some kind of saltwater-encrusted kangaroo. Either because of watching Kei during PE or just being too used to a world full of Quirks, Shinsō didn’t react.

“Since when are there two of you, Gekkō-san?” Shinsō pointed past Kei to Hayate, who was sizing up the newcomer.

“Since I was three. This is my kid brother, Hayate.” Kei stepped neatly to the side, allowing Hayate to sidle forward.

Hayate, who was about tall enough to reach Shinsō’s collarbone, sized him up like he expected to have to get into a fistfight. While Shinsō probably outweighed Hayate by a fair amount, Kei’s adorable baby brother was also the next in line to mastery of their mother’s kenjutsu style and had been participating in their family training since he could walk. Now a genin, he could probably take on most of the local toughs before Quirks got involved.

Then everyone blinked and the trance was broken.

Hayate dropped a fist into his open palm, as though something had just occurred to him. “Oh, wait, is this the guy with the mind control power? You didn’t say what he looked like.”

“I didn’t?” Kei tried to think back, but they’d discussed so many things over the previous (extremely tiring) day that she couldn’t remember. “Well, this is Shinsō-san. He’s in my class and… You’re at the top of the class, right?”

“You can’t remember the name of our class rep and you can remember that?” Shinsō shook his head. “You’re hopeless.”

“If he’s at the top of the class,” Hayate said after a second, looking between the other two, “where are you?”

“Well…” Kei began, belatedly realizing that this was probably a poor conversational topic.

“Dead last,” Shinsō said, throwing her under the bus as though on reflex. It was a well-developed instinct for people who hung around Kei for any length of time.

“Shut up,” Kei grumbled.

Hayate very pointedly reached up and pinched his own ear. “Okay, not dreaming.” He took a deep breath, then jabbed a finger into Kei’s chest. “But seriously, what the hell? You were at the top of your class back when you were like eight, and Obito keeps saying you slept through everything and you transferred in late. Again, what the hell?”

Called on the carpet by her very own little brother. And with a witness! Kei jerked her head away, feeling her ears heat up under her hair. “It’s different, okay?”

“I really don’t think it is!”

“She makes up for it,” Shinsō volunteered, after Hayate had started to build up steam.

He demanded crossly, “How?”

“Scaring our classmates to death.” Kei’s glare was redirected to Shinsō instead of her brother. Smirking, Shinsō went on, “It started with the scar, then they saw her Quirk, and then she’s been ignoring them all ever since.”

Hayate smacked his hand directly to his forehead. “You are my favorite sister—”

“Only sister,” Kei muttered.

“—but you’re supposed to be nice to people at least a bit, and I know you’re smart enough to do well in school anywhere. Just put your back into it!” Hayate finished. Then, perhaps realizing that he was still half-soaked, he started scrubbing his hands through his rapidly-tangling brown hair as though it would remove any of the salt or sand.

Kei and Shinsō both leaned back a little from the sudden spray.

“Anyway,” Hayate said before Kei or Shinsō could think of anything to say. “Mind control. How does it work?”

“…Why?” Shinsō asked, notably more hesitant now.

Kei hid her initial reaction, which was the urge to quell Hayate immediately. Though she often pretended not to know what people were feeling or disregarded it, and being unable to read any chakra from the locals made that problem slightly more genuine, she did have compassion. Shinsō didn’t need an interrogation from Hayate.

But her brother was already on a roll.

“Inoichi-sensei can do something like that,” Hayate said. “He just went like this—” here, Hayate made the hand seal for the Mind-Body Disturbance technique, “—and this guy punched himself in the face. It was really cool!”

Shinsō looked at Kei over Hayate’s shoulder as though to confirm that Hayate wasn’t bullshitting him, and Kei said with a shrug, “His sensei’s whole family can do something similar.”

“And that’s…cool.” Shinsō raised an eyebrow. “Not creepy, or villainous, or dangerous.”

“Of course it’s dangerous.” Hayate shook his head. Counting off with his fingers, he went on, “So is setting fires, being a walking thunderstorm, or almost drowning people. Any type of power is dangerous if you’re an asshole about it. And Inoichi-sensei even gave us this huge talk about that like…last month? There was a lot about ethics.”

Ironic, since shinobi education tended to go light on those. Then again, Hayate’s batch of genin were growing up in a more peaceful era. Maybe that meant something.

“If you’re trying to get Hayate to admit he thinks you might randomly go evil,” Kei said in a mild tone, “even jokingly, it’s not gonna work. Mind control Quirks are really common where we come from. You can do a lot of good with good intentions and strong morals.”

Madara notwithstanding, the Uchiha were a respected noble clan. And, while not as rich or as popularly known, the Yamanaka clan sat proudly among the Konoha elite when they felt like putting on airs.

“Besides, I don’t know you,” Hayate said, “but you don’t feel like a bad person.”

Kei dropped a hand onto her brother’s shoulder and asked in a complete conversational left turn, ”Are you hungry?”

“Uh, sort of?” Hayate kept his eyes on Shinsō, however. “Do you think they have taiyaki?”

“Maybe.” Kei had not exactly made a habit of scouting beaches for snack stands.

“I’ll look!” Hayate said, and ran off.

Kei and Shinsō watched him go. Sooner or later, Hayate would remember that he didn’t have any local money.

“So,” Kei said after a few seconds. “Sorry if that was a lot to dump on you all at once.”

“It’s…It’s different, I guess.” Shinsō grabbed the handlebars of his bike and looked around for a second. “I’m going to park this, but I could…stick around. See what you’re doing for training.”

“All we’re doing right now is getting a mid-morning snack,” Kei said, and the pair of them followed vaguely in Hayate’s wake.

It turned out that, much like parking spaces for cars that had timers and pay meters, Japan also had such spaces for bikes. Kei poked at the strange devices while Shinsō locked his bike in one of the empty slots, paying the fee with a few coins.

“Are you looking forward to the Sports Festival, Shinsō-san?” Kei asked, while she idly pinged for Hayate’s chakra signature. Though she’d seen his reaction to the announcement, and perhaps the aftermath of everyone declaring war on 1-A for whatever reason, she still wanted to hear his answer.

As her brother’s lightning signature lit up further down the street, Kei heard Shinsō respond, “Isn’t it obvious?” When she glanced at him, he went on, “If I win, it’s a chance for me to get into the Hero course. I can’t afford not to win.”

Kei blinked slowly. That was a bit more intense than she’d been expecting.

“What?” Shinsō seemed almost offended that she didn’t have an immediate response.

“Good luck?” Kei tried. “Some of the kids you’re gonna be up against are pretty tough, aren’t they?” Kei was fairly certain Blondie McSplode would be totally okay with blowing up anybody near him, Shinsō included. Hell, his own classmates most definitely included.

“It doesn’t matter,” Shinsō said dismissively. “I know you don’t care about this kind of thing, but…people have been telling me my whole life that I can’t become a hero with a villainous Quirk.” Yes, Kei had rather figured that. But she kept silent so Shinsō could continue with, “But that’s my dream. I’m going to prove them all wrong.”

What, exactly, was she supposed to say to that? “Okay. I mean, you’ve probably got a strategy and I’m sure it works for your Quirk, but do you have a backup plan?”

Shinsō clearly didn’t want to listen to suggestions, but managed to grumble “I’m all ears.”

Kei was game enough for it. “Learn to fight?”

“The Sports Festival is in two weeks,” Shinsō said flatly.

“It takes just a few hours to learn basic self-defense.” She crossed her arms. “If your Quirk doesn’t cut it, that’s all you’ll have left. Do you even know how to throw a punch?”

“Of course I do.”

They continued half-seriously arguing this way for a while, following Hayate’s constant window-shopping more than anything. Apparently, in the months since the beach had been cleaned up, more businesses had cropped up to take advantage of the view than Kei had thought. Most of them didn’t have customers this early, but it was actually better that way. It meant no one really had to hear Kei and Shinsō’s ongoing debate regarding his fighting skills.

Hayate interrupted a round of Kei gesturing empty-handed while trying to explain the principles of punching someone in the face or the throat with, “Hey, what’s the law on Quirks again?”

“I know I’m not supposed to use mine in public,” Kei said, which Hayate accepted without elaboration.

She’d given him a very bare-bones explanation of Quirks and Quirk legislation, but it boiled down to about the same reason non-shinobi weren’t supposed to use chakra-based techniques outside of clan holdings. Hayate understood that, and then spent two hours over one summer weekend cheerfully tossing ideas back and forth with Obito and Kei about what his Quirk could be.

Hayate’s decision, in the end, was based on his chakra sensor ability. Besides being the only person in Konoha who could use their mother’s samurai-trained technique, Hayate didn’t expect to be able to carry a sword here or even to fight. The ability to sense other people’s emotions and intent was good enough for wandering the streets, and it covered neatly for shinobi hyperawareness.

“You can use them for self-defense,” Shinsō put in, when Kei was going to let the subject drop. “Technically, you can defend yourself or others, but just enough to run away.”

“Given the number of heroes running around, that can’t be that bad.” Hayate folded his arms behind his head, content to join them while they walked. “And everyone has cell phones, so contacting somebody would be easy.”

“You’d think,” Shinsō said. “There was a kid…last spring.” Shinsō rubbed the back of his neck, though the expression that crossed his face wasn’t particularly kind. “He got captured by a villain and nobody could get him loose until All Might showed up. Three heroes, and between the kid’s explosion Quirk and the villain possessing him, none of them could do anything besides try to keep people away and put out fires.”

Kei couldn't help but notice that Hayate’s presence seemed to calm both of them down. Or rather, Kei stopped dominating the conversation and Shinsō had a chance to educate a twelve-year-old. Maybe he liked non-judgmental kids?

“Was that kid the blond jerk from 1-A?” Kei asked, unable to think of anyone else who could create explosions on demand.

“The very same,” Shinsō confirmed. Okay, that was definitely a bitter sort of smirk. “Guess that fancy Quirk didn’t do anything for him.”

Lots of bitterness.

“We might both have to face him in the Sports Festival,” Kei said, while they turned toward a shopping district instead of the beach. “Your strategy’s set, right?”

Shinsō nodded. “Shouldn’t be too hard to piss him off.”

“I don’t think I’m gonna be able to see that while it happens,” Hayate grumbled. To Kei, he said, “You haven’t done an exhibition match since you were eleven. How bad do you really think it’s gonna get?”

Good of Hayate not to mention the Chūnin Exams by name. The death toll was rather higher than would be accepted in a peacetime society. Sure, nobody tended to die in the finals, but the Second Exam was the obstacle course round and fairly unrestrained. Certainly people tried to kill each other, with varying levels of success.

“I’ll be fine,” Kei said.

“I know that,” Hayate griped, as Kei affectionately ruffled his hair. “But are you aiming for the top? Do you have a strategy?”

“Dazzle everyone with my skill,” Kei suggested sarcastically. When Shinsō and Hayate both gave her skeptical looks—disturbingly alike, actually—Kei huffed and said, “Depending on what the events are, I might be able to just use my athletic ability to get past them. But up against people like the explosion kid…yeah, that’d be about when I should bust out my Quirk.”

Kei needed to figure out what mechanism allowed Blondie McSplode to act like a walking minefield. If his Quirk was anything like the half-magic fūinjutsu explosions she favored, countering him would be harder. If he relied on a chemical balance, though…

Shinsō shook his head slowly as they passed a bank. “Are you sure you should be talking about this with me? We’re going to be rivals in the Sports Festival.”

“Whatever.” Kei flapped a hand dismissively. “If we both get that far, then I’ll worry about it.”

“She said the same thing before her last exhibition match,” Hayate said to Shinsō, in a stage whisper. “And then she and one of her friends beat the crap out of each other.”

“It was Gai,” Kei defended herself. “If I wasn’t prepared to use everything I had, I’d lose.”

“Shots below the belt are illegal everywhere else,” Hayate muttered, while Shinsō paled.

“Hey, we both knew there weren’t any rules,” Kei argued.

“What the hell kind of dojo did you two join?” Shinsō demanded incredulously. When both of the Gekkō siblings looked askance at him, he clarified, “Who was your teacher?”

Kei and Hayate exchanged looks. Then, in unison, “Mom.”

Shinsō’s purple gaze flicked rapidly back and forth between them, and then he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “That explains so much.”

At least Shinsō knew now that Kei came by her weirdness honestly. Couldn’t be anything else if Hayate was also affected.

It was at this point that the bank next to them started to rumble.

Hayate’s first instinct was to pause and look at the potential problem, his eyes narrowed and entire body tensed for a fight. So was Shinsō’s, but he was a bit closer to the street in comparison and didn’t have any combat training to fall back on.

Kei grabbed both boys by the backs of their jackets and flung them clear before the front doors shattered.

#catch your breath fanfic #Shell Game #Keisuke Gekko #shinsou hitoshi #Hayate Gekko #my hero academia #crossover #Isobu

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the-formerone · 6 years

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and here’s my submission for the @narutogiftexchange! I got @blackkatmagic, who requested "ShikaKiba arranged marriage!au with mutual pining and a happy ending. Maybe an emphasis on clan traits and the differences between them?". i hope i did it some justice! it’s .... much longer than i originally anticipated, but hopefully, it’s up to snuff!

brown eyes steal me Word count: 10,213 Pairing: ShikaKiba Rating: T Summary: "You planted a -," "I planted a tree, Ino, I know, I was there." "Kousa," she says, finishing as if he never interrupted. She smiles in that pretty way of hers that means she's about to tease you within an inch of your life, crossing one leg on top of the other. "Not very original, but cute. You think that'll be what you name your firstborn?"

"You're shitting me."

Hana is hiding her laughter behind her hand, and their mother has her arms folded across her chest, one eyebrow raised as if Kiba is the one being unreasonable.

"You've got to be shitting me."

Tsume drums her clawed fingers against her hip.

"Curse one more time under my roof," she hums, "see what happens."

Kiba ducks his head, rolling his eyes as he does. Hana snickers, elbows on the dinner table. Their mother stands above them, looking ridiculous as she always does in that stupid pink apron of hers. She's twirling a ladle in one hand, brandishing it like she's just waiting for the right moment to smack Kiba over the back of the head with it.

"You are of marrying age," Hana says, cupping her chin in her hand. "It only makes sense that ma's been getting some offers for your hand."

Kiba rubs the heels of his hands against his eyes. He's not - he is not entirely sure what he's supposed to be making of this. Arranged marriages weren't really uncommon in the shinobi world. They helped preserve bloodlines, helped enhance kekkei genkai. They were also good for economics; combining families meant combining wealth and resources.

But the Inuzuka weren't the most sought after clan when it came to those kinds of matches. Before their clan and the Hatake had split, when they had more prestige, sure, but in this day and age? Not particularly.

The Inuzuka were too brash, too 'difficult'. Which essentially meant that none of the smaller clans understood how the Inuzuka operated, and the larger clans were too well off to need a match with them.

The Inuzuka were a mid tier clan; sure, they had a seat on the clan council, but they didn't have as much sway as the Uchiha or the Hyūga. Even the Yamanaka had more sway because whichever way they voted was a sure indication of where the Akimichi and Nara would stand.

But Kiba was Tsume's second child. Kind of a runt next to Hana as far as their family was concerned, but they were born for different reasons. Hana's father had been a distant relative of the Hatake, and she had more wolf in her for that. She had been born to lead. Kiba's dad had been from a family of raccoon dogs, which clearly had seemed like a good idea until he had gone feral and his mom had to scare him off.

Kiba had been a love baby. Which was lucky, in that he didn't really get most of the responsibility for the clan foisted on him, and unlucky in the fact that since the moment he figured out what sex was, his mother had been sure to be teasingly lewd about how much she enjoyed the process of making him. Which was suitably mortifying for a thirteen year old.

"Make Hana get married," he grumbles, narrowing his eyes up at his mother. "She's the heir."

Tsume snorts at that, twirling the ladle. Kiba watches as the light glints off of it, preparing to duck or dodge as he might have to.

"I haven't picked my heir yet," she says, light as the breeze shifting through the window.

Kiba rolls his eyes. As if. The Inuzuka had been matriarchal since their inception. The only time a man led the family was in times of absolute crisis. In the Warring States period, the four year old Inuzuka Chiharu had assumed the mantle of clan head even though her older brother Tadashi was seventeen and clearly in a better position to lead them.

Then again, great-great-granny Chiharu had been a badass in her own right. Kiba may have gotten his tattoos at ten because he showed promise, but Chiharu had gotten hers at three. Which was obscene and had never happened since even though from what he's heard, Hana could have done it earlier than seven (that wolf blood at work), and their mom had gotten hers at six (Tsume had been born ridiculous).

"Besides," Tsume says, as she turns back into the kitchen and begins ladling the nikujaga into bowls, "Hana has several suitors. And you don't have any."

Kiba does not really need to be reminded that he isn't dating anyone. And that he hasn't since that fiasco with Naruto when they were fifteen. It hadn't worked out even in the slightest. Which was fine. It was fun while it lasted, and Kiba had learned a lot about how sex with another guy could work (theoretically; they hadn't actually ever made it all that far) but they were too alike for each other's tastes and being friends seemed better than dating someone who was essentially themselves.

"Hana's dating a snake," Kiba returns. "That doesn't exactly a suitor make. And Akimichi Maruten, which is okay, I guess. At least he isn't in his thirties."

Hana turns to him, smiling in that pretty way she does before she opens up a summon's mouth and shoves its medicine inside.

"Be nice," she chides, looking terribly like their mother.

At least Tsume had the grace to sound mean when she looked mean. Hana's face was too kind and it made her all the more frightening.

"Oh, and Iruka-sensei," he adds, trying not to stick his tongue out. Knowing his academy teacher had a thing for his sister was just as weird as knowing Mitarashi was barking up that tree, too. "I'm not sure how well dolphins and dogs mix. And all that's without considering Shushin no Shisui gets tongue tied when you walk in the room."

Hana reaches out and Kiba ducks back, but not in enough time to escape her fingers pinching down on his cheek.

"I'm pretty sure I taught you manners when we were kids," she says, but the pinch is as light as the smile on her face.

She's not upset with him. Kiba can tell she's more embarrassed than anything else. It was common for Inuzuka clan heads to take more than one partner depending on where their blood was; those with more wolf in them like Hana typically stuck with one, while those with more dog like their mother would have several.

It's clear Hana hadn't thought she was that hot on the market until it was pointed out.

"You did," Kiba says, handling the pinch with more grace than he would have when he was twelve, "but when mom came back, she taught me the opposite."

Tsume slams down the tray of bowls on the dining table with enough force to crack it. Thankfully, the Inuzuka dining table had seen Tsume's wrath for longer than Kiba had his teeth. He's actually pretty sure he teethed on one of the table legs now that he thinks about it.

"Do you want to be a brat or do you want to eat?" she asks.

Hana lets go of his cheek and starts doling out rice for the three family members, and Tsume unloads the tray, setting a bowl of soup in front of each of them.

"How did anyone know I was even - ," He has to take a breath, fighting down the urge to roll his eyes as he says it, "Of 'marriageable' age?"

Tsume starts eating first, picking up her bowl of beef and potato stew and attacking it like it's her first meal of the day.

"All the brats in your year are of age," she says around a mouthful of thinly sliced beef. She says it like Kiba's an idiot who can't keep track of time. Which is only half true. "It came up at the last clan council meeting."

Kiba nods slowly, eyes tracking to Hana who pointedly doesn't look at him. Tsume may not have named her heir, but she did take both of them to council meetings on occasion. Never the both of them at the same time, though. He had thought Hana seemed a little too perky towards the end of last week; she had come home smelling like she knew a secret. That was typical enough for a shinobi; Kiba was used to that smell. But if he had known it had something to do with him, he would've been twelve times more irritating about it as he had been.

"So what, all my year mates are getting married off?" he asks, lifting his bowl of rice so he can start eating.

"Looks that way," is all Tsume says.

Kiba valiantly doesn't roll his eyes and he starts eating. He can guess who's going to be married which way. Hinata and Neji had been a sure bet ever since they were kids, even though nobody liked the idea at the time. They were genetically cousins and siblings, which made Kiba feel uncomfortable down to his bones and also Neji was a piece of shit when they were younger. But the kids from that match would be absurdly strong.

Sakura had gotten pretty terrifying lately, and her being so cozy with the Godaime made her prime real estate for any of the noble clans that wanted an in. Kiba wasn't sure of who had kids young enough to marry her; Sakura was one confidence boost away from being the top bitch of the Twelve and he doubted she would suffer anyone over five years older or younger than her. That knocked out the Shimura and the Sarutobi for sure.

He'd think the Uchiha were a safe bet; there were plenty of guys in that clan that were still single. Sasuke would be inadvisable considering his mountain sized crush on Naruto. Yeah, those two had pretty much been born a package deal. It was probably only a matter of time before Kushina as the Uzumaki clan head made an offer to the Uchiha.

Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru couldn't be with each other for the sake of preserving the Ino-Shika-Chou dynamic, which meant any of them were up for grabs. Ino and Shino would probably be a decent pair, all things considered. Though she wasn't the biggest fan of bugs, she spent a lot of time working her family's flower shop, which meant she understood the symbiosis between plants and insects.

Tenten would be a reasonable match for Chouji if she hadn't declared herself queen of the lesbians after she lost that fight to Temari when they were twelve.

Which really only left Shikamaru. Which didn't need to make Kiba's heart hiccup inside of him, but did anyway, which was fine.

"Well who's left?" he asks, probably punching too much bravado into his voice. "There aren't enough girls to go around."

Hana shoots him a glare for that, but Tsume just keeps eating.

"Surrogacy -,"

"Exists, I know," Kiba says, cutting his sister off before she can lecture him. "I got the talk at the academy, you don't have to remind me."

And he very sincerely didn't want to be reminded of that awful video and lecture he had to sit through about the dark ages of sexism and how kunoichi only very recently had the same rights and privileges as male shinobi and that the population of kunoichi had been decimated during the Second and Third Wars to destroy the morale of the villages that employed them and war crimes and statistics and stress and wasn't it so wonderful that Orochimaru had developed his innovative in vitro fertilization processes because now anyone could have a baby with anyone and kunoichi didn't have to leave their careers and thus weaken the village by being out of commission for two years blah, blah, blah, he got it, okay?

The Inuzuka had never had a problem producing women who could handle the stress of shinobi life. That was every other clan's problem.

"Is your real question who's asked if you're on the market?" Tsume asks while she portions out herself a second bowl of soup.

Kiba shrugs.

"Am I allowed to know?"

He's aware that clan council conversations can be top secret, the inside ears only type of thing and he doesn't want to get his mother in trouble by asking her to talk. Then again, he knows the story of how one time, she got court martialed during the Third War by someone stupid enough to think she'd commit treason by trading secrets with the enemy.

The Uchiha had their ridiculous Curse of Hatred that made them only give a shit about their family, but the Inuzuka had the curse of caring-too-goddamn-much-about-everything-and-everyone-we-say-is-ours, which was a long way of saying you couldn't accuse a loyal dog of doing bad without getting bitten back.

"It's your future, pipsqueak," Tsume drawls. "Ask away."

Kiba narrows his eyes, suddenly suspicious that this is some kind of test. He knows that Hana and his mother aren't opposed to scheming together against him. He hadn't liked taking baths as a kid (Tsume's brand of tough love followed into washing hair, and Kiba got a lot of shampoo in his eyes as a kid because of it) and the two of them had ganged up on him to get him into the tub more times than he can count.

But this is his future. His future saddled with another person. He doesn't think they'd play lightly with that. He's well aware that the Inuzuka deal with divorce well (divorce but never separation; Hana's father still lived on the compound even though the marriage hadn't worked out. He and Tsume were still good friends. But Kiba's father? Kiba's father was gone, and nothing could bring him back without putting the clan in further danger) but he also knows that they wouldn't want that for him if they could help it.

So they've already picked someone they think will stick with him. Out of stubbornness or a desire to please their own clan has yet to be seen. They also probably already chose somebody who wasn't promised to someone else, like Naruto and Sasuke were (essentially) promised to one another.

Hana had a couple of men in her dating pool which meant that having future Inuzuka brats running around wasn't Tsume's primary objective. That only left resources and economics as a reason, that and clan politics.

He tries to think of who could possibly want anything the Inuzuka have to offer enough to want Kiba’s hand instead of Hana’s. He’s the secondborn and the runt, but he isn’t useless. But if they were after him, it only meant that the people pursuing Hana were too serious to allow other suitors into that shit show of a matchmaking contest.

Hinata would have told him if it were her or Neji, or even Hanabi. He doubts Shino. Their parents were all on the same genin team, so there’s little by way of secrets between the three of them. Ino loves gossip too much to keep her mouth shut about the kind that involves her; her little spy ring in the village itself was almost intricate and reliable enough to match Jiraiya’s same network across the elemental nations. Shikamaru would probably end up marrying a clanless kunoichi like his father had before him.

Sakura came from a civilian family, so she’d probably be handling her match herself. And that probably meant she was either aiming for a lower level family or for one of the noble clans and not a mid-tier one like the Aburame or the Inuzuka. Chouji didn’t like men as far as Kiba knew. Lee had that thing with the incumbent Kazekage.

When he exhausts everyone in his year and can’t think of anyone out of it, Kiba shrugs his shoulders and asks. He’s bracing himself for disappointment, but he’s sure his family wouldn’t screw him over on purpose. If it came down to it, he knows his mom would want him to have a love match if at all possible. It was Hana who needed to have healthy heirs regardless of if they had two moms or a mom and two dads or whatever.

“Who is it?” he asks.

Ino grins at him, mouth wrapped around the sstraw of her smoothie. The look on her face is positively shit-eating, and she sucks down her fruit-and-protein-and-honey-kale concoction du jour, her arms folded neatly on the counter. She boxes Shikamaru in even though they're in public, even though the gesture is innocuous enough.

She's positively glowing.

"Shut up," Shikamaru groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ino drinks more of her smoothie, as if to prove that he's the one that's talking too much, and she's just sitting there being quiet and loving and supportive, like a good friend should be.

Settled on the kitchen table in the Nara estate are tools. Gardening tools. Because Shikamaru has to secure territory in the Nara forests for his fiancé. There are pruning sheers, shovels, buckets, and Shikamaru is up to his elbows in fresh dirt.

There was plenty of space in the forest for several more generations of Nara to claim a little space. The pieces of land parceled out were smaller now, much smaller than they were in the Warring States Era, but they were still big enough that Shikamaru had to get his hands dirty to make his nice.

To his father's standards, to his mother's, and to his betrothed's.

"You," Ino drawls, plucking her straw from her mouth and twirling it in her plastic cup, "are taking this way more seriously than you said you were going to."

Shikamaru can feel the dirt that he's smeared across his nose. He tries to rub at it, and is immediately aware he's only made it worse.

The patch he chose wasn't anything special, not by Nara standards. It wasn't near the especially potent medicinal herbs, or near the flower gardens. It was within hearing distance from the arm of the Naka River that flowed through Nara territory, and a short walk away from a shallow point where you could skip stones from one end to the other.

It was a nice grazing spot for the braver does, the ones that had taken a shine to Shikamaru since he was first allowed to venture into the forest alone when he was ten.

"You planted a -,"

"I planted a tree, Ino, I know, I was there."

She was the one who helped him pick out exactly what he'd wanted in the first place. Where else would the Nara go for a betrothal plant than to the Yamanaka? She'd walked him through how to take care of the tree when it flowered, and what to do if the deer got brave enough to nibble on it even though it was supposed to repel them.

"Kousa," she says, finishing as if he never interrupted. She smiles in that pretty way of hers that means she's about to tease you within an inch of your life, crossing one leg on top of the other. "Not very original. But cute. You think that'll be what you name your firstborn?"

Shikamaru groans as loudly as he can, trying to drown her out. He oughta know better. Nothing can annoy Ino into silence. He and Chouji would know. They'd tried.

"Nara Kousa," she continues, teasing the name out around the straw of her smoothie. "I like it."

She crosses her legs under the table and Shikamaru lays his forehead down on it. It's cool, and his face is still hot from doing yard work all morning.

"Besides, they can always pick a 'Shika' name for themselves if they're named clan head."

Shikamaru tries to kick her under the table. Ino moves her legs, expertly dodging and managing to kick him in the process. Shikamaru groans again, wonders what he did to deserve a best friend like Ino.

He had spent all day in the heat gardening. Marking his territory. Staking a claim and making it nice. His parents weren't allowed to follow him into the forest, but Shikamaru could feel Yoshino's eyes on the back of his neck, browbeating him into taking this seriously.

Not to mention the claims of other Nara men and women that had made proposals. There were several little plots like Shikamaru's, decorated with flowers and plants brought in from outside of the forest, wind chimes, and empty lanterns for decoration. Those knick-knacks were for the more human side of things; the side that wanted to impress, please the eye.

But the fact that Shikamaru had to mark his territory had been weird from the moment he undid his zipper to the moment he pulled it back up. Weird, but not out of place. Not foreign. The Nara may not wear their bond with the deer on their bodies, but that bond ran deep in their blood, and it left Shikamaru little room for discomfort.

Besides. He was going to marry -

His ears turn red. Ino must see it because she gives a haughty laugh like one of those villainess women from dated kunoichi movies.

"You haven't even proposed yet!" she crows.

Shikamaru is well aware that he hasn't proposed yet. His father was doing that for him. Well, he was drafting the contract. His dad had given him a wry grin when he came back from that clan council meeting.

"Technically, he isn't your fiancé."

A technicality, sure, but one Shikamaru was hung up on.

Inuzuka Tsume had apparently accepted Shikaku's proposal of his son's hand with very little fanfare. That much was unlike the woman, and the match was unlike those her clan had made in the past. The Inuzuka under all clan heads had been eager to mix dog bloodlines. A match with a deer clan was unprecedented.

"I think they'll get along," his father had supposedly said to Tsume.

'Get along'. Of course Shikamaru and Kiba got along. They were half the troublemakers of their year when they were in the academy together. They did well on missions. They hung out off duty.

"But you have the biggest crush on him," Ino needles, tapping his shin with her foot.

Shikamaru peeks up at her. He can't kick her off the property. One, because his mother loves Ino and won't let him. Two, because she helped him get the dogwood and all the supplies into the Nara compound in the first place, and it'd be rude to kick her out now. Three, because she used the blender to make a smoothie, and Shikamaru didn't want to clean it himself.

He settles for an insult.

"You're why I don't like women."

That only makes her lift an eyebrow and lean forward.

"The Yamanaka have been providing the Nara and Akimichi sakaki branches since the beginning of time," she says, flicking his forehead like she usually does to Sakura, "You don't need to like women. You but you do need me."

She leans back in her chair when she feels she's suitably chastised him. Shikamaru rubs the red spot on his forehead. She used her ring finger, which was the softest on her hand. It was when she used her middle finger that she meant business.

"So," she says, cocking her head to the side. "When will you go off to do your groomly labors?"

He resists the urge to tell her that 'groomly' isn't even a word. She'll catch it for the deflection it is, and then she'll ream him to hell and back for being nervous about going into the Inuzuka compound to do manual labor for a month.

"I start tomorrow."

Ino's eyebrows lift to her hairline.

"Tomorrow?" she splutters. "It can't be tomorrow!"

Shikamaru shrugs. A manic Ino is better than a smug one. He'll take it.

"When I finish carving a space for us on Nara land, then I go to him and prove that I can maintain it."

Ino flaps her hands, nearly knocking over her smoothie in her rush to stand up.

"C'mon, shit for brains!" she shouts. "You need a pedicure! And your hair needs deep conditioning, and dear god, your under-eye bags - ,"

A manic Ino is better than a smug one. He repeats that to himself as he lets his childhood friend drag him up by the elbow and through the Nara compound. There are about a dozen uncles and aunties perfectly willing to help Ino buff Shikamaru into something presentable for his Inuzuka fiancé.

If his nosy cousins already weren't aware of the fact that Shikamaru was leaving for his groom labors, they certainly were now.

They make Kiba dress up, which isn't the worst thing they've ever done. He was Hana's dress up doll for a good portion of their childhood, so he's pretty sure he can survive this.

He isn't even in his Inuzuka finest, or his wedding furs. He just looks - well, nicer than he usually does. Hana poked her head into his bathroom earlier and told him to put some gel in his hair. Make a good first impression. It sounded like bullshit, because he had known Shikamaru since they were academy brats together. There were no good first impressions he had to make.

Until he's standing just inside the front gates of the Inuzuka compound and he realizes that Shikamaru's parents are there as well. Which would be all well and good if Shikamaru weren't standing between them, holding a buck about two or three times his size on his shoulders like it's nothing.

Kiba's nose catches blood, and Akamaru beside him opens his mouth to taste it on the little breeze. He's sure all the dogs on the compound can smell the fresh kill, and all the humans on the compound are dreaming of venison. And as the Nara approach, Kiba can feel his pupils dilate. Can feel his blood rush up in his veins, the hairs on his arms standing up.

There's a smear of blood on Shikamaru's forehead, either from wiping the sweat off of it when he finished the kill, or smeared as an apology and offering to the life of the buck he killed. There's a hunting knife bouncing at his hip that Kiba can tell is the weapon he used to kill the limp animal on his shoulders. And behind the three Nara, there is a trail of that fresh blood, probably leading all the way back to the compound.

And Shikamaru is shirtless. There is also that.

The writhing shadows of his clan sigil are painted in thick green and black swaths on his chest with brushstroke and fingertip, and Kiba can smell the earth and ink that went into the broad design under the smell of the blood still leaking from the buck, trailing in a red wave down Shikamaru's back.

A man. A half naked man. Brought him a fresh kill. And left a trail of blood back to his home, his den so that Kiba could find him again. Could walk right into that land of plenty and shack up, if he wanted.

It was an invitation. A show of prosperity and prowess. And it makes Kiba's throat dry.

He may be a little lightheaded.

The three Nara walk forward. Kiba settles a hand into Akamaru's white fur to steady himself. His knees feel weak. The smell of fresh blood and ink and the medicinal herbs that made up the sigil on Shikamaru's chest is so very different than what Kiba is used to smelling on the other shinobi. It's nice. Really, really nice.

He probably should've listened to Hana when she tried to warn him.

"Deer are really sensitive to smell," she had said, arms folded across her chest. "They're big on pheromones."

'Big' on pheromones. More like the understatement of the year. Of Kiba's lifetime. Of the millennium.

Shikamaru stops ahead of his parents, who flank him. He stops, gets down on one knee in front of Tsume and carefully removes the deer from his shoulders, muscles hardly straining with the effort.

He lays the carcass at her feet, then lifts his head and bares his neck to her. It makes Kiba's stomach drop, this easy show of deference to his mother. Shikamaru wasn't marrying into the Inuzuka, Kiba was the one marrying out of it. But here Shikamaru is, doing that.

Tsume reaches out and rubs the flat of her palm against the side of Shikamaru's neck. It makes something in Kiba rear up on its hind legs, ready to spit. That kill is his. That man is his. Clan head or not, his mother shouldn't be marking him.

He only realizes his grip on Akamaru's gone too tight when his partner turns his head and nips at his wrist. Kiba bites down on his yelp and snatches his hand away from Akamaru's scruff.

"Sorry, buddy," he says.

Akamaru whuffs lightly at him, then turns and looks back to where Tsume marks Kiba's fiancé.

Fiancé. God, that was weird. Kiba has a fiancé.

Hana snickers at him from behind her hand, but she doesn't reach out to touch Shikamaru. Kiba counts it as a blessing. He'd probably snap at her if she did.

"Pulling out all the stops for your first introduction, aren't you, Shikamaru-kun?" Tsume asks.

Kuromaru, the grumpy old man, sniffs at the other side of Shikamaru's throat, and Kiba has to work to stifle the snarl that wants to fight its way out of him. He loves Kuromaru, he really does, but he likes that old dog's teeth that close to Shikamaru's fragile skin as much as he likes his own mother's hand there.

Shikamaru looks up at Tsume, the long line of his pale throat exposed to her tenderness or her wrath. Kiba wants to barrel roll into him and cover him bodily, keep all of his soft parts away from tooth and claw and harm.

But Shikamaru only smiles, dark brown eyes flicking from Tsume to Kiba. And for the moment that their eyes meet, Kiba can feel the air get sucked out of him.

Throat still bared, blood on his forehead, sweat beading between his collarbones from the summer heat. Kiba wants to bite him.

"I'd like to impress you," Shikamaru says, turning his gaze back to Tsume, "if you'll allow it, haha-ue."

There's a little quirk to his mouth, more attitude than blind deference, and Kiba wonders how Shikamaru knows how to play the Inuzuka.

The overly polite form of address makes Tsume bark out a laugh. She reaches out with both her hands and drags Shikamaru to his feet by his shoulders. She gives him a solid pat on the shoulder, and Shikamaru doesn't even wobble under the weight of her blow.

"We're gonna have fun this month, kid," Tsume says. "But I'm not the one you need to impress."

She gives her eyebrows a suggestive wiggle, but Kiba can't really notice it around the little branches he now sees in Shikamaru's ponytail. Tiny little twigs. Almost like antlers.

Wow. Wow, he's going to die at twenty.

Shikamaru's positioned himself so firmly on the line between predator and prey that it leaves Kiba's head swimming. It's a very good confusion. And it is one that Kiba will have to (get to, get to, get to) deal with for a month.

"And," his mother adds, smirking as she does, "I'm not sure it'll be that hard."

When he carves up the buck he hunted, it's about as gory as he expected it to be, and he regrets the waste of blood that he had to leave to make a trail from the Inuzuka to the Nara compounds. He does it before he changes out of his hunting clothes, while his clan's sigil is still stark on his chest.

The Inuzuka were only about thirty strong, and Shikamaru was careful with his portioning, and managed to feed them all with it. The Nara deer were much bigger than average, had been bred that way. And the buck Shikamaru took down for his 'groomly duties' had been big as hell.

He feels eyes on him as he does it, thirty pairs of eyes to be exact. But he keeps his own eyes downcast. He tends his cookfire, starts it with wood gathered from the Inuzuka compound and his own persistence. Cooking the buck over an Inuzuka fed flame was a good way to show the combining of their families, each nurturing the other though their eventual union.

His eventual union. With Kiba.

While most of the Inuzuka are reasonably wary of him at first, the children (who are much easier to please) ram into his legs demanding seconds. They rub their little cheeks on his knees and so do their ninken partners. They climb him like a jungle gym, drag him down to their level so they can wipe their little hands on his cheek or on his neck, or press their cheeks to his.

Maybe they mark him as 'friend' as 'clan' as 'pack' too soon. They're children, after all, and they may not be too sure of what they're doing. The adults are more wary, but they trust the instincts of the little ones. People still so close to wildness without being lost to it are good judges of character.

"At least," Hana says, jostling his arm with her elbow. "That's what they say."

Hana and the other adults are more conservative with their scent marking, even though it took Shikamaru about twenty minutes to get the seal of approval from every Inuzuka child on the compound. The adults prefer to wait for him to settle into his month of labor before they give him their approval.

He gets it from Hana in the clinic. She's eager to pick his brains, to figure out all he knows about the Nara medicinal sciences. Hana favored homeopathic medicine even over chakra, and she was a dedicated student. She wanted information, and she soaked up all Shikamaru had to offer in the short time he spent among the Inuzuka.

One day after he helps her make her first fever burning poultice, she drags him in for a hug that ends with her rubbing her cheek firmly against his. The Haimaru brothers quirk up their ears as soon as she does it, and by the time Hana lets him go, Shikamaru is drowning under the weight of three full grown wolf dogs and the sound of Hana's deep belly laugh.

He gets it from a couple of uncles while he helps maintain the kennels. From aunties when he thatches a roof or two. Does more housework than he really expected himself to do. On more than one occasion, he gets it from Tsume when he makes meals for her, Hana, and Kiba, especially when he makes sure he's the last one to start eating, even after Kiba's begun. There's a pecking order, and he knows his place on it.

The little ones are as free with their affection as their seniors are once they notice that they aren't the only ones that like Shikamaru. They take to ambushing him when he's napping between the jobs the uncles and aunties give him. They'll dive bomb his stomach, tug on his hair. The Inuzuka kids rough house way more than the Nara kids do, and they're always prone to raucous laughter when he attaches their shadows to stop them before they can knock his guts out of place for the umpteenth time.

Kiba doesn't touch him. But he watches.

Shikamaru stays a month. Does yard work. Brushes dog fur. Holds open the mouths of two of Kakashi's ninken (who take more after their summoner than they lead on) while Hana shoves a fistful of Nara-Inuzuka collaboration engineered medicine down their throats. He's pretty sure he gains a few more toned muscles in his back from having to hold up anywhere from two to nine children at a time.

He sleeps in the main house, in a room away from Tsume, and Hana, and Kiba. The dogs come to visit him. To Shikamaru, it seems like the dogs like his company better than the people do. He isn't always a fan of their play fighting, but whenever he's asleep, Kuromaru and the Haimaru brothers sniff him out like he's a beacon of peace and quiet. Which, to be fair, he probably is.

Hana lets him in the room when Kuromaru's mate Nōtō starts her labor pains, and he's there when Hana ties off the umbilical cords of the pups after Nōtō licks the membrane off all six of them. While Nōtō is preoccupied with cleaning her puppies, Hana cuts their cords expertly and leaves Shikamaru with the clean up.

He tries not to touch the puppies if he can help it, not wanting to mark them while their mother is still so sensitive. He does his best until Hana puts a towel and a puppy in his hands, and tells him to rub her down.

Shikamaru stares down at the pup. Not a runt, but not the largest one either. A pretty little one, sweet. He's careful when he uses the towel on her face to clean her up, and her little yips begin and melt into the noise the rest of her siblings make.

He feels a pair of inhuman eyes on him and he looks up to see Nōtō staring at him. She's intelligent the way all Inuzuka ninken are intelligent, with sharp eyes and sharper teeth. It's no wonder she's Kuromaru's mate. She looks about a size and a half larger than him, and roughly as mean.

With slow, careful hands, he places the pup down at her side where the others are jostling for her milk. Nōtō sniffs at his hand as he takes it back, and Hana plops another puppy in his lap before he can get worried about their mother ripping his hand off.

The first puppy seeks him out a lot after that. Even at two weeks, ninken bred dogs are smart, capable trackers. The puppy is awkward on her feet, wobbly and chubby and sweet looking. She yowls loud as anything when she legs lost in the kennel and can't find him, and Shikamaru thinks it's better to scoop her up and scratch her behind the ears than to let her just scream herself hoarse.

He names her Taikō in his head, and when Hana catches him calling her that, she laughs. 'Light pink' after her mother's 'deep pink', though neither of them are anywhere even close to the color. Nobody seems surprised that she follows him around. Even Kuromaru and Nōtō don't seem willing to stop her.

"Her chakra pathways are too small," Hana explains during a check up of Taikō and her five siblings. "It happens. She won't be an active duty ninken, but she's not really a pet either. She'll stay on the compound and she'll help her siblings and the other dogs train."

Or she'll bother Shikamaru until the cows come home. She seems pretty keen on that, judging by the way she's always gnawing on his ankles when he's still for more than a minute at a time.

It's kind of like having a tiny useless assistant. Shikamaru likes it more than he lets on. He's gonna be sad to have to leave her behind when he does go. But now, he just likes her company. She's puppy eager, that's for sure, but she naps on his belly and the Inuzuka kids are much less likely to throw themselves on him when Taikō is sleeping there, too.

The month goes by. He's touched by every ninken, dog, and person on the Inuzuka compound except for Kiba and Akamaru. He tries not to take it as an affront. He knows he's doing the right things. He's proved himself a capable hunter, provider, and even healer several times over. He can take care of Kiba, and whatever children they have. He knows he's doing everything right.

And if Kiba wants to do things the Nara way, he could take another husband, or another wife if Shikamaru didn't do is job well enough. The thought doesn't even think to sting. Shikamaru had several aunties with more than one husband; polyandry doesn't make him puff up. But Kiba... He doubts Kiba would feel the same way.

The Inuzuka were an all or nothing kind of people.

Shikamaru doesn't press. He knows better than to corner any animal into any situation. He does his labors, and he waits. And on the evening of the thirty-first day, when he's packed up all of his things, and Taikō, the Haimaru brothers, and Kuromaru are all asleep on his bedroll with him, he doesn't bat an eye open when another nose sticks itself into his doorway.

He keeps his breathing steady when Akamaru settles his chin on Shikamaru's shoulder. And once Akamaru is asleep, he reaches up a hand, and gives the dog a little scratch behind the ears.

He sleeps swaddled in dog fur.

He repeats the words over and over again to himself in his head. He has to make sure he won't forget them. The Inuzuka weren't big on speeches. They trusted actions more than words, but the Nara were intellectuals. Kiba had to say something good.

He was getting married today. And if he fucked this up, he was pretty sure he was going to run back to the Inuzuka compound and hide in his room until he was in his sixties.

Shikamaru had played the game well. Had played it right. Kiba hadn't spoken to him, so Shikamaru hadn't sought him out. Instead, he fixed leaksand delivered pups. And played with the kids and helped the aunties with the laundry and the uncles with the cooking.

He had slaughtered an entire buck on day one. Kiba hadn't been sure that he'd be able to breathe past his nosebleed. Then Taikō started following Shikamaru around and Kiba knew he was gone.

It takes him so little time to tell his mother he'll accept Shikamaru's hand, it's kind of embarrassing.

Tsume looked at her son like he was an idiot, and drummed her fingers on her arm.

"I already accepted his proposal for you," she said, lifting an eyebrow. "How do you think an arranged marriage works?"

His silence was all his mom really needs. He turned beet red when she started laughing, tried not to choke when she slammed her hand down on his back in congratulations.

"That's my boy!" she bellowed, giving him a cheerful shake. "Enthusiasm! That's good for every marriage!"

She dragged him in for a hug with her elbow around his throat and Kiba followed, allowing her knuckles to dig into the top of his skull because it kept her from seeing how red he'd gone in the face.

And now he's here. After walking the old blood path Shikamaru had made with that buck all the way to the Nara compound, Akamaru at his side, wearing a formal kimono and the pelts his father had worn when he was marrying his mother. He feels kind of lightheaded even though it's autumn already, and the cool air does its best to steady him.

Akamaru buoys him, leaning against his side to keep him on his feet. Kiba is pretty sure he's going to die. The Inuzuka are moving as a pack, more than half of them accompanying Kiba on his procession. It's a little excessive in his opinion, the Inuzuka showing out in their furs, their faces painted with more red paint to accompany their solitary tattoos to celebrate the occasion. It serves to make the civilians more skittish, but the shinobi that have a closer proximity to the clans give them a respectful berth.

Kiba leads the procession. His mother is at his left, his sister to his right, and Akamaru right at his side. The Haimaru brothers follow Hana, and Kurmomaru stays in step with their mother, Taikō laying on her father's head. He follows the smell of old blood, picks it out underneath the newer smells of other people using the footpath. The extra paint on his chin makes his markings longer, and there is a slim triangle on his forehead that just touches the bridge of his nose.

The Inuzuka dress in white to further highlight the red they wear on their faces, only flashes of other colors in the pelts they wear on their sleeves and the grey hakama they wear. The raccoon dog pelt on Kiba's shoulders weighs heavy, but the dog pelt beneath him is a little more mooring.

He doesn't really start to panic until he gets to the Nara compound. Shikamaru's family is there to welcome him, invites all twenty of the present Inuzuka across the threshold.

Shikamaru is nowhere to be seen. Kiba opens his mouth discreetly, tries to taste the air to find his mate (tries to keep his brain from absolutely just stalling at that realization right there), but Yoshino's knowing smile keeps him from asking about it.

"Kiba-kun," Yoshino says, dressed resplendently in green and gold. "Welcome."

She sweeps forward, and Shikaku keeps step with her. There are little branches in their hair, small, almost twigs, hidden among more ornamental combs. Kiba sees them.

Yoshino lets her hands rest lightly on Kiba's shoulders and gives his nose a gentle buss with her own. The touch is gentle, and Kiba can smell her softness and the tightly corded power that rests in her hands. Clanless kunoichi or not, Nara Yoshino wasn't the housewife she presented herself as. She smelled like honing oil and night shadow. Like power.

It's at home, mingled in the tenderness of her touch, and Kiba relaxes minutely under her hand. He had been worried that he wouldn't fit in with the Nara. That despite their standing as a shinobi clan, they'd be prey, skittish and keyed up in the face of a dog like him.

He couldn't have been more wrong. The same way Shikamaru walked that thin line, his mother dances, and his father glides. He smiles at his incumbent mother-in-law, and feels as though he's going to fit in just fine.

Shikaku steps in cleanly as Yoshino steps to the side, and busses his nose against Kiba as well. Shikamaru's father is all oak trees and hiddenness, and as soon as he's in Kiba's space, he's giving him a firm squeeze on the shoulder.

"Yoshino will show you the way," he says.

Kiba nods. Akamaru flicks his ears as Yoshino tenderly takes Kiba's arm and leads him for the first time, away from the bulk of his pack. Shikaku stays with Tsume, and it's an odd sort of trade. Clan head for second-born son. It's a show of trust if Kiba's ever seen one.

He doesn't look back.

Yoshino doesn't lead him into the main house. She bypasses it entirely, walks forward still until she reaches a visibly new dwelling. It's a nice house, one level, which is all Kiba can imagine himself or Shikamaru needing for now. It's settled on a nice piece of land, with lush green grass all around it, and two small saplings recently planted in the upturned earth by the porch.

Yoshino pats Kiba's arm and leads him up the front steps.

"This will be yours," she explains as she slides off her sandals once they're inside. "An older pair lived in this one until they moved in with their son and his husband. I hope that's alright."

It's more than alright. The scents of the older couple are sunk deep into the bones of the house, and Kiba likes it. This place may not be his, not yet at least, but it was lived in. Comfortable. There were creaky floorboards, little places where children had practiced throwing things they shouldn't have. Dents, cracks.

It was clear that attempts had been made to clear out the specific smell of the other couple, and for the most part, they'd worked. All Kiba could smell was the general Nara scent of moving shadow and wet clay. And Shikamaru.

Akamaru steps forward after politely shaking his paws at the door, and trots into the house. The furniture inside is mostly new, but some things are hand-me-downs. There's a stack of quilts sitting near the kotatsu that look old enough to tell Tsume what to do.

"It's perfect, haha-ue," he says, words careful even though his smile.

Yoshino laughs lightly at him and gives Kiba's arm another squeeze.

"That's not necessary," she says, waving a hand. "Though it's nice to get a little respect around here between Shikamaru and his bum father."

And that is definitely the kind of talk Kiba is used to.

"You just call me 'mom'," Yoshino insists, "or 'kaa-san' if I'm upset with you. 'Haha-ue' is for weddings and funerals, or when you're kissing ass."

Kiba chuckles, then reaches out. He busses his nose against her cheek, and his boldness is rewarded. Yoshino leans in, a doe with her new dog-toothed fawn.

"Haha-ue it is then," he replies.

Yoshino gives him a little pinch, still smiling.

"I already like you better than my boy," she says. "But now I've got to go make sure Shikaku isn't ruining my wedding."

She untangles herself from him, and Akamaru trots back over. He rubs his head against her hip and she drops a hand to scratch underneath his chin. His tail wags and his tongue lolls out of his mouth.

"Your wedding?" Kiba asks.

Yoshino lifts an eyebrow at him.

"You know what they say about the clan head," she drawls. "The clan neck is the one who really runs the operation."

It startles a laugh out of Kiba, one that Yoshino only smirks through. It's the exact kind of thing he really should expect a Nara woman to say, especially one that managed to give birth to and raise Shikamaru.

"Stay here," Yoshino instructs, carefully sliding her sandals back on. "We'll be back for you when the priestess is ready."

Kiba nods, and with that, Yoshino is gone. He scuffs his foot against the polished wood floors, and ambles through his new house. In the living room, there are bookshelves laden with knick-knacks and pictures in frames. One of them is of Team Ten in their genin days. Another is just of Shikamaru and Chouji napping, a third with Ino braiding Shikamaru's hair while he sleeps.

There's a window near the bookshelf, and he steps into its light so he can read some of the titles better. A fair amount of theory and philosophy, military strategy and the like, but they're dwarfed, utterly dwarfed by dime thriller novels, the kind Kurenai-sensei makes them read when they're doing research for a genjutsu.

He runs his thumb over the spines of a few familiar ones. It's funny. He never would've pegged Shikamaru as the type to -

Akamaru's warning snarl is all he gets before he's stuck like that, a finger on a book, standing in the light. He should've known better. Should've known better than to make a shadow where there were Nara.

He grinds his teeth, tries to figure out who in Shikamaru's family would want to hurt him and why, wonders what would happen if Akamaru tackled his assailant, when he sees him through the window.

Shikamaru is there, mimicking his position, hand outstretched. He slowly brings his hand back to his side and Kiba copies him. Shikamaru walks forward and Kiba does. He settles Kiba's hand against the latch, then has Kiba press open the windows.

The light is soft on his face. Warm. Kiba narrows his eyes at his fiancé. Shikamaru makes the both of them rub the backs of their necks.

"This is the really, really lame part," he says. "Fair warning."

Kiba bares his teeth.

"Can I have my arm back?"

Shikamaru sighs, breaks the jutsu.

"You can have your whole body back," he says. "I just have to get your attention. You have to come to me. Of your own free will."

Kiba narrows his eyes.

"I've already come."

Shikamaru shakes his head.

"You've come to the compound. You came to the house I prepared for us. But it's different," he explains. "You need to come to me."

A failsafe, in all likelihood, against unhappy unions. A last chance to turn tail and run. A bride or groom could make up any story they wanted about the Nara that used their shadow to get their attention, and the Nara would release them from the contract.

It was so wildly different than what Kiba had expected.

He puts his hand down on the windowsill, and flings himself bodily out of his new house.

Akamaru barks up a storm, tries to push himself out of the window himself. Kiba waves a hand at him, and he hears his partner calm down while he approaches Shikamaru.

"How close do I have to come?" he asks, toe to toe with his fiancé.

Shikamaru's cheeks go a little pink. He scratches his jawline, and jerks his head back.

"Further."

With that, he's running. And if Kiba knows how to do anything, it's chase.

It sets him on fire, the way Shikamaru flickers just out of sight, a little flash step away to put some space between them, then bolts. He watches him push off the ground like it's in slow motion, watches him take the first step, lift his arms to help him, watches him go.

Kiba's running before he can think about it.

His blood thunders in his ears, all thoughts of nerves and cold feet flying out of the window. Shikamaru leads him on a merry chase through his home turf, ducking and leaping over and under low-high branches, downright barrel rolling where he will, damn near ruining his own wedding kimono.

He fakes Kiba out against a tree, and Kiba's claws leave grooves in the wood where he launches himself off of it. Was it does that ran away from bucks before mating? Trying to tire them out to see if they were worth the rut? Or was it does that led bucks away from prying eyes, into privacy?

Kiba doesn't remember. He hadn't done a good enough amount of reading before all of this happened, even though Hana had given him books. He's always preferred to learn by doing.

The forest is awash with little light and more sound. The deeper they go, the quieter it gets, until Kiba can only hear the other deer in the forest, and Shikamaru running ahead of him. There's a little sound, a water sound like a river far from its source, and Kiba's breath in his chest. He's burning with his pelts on his shoulders, with the tightness of his hakama and the white haori underneath it.

Shikamaru turns over his shoulder and winks at him, and Kiba's about two minutes away from losing it.

The further they get into the forest, the stranger the world around him gets. These are trees the Shodaime didn't grow, ones that sunlight has never seen, that no one outside of the Nara can tend to. It all smells wetter, thicker, darker, cloying as the shadow that the Nara employ in their ninjutsu.

And then he smells oak and honing oil and he's distracted. Confused about why he smells his father and mother-in-law even though he's pretty sure he's several kilometers away from them.

Then, the couple whose house he moved into, and other uncles and aunties, and Kiba has to remind himself how his mother taught him to breathe through the distractions. He shakes his head, focuses, breathes deep into his belly. Then he keeps up the chase.

Shikamaru must step over a border of some kind, because he takes a step and then falters. It's all the opening that Kiba needs. He throws himself into Shikamaru, takes him down from behind, rolls them until he's straddling his fiancé, the both of them breathing heavy.

Then, Kiba sneezes. In his fiancé's face.

"Oh my god."

Shikamaru wipes the spray Kiba has managed to get on his cheek with the back of his hand, but makes no move to push Kiba off.

"I'm so - ,"

"Don't worry about it," Shikamaru says, managing to shrug even though Kiba has him pinned.

Kiba leans back, wants part way to pull himself off, but finds he doesn't really want to. Can't quite make himself. This is the most he's touched Shikamaru in their brief courting period. Closest he's come to scent marking him.

It occurs to Kiba in that moment, that Shikamaru's parents have marked him. And in front of the Inuzuka no less. And he marked Yoshino back. He marked Shikamaru's mom before he marked Shikamaru.

He's gonna die.

"I didn't peg you for allergic," Shikamaru continues. "Though it may be because this place might be a lot for a sensitive nose."

Kiba wrinkles his brows and opens his mouth to ask what in the world Shikamaru is talking about when the stink of the plot around him gets caught in his throat.

This is Shikamaru's territory. He had only barely noticed it, was too busy tackling Shikamaru over the unseen border and into Shikamaru's own slot of land. Shikamaru led him here, let Kiba be the one to drag them both over the invisible line into the place that Shikamaru had carved out for himself.

And above them, there's a dogwood tree.

Above them, being relative. It's only a sapling, but Kiba recognizes the smell, the slim branches of the young tree.

"Dogwood?" he asks, trying to keep at least some bravado over the way he's suddenly feeling choked up. God, what the hell. "That's not very original."

Shikamaru shrugs again. Kiba tries not to dig his claws into his fiancé's shoulders.

"Ino said the same thing," Shikamaru replies. "But originality isn't the point."

Shikamaru's hands rise, settle on Kiba's hips. He doesn't try to flip them. Instead, he lifts his chin, bares the skin of his throat just a little bit more, and there's a snarl in Kiba's throat that comes out before he can stop it.

"They mean durability," he continues. "Reliability. Resilience and strength."

"Sturdy foundation for a marriage," Kiba grits out, trying to focus anywhere but the way Shikamaru's thumbs rub slow circles against his hipbones.

"That's what I thought," Shikamaru says, voice low and even. "Know what else they mean?"

"What?"

"You give someone a kousa flower when you aren't sure if they like you or not."

Kiba's eyes clear in a heartbeat. Shikamaru is staring up at him, throat still bared, his brown eyes cool and even as the ground beneath him.

"You don't think I - ?"

Shikamaru shrugs, gives Kiba's hips a squeeze.

"Not while I was doing my work on the compound," he explains. "I guessed when you sent Akamaru. I was pretty sure. But - ,"

But the nature of the ritual the Nara employed. The chase, and the way out before it ever happened. It hadn't really taken that long for their parents to settle on the match. And a month wasn't very long to perform wedding labors, was it?

But Kiba never would have guessed that Shikamaru had ever been unsure.

"That's why you - ,"

Planted the tree. Told him he needed to come further than obligation dictated. Would it have been enough for anyone else, if Kiba had just stood toe to toe with Shikamaru back in the Nara compound? Did he really need Kiba to chase him all the way into the forest, to drag them both into Shikamaru's territory?

Or was that Shikamaru's way of being sure?

"I choose you."

The flowery words he had prepared for the wedding ceremony leave his head as soon as he thinks to conjure them. Kiba does what he does best; he follows his instinct.

He draws the flat of his palm over Shikamaru's bare throat, draws a clawed thumb down the column just to see Shikamaru's adam's apple jump. Shikamaru looks up at him, still as a caught animal.

"I choose you," Kiba repeats, and he leans down, busses his nose against Shikamaru's, scents him the Nara way.

"I choose you," he says, dipping his hand around Shikamaru's throat and giving it a squeeze, dipping his head down forward to breathe him in.

Shikamaru shudders, presses up on his elbows and Kiba allows it, allows it because it presses the two of them closer together. Kiba noses at where Shikamaru's heartbeat thrums in his throat, wants to put a claiming bite over the vein.

"Great," Shikamaru breathes. "Wanna get married?"

Kiba chuckles and rears back, presses his forehead against Shikamaru's. He smears the red triangle on his forehead against his fiancé's even as Shikamaru reaches up, tugging the furs off of Kiba's shoulders and shoving his haori down, baring his arms and chest to the cold air of the deep forest.

The rut comes after the chase, and Kiba bites Shikamaru's throat, stakes the claim he's been craving, and Shikamaru arches underneath him, digs his fingers into his side as the bite draws a bead of blood.

"Let's get hitched," he rumbles into his husband's throat.

Shikamaru shudders out a laugh. And when he hitches his hips up and rolls them, buries his face at the front of Kiba's throat and bites down just like an Inuzuka should, Kiba's vision whites out.

They don't leave the forest 'til nightfall.

#narutogiftexchange #naruto #ao3 #fic #shikakiba #inuzuka kiba #nara shikamaru

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kythen · 7 years

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what r ur fav kakairu and kurodai fics? lov ur writing n the way u characterize everyone :))

Thank you so much! I’m glad my characterisation works for you! The characters that Furudate gives us are just a gift and they’re super fun to bounce off each other :)

Oboy oboy here’s some fic recs coming right up under the cut because I have so many!

KAKAIRU

The Mirror Wheel Eye by pentapus (31,587 words, rated T)

Iruka saw his first execution barely a year after the Kyuubi. The executioner was a wire thin ninja in combat uniform, one eye covered and his hair almost white in the brutal sun.

I’m just going to go ahead and say just read everything by pentapus. Seriously. You won’t regret it. I’ve never seen that level of plot-layering in a fic before it’s just so good. You go into it a new reader and come out of it a changed person I tell you.

Morning Shows The Day (or, Iruka and Kakashi’s Excellent Adventure) by AvocadoLove (17,055words, rated T)

One moment ten-year-old Umino Iruka is pulling his most daring prank, and the next he’s in the middle of a bloody battlefield. What is going on, and who is this strange masked boy with him?

Bleed Outby HazelBeka (103,733words, rated T)

After Iruka’s confrontation with Kakashi before the chuunin exams, he’s targeted by a serial killer who seems to be picking off disrespectful chuunin. Iruka survives, but it’s only a matter of time before the killer returns to finish the job. Finding his name on the suspects’ list, Kakashi bullies his way onto Tenzou’s investigation in an attempt to clear his name and protect Iruka from the real threat.

How to File Form 39-Bby thehoyden (10,426words, rated E)

The first time Iruka met Hatake Kakashi, he was still on some pretty good painkillers.

Secretaryby dawnstruck (9,739words, rated T)

In the aftermath of a war, Kakashi falls in love over politics and paperwork.It shouldn’t be this romantic.

Submitted for Approvalby flailinginlove (2,102words, rated T)

Kakashi’s mission reports take a sudden, unexpected turn.

Touchstone by paxnirvana (11,852words, rated T)

Unexpected advice and village rules conspire against Kakashi.

Kakashi + Iruka get-together. Stand alone.

of riceballs and jello cupsby 100demons (3,411 words, rated G)

Iruka has lunch with the Legendary Sharingan no Kakashi.

“It was not not peaceful. In a way, it was rather like having lunch with a chair. A chair that read porn and was also capable of assassinating people with a dull spoon.”

Romance is dead (I shot it in the chest and in the head)by megyal (1,868words, rated M)

Iruka hates sappy, romantic gestures. Kakashi keeps doing them.

KURODAI

rideby astroturfwars (28,065words, rated T)

In which there are cars, kissing, and cute dogs.

THIS IS IT! THE FIC THAT MADE ME A SOLID KURODAI CONVERT. Just do yourself a favour and read everything by them. It’s so good, their kurodai dynamics are so good. If there is such a thing as love at first sight it would be between me and this fic (and subsequently the ship).

catch and releaseby evils (18,531words, rated E)

“Sawamura-kun, don’t tell me you’re actually a virgin?”

Daichi flushes a deep red and Kuroo’s grin turns positively wicked.

If you’re looking for good kurodai getting it on you’ve come to the right fic. This is it: the fic.

Seen a Million Faces (but I’ve been waiting for you)by Hyeyu (33,322words, rated M)

In all his time as a dance instructor, Kuroo has had his fair share of newcomers walk into his classes at Nekoma. But there were dance newbies, and then there was Sawamura Daichi.

(aka the Dance!AU in which Kuroo teaches dance, Sawamura tries his best, and circumstances keep getting in the damn way.)

Aka THE DANCE AU. This fic just absorbed me straight in that’s how solid the atmosphere of the fic was. Go ahead and read everything by her. Just do it, my dude. In fact, have another one right here.

raise my walls, tear them downby Hyeyu (4,056words, rated T)

“Hinata squeaks, jumping back as a shadow drops in front of their small band of people, setting off a chain reaction of shoulder twitches, muscle jerks and feet scuffling amongst the other members of their party. Only Sawamura doesn’t react, waiting as the cloaked figure straightens up on the dirt path before he calls his greeting.

“Kuroo. Was wondering how long you were planning to tail us before you popped out.“”

Something’s going on in Nekoma’s territory, but the head of Nekoma’s royal party doesn’t seem particularly inclined to fill Sawamura in. [RPG!AU]

To tomorrow, and beyondby boxofwonder (3,900words, rated T)

Wounded in the middle of nowhere on infested zombie grounds, it’s Kuroo’s voice guiding Daichi home.

Wilder Mindby akhikosanada (19,402words, rated T)

“’Careful, Sawamura. Kuroo’s rubbing off on you.’

Daichi thinks back of sharp golden eyes and cunning smirks, of deft lean fingers holding a camera and warmth seeping out of skin at night, of wild hair and wilder mind.

‘I kinda hope he does, actually.’”

A story of love, loss, and finding home.

Take the Long Road Homeby pepperfield (28,371words, rated T)

When Azumane Asahi goes missing before his engagement meeting with Kozume Kenma, what other option is there but for Daichi to impersonate his brother and fake his way through a first date with Asahi’s fiance?

Okay, let’s be realistic - there were probably at least four other options.

Unfortunately, Tetsurou couldn’t come up with any of them either, so now he’s here flirting with Kenma’s future husband while trying to keep his web of deceit from collapsing.

It’s going to be an eventful day.

Smile For Me, Baby by kiafeles (2,925words, rated G)

Perhaps he chose grape because subconsciously he wants to punish himself for such awful thoughts, and really, he can’t change his mind now, because that would just draw more attention to how awful he is at talking to his dentist.

Camera Shyby protectginozasquad (2,215words, rated T)

Kuroo Tetsurou’s vlog subscribers really want to meet his boyfriend, but Sawamura Daichi doesn’t feel ready for the big screen.

eighteen, twenty sevenby v_ichigo_v (4,472words, rated T)

Planning ahead works sometimes. Other times, life fucks you in the side so sudden, you don’t have time to plan ahead until it’s too late. This, is Kuroo Tetsurou’s problem, and other than that, he kind of feels like he’s eighteen again, which shouldn’t be a problem. Right?

in between being young and being rightby cenli (4,222words, rated T)

Everything is lit up rippling-blue and smells of chlorine and sounds like the incessant hum of a filtration system and Kuroo is looking right back at him, eyes soft

Daichi lets Kuroo convince him to sneak into their college’s outdoor swimming pool at three in the morning.

Pucker Up, Lost Boyby myfivemeters (1,313words, rated G)

Kuroo Tetsurou and his stupid kissing booth are going to be the death of him. At least Daichi’s not lost anymore.

Fangs For A Good Timeby FairyLights101 (2,174words, rated E)

“Enough,” he rasped, “How ‘bout we really find out how hard you can bite with those?”

Be Good to Meby tinycrows (3,027words, rated E)

“Not only am I into that,” Kuroo says slowly, perfecting the razor sharp smirk that he knows turns Daichi on–even if he has never admitted it, “but I guarantee you’re going to love it even more.”

#kakairu #kurodai #haikyuu!!#naruto #anon #replies #fic rec list

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randomprose · 7 years

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Pt.1 Dude! I've been thinking the same thing ever since Sasuke stopped being driven by hate! I was like "you know he honestly isn't a bad choice". When he's not insane he actually understands the reality of having to run a nation and how it isn't just optimism/popularity/recognition like Naruto thinks it is. Naruto could've been his assistant or pep squad to remind him to not forget about bonds but even Sakura would've been a better Hokage than Naruto. She started a medical program for ORPHANED

Pt.2 CHILDREN BECAUSE SHE KNEW WHAT NOT HAVING PARENTS DID TO HER TEAMMATES. She has the ability to mature as seen from her progress from being annoyed at her parents to opening the clinic to help those who didn't have parents. She understands that the village's future rests in the hands of their youth! Sasuke almost destroyed the world for goodness sake! If someone gave him the time and helped him find the truth about the elders shit wouldn't have spiraled out of control the way they did.

Pt.3 Naruto had Iruka as a father figure but Sasuke only had the memory of a shit dad who belittled him. Remember when Sasuke pointed out that he actually LOST a family so Naruto couldn't possibly know what he's going through. I think if they both had someone hear them out as kids they wouldn't have gotten so mental. The village treated the children like weapons instead of human beings. I was rooting for either Sasuke or Sakura to become Hokage. Even Gaara knows ruling a nation ain't about

Pt.4 about everyone liking you. It's about the people of the country. Sasuke understood his clan were still people who didn't deserve to be discarded so easily and Sakura understood that orphaned kids traumatized by war shouldn't just be left untreated and alone because they probably won't mentally recover fully. So many wasted possibilities. Sakura probably already saved the village because none of the orphans are gonna be nut jobs coming for the Hokage's head b/c of the system ‎(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

Naruto didn't have the right reason in the end. He honestly would've been better traveling instead of Sasuke because then he could make bonds/turn bad guys good more than Sasuke can. That's his thing! Being stuck in an office isn't his strength, heck that's why Shikamaru is there to guide him/strategize. Ok. All done! I'm sorry if that was long but I thought no else felt the same way! (ﾉಥДಥ)ﾉ

fyi, this is about this meta post

(thank you for your wonderful insights, anon!! don’t worry. you’re not alone in the whole “naruto shouldn’t have been hokage” biz.)

look, there are a whole number of reason why i started being inactive in the naruto fandom like halfway through shippuden and one of them is when i realized that naruto's reason for wanting to be hokage is essentially, well, shit. wanting to be hokage because you want to be recognized by everyone is like saying you want to be president just to prove you can and just so people will call you president. in other words, you want to be president just because. and maybe i'm being a little too into this but i studied int'l studies in uni and i majored in polisci and int'l politics so forgive me if i'm being a little nit picky in the whole naruto being hokage biz.

literally anyone in the series could've been a better hokage candidate than naruto, but i'm not gonna delve outside team 7 because 1. nobody outside of this trainwreck of a team expressed their desire to be hokage; and 2. it'll just be too troublesome (and hella long).

i'm gonna start with Sakura. this is gonna be short because while i think she's the best candidate to become hokage out off all three, she never expressed her interest in it. I agree with what anon said. Sakura, under Tsunade's tutelage most probably, grew to understood and form her perception of what it means to run a village. for her the future of the village rests on its youth. thus, she knows that it's important to have the children of the village to be physically, mentally, and emotionally sound so that they'll grow up to be adults who are physically, mentally, and emotionally sound and not raging lunatics out to destroy the world for revenge or whatever twisted ideology they formed growing up without guidance. if sakura had become hokage, her aim will be to make sure the village is not and will not be producing damaged homicidal maniacs/sociopaths/psychopaths.

on Sasuke, this is gonna be long because fuck if i'm ever gonna get over his clusterfuck of a life and how the series decided what to do with his story. basically everything sasuke threw at naruto when they were kids (the whole "you will never understand me" shit) is true alright? again, i agree with anon here that if the village treated their shinobi children as humans instead of weapons before they could even run they wouldn't end up being so batshit crazy. the only flaw i could fault Sasuke though is he never tried to let anyone in and he never tried to make them understand. but on him wanting to be hokage, despite his general years of being revenge and power crazy, you got to admit that that wouldn't happen if the village didn't fucking screwed him (and his family) ten times over. look, it doesn't matter that the Uchiha were planning a coup, the fact of the matter is they wiped out a whole fucking clan. and they used it's heir itself to do it by practically manipulating Itachi to do it in a twisted sense of nationalism and peace or whatever. and look how that all ended up. they wiped out a whole fucking clan. i'm not too particular on how the politics play in the naruto-verse work but i'm pretty fucking sure there are a lot of ways they could've contained the Uchiha other than wiping them off. whatever happened to domestic diplomacy? and don't fucking tell me talking it out wouldn't have solved anything because that's basically what Naruto fucking did the whole of the series. Sasuke had a good reason for wanting to be hokage (putting aside the fact that he initially wanted to raze konoha to the ground) because he understood the machinations behind running a shinobi village. he understood that being hokage is basically being the head of an essentially military governed village. Sasuke knows the flaws of the current konoha government--has suffered and lived through it--and he knows what and how to change it. if Sasuke had become hokage, he'll make sure that what happened to the Uchiha will never be repeated.

and again, on what anon said, Naruto didn't have the right reason to be hokage in the end. his strength lies in good PR and making people like him--not fucking desk work. Shikamaru is basically co-running the village at this point. Naruto should've been the one to travel. he should've been Konoha's ambassador. i mean he has a demon sealed inside him. if he runs into any trouble, he could just easily take care of it. but, no, of course not because he has to have the hokage title otherwise the whole point of the series is moot.

#sorrry this was long anon #and again thank you for your wonderful insights #meta #naruto #the amount of plot holes in that story is2g #Anonymous #replies

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humblereflection · 7 years

Text

Red Strings and Soulmates and What Nonsense

I present to you! Another Kakairu soulmate fic! I dedicate this one to my cool pal Tori @the-gloamglozer who has written several fics starring these dads in my dedication already - which i still can’t believe and cry about on the daily. who also supports dumb tweets about dumb aus and tramp stamps on characters who would probably not have tramp stamps

this one is about 5000 words, give or take a few, and may be in a state of need for major editing, but until it gets up on a03, this is how it is.

please enjoy my ramblings.

It’s been a busy year; fixing the village, seeing Naruto and Hinata wed, forming proper alliances with countries they’ve been amicable with. Kakashi thinks he’s doing a great job so far, despite the shit fest they all had to go through to get him to sit in the hokage’s chair.

He’s listening to the little ham radio he had set up in the office, the music keeps the room from running silent, keeps him from drifting into small and sad thoughts about the wars. He starts tapping his fingers in beat with the pianos and horns while he looks over his new stack of paperwork, and feels a little bit at peace.

There’s a knock at the door, a light rap, and it’s news but not too urgent. He allows their entry.

“Kakashi,” Shikaku greets, a light nod and he makes his way to the little radio, “there’s something you need to hear,” they turn the little knobs and wade through the static until they get the station he wants.

“- There have been claims from the general public that there’s been sighting of red threads tied around your little fingers. Like the myth, Red Strings of Fate, they’re calling them, or Strings for short. So if you follow your little red string, you’ll find your soulmate at the other end.

“They aren’t happening to everyone all at once, oh no, just a few at a time get this sight, I wouldn’t believe it myself, but the station manager ran out yesterday when, he had seen his own String plain as day -” Shikaku tunes it out and looks to Kakashi.

Kakashi is at a loss as to what to say. Sounds like something out of a fantasy, a romance novel, something he’s read in an Icha Icha novel. He doesn’t think this is real, but a story being read over the radio.

“Shikamaru experienced it yesterday too,” Shikaku says, “it went past the village walls.”

Kakashi frowns at that. Shikamaru is the top of his year, wouldn’t make this up even if someone had paid him to - he’s far too logical.

“That could mean anything at all,” Kakashi states.

“I found my wife at the end of my own three days ago.”

Kakashi has nothing to say to that. “Do we know anything else?” he asks instead.

“Other than the civilian reports, nothing.”

“Find out as much as you can,” Kakashi decides, “I don’t want to end up a trap.” Shikaku nods, and while Kakashi tries to ignore the exasperated sigh that escapes the man’s lips, he’s been through enough strife to be wary of traps. He dismisses Shikaku.

Soulmates.

He turns to look out the window, and doesn’t believe this hocus pocus to be more than some new trap or something funny in the water. Logically makes no sense.

There’s a knock on the door, confident but hides no messages, he allows entry to the man.

Umino Iruka walks through the door and Kakashi is confused. Their shogi game isn’t for another week, and it’s too early for tea.

“Kakashi-san,” Iruka greets with a light bow that Kakashi has tried to dismiss for months now, “Nara Shikaku sent me here.” Of course, Shikaku arranged this. Send in the most amicable ninja to do recon for this task.

“Is it Naruto? Do you have a mission for me?”

With his friendliest of smiles, Kakashi waves off the questions and tells the man what he is to do.

There are cases from all over Konoha, about people finding red strings tied around their little fingers, tying them to another soul. Is it a new genjutsu? An enemy of Konohagakure? These are his first questions. They made sense. It was right to fear for the worst possible thing. To jump to and dwell on.

Iruka thought that was foolish, but set to find out regardless.

He sent his best genjutsu users to try to break it. They found nothing. Could have meant it was just a really good genjutsu. The look he receives leaves him sleepless for nights until Iruka fixes him some tea.

He sends Ibiki to find something out, learn anything he can about the phenomenon. He had high hopes for this tactic at uncovering the truth about the red lines. Until I&T came back with a shrug, but bearing a very detailed report. He thanked them for their effort and dismissed the mission.

Iruka gives him such a smug look, Kakashi figures out ten ways to wipe it off his face in the time it takes him to hand him his new report on the red strings.

“Here,” he says, “a civilian report.”

After a quick leaf through, Kakashi thanks him for his work, and dismisses the mission altogether.

Some weeks after his initial, healthy paranoia, the letters started to arrive. Why it took so long for everyone to question the sudden appearance, this new sense, this sudden ability to find one's soul mate, he’ll never understand. But regardless, it confirms that it’s worldwide, and for that, he’s a little grateful.

But to every good, there is a bad and the letters, in various levels of discreteness, ask him if he’s seen his own thread.

Which is stupid. He believes he won’t get one. He knows he won’t have one. There is no one who he wants to burden with being tied to him.

There’s a shout from the other room, Iruka has found the teapot and Kakashi bites his lip.

He responds to the letter, detailing everything he knows about the Strings, the age range, the disregard for sex or gender identity and the lack of confinement to their own walls. He doesn’t mention his status, it’s not important.

Kakashi finishes writing the letters and leans back into his chair to flick through his favourite copy of Icha Icha.

He watches Iruka walk back into the room, catches the roll of his eyes when he sees his reading material, watches as he brews them a fresh pot of tea, taking in every miniscule detail of the ceremony.

He sets the tray onto Kakashi’s desk, placing a cup in his reach, “You’re tense,” he observes, “it’s harmless. You’ve proven it’s harmless.” He means the red strings and Kakashi only wants to believe his words. He wants to take this in the same stride Iruka is, and just trust fate knows what it’s doing.

“Can’t be too relaxed when you’re looking out for a whole village of trained soldiers,” he replies instead. To which he received a very “done with your shit” huff and a comfortable silence.

He could enjoy this all day, he thinks, and selfishly takes, and holds on to this moment every other moment like it, to keep him floating.

He closes his eyes when he notices Iruka look to his fingers.

__________________________________________

It’s been several weeks since the phenomenon began, and Iruka has watched as his friends and coworkers find their soul mates. Izumo and Kotetsu find themselves stuck together for life, it seems and really, no one found that surprising. Iruka listens to Anko’s half-drunken ramblings when she sits herself under his kotatsu, and bemoans the current events. He consoles her and watches with amusement as she finds the I&T commander Ibiki at the other end of her Thread some days later. He does not care for the sex life she tells him about afterwards.

Sometimes he’ll catch himself glancing down at his pinky, wondering what kind of person fate has matched him with, but other than that, he isn’t bothered. He’s not sure if it’s all nonsense, fumes, or real, but whatever, he thinks, people are happy.

He sets aside his paperwork and sets to make some dinner. After looking over the contents of his fridge, he decides he’s in the mood for eggplant miso and gets to work. Not long after he sets his eggplant to boil, there’s a bang at the door.

Naruto races into Iruka’s apartment, his eyes budding with tears and Iruka is very much concerned.

“I found them,” he breathes and grin widening.

“Congratulations,” Iruka responds without a blink and a smile growing on his own face.

The boy, no, young man Iruka corrects, shakes his head fervently and starts speaking, but it’s too fast and Iruka isn’t sure he can keep up.

“You have multiple?” Iruka gets out at long last.

A confident nod and a blinding smile, “Yeah! It goes short for a bit, but then sort of splits off into a bunch of directions. I found Hinata and Sakura, and they seem pretty okay about sharing a soul mate, cause it seems Sakura and Ino are also tied together? I don’t know, it’s weird. Anyway, I followed the other two, but they go past the village walls. I found Sakura at one of the spots, she’s got another soulmate too, so I think that one’s Sasuke…”

Naruto goes silent, lost in conflicting feelings about that, no doubt, but there’s something else. Something Iruka is sure has to relate to the unknown soul he’s tied too.

So Iruka smiles that encouraging smile he does that makes you feel like you aren’t rambling your tongue off and Naruto finds the courage to continue.

“I need to know who that last one is. Ya know, I have a gut feeling it’s who I think it is, but you can’t send a letter like “so yeah, I think you’re my soulmate,” can you.” He laughs and Iruka resists messing up his hair. He loses the battle, and ruffles the blonde locks as he laughs.

“I was making dinner, would you like some-” he turns to the kitchen to find his miso over boiled and very unappetizing. “Nevermind” he says, and Naruto makes a comment that he’s just as bad as Kakashi-sensei. He scoffs at that. Kakashi would have at least finished the task before getting caught up in Naruto’s loud presence.

“Well, ok,” Iruka starts and looks at the boy. Really looks. This child has endured so much loneliness and here he is, brimming with so much love and acceptance towards the world that had wronged him. He kinda tears up thinking about it.

“Ichiraku’s, eat all you want, my treat.” he says, rubbing his eyes with his arm.

“Ah! Iruka-nii, don’t cry!” Naruto panics, waving around unsure how to console him

“But I love you so much and am so happy for you!” he chokes out a sob.

Naruto settles for a hug is the best medicine, and embraces him “thanks dad,” he says softly, and honestly, it just sets off more tears.

As they walk out the door, Iruka notes to give Kakashi a new report on soulmates, how they don’t just tie two people together.

_________________________________________________

There’s a loud knock on the front door, and before he can get up to answer it, Naruto barges in loudly announcing his arrival, and oh, there’s Sakura chastising him.

“Kakashi-sensei!” the boy sings and Kakashi sighs, resigns himself to a not quiet night, and gets up.

“And what do I owe the pleasure?” he drolls as he enters the main room.

His students grin cheekily, “we came for some tea.” And Kakashi just shakes his head as he saunters off to prepare a pot.

Minutes later, they’re all seated and drinking their fresh tea, Kakashi is exhausted of the small talk, and asks why they really came to visit him at nine in the evening.

He’s greeted with silence, but it’s not too heavy and he thinks if he tried enough, he could hear them conspire together in their heads, some sort of telepathy they had going on, he’s tired of it and knows this isn’t a social call. They’re up to something and he’s on edge for it.

“We’re soulmates,” they say in unison.

Oh.

Okay.

Well he wasn’t, in any life time, prepared for that announcement. He knew Naruto was going to tell him he and Hinata were getting married, it was as if they were wearing shirts that said they were married the whole time they were together. But this, this was all to new. Too foreign for his tastes.

And what about Hinata, Naruto had just married the girl not just a couple weeks ago -

“Not just with each other!” Sakura quickly adds when Kakashi doesn’t make any sort of apparent acknowledgement. “With other people too.”

Well that’s something none of his reports mentioned.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m also with Hinata and two other people who live outta the village.” Naruto counts off his fingers. He suddenly pales and starts mumbling something about his worries about Hinata when the red strings started showing up.

Kakashi waves him off. Nonsense. He turns to face Sakura, “and yourself?”

He must have used too much hokage magic, because she straightens like a whip and nods, “I have Ino and someone else outside as well.”

“Do you think…” he starts, wants to finish his sentence, wants to ask if they think Sasuke is their soulmate outside the walls.

Naruto’s musings silent to hear the unspoken question and Sakura bites her lip.

“Yes.” They say, with a confident nod.

He lets out a sigh he doesn’t know he was holding.

“Well, you’re here now. Do you want something to eat? I just made some miso with eggplant.”

Naruto barks out a laugh to that for some reason, nothing about what he just said was funny. So they opt to ignore his sudden giggle fits.

“I’m good thanks,” Sakura smiles, “Ino and I just had dinner.”

“Same, but Iruka treated me to ramen.” Naruto manages between a shit eating grin, “It was all I could eat.”

Iruka. He was told first. Kakashi figures he’s jealous. The last to learn. He’d like it more if he were first on the list, or if they were told at the same time. Yes, together, it wouldn’t be fair to the other man if he wasn’t informed first. He after all was there for Naruto first.

“You’re gonna eat that man out of house and home,” Sakura scolds her soulmate and Kakashi just smiles to that.

The rest of the night they share stories and Naruto recalls Haku and Zabuza, and wonders if they were tied by a red string as well.

When they’re putting their shoes on, Naruto is laughing about how when he told Iruka, the man forgot to turn off the stove so he had ruined his eggplant miso.

Kakashi decides that yeah, that is pretty funny and chuckles.

He sees them off and faces the rest of the night tossing between what-ifs and why-nots.

_______________

Iruka’s supervising the playground during lunch, keeping an eye out for hidden weapons and trips that hurt too much for small children, when he feels a familiar presence stroll up besides him.

“Good afternoon Kakashi-san,” Iruka greets, taking a moment to turn away from the swarm of untrained ninja, to dip a little bow.

“‘Afternoon to you too, sensei,” Kakashi watches with amusement as his hair bobs and doesn’t blink as Iruka deflects a stray kunai heading towards his face. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Iruka’s cheeks burn up to that. He can’t say “it’s automatic around pre-genin,” or “it’s my duty,” or even “can’t have a pre-genin arrested for assaulting the hokage, can we,” because the man will be insufferable with any of those responses, and there’s only twenty minutes left to lunch and getting into a row with the rokudaime isn’t on his itinerary for the day.

So he settles for small talk instead, “And what brings our hokage to the academy on such a fine day?” he asks just loud enough for the children closest to hear.

Kakashi picks up at the loudness of the question, too loud for a quiet conversation between adults and he visibly winces when a child screams a greeting.

Kakashi sends him a look. Iruka takes pleasure in the look of pure disdain captured in his fish like gaze.

Children crowd around Kakashi’s feet, jumping for questions from the coolest ninja in the village - who isn’t Naruto. Iruka tosses him such a smug look and all Kakashi wants to do wipe it off his face. Honestly, he thinks he’s handling it pretty well. He hasn’t left yet, that’s a very good sign.

“Naruto found his soulmates” Iruka chirps.

“I heard.” Kakashi nods as he lets a young Inuzaka hang off his arms, “Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke, right.” Naruto and Sakura had told him just the other night.

“Don’t forget the kazekage,” Iruka supplies.

That’s news to Kakashi. But it makes sense. The brat had just taken a mission to Suna, sneaky devil, he was using it at an excuse to get out of the village to follow the string.

“My bad, I’m still shocked about it.”

The man laughs and it sends a jolt of electricity and warms feelings straight to his heart.

“Naruto only told me last night, he sent a frog to deliver the letter.” Kakashi doesn’t pout under his mask. Wasn’t he at Naruto’s wedding to Hinata as a father figure? Rude not to share his news.

Iruka must have a bloodline limit that can see past fabric or into his mind, because Kakashi is sure there’s no trace of emotion on his face, but the teacher tells him not to worry.

“Naruto knows you’re ‘super busy’ with hokage stuff. He said to tell you if I saw you before he got back.”

Well, that was considerate. “The mission said it would be a month long excursion.”

Iruka shrugs, “being a kage is busy work and he’s sure there’s no time for social visits.”

“We meet every week for shogi. And we have tea at three almost every day. You’re on the board as Head Academy Administrator,” Kakashi lists, raising a brow.

Iruka shrugs, “Naruto doesn’t know how we live our lives, just the big parts. That I train pre-genin and that you run the village nin. That we both love him as if he were our own son.”

Kakashi is sure that last part isn’t meant for their nine year old audience. He’s sure that statement is for tea time, just before Iruka goes home for the night and leaves Kakashi tossing in bed, trapped in that thought and it’s implications.

He’s read too much Icha Icha he decides as the man quarrels the children out from under Kakashi’s feet. But he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t mind any of what that statement implies.

______________________________________________

One summer's day, Kakashi finds himself neglecting the towering pile of paperwork on his desk in favour of rereading his (current) favourite Icha Icha novel. It's the one with the young medic nin that saves the life of a mysterious masked stranger who turns out to be on the enemy forces. They disregard their warring factions and find themselves falling in love. He's not sure why he loves this particular volume so much; if it's because they're a homosexual couple, or the strange likeness the young ninja has with a friend of his, it's uncertain.

He's reading the part where the two ninja cross into no man's land and are finding out what two men in a single bed roll are capable of when there's a light squeeze, a burning sensation, a tingle, around his pinky. He pays it no mind but then the realization hits him like a bucket of cold water. Peeking out from behind the pages, he checks over his little finger and sure as he's alive, there it is, the red thread.

His stomach drops and he might just throw up: it can't be real. What did he do to deserve this.

But there's hope he thinks. He feels it in his stomach, a pang, a surge of hope that makes him feel just a little woozy.

There’s a knock at the door and before they can announce themselves, he's gone.

He appears a few feet from the academy and his thread is heading directly for it. His throat tightens and he follows, feeling as if he’s running.

It's late in the day, the only teachers left at the school now should be the workaholics - and he banks on that fact, prays to what god's remain, that the soul at the end of this string is who he thinks it is. He doesn’t know what he’d do if it isn’t who he thinks it to be. Can’t see himself with any other probability, maybe Gai, but the man had found that his own string went out of the country and requested Lee to assist him in following it. They wouldn’t be back for at least another week. He holds his breath as he passes through the entrance to the school.

He finds himself chanting “last door on the left, last door on the left, last door on the left” as he leisurely strolls through the corridors of the school, and he has to bite his tongue to chastise, to calm himself. No use in getting his hopes up so high.

He sees the thread pass through the last door on the left and in that moment, he's suddenly through the door and there is Iruka, caught up in grading papers, the man hasn't noticed the searing pain emanating through his pinky finger, let alone the deep red thread tying them together.

He opens his mouth to greet Kakashi and he feels like he's drowning. He needs to leave. Get some air. To breathe. He vanishes.

______________________________________________

“And what brings the hokage to my classroom on this beautiful day?” Iruka grins, not glancing up from the bad grammar on a pop quiz about the practicality of using jutsu to clean. He expects Kakashi to sit on a desk, most likely his own, and state that it isn’t a beautiful day because he’s having such and such issue, just to keep himself entertained while Iruka struggles to send him away with new injuries.

He’s scribbling notes on his paper for a few moments before he looks up to find out why Kakashi hasn’t spoken yet.

Iruka finds nothing but an empty classroom and silence. Strange, didn’t Kakashi just walk in? He could have sworn the man was just here.

There’s a burning squeeze around hs pinky and he laughs, “Oh,” following the red string trail out of the classroom and into the corridor, “I didn’t notice.”

He has a sneaking suspicion that the hokage wasn’t here for a social call. And that thought leaves him feeling a little bit bitter. What a coward his soulmate is sometimes. He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, wearily looking over the work he knows he won’t get done now. Now he has to track down a ninja and lecture them about how running away from battles isn’t beneficial for warriors. And maybe smack them upside the head. And just maybe kiss them. Just maybe, and he doesn’t fight the smile that breaks over his face as he throws his papers into his bag and races out the door to track down the stupid ninja.

He doesn’t find him for four days. The man is evading his every step and all Iruka wants to do is scream from atop hokage mountain, bellowing out to the entire populace that his soul mate the Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi is stupid and he wishes the man’s Icha Icha collection burn.

But that's ridiculous. He can't do that. He's a grown man not a young hot blooded boy.

So he settles for pranks. He rigs the places Kakashi will be with eraser chalk bombs, spreads wasabi down the kettle’s spout, replaces every Icha Icha volume he’s hidden in the office with a dictionary with bookmarks on the words he feels are fitting. His favourite being the one hidden in the palm tree, where he has noted the words you, piece, of and shit. He can only hope Kakashi gets tired of their game, because Iruka is sure he can continue making up ways to torment his soulmate, the thorn in his side.

So he's taking a shift at the mission room, smiling at the busy ninja as they pass by, pointing out flaws in mission reports, and generally being all too happy for anyone to be comfortable around.

“Did you find your soulmate?” Genma asks.

“Who knows,” Iruka shrugs still chipper.

“Who indeed,” Iruka turns and there's Kakashi.

Took him long enough, Iruka thinks, ten days and eleven hours. Not that he’s counting.

“Iruka,” Kakashi greets him at the mission desk, and Iruka gives him a pointed look, something he hopes carries his pure unamusement. Kakashi seems to grimace. Iruka takes this as a success.

“Kakashi-san,” Iruka nods and watches Kakashi recoil at the honorific. Good, he thinks, he’s feeling bad about his actions.

“I’d like to talk to you,” Kakashi nods, and Iruka smiles too sweetly.

Kakashi, the man at the other end of his thread, which he can clearly see, with the man standing right in front of him, his soulmate, has been avoiding him for far too long. Iruka is tired of it, but he’s too stubborn to fall at the man’s feet after all this time he’s been running away from him. He can run away too.

“I’m sorry sir, I don’t have the time for a chat today. Maybe some other time?” He’s playing the game correctly, dodging and avoiding the other player, never bringing up the obvious burning sensation emanating from the pinky finger that ties them together. He makes an awkward laugh as he scratches the back of his neck, completing the act.

“Now,” Kakashi’s says, his voice a little too desperate for Iruka’s comfort, his eyes a little too dark and his posture just too stiff. It leaves Iruka speechless.

But not for too long as Iruka goes to remedy it, say that he can maybe make some time later today, but as soon as he suggests it, his attention is called for and he’s being dragged away from the hokage and the mission desk and into some archive to help look for a scroll he could care less about.

He thinks he made the wrong move.

Several hours later, he trudges back to his apartment, sporting new paper cuts and a stiff back and a terrible mood. Who knew searching for scrolls could take so much out of a man..

Shuffling off his shoes, he realises he’s not alone and sighs. He could use a bath, not this conversation.

“Kakashi, how long have you been waiting?” He turns on the stove to boil of a pot of water. He’s going to need some tea for this. He doesn’t think he’ll share.

“Not long,” the man says from behind him. Oh, I thought he was still on the couch.

He turns to Kakashi. “Not long? That could mean anything from seven hours to five seconds with you-”

His lecture is cut short when the man collapses his weight onto Iruka, hugging him with his nose digging into his shoulder just a little too hard, and his nails pinching into his skin. It’s too uncomfortable and too desperate for Iruka.

“Ten days, seventeen hours, thirty one minutes and eight seconds.”

“Kakashi, that’s too long.”

“I know,” he nuzzles his face into Iruka’s neck and Iruka laughs.

“Also, I don’t think you were waiting all this time. I think you’ve been running.”

“No.” Kakashi mumbles, “I’ve been busy.”

“Kakashi,” Iruka sighs. “You’ve been busy avoiding me. I know, I saw you jump out a window when you saw me coming, you had a messenger hawk tell me our shogi match was cancelled, and had all they keys changed so that I couldn’t visit for tea or anything else. Multiple times.

I just want to know why.”

Kakashi tries to hide away into Iruka’s neck.

“Kakashi.”

More silence.

“Hokage-sama, I swear to the gods,” Iruka starts and never finishes the thought because a pair of lips crash into his, it’s messy and hurts, but it’s better than no response.

“I was scared,” he confesses when they break.

Iruka bites his tongue not to laugh at that, but it’s a vain attempt because a chuckle bubbles out of his mouth and his smile feels too wide to be nonchalant. The look Kakashi gives him is more than enough proof.

“It’s not funny-” Kakashi starts only to be silenced with a quick kiss from Iruka.

It’s softer and warm, and is too short for any one man to fully enjoy.

“I’m scared too.” He begins, cupping his hands alongside Kakashi’s face, smiling so much his face aches, “probably not as much as you are, of course, what with your life experiences and all,” he pout he receives for that makes him chuckle, “Kakashi, I’m not going to turn you away. I probably would have done that by now, don’t you think. Sometime around when you had the kids apply for the chunin exams, I was so angry with you for that, I mean Naruto was, is, like my only family in the world. What if he had died. You know what I mean? Just keeled over, I mean he wasn’t very smart and here you had him face off more intelligent and smarter nin! Like the future kazekage! Remember how dangerous he was back then?”

“The kazekage is still dangerous.” “Not what I mean, I mean Naruto almosted died. Could have died, and I was so pissed at you for even considering it. But! I got over it, ‘he’s smart,’ I said, ‘Konohana’s Great Copy Nin knows what he’s doing,’ I said. So in the end, I trusted you.”

Kakashi goes silent, soaking it all in, and when he speaks it’s barely a whisper, and Iruka’s sure if he wasn’t listening for it, he’d miss it.

“Do you still trust me?”

“Kakashi, I trust you with running a village. You are sitting in a chair, dictating how we live our lives, and I trust every command you make. Every decision you make. Everything you say, I will trust.”

“That’s not good, what if there was an imposter sitting in that chair, doing all of those things. You’d blindly follow them?”

“Kakashi,” Iruka waves his pinky that’s tied to Kakashi’s, “I’m your soulmate. I know you.”

Kakashi scoffs at that, wrapping his own pinky around Iruka’s, “you don’t have to know someone to be their soul mate.”

“I’ve known you for years, I’ve eaten ramen with you, we went on a picnic once under the guise of a mission after Sasuke left, with Naruto and Sakura. When Naruto left, we started having tea together almost every week.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Kakashi states.

“Kakashi it means I know your habits and your preferences and your idle conversation starters. What you like eating, what colours you like to see, what makes you upset, what makes you happy. What makes you tick. I’d know an imposter the moment they walk, if I didn’t have proof of where you were all the time on my person.”

Kakashi hums to that, and settles to rest his head on Iruka’s shoulder.

They stay like that for a few moments, just comfortable in each other’s embrace, enjoying their company when Iruka thinks of a funny joke and has to share.

“If nothing else assures you, oh great hokage, that this isn’t for naught, remember I’ve seen your face. That I’m looking at it right now.” he says in a light tone.

“That just means I like you.”

Iruka blanks at that.

“A lot, I must confess.”

Iruka is too stunned for words. He had an inkling of an idea, that their relationship was just a tad less strictly platonic than it would have been with someone like Gai, but hadn’t really thought about it after he learned that Kakashi had dated the man when they were teenagers.

“I was terrified to find anyone other than you. And now that it’s confirmed that you’re, here, I’m terrified anyway.”

“Kakashi, you have to confess before the first kiss,” Iruka manages, “didn’t Icha Icha teach you better than that.”

“Oh teacher, Icha Icha never had any confessions for love before the sexual encounters. Unless of course you’d have prefered that, which, I myself am not all that hot about, as I don’t think I enjoy sex at all in actuality.”

“That’s fine Kakashi,” Iruka says, smoothing the man’s hair, “a good relationship doesn’t revolve around sex, you know.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

And everything feels calm as they make idle conversation about their days spent away from another. They’re like that for hours, sitting on the tiled floor of the kitchen, wrapped in another’s arms, comfortable in silence and in complaints about how the previous ten days went. Iruka figures it to be love.

“How do you suppose we tell the kids,” Iruka asks as the morning sun peeks through the curtains, his head lying against Kakashi’s stomach.

“We don’t.” Kakashi says flatly.

“Kakashi,” Iruka lightly smacks the man’s chest.

“I don’t want to deal with that,” he says rolling to his side, throwing Iruka’s head off him, “it’ll be horrible.”

“It won’t be that bad, It’s not like they’ll react too horribly.” Iruka sighs, getting up off the floor to start at breakfast.

“Naruto still calls me a pervert and he thinks of you as his father. He’ll hate it.”

“Well I guess.”

“You don’t guess, you know. That brat will be awful about it.” Kakashi gets the eggs out of the fridge, helping Iruka prep their meal.

Iruka thanks him as he takes the carton, “We’ll make it work.”

#Kakashi Hatake #iruka umino #kakairu #please let me die i fell asleep writing this twice

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coffeecupandteatime · 7 years

Text

Jagerbomb’s Mini Review #3!

Welcome to the glory of watching Jagerbomb lose his shit!

ʕಠᴥಠʔ Sorry for the wait everyone, I’ve been pretty busy. Also, if you guys know of any bad short fanfics, let me know! I’ll try to review those as well!

-rubs temples- This is going to sooooo enjoyable!

Note: I’ll do the first chapters for these types of reviews, mainly to save time and my sanity. Also, because finding the stories again is a pain in the ass.

Harriet Potter leaves the Wizarding world behind, starting a new life in the Elemental Nations. Seeing how neglected little Naruto is, she takes him in and helps him out. UzumakiHarry! FemHarry! Slight Weasley/Hermione bashing! Possible parings with Itachi, Iruka, Genma, & Kakashi.

Female Harry?… Ooooooookay then! ʕ.ᴥ.ʔ I can already tell I’m going to enjoy this.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not Harry Potter, not Naruto, not anything else I might mention.

ʕಠᴥಠʔ Well, we can kinda tell you don’t own either, or else they would be shitfests.

Note: I have no Beta and edit everything myself, so if I made a mistake somewhere kindly point it out. I usually write on my phone and edit at 2am so I tend to miss things.

Hmm, well since you told us this beforehand, I can be a littler nicer. ʕ0ᴥ0ʔ But mark my words, that doesn’t mean much with me.

Leaving the Wizarding World

And diving straight into the trashcan.

Harriet screamed and woke up a sweaty mess, the dreams were getting worse.

Like my need to drink right now.

Eerie morning light filtered through the ratty curtains and she flopped back onto the mattress in irritation. It was much earlier than she had intended to wake up but she was unable to fall asleep again, nightmares would do that to a person.

Wanna get some sleep, kid? Try chugging a bottle of Smirnoff, you’ll go right the fuck to sleep, trust the bear. ʕಠᴥ~ʔ

She sluggishly walked to the bathroom, shuddering at the coldness of the house, before turning on the tap and splashing her face with water.

Is the water hot? Warm? Cold? Why the hell is she splashing water on her face in a cold house?? ANSWER ME! ʕಠ益ಠʔ

Checking herself out in the mirror, she felt a surge of triumph that she had finally taken corrective measures for her eyes. She no longer had to wear those hideous ill-fitting glasses that she grew up with, without them her emerald eyes shone brightly.

ʕ°ᴥ°ʔ Even though those round ass glasses are pretty important to Harry as a character. You suuuuure this is just a genderbend and NOT an OC?

Her aunt had always taken vindictive pleasure in making her look ugly. Harriet supposed she was taking on all the animosity her Aunt felt toward Lily. Harriet was starved for years, making sure she never measured up to her voluptuous perfect ten of a mother.

I don’t know there, Lily wasn’t exactly a ten… Or voluptuous...

Aunt Petunia also forced Harriet to keep her red tresses cropped short. The more it stuck up like an untidy boy's hair, the happier that vile woman had been. Due to her

Okay, why is her hair red instead of black? I get it’s female Harry, but with red hair it sounds more like his made up sister then Harry himself...

horrendous nest of hair and those vile glasses, her looks were often compared to James' instead of Lily's, even if she had her mother's coloring. Before leaving Hogwarts for the summer, Harriet would chop off her hair till it was as short as the beginning of the year. She had no choice, if the Dursley's had known she let her hair grow during the school year they would have beaten her savagely.

Whoa whoa whoa! Whoa! When the hell did the Dursley’s even fucking beat Harry? What the hell with people making the Dursley’s beat Harry and the village attack Naruto?! What the fuck people! ʕ╯ಠ益ಠʔ╯︵ ┻━┻

She learned to choose her battles carefully once she realized no one would be coming to save her.

-Deep breath slow exhale-.....I’m going to assume this author hates Ron and Hermione.

Harriet raised herself, she could live just fine on her own. She knew how to ration food and mange hunger, how to find a quick hiding place, how to keep secrets, and when to run away.

.,. You spelt manage wrong there buddy.

She learned early on to fear adults

Something no child should learn. Fuck oooooooff.

and had come to expect it, but it wasn't until she met Albus Dumbledore that she was exposed to ruthless manipulations.

Okay, been awhile since I read or watched HP, but why the hell is Albus always a manipulative CUCKOLD in these stories!? WHAT THE HELL!?!

Harriet shook off the feelings that came with letting herself dwell on the dead wizard, and shivered as she got dressed for the day. Today was important. Today she was finally going to do something about the gradual feelings she had been having. Ever since she had destroyed the horcrux in her scar, she no longer felt like she belonged in this world and it was an extremely troubling feeling.

This author has successfully said “Fuck canon!” \ʕ◕0◕ʔ/ WOO!

For the last five years, following the end of the wizarding war, Harriet Potter had been having dreams about the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries.

Didn’t you call them nightmares before? Also she’s been like this for FIVE YEARS and is just NOW doing something about it? Alright, pouring a drink.

Make Jager drink +1!

She could still remember the whispers that had called out to her the day Sirius had fallen through, they haunted her dreams. She would often wake up in the middle of the night in tears, her soul filled with a desperate longing to see the other side.

The other side of the Veil or of the bottle when it’s empty?

She knew it was some sort of gateway, the dreams told her that much.

Listen to your dreams kid! Even if they lead to certain death! \ʕ◕0◕ʔ/

The whispers in her dreams became clearer recently and talked about other worlds, new life, and a fresh start. Five years of the same dream and she'd finally given in, the voices had lured her in, and she was going through the veil to find peace.

I hope peace is where poorly genderbent *coughs*OCS*coughs* characters go when their unwanted.

She bitterly recalled the night she finally decided to finally act, it had been a couple months ago on her twenty-second birthday. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny had been visiting her for her birthday. Hermione, as usual, had been lecturing her about her lack of public appearances and was subtly trying to steer her towards going on a date with Percy Weasely, who was still a pompous ponce, when Ron apparently had enough.

Yep! Harry’s already genderbent, let’s throw in some OOCness for the others!

OOC Syndrome is wherever I go. ʕ;-;ʔ

"Look mate, it's not like you've much of a choice anyway. Dumbledore signed a marriage contract-

What in the ever living fuck in the bowels of hel-

Make Jager drink +1!

That’s 2! TWO!

-between you two while he was your magical guardian, so I reckon it's still binding. Percy's been waiting patiently for you, giving you time while he concentrated on his career. He'd hoped that by now you'd grow up a little and at least let him take you out." said Ron coldly.

Why do people INSIST on making Ron the biggest asshole alive?

Absolutely shocked over what she just heard-

You’re not the only one, hun. ʕಠᴥಠʔ

, it took Harriet a moment to compose herself while turning toward Ginny. "Is he serious? Your parents and Dumbledore secretly signed this marriage contract?"

Something's telling me it wasn’t a secret. Also what’s the reason for said marriage…?

"Not secretly," Ginny rolled her eyes. "Everyone knew about it. I thought you did too, why else did you never date anybody? Why do you think Order members always look at Percy and ask his opinion on matters concerning you? We never thought Dumbledore wouldn't tell you."

How the hell did she not hear about this? AUTHOR EXPLAIN!

"Right. Not a secret, but somehow I never got wind of it. It never came up...in the past twelve years?" Harriet said evenly, but the books on the shelves were beginning to shake.

TWELVE YEARS!? Was ‘Harriet’ living under a goddamn ROCK!?

They all looked slightly alarmed at that, and Hermione made the mistake of meeting her eyes. Harriet had become a fairly accomplished legilimens.

ʕ◕0◕ʔ The fuck is that?

After her crap occlumency skills had gotten Sirius killed, she tried to hone the skill but was only mediocre at it.

For once the main character isn’t good at something that killed a relative.

Legilimency was where she shone, she was a natural at it and it was easy to become even greater than Snape. So when Hermione looked at her in alarm, Harriet saw everything.

Sooooo Legilimency is basically “LOOK INTO MY EYES CHILD AND TELL ME EVERYTHING!”? The hell is this, an anime?

She saw conniving whispers and conspiracy in the depths of her eyes. She had enough, Merlin's sake, Hermione knew, and she wasn't even a Weasley. They hadn't bothered to warn her, they were no friends of hers.

I get it’s magic, but how can you see all that with a simple glance in the eyes? ʕ-,-ʔ I’m calling laziness of Rowling's part.

Her green eyes hardened. "I'll speak to a Goblin about this situation, but you should know that a marriage is not happening. I'll see Percy dead before I risk my magic, and if I find anyone tampering with my future, I will end them. Now get out."

Again, this ‘Harriet’ shouts more ‘OC’ than ‘Genderbend”.

The lying trio eyed each other anxiously, they had seen glimpses of Harriet's ruthlessness during the war, but it was frightening to have it focused on them. Her usual friendly attitude had been replaced by an icy focus. Ginny warily nodded at Harriet and headed for the front door, Ron trailing after her, but Hermione hesitated. She reached toward the green eyed girl, but Harriet flinched away. Hermione sighed and said, "Harriet, don't make a mistake. You're practically a Weasley already, this would only make it legal. Besides, Percy is very responsible. You could use somebody like that, I can't always be there to-"

Annnnnnnd here’s the OOCness for Hermione.

Harriet wanted to rant at her when all at once, her anger left her, leaving her nothing but cold amusement.

So is this Harry or ‘Harriet’ or just pure OOCness?

Hermione didn't know it but she had just give Harriet the sign she had been waiting for. She had been iffy on acting upon her dreams, but this was the final straw.

If you need more straws, I got some left over from a wicked party last-Oh, wrong kinda straw. ʕ.,.ʔ Whoops.

"Always be there?" she answered mockingly. "You and Ron ditched me often enough. Luna was the one who was always there, till the very end. You and Ron abandoned me when I was hunting for horcruxes. I was alone, injured, wandless and-"

Yes, my child, let it all out.

Hermione puffed up like a toad,

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! THAT LEGITIMATELY MADE ME LAUGH!

reminding her of Umbridge for one hilarious moment, before letting out an aggravated huff. "I thought you were over that!"

.,. How the hell is ANYONE gonna forget shit like that?

Make Jager drink +2

THAT’S FOUR! FOUR!!

In a soft, cold voice she whispered, "I will never 'get over that'. You were never there when it counted. You and Ron would take the first couple of steps with me, but always gave up when things got complicated. Hell, the only reason you two and Ginny stuck around for the Department of Mysteries fiasco was because you didn't want to get shown up by Luna and Neville."

I love Luna and Neville, <3

Hermione scowled, but didn't disagree. "You know," she said haughtily, "I don't know what's happened to you. If you don't get your act together and stop being so moody, you won't have any friends left."

Letting out a bitter laugh, the dark-haired

But earlier you said her hair was red….CONSISTANCY AUTHOR! LEARN IT!

girl stared at Hermione with grim finality and a touch of sadness. "My true friends died during the Final Battle, fighting for what they believed in. You're just a cheap replacement."

All my friends are deeead! All my friends a dead!

Was that too soon? ʕ° ͟ل͜ ͡°ʔ

Finally done reminiscing, Harriet pulled her hair up in a high bun. Today she was leaving. She felt a tingle of excitement as she quickly dressed herself in inconspicuous clothes. She had planned and prepared for this, but knew that chance played a role in all her adventures. The odds were against her, but she had won against them before.

She was a independent black woman now.

Harriet had prepared nearly everything well in advance. She gazed speculatively at the vial of Felix Felicis that had been 'bought' from Draco Malfoy.

Don’t be a sex thing, don’t be stealing, don’t be some cheap friendship crap.

He had earned his potions mastery after the war and became a friend.

FUCK! ʕಠ益ಠʔ

Draco had given her the liquid luck in exchange for Grimmauld Place, who he was going to gift to his mother. Draco and Daphne were about to become the richest family in Britain, she was leaving all her wealth to them as a surprise for being the only people she had left.

…..What. In. The. FUCK!?

Make Jager drink +10!

FOURTEEN MOTHERFUCKER! FOURTEEN!

With a sense of awe, she opened the vial and drained the golden potion to the last drop, smiling triumphantly as she felt the magic flow through her.

So liquid luck. Is that like a drug or some kinda Irish brew? Cos I’ll take some!

The witch entered the atrium of the Ministry, making herself invisible with her handy dandy cloak.

“I got my handy dandy notebook!” Harriet said as a blue dog appears.

Harriet thought she would at least feel nostalgic as she looked about this world for the last time, but she felt nothing but desperation to get away. She detested her place in the wizarding community, where she was alternately hated and glorified on the whims of the sheeple.

Hated? Glorified I could understand, but hated? What did Harry/Whoever the fuck this is, do to deserve that.

When she approached the Veil that had swallowed up her godfather, she didn't feel the same heartbreak she had experienced in its presence before.

FEELINGS ARE FOR THE WEAK!

Instead she eyed the archway speculatively. What world was she going to go to?

The reader’s already know that answer, they had to rifle through fanfictions to find this thing. ʕಠᴥಠʔ

Did Sirius go to the same one? Did time run differently there, was she going to be able to see him? The possibilities were limitless. Or maybe she would die like everyone else thought happened? However, Harriet had always trusted her instincts, so she took a deep breath, and stepped through the Veil.

Lesson of the story kids: ALWAYS trust your instincts when they tell you to jump into a weird ass portal! FOR ADVENTURE!

Up next: Harry meets Death and an old friend!

Welp we’ll never know since I ain’t revisiting.

Question: What should Harry's name in Naruto be? When you review, drop a name and tell me why! I'm partial to Hikari (light) and Misaki (beautiful blossom)

ʕ.,.ʔ Wot.

Conclusion!

3.5/10 for trying.

Anyways! That was… Fuck, can’t remember the title, I made this file a long time ago, Uh. I should really start writing down the stories I review… Anyways, it wasn’t bad nor good, it was okay. I don’t see the reasoning for making Harry female and OOC, or the rest of the characters OOC, other than to have a reason for ‘her’ to go to the Naruto World.

#harry potter #Naruto #Jagerbomb fun time #mini review #sporking #I need a drink

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