Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh the Naruto+Sai prompt was so good!! Naruto was perfect he was sunshine and friendship and ramen and I loved all the ways Shikako has influenced him, with politeness and Science! and strategy, and how he was clearly disappointed that Shikako and Sasuke weren’t around he was mature enough to understand and not be worried what that meant for their friendship. And then Sai. Trying the same thing that would 100% work on Shikako because obviously Naruto would get it too? (1

wafflelate:

(2) BUT NO ofc not. You need to spell things out a little more with Naruto, Sai darling. Oh man, I’d love to read Shikako and Sasuke geting back from their anbu mission. How quickly would they report in? They’d reach supersonic speeds getting changed and tracking him down. I loved the snippet frolic! All your writing is amaze

I’m just like. SO fascinated by how Shikako’s intervention in Naruto’s life changed like…. everything about him tbh. I mean he’s still recognizably Naruto, of course, but SQ’s characterization really shows how just a little attention mellowed him the heck out and just a little extra help from someone willing to explain things in ways he understands makes for a much better ninja. 

I kind of played it in this piece like Jiraiya didn’t really teach him anything more than in canon because I didn’t want to speculate too heavily on what SQ might do with Jiraiya in DoS, but I really do think he’ll probably come back knowing LOTS of stuff because just like Shikako has battle plans based around “What Would Naruto Do?” I think Naruto probably has lots of What Would Shikako Do moments. And sometimes the answer is explosive tags, but other times the answer is ‘demand more escape and evasion training’ or whatever.

Also I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to writing anything out about this but in my head at least Sasuke (if not Sasuke and Shikako) isn’t actually on an ANBU mission and Naruto is 100% right that he’s lurking around being a bastard. Mostly because the idea of Sasuke (and Shikako, maybe) seeing Sai do is I-Am-Required-To-Ask-For-Information routine and then have it go totally over Naruto’s head is… great. 

Shikako in particular would enjoy the idea of Danzou having to listen to a long, LONG report about every single ramen shop Naruto’s been to in the last three years.