- ABSOLUTELY. Thank u for this wonderful prompt, friend.
- word count: 1,528
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These days, Naruto is a little more worldly. These days, he knows that Ichiraku has the best ramen in the Land of Fire not just out of a deep, personal conviction but because he’s been to all of the other ramen places and found them disappointing. Sure, there’d been some contenders on his travels with Jiraiya, some decent noodles, passable broth…. but nothing beat the hometown stuff.
Naruto even wrote it all down, which according to Shikako-chan made it science.
Shikako will be impressed, he’s sure, as soon as she gets a minute free to talk to him — she’s busy doing something but no one will tell Naruto exactly what which means either they really don’t know or Baa-chan has Shikako doing something important. Sasuke is also suspiciously completely absent, so that means it’s probably a Secret Thing, but on the other hand it could be that Shikako is deep in the Nara clan archives and Sasuke is being a bastard. Naruto still isn’t a very good at tracking and hasn’t learning any escape or evasion beyond what Shikako got out of their sensei before the chuunin exam.
(”Why worry about that?” Jiraiya had asked when Naruto had brought it up. “You’ll be able to just flatten the whole area. And you’ll have teammates. Teammates are great.”)
Yeah, knowing Sasuke he could be hanging around just outside of Naruto’s perception. That seems like the kind of thing that he would have been taught by Kakashi since Naruto last saw him. Naruto will have to drop by their team’s training ground when he’s done here and see if that lures anyone out.
Also, it will just be nice to see the place. Naruto feels like he needs to slap eyes on every square inch of the village to see what’s changed. And then start tracking down everyone he knows, to see how they’ve changed. To see if he still knows them.
He knows that Sasuke and Shikako will have all kinds of new things. Lots of it sneaky, probably. Naruto learned a lot too, and he’s on good terms with Kurama, and he’s not afraid that he’s fallen behind, no…. but his teammates have had years of extra time training with Kakashi-sensei and all their friends in the village and going on missions. Naruto made a lot of friends, but none of them were good for sparring, or learning to sneak, or getting smarter.
But Naruto isn’t feeling bad for himself!
He’s having a good time. Ayame even kept him company while he waited for his ramen, because the counter was a little slow. And Shikako and Sasuke will turn up eventually, and they’ll teach him anything he really needs to know.
“Naruto-taichou,” says someone behind him as Naruto puts his third bowl of ramen down.
Naruto spins around on his stool.
“Sai!” If there was ever a time for Naruto to leap to his feet, it would be now, so he does. He also tugs Sai into a hug, no time for second-guesses there. Sai had always looked like he was in desperate need of hugs on the missions Naruto had had with him, and he still looks like that.
Sai doesn’t really hug back, but the hug was definitely a good idea: Naruto is pretty sure he feels Sai relax into it and everything.
When it’s over, Naruto steps back enough to give Sai a really thorough once-over. He’s still got that crop top thing going on, and his sword, and everything else he’d need to be mission ready right away, assuming he’s got supplies in a storage seal. But he’s definitely not fresh from a mission (unless it was a really easy one) and he’s definitely not in a hurry. Also, he’s still a chuunin, which Naruto is very pleased about. He’d been kinda worried he’d come back and all of his friends would be jounin.
Of course, Sai’s got that spook stuff going on, probably, like Shikako and Sasuke had worked out, but whatever.
“I have come to ask you about the progression of your training,” Sai says, “and any notable events from your travels.”
That’s a weird way to ask how Naruto’s trip has been, but Naruto doesn’t mind. Sai is just kind of a weird guy all around, but Naruto knows all about not quite knowing what the right, normal way to say things is.
“Oh, heck yes, I’ll tell you all about it,” Naruto says. “But only if you sit down with me and stop calling me taichou, okay?”
Sai sits down, but there’s a bit of a frown on him now. A wrinkle to his brow.
“Sai, don’t tell me you didn’t want to sit down at Ichiraku with me,” Naruto says. “You can’t not like Ichiraku. I’ll even pay. They have buns with mushroom or pork if you don’t want noodles!”
“You do not have to pay,” Sai says.
“I insist,” Naruto counters.
“…Okay,” Sai concedes. “But it is not the venue of our conversation that caused my expression.”
He looks over at Naruto, and blinks in that I’m-thinking-about-something way that Shikako does sometimes. She and Sai kind of look alike, but maybe that’s just because neither of them have pulled out super dramatic looks?
Naruto waits, because waiting for Shikako to finish thinking is always rewarding and it probably will be with Sai, too.
“In these situations…. Shikako has suggested that I simply ask how people would prefer to be addressed,” Sai says slowly. “Would you prefer Naruto-san?”
“Aw, dude, yeah, she’s really good at explaining that stuff, huh?” Naruto reaches out and gives Sai a few sympathetic pats. Real quick ones, so Sai doesn’t think it’s pity or anything. No it’s, what’s the word, commiserating. “Don’t worry about it too bad, I used to have to get corrected by her tons, and these days I’m mostly only rude when it’s on purpose! You can just call me Naruto.”
“Alright,” Sai says.
They have to turn back to the counter for a moment to order, and Sai does actually ask for some ramen from Teuchi-ji. He gets the same thing Naruto asks for, and Naruto isn’t sure if Sai just has really good taste or if maybe he’s never been here before.
Sai turns towards Naruto when they’re done ordering.
“Is it that you desire to minimize our professional relationship and therefore the degree to which others might think you influence or control my actions and conduct, but don’t want to seem to outwardly disapprove of me, possibly because of my continued acquaintance with Shikako, leading to you selecting an informal term of address?”
Naruto had been watching Teuchi-ji prepare their stuff, but he whips around to look at Sai now. “What?” he demands. Then, when his brain catches up with that train-wreck of a sentence, “No!” because definitely not.
“I apologize for upsetting you,” Sai says, but he says it weird. Not exactly like resignation, but maybe like he doesn’t expect apologies to do much?
But it’s not like Naruto is actually mad. Not at Sai, anyway. Definitely at the jerks that made him think this way.
Naruto looks at him seriously. “That’s not what’s happening at all. We’re friends, okay, I’m not your captain or anything, not really. Baa-chan only put me in charge because she wanted me to get all that experience before I went to train with Jiraiya, y’know? You’re not my subordinate in every day life, jeez.”
“I see.” There’s a pause. “So it’s a sign of our emotional intimacy.”
“Uh, it sounds super weird when you say it like that, but yeah, I guess?”
“Am I really the weird one here?” Sai asks.
It’s rhetorical, because he ignores Naruto’s very emphatic answer of, “Yes, you are, you weirdo.”
Sai goes on, “We only met a few times, and then you left the village for several years. I believe the expected trajectory of relationships would frame us as acquaintances, or even strangers.”
“I mean yeah, I guess,” Naruto says. “But you came to my birthday slash going away party! That means friends. No takebacks, no taicho.”
“You do have more experience than me in this interpersonal matter, so I will concede to your knowledge of the subject.”
“Damn straight you will, I’m the best at friendship.” Naruto takes his chopsticks back up and gestures at Teuchi-ji. “Look, our ramen is coming! Just in time. Man, let me tell you, Sai, I crunched the numbers and this place is the best.”
“Is it?” Sai asks, picking his own pair of chopsticks up, snapping them neatly.
“Oh, yeah, I wrote it down and everything. Solid fact.”
“I see. So you’ve approached your analysis of ramen stands as a science, then. I would enjoy hearing all about it.”
Naruto laughs at that, long and loud and hard. People on the street look. Teuchi-ji smiles at him.
“Oh man, Sai, you’ve definitely been spending time with Shikako-chan,” Naruto says. “It’s blasphemy to talk about other ramen places in front of Teuchi-ji, though, he might think I don’t love him anymore. How about we go find someplace to spar after we eat, and I’ll tell you on the way?”
“Yes,” Sai agrees. “I’d like that.”
Tag: Dreaming of Sunshine
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
(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.
Fanart of a fanfic of a fanfic – ‘cause that’s how I roll. Silver Queen’s Shikako from Dreaming of Sunshine at the cinema showing of Naruto.
Draw the squad by
DOS spoilers
Sasuke: Realising for the first time that insanity might be genetic…
Naruto: Does not believe this bullcrap for one second. Sasuke would never leave the village, Zabuza and Haku live, and Shikako is too awesome to just vanish. *is wondering when this ends so he can get back to training*
Sakura: *wordless anguish that her wish-fulfillment team placement turns into a hellscape nightmare*
Shikamaru: Where is my sister? And why is my dad a massive arse?
Shikako: Oh no, pls don’t out me crazy magic cinema!!! How is this even happening?
***Edit*** Damn, I completely forgot about Shikamaru’s arm… sigh. Here, I fixed it
Some fic about Muta Aburame, part 1 of a recursive story based on @wafflelate ‘s Shadows Under Water, an AU of SIlver Queen’s Dreaming of Sunshine
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“Muta, can I ask you something about your kikaichu? You can say no if you’re not allowed. Or, if don’t want to.” Kako asked him with earnest eyes, brushing the dirt from her pants, a consequence from training outside. Muta stayed silent for a moment, uncertain. It was out of left field, exactly three minutes and twenty seconds after Amano sensei has dismissed them. Shisui let out a long, amused noise from his position, sitting on the fence post as they lingered by the entrance of the training ground.
“You’re in trouble now! The last time Kako told me I could say no to something, our team happened.” Shisui grinned even wider as Kako whipped towards him, braid spinning.
Tsunade and Shikako’s relationship is really great! For Shikako Tsunade is the best side of Konoha, and I’m really fascinated by Tsunade’s side even though we see less of it. (I do wonder how much Shikako reminds her of her own teammates, or a best-case scenario version of them…)
Have you read that wonderful recursive about Tsunade comparing Shikako to Orchimaru? I’ll dig it up for you, if not. All the Tsunade POVs are just so wonderful.
First Aid Kit – Wolf “Wolf-father, at the door / You don’t smile anymore / You’re a drifter, shape-shifter / Let me see you run, hey-ya hey-ya”
Maybe you were expecting Kakashi and I could see that – Minato as the Fourth and the Kyuubi doesn’t happen or whatever but Gai dies so Kakashi is allowed to Pull A Tsunade because that’s better than letting him kill himself in ANBU? But…the chorus….
When I run through the deep dark forest long after this begun
Where the sun would set, trees were dead and the rivers were none
And I hope for a trace to lead me back home from this place
But there was no sound, there was only me and my disgracebut there was no sound would have the wolf-father lyrics you gave as the quote and it would be about Hatake Sakumo. It would be about… missing nin Hatake Sakumo.
At the start of the Third War, Sakumo makes his big mistake and it was, ofc, a set up by Danzou to delegitimize Sakumo’s possible bid for the hat. But Danzou pushes a little harder, gets impatient, and sends an agent to stage Sakumo’s suicide instead of just letting Sakumo end up there.
Suddenly Sakumo wants to live if only out of spite for whoever thought he wasn’t getting to offing himself fast enough.
Kakashi still doesn’t need him, though, and is ashamed of him, and would only be a target if Sakumo tried to stay for his sake. So the White Fang flees the village and Konoha is on the verge of war and has no resources to spare to pursue this powerful missing nin who didn’t commit any crimes (presumably, since in canon we don’t hear him failing the mission led to anything like a court martial or anything. It made him unpopular but not criminal.)
So… Kakashi is spared the trauma of coming home to his dad dead but instead his dad is a traitor and a coward and now that he’s a missing nin AND he’s not dead by his own hand no one is going to even be shy about saying it. Kakashi has a lot to prove. Obito probably doesn’t think the White Fang was a hero, or at least he can’t say that because the White Fang is still out there and is still an enemy of Konoha.
Minato burns a lot of favors just getting Kakashi the chance to succeed.
Maybe things go better on Team Minato, though? Or maybe they go worse. Or maybe just the same. Either way, Shikako enters this verse and finds Sakumo is a grim-faced but honorable missing nin, living in the old nomadic Hatake way. It’s bare weeks before the Kyuubi attack and Sakumo has been a missing nin for six or seven years and Shikako knows that the village probably needs the White Fang more than ever… especially Kakashi, if things have gone to script.
I think Sakumo is still loyal to the village, he doesn’t hate it, but he’s got… complicated feeling. He’s still all ashamed of failing that mission, of being too loyal to his teammates, but also not willing to go back on that philosophy, really. Lots of ideological debates with Shikako. Also odds are good that Sakumo has at least one fellow missing nin or something that he’s bonding with because I bet he’s a disaster insta-pack bonder like his son. Not Orochimaru though. Slightly More Aggressive Impatient Danzou probably drove someone else off or it’s a foreign nin. Maybe Konan, who’s trying to get him to join Akatsuki, which would make things trickier for Shikako.
Tsunade is probably well into her fuck-the-village lifestyle and I think she and Sakumo sometimes meet up for drinks and she’s lowkey annoyed her sensei never made her a missing nin so she and Sakumo could match. Sakumo probably has to avoid the hell out of Jiraiya. Or maybe he doesn’t but he thinks he does.
Kakash has been told that his father never summons his dog pack anymore but it’s a lie, ofc. Either Pakkun and the rest don’t know or the dogs are lying to Kakashi to protect him from having to chose between his father and his village.
Ideally before Shikako leaves she and Sakumo bust in on that whole Kyuubi thing and really help out and Minato pardons Sakumo and all is well.
“In a city of crossroads that never lead home” from ‘After the Fall’ by October Project (why yes my mental soundtrack for the Gardens-verse includes a lot of October Project)
a city of crossroads that never lead home would be about a verse where Shikako arrives just in time for the Grass exams and native Shikako died somewhat recently. Maybe Danzou sent a different ROOT agent on the Land of Birds mission – or sent a partner with Sai – and they killed her to ensure the Watari nin wouldn’t settle in land of birds, or to keep her from further subverting Sai. Sai… might also be dead. :C
Shikako would be caught at the Grass exams, maybe by Kakashi. Maybe by Gaara. Maybe both. She’d be asked to stay, but she knows this isn’t home, and she hasn’t figured out that she needs to Split yet.
but….. hey… ALSO for this song…
a voice that was echoing mine would be about Shikako landing somewhere where native Shikako gave a second sealing lecture series and she listens to the recording and read’s native Shikako’s notes and people keep telling her things native Shikako told them.
a shadow who’d stolen my face would be about a verse where native Shikako managed to replace with Sasuke in the Forest of Death and got bitten by the cursed seal. She fucks up big time, gets taken by the Sound 4, and Orochimaru is now going around wearing her body. The verse would probably open with Shikako being mistaken for Orochimaru.
“Fine” or “Catastrophize” by Noah Kahan
Catastrophize
So when my thoughts take off may I breathe deep
Lord, hold me strong when old loss comes to meet me
Keep my fingers crossed, keep my knees weak
Are we all such fragile things?lmao this ended up having almost NOTHING to do with the song but:
Crows hold grudges. Crows hold grudges very well.
When Danzou attacks Shisui – a crow summoner – he raises the ire of even the regulars crows in Konoha, and they begin to target him and his underlings.
Crows are also prone to bringing gifts to those who befriend them – and with both Shisui and Uzume gone, they start bringing their gifts to Amano. A bloody scrap of hair with scalp still attached. A Konoha forehead protector. A tongue with a seal on it.
…the crow summoning contract.
Amano signs the crow summoning scroll as a way to stay close to the memory of Uzume and Shisui. He doesn’t expect to find out Kansoku has one of Shisui’s eyes – but only one of them.
Because after Shisui committed suicide, Itachi went to Uzume to ask to sign the crow contract to have a place protect Shisui’s remaining eye. And he told Kansoku that Danzou has the other one. So now Amano knows.
And Amano – well. Amano picked the crow mask when he joined ANBU for a reason.
Now he has a target he can actually reach.
When gardens!Shikako stops by Konoha to see if she’s home, it’s to find a murder of crows – and ANBU Crow – attacking Danzou in public.
“And one of them once was mine” Jukebox the Ghost – Ghosts in Empty Houses
lyrics || youtube link for listening
God what a good choice. You know I love this song and that it’s the Amano Mood post-Uchiha Massacre:
In this country at any given time
There are two million empty houses
And one of them once was mine
Yeah there were twelve million spirits drifting
Through twelve million empty rooms
Waving their ghostly arms at the stars
And howling sad songs in the light of a crescent moonYeah they claw at the air and they scream
But they don’t make a sound
They should’ve exercised their demons and their secrets
While they were aroundIn the Gardens verse one of them once was mine (once mine verse?) Shikako would come across Crow (Amano) and Wolf (Kakashi) fighting Itachi soon after the Uchiha massacre when the Sandaime was still going through the ‘we’ll capture or kill Uchiha Itachi’ motions.
I don’t have it in myself to kill any of Amano or Kakashi’s teammates (bc yikes) so I think that this was supposed to be surveillance only in preparation for a more coordinated strike but Itachi made them. Amano and Kakashi are covering their team’s retreat.
Shikako jumps into the fight with shadow sight to keep them from getting Tsukuyomi’d and Itachi gets away when the fight heats up. Amano wants to pursue and doesn’t even care where Shikako came from as long as she’ll help them end Itachi. He gets, uh, emotional about Uzume and Tokimi. Shikako ends up dumping the Real Deets of the Uchiha massacre on Amano and Kakashi, probably.
From Silver Queen’s fic, Dreaming of Sushine. May the adorable team 7 have peaceful and happy times again 🙂
Cheloneuniverse 