wafflelate:

lyrics || song

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 disgrace

but 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.

wafflelate:

lyircs || song

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.

pepperdoken:

Catastrophize

lyrics | song

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.

wafflelate:

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 moon

Yeah 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 around

In 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.