"Why have I been locked up?" Goville does not have the heart to answer that it was because they...

[beboots]

believed Hu mad." 
-Jonathan Spence, The Question of Hu 

So currently, three essays are consuming my soul: an book review on The Question of Hu, which is actually a really interesting account of this Jesuit missionary who brings a chinese man, Hu, back to France in the 1720s, but they have a falling out and Hu is locked up in an insane asylum to get him out of the way. 
Anyway, I also have to write two more research essays. The one due on Friday, for English, is getting there. Almost done, almost done... The other one, due a week from tomorrow for my China and th West class, I've barely even started. I have a topic, and I've taken out three books from the library. D: Must... work... harder...
I'm also going to the Soba-bowl anime festival in Edmonton on Saturday, when I really should be working on my essays. Oh, well. I wouldn't be able to concentrate anyway, knowing that it was happening but still being cooped up inside. 
I also feel guilty, because I haven't updated any of my fics recently. D: Here is an excert from the next chapter of Rise of the Jinchuuriki to take the edge off:

“I am worried about Naruto’s education.” Sarutobi got straight to the point.

Iruka felt thrown. “I – sir?” He really hoped that this wasn’t leading to where he thought it was going to lead...

“Yes.” The Sandaime took a long puff from his pipe, sending a small cloud of smoke into the air above his head. “He has been transferred six different times in his first four months of the academy. And with the... debacle last week, he has missed yet another few weeks of schooling. I believe that he’s an intelligent child, who just needs the proper teacher.” The man’s mouth said ‘teacher’ but his eyes said ‘Iruka.’

The chuunin knew that perhaps the reason that blond brat only appeared so smart because he was actually a thousand-year-old demon, but he didn’t voice that thought. Not to the Hokage, who seemed to have grown... attached to the thing.

Iruka supposed that the kid did look human enough.

Comments

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how easy it would be to find; the Rutherford library, which is the most massive university library in Canada (if not North America) only had one copy. But Spence is pretty respected, and isn't TOO obscure... I remember finding this really cool translation, published in the 30s, of this book called, no joke, "On the Civilizations of the Western Barbarians, particularly of the English, upon my travels there in the...." and it goes on for like a hundred more words. It's by "Ah-chin-le, Mandarin first class, of the..." sort of thing. I read the first chapter, and it was all about how he didn't understand Christianity. He had really good arguments for denouncing it, though. XD He was pretty funny, just because of the tone he used.
Yes...yes... Naruto shall definitely win over Iruka. :3 He's done so before, hasn't he? Perhaps he can also lord it over Gaara, who wouldn't have quite reached Yashamaru just yet... You know, now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind writing a scene in which Yashamaru and Iruka meet, at some point... Hmm...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Really? :/ Ah well, I can check the nearby university library or something. :) XD That Chinese mandarin book sounds really funny. XDDD

Yes, he has! And that would be interesting, to have Yashamaru meet Iruka. Hmm, maybe there's some rationale for the Kazekage visiting Konoha or something? I don't know if Gaara would be able to come along, since they might still consider him too much of a wild card to be allowed to go anywhere outside Suna, though.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yep, I think that Gaara is still too dangerous to be let out - especially considering how he almost "escaped" them just a little while ago. ;) I'm not ruling out the possibility of a Kazekage official visit to Konoha, though. I shall definitely sleep on it, and ponder the idea carefully... It would have to be a bit later on, so that Iruka would actually stick up for jinchuuriki, you know?

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Ah, that would be very cool. ^^ Although it'd have to be a really good reason for the Kazekage to leave his village (and thus deprive Suna of his leadership, whether or not it is particularly good leadership). And yeah, maybe Yashamaru can see Iruka sticking up for Naruto, or something. :DD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yes... yes... *steeples fingers* That would indeed be a good idea... I'm also working out just how I'm going to get Gaara's dad out of power. I have a brilliant idea for how that's going to come about, and I don't want to give it away. ;) Sorry if I don't tell you. Hopefully, it will be in the chapter after the next update...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

No no, I don't mind at all! :P It sounds like it will be very unexpected, and the unexpected anti-cliches are always nice. :D

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I work so hard to work in anti-clichés; if I wanted to read canon, I'd read the manga, you know? ;) I like writing more "original" scenes and plotlines, rather than just following word for word the happenings of canon. If you like anti-clichés, I think you'll really enjoy what I have planned for the chuunin exams and the Wave country ark. They won't be what you expect! :D I'm having trouble, because I've written bits and pieces for all of the coming chapters, except I'm a bit stuck for this next bit... and anyway, I can't fuss over it for too long because I have to work on my papers. I really shouldn't be on livejournal, procrastinating. D:

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I agree so much. AU stories are awesome, but then a lot of time-travel stuff--Naruto, or Sakura (usually; I haven't seen as many with Sasuke, even less with Gaara XP) come back to the time around the Academy graduation, go through the bell test, go to Wave--and it's like, really, come on!--variety is the spice of life, please. :P And then the chuunin exam fights are exactly the same pairs, and people don't take into consideration the fact that since they're randomly assigned, the likelihood of the same match-ups is almost zero. I remember fiddling with the preliminary rounds just for the sake of doing so and wondering what would happen if they fought different people--they might show different battle strengths or weaknesses, especially when confronted with a different fighting style than they did in the manga. Just--it's one of those things that is vaguely irking.

Ah, I went off rambling. My bad. >_>

I hope your papers are going all right! :) Er, and that you've fully decided on your thesis. ♥

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I've altered my topic (it was an open topic, so no big deal). Instead of talking about porcelain (which has been done to death by historians), I'm going to have a paragraph on porcelain in the middle of an essay about tea; essentially, how a Chinese beverage became the staple of British stereotypes.

We need more variety! D:< Especially with the wave arc and the chuunin exams. I have yet to decide on the pairups for the fights. I think that I may just have to take a vote... ;) I mean, I'm pretty sure that everyone will want to see Gaara and Naruto fight each other, but I have a clever-er plan... You're right about the random matchups, though. Perhaps I'll go crazy and have Naruto fight Lee or something. Or maybe even Sakura fighting Lee... that would be an interesting test of his love. On the one hand, Sakura may never speak to him again if he beats her, but if he goes easy on her he'll likely be disembowelled by Neji. ;) Hmm... who else could I pair up...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Ah, the evolution of tea's significance to Britain. That's really interesting (considering how it represents the country :D).

Hmm, random pair-ups... From the "oh why not" notes I was making on the prelims, you could have Shino vs. Yoroi and have Shino's bugs basically suck out Yoroi's chakra, because his ability to well, suck out chakra would be effectively nullified b/c he can't reach Shino himself, while Shino's bugs can reach him. Well, unless he's somehow able to suck chakra from Shino's bugs, in which case that would be a real dilemma. You could have Chouji vs. Misumi (the elongated flexible one), so when Misumi's trying to twist himself around Chouji, Chouji can invoke his "get bigger" jutsu and surprise Misumi quickly enough that he doesn't change his flexibility enough and gets his bones shattered or something. Or maybe Naruto vs. Kankurou?--it would also do a good job of showcasing Naruto's strategy skills, because that's definitely something you'd need with Kankurou, considering his ability to switch his puppet with himself. On the other hand, I don't know if you're still going to have Kankurou using puppets (depends on how much Gaara influences him in that direction). I don't know about the Hyuuga fight--that one was really important for canon!Naruto in making him all angry at Neji and determined to defy Neji's idea of destiny, and the finals fight would make a huge difference to Neji--unless you started changing Neji's mind earlier than that. For that matter--Naruto could do something about Hinata's kidnapping attempt, or the Uchiha massacre, perhaps. :DD There are so many possibilies! :DDD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like the idea of Naruto VS Kankurou... :3 I must think on that one. I'm afraid that I know very little about Yoroi and Misumi; I've got to reread the chuunin exam arc before I write my own version, I think. But I want to give Shino a kickass battle.
One of the ongoing plotpoints/themes is Gaara/Naruto questioning whether or not they can truly change anything, so I think that I may have Kankurou still use puppets... perhaps in a different way, though. I must give it more thought.
Hinata was three or four when the Cloud nin tried to kidnap her, I think, so it's too late for that... However, it's not quite too late for the Uchiha massacre. ;) Don't worry, it shall come up soon. I'm still playing around with ideas in my head, but it's getting there, I swear.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I know Yoroi is the one who originally fought Sasuke and drew out his chakra so Sasuke would be forced to rely on the curse seal's power (except Sasuke repressed it and beat Yoroi anyway). And Misumi fought against Kankurou and lost because he twisted himself around what he thought was Kankurou, only it was his puppet, and Kankurou nearly broke his neck or something (?). Shino deserves an awesome battle. :D

Ah, my timeline memory is all messed up. *headdesks* But ohh, the take on the Uchiha massacre sounds interesting. ;)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I hope that I'll make the Uchiha massacre thing suspenseful enough. I've realized in the course of writing this fic that my characters spend a lot of time contemplating things, and much less in "real time", as it were. D: I hope to improve upon that...

Oh, and I've actually written a jumble of scenes totally just about 2,000 words for a one shot involving Itachi going back in time and killing his younger self, for reasons that I haven't quite worked out yet. D: I've been inspired to write about Uchiha because of the recent chapters in the manga. (Have you read chapter 393 yet? Holy crap, man! D: )

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

For characters who tend to spend time thinking instead of acting in "real time," I think that so far it's balanced enough so the lack of acting in real time doesn't detract from the fic. In any case, the changes would start appearing soon. :D

That sounds really cool, although why he'd do that is something to think about. XD Yes, I saw 393! I'm still hung up on why Itachi would just collapse like that (I thought he'd have a better idea of his own chakra limits and act accordingly--but then again, I can't say for sure that he has all his reason considering his crazy face a few chapters back :P), but it's grown on me. I like how Sasuke's "victory" isn't really a victory, it's terribly hollow, and the forehead poke and the look on Sasuke's face, and the indistinguishable words Itachi says, and the white snake escaping (Orochimaru! :D). Although recent manga's putting a spanner in the works, as I'm having to adjust the backstory of my fic for every new chapter. Plus a crack AU!Itachi-comes-to-canonverse fic that I was going to write after I finished it. >_>

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I just loved the shot where you'll totally like "ZOMG Itachi's going to plug Sasuke's eye out!", and the next page where he just pokes Sasuke's forehead... ;_; I loved Sasuke's shocked look afterwards. I wonder, though, what's going to happen next. I don't think that Itachi's quite dead - will we perhaps get more backstory? I live on in hope.

But dude, Orochimaru's like a cockroach. D: I have to admit, in the previous chapter, when Orochimaru's like "boo yeah I'm BACK!" and Itachi just kills him again, and says "All right, Sasuke, anything else?" like his little brother had just been caught throwing rocks or something as a child... XD It was an awesome moment.

You've intrigued me with your mention of a crack AU!Itachi-comes-to-canonverse fic... Care to elaborate? ;)

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Yes, that part! I really like the expression on Sasuke's face--so much shock and he just seems completely frozen there. It's a curiously anticlimactic way for the fight to end, and at first I was like, WHAT?, but now I really do like it a lot. :D I doubt Itachi is dead--the script on the side of the page says something like "Itachi collapses" instead of "Itachi dies," and I don't think that Sasuke would kill Itachi while unconscious. For all that Sasuke hates Itachi, he still can't forget that Itachi was his brother--which makes his perceived betrayal all the more awful to Sasuke. But I hope to see more backstory too; I mean, we haven't even seen what Shisui looks like yet, and god knows Shisui acts as an important plot point with regards to Itachi's development. :P

Orochimaru is HILARIOUS. I used to be really mehhh about him, but he's all sorts of cracky awesomeness when you make fun of his fashion sense XD; plus, there are just way too many risque implications you can read into his actions, it's really amusing. And yeah, Orochimaru came back!--and then Itachi swatted him aside like a fly. Poor Orochimaru, he always gets upstaged by the Uchiha brothers. XP

XD That AU thing, oh wow. I wrote a wildly AU oneshot some time ago here in which Itachi wasn't the one who did the massacre, and it was based on this really way-out-there theory that had been mentioned in a discussion (I think at chuunin). But even though it was cracky, it also made a lot of sense at that time in a twisted sort of way (it was before we had all those revelations about the MS and what Madara really did). But anyway, after I wrote that, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be really interesting and provide lots of crack fodder :P if the AU!Itachi somehow got transported to the canonverse and met Sasuke? Or at least something like that?" It was going to be one of those purely crack things, but then it developed plot and became a serious plotbunny. :/ So I ended up putting it aside b/c I'd rather concentrate on one fic at a time, but I still want to write it. XP

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes: we need to see Shisui! And I agree; I wasn't all that fussed about Orochimaru until fairly recently. I think that I was greatly effected by this fic: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3607916/1/Under_the_Snakes_Skin
I mean, chibi!Orochimaru is so adorable!
Now that you've linked that fic, I can put off doing my homework to read it! :D Thank you. Expect a review soon enough. :3
One fic at a time? Pssh. :P Whenever I get the idea for something, I write it down quickly. For the longest time I didn't, but after a while I realized that I was losing a lot of good fic ideas just by being lazy. So now, if it's half-decent, I write a quick summary and perhaps a few lines of dialogue, just to jog my memory. I've really got to turn some of these into one-shots or something... D:

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I would really like to see what Shisui looks like--I find it a little suspicious that he hasn't been shown yet, really. :P And cool, I'll have to read that sometime. :D ... I'm going to have to admit that my newfound liking for Orochimaru is at least partly due to the comm sasucakes, which is utter and total crack. Cupcake!Sasuke, humanitarian Orochimaru, and sitar-playing Uchihas feature. And Itachi with pink sparkles. It's a--very cracky comm. XD

Oh, that's very nice of you! :)

I have a special MS Word file that's basically called "ideas," where I just make brief descriptions of plot bunnies and leave them for later. But I like to focus on one thing at a time, because otherwise I'd get distracted working on a lot of projects at once. :P

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I HAVE to write many things at once or I don't get anything done. D: I was actually working on three essays all at once, over the course of several weeks. I only just handed in the first draft of one, must still write the rest of the conclusion for another, and start the third (I've planned it, though). D: Must... keep... working...
Meh, but whatever works. :) I'm glad that you write your ideas down somewhere. I think that it's a good habit for all authors to have.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that is a lot of essay writing. :/ Good luck with them!--although since you know what you're writing for your third essay, it sounds like everything will be fine. :)

There's so much stuff that could be written... I have random ideas for Sasuke in Sound, Shisui, Orochimaru/cupcake!Sasuke (total and utter crack XP), and--there's so much potential. :DDD Otherwise I don't know how I'd remember anything.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I mean, as long as you're always writing SOMEthing, it's all good, right? ;) I try to write a little bit everyday, even if it's only a paragraph or two. A little bit goes a long way, building up eventually... even if the only real good it's doing is keeping you think ing about the fic in question. :)