The waste of fine tea through incompetent manipulation was considered one of the three most...

[beboots]

The waste of fine tea through incompetent manipulation was considered one of the three most deplorable acts in the world (the other two being false education of youth and uninformed admiration of fine paintings.) 
~ Modern introduction to Lu Yu's The Classic of Tea.

W00t; I've finished my book review (handed it in on Tuesday) and my research essay for the History of China and the West (handed it in on Thursday). I ended up writing on how a foreign drink (tea) became the epitome of British culture. 
And now... it's the weekend! :D All I have to really do is continue to assemble my application to go to France this summer, edit my English research essay, compose a fifteen-minute presentation for History 290 and write a skit in Japanese! (Um, that sounds like a lot, but it really isn't.) 
Aaand since I finished writing my essay, I had time to finish writing the next chapter of "Rise of the Jinchuuriki"! :D Ahead of schedule!

Author’s note: As I’m sure many of you who reviewed my last few chapters have noticed, I enjoy replying to reviews. :) I enjoy thanking people for giving me what most authors beg for.

That being said, I’m afraid that I can’t answer your reviews if you’re posting them anonymously. ;_; If you did so, please contact me, and I’d love to talk with you about this fic! :D (I’m also willing to drop plot-worthy hints or thoughts on what’s to come, if that’s to your liking.) I’m looking at you, webweaver and Nemesis Jedi!

Oh, and I encourage everyone to vote in the reader’s opinion poll I have in my profile (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/331848/ ). :) Your votes won’t affect what’s actually going to happen in this fic (kind of like Canadian elections, that way), but I’d like to know what people think is going to happen. :)

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

Chapter Five: Meeting the Pawns

With movements careful to conserve water, which was precious in the desert, as one can imagine, Gaara rinsed what Naruto would eloquently call the “yuck” off of his face.

He hadn’t thought that Yashamaru would try something like this so soon. He knew that the man had volunteered to take on a mission to assassinate him around this time; Yashamaru had admitted as such the last time around. That mission had lead to the... encounter on the roof that had resulted in his uncle’s death.

The poison hidden in his portion of fried rice had been particularly potent. If he hadn’t had the healing ability bestowed upon him by demonic chakra, he probably wouldn’t have made it to the bathroom to throw it back up before it caused massive organ failure.

At least he had managed to hold onto his composure. Gaara wasn’t sure that he wanted his siblings knowing that the only family member of theirs who was actually “nice” to them was actually trying to kill him.

However... Poisons were one of the few ways to get past his sand defense. Either the man had merely stumbled across this weakness of his by chance, thinking that it would be the simplest and safest way for him to do his nephew in, or Yashamaru had analyzed his weaknesses enough to know the perfect way to kill him. If it was the former, Gaara hoped that the man’s luck wouldn’t hold and that he still had a chance to win him over. If it was the latter, well... he wasn’t looking forward to killing his uncle. Again.

Gaara ran a handful of water through his red hair to cool himself down. Some wet, gritty and ever-present sand dripped from the locks of hair hanging across his forehead. Gaara examined his image in the mirror. His forehead was smooth and devoid of any self-depreciating symbolic tattoos. He only looked… tired, but that wasn’t unusual. He had survived too many attempts on his life before to really appear affected anymore. He didn’t appear too haggard, or on the verge of collapse, so he had been worse. He looked so incredibly young though: not a wrinkle anywhere. His hair was still violently red, without a gray hair in sight, which was a nice change, he supposed. Naruto would say so. His eyes, though, weren’t those of a child. He could tell that much. He had seen far too much to disguise his inner sense of experience.

Luckily, most people made a habit of avoiding his gaze.

Gaara didn’t have any excuses for any sudden bursts of knowledge that he might display. However, he likely wouldn’t be letting as many things slip, or at least not as much as Naruto undoubtedly would be. He had very good self control – he had to. And anyway, no-one really paid much attention to him in the first place. For all they knew, he really could have known jounin-level techniques at the age of six.

In any case, everyone was probably still too afraid of him to actually question him about, well, anything. Short of building a pedestal in the middle of the city and showcasing advanced jutsu to all and sundry for during the busiest hours of the weekly market, no one would have any idea of what he was capable of. Being considered a monster did come with the advantage of automatic privacy and grudging respect.

 

“Oi! Get out of here!” The shopkeeper’s words were punctuated by a thrown cabbage, which Naruto summarily caught as he fled. Its leaves were browning; the storekeeper wouldn’t waste perfectly good produce on a demon-brat like him.

He had really taken having his own chef for granted, Naruto mused to himself as he was chased out of the fifth grocery store this morning. He hadn’t had to actually do something so menial as to go shopping in decades.

After the first time he had been thrown bodily from a store, Naruto decided that, if nothing else, this enterprise would be a perfect test of his youthful body’s skills. He would see if he would be spotted as he tried to stealthily sneak into grocery stores to buy necessities of life. Many civilians who lived in Konoha had once been ninja hopefuls who had failed the academy graduation exam one too many times, so more civilians than you would expect had basic knowledge of ninja arts.

As it was, he wasn’t doing too badly. He had almost made it to the cash register with a loaf of bread and some instant ramen this last time. But then, as luck would have it, the manager, a chuunin who’d lost a leg during the Kyuubi attack, had managed to spot his stealthy movement towards the front of the store, and had forcibly kicked him out.

Well, there was one shopkeeper whom he was pretty sure didn’t have any ninja training. More importantly, Naruto was fairly certain that he actually let him into his establishment.

There was nothing for it: Ichiraku for breakfast it was.

Content with this thought, Naruto began walking towards where he still remembered the store being. It should come as no surprise that he would remember where the ramen stand was, but not the apartment of his youth. He’d spent much more time eating ramen than sleeping, after all.

Hands behind his head, humming, and almost skipping along, Naruto had a smile for anyone who even deigned to look in his direction with a less-than-usual amount of hate in their eyes. He liked to think that someday, they would smile back.

Still humming a jaunty tune, he was just about to turn the corner onto the street when someone in the middle of a shunshin no jutsu barreled right into him, sending them both to the ground. ‘Chuunin,’ Naruto thought automatically as he was thrown to the pavement. ‘Genin don’t have enough control to blur that fast, but a Chuunin would be cocky enough about mastering the technique not to notice they were about to run into someone. A Jounin would be too paranoid to use it in a crowded city, for fear of attracting enemy attention. Plus, they have more practical ways of getting around than flashy body blurring.’ And sure enough, when Naruto blinked and opened his eyes at the person who had knocked him down, who was also just getting back onto his feet... it was indeed a chuunin: one Umino Iruka.

Forgetting himself, Naruto gave his best gleeful smile and said in a louder than normal tone of voice: “Good morning Iruka-sensei!” And he meant it.

The chuunin froze, clearly staring at the person... no, thing that he had knocked down. Naruto realized his mistake immediately. He was too young to have met Iruka-sensei... whose parents had been killed by the Kyuubi. Therefore, the hate in the young man’s eyes was probably pretty justified. But nothing really prepared Naruto for the swift kick in the side he received from his former mentor. “Watch where you’re going, brat!” Iruka spat – he actually spat! – on the ground, just narrowly missing the blond’s small, sandaled feet.

Naruto couldn’t help it. Later on, he would blame it on the young age of his new body, but he knew that there was a deeper, more psychological reason than that.

In any case, he began to cry.

 

Iruka couldn’t help but feel vaguely guilty. He tried to tell himself that it was just the Kyuubi brat – the thing that had killed his parents – and that it was just using crocodile tears to get his sympathy... It wasn’t even human.

They were awfully realistic tears, though.

His feeling of guilt wasn’t assuaged until he had blurred out of sight again in another shunshin no jutsu. ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ as they said. He didn’t have time to be thinking about this demon, anyway; he had been summoned to see the Hokage. This was an unusual enough event that it warranted a speedy answer. Certainly, he worked for the man, both in his capacity as an academy teacher and as someone to man the mission desk, but it wasn’t often that he was summoned to see the leader of the village personally.

Something was “up”. And he would soon find out what it was.

 

Just because Gaara didn’t sleep didn’t mean he didn’t get tired. He was often outright exhausted.  But as most insomniacs learn, there is a point in which exhaustion is turned to almost painful awareness of the world. Sounds become magnified, everything seems sharp to the eye, and even the softest of clothes become unbearably wrinkly, itchy and uncomfortable. All of these things stop the insomniac from getting the well-deserved rest that they crave.

Gaara was in this state at all times.

He settled himself into a comfortable-looking chair in the corner of the living room with the intention to meditate, or maybe just to read, depending on whether or not he could clear his mind. It wasn’t healthy, even for someone with demonic chakra to keep them going, to have to stay awake all of the time. Besides, meditation put him in a relaxed state of mind, which was as close to real sleep as he could safely get most of the time. Reading was merely a distraction, not a form of true rest.

It should also come as no surprise that Gaara was very well-read – he had twice as many hours in the day as anyone else did, after all. He couldn’t spend them all training or meditating, although many of his advisors seemed to think that he should spend most of them doing paperwork.

“He Who Never Sleeps” had been one of his epithets while in office, along with “Godaime Kazekage”, “Vessel Of Shukaku”, and so forth. In practice, that had meant that his ninjas could meet with him at any hour of the night and he wouldn’t have any excuse not to see them. It also meant that he couldn’t beg off doing paperwork because he had to sleep, unlike one blond ninja he could name. He had had to do week-long stints of paperwork-signing before, when some big project had had to be approved. Those were some of his worst memories of being in office, right up there with that time someone almost succeeded in assassinating Kankurou and meeting with civilian city leaders.

He did enjoy being so much more productive than his Leaf counterpart, though. It gave him something he could brag about. Not that he was prone to bragging.

Gaara released a breath that he had been holding and tried to relax in his sitting position on the chair. He closed his eyes and breathed in slowly, then out again. In, then out.

Of course, as soon as he began to relax, Shukaku rose to the challenge in the back of his mind. Gaara firmly shoved the angry consciousness back down. It took hardly any effort, especially after he had gone through so much trouble to erect mental blocks the day before. He reinforced them, though, just to be sure. He kept his breathing steady, face completely impassive and inscrutable.

Just because he appeared calm didn’t mean that he was untroubled. Far from it. Few but Naruto knew that the blanker Gaara looked, the more extreme the emotion he was blocking.

His face could mask the rage of Shukaku, after all. The Ichibi was said to be the most wrathful of the tailed beasts. Gaara had actually developed the ability to show emotions, such as amusement or happiness, on his face in his autumn years. Of course, they were never as evident as the expressions on Naruto’s face, after all, but it has gotten to the point where the crinkle in his eyes was so obvious that even a genin could tell that Gaara was pleased. Now, divining the cause of this amusement was a completely different matter altogether. Due to political necessity, Gaara had never grown out of hiding his inner plans and opinions.

He turned his mind to a more useful train of thoughts.

Yashamaru was definitely going to be a problem that he would have to address, and soon; this, he knew with certitude. Shukaku grumbled something about simply killing the man, and being done with it. There were more references to blood and gore than that, of course, but one had to edit such things out of polite thoughts.

Gaara gave no indication that he even heard the beast. It was the only way to keep sane. Once again, he shoved Shukaku to the back of his mind, where it belonged. Inwardly, he wished that Chiyo-obaa-sama had sprung for a more comprehensive seal, something like Naruto’s… one that would have allowed him to get some peace and quiet in his head.

 

Sometimes, no matter how strong a person one is, one just needs a good, long cry. They shouldn’t come often, but it’s unhealthy not to have them at all, especially if one’s in a stressful situation.

However, Naruto didn’t cry for long. One didn’t become Hokage if one was prone to crying over every little thing.

...Even if this “little thing” felt far from inconsequential to him.

Naruto wasn’t sure that he still felt like eating anything at the moment, but then again, if there was one thing he had learned in all of his years as a ninja, you couldn’t really do anything on an empty stomach. Sometimes when things popped up unexpectedly (“things” like, well, enemy ninja, invasions, unexpected assassination missions for him to assign, unexpected assassination attempts assigned to kill him , or a combination of all the above) he didn’t always get a chance to eat something, and he had always regretted it later.

And so, quickly swiping a hand across his face to dispel the remnants of dampness before anyone else would see – it wouldn’t do for him to show any weakness – he made his way towards his beloved Ichiraku.

 

 “Ah, come in Iruka-kun. I’ll be with you in a moment.” The Hokage called at the chuunin’s gentle knock on his office door. The voice of the Sandaime always put Iruka at ease. He found his worry regarding this meeting melting away almost instantly after that brief greeting. Entering the room and taking an “at ease” stance in front of the man’s desk, Iruka waited to be addressed.

The old man finished scrutinizing the papers before him and placed them aside, turning his eyes to meet Iruka’s.

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

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

“Yes.” The Sandaime took a long draw 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 this 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. He suppressed a disgusted shudder, focusing hard on paying attention to what the Hokage was saying.

“That’s why I’ve decided to suspend a teacher’s ability to transfer Naruto. He needs a steady education.” The man’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “He wants to be Hokage, after all.”

Iruka didn’t know what to say. He knew that if he opened his mouth, something bit like profanity and more like horrified but wordless screaming would immerge. The chuunin kept his mouth – and thoughts – firmly to himself. It was safer that way.

He didn’t want to teach his parent’s murderer. But neither could he disappoint the Hokage. I’m sorry, Mother, Father, he thought, glancing upwards.

All he saw was a smoke-stained ceiling.

 

“Welcome!” Teuchi, of Ichiraku Ramen fame, called out with a smile as his first customer of the day sat down at the counter. “What can I get you?” He asked of the blond boy perched on a stool that barely raised him high enough to see over the countertop.

“Um, I’ll have a large miso ramen to start with.” The boy said in a subdued tone.

“All right.” Teuchi tossed some miso broth mix into the water simmering in one of the pots on the stovetop. “Can I get you anything to drink while you wait?”
“Just water, thanks.” His customer said with a smile. Teuchi noticed it didn’t meet his eyes.

The boy looked upset. He was trying to hide it behind a painful-looking grin, but the chef could tell that the boy had recently been crying.

Teuchi tossed a plateful of noodles into the pot, sending a burst of miso flavoured steam into the air. The kid was also very young to be out on his own, without any parents. He had a daughter just a few years older than this kid… He hoped soon to have his young daughter working alongside him. At the moment, she was too young, but she had the makings of a great ramen chef like him.

The chef watched his customer out of the corner of his eye as he prepared the order. The boy was staring moodily into his glass of water, which irrationally reminded Teuchi of an old man brooding with a mug of beer. He dismissed the thought as soon as it crossed his mind. The kid was probably sulking over something his parents had refused him.

Teuchi added the final sprinkling of tempura pieces and one solitary, swirly naruto. There. It was perfect. With the steaming bowl in his hands, the chef turned around to face the customer. The boy was still staring down into his glass with a noticeable aura of depression about him. The older man paused for a moment, thinking.

What was the harm?

After half a second’s contemplation, he decidedly set the bowl of steaming miso ramen in front of the boy. “Here: free of charge.” The boy’s head shot up and Teuchi was treated to the most elated, watery-eyed expression of gratitude that he had ever seen.
The ramen chef knew, immediately, that he had done the right thing. He turned back to the stove, trying to hide his smile.

Unbeknownst to him, he had just won the eternal loyalty of one of the strongest ninja in the whole of Fire country... for a second time.

 

Iruka was being guilt-tripped. He knew this, intellectually. He should have been able to resist. All those of chuunin-rank and above had to go through the same torture resistance training courses, but after five minutes of Sarutobi just... looking at him like  that convulsively made him want just apologize, cave in and do what the man wanted him to do and more.

Despite the fact that Sarutobi was easily the oldest of all active ninja in the village, he was still, undisputedly, the strongest as well. For all that, though, he didn’t often use corporal punishment against those who displeased him. Instead, he was one of those men that people instinctively felt close to. Then, if the Sandaime was unhappy with one of them, in many cases all it took to rectify the problem was a single, long, disappointed look from the man that almost all Konoha shinobi viewed as some sort of grandfather figure. The fear was not of pain, but in making him disappointed in them.

“All right, fine! I’ll teach him!” Iruka snapped in exasperation just to get the Hokage to stop looking at him like that, quickly slapping a hand over his mouth when he realized what he had just said to the leader of his village. He began to stammer out an apology, only to have it waved off by Sarutobi.

“I am glad that you agree.” The old man smiled amicably around his pipe, somehow managing to look both benevolent and devious at the same time. Iruka had no doubt that if he had refused just now (if he could have somehow worked up the courage to refuse the Hokage), the Sandaime would have found some other way of convincing him. It was the way that the man worked.

Iruka sighed. “When do I start?”

Sarutobi just smiled once more in response, and slid a packet of paperwork across the desk for him to sign. From the title, Iruka gathered that it was the finalization of a student transfer form. The Hokage had been filling it out before he had even arrived.

Apparently the Hokage had already known that he would agree to his “request.”

Damn it.

Iruka left the office an hour later, feeling vaguely uneasy about the whole thing.

 

Gaara was broken from his meditative trance by the sound of footsteps in the hallway. Automatically, he identified them: not light enough to be Yashamaru’s ninja-trained pace, too fast to be Kankuro’s slow amble... which left Temari. He was proven right only moments later, when his blonde sister appeared in the open doorway, apparently on her way to the kitchen for a quick snack in the middle of the night. The girl paused as she spotted something curious in the living room. “Gaara, what are you doing up?” Eight-year-old Temari asked with childish curiosity.

Gaara opened his eyes and shifted his gaze to his sister’s face. His eyes glinted in the darkness like those of a cat. “Thinking.”

“Oh.” There was a brief pause. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“I don’t sleep.”

“…Um – why?”

Gaara stared. She didn’t know? Well, he supposed that made sense, considering he’d never really talked to his siblings until they were put on a genin team together, but by that time, Kankuro and Temari were terrified of him and he hadn’t cared. They had probably been told about his inner resident when they made genin and had been put on the same team as him. They had a right to know of the dangers that they faced. Or, rather, they had to know, to help boost their chance of survival.

For a moment, he wondered what Yashamaru had told them about him. He was pretty certain that they knew he was their brother; there was a certain resemblance, but what had been the explanation given for why he was suddenly living with them?

The redhead pondered how to answer her question, finally settling on: “Because if I fall asleep, a monster will eat me.” This was actually a surprisingly good answer to give to a child. That, Gaara knew from experience. Even though he generally avoided the younger generations of villagers, he obviously couldn’t seclude himself completely from the people he ruled over. He had had to explain to children about his “condition” before.

“So… Do you eat?” Back in the day, Gaara reflected, he would have tried to kill her by now for questioning him in such an annoying fashion. This thought did not show up on his face.

“Yes.” He replied, simply.

“All right, do you want to share some sandwiches?”

Gaara considered this offer for a moment. Why not? “Yes.”

“Come on, then!” The girl coaxed him out of the room and into the brightly-lit kitchen. Gaara took a seat at the table, and watched her making sandwiches at the counter, perched on a chair so that she could reach it. It was strange seeing Temari looking so… domestic. She normally brow-beat other people – men, such as her brothers – to do the cooking and cleaning. She had always seemed to rather resent the assumption that kunoichi were automatically responsible for the cooking and cleaning just because they possessed a uterus.

Well, that wasn’t strictly true; he knew that his sister wasn’t above using her feminine whiles to her advantage.

Gaara wasn’t sure he liked the change. His Temari - the one that no longer existed, he thought with a pang of hurt somewhere deep in his chest - would never put up with this sort of thing. She would have made him do the dishes, at least, even if he was Kazekage.

Perhaps he would, anyway, without being asked.

 

Gaara moved differently than most people, Temari noted, watching him out of the corner of her eye as she made the sandwiches. She hadn’t seen enough of her little brother before to notice. He kind of moved like those elite ANBU. That was the closest comparison she could think of. But that wasn’t quite right: there was something more… animal-like, in his walk, in his look… But he wasn’t an animal. Just by looking into his eyes you could see that he was smart. So he couldn’t really be described as an animal, either.

He almost reminded her of the desert, for some reason, but that was silly, because the desert wasn’t alive...

 

Up Next: Game Start

Comments

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

:D

I have... not actually written any of the next chapter yet. But the good thing is, I know exactly what's going to happen, the specifics and all that are planned out in my head, so it's a lot easier for me to write when I sit down and do so. If I don't know... like with my last chapter, I knew that Naruto and Sakura were going to be caught in genjutsu, but I hadn't figured out exactly what Naruto would be exposed to, and finally all that stuff was me brainstorming at the last minute as I was writing. XD I think it's a little short and rather spread out, so it's one of those scenes I may rewrite when I finish the story and go back for edits.

And well, plot bunnies are fun to play with, but terribly distracting. D:

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I find myself only planning bits and pieces. My most brilliant lines and ideas seem to come to me as I immerse myself in my writing.

I've actually gotten into the habit of writing down fic ideas on a word document. It helps me remember them later, and also seems to get the unwanted plotbunnies out of my system. This actually doesn't always work. D: I actually have nearly 2000 words of planning and dialogue for this random Naruto/Harry Potter crossover. It would be humour if I were to ever write it, but...
I even have a really good summary for it! "Orochimaru is one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes (or vice-versa; nobody can decide which). Unfortunately for the Akatsuki, that means that he just won’t die. And so, they send one of their members to infiltrate this “Hogwarts” place to find out what’s with all of this “Boy-Who-Lived” business. Enter the only one of them who has any hope of passing himself off as a kid: Sasori." You can kind of guess where it would go from there. D: Why can't my plotbunnies leave me in peace?!

... no, wait, I didn't mean it! ;_; Come back, my fluffy muses!

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

:) I generally like to plan out what scenes I'm putting in the next chapter, at the very least. Description and dialogue are things that I work out as I write, but I have this thing about thinking out how the characters would move in a fight, for instance. So when Naruto and Sasuke had their rooftop fight, I pretty much had to visualize everything in my mind and be a stickler about how they would move around when fighting each other. XD

So do I! And yes, I agree, it's really helpful for remembering the plot bunnies and still setting them aside. :) A Naruto/Harry Potter crossover? I would very much like to read that if you post it! :DD I've come across so few crossovers in general that happen to be well-done... :/ And XDDD Sasori's going to Hogwarts!--oh god, now that is something new. :D It sounds really awesome. :D

It's so hard to concentrate with the story ideas coming in like this. Besides that Naruto/Alice in Wonderland thing, I've been tossing about the idea of writing Sasuke/Sakura/Yondaime ever since it came up on one of my friend's crack fandom memes (the ones where you number characters and then are told to put them in random situations, you know?--those three were put in a threesome XD). And then there was politicking!Hinata. And more. D: The document's like 4 pages long.

[(Anonymous)]

My crossover isn't so good so far. Essentially, it's a point by point plan for backstory and the first few days that Sasori is there. Then, nothing. D: I have like three hundred words of actual fic written, plus a simple omake. D: It amuses me, though, so I may just write it as a silly one-shot. If I make it humour, I can satyrize some of the fandom clichés, you know? :)
Eh? Sasuke/Sakura/Yondaime? Intriguing... Politicking!Hinata also sounds fascinating. :3 Write them! >:D I'm also still interested in that idea you had about your Itachi in the canon universe.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

A lot of the story depends on the backstory, so I'd say you're off to a good start. :) Then it's more a matter of, how much would you want Sasori to affect the HPverse? Speaking of which, during what school year are you planning to set it? Unless you had it during seventh year, and Sasori didn't actually go to Hogwarts; instead, he's roaming around the English countryside and dodging Death Eaters and making a reputation for himself. And then he might run into Harry and the others by accident, and upon establishing that they are Voldemort's enemies, ally himself with them. :P If you do make it humor, that would be just as awesome!--it's so much fun to poke fun at fandom cliches. :DDD

I could go two ways with the SasuSakuYondy threesome. XD Either make it a completely crack fic, in which case I'd have no idea where to start, or have something in which the Yondaime is pulled forward in time. I was thinking about an apocalyptic scenario in which Naruto ended up dying, and when the Yondaime timetravels (somehow... :/), Sasuke and Sakura take him in and the relations are strained b/c he reminds them so much of Naruto. This way would lead to much angst, and probably end in tragedy. >_> I suppose they could also travel back to the Yondaime's time period... Politicking!Hinata would try to reform the clan and get around dealing with the clan elders and taking care of the curse seal/Branch House issue. :D And that AU!Itachi-comes-to-canonverse thing--the most recent chapters of the manga have provided so much fodder for the idea, it's beginning to take on some definite shape in my mind. XD Sorry for talking so much about story ideas, it's just really fun. :D

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure what year that I would set it in - probably fifth or sixth year, because Voldemort would be more well-known and there would be more connotations of "the Boy-who-lived will be the one to save us all from Voldemort!" as opposed to the past tense "the Boy-who-lived saved us all from Voldemort!"

Ah, yes, the whole "well, I want to have a dead character alive again" conundrum. D: I'm afraid I have no ideas for you there. And I'm also very interested in how you would address Hyuuga politics. :3 Any awesome thoughts on the subject?

... and I certainly hope that the latest chapters of the manga have provided fic fodder for your. :) They helped me write my Uchiha scenes. Although I realize after writing those that I have a whole bunch of stuff for Naruto's side of the chapter, but like three sentences for Gaara. D:

Oh, and please don't apologize for talking about story ideas! This is fun! :D

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness. :D I would love to see how Sasori interacts with Umbridge. Mwahaha. >8D But hmm, that makes sense for it to be set later in the HPverse. Would Sasori be Sorted into a House, or would he be a professor/assistant at the school? Oh wait, he's sent by the Akatsuki because he can be a kid, so I guess a student. XD

Haha, yeah, there's that little problem about a dead character... >_> I think I might do something with the blood relation between Minato and Naruto, or perhaps something about the seal. I'll have to think about it. XD As for Hinata--it was funny, just a few days ago there were two posts at chuunin on the Hyuuga clan discussing how they sealed siblings and if the seal were removable. Apparently the curse seal can't be removed, and one of the responders pointed out that all things considered, it was actually effective in keeping the Byakugan secrets from falling into enemy hands on missions. (I am surprised this hasn't been applied to Hinata, since they let her go on missions without too much of a fuss over her Byakugan.) But I was thinking that as Hinata learned to assert herself, lost her crush on Naruto, really gained some quiet self-confidence in her ability to interact with the elders on an equal footing... :D I'd have to think about how the elders would regard Hinata--although she hasn't been bumped out in favor of Hanabi yet, they'd regard her at first as a bit of a pushover. So I think she'd be in a situation and asserting herself that would surprise the elders and make them think twice about their initial impressions. Also, Neji would help her in letting her get a sense of how the Branch House members feel. I also have this random side plot thread in which Hinata decides to pursue two options to learn more about how to possibly remove curse seals: one, through Naruto, because he's learned from Jiraiya. This would give her an opportunity to interact with Naruto without fainting all the time--and she's also doing this for the sake of the clan. I have to say, even though I generally don't like to read much NaruHina, I actually want to make the fic one b/c I think that as Hinata stops fainting/stuttering and begins to become herself when speaking to him, it might work. Granted, I'm thinking in terms of when the characters are in their late twenties. XD And the other option, through Sasuke--she also wants to see if his knowledge about his own curse seal might help. So she enlists the help of Tenten, who has fallen into the habit of sparring with Sasuke regularly (this is me doing so b/c Sasuke/Tenten is one of those crack pairings I like to read XD). However, at the very end, she finds out that the curse seal simply can't be removed. At which point she decides that everyone's going to have the curse seal; there will be no Main or Branch House, and everyone having the curse seal will ensure that the Byakugan won't be taken by enemies anyway (the Main House's unsealed status being a bit of a loophole to that original intention).

Oh god that was very tl;dr. >_>

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

And yes, lots of fodder! What I'm thinking right now is that Itachi is transported to canonverse while AUverse is struggling against Akatsuki, and Naruto loses control of the Kyuubi. Kakashi uses his dimensional transport jutsu in combination with Itachi bringing up Susanoo (that sealing sword he has? Tsurugi something?) to get Naruto away from Konoha before he destroys the entire place, but it ends up landing Itachi in canonverse. He wanders about, visits the cat lady and finds out what's happened to the clan in canonverse. Then, he notices some black fire a ways off and goes to investigate; by the time he gets there, the Itachi-Sasuke fight is over and Sasuke's unconscious. Itachi's "dead." (I don't really think that he's dead in the manga. Kishi's been shoving the fact in our faces so blatantly, what with talk of the "corpse" and such, that I'm more inclined to be suspicious.) AU!Itachi decides to get Sasuke out, and is off on his way--and that's all I'm really sure about so far. I was thinking that Tobi and Zetsu might catch up to him and he has to keep them from getting Sasuke, and then the Konoha nin burst in upon the scene...

Well, to be honest, I thought your last few chapters concentrated a lot on Gaara. XD So it all balances out all right. You could probably put in more about Gaara's interactions with Yashamaru, and maybe even with the Kazekage. :)

(I get really, really tl;dr as you can see. >_>)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Sasori would be posing as a first-year. :3 He's a decent ninja, good at deceit. He could do it. When he does get found out, it's actually Deidara's fault. ;) And I do so love torturing Umbridge. XD

Ah, yes, the Kyuubi seal as an inter-time portal. ;) It's firmly established in fanon; you could probably get away with it.

I remember reading a fic that involved Hinata actually not being able to go on extended missions because she was main house and her eyes weren't "protected" by the curse seal. I remember that it made loads of sense at the time. :) The best representation of Hyuuga politics that I've run across so far has been this fiC: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1923074/1/A_House_without_Doors It's only a one-shot, but it's an awesome introspective piece into Hyuuga family life. :)
... It's always nice to read about pushovers being underestimated, then proving their opponents wrong... so very wrong. :3 I really like the idea of Neji being Hinata's "eyes" into the Branch House. :D She could really surprise some of the elders with insights liket hat...
Sasuke/Tenten? Intriguing... and I can see it working! :D So Hinata sparring with Sasuke would be another way of her improving without the Hyuuga elders noticing? I like your idea of the ending, too - ending with her sealing herself. Wow. :)

I'm suspicious as well. I seriously think that Itachi's still alive in the manga. There's too much unexplained for his death to be true. D: (But then again, I thought the same about Sirius, so... ;_; ) I really love your fic idea! Please write it! 'T'would be awesome!

Ha! Yeah, funny you should mention the kazekage... ;) I really should have put another option on my poll in my userprofile: Chiyo. That's all I'm going to blatantly hint for now. ;)


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(forgive my n00bness, but what is the meaning of "tl:dr"? D: )

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

As a first year! XD Oh, now that does sound interesting. I wonder how he would put his puppets to use--and I'm interested in how you're going to explain the compatibility of the HP magic and Naruto chakra systems. :DDD And LOL, everyone loves torturing Umbridge. When I was reading the 5th book, I could barely get through the parts where she appeared, she was that awful. >_>

Thank you for the link! :) And yes, reading about pushovers proving their opponents wrong is just plain awesome (waves to Naruto :D). And I'd like to work on the Neji-Hinata relationship--there's been so much one-sided resentment on Neji's part, and uncertainty/timidity on Hinata's part, and I want to write out how they become close family members. :) Sasuke/Tenten... this is the fic that made me like the pairing. It's only implied (you can see Neji/Tenten as well), but I really liked how their relationship was characterized. :D I'm awfully fond of the irony in the ending.

DID YOU SEE THE SPOILERS? Scroll down till you see the green confirmed mark, but anyway, OH MY GOD. I don't even know what to think, unless the confirmation's false, or Kishi's playing with our minds again. @___@ asdjfkl;asdfjkl;... But anyway. It's on my list of to-do fics. XD

Chiyo! She will be making an appearance then? Hmm... Gaara seeks her out? Or meets her purely by chance? And I wonder what benefit Gaara will gain from interacting with Chiyo at this point in time... :D

tl;dr is online slang for "talk long; don't read," if I remember correctly. It's more often called "teal deer." :P And don't apologize for n00bness, I only learn about these terms at comms like metaquotes and fanficrants when I'm reading the comments. XP

[beboots.livejournal.com]

It would be awesome to see Hinata and Neji's friendship grow! I actually love their brother-sister relationship. I've only read a few good romantic Hinata/Neji fics, but they've always come across as pseudo-inscestuous to me. I mean, I know that they're cousins, but their dads were twins. That makes them, genetically, almost half-siblings. D:

Ooh... thank you for the link! :D It shall be something to read once I've finished my essay tonight... I cannot be distracted now! D:< (Please ignore the fact that I'm on LJ and not in Word... heheh. D: )

What? Spoilers? D: Thank you, but I'm going to wait and get worked up over the scanslations,as much as it pains me to be patient. D:

Haha, you misunderstand me about Chiyo. ;) See, Gaara's going to bump off his father somehow, because he's an abismally bad Kazekage... but of course, nobody wants a six-year-old psychopath as the leader of their village, so someone suitibly old, strong and venerable must take their place... i.e., Chiyo. XD That be my plan. SHHH DON'T TELL ANYBODY!

As for Sasori... yes, it would amuse me to have him as a first year. ;) There shall be Weasley jokes, because of his hair, but he's exceedingly good at creeping people out, so those won't last. ;) He shall be fun to write. Again, he's too good a ninja to give himself away, but it would be fun to write internal dialogue.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I think their brother-sister relationship is really interesting to explore. :D I've read some Neji/Hinata fics as well, but the pairing just doesn't really grab me. I don't mind it, but I don't really look out for it the way I do for pairings I enjoy reading. :P

I hope you like the fic!--I personally loved it myself. :) Although warning--you know how FFN stripped fics of certain scenebreakers?--so in some cases you might notice a sudden shift. That would be FFN's fault. =_=

Ah, okay. I feel like I should do that myself, because then I get the entire thing, but my curiosity always overpowers me. I lack in self-control. XD

OH MY GOD. Chiyo as Kazekage? :DDDDDDD That is utterly, utterly AWESOME! :DDD Hmm, it makes sense though, and it does show us something about Gaara's pragmatism (LOL he's going to get rid of his father even earlier than Orochimaru does XD), and Chiyo's a great character. :DDD I WON'T TELL! I don't want to spoil anything. :DDD

*giggles* I can just imagine his internal commentary on the emotional ups and downs of pre-teenagers. XDDD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

See, I have no self-control either, or I probably wouldn't have spoiled you for my plans for Chiyo. Of course, the challenge will be getting her into that position... Gaara can't publically give her his support, because that would effectively kill her political carreer (if the demon wants someone in power, pick someone else). Plus, I don't think that she's all that fond of him. D: So it will be interesting to think of ways for her to get into power...
Yes, yes... I really am looking forward to writing Sasori's inner commentary. See, the cool thing is he's impatient and not afraid to be sarcastic in CANON, so I have justification to make him really sarcastic in his mind in my fic. :3 I'm also tired of the fandom cliché of having the ninja reveal too much to the wizards through incompetance. I mean, Sasori is an S-class missing-nin... who helped take down A JINCHUURIKI. Who was KAZEKAGE. Sure, he was killed by his GRANDMOTHER of all people, but I think that he let her kill him. ;) So, my Sasori is actually going to be a good (if unwilling) actor, and a scarily competant ninja. Nothing's going to get past him... D:

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yeah, that's true--Gaara's got to do some real behind-the-scenes work if he wants to help make Chiyo the Kazekage without showing his hand. Perhaps he could try and do something through Yashamaru? Or somehow maneuver it so that the Suna council happens to come into more contact with Chiyo on a regular basis over a certain time period; also, Chiyo and her brother seemed to be living by themselves for quite a bit, so perhaps they could be called up for some technique training--maybe with Kankurou?--and they can be introduced more into the picture. Whatever you do, it's sure to be very interesting. :D

I really dislike it when ninja reveal too much in general. In crossover fics, they blurt out everything at once; same with timetravel fics, I've seen a lot in which the timetraveler confides in the first trusted authority figure they meet, and it's just so quick and abrupt (not to mention how quickly the timetraveler adjusts, but anyway...). Yeah, Sasori not moving away from Chiyo's attack was pretty suspect; I feel like he was with Akatsuki because he didn't feel like there was anywhere else he could be, and the prospect of death was almost welcomed, in a way. Competent characters ftw! :D

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I'm up to the challenge! :D It shall be fun to write. Thank you for your ideas, though. :) Perhaps it was through Chiyo that Kankurou first got into puppetry... Hmm...

I know what you mean! Oh, Harry catches a glimpse of an ANBU tattoo, and suddenly he gets the full breakdown of ninja ranks and the shinobi's entire angstful carreer. I mean, come on, they're ninja! D:< They're supposed to be discreet!

I'm trying to make Naruto and Gaara's adjusting to their old selves as believeable as possible. I mean, I figure that they've forgotten little details (it's been so long!) but they ARE good ninja, so they can't screw up dramatically... and I think that you've noticed that Naruto is already showing off a lot more than Gaara. ;)

Oh yes, Sasori's death was very suspicious... :) That's an intersting theory, though, for why he's in the Akatsuki... I suppose missing-nin have to band together or they'll get taken down by hunter-nin...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Now I'm having an inordinate amount of fun imagining Chiyo and Kankurou's first meeting. :P

Exactly! I agree with you one hundred percent; the ninja just tell civilian students so many things that should remain secret, and often times that really chips away at my suspension of disbelief.

Well, Naruto is the kind of person who would show off more than Gaara. XD Granted, Gaara is also in a more dicey position... :P

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Do you have some awesome ideas for Chiyo and Kankurou's first meeting? Would you like to give me suggestions...? ;)

And yep, Naruto is just a bit more careless than Gaara would be... they've both learned to be more discreet over the decades, though. ;)

And just half an hour ago I read the newest Naruto chapter on onemanga.com... But oh my goodness chapter 397!!! D: It makes me want to use excessive amounts of exclamation marks! I mean, GAH Sasuke with one eye with the mangekyou, Tobi's dramatic, two page line about how everything was to protect Sasuke... SQUEE! :DD And the final line... "This man who risked everything to protect the shinobi world, the leaf village, and most of all his little brother... You need to know about Uchiha Itachi's life!"
... and what do they mean, "there will be no Naruto next week"?! D: How can they leave us like that?!

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, I thought that for some reason, Chiyo might be called to the Kazekage's place/council of elders--maybe for more experimentation on warfare/puppets/medic-nin stuff? And the Sand sibs are in the Kazekage's building, and Kankurou runs into Chiyo's legs or something. Upon which Chiyo gives him a rather Demented Look (she's perfectly capable of that >_>) and disturbs Kankurou greatly. Then Gaara, with careful nudging, prompts Kankurou to ask around about what That Strange Woman does, and he scoffs at the puppetry idea.

And then sometime later, Chiyo brings some puppets that she's improved to show to the council/Kazekage (I still don't know why, to be honest >_>), and Kankurou sees them and goes *___* (in a Kankurou-ish way, of course).

Well... that's not a very explosive first meeting. XD But even as a young boy, Kankurou must have been at least somewhat mouthy. :P

I read the newest chapter--OH MY GOD. o____O I can't believe we have to wait two weeks! I hope they don't make Itachi 100% golden boy @_@, I like him morally ambiguous. But--oh my god. I can't possibly wait two weeks! DDD:

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, Kankurou being mouthy. :3 That would indeed work! Perhaps Chiyo would be the kind of person that would enjoy being challenged by people. :3 I also think that she would be a great character to have as Kazekage, mostly working against Gaara. Gaara will have to be very creative to get her to do what he wants without showing his hand...

Two weeks? DD: Nooo! ;_; And what a cliffhanger to leave us with, too! I also like my Itachi morally ambiguous, but I also enjoy reading fics where Itachi is protective of his little brother. You've read that crossover, "Itachi and the Prisoner of Azkaban", right? Right. Good stuff.

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But TWO WEEKS? ARGH! D:

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I would love to see more Chiyo. :DD Gaara may have a hard time, but he's definitely capable of it. :)

I know! Yes, I've read that crossover :D; I enjoyed it, how he was like =_= most of the time and yet still went to save his brother--because he couldn't go through the plan with Shisui in the end. It's a pity the sequel hasn't been updated lately.

And it's so hard to make headway on any Itachi stuff, because everything's just so terribly bewildering right now. o_O

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I know - it's almost a crime that the sequel hasn't been updated. ;_; It's so full of squee and awesomeness... and so original, too! And her Itachi is so in-character... ;_; I want more of that stuff, so badly...
Yes, we need to see more of crotchety old Chiyo. :3 She shall be fun to write.
I know! That's one of the problems I'm having right now with Rise of the Jinchuuriki - the chapter after the one I'm writing right now deals with all of this Uchiha business, and, well, it's difficult. I've already labelled my interpretation A/U, but...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I love the part where Chiyo pretends to be dead and then tries to surprise everyone. XD She has a rather peculiar sense of humor, but it's very entertaining. :D

I'm sort of delaying all the real Uchiha business stuff in mine until later in the fic (luckily I can afford to do that), but it really makes me uneasy that I don't have as good a concrete idea of what the history would be like. At least, I had a solid concept of how it would work BEFORE the Itachi-Sasuke fight began... :/

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I know! This new chapter... it's almost like "revisionist history", if you know what I mean. History is being radically rewritten - Itachi may not be completely evil! (I mean, many of us kind of guessed/hoped that that would be so, but I'm not sure that many of us expected it to turn out this way). But I want to read the next chapter so badly! ;_;
Yes, Chiyo is great. :D Yet another person to write who has interesting inner thoughts...! :D

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

The wait for the next chapter seems like it's going to be an eternity. D: And there's still so much we don't know about Madara either. For instance, what was the cause of that fight between him and the Shodaime? Power-sharing, or was there something else? (Like controlling the bijuu?--considering both of them could control/suppress the bijuu's chakra in some fashion.)

What about Chiyo's brother, too? XD

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about Chiyo's brother... not even his name. D: I do know that they were twins, and that she was the older one, though... I suppose I'll have to do something about him, won't I? Perhaps Gaara convinces him to convince his sister to become Kazekage...? Hmm... Good question. Do you know anything about him?

I, too, want to know more about Madara! D: I still totally believe in the Tobito theory, though. As my English teacher likes to say... we see evidence of "the frying pan of foreshadowing". D: I mean, why else hide Tobi's face, if we've already seen Madara's face in flashbacks?