thedudesareawake

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Jake & Tom Berenson

is this anything??

(Inspired partly by the meta @thejakeformerlyknownasprince wrote about Jake being Cain and Tom being Abel, because that is soooo correct.)

credits: tiktok user blaineunderstudy / animorphs 31 / animorphs 6 / cain slaying abel by pier francesco mola / animorphs 54 / aroarA #6 / cain slaying abel by pier francesco mola / animorphs 31 / icarus by the crane wives / animorphs 54 / cain slaying abel by pier francesco mola / animorphs 54 / after abel by Dante Émile

lumon sending their four craziest bitches on an outdoor retreat with the most overworked man in the company and a child as the only supervision

Timeline of Naruto Universe

For my own purposes, I want to sort out a timeline for how I’d like to believe the events unfolded, starting with the founding of the villages as Year 0. There are a lot of contradictory statements about how old people are, when the village would’ve existed, etc. One clear example: I have to disregard the statement that Hashirama became Hokage 67 years prior to Naruto’s events. Since he was Hokage at the time of Madara’s defection, it was actually 74 years prior to Part II at minimum that Hashirama became Hokage, based on the ages of Hashirama’s grandchildren. 

So a lot of this is going to be 1) pure conjecture and 2) selective reasoning. It’s also not going to pay much mind to birthdays aside from their year date, as that might make this overly complicated. It’s a fruitless endeavour, really, but I thought it’d be fun to try to make sense of it all. Below the dates I have character ages where it is useful or relevant, as well as notes on how it fits into the narrative/in respect to other established dates. I’m sure there are better and more precise ones that exist, but this one’s mostly just for me anyway.

So without further ado, here’s my timeline:

Year 0: Konohagakure is founded; village system established 

Characters: Hashirama and Madara approx. age 25

Notes: Konoha is founded in the years following Izuna’s death, who is approximately 24 when he dies. Madara and Hashirama both appear to be 1-2 years older than their siblings based on their appearances as children.

Keep reading

Naruto's Great Shinobi Wars— aka, Masashi Kishimoto's fucked-up timeline

So. The Great Shinobi Wars are a mess and a half. 

Assuming that the ages given in the official databooks makes sense and that Kishimoto is consistent in his character design when it comes to indications of age (neither of which have proven to be reliable metrics but we gotta start SOMEWHERE), let’s work backwards.

It’s implied that the Third Great Shinobi War ends around the time that Minato became the Fourth Hokage, because of why Hiruzen stepped down: to take the blame of ending the unfruitful campaign and accepting the sunk cost rather than continuing to throw resources into pursuing the war further (which is what Danzo and presumably a fair number of people wanted). Therefore, the Third War had to have ended before Minato and Kushina died and  Naruto was born.

Okay, so Minato was probably the shortest-reigning Hokage of all time. Weird, but not that weird.

We also know that the Third Shinobi War only ended after Kirigakure kidnapped Rin and stuffed the Three-Tails inside her à la Trojan Horse, which occurs several months after the Kannabi Bridge mission featured in Kakashi Gaiden, which in turn takes place when Kakashi is 12. Considering he's listed as age 26 going on 27 in the events of Part One, this event must have happened about three years before Naruto was born.

But the war couldn't have ended before Itachi at age 4 was brought along by his father Fugaku to witness the carnage of a battlefield. Since he was 5 when Sasuke and Naruto were born, that means the Third Great Shinobi War didn’t end until after the 9th of June in the year before Naruto’s birth.

The real question is, how long did the war last?

With the new NARUTOP 99 one-shot, Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind Within the Vortex, we get this one crucial panel.

Kakashi only met Gai once they enrolled into the Academy, and neither of these three kiddos have forehead protectors [hitai-ate] in this image. We know that Kakashi graduated from the Academy as a genin at the age of 5, and that Kakashi is 26 going on 27 in Part One of Naruto. Therefore, Whirlwind in the Vortex must take place around two decades before Part One.

That said, nowhere in this one-shot is it explicitly mentioned which war is being fought. We only know that the conflict involves Konoha and Iwa on opposite sides, which is true of the Third War, yes, but is by no means specifically unique to the Third War. Guess this scene needs to be tabled.

Okay, so what else happened during the Third War?

Ao steals a byakugan from a member of the Hyuga clan. Sasori was out there doing something— likely fighting a defensive front, going by his "Red Sands" [Akasuna] moniker. The Third Tsuchikage reluctantly accepts a peace treaty between Iwa and Konoha delivered by the senior Ino-Shika-Cho trio with the Fourth Kazekage supervising (because they're doing it along the border to the Land of Wind for some reason), with a major contributing factor to his decision being the retreat of a thousand Iwa-nin after Minato said "It's flashin' time" and Yellow-Flashed all over those guys a while before that. The Third Raikage was killed after fighting for three consecutive days in order to cover the retreat of his troops against a large force of an unknown nationality, but most likely either Konoha or Iwa, considering the geography and what little we know of political tensions between the villages. Some time before this, Minato encounters the then-future Fourth Raikage and Killer B and proves himself faster than the lightning cloak by out-speeding them using the Flying Thunder God.

Great. Fantastic. Doesn't tell us anything about when the Third War actually started. Does the wiki have anything?

Because of a decline in national power, the reign of the Five Great Shinobi Countries was crumbling. Along their borders, skirmishes with smaller nations broke out all the time. The prolonged conflicts gradually spread their flames far and wide, until at last it developed into an all-out war.

Fuck's sake, fine, let's also table that. What about the Second War?

Believe it or not, we actually have even less about this one. Sure, there are a lot of major players involved— the Ame orphans were found by the Legendary Sannin and eventually trained by Jiraiya, said Legendary Sannin got their moniker from fighting Hanzo, Hatake Sakumo probably earned his moniker as the "White Fang" and killed Sasori's parents during this time, Chiyo was having her poison-vs-cure production contest with Tsunade, Tsunade's lover Kato Dan died (likely fighting Iwa, based on the nature of his injury), and Tsunade's little brother Nawaki died. It's also highly likely that Kumo's attempt to kidnap Kushina happened around this time, seeing as Minato and Kushina were both Academy-age, aka no more than twelve years old.

And of course, we know fuck-all about everyone's ages at this time— except for Sasori.

This is Studio Pierrot's character reference sheet for the young Sasori that we see in the flashback after his parents have been killed. Now, I know this image isn't of great quality, but you know what his height is listed as? Either 115 cm or 118 cm. I'm willing to bet that Sasori was intended to be around 6 or 7 years old, here, i.e. 28 or 29 years before his appearance in Shippuden whereupon his age is listed as 35. Doing a bit of arithmetic reveals that this would have been 11 to 12 years before Naruto's birth. This lines up with Minato's age— he and Kushina were both still in the Academy when Kumo tried to kidnap Kushina, aka no more than 12 years old, and we know that Minato died when he was age 24.

Okay, so now we're getting somewhere! The Second Great Shinobi War ended at the earliest around a dozen years before Naruto's birth, and the Third Great Shinobi War ended about a year before that. How about the First War?

This is my favourite one to talk about, actually, because of the sheer chaos of it. This is the war in which the hidden villages realized they maybe shouldn't keep sending their leaders out onto the battlefield because you know what happened? So many fucking Kage died, and their militaries were left scrambling in the wake.

The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, is implied to have croaked last among all of the Kage who did die— killed by the Gold and Silver Brothers (or at least the platoon that the two were infamous for having led). Second Tsuchikage Muu assumes it was Tobirama who reanimated him and his three peers during that one scene during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, after all.

The Second Tsuchikage and Second Mizukage killed each other, which is weird if you consider how far away the Land of Earth and the Land of Water are from each other, but... eh.

The First Raikage died sometime before the failed attempt at a peace treaty between Kumo and Konoha, because it's the Second Raikage who's depicted next to Tobirama in this panel addressing that:

Likewise, the First Tsuchikage Ishikawa, First Mizukage Byakuren, and First Hokage Senju Hashirama must have all died prior to the above events. The only one who we don't know for sure died in this war is the First Kazekage Reto, but come on. Reto is listed to have been age 58 at the time of his death, and Kishimoto clearly drew him with those lines around his eyes that he tends to only give characters who are 30 or older. Considering all the other First Kage died in this war and the twenty years of peace that supposedly followed, I think we can say that Reto did as well.

The war's outbreak plunged the world into a chaos not seen since the end of the Warring States Period, for which reason there are very few records about the war. According to Ōnoki, the war was a result of countries and their hidden villages taking resources from other countries and other hidden villages; Madara Uchiha's demand that Iwagakure be subservient to Konohagakure is implied to be the first such example of this.

The first sentence from this excerpt implies that there was a period of peace following the founding of the hidden villages, before the First Great Shinobi War broke out.

Now we have our basic information! Wonderful! Let me toss together a basic timeline using this info and see what we can do about the gaps.

[Year 1]

Konohagakure is founded.

Because of course they were the first hidden village, right? At least, we're never given any indication that there was another before them that Madara and Hashirama were inspired by, so long as you ignore anime filler. The feudal lords [daimyo] of nearby nations would logically have felt threatened at this unity of what had once been splintered, scattered clans of shinobi, now working together for Fire's feudal lord and stronger for it, so the order for shinobi to unify is given out in other lands as well. It's very likely that the countries which ended up being part of the Five Great Nations were the first five to do so while the rest scrambled and lost land to this new, stronger system of fighting forces. We can also assume that Uzushio was another of the earlier ones, due to the formation of their allyship with Konoha under Uzumaki Ashina and Senju Hashirama's leaderships, respectively.

The Warring States era ends.

[Year 3]

The future Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, is born as the grandson of the First Tsuchikage, Ishikawa. His age is listed as 79 during Shippuden.

[Year 8]

[10] Chiyo (Sunagakure elder) is born. Her age is listed as 73 during Shippuden, but every single one of her appearances takes place before what would have been her birthday that year.

[Year 9]

[02] The future Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, is born to the Sarutobi clan head Sarutobi Sasuke.

[Year 10]

[01] Ebizo (Sunagakure elder and Chiyo's younger brother) is born. His age is listed as 72 during Shippuden.

[Year 15]

Uchiha Madara (somewhere in his 30s, going off of the lines under his eyes) travels to Iwa to proclaim Konoha's superiority.  The then-future Second Tsuchikage Muu and his student Onoki (who is drawn to look around the same age as the Rookie Nine when they first graduate, ergo 12 is a reasonable estimate of age) fight Madara. This is based on both Onoki's flashback and Madara's recognition of Onoki as an established shinobi with a moniker, "Fence-Sitter", during the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama (both in their 30s, both with the age-lines around their eyes) clash, seemingly killing Madara and creating the Valley of the End.

[Year 16] 

The first Five Kage Summit is held.

In attendance are First Hokage Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama from Konoha, First Kazekage Reto and Shamon from Suna, First Tsuchikage Ishikawa and Muu from Iwa, First Raikage A and… A from Kumo, and First Mizukage Byakuren and the unnamed future Third Mizukage from Kiri.

As a gesture of goodwill, Konoha divides the captured tailed beasts to the other nations, based on how much they’re willing to pay: the Three-Tails and Six-Tails to Kiri, the Four-Tails and Five-Tails to Iwa, the Two-tails and Eight-Tails to Kumo. The Nine-Tails is kept within Konoha. It's unknown what happened to the Seven-Tails and when or how it ended up with Takigakure.

Due to Suna having already captured the Ichibi on their own, the First Kazekage demands a plot of fertile land and thirty percent of the monetary value from what the other nations would pay instead of a tailed beast. This enrages several of the other attendees to the point of threatening war, which is not followed through on immediately but gives rise to high tensions between the five major hidden villages. 

Sometime around this period, a shinobi from Takigakure named Kakazu (in his 20s) is ordered to assassinate Hashirama but fails. His age in Shippuden is given as 91. I assume this attempt takes place while Madara is out of the picture for whatever reason due to his utter lack of mentioning the Uchiha, because we all know that dramatic bastard wouldn't not fight Kakuzu given the circumstance.

[Year 16≥]

The First Great Shinobi War begins.

We can extrapolate that at the very least, Konoha was fighting Kumo and Iwa was fighting Kiri. Due to the wiki calling this a war over resources and Suna's prior statements during the Five Kage Summit, they were most probably also involved, but to what degree and against who I can't say.

The First Tsuchikage Ishikawa is killed; Muu is instated as the Second Tsuchikage.

The First Mizukage Yamashiro Byakuren is killed; Hozuki Gengetsu is instated as the Second Mizukage.

The First Raikage is killed; A (the First Raikage’s aide during the first Five Kage Summit) is instated as the Second Raikage.

First Kazekage Reto (58) is assassinated by an unknown party for unknown reasons. Shamon is instated as the Second Kazekage. During his reign, Shamon funnels considerable funding into expanding and improving the Puppet Brigade in order to decrease the casualties of Suna's flesh-and-blood shinobi.

[Year 27]

[08] The future Fifth Hokage, Senju Tsunade, is born as the granddaughter of First Hokage Senju Hashirama.

[10] Orochimaru is born.

[11] Jiraiya is born.

[Year 29≥]

First Hokage Senju Hashirama dies to causes that are never revealed in canon. Senju Tobirama is instated as the Second Hokage. 

Second Hokage Tobirama and Second Raikage A meet to discuss a peace treaty, but are interrupted by a rebel Kumo faction led by the Gold and Silver Brothers. It's possible that the Second Raikage died during this event— he's really never mentioned chronologically after this point. I assume this meeting took place after Hashirama's death because the Fourth Raikage refers to Tobirama by his Kage title when describing these events in chapter 527 of the manga, but it's also possible that A only did so out of respect and not because Tobirama was actually Hokage at the time. Stick this event wherever in the timeline, I guess.

The Second Tsuchikage Muu (30≥) and Second Mizukage Hozuki (30≥) Gengetsu kill each other in battle. Onoki (20s) and the First Mizukage's unnamed aide from the first Five Kage Summit are instated as the Third Tsuchikage and the Third Mizukage, respectively.

The future Third Kazekage is born.

Roshi, the Four-Tails' jinchuuriki, is probably also born around this time, considering he appears as an adult while fighting Jiraiya and Minato during Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind in the Vortex.

Second Hokage Tobirama (late 40s, maybe?) is killed. Sarutobi Hiruzen (20s) is instated as the Third Hokage.

[Year 30≤]

The First Great Shinobi War ends.

The Five Great Nations sign an armistice. Note that the First and Second Great Shinobi Wars have been stated by the wiki to reflect the First and Second World Wars from real life, and so does this armistice, which allows for twenty years of peace in accordance to the irl armistice.

Second Kazekage Shamon researches Tailed Beasts with the intent to gain mastery over the Shukaku. It's likely that no perfect jinchuuriki exists at this point in time.

[Year 38]

[03] The future Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, is born.

It's also likely that Pakura of the Scorch Release was also born around this time.  

[Year 40] Akimichi Choza, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Nara Shikaku are born in Konohagakure.

[Year 41] [01] The future Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, is born.

[06] The future Fourth Raikage, A, is born as the oldest and only biological son of the Third Raikage, A.

[07] The eventual second jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails, Uzumaki Kushina, is born.

[Year 43]

[05] Yashamaru is born. Here's a surprise: he and his sister Karura are canonically NOT twins, although it should be noted that he is the younger of the two.

[Year 45]

The Ame Orphans— Yahiko, Konan, and Uzumaki Nagato— are born. 

[Year 46] [05] The eventual jinchuuriki of the Eight-Tails, Killer B, is born.

[08] Namiashi Raidou is born.

[11] Sasori is born. Despite being listed as age 35 in Shippuden, his appearance occurs before his birthday that year, and so I have him as being born in Year 46 instead of Year 47.

Sometime between now and Kushina's succession of Mito as the Nine-Tails' jinchuuriki, Uzushiogakure falls. We know this because of Mito's dialogue with Kushina during a flashback from Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind in the Vortex in which Mito says that the Uzumaki clan is scattered.

[Year 48]

[07] Shiranui Genma is born.

[Year 50]

The Second Great Shinobi War begins 

Many of the minor countries are ravaged as they become battlegrounds for the other Great Nations during this war. Uzushiogakure has already fallen at this point, even before the official beginning of this war, one of the inciting incidents.

We know that Suna and Konoha were fighting because of Chiyo and Tsunade's back-and-forth. By virtue of the country that Amegakure is located in being a major battleground, Suna and Konoha were also fighting Ame.

Konoha and Iwa were also implied to have been fighting, based on how fearfully those Iwa-nin were referring Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, during the Kannabi Bridge Mission from the Third War. Presumably, Sakumo got that moniker during the Second War, seeing as he's likely around the same age as the Sannin and therefore would have been too young to fight in the First War.

The Ame Orphans become... well, orphans. Nagato's parents are specifically killed by Konoha-nin, who mistook them for combatants instead of civilians.

The Second Kazekage Shamon (50s) is assassinated sometime around this era. The unnamed Third Kazekage is instated.

[03] Ebisu is born.

[10] Sarutobi Asuma is born as one of the Third Hokage's two sons.

[11] The future second or third jinchuuriki of the Three-Tails, Nohara Rin, is born. Shizune is also born, as the niece of Tsunade's lover, Kato Dan.

[Year 51] 

[01] Maito Gai is born.

[02] Uchiha Obito is born.

[03] Morino Ibiki is born.

Namikaze Minato (10) graduates from the Shinobi Academy. Jiraiya becomes the jounin-sensei of Team 6, which is comprised of Minato, another male genin named Dekai, and a third ungendered and unnamed genin (who looks suspiciously like a member of the Uchiha clan).

[06] Yuhi Kurenai is born.

[05] The future Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei, is born.

[09] Hatake Kakashi is born as the son of the White Fang, Hatake Sakumo.

[Year 52]

Nagato (6) meets Yahiko and Konan (7).

Sasori's parents/Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law are killed by Hatake Sakumo.

[Year 53] 

Sasori (7) becomes a genin. 

Uzumaki Kushina (12) graduates from the Academy, and Kumogakure makes a failed attempt to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina. I'm putting this event here in the timeline because she has her forehead protector [hitai-ate] during this fiasco in the image below, and also because her shinobi identification number is #007310 compared to Minato's #006510, suggesting that she graduated after he did.

Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya (25-26) gain their “Legendary Sannin” moniker through fighting— and being spared by— Hanzo of the Salamander in the minor country where Amegakure is located.

Nagato (7), Yahiko, and Konan (8) meet the Sannin. Jiraiya begins training them. I can only guess that Minato and the rest of Team 6 either got promoted to chunin and have thus officially disbanded or have been ditched for the time being??? We never get a chunin promotion age for Minato, but it isn't out of the realm of plausibility for a genius like him to have done so at or even before age 12. In fact, a lot of young Konoha-nin who have a record of wartime service got their chunin promotions very young (Genma at 13; Asuma at 12; Rin, Obito, and Gai at 11???).

[Year 54] 

Sasori (8) becomes a chunin. 

Maki, the eventual genin student of Pakura of the Scorch Release, is born.

[11] Gekko Hayate is born.

[Year 55]

[05] Umino Iruka is born.

[08] Yamato/Tenzo is born.

Jiraiya (28) leaves the country where Amegakure is located after three-ish years of covert ops and training Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan (10). The trio infiltrate Amagakure's shinobi system for further training and also networking to start creating Yahiko’s iteration of the Akatsuki, while Jiraiya returns to Konoha and reconnects with one of his old genin students, taking the future Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato (14) as his apprentice. It's highly likely that Minato masters the Flying Thunder God technique around this time.

[Year 56]

[06] Utakata, the eventual jinchuuriki of the Six-Tails, is born.

The events of Naruto Gaiden: Whirlpool in the Vortex takes place. Told you we'd come back to this! Remember, Kakashi was born in Year 51, so by mid- to late-spring (considering the Japanese school year starts in the spring, not autumn), he should be familiar enough with Gai and Obito for this manga panel to be plausible.

Meaning Minato is 15 when he, Jiraiya, and the rest of Team 6 encounters Iwa's two jinchuuriki. Although they end up retreating, Minato becomes inspired by the Tailed Beast Bomb to create the Rasengan.

So now we know that this one-shot takes place during the Second War! But you know what's also implied to happen when Kakashi is age 5?

Yeah, Sakumo's thing.

Konoha's White Fang chooses to save his squad rather than complete a mission that he deems likely to fail, and upon his return, is ostracized for it. Sakumo commits seppuku in order to restore his (and by extension, Kakashi's) honor before his son even graduates from the Academy. And then—

The Second Great Shinobi War ends.

[Year 57] 

Hatake Kakashi (5, going on 6) graduates from the Academy in March.

[Year 58]

Kakashi (6, going on 7) gets promoted to chunin.

[Year 58≥] 

The Third Great Shinobi War begins. 

Essentially a continuation of the Second War, the Third seems almost like fighting for fighting’s sake. We once again have Konoha vs Iwa, Konoha vs Kumo, and Konoha vs Kiri. Sasori fighting a defensive front on his home soil (based off of his Red Sand moniker, i.e. enemy blood spilled on the sand) suggests conflict with either one of the minor countries, Iwa, and/or Konoha. I think there's a hint of Iwa vs Kumo, too, but I can't find a source for why my brain thinks that outside of speculation. If we go by an anime filler statement from Pakura during a flashback (episode 285), Suna was also fighting against Iwa and Kiri, which may explain how Suna and Konoha ended up as allies by the time of the events of Part One— the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

According to said filler, this should also be around the time that...

Pakura was sent on a mission to stop Iwagakure's plans during their feud with Suna. She successfully accomplished the mission and was hailed as a hero by the village.

Also, Namikaze Minato has an encounter with the future Fourth Raikage, A, and the jinchuuriki of the Eight Tails, Killer B some time early on in this war, presumably before Minato gets his genin team based on their absence in this scene. Minato's Flying Thunder God proves to be faster than A's lightning cloak in combat.

[Year 60]

[02] Hozuki Mangetsu is born as the older brother of Hozuki Suigetsu. I chose to place this event here in the timeline after working backwards from Mangetsu's youthful teenage appearance in his reanimated form from the Fourth War, which doesn't look to be more than 17 or 18 years old. We know that he had to have died after a long enough time to master multiple of Kiri's legendary swords and gain some international renown, but also before Suigetsu ended up as one of Orochimaru's test subjects (because Suigetsu knows that his brother is dead when straight out the gate of his first appearance in Shippuden). Narratively speaking, it would be pretty cool for his reanimated self to be the same age as Suigetsu is during Shippuden, or for him and Suigetsu to have a similar age gap compared to Itachi and Sasuke.

Ebisu (10), Gai (9), Rin (9), Obito (9), Asuma (9), and Kurenai (9) graduate from the Academy, based off of the info found in the databooks. I have no idea what Kakashi (8) has been doing in the meantime (fanon likes to say that he got taken on as an apprentice by someone, usually Minato but sometimes another jounin like Aburame Shibi), but it's only now that this iteration of Team Seven is formed. As for the chunin exams... ugh. We'll get to that in a bit.

[06] Itachi Uchiha is born.

Danzo sabotages the first iteration of the Akatsuki. Yahiko (15) dies. Hanzo of the Salamander is killed by Uzumaki Nagato (15).

[Year -]

Some time between Year 60 and Year 62, a genin team comprised of Gai (10), Genma (12-13), and Ebisu (11) are cornered on a mission by the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure: Munashi Jinpachi’s predecessor, Hozuki Mangetsu’s predecessor, Jinin Akebino, Kushimaru Kuriarare, Raiga Kurosuki, Jūzō Biwa, and Fuguki Suikazan. Gai’s father, Might Dai, buys time for the genin to escape and kills all but the last three listed swordsmen using the Eight Gates (in the anime, that is— in the manga, it's implied that he kills all but Fuguki Suikazan, who is the only one that we see chronologically after this point in time during one of Kisame's flashbacks).

[Year 62] 

Assuming this first of two chunin exams (recall how chapter 39 of the manga mentions that Konoha holds the Chunin Exams twice a year) is held before the summer, Genma (13), Gai (11), Obito (11) and Rin (11, going on 12) are promoted to chunin. However, this is NOT the chunin exams depicted in the flashback where Kishimoto forgot about his timeline, threw in a bunch of minor characters into the background willy-nilly, and made Kakashi a chunin. In fact, you could argue that any or all of the above-mentioned promotions were doled out for excellent performance in the field rather than during an exam, even, aka a field promotion, and nothing would be contradicting you.

Sasori (15) defects from Sunagakure and becomes a rogue ninja. I'm putting this event here in the timeline because Kankuro mentions (in chapter 251 of the manga) that it's been over twenty years since Sasori left. Therefore, the Third Kazekage (30s, based on the age-lines that are drawn around his eyes) is assassinated around now as well. Rasa (24) is instated as the Fourth Kazekage. 

[08] Temari is born as the only daughter to the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa (24).

The events of Naruto Shippūden the Movie: The Lost Tower occur at this point in the timeline, since it's stated to be 20 years in the past from Shippuden. Of course, this is a non-canon movie, so it's whatever, but I thought I'd toss this in here for funsies. If you're writing a Suna-centric story like I am, roundabout now would be a fun time to have Sunagakure destroy Roran :D

[Year 63]

[05] Deidara is born, based on his listed age during Shippuden being 19.

[06] Kaguya Kimimaro is born, based on his listed age during Part One of Naruto being 15.

Team Ino-Shika-Cho (23) delivers a request for a peace treaty to Iwa shinobi on the border to the Land of Wind. Rasa (26) shows up with a large force to facilitate the exchange. 

Kakashi (12) is promoted to jounin, and the Kannabi Bridge mission takes place while Minato slaughters enough Iwa-nin for the remainder of the once thousand-strong force to retreat.

[Year -]

The Third Raikage dies from chakra exhaustion after three continuous days of fighting in order to give his troops time to retreat. His son, A, is instated as the Fourth Raikage.

Sometime in between the Kannabi Bridge mission and Minato's inauguration, Rin (13) is kidnapped by Kiri-nin, has the Three-Tails sealed inside of her, and commits suicide via Kakashi's chidori through her chest.

[Year 64]

[05] Kankuro is born as the son of Fourth Kazekage Rasa. 

[06] Itachi turns four and is led by his father Fugaku to see a battlefield.

Due to outcry from either withdrawing from the war or agreeing to terms of a peace treaty (likely the one with Iwa from earlier, but also possibly an alliance treaty with Suna that we see from OG Naruto— you'll see why Kumo's not an option here in a bit) that are viewed as unfavourable by the public, Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen voluntarily steps down from office. Namikaze Minato is instated as the Fourth Hokage.

[07] Hyuga Neji is born.

[11] Rock Lee is born.

The Third Great Shinobi War...

Well, it doesn't end so much as lose steam. This war was noted to be particularly bad in terms of casualties, so I wouldn't be surprised if there simply weren't enough able-bodied soldiers for a viable war effort at this point. However, it should be noted that Konoha and Kumo still have beef.

[Year 65]

[02] Hozuki Suigetsu is born.

[03] Ten Ten is born.

[05] Akimichi Chouji is born.

[06] Uzumaki Karin is born.

[07] Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Sasuke are born.

[09] Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru are born.

[10] Uzumaki Naruto is born. The Kyuubi is let loose on Konoha by a masked man. Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina die while sealing it away.

[12] Hyuga Hinata is born.

[Year 66]

[01] Gaara is born. His mother, Karura, dies. Aburame Shino is born.

[03] Sakura is born.

Sometime around this period, Fourth Kazekage Rasa sends Pakura of the Scorch Release to Kiri as an envoy for... reasons. It's implied that someone (Sunagakure's council, Wind Country's feudal lord, idk take your pick) isn't happy about the terms of the peace treaty that was signed between the Land of Wind and the Land of Water? Either way, Pakura is killed in an ambush by Kiri-nin and dies thinking that her village betrayed her. Suna promptly blames the death of their hero on Iwa, which could be one reason for the hostility in that one scene of a Suna-nin and Iwa-nin butting heads during the very start of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, just before Gaara gives his big speech.

Sorry, I know it's hard to tell here, but that's an Iwa-nin and Suna-nin talking smack here.

[Year 68]

[12] Neji receives the Caged Bird Seal on Hinata's third birthday. A peace treaty between Kumo and Konoha is also due to be signed that very night, only to give way to the events of the Hyuga Affair.

[Year 72]

Rasa orders Yashamaru (28-29) to test Gaara's control over the One-Tail. Gaara (6) accidentally contributes to his uncle's death, kinda? Suna seems like its economic situation takes a turn for the worse around this time (not that it was ever great), probably due in part to all the infrastructural damage caused by the One-Tail's rampaging.

[Year 78]

[03] The Rookie Nine graduate from the Academy (see: the Japanese school year ends in March).

[07] The first, second, and preliminary phases of the Chunin Exams take place.

[08] The final phase of the Chunin Exams takes place and is interrupted by Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha.

[Year 82]

Shippuden babyyyyy yeahhh (I am so done with this timeline).

Sakura Haruno fic recs: romance-centric

I, like many others, definitely enjoy a a good romance every so often. All of these recs are going to have the romantic development of the characters as the forefront of the story, so just because the fic includes a ship doesn't mean it will go on the list. That means, many of them might feel more on the slice of life side of the spectrum, but that's not the case for all!!

There is going to be a mix of ships here so if you're interested in one in specific then use the search feature!

Started: 2024.08.28

Last Updated: 2024.12.19

note: feel free to check out my master list which has a bunch of Sakura Haruno fic recs (all organized)!

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To Build a Home - RedPowder || ao3 || E || kakasaku || canon divergence || ongoing

Sakura and Kakashi are assigned a mission that will change the path of their lives forever.

Kakashi and Sakura are forced to marry on orders from the village and I know that description sounds dumb, but trust me when I say this fic is gold. I've always had a hard time with kakasaku fics because I feel the whole teacher/student thing gets swept under the rug too easily, but that's not the case here. Their past relationship from team 7 is a glaring shadow over their marriage and the guilt over the whole situation weighs heavy on Kakashi. This mission isn't easy for either of them and it takes a lot of pull and tug to ensure things don't completely blow up. To Build a Home is probably one of my favorite takes on this ship as the portrayal feels realistic and the character feel accurate to themselves. Just give it a go!

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Approaching Sun - ANerdInAllHerGlory || ffn || T || sasusaku || blank period || ongoing

After 2 years, Sasuke returns to the village where friends anxiously await him. Still troubled by the mysteries of Kaguya and his personal guilt, Sasuke is split between friends and his journey. Troubled by rising casualties and international dependence on her abilities, Sakura is torn between her love for Sasuke and her duty to her village.

Approaching Sun is probably one of the most realistic depictions of Sasuke and Sakura's relationship that I have read. This takes place during the blank period and references the novels, so it feels like an actual possibility of what went down. As much as I love them, I have a hard time believing that their relationship was smooth sailing and so I think this is an interesting take.

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The Fool - thekatthatbarks || ao3 || T || shikasaku || blank period || complete

Ino kicked at a pebble on the ground, her arms folded across her chest. “How long?” Shikamaru sighed and pulled the cigarette away from his lips. “The war." It was a lie somewhat. He’d liked her since they were kids but had simply ignored the budding crush expecting it to fade over time. It hadn’t and by the time the war came around, he accepted he would always carry it despite his increasing efforts to drop it. He’d tried drowning it in the river, burning it in a fire, covering it up with something else. But it was all to no avail. It stuck with him, always apart of him. “Have you ever told anyone? Chouji? Her?” "No."

I actually really like Shikamaru and Sakura as a pairing (or just working together in general); however, I haven't read much of them. The Fool was a great post-war read where with some meddling (curtesy of Ino) we get to watch the progression of their relationship into something more than friends.

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Nightmare in Red - Sariasprincy || ao3 || M || itasaku || non-massacre AU || complete

Haruno Sakura used to think the eyes were the windows to the soul, but after witnessing the horrors of the Sharingan firsthand, she's convinced they are the doors. It was pure chance that led Sakura to the discovery of the disease eating through Uchiha Itachi's lungs and now that she's aware, she knows she cannot just turn a blind eye. But how is she to treat the very man who tortured her while at the same time keep her nightmares from consuming her? That she doesn't know, but she knows she has to try, even if it nearly kills her in the end.

Itachi unintentionally captures Sakura in his mangekyou after being rolled into the hospital for her to heal. While Sakura tries to work through the impacts of the genjutsu she continues to work with him in an effort to cure him of the disease infecting his body. I actually really liked how the whole thing played out. Itachi's sickness was sort of a mystery in the original series and so I found it rather interesting to see what was done in regards to it. Anyway, I love their interactions and Shisui is (like always) a great character as well.

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Blind - ObsidianSickle || ffn || sasusaku || T || canon divergent || complete

It was almost time, Orochimaru was going to take his body as a vessel. He hated being used...he refused to be used. With that thought, he took the kunai in his hand and slashed across his eyes.

I won't lie, Sakura is pretty weak in Blind and the whole thing is super cheesy, but it's still an enjoyable read.

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Ghosts - ElegiesforShiva || ffn || sausaku || M || blank period || incomplete

In love and loss, it often comes back to family, and Team 7 had always been fated, hadn't they? Deny it as she may, Sakura finds her heart strung to them with an uncanny reverence and the weight of their ghosts. Sakura-centric. Heavy, heavy angst. Slow burn Sasusaku. Canon pairings. Lots of friendship feels. Eventual (consensual) lemon.

Ghosts is a pretty dark read where basically everyone is suffering. Sasuke and Sakura in specific have an especially hard time coping with their individual struggles yet they find comfort in each other. Check TWs before going in

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Home is Where the Heart is - DeepPoeticGirl || ffn || sasusaku || T || blank period || complete

And with every moment together, they get just a little closer, a little more comfortable with each other. Fall a little more in love. Post-war. Pre-epilogue.

This fic is actually adorable! Taking place during the black period we get to see how Sasuke and Sakura's relationship slowly progresses. If you've always wondered what their travels were like then definitely check this one out.

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In Times of Peace - SouthSideStory || ffn || sasusaku || M || blank period || canon divergent || complete

The war is over, and like Konoha, Team 7 has rebuilt itself from the ground up. Everything has changed, but Sasuke and Sakura remain much the same. Eleven years, she thinks, is a long time to be in love.

Sakura and Sasuke have like a secret relationship going on. Also, Sakura as a jonin sensei is so good!! I really wish that someone from the original cast actually went down that route, but whatever.

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Labyrinthine - FM_White || ao3 || itasaku || M || canon divergence || complete

ItaSaku (Post Uchiha Massacre) AU: Some things are destined to be. It just takes a couple of tries to get there.ItaSaku. Light KakaSaku.

I actually really liked how this was done as team 7 is still a family, Sasuke didn't lose his mind, Itachi picked a much more respectable path imo, and the characters are all adults.

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Only a Crush by Gingersoup || ao3 || kakasaku || M || canon divergent || complete

It was supposed to be an easy, fun night out. She never intended to wake up in her sensei's bed, half-naked and with no memory of what happened the night before! As she tries to unravel the mystery of that night, something sinister is growing beyond the walls of the Leaf Village... and what was only a crush spirals wildly out of control.

Sakura is unwillingly thrust into the world of illegal drugs, trafficking, and sex all while coming to terms with her new feelings regarding her former sensei. I typically don't like kakasaku, but I think this work is done tastefully well. The characters are both adults and the immorality of the relationship is not ignored, so be prepared for a lot of "we can't," "this is wrong," etc.. Anyway, Sakura is an absolute powerhouse and I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between all of the different characters and villages!

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Dreaming's End - thepiedsniper || ao3 || T || kakasaku || canon divergence || complete

Sakura didn't avoid the Infinite Tsukuyomi with the others, and all the events that happened afterward were simply the product of her dream-state. When Sakura finally wakes up from years spent in her personal "paradise," she must to learn how to start again. Kakashi is there to help her. ~*~ (TWs for genjutsu-related unreality)

Basically, imagine the entirety of Boruto was Sakura's dream in Infinite Tsukuyomi. When Sakura manages to breakout during the war she's left to deal with serious ramifications of the life she just lived. She finds herself constantly questioning what's real and Kakashi tries to help her through it.

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Mamihlapinatapai - FM_White || ao3 || E || itasaku || canon divergence || ongoing

Mamihlapinatapai・Yagan. (n.) a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something they both desire, but which neither wants to begin In which Sakura tries her hardest to raise one hell of a rambunctious baby by herself, Sasuke is searching for something unknown, and Itachi is the uncle.

In another life where Itachi doesn't end up dying and instead tries his best to help Sakura raise his niece in Sasuke's absence. It's my head canon that everyone came together to help with Sarada just like they did for Kuranai, and so Mamihlapinatapi satisfies that thought for me. I like how Sasuke was criticized in this since as much as I understand the necessity of what he's doing, I also find it completely unfair to his wife and daughter. Itachi and Sakura form a great bond and it's all very domestic and just super fluffy all around, which I love.

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Louder than Words - SouthSideStory || ao3 || T || sasusaku || non-massacre AU || complete

Sakura hasn’t uttered a single word since the day her family died, but Sasuke is determined to hear her, one way or another. (No Uchiha massacre AU.)

Sakura gets taken in by the Uchiha family after Fugaku finds her on a mission. She's been mute ever since, but that doesn't stop her and Sasuke from forming a close bond.

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Snake Bound - shefalls || ao3 || E || sasusaku || canon divergence || complete

"You... took me with you." "That's what I said." "To Orochimaru. You took me with you, to Orochimaru." Sasuke nodded curtly and shoved the medical kit a little more insistently into her hands. Sakura accepted, and prayed to every known god that Orochimaru would ignore her existence. She should've known the gods don't listen. Now only on AO3. Sequel up.

What if Sasuke took Sakura with him like she asked? Snake Bound explores that idea and it's honestly a very uncomfortable read. Their relationship is based off of the isolation and dependency their new situation puts them in. All they really have is each other and the new bond that brings is not a healthy one.

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Armour-Sleeved Single Hit - thatdamnuchiha || ao3 || T || madasaku || time travel AU || one-shot complete

Sasuke always told Sakura she was weak. Even after she trained with Tsunade for years he only had eyes for Naruto whom he considered strong. She would forever be invisible to him no matter how many mountains she toppled.Being a member of Team Seven despite Sasuke’s refusal to acknowledge her meant she got herself into her fair share of sticky situations. Getting stuck a hundred odd years in the past had to take the cake though.But she was just a weak little girl and compared to the shinobi of old she’d be ridiculously pathetic. Sasuke had said she was weak to him – a modern day shinobi who hadn’t been forced into battle after battle like they did in the Warring Clans Era. Obviously she’d be nothing more than a spec of dirt in the eyes of the Founders.

Sakura manages to find herself in founding-era Konoha! While trying to prove that medical ninja are capable fighters she unknowingly gains the affection of Madara Uchiha. After all, the Uchiha find beauty in strength. Super cute read!

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Always You - alex-halcyon || ffn || T || kakasaku || age swap AU || complete

[AU. Age-swap] Kakashi x Sakura. From academy days to the third shinobi war and beyond, Kakashi and Sakura grow up and fall in love.

Basically, Sakura takes Rin's place on the old team 7. The progression between the character is quite interesting as it definitely isn't smooth sailing for Kakashi and Sakura. However, even through everything they find themselves drifting towards each other. Pretty cute imo.

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interim - stannide || ao3 || T || sasusaku || blank period || one-shot complete

Sasuke lives with Sakura in the weeks after the war.

Interim is such a wholesome read where Sasuke and Sakura rekindle their former relationship. Super fluffy

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Tozette || ao3 || T || sasusaku || blank period || one-shot complete

Sasuke is actually eighteen the first time he looks at Sakura and realises abruptly that he wants her.

I think we all know by now that Sasuke has always been attracted to strength, power, so why not when it comes to romance? Essentially, one day on a mission, Sasuke discovers he has a strength kink. Watching him continuously get flustered throughout the fic because of his admiration towards Sakura's strength is so entertaining. Really fun read

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the problem with how time works - MurderMittens || ao3 || E || kakasaku || generation swap AU || complete

"I don't remember you being this uncomfortable when Kakashi was nine and had a crush on you," Ino pointed out neutrally. "You thought it was flattering before." She moved to pour more wine into their glasses as Sakura exhaled sharply out of her nostrils. "Obviously! It was fucking cute when he was a kid! But now he's..." she trailed off, gesticulating feebly. Ino, taking pity on her, finished the sentence: "Now he's a stone cold hottie who looks and sounds like he'd murder the ever-loving shit out of your vagina."

Sakura and Kakashi's generations swap place and boy is it entertaining. With Naruto as his sensei, of course Kakashi has met Sakura. Now that she's back in the village after years, Kakashi decides to try his best to win her over.

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on still water - summersirius || ao3 || T || shisaku || canon divergence || complete

and sometimes, there are days without rain. —shisui/sakura

I'm actually devastated that the author decided to not pursue the plot line after about chapter 15 (it was so good too), but On Still Water is great nonetheless. Some really cute Shisui x Sakura moments

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never let 'em know your next move - MirrorImage003 || ao3 || T || itasaku || non-massacre AU || one-shot complete

six times itachi is surprised by sakura, and the one time he's surprised by his mother.

Sort of drabble style moments between Itachi and Sakura and it's honestly adorable.

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Hatsukoi - sparklyfaerie || ao3 || sasusaku || gen || non-massacre AU || complete

Sasuke leans away as the girl turns to him, and his mother doesn't need to be any closer to guess as to the expression on his face. The girl's body language changes in an instant, and Mikoto recognizes the posture of a little girl in love. It's kind of adorable.

Probably one of the cutest sasusaku fics I have read as Hatsukoi follows them from genin to marriage! It's told in multiple perspectives and it's full of tooth rotting fluff. You get to watch the slow progression of their relationship over time and how they grow even closer in Naruto's absence. Definitely read is you want something light!

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(oh, you'll probably go to heaven) please don't hang your head & cry - SafelyCapricious || ao3 || T || itasaku || time travel AU || one-shot complete

There’s no such thing as a good death. But Sakura faces her death without any regrets. Her dying is keeping her precious people safe — and that’s all she can ask for. So she dies with a smile, taking thousands of enemies with her. She wakes up and falls off the branch she’s laying on.

More of a pre-ship than anything actually romantic, so maybe this isn't the best for this list lmao.

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Ghost - twilightdazzle || ffn || M || sasusaku || canon divergence || complete

Sakura is officially declared missing on a Wednesday morning. Wednesday, what a stupid day to go missing. Of course, Sakura is the only person he knows that is annoying enough to interrupt the middle of the week like this.

Sakura goes missing and this fic is basically Sasuke slowly losing his mind over it. Ghost is honestly pretty darn touching and feels true to Sasuke's character. Everyone is concerned for Sakura and that doesn't exclude him despite how nonchalant he makes himself seem.

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Send me some recs if you have any to share! I'm generally fine with any ship as long as the story is good :)

Ive had this saved in my phone since April

the energy here is unparalleled

just watched the new defunctland video and i’m feeling many things

Ok love your thoughts on Animorphs tv series pacing. Hear me out: episode 1? Starts with *David’s* POV finding the cube, being attacked by Visser three and “rescued” by the animorphs, and given morphing power. Episode 2 starts with book 1 and progresses normally through the series from there

I think like “Machete order”, this really reframes the slow escalation of paranoia, and in episode one when these strangers show up and are like “Yes david you have to abandon your parents, they can’t be saved” you’re like “fuck these guys”

But by episode [redacted] of meeting david in animorphs pov, youre like “DAVID YOU MORON THEYRE LOST TO US GET IN THE FUCKING CAR”

And Jake goes from episode one “David, face reality, shit’s bad and your parents are a loss” to episode two Jake “of course i can save Tom”.

I love this, because it's a great way to throw the viewers right into the story. In the original series, it was necessary to give us some kind of origin for the Animorphs — it's a superhero story convention, it's important in a kids' series, it gives out exposition nice and slow, and it sets the tone of the books. However, there are a lot of things like "touching this box lets you turn into animals" and "the enemy are sea slugs who live in brains and eat in a cavern under the school" that you can simply show on TV without having to tell anyone. Concepts like "andalite navy" and "kandrona" can be conveyed with a few shots, so there's no need to have a scene where Elfangor explains them to Jake or brain-dumps them to Tobias.

This adaptation would probably lean more toward YA than middle grade, because it'd require trapping and/or killing the focal character, but I think YA would make sense for an Animorphs adaptation. YA series are more able to depict violence and body horror than children's shows, and Animorphs isn't Animorphs without realistic violence and body horror. There's also a lot of potential for making the conflict between David and Jake even more complex than it is in canon, if we don't see why Jake is the leader, only a bunch of his close friends insisting that it's for the best.

How the Hashira view each other [Kimetsu no Yaiba Fanbook 2]

had to be done 🤷

Actually we need more appreciation for the Atsushi and Kunikida dynamic because I feel like so much of it happens off-panel/offscreen

While Dazai was the one to bring Atsushi into the Agency and Fukuzawa the one to let him join, it was Kunikida who just started treating Atsushi like another employee - it was this that had Atsushi abruptly realizing he was actually wanted by the Agency and that they weren't just going to kick him out. Kunikida was the one who had Atsushi coming to that realization and tearing up over it (however unintentional it was on Kunikida's part hjghjbg).

But then there's little bits that show that Kunikida trains Atsushi in combat; he's blunt in his criticisms, but he's not cruel. What's more, Kunikida does not treat Atsushi like he is going to break, nor as someone to be afraid of. He is training him so he can contribute the same amount as any Agency member - which further affirms that Atsushi is wanted and needed with this group.

I bet it was also Kunikida who actually showed him how to do things around the office. Maybe Tanizaki did a bit too, but Kunikida is a more senior member and probably oversaw a lot of Atsushi's work at the beginning at least. Again, this is someone taking the time to teach Atsushi, something he never would've had before. And really, so long as Atsushi is putting in his full effort (which he would of course), Kunikida isn't the type to berate him for a mistake. Maybe he'd be a little irritated if it put him behind but like. Even that base mentorship has got to mean a lot to Atsushi.

It's just. There's got to be more to their dynamic we haven't seen because Atsushi was so so happy to see that the Agency members were safe, but he also explicitly felt relieved enough and comfortable enough to take a flying leap at Kunikida to tackle hug the man and that really says a lot to me.

The best part is that if Atsushi were to ever try to convey just how much Kunikida has done for him, Kunikida would probably be totally baffled and have no clue what he's even talking about because... Kunikida was literally just being himself. But being himself is what's really important to Atsushi, and to a lot of people in the Agency, I think.

i wanna open my reqs again so bad because i miss getting reqs but i need to finish the ones i have already T-T

Dear Diary,

Today I cried for Susan Pevensie’s loss today.

obsessed with the truly vast and desperately lost sadness that inhabits within logan. no one will look him in the eye, no one will level with him, no one will show themselves to him, he insists and insists and demands for a shred of human connection because he is a living dead man who doesn't know he has died. and he has died because he no longer can accept the love he craves even when it is offered to him: he is a starving man but his stomach has long ago shrivelled up and been excised, he sewed his mouth shut and doesn't even remember it. he is ostracized in his own empire, he is exiled from humanity, he has turned himself into a thing that kills everything it touches and then begs to be touched. midas king coded !!!!!

EMAIL BOOK CLUBS MASTERLIST !!!

alright, there are a lot of email book clubs now, so here's ALL of them, in one convenient list

NOTE: IF YOU FIND MORE PLEASE SEND !!! put them in the notes, my ask box, dm them to me, just notify me in SOME way and i will edit this base post so they all remain in one place

without further ado:

Dracula Daily - dracula, the one that started it all || real time

may 3, 2022 - november 10, 2022

Whale Weekly - moby dick || real time

starting december 2022, continuing for 3 years

Frankenstein Weekly - frankenstein || wednesdays and sundays

begins february 1, 2023

Letters from Watson - sherlock holmes

begins january 1, 2023

What Manner of Man - a new original work by st john starling (its gay vampires click the link)

begins january 2023

Edgar Allen Poe Daily - the works of edgar allen poe || weekdays where dracula daily does not post

began may 13, 2022

The Penny Dreadful - penny dreadful

begins TBA

Ovid Daily - the works of p. ovidius naso (note: these are in latin but they contain a translation)

dates depend on the in-progress work (from what i can tell)

Werther Rewritten - the sorrows of young werther, slightly modernized || real time

may 4, 2022 - christmas 2023

The Sorrows Of Young Werther - the original of the above || you pick the dates

from what i can tell, it begins when you subscribe and you pick the frequency of emails

Carmilla Quarterly - carmilla, just click the link its lesbian vampires

begins TBA

Literary Letters - lesser known public domain works

begins november 12, 2022

Pride and Prejudice Weekly - working title, im doing pride and prejudice now || mondays and fridays

march 10, 2023 - october 6, 2023

The Woman In White Weekly - the woman in white || sundays

begins july 31, 2022

Musketeers Daily - the three musketeers

begins march 14, 2023

LOTR Newsletter - lord of the rings || real time (i think)

september 15, 2022 - march 2023

Rizal Weekly - jose rizal's works (these are in filipino, i don't see a full translation but please correct me if im wrong)

began may 26, 2022

Divine Comedy Weekly - dante's divine comedy || begins on good friday, then updates tuesdays and thursdays

april 7, 2023 - march 5, 2024

Austen Weekly - jane austen's works

find more info on the posting schedule here

The Case Files Of Sheridan Bell - new original fantasy detective novels from em rowene

begins may 29, 2022

Big Dalloway Energy - mrs. dalloway by virginia woolfe || commentary encouraged

begins june 1, 2022

Nightly Knights - excerpts from arthurian texts

posted at random

Samuel Pepys's Diary - daily entries from samuel pepys's diary

the site posts a new entry at the end of each day

Dangerous Liaisons Daily - dangerous liaisons || real time

august 3rd, 2022 - january 14, 2023

Les Chroniques de Choderlos - dangerous liaisons, but in the original french || real time

august 3rd, 2022 - january 14, 2023

Wilde Weekly - oscar wilde's works

begins june 12, 2022

Logbooks of the HE-631-CORDELIA - a new original sci-fi series about a pilot and her robot by loreley

begins july 21, 2022

Les Mis Letters - les misérables || daily

january 1, 2023 - december 31, 2023

The Worst Journey in the World - r.f. scott's diaries + supplemental readings from cherry-garrard’s the worst journey in the world and others’ diaries

intro began july 12, 2022. diary entries begin november 25, 2022, and end in march, 2024

Daily Kafka - franz kafka's letters

began august 31, 2022

Just finished hamlet & had to share THIS

Ah, I see. Thank you for your honesty. Please, take as much as you need. There will be enough for everyone.

A change of scenery. Simple, but marvelous.

A glimpse into your future, for you brave souls! (Divination is tricky business, tread carefully my dear!)

Knowledge from the universe, eh? Perhaps this will be of interest to you.

Rest for the weary, right this way. It's a personal favourite of mine.

A home-cooked meal you say? I like how you think! A labour of love worth savoring (and sharing with friends!)

For something to pass the time, try looking here, or if that doesn't hit the spot, here.

Seeking adventure to a far-off place? I know a way to get you there.

✨

I hope you found what you were looking for!

The double standard in the fandom with blaming all sorts of shit on All Might and praising Aizawa for being the «best teacher ever» never falls to astound me.

How is being super apathetic, using manipulation tactics and lies on students, and being generally very uninterested in them so much better than All Might?

He doesn’t want the kids in the war any more than Aizawa does, and still all I see is «Aizawa never wanted the kids to fight and now he’d watching them die waaah» and «All Might really sent these kids to war huh???» from the same people like what

All Might spends a lot of time on Izuku ofc, but how is that different than what Aizawa does for Shinsou?

All Might is great at cheering on all the kids. He took the time to really see and understand Bakugo.

He tries to be there for Shouto with the family issues.

Your little fanon version of secretly supersoft Aizawa isn’t real, and neither is All Might the Terrible.

They’re both flawed characters who’s doing their best, but one of them is a stereotypical hot tired man, so nobody bats an eye at him.

also, don’t get me fucking started on the fact that Aizawa never seemed to notice anything is off about Shouto.

People always includes it in fics, but he never ever mentions it.

As a teacher, it should be pretty obvious that something was wrong, and even if he obviously couldn’t take Shouto out of Endevours house, he could have done SOMETHING.

Talked to him. Anything.

And I know he is traumatized. I get it. But so is All Might. And Present Mic. And Midnight.

Everyone handles trauma differently, but if your refusal to deal with it affects your ability to be compassionate and ignore your own prejudice (like how he treated Izuku vs Shinsou based on his own experience when he had no idea how hard Izuku worked or what he had been trough) maybe you should’t be a teacher.

Again, the fact that he didn’t react to how Izuku clearly had very little control over his quirk and how he kept hurting himself???

I just think he is a very flawed character, and not half as great a teacher as the fandom wants him to be.

Some of you guys simply do not understand that Leo is a prime example of how eldest siblings are put in a gray area of both caretaker and sibling and how the amount of responsibility he was given over his brothers’ lives and the thousands of people in New York is what ruined both his mental state and his bond with his brothers.

Leonardo was never able to separate work and home because it was one and the same and as such, he was unable to properly separate being a leader and being a brother within his relationships with others. He was unable to establish a good emotional routine with his brothers. The amount of responsibility he was given as a teenager is as much responsibility that Splinter has as their father because Splinter is putting Leonardo in charge of his brothers’ wellbeing, safety and lives as well as the wellbeing, safety and lives of others. 

He is a planner because it is a trauma response to the amount of pressure and responsibility he has. He feels panicked when he does not have control because if he does not have control over a situation, someone could die and it is his fault because he is responsible as the leader. He is in constant survival mode and is on high alert at all times. Stop basing his entire character off of moments where he is clearly stressed and panicking. He’s not a gentleman, he’s a young adult that has built his entire personality off of ninjutsu and the morals his father taught him and has never given himself the time to explore and redefine himself outside of a fighter and leader. 

The entire point of Leo’s character is that he is not a leader. He is not built for leading, he is not meant to be a leader. Leo’s position in the family as a leader is the cause of conflict caused by unhealthy power dynamics. Leo being a leader tears their family apart because he’s not meant to lead. He’s a teenager. 

In all, Leonardo is an incredibly complex character who has based his entire worth as a person on how well he can lead and has no idea what his personality is because he’s built a façade of a leader for the sake of his family. His leader façade is a defense mechanism used to confront conflict and has become a trauma response to his own PTSD. 

Leader Leo isn’t Leo, it’s a façade and persona he’s created as a way of successfully handling immense stress and responsibility without breaking. 

- Mod Quill

is the polar opposite to

ROTTMNT Character Fight Style Analysis - Part 1: Leonardo

Eeeeyyyy it's finally here. This is my analysis of each character's fight style and role post that I teased about a week ago. This turned out to be a hell of a thing, so this will be split into many posts focusing on each character since I have quite a bit to say (and I think Tumblr might break if I put it all into one post). I plan to release one a day, but we'll see how it works out with school.

[Part 2: Raph] [Part 3: Mikey] [Part 4: Donnie] [Part 5: April]

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If there's one thing Rise is known for, it is the show's stellar action animation - it's the reason most people started the show to begin with. The visuals are so strong in these scenes, in fact, that Rise could have easily gotten away with having pointless fights each episode (if the budget allowed that) and still be regarded as a fairly decent show. However, Rise doesn't do that, instead chooses to give its action scenes depth by putting thought into the personality of each character and implementing that into how each of them fights, showing the growth of the protagonists over the course of the show.

After rewatching the show multiple times (seriously, so many times) I began to notice patterns in many of the show's big fights, particularly in how the turtles and April fight and how they cooperate with each other as a team.

I thought it might be fun to categorize and examine how Leo, Raph, Mikey, Donnie, and April fight by breaking it down into their unique fighting styles, their roles and strengths in battle, how they apply those roles, and how all of these demonstrate different parts of their character.

BTW: There's a reason for the order in which I examine each character - it will all make sense by the last post. There's also a bit of a TL;DR at the end, but I encourage you read the full thing (or at least skim it)

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Let's start with Leo.

Leonardo: The Strategist/Initiator

Leo was one of the easiest characters to analyze since a major focus of his character arc is the development of his fighting skills and his ability to cooperate with his team and act as a leader.

Fight Style:

Balanced/Well-rounded Fighter

Leo is the most balanced fighter on the team. He is a capable offensive and defensive fighter and has enough physical strength and acrobatics to handle many types of fighting styles. We see him fight everything from paper ninjas to the large Foot Brute and Draxum's hired goons (the dog guys) without seeming to be weak against one type of enemy. He may not necessarily be stronger than them but he is very versatile. However, this means that Leo doesn’t have a specific ability that makes him stand out in a fight (mystic and ninpo powers aside) the way his brothers do, and won’t have any inherent advantages that he can utilize when fighting a particular enemy.

Strengths and Roles in a Fight:

The Strategist:

Leo’s role as the team’s strategist is pretty obvious. He may not be given the title of “Leader” until the end of season 2, but we see throughout the show that he is a very quick thinker and is skilled at coming up with clever and effective plans. Of course, each member of the Mad Dogs supplies ideas and plans, but Leo is especially good at developing and implementing them. The most obvious example of this is his fight in the Battle Nexus in 'Many Unhappy Returns, but there are other times when he is the one to put all the pieces together (think of the big attack against Draxum in the Shredder armor in 'End Game').'

The Initiator:

Leo acts as the initiator in battle as he is either one of the first into battle or is the one to start a coordinated attack. This doesn't mean he necessarily has to attack first, but that he is usually the one to put the plan into action. This role relies the most on his mystic powers as his portal and teleportation powers give him the maneuverability needed to accommodate any plan. His abilities allow him to enter and disorient the enemy, or he can portal allies into the fight and create opportunities for a follow-up attack. This plays into his strengths as the Strategist as being the initiator can help him begin a strategic attack by maneuvering people or objects into their needed positions.

Utility:

Leo’s skills truly shine in a fight against a few number of enemies as he can better focus his strategies on a specific enemy and direct the battle in his favor. With less pieces in play, he can properly utilize his mystic powers and act as the initiator instead of bouncing around a battle with no real objective in mind. It becomes easier to coordinate attacks with his brothers and allies since they don't have to spend time fighting different enemies.

However, in a fight with multiple enemies, Leo’s skills can be easily overlooked. Sure, he can direct the fight as the Strategist, but there’s only so much he can do in the middle of the chaos. His role as the initiator isn’t all that effective in a fight with many enemies as well as he and his brothers tend to just rush into battle in those situations. However, Leo’s balanced fighting style means he could theoretically go up against every type of enemy and won’t be at a noticeable disadvantage, which is very useful in a chaotic battle.

How it Plays into His Character:

Admittedly, the show is probably the most direct in using fights to show some of Leo's character traits, since so much of his arc is centered on his fighting and use of mystic powers. However, Rise does use this in enough interesting ways to make it worth mentioning.

While his role as the Strategist plays into Leo’s strengths as a character, it also highlights Leo’s problems with team communication. When Leo plans a strategy, he often fails to inform his allies of his plans, which can result in losing the battle or frustrating those around him. The show demonstrates this by having him make strategies in a fight but leaves his allies in the dark and confusing them. Leo does this, in part, to show off, but also because the plan simply makes sense in his head, so it would be easier for him to just do it instead of having to take the time to tell everybody his plan.

The initiator is a good role for Leo’s powers and fighting style, but also feeds into his cockiness and overconfidence in a fight. Leo has a tendency to play the hero and either overestimate his abilities or underestimate his opponent. He may be the best fit for going first in a fight but Rise uses some fights to show how this can conflict with some of his character flaws. When he goes into battle first overconfident and cocky, it only conflicts with the team, but with his own role as the Strategist. He could, theoretically, bring his teammates into the fight after him, but if he thinks he has an easy win in front of him, all strategy goes out the window.  

His status as a balanced fighter and lack of specialization in battle is a likely source of some of Leo’s insecurities about his place in the group. We see in 'Portal Jacked!' how Leo doesn't feel like he has a proper role on the team - that he's just the face man - which is reinforced by the way he fights in comparison to his team. Leo is well suited to fight a wide range of enemies, but when his brothers have easily identifiable skills that can give them a distinct advantage, it becomes difficult to recognize the advantages he brings to the team as a well-rounded fighter.

Working as a Team:

As mentioned earlier, Leo's strengths as a fighter make him the one best suited for the first attack in a coordinated team strike as it highlights his skills as the Initiator and the Strategist. It shows how well he can fit those roles when he plays to his strengths and overcomes the character flaws that stand in his way. While the others do have skills that may allow them to start the first attack, Leo's abilities and strengths as a fighter give him (and his team) a much stronger advantage in this position.

Leo also does well when he goes second to last in a team attack, as he can finalize a strategy and prepare for a final blow by putting all the pieces into position. However, this is more situational as there are other characters just as well suited for that second-to-last position and can fill that role when Leo needs to be the one to start a team attack.

Leo’s fighting style, however, does make him a poor fit for a follow-up attack or the final attack in a fight. His balanced fighting style means he isn’t suited for a strong final attack. While he is technically fine acting as a follow-up attacker, it doesn’t really play into his strengths and isn’t that effective when fighting with others who are more suited to that role. His balanced fighting style also prevents him from effectively dealing that final blow to an enemy since he doesn't have a specialized strength in this regard. Again, he can do it, he just isn't well suited for it.

The way Rise develops and explores Leo's fight style demonstrates one of my favorite things the show does with his character (in fact, all of its characters). At first glance, he may seem pretty one-note and predictable, but as we go through the show, we see how both his character is actually more complex than we were first led to believe. The fights Leo participates in reflect that, as not only do his skills develop over the course of the show, but we begin to see how it all ties into his personality and growth as a character - making his fights more meaningful than what they may seem.

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[Little bit of a TL;DR: Leo is the team's strategist and initiator in fights, supported by his balanced fight style and mystic powers. These roles play into his greatest strengths but they also expose some of his character flaws and insecurities. In team fights Leo is most effective as the first or second to last attacker but isn't well suited for a follow-up or final attack]

Thanks for bearing with me on this stupid long post. They're all going to be like this btw. Next up will be Raph. I plan to get that done and posted tomorrow.

Some of you guys simply do not understand that Leo is a prime example of how eldest siblings are put in a gray area of both caretaker and sibling and how the amount of responsibility he was given over his brothers’ lives and the thousands of people in New York is what ruined both his mental state and his bond with his brothers.

Leonardo was never able to separate work and home because it was one and the same and as such, he was unable to properly separate being a leader and being a brother within his relationships with others. He was unable to establish a good emotional routine with his brothers. The amount of responsibility he was given as a teenager is as much responsibility that Splinter has as their father because Splinter is putting Leonardo in charge of his brothers’ wellbeing, safety and lives as well as the wellbeing, safety and lives of others. 

He is a planner because it is a trauma response to the amount of pressure and responsibility he has. He feels panicked when he does not have control because if he does not have control over a situation, someone could die and it is his fault because he is responsible as the leader. He is in constant survival mode and is on high alert at all times. Stop basing his entire character off of moments where he is clearly stressed and panicking. He’s not a gentleman, he’s a young adult that has built his entire personality off of ninjutsu and the morals his father taught him and has never given himself the time to explore and redefine himself outside of a fighter and leader. 

The entire point of Leo’s character is that he is not a leader. He is not built for leading, he is not meant to be a leader. Leo’s position in the family as a leader is the cause of conflict caused by unhealthy power dynamics. Leo being a leader tears their family apart because he’s not meant to lead. He’s a teenager. 

In all, Leonardo is an incredibly complex character who has based his entire worth as a person on how well he can lead and has no idea what his personality is because he’s built a façade of a leader for the sake of his family. His leader façade is a defense mechanism used to confront conflict and has become a trauma response to his own PTSD. 

Leader Leo isn’t Leo, it’s a façade and persona he’s created as a way of successfully handling immense stress and responsibility without breaking. 

- Mod Quill

i don’t know how to format my thoughts without a meme anymore so here. Daily brain fungus

He’s a side character with three lines to you. To me he’s a main character.

Rottmnt!Casey Jones (Jr.) design is fantastic and here's why:

I'm sorry for ignoring the numerous asks actually requesting stuff for me to review, but I have to strike the iron while it's still hot.

Ok, so. Rottmnt has fantastic, 10/10 character designs. That's not something I discovered, it's something anyone with two eyes and a brain can figure out. In particular, the eponymous Turtles themselves have never been more interesting and distinct before this incarnation:

They are fantastic anthro designs, simultaneously easy to imagine as humans while feeling inseparable from their animal traits. And the crew managed to take this a step further with Casey by going in the complete opposite direction! Casey is not just a regular post-apocalyptic fashion kid, he is a reverse engineered turtle gijinka. It's not all that visible at first because the pieces of his attire are all pretty standard, admirably practical, and color-faded, but think about it! The green jumpsuit and shoes are the base "skin", the chest-plate is self-explanatory, and the cape is the turtle shell.

And of course, it's all made even more endearing by how he incorporates something from each of the 4 brothers. Leo is the most obvious influence because Casey is his direct protege; he adopted his eye markings in his mask, his color for the armor, and the diagonal fanny-pack -I wouldn't have complained if he used a belt, but the fanny-pack is the much better option because it's more realistic and practical for him to use that-.

Donny made his gadgets, so he wears his insignia on the cape -which also cleverly breaks the dullness of it without bulking the silhouette- and his shoulder pad is purple.

You get the sense that Casey never really met Raph in his original timeline, so he is only present in the red details and, lastly, Mikey is present in the adorably doodled knee-pads.

Lastly, his facial design is great. Now, I could follow that up with an actual argument about how it balances his more traditional lean hero physique with less conventionally attractive traits that actually convey a personality and a context for where he grew up, but actually, no, I'll just spam pics of him because he really does have Expressions™️ and I love him for that:

Little half assed ref sheet for my version of the Ninja turts 🤓

okay but the sibling energy

Marc (Oldest)

-weight of the world on his shoulders, is trying to be Responsible

-mom (khonshu) makes him do all the work

-trying his best to keep everyone’s lives separate but failing because the other two won’t listen

Jake (Middle)

-everyone kind of forgets he’s there till he acts out

-“Marc is married and Steven is a vegan… I’m gonna ask Dylan out on a date to a steakhouse :D”

-chaotic energy, interrupts the other two to kill a bitch

Steven (Youngest)

-spoiled, his finding out about them being killers is completely accidental, he’s been the one living a good life set up by Marc

-Baby

-“mom said it’s MY turn with the body” “we don’t actually talk to mom” “she said it’s my turn, Marc”