Meme: 5+ Headcanons / Three-Sentence Fic

[cywscross]

Currently trying to hammer out my Steter Secret Santa fic now that my finals are finally over, hopefully I'll get it done in time but I'm also busy buying presents and shit and struggling with writing at all when I just want to sleep all day so maybe this will help get the creativity running. So anyway:

Still taking!

1. Give me a fandom/character/ship.
2. Give me an AU/setting.
3. I'll give you either 5+ headcanons or a 3-sentence fic about it.

Going to bed now so I'll do any that come in over the next couple days. I think you know my usual fandoms (TW, Bleach, HP, KnB, Naruto, KHR, etc.) but feel free to venture outside them, and I'll tell you if I really can't write anything for it. You can also send more than one, although maybe post each one separately so it would be easier for me to reply to them.

Still doing these but life's gotten busy so it might take a while for me to get to your prompt.

No longer taking. I have two more in my backlog so hopefully I'll finish those two up asap but that's it for now.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

If you're still taking prompts: for your naruto fic Ghost - thoughts on yuurei? Or akatsuki/itachi?

[cywscross]

Ooh it's been a long time since I last touched this fic but I can do some post-fic headcanons on them:

1. After all is said and done, and there's no more risk of the world ending anytime soon, Yuurei doesn't settle in Konoha the way pretty much everyone assumed he would. Instead, he tells Naruto he's going to travel for a while longer now that he no longer has a to-do list to follow, and the very next morning sees him leaving the village with Itachi and the (former?) Akatsuki in tow. Itachi's been reinstated as a Konoha jounin but Tsunade just sighs and waves him out of her office when he asked her for a long(very long, preferably however long it takes before Yuurei is willing to settle down, if ever)-term mission out of village. Naruto's disappointed, he can't deny that, and part of him wants to go with Yuurei too, but he actually has to get his ass in gear if he ever wants to lose the technical rank of genin, and Tsunade's told him if he wants to be Hokage one day, there are responsibilities he has to start taking up post haste because hell if she's keeping the hat for longer than necessary. So he's one of the ones who see Yuurei and company off at the gates. Sasuke isn't there but they're all pretending they don't feel his chakra signature on a nearby roof. Itachi looks faintly exasperated for a moment but doesn't call his little brother out. Sasuke's had some pretty complicated feelings about Itachi's real allegiances and the truth of the Uchiha Massacre in general. He doesn't hate Itachi the way he did when he still thought his older brother slaughtered their clan because he snapped one day, but he also hasn't been particularly happy to have to share village space with Itachi. Of course, he didn't look happy either when he heard Itachi is choosing to leave with Yuurei but it's not like he's got any say in the matter, and Naruto is of the opinion that it might be best to give both Uchihas some breathing room for a while. Besides, Yuurei's better with company, with people around him to focus on, so Naruto is all for Itachi going with him. Itachi at least has more common sense than the other crazies going with Yuurei.
   
   
2. It's a little weird when Naruto finally finds out just who Yuurei is, but at the same time, it's an easy thing to adjust to, and most of the time, he even forgets they're technically the same person because they're so obviously not. Sometimes, Naruto can see it, can see himself in Yuurei, in his mannerisms and words, in the way he thinks, but those things can just as easily be chalked up to Yuurei having practically raised him for a good chunk of his formative years and that they're related. And most other times, they're different enough that it's hard to believe Yuurei is Naruto at all. There are experiences Yuurei's been through that Naruto never will and is grateful he won't ever have to either. He wishes Yuurei didn't have to too of course, but at the same time, he also can't be anything but thankful for his uncle figure's existence and subsequent intervention in his life.
   
   
3. Yuurei does eventually return to Konoha, just in time for Naruto's inauguration as the Rokudaime Hokage. Next thing he knows, Naruto's sicced a genin team on him consisting of a titchy little Nara, a quiet Inuzuka and her tiny black pup, and an Uzumaki girl with long dark red hair. When it comes down to it, Yuurei can rarely refuse Naruto anything, and he has nothing against teaching. He likes to think his younger self turned out okay so he agrees, and later, he'll look back and think this to be one of the best decisions he's ever made.
   
   Shiroe doesn't like shogi but loves the puzzle games Yuurei gives him, and he's apparently already heard a great deal about him from his cousin and uncle. He follows Yuurei around with shining eyes, works at whatever task Yuurei gives him with a focused determination that Shikamaru didn't achieve until after his Chuunin exams, and overall seems not even half as inherently lazy as most of the rest of his clan can be. He's decent with his clan jutsus for a genin, and like all Nara his taijutsu needs the most work, but even Yuurei raises an eyebrow the first time he sees the fundamentary fuinjutsu seals Shiroe shows him, simple but meticulously drawn and already hinting at bits of his own designs. He devours the scrolls Yuurei gets him and practically bounces with glee when Yuurei starts showing him new ways to design and incorporate seals.
   
   Saya on the other hand is the exact opposite of every Inuzuka Yuurei's ever met. Although not younger!Hinata levels of cripplingly shy, she doesn't speak much, and her nervousness shows in the way she clutches at her ninken whenever Yuurei addresses her. Yuurei knows he's pretty much earned Sannin levels of fame in Konoha so he's not that surprised to see his female student regard him with as much awe as anxiety. What is surprising is her lack of stamina and mediocre ninjutsu and taijutsu, both of which an Inuzuka is usually best at when compared to most of their peers. Still, that's what Yuurei's there for, to help her improve, and it isn't as if she has no talent. Saya shines when it comes to genjutsu, she layers five illusions over her two teammates - nothing special, they don't stand out or cause them untold horrors, and instead they're so like the real world that they can't tell the difference, and they're none the wiser even as she silently leads them straight into a lake. She ducks her head and blushes when Yuurei nods his approval, and it takes a few weeks but some of the tension in her shoulders begin to leak away as Yuurei helps her add more variety to her genjutsu while improving her ninjutsu and taijutsu. He thinks it helps that he's not as loud as the rest of her clan. She loves her family and loves her ninken even more, but she's softspoken by nature, and Yuurei can see how she might be overlooked most of the time in a clan as rambunctious and outwardly fierce as hers.
   
   And Suzume is just as contrary as her teammates. Yuurei knew the first time Naruto decided to make it his personal mission to scour the countries for his scattered clan members. Nagato and Karin were proof that Uzumaki still lived, lost and drifting maybe, or even unaware of their own heritage, but alive. And over the years, he's managed to find pockets of them, not a lot but still some, and not just Uzumaki either but Uzushio natives, and all of them - after meeting Naruto's brand of bright charisma - follow him back to Konoha. Yuurei was so proud, and secretly more than a little touched when Naruto assigned her to him. Suzume was one of the ones who came here with nothing but the clothes on her own back, an orphan scrounging for food in Kiri, the only one to graduate from the Academy this year, and serious and practical in a way that reminds Yuurei more than anything of himself. She has the large chakra coils and stamina typical of an Uzumaki but none of their exuberance or enthusiastic optimism. She's fierce though, the moment their team is cemented, fiercely loyal and fiercely protective, of her teammates and - if possible - even more so of Yuurei. Yuurei in turn teaches her her birthright, everything from history to weaponry to fighting style. She picks up fuinjutsu as easily as any bloodline Uzumaki but she's not very interested in them. Instead, it's kenjutsu she loves, smiling for the first time in Yuurei's presence when he takes her to buy a tanto fit for a beginner in the art. What she loves most though is when Yuurei teaches her how to summon chakra chains - she's capable of tearing an entire training ground with them, and sometimes when she thinks no one is watching her practice with them, she'd stare at them with something like longing and something like pride.
   
   Yuurei takes to all three of them very quickly, and they take to him as well, Saya slowest, Shiroe fastest, and Suzume referring to him as uncle just like Naruto within three months of their acquaintance after he gives them all a key to his apartment block.
   
   (Naruto often leaves his paperwork to his shadow clones and skips out himself to watch Yuurei train his students. He's a little envious of the brats, because there are days when he wishes he was still a genin and all the family Yuurei had, but mostly he's just happy for his older counterpart, who smiles more and looks infinitely less tired or ready to bolt for the village gates. Smugly satisfied too because he absolutely knew Yuurei would be excellent with children.)
   
   
4. Hidan didn't think he'd want this. A village to call his own (and the tree-hugging one too, Jashin help him), and a hitae-ite around his head again, but Yuurei wanted to stay, and Hidan had nowhere else to go or anything else to do, and the Hokage brat even promised - around a grimace - that he can do all the sacrifices he wants but only bad guys, which is actually more than his old village ever allowed. Or tried to anyway. Thankfully, nobody gives him a bunch of snot-nosed brats to herd, and as insane as Konoha ninja can be (holy Jashin how does someone like that Gai character exist), at least they can give him a good workout. Hokage brat even puts him in charge of cleaning up ROOT's remains (because apparently they're still digging up brainwashed kids every few months from Danzo's countries-wide network of bases), and Hidan knows most people take one look at him and think him hotheaded and utterly incapable of in-depth thought, but he is actually a capable shinobi, and he's good at tracking down targets when he has to. He was partnered with Kakuzu after all, and that miserable old miser would never have tolerated anyone who couldn't hunt down a decent bounty, immortal or not.
   
   And hey, if he gets his own little squad of fucked-up minions after each bust, well, at least he can teach them the joys of Jashinism (within reason, Yuurei warns, or else).
   
   
5. Itachi never moves back into the Uchiha Compound. Sometimes, he thinks Sasuke wants him to. Other times, he knows Sasuke doesn't even want him in the village. But he goes where Yuurei goes because the man is his anchor to sanity in more ways than Itachi can count these days, and he knows it's probably terribly unhealthy, but it is what it is, and it works. He lives in the same apartment building that Naruto granted him, Yuurei, and the other former Akatsuki when they came back for good, although more often than not, he usually takes the spare bedroom in Yuurei's unit anyway. Naruto gives Itachi a genin team as well on Yuurei's recommendation, three kids who don't automatically associate him with massacres or defection, and he takes to teaching with a relief and enjoyment he never found as a genin or a chuunin, jounin or even ANBU, certainly never as the Uchiha Clan's prodigal heir. Nightmares or flashbacks that leave his hands shaking are soothed away by warm tea and quiet company, and Yuurei never cares if he comes home and finds Itachi already in his apartment. Within a few weeks of their return, Yuurei also signs him up for pottery lessons of all things and even tags along to make sure Itachi goes. Each glazed pot and plate and figurine he produces is more of a comfort than he thought such a useless activity would be, but he likes the rhythm of it, the way he can focus on the spin of the wheel or the paints laid out for him to choose from, and pottery day always leaves him lighter and more clear-headed than before. Yuurei's the one who always knows what he needs, who doesn't flinch from the blood on his hands or the red in his eyes, and so Itachi needs him more than he needs anything else, more than the acceptance of the village, more than even his brother's forgiveness. He knows Sasuke resents it, resents Yuurei's importance in Itachi's life now, but Itachi can't give him up, so all he can do is try his best to continue making amends in other ways.
   

[(Anonymous)]

Beautiful, thank you so much! Just - coming "home" and finding a "family" are such great plotlines and it's so comfortable to read :) and pottery! I immediately thought of that one Japanese art where the broken pieces are illuminated with gold (google says "kintsugi"), and like. Perfect. I mean for the older gen, this is a story about recovery and mending their rough edges. Amazing.