plotbunny at crunchtime

[drakensis]

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(actually, I'll cameo any of you when I want an extra if you give a description.)

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Image: A beanpole with pale skin - he doesn't get out much during the day. Wears his forehead protector as a bandanna with a short ponytail under the knot at the back. He's got a beard like Shikamaru's dad but a short moustache as well. Wears pocket festoned grey cargo-pants and vest (not a chunin vest, larger but fewer pockets) over a long-sleeved maroon shirt and under a loose jacket (like Tsunade's).
A taijutsu specialist (not as much as Gai) with a sideline in weapons. Smattering of Dragon, Monkey, Snake styles as well as obscure sword, spear and Sand warfan styles, infuses paper (he carries huge amounts in his pockets) with chakra to create origami weapons - wakizashi, yari, fans ranging from Temari's to Kaname (FMP)'s favored weapons (with which he can carve through metal naturally). Doesn't like jumping around, known for being very quiet and working at night a lot. Dry sense of humour, not a leader-type but decent teacher.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[The Hunterminator]

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(actually, I'll cameo any of you when I want an extra if you give a description.)

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Is that offer open to lurkers?
Kurobashi Osamu (A name I pulled out after a few google searches due to my total lack of Japanese knowledge, feel free to change it.)
Osamu is, unlike his name suggests, someone who doesn't care much for established laws and rules. He will tell anyone who listens that laws, honour and ethics are awfully stupid things to die for.
This made his academy and Gennin days very complicated and, thus, until his third Chunin exam, he was considered an unremarkable Genjutsu specialist. Both failure have been caused by meeting someone who could resist Genjutsu. So, Osamu searched for ways to compensate his lacking practical Ninjutsu and Taijutsu skills.
His solution was to have a very varied arsenal of weapons, scrolls, explosive notes and poisons that he uses in unpredictable ways to confuse his enemy.
Nowadays, he's known for his habit of terrorizing his opponents and then hunting them down as they fled which earned him the nickname of The Hunter. Recently, he has grown tired of always being in danger and has applied for a teaching position.
He wears the standard Juunin apparel and covers it with a cloak lined with inner pockets to carry his arsenal. He is small and has very little muscle mass. His forehead protector is used to hold is cloak in place around his neck. He wears small oval shaped glasses has a very faint scar going from his forehead, over his blind right eye and ending just before reaching his ear.

[classicdrogn]

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Is that offer open to lurkers?

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(shrugs) It's open to anyone, as long as you realise that it's most likely just going to be a case of noting one distictive feature or technique in a mass battle scene, possibly as a giant three-headed snake bites them in half.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Foxboy]

Boy is my face red, getting the jutsu names wrong.
Anyway, my cameo is a master of the HENGE and probably has a few related original jutsu, but, as stated previously, stinks at almost all other facets of the ninja lifestyle. Being a henge master, his vital statistics have the same cop-out that Mystique has in her Handbook of the Marvel Universe writeup:
Eyes: variable
hair: variable
Height: variable
weight: variable
He might enjoy doing "palette swaps" of other Konoha citizens....
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[classicdrogn]

SUCCESS
Subject "CD's Scanner" was capturd by hunter-nin team four as of 12:23, 20050726. Subject remanded to the custody of Morino Ibiki for questioning as of 13:07, same date.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[classicdrogn]

TXY - urgent message for Jiraya, they're instructed to leave their leg-weights at home for this one and given compensation for getting new sets once they find him, at which time they're to see if he has further instructions for them. Does the control training that normally would have happened when Kakashi fobbed him off on substitutes during the break in the chuunin exams.
Team 7 - gradutaion, bell test, Sasuke is gratified to learn that even if he is stuck with two girls at least one of them is a serious ninja and he doesn't have to keep an eye on her to avoid any sudden grabs. He finds himself keeping an eye on her anyway. What the heck is wrong with him!?
TXY - Mizuki and the Leaf kinjutsu scroll. (Why is kagebunshin a forbidden jutsu? It's such a chakra hog that even most jounin risk chakra depletion using it, I guess. I'd had other thoguhts on the subject, but this story is alt enough without dragging them into the picture as well.)
Team 7 - Sakura vs. Tenten, Round One and Round Two. Needless to say, it slightly complicates their schedule. Sasuke activaes Sharingan when the noise attracts trouble.
TXY - Wave country mission, Uncle Zabu.
Team ... whichever one Hinata is on. Eight, I think.... Waterfall mission, same setup as the special. Flashbacks of dealing with Neji to get extra training and various confrontations with Rikou.
Whoo-hoo! Chuunin exams!
Regular training procedures are disrupted in the wake of the invasion, and Jiraya takes Naruto off to find Tsunade and get some special training as per canon. If I can't find anything to write about involving the other members of the cast, this'll be a short summary at the beginning of:
TXY - Snow Princess. Main arc tie-in, the Snow usurper having supplied some of his booster armor for lotsa cash and favorable trading conditions. Now TXY discovers that what they'd faced before was last year's model; the new and imporved version is much, much worse.
TXY/Team 7 - unconfirmed rumors of the Leaf traitor Aoi being spotted in Tea Country prompt Tsunade to assign a backup team since she can't afford to spare an ANBU hunter-team or even their usual senseis without more solid info. Setup for Sakura/Sasuke/Naruto hospital scene by Nathan and rooftop battle. Sakura breaks them up herself, then Kakashi and Gai bawl them out.
Since this will probably carry me well into 2010, I'll wait for how the canon Akatsuki and Orochimaru stuff shakes out before plotting it, like I said before.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[drakensis]

Looks like a good plan, plenty of room to develop as twists and turns crop up.
> Whoo-hoo! Chuunin exams!
Hmm, I've got to winder how Gai would handle training them for those. Partly for those of his team who reach the finals and partly for what training he'd focus on in preparation before the exams even began.
What does occur is that Gai's unlikely to make Kakashi's mistake of farming off one or more of this students - how could he bear to deny himself the bright passion of their youth? - but he might see the benefit of giving each of them one-on-one training for a while. And it's not specifically stated that he hasn't had a previous team of genin. So what if he called on the surviving member(s) of his first team of genin to train each of Team Explosive Youth! for a few days while he gave each of them his full attention for a while?
{The idea came to be because that little cameo-character I threw together a few days back and started arguing with Naruto in my head about the pros and cons of using paper-based jutsu in a Hidden Village well known for it's fire jutsus. And once I started typing to get it out of my head, he started teaching Lee how to counter genjutsu without using genjutsu yourself - I have created a monster ;-) }
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[classicdrogn]

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> Whoo-hoo! Chuunin exams!

Hmm, I've got to winder how Gai would handle training them for those. Partly for those of his team who reach the finals and partly for what training he'd focus on in preparation before the exams even began.

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Before the exams, TXY will be getting back from the Wave mission around the same time as Team 7 would have; because of the upgraded rank of that mission they get a lot more pay. Gai will then spend the week doing the usual team training in the mornings, and individual training in the afternoon when they'd usually have a D-rank mission or two, with the two students he's not working with that day studying theory or working on stealth/information gathering skills - he's not allowed to tell them about the tests, but a chuunin must know how and when to be quiet as well, the better to suprise the enemy with the EXPLOSIVE POWER OF YOUTH!
Not being with Team 7, Naruto won't meet Snakehips to get double-sealed, so he won't have the chakra control problem from canon, but he won't be facing Kiba either - I'll probably just sub Tenten directly for Naruto's fights, so she gets to test Neshan's chakra-enhanced throwing against Neji instead of Temari - and since Neji will have had to work out his problems with her before this if she's been (or even asked to be) training with him, so there's no reason to put them against each other in the prelims and no reason for Naruto to want to severely beat his keister. If Ino doesn't somehow get sucked in along the way, she won't have had the more intensive training Sakura has and will get stomped.
After-dinner edit: Rikou vs. Temari and vs. Shikamaru should hopefully be good fights, of TXY Rikou is probably the most balanced in terms of skill (Naruto focusses on ninjutsu, Lee Taijutsu, she's got both plus Genjutsu, but not as muich of any of the three, though Lee only recently surpassed her speed as she's been training with her father since before she could walk) so she would neither immediately overpower nor be overpowered by them.
The real question is who to have Naruto fight, actually - not Gaara, not Sasuke, but otherwise... well, hopefully something will work out twixt hither and yon. I wouldn't even try to replace Lee vs. Gaara, and probably wont even try to render it in text.
Training between the preliminaries and the finals, I will let shake out as it comes. Most likely all of them will spend mealtimes with Lee, and split the day evenly between training Rikou and Naruto otherwise - seperately, since Gai is sure they'll be facing each other in the finals (They are the amazing students of the Handsome Green Beast, bursting with the power of youth, are they not?) and get another asitant yet to be determined (Oh, CAMEO cast...) when he's with the other, or else train Rikou and find someone trustworthy ffor Naruto.
Really, I don't see why it was such a big deal that Kakashi concentrated on one of his two finalists and found another elite sensei for the second, yeah it means choosing one to spin off but it means being able to concentrate on one person and not second guess whether you're setting one up for a fall against the other. At least, if you get a competent substitute it is - I truly think it' the better way to go, only second to getting subs for BOTH of them, so as not to seem to be taking sides. Gai is pretty much a basket case at this time anyway with one of his team mortally injured, so it might be more productiove to do that... of course, Kakashi could well have all three of his lot in too if Ino can't pull off a tie, and be looking for mentors as well. Rikou's mom and uncle will be factors by then too... Answer unclear - ask again later.
E(2)TA: Drakensis, if you want to roll it into TXY, well, you're already on the list of co-conspirators. If not, that's perfectly cool too. Better, even, if it means you'll be Naruto-ficcing as well.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Valles]

...Y'know, thinking on Neji-vs-Tenten, it occurs to me that she probably has more blades than he does chakra.
See, we know that chakra has to be pretty intense before it becomes visible to the naked eye. We also know that the Kaiten looks like a spinning globe of chakra-blue light.
Therefore, it's using a lot of power. Even discounting my 'Hyuuga-have-weak-reserves' theory, he's still using a lot more energy deflecting, say, a shuriken barrage than she is in throwing it.
Gai doesn't think in terms of attrition, I think, and I doubt that Kakashi does either, but Neshan's never had a choice - his reserves as a Genin were... laughable... so he's always had to be aware of ways to make his enemy expend chakra without using any power of his own - because he didn't -have- any.
For him, this usually involved Explosion Notes, but even if Tenten doesn't really share his weaknesses, it'd still work for her.

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The real question is who to have Naruto fight, actually - not Gaara, not Sasuke, but otherwise... well, hopefully something will work out twixt hither and yon. I wouldn't even try to replace Lee vs. Gaara, and probably wont even try to render it in text.

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Hm. Shino and Kankuro might both be interesting, just because their styles both contrast with Naruto's so much.
I vote Shino. He's cool.

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Really, I don't see why it was such a big deal that Kakashi concentrated on one of his two finalists and found another elite sensei for the second, yeah it means choosing one to spin off but it means being able to concentrate on one person and not second guess whether you're setting one up for a fall against the other. At least, if you get a competent substitute it is - I truly think it' the better way to go, only second to getting subs for BOTH of them, so as not to seem to be taking sides. Gai is pretty much a basket case at this time anyway with one of his team mortally injured, so it might be more productiove to do that... of course, Kakashi could well have all three of his lot in too if Ino can't pull off a tie, and be looking for mentors as well. Rikou's mom and uncle will be factors by then too... Answer unclear - ask again later.

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The thought of watching Zabuza try and teach -anybody- - let alone a member of the Spandex Brigade - fills me with a gleeful amusement.
Anyway, I do agree with you about the 'find a tutor' thing, although I hadn't had it quite so articulated in my mind, yet. Neshan's going to be handing Sasuke and Naruto to Kakashi and Jiraiya, respectively (Sakura will have had the simple bad luck to draw Gaara as her opponent in the prelims - since I can't have most of my main cast passing to Chuunin when the story title says '-Genin- Heroes,' and she's the only one with even the faintest -clue- how to quit... and knowing how to pick your battles is a vital thing for a commander, so...) N.'s even got an extra reason to avoid favoring one of his students, since he's the guy administering the exam (and its paperwork, too).
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

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For (Neshan), (chakra attrition) usually involved Explosion Notes, but even if Tenten doesn't really share his weaknesses, it'd still work for her.

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Can I pencil you in as taking her back for finals training, then? (With the understanding that nothing that far off is any more permanent than a shaving-cream smiley face in the bathtub, of course)

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I vote Shino. He's cool.

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Plus that way, we get to learn if it's possible to overfeed Aburame destruction bugs. They're fighting... naruto is sowly losing... and Shino suddenly groans and hunches over, too distracted by sympathetic indigestion to go on...
Hey, it's better than Stinky no Jutsu, even if less literally a 'Move Pulled Out of A--.'

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The thought of watching Zabuza try and teach -anybody- - let alone a member of the Spandex Brigade - fills me with a gleeful amusement.

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He seemed to have done all right with Haku, aside form the whole my-happiness-is-your-happiness/ninja-are-only-tools-to-be-used thing. Of the two, he's the one with stuff left to teach - Keiunko was a medium level chuunin at best when she resigned, and part of resigning is to swear not to become an active ninja for any other hidden village. Since she doesn't want Mist hunter-nin after her and her family, she's pretty much kept to that, aside from maintaining her physical fitness. She's probably got three or four more higher-level suitons, a genjutsu or two, and maybe an ice-type still up her sleeve, but that's about it. Well, that and Anything Goes Martial Arts Housekeeping, but Rikou fights with knives on cords, not a mop or paired rug-beaters.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Valles]

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Can I pencil you in as taking her back for finals training, then? (With the understanding that nothing that far off is any more permanent than a shaving-cream smiley face in the bathtub, of course)

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Of course!

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Plus that way, we get to learn if it's possible to overfeed Aburame destruction bugs. They're fighting... naruto is sowly losing... and Shino suddenly groans and hunches over, too distracted by sympathetic indigestion to go on...

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*nodnod* He'd do it if anybody could.
Another option runs: Bugs are made of meat. Meat is flammable. Naruto uses a lot of fire techniques.

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He seemed to have done ala right with Haku, aside from the whole my-happiness-is-your-happiness/ ninja-are-only-tools-to-be-used thing.

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There's that. Actually, my amusement arises from the contrast between the grim and scary Demon of the Hidden Mist and the EXPLOSIVE POWER OF YOUTH! ...I doubt he knows quite what to make of his niece even at her quietest, let alone with Naruto and Lee there to egg her on.
Oh, and I'm amused by the thought of Ninjaaaaaaa -Moms-... bento boxes delivered on the point of a flying kunai, antitoxins kept in their own corner of the spice rack, things like that. I'd like to see it - especially if she catches Naruto making some offhand comment about his -own- home life... along the lines of how to get the most out of a rotten cabbage or how to deal with roaches in your laundry, and how it's gotten much easier to deal with that high cabinet's broken door since he learned Kagebunshin.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

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Oh, and I'm amused by the thought of Ninjaaaaaaa -Moms-... bento boxes delivered on the point of a flying kunai, antitoxins kept in their own corner of the spice rack, things like that.

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Don't forget the easel and drying rack where she lovingly crafts explosive tags for her little nin-chan, the nightshade and foxgloves in the herb garden, or the little workshop behind the shed where she putters around making trap devices.
What, did you think baby ninjas were found under a hitae-ate, or delivered by a stork summon?
(Hmmm, stork summon. That's be a good one, actually. And by way of traditional enimity it reminds me that Gai seems to have a contract with tortoises, based on the one that he poofed in on when Lee was fighting Sasuke. Heh - guess who the Boss Turtle is!)
Hmm. Kaasan-nin probably have a Wind technique instead of using vacuum cleaners or feather dusters (Fuuton: Jar of In-drawn Breath), a varient of ANBU rope-animation shibari (Ninpo: Dancing Cloth) that causes laundry to fold and stack itself after using Suiton: Tiny Cleansing Whirlpool on them, and of course the obvious cooking katons and the previously mentioned mop and rug-beater taijutsu styles. Then there's the dreaded lie-detection genjutsu, and the Mommy-Spit and Mommy-Kisses medical jutsu.

- CD Gamera is really neat, he is full of turtle meat, three cheers for Gamera! HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY! ... and Gamera is friend to all children, which means he too is enamoured of the GLORIOUS SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!
Edited becasue I went back to read it over after posting, and broke completely after that last line, just picturing Shuukaku vs. Kyuubi-no-Kitsune transformed Naruto and Gama Bunta, when suddenly up flies a spinning giant turtle shell with blue flames blasting out of th leg-holes...What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[drakensis]

> Really, I don't see why it was such a big deal that
> Kakashi concentrated on one of his two finalists and
> found another elite sensei for the second
For me it's mostly that he handed Naruto off to Ebisu (granted, a good choice) and then went off to train by himself until Sasuke busted out of hospital. How hard would have been to train Naruto until Sasuke was recovered? He could have told Naruto up front that he couldn't train them together since they would likely fight each other in the Exam and Sasuke needed more attention due to the curse seal problem.
> E(2)TA: Drakensis, if you want to roll it into TXY, well,
> you're already on the list of co-conspirators. If not,
> that's perfectly cool too. Better, even, if it means
> you'll be Naruto-ficcing as well.
I'll see how it works out. I've got a few scenelets together. If I can string them together a bit more I'll post them.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Acyl]

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Plus that way, we get to learn if it's possible to overfeed Aburame destruction bugs. They're fighting... naruto is sowly losing... and Shino suddenly groans and hunches over, too distracted by sympathetic indigestion to go on..

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Picture a bunch of bugs laying around on their backs. With toothpicks.
All like ~.~ "Aaah yeah." X_X "...oooohhh, I can't eat another biiiite..."
Belts open and everything.
-- Acyl

[classicdrogn]

It suddenly occurred to me - 'hyaku' is 'one hundred' in Japanese, and Zabusa is infamous for starting his career with a massacre of 100. Then, later, he saves Haku from abandonment and effectively adopts him... notice how close the name and the number are? I was wonering how I could justify Rikou expecting her Uncle Zabu to be a nice guy when everyone knows how viscous he is - somehow her other found about about it and told her and she's taken that as his regret for those hundred, adopting an orphan and calling him 'Hundred" as atonement. His attempted takeover of the Mist was just to change the prevailing culture that led to such a thing, becasue he too has come to cherish and nurture the boundless spirit of youth as personified in Haku! OH HAKU NECHAN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHOWING UNCLE ZABU THE PROPER WAY OF A NINJA, TO CARE ABOUT HIS COMRADES!
- CD loves it when a plan comes togetherWhat, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Valles]

*Rikou latches onto Haku, knocking them both to the ground with her on top*
Rikou: Oh, Haku-neechan, thank you so much for showing Uncle Zabu the proper way of... a...
*Rikou blinks, sits up (still sitting on him), then pats Haku's chest experimentally*
Rikou: Eh? Mune nai?
Haku: I'm a boy.
*Rikou turns -bright- red and teleports ten feet away*
Ja, -n
(A shiny nickle to anyone who can spot where I stole that from.)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

I was reading a nuke-nin Naruto fic just now (Never Cut Twice, on FF.n - mildly reccomended oveerall, highly reccomended in a couple of chapters where Naruto is explaining the philosophy of Pocky as a way of life, and where Itachi is writing in his journal about the subjectivity of good and evil) and it suddenly struck me - Gaara. He's still going to be fighting Naruto in TXY, if I ever get that far, and even if Gai and/or Rikou manage to summon Gamera to assist, well, look at canon.
Naruto kicked his ass, and Gaara asked how the blond could possibly be stronger than him, the answer amounting to the desire to protect those recious to Naruto and to become leader of the Leaf so they could all be protected ad would all acknowledge his existence. Gaara then starts acting nice to his brother and sister, the only people in the world he cares about even slightly, then returns a bit later to save Naruto's freinds, and when we see him after that he's the Kazekage and has gained enoguh respect in the position that the Sand sneds rescuers after him, instead of celebrating or just writing him off in the face of overwhelming opposition - in a way, he emulated Naruto's ideals and goals so well that he achieved them before Naruto himself.
Now, pipe that through spandex and powerposing and the explosive power of youth and this is SABAKU NO GAARA and AAARRRRGH! MY EYES ARE BURNING! THE GOGGLES, THEY DO NOTHING!!
- CD quakes with fearWhat, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Valles]

---

Now, pipe that through spandex and powerposing and the explosive power of youth and this is SABAKU NO GAARA and AAARRRRGH! MY EYES ARE BURNING! THE GOGGLES, THEY DO NOTHING!!

---

Well, I'll have to think a bit for ways around that, but in the meantime, here's a soothing image (if you're straight and hormonal, anyway): Hinata at 16 (Yes, I know it's not really, but first cousins is close enough, ne?)
Having thought, I have couple speculations for you: Would it not be reasonable for Naruto to, after being exposed to some other high-level ninja besides Gai (Jiraiya leaps to mind, but Haku or 'Uncle Zabu' would do quite well, too), sit down and take a look at what 'the explosive power of youth' really -is-? And, given influence from those three (Haku in particular), might he not come up with an answer that's, well, pretty much what he said in canon?
The other option is that that's, mmm, how he thinks of things when he's alone in the dark rather than alive and awake in the daytime where he knows he's got friends and such - which, given how -toasted- he was at the end of that fight, is probably a fairly reasonable place for his mind to be during that conversation.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

Well, they do say that character is who you are in the dark, and one of the things I'm trying hard not to change is the decent if poorly socialised kid who remembers the feeling of lonliness that is the essential core of Naruto, even as I put im in a more wholeheartedly positive team interaction and lace it heavily with ass kicking abd humor to keep it from getting stale.
At least, I hope all that happens. I'm trying.
Just my luck that Never Cut Twice just introduced a Mist girl who's Zabusa's niece and calls him (in the past tense, since he's dead two years or so by then) 'Uncle Zabu." Now I have to stop reading it until I get to that interaction and have it nicely established on my own.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[drakensis]

Luck? Luck you say!?
This is merely the power of Research!
That fic, you see, is whence I plucked the 'Uncle Zabu' phrase from in the first place, bent it to the needs of this plot bunny and set it loose into the thread.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Foxboy]

Drakensis! I am so PLEASED that you are displaying the EXPLOSIVE POWER OF YOUTH through research! You do your ninja team proud!
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[drakensis]

Well, if no one had liked the idea then I WOULD HAVE HAD TO READ 500,000 WORDS OF NARUTO FANFICTION and if I couldn't do that then I WOULD WATCH 100[/i] EPISODES WITHOUT PA
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[classicdrogn]

---

That fic, you see, is whence I plucked the 'Uncle Zabu' phrase from in the first place, bent it to

---

Damn it, that's NOT cool. Worse still, the adjustments I made to compensate for removing Zabusa as a boss and instead being an ally for the end of that are too far-reaching to strip it out now. DAMMIT. NCT's Zabusa-niece pulls pretty much the same happy-squeal-and-huggles on Kisame, too, if overplayed in a different direction.
- CD is PISSED.What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[drakensis]

er... sorry?
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Acyl]

...well...um...it's just one point of similarity, and Gai-girl's a lot more fleshed out as a character than this Mist-nin is. Gai-girl is a major player, the mist-fangirl is a throwaway reference in that story. I doubt we'll see her again. It's different.
'cides, like you said, you're taking it in a completely different direction. What you've already posted bears that out...
I mean, I know swiping ideas...leaves a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people, sure. But this really ain't all that bad, methinks. It's...a little thing. Inspiration rather than Grand Theft Literature. It's sort of like how, I think...couple threads over, Nathan said he got the idea of Anko having a crush on Iruka from another fanfic, "Suiren".
(on a completely unrelated note, that fanfic title keeps doing weird things to my brain, because while Suiren is 'Water Lily' in Japanese, it means 'Water Person' in Mandarin Chinese, and I speak that, and...and...I keep getting images of Sakura getting permanently transformed into a Mizu Bunshin after a tragic accident involving Ino and a mind transfer, and...I need to lie down now. Yes. Lie down.)
-- Acyl