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Serenade (Shikamaru)
Shikamaru is not my favorite character. That said, this takes a merciless look at how his abilities would be used in ANBU, and his likely mental state. The interaction and mirroring of his fights with Kankurou and Temari are fantastic, and I love way the author doesn't flinch away from what people in ANBU do.
"That was why he went in -- for others. Why he stayed, though, that was for himself. The day he realized he'd just methodically slaughtered seven people in their beds without giving any particular thought to what he'd been doing was the day he understood he could never leave ANBU. He's made it his goal to die here. By his careful calculations, Kiba will last maybe another year, Neji maybe two or three, before they return to the regular ranks. He thinks he can wait. (A good shougi player is nothing if not patient, after all.)"
And after that had broken your heart, read this to have the pieces ripped out of your chest.
Lessons (Kakashi)
"By the time he was eighteen, he'd perfected his adherence to Shinobi Rule 25, and people had started calling him Copy Ninja Kakashi. ANBU's red-eyed demon who had let himself forget everything his sensei and his teammates once stood for. He apologized to them daily for not being strong like they were, not being able to rip out a man's heart and slit a little girl's throat and still go home to smile at the world with innocent open eyes. He made himself the best at what he did because he couldn't be anything else, if he wasn't the perfect ninja then he wasn't useful enough, and if he wasn't making himself useful then there was hardly any reason for anyone to want him around, was there? And so he was a flawless weapon in his Hokage's hands, he asked for missions by himself because he couldn't bear to fail anyone else again, and he did the one thing he knew how to do."
I kind of don't have words for how awesome this is. It has a great Kakashi-voice, and I love the repeated theme of what Kakashi learns from his life, and it's such a pitch-perfect tragedy that the slight hint of hope in the end almost feels like too much of a tonal shift.
And after that double feature, feel free to curl up around your computer and sob.
Shikamaru is not my favorite character. That said, this takes a merciless look at how his abilities would be used in ANBU, and his likely mental state. The interaction and mirroring of his fights with Kankurou and Temari are fantastic, and I love way the author doesn't flinch away from what people in ANBU do.
"That was why he went in -- for others. Why he stayed, though, that was for himself. The day he realized he'd just methodically slaughtered seven people in their beds without giving any particular thought to what he'd been doing was the day he understood he could never leave ANBU. He's made it his goal to die here. By his careful calculations, Kiba will last maybe another year, Neji maybe two or three, before they return to the regular ranks. He thinks he can wait. (A good shougi player is nothing if not patient, after all.)"
And after that had broken your heart, read this to have the pieces ripped out of your chest.
Lessons (Kakashi)
"By the time he was eighteen, he'd perfected his adherence to Shinobi Rule 25, and people had started calling him Copy Ninja Kakashi. ANBU's red-eyed demon who had let himself forget everything his sensei and his teammates once stood for. He apologized to them daily for not being strong like they were, not being able to rip out a man's heart and slit a little girl's throat and still go home to smile at the world with innocent open eyes. He made himself the best at what he did because he couldn't be anything else, if he wasn't the perfect ninja then he wasn't useful enough, and if he wasn't making himself useful then there was hardly any reason for anyone to want him around, was there? And so he was a flawless weapon in his Hokage's hands, he asked for missions by himself because he couldn't bear to fail anyone else again, and he did the one thing he knew how to do."
I kind of don't have words for how awesome this is. It has a great Kakashi-voice, and I love the repeated theme of what Kakashi learns from his life, and it's such a pitch-perfect tragedy that the slight hint of hope in the end almost feels like too much of a tonal shift.
And after that double feature, feel free to curl up around your computer and sob.
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