- Psalm of Fire: Uhhhhhg. Could be a platonic harem (with anko kinking it out now and then for her own kicks), and I could almost write it.
- gman391: So how would you set it up?
- Psalm Of Fire: I... think I would set up a situation where Naruto can use his Speach-no-jutsu, inspiring Yuugao in her time of mourning.
- Yuugao is fascinated by what he said and wants to talk to him about it again.
- As she asks "where did you learn that" naruto can sight his life experience.
- This strikes a sympathy cord with Yuugao, and she starts learning about his life.
- Psalm Of Fire: And then he mentions something that's wrong in his life (he's not saying it like that, he's just making an off comment and she regonizes it as wrong), something that she could help fix.
- gman391: Okay that gets them together I assume something similar for Kurenai
- but what about Anko?
- Psalm Of Fire: I'm getting htere.
- So she decides to meet with him later, because she has to go, and offers to buy him ramen.
- He's all for it.
- She tries to help him, then asks him advice for something else in her life, just curious how someone like him would answer.
- After a week or two Anko notices this older woman sharing a freindship with a younger boy, and the "demon vessel" on top.
- Kinky, she thinks, and so she decides to investigate secretly.
- Because she suspicious of them doing naughty things (she would think that way) that's what she's looking for, but can't find it.
- So she secretly goes about setting up situations more and more perposterous that would encourage them to "act out" the naughty feelings she's convinced is the foundation of the relationship.
- gman391: Hmm interesting
- Psalm Of Fire: Yuugao and Naruto get very embarrassed, but never do anything.
- gman391: Anko you crazy snake woman
- Psalm Of Fire: It pisses Anko off, so she decides to crash one of their dinners.
- She asks Yuugao why she's doing it, and she's like "he's got some really good advice. Go ahead, give him a situation and see his advice".
- Anko does and she hears Naruto spew his optimism.
- Anko's all negative and condicending "you have no clue how the world works" and Naruto gets pissed and tells her off.
- gman391: Hmm all in character so far good job
- Psalm Of Fire: Inside, however, she really whished life was like Naruto said, that passion and work would pay off. She terrified of that hope, pushes it away and doesn't even recognize it's existance.
- gman391: Sad
- Psalm Of Fire: I know, right?
- See, vulnerable.
- gman391: but believable
- Psalm Of Fire: But well hidden.
- gman391: Obviously
- Psalm Of Fire: She doesn't get Yuugao hanging out with him still, and that hope unconciously draws her back to their hang outs.
- She's very critical of herself after she realizes it's the hope.
- What a fool I'm being, she thinks, he's just a brat.
- Anko and Naruto get into escallating verbal spats over stuff like this.
- Finally she just tells Naruto he can try to do this thing or that, but it won't result in anything good, that it's all wasted effort. It doesn't matter in the end.
- So Naruto sets out to do just the thing she described to prove her wrong.
- Anko is still afraid of that hope, doesn't want to feel the pain it brings.
- gman391: And succeeds because he's Naruto
- Psalm Of Fire: When Naruto starts succeeding she's determine to prove the "success" is false, that it colapses, and she begins activly fighting against Naruto and his success, trying to break it like her life was broken.
- It get's to the point that she's terrified for him, for him to become as broken (or more) that she was when she learned all these hard lessons.
- There's nothing left to do but prove what a bastard the world can be, how horrible people are.
- So she betrays him.
- Like she was betrayed.
- gman391: And being the stubborn idiot he is Naruto forgives
- Psalm Of Fire: Hm, not a bad idea...
- I think he's just convinced she's wrong, like the whole village is wrong, and it will be all okay once she gets it.
- It's more of excusing (you've got your facts messed up so you're acting messed up) that legit forgiveness, but very similar.
- He's encountered so much emotional pain in his life that the betray doesn't have near the impact Anko thinks it should.
- This is where she starts to realize "wow, he knows his crap" as in, he knows how hard and bitter life is, but he still has the optomistic force of nature in him.
- However, before that, things are escalating.
- Anko and Kurenai are friends (fanon, not canon) and Kurenai sees her acting more and more irrational in this matter when she hears stuff about it.
- gman391: Hmm and goes to ask what the hell is going on
- Psalm Of Fire: Then she's out trying to find what Anko is doing, to talk about the extremes she's going to and push for temperance.
- She finds Yuugao crying and screaming at Anko and Naruto with a death scowl just looking away.
- gman391: Those moments are never great to walk in on
- Psalm Of Fire: :) Heh heh heh, not in real life.
- She steps in and learns about the fight and about Naruto's life, and hears Naruto at his angriest.
- She thinks both Anko and Naruto need a calming force, and Yuugao is not emotionally up to it.
- She doesn't really want to involve herself, so her conclusion is to try and smooth things over and generally keep the two seperated.
- gman391: Yugao is emotionally traumitized up the wazoo
- so is Naruto and Anko come to think of it
- Psalm Of Fire: Exactly, she is the one needing the help mostly, not giving.
- gman391: And Kurenai slowly gets pulled in because she doesn't get what has Anko so pissed off?
- Psalm Of Fire: So Kurenai and Anko avoid Naruto (and some by extension, Yuugao) for a while.
- Naruto's words keep circling in Anko's mind though.
- gman391: Which would probably be the arc words for the fic
- Psalm Of Fire: Huh?
- gman391: Oh just thinking of what the words would be going through her head it'd probably be the theme or arc words for the fic
- Psalm Of Fire: Anko wakes up crying with those words and that dream of acceptance and change floating in her head. It's the first time since she was a teenager that she's cryed.
- Ah, I see.
- What would those words be?
- gman391: Hmmm off the top of my head?
- I have survived I have survived through faith, through love and through hope
- Psalm Of Fire: Mm, that's a real good start.
- So she waked Kurenai up in the middle of the night / early morning to go on a drinking bender.
- Kurenai doesn't drink much, but Anko starts by hitting in hard.
- gman391: isn't her fanon version a borderline alchoholic?
- Psalm of Fire: Or hard-core alchaholic.
- gman391: I have survived the betrayls, the loneliness and the darkness. Because of those three things
- and I will never surrender them
- Psalm Of Fire: Oo, I like.
- I think I will save this convo...
- gman391: indeed
- Psalm Of Fire: Kurenai want to know what happens. As soon as Anko admits she was crying, Kurenai has a short BSOD because that should NEVER happen.
- Then she demands to know the reason.
- gman391: He survived and stayed a good person
- Anko knows that she is not
- Psalm Of Fire: Anko tells her to F*** off, and that escalated until Kurenai beats it out of Anko (an itneresting scene, and Anko has Kurenai previously vow to never use genjutsu on her, becasue "my reality is F***** up enough as it is, I don't need someone F******* it up more. I'll kill you if you do"
- Psalm Of Fire: That's a good point.
- Isn't two lines of conversation fun?!
- : P
- Well, Kurenai's not so much afraid of anko, but is respecting it, so they end up brawling it out.
- Anko looses because she is drunk.
- And her heart can't stay in it.
- gman391: How? How is he so much stronger than me?
- Psalm Of Fire: Yeah, that's good.
- gman391: I'm seeing Anko sobbing that into Kurenai's shoulder
- Psalm Of Fire: So, in just two or three lines, she says that Naruto stirred up some hope in her, and for that, anko will never forgive the little B******. Kurenai realizes it has to do with hope and orochimaru's betray, and the general sense of reject Anko as faced.
- Anko is already hating naruto also because Naruto seems so good, so obviously the source of this new hope stirring is going to end up hating and rejecting her too.
- gman391: Hmmm from there either have Naruto enter in a contrived fashion. Or have Kurenai ask if she thinks Naruto would really do that
- Psalm Of Fire: Kurenai susses this out and want to go talk to Naruto right then.
- gman391: That works too. BRB
- Psalm Of Fire: K, I'll just continue until you get back.
-It is early in the morning, though, and she's afraid she has been a poor judge of character, again (bad dating history when she was younger, she swore off guys for several years, but is now interested in Asuma)
- So she decides to wait and puts Anko back in her house (she wants to use a jutsu to put her asleep, but resists even if her friend will suffer more).
- As Anko is trying to sleep she cries some more, and then passes out.
- The next day Kurenai is thinking about it.
- She's afraid for her friend, that she will be rejected.
- So she considers just placing it all behind them.
- Avoid Naruto like the plague, and letting it all die down and let Anko get her equalibrium back.
- But if Naruto can help Anko, well, Kurenai feels an obligation.
- And, with her thoughts of a relationship with Asuma, she's still not convinced men can survive puberty and still be people she wants to be with.
- Naruto, however, seems like a genuinely good guy, even as she's afraid he's not.
- So she decides to talk to Yuugao, to learn if he would end up rejecting Anko after all this too, and to maybe have her faith restored in the opposite sex.
-Her and Yuugao have deep chat, and Kurenai is convinced this is exactly what Anko needs.
- So she sets up a "drinking night" with Anko, let's her get a little liquired up, and then has Naruto show up.
- Anko starts freaking out on him, threatening to kill him, and trying very hard not to cry.
- Then Naruto does his thing, both yelling at her and accepting her.
- And she hears those words she longs fore.
- They come in a different package, but they mean acceptance and friendship and that he cares what happens to her.
- She breaks down totally sobbing and they leave the place for an abandoned alley.
- In that hard setting, a place where drugs maybe happened, lifes may have been ruined, a place that feels alone and lost, Anko finds acceptance, Yuugao finally gets her own hope for the future (there is still good to come, you haven't lived the best of it and it's all down hill from here, and you are a person worthy of a good future), and Anko realizes that there are men of compassion and upstanding.
- Then, Yuugao tells Naruto "thanks".
- gman391: Oh I like that set up
- Psalm Of Fire: Thanks!
- Naruto doesn't get it.
- He's just yelling at people and being him, though he's gotten more passonate about it than he usually is.
- She explains a bit how much he's ment to her through her rough time and then hugs him.
- He doesn't really get its a hug at first, and then he realizes it because he's seen others do it, and the Hokage hugged him a couple times when he was really young.
- Naruto kind of blacks out.
- All his life people have hated him because he was just him.
- gman391: I don't think a full black out. A daze though
- Psalm Of Fire: Oh yeah, not uncious.
- His world perspective is just doing a reboot
- After so many years of hate, Naruto wonders if somehow they were right, that he deserved the hate.
- He decided to say "screw them" and go for the one thing no one could deny, being hokage.
- But then he wondered if they were just accepting him because of a title, not because he actually was something worthy of respect.
- What if it's all fake?
- gman391: I dunno about this track.
- Psalm Of Fire: As soon as he's not hokage, he's worthless?
- But here someone is.
- He's changed their life.
- For the better.
- And they're thanking him.
- gman391: I'm thinking Iruka's acceptance and Sarutobi's would prevent that mindset from happening
- Psalm Of Fire: Hm, that's true.
- I'll have to alter it in that light.
- gman391: I can see him blanking because he's never had a hug before
- Psalm Of Fire: What if Iruka and the Old Man were the only one who could like him, because they were special.
- What if everyone else would always hate him? he thinks.
- Even if he held the title of Hoakge, it would be grudging if they did at all.
- But here was another person. One is an accident, two is a coincidence.
- Is three a pattern?
- gman391: What about Hinata's speech at before the Neji fight then?
- Psalm Of Fire: I was thinking this was before the chuunin exams, between wave and Kakashi's anouncement.
- gman391: Okay
- Psalm Of Fire: He finally feels he's done something powerfully good. This isn't symathy either, this is something that HE'S done, not something that's been done to him.
- gman391: nvm then
- Psalm Of Fire: It's a confirmation: I am not a monster.
- (thanks for making sure it all lines up, good questions man, keep them comming)
- gman391: Something he would desperately need because of the Wave fight
- Psalm Of Fire: He always knew it, but it felt so good to _know_ it.
- Oh yeah, that's true!
- gman391: but if this is before the exams how does Hayate die?
- Psalm Of Fire: Oh yeah...
- That's a problem.
- gman391: Did his disease just kick into overdrive?
- Psalm Of Fire: Heh he heh.
- Yeah, that could work.
- gman391: Actually that works better because Yugao doesn't have anyone to channel her anger at
- Psalm Of Fire: Yeah, taht's a very good point.
- Let me finish this ending while I have it in my head and then we'll straighten that out.
- So he starts hugging Yuugao back, squeezing her tight, almost like a life bouy
- He start crying.
- The words cycle over and over in his head, "thanks, you saved me" (from depression) and he start squeezing her not as desperately, but with enthusiasm.
- A big grin split's his face. "You bet, nee-chan!"
- His voice is a bit rough from all the emotion.
- Kurenai admits that he's restored some faith for her, that she can have a hope at romance, that she wont have to marry some man she despises on one level or another.
- "What's she still crying about?" Naruto says, pointing at Anko.
- gman391: Group hug?
- Psalm Of Fire: Anko throws a stone at him.
- "Stupid gaki."
- Naruto doesn't learn the full extent of the hope he'd given to Anko, the healing done in her soul, until much later.
- But each of them, whether from comfort (yuugao), hope (anko), or a show of courage (Kurenai's earned respect), now have a special place in their heart for him.
- And he has at least three votes for Hokage.
- "But he's still got a hell of a long way to go," anko snarks.
- Roll credits.
- Is that a good ending in your opinion?
- gman391: Yeah it does.[/spoiler]
I decided to move this year, since it didn't really belong in topic about stories not going anywhere. It's definitely going somewhere.
Chapter 1
Spoiler: show
Anko Betrays
Previously Naruto has loved on his plants and thought that maybe Anko would be another precious person too, after all, Yuugao is.
Anko wakes Naruto up by wrapping him in snakes. The snakes lift him up, give him a good view. Anko turns on the harsh flourescent light and begins to verbally degrade him. Then she takes out a kunai and begins tracing cuts into the plants. (Slice, slice slice. She scarred another. Naruto looked away. These plants, they'd been there with him when no other living thing had. He'd cried holding them before. He'd even tried to hug cactus-chan! slice.) Then she throws all the plants and their pots in a bucket, uses a jutsu to crush the pots, and slices like mad. She taunts him about being a monster, about the people the Kyuubi killed. Then she says he hasn't even got a clue about betrayal yet. Naruto challanges her, they get into a word fight, and she derides him more saying he deserves it all. Then she throws the bucket of all Naruto's dead friends into his face. "You still haven't got a clue. Real betrayal, it hurts a hundred times more." And she lights the appartment on fire whith him in and walks out.
The fire pops one snake and Naruto manages to break free of the other. He charges out after her, finding her strolling away from his apparentment complex. He growles at her, telling her that she doesn't have a clue. "Maybe you'll get it," anko says and nearly appears behind him. Snakes wrap him again. He powerless and they begin squeezing the life out of him. But before he can suffer too long Anko throws a knockout punch to his face. His neck snaps to the side, the light goes out of his eyes, and then they turn red with Kyuubi slits. Chakra and killing intent start boiling up and Naruto's eyes lock on to her. She summons more holding snakes and he begins to break free.
"See, I told you you were a monster."
And she vanishes, and Naruto is left trying to get his senses back and suppress the Kyuubi, and deal with the accusations.
