Hour #5: What Once Was Lost

Hour #5: What Once was Lost

Summary: Decades of service to the powers that be have shown Tobirama that there is irrefutable power in belief. Author: @writhingbeneathyou

Rating: Teen And Up Fandom: Naruto Relationship: Ōtsutsuki Indra/Senju Tobirama Characters: Senju Tobirama, Ōtsutsuki Indra Other Tags: Uchiha patron god!Indra Word Count: 5,175

Decades of service to the powers that be have shown Tobirama that there is irrefutable power in belief. 

Regardless of where that belief is anchored—be it in a god, a dogma, or even something so simple as love in its basest state—what matters is that the hearts in which it resides beat with conviction. All of that devotion, all of those resonations of what it is to be human, seep into the walls of holy places over time and leave behind impressions of something bigger than the self. Something pure, prevailing, and alive .

Tajima’s teachings thrum through him with a power all their own as Tobirama allows the echoes of his step-father’s sagacity to guide his path. He stares up into the shafts of light streaming down through the canopy and simply listens for a time. The forest around him is warm and humid even in the dead of winter, not a sound to be heard through the molasses the air has become—a miasma thick enough to drown. A warning. Even the sun on his face seems to lack both temperature and substance, as if it can’t quite reach through to caress Tobirama’s cheeks properly. 

Blinking slowly, he stretches his senses though the ominous wall of wards and feels for the flow of chakra beneath his bare feet, hoping for a hint as to the direction of this power’s source. Read the rest on AO3!

Beastly Reminder

Hour #4: Uchiha Madara and the Potato Wizard

Summary:

Madara accidentally signed a magical contract and had to receive match-making services. Of course, he tried his best to get out of it.

Author: greenchair (@greencuttingmat) Rating: Teen And Up Fandom: Naruto, Romantic Killer Relationship: Madara/Hashirama, Madara/Hikaku, Madara/Tobirama, Madara/Izuna, Hashirama/Mito [the only real couple in this fic is Hashirama/Mito], Hashirama/Mito/Madara, Madara/Obito Characters: Madara, Riri, Hashirama, Hikaku, Tobirama, Mito Other Tags: crack, no romantic relationship, one sided Madara/Hikaku, Madara is forever single, no beta we died like Shisui, because, Izuna Lives Word Count: 5,949

Notes:

This is the potato wizard that Madara saw.

The summer heat was almost unbearable that Madara had tied up his hair. Regardless how much he wanted to hide in a hole, Madara kept a steady pace of reading and replying to reports so that the ink won't dry out before he finished the stack. It was a steep learning curve for everyone involved in this new Uchiha-Senju alliance.

Izuna and a whole cohort of Uchiha witnessed the power Hashirama demonstrated as both Uchiha and Senju were commissioned by the Daimyo to chase Kyuubi away from the capital and had a little bit of breakdown, realizing Hashirama was holding back against them. Then the clan was split between manic despair and fanatic worship. The peace proposal went through the next time Hashirama suggested. While Izuna and Hikaku had managed to fight for a term beneficiary to Uchiha, the truth was Uchiha had surrendered to the Senju. Madara's last sibling didn't die at the hand of Senju, but was it worth it?

Fortunately, Hashirama wanted to realize their childhood dream, so they asked the Daimyo for rights to land and peace between the clans instead of gold and rice, and somehow they were here.

Madara would have to make this work. He learnt to talk with people, instead of talking to them and to work with Senju instead of fighting them.

So far, it has been going well. Izuna was alive; children were kept away from the battlefield; and Hashirama danced with him every few days. If only the elders would stop nagging him about getting married. Madara didn't plan to be tied down without long-term peace being achieved. He would not be seeing his children leaving for the Pure Land before him and in pieces.

Madara unrolled the scroll that he was reading till it was fully opened and placed it on the table. He took a look at his brush to make sure that he was using the brush inked with black and signed.

The texture was a bit <i>off</i>. Reflectively his Sharingan turned on and Madara finally saw through the very advanced genjutsu. Swop he attempted to grab the paper on top of the scroll but with a puff, it disappeared in smoke. Fuck! There were intruders and what would the energy do with his signature? Madara caught a glimpse of what he did sign - a matchmaking agreement?

At the periphery of his eyes, there was something purple. Immediately Madara threw a handful of kunai in that direction. The thing attempted to doge, but it was pinned onto the wall at its purple cape.

"Who summoned you?" Madara asked, laying chakra in his word to force the thing to answer truthfully. He has never heard about a summon like this. It may be a secret weapon of their enemy. And Uchiha and the newly established alliance had made a lot of enemies.

It was a yellow rat that was as round as a potato, with small round ears and grass-like limbs. It was wearing a purple pointy hat and a cape with yellow stars, holding a yellow star on a stick with two leaves on one hand, and the paper with his signature on the other hand.

Madara shunshined in to grab the paper but the creature shoved it into its cloak. In a hurry, its stick dropped onto the ground.

Madara narrowed his eyes. He picked up the flimsy stick. It didn't feel any special, without any power.

Madara pressed the star on the top of the stick onto the rat. "Return my signature and I will give you a quick death."

"Wait!" It said, voice shaking.

"I am listening," Madara said. His Sharingan spun slowly.

"I am Riri, a wizard! Well, you see, eh, the birthing rate of the Land of Fire is declining and ah, it's a problem for us in the magic land because, er, we rely on the innocence of human children as an energy source... And, ah, we are having shortages."

Madara had never heard about this, but there were many realms outside of the Shinobi land. "And?" Madara thought he should split the rat open and make it into jerky.

"Our office aimed to improve the birthing rate of the nation! Starting with people like you! Who had a big dream and would stay single without any help!" It sounded more confident as he continued.

"We didn't need your interference. The birth rate would pick up since there is peace now. Now return my signature!"

"Not until I help you get your true love." It held onto the star pressed onto its chest.

"Ridiculous. I don't need your help."

"Your father at your age already had four children. And you and your little brother? Zero!"

That thing had done its research and now Madara had even more reason to kill it.

Riri sensed its impending doom, and before Madara shoved the stick right through it, it disappeared along with the stick in smoke.

Read the rest on AO3.

GIGANTIC SHOUTOUT to @meeceisme whose freaking incredible Lilo&Stitch!founders comics (here and here) compelled me to draw this (I NEEDED to see the crayon drawing of Stitch!Madara, and then I desperately needed to see Tobirama add his peer review).

anyway... this is canon, right?

Madara Uchiha

"The best thing we can do with power is give it away" - On the leftist critique of superhero narratives as authoritarian power fantasies:

The ongoing "Jason Todd is a cop" debate has reminded me of a brilliant brief image essay by Joey deVilla. So here it is, images first and the full essay text below:

"A common leftist critique of superhero comics is that they are inherently anti-collectivist, being about small groups of individuals who hold all the power, and the wisdom to wield that power. I don’t disagree with this reading. I don’t think it’s inaccurate. Superheroes are their own ruling class, the concept of the übermensch writ large. But it’s a sterile reading. It examines superhero comics as a cold text, and ignores something that I believe in fundamental, especially to superhero storytelling: the way people engage with text. Not what it says, but how it is read. The average comic reader doesn’t fantasize about being a civilian in a world of superheroes, they fantasize about being a superhero. One could charitably chalk this up to a lust for power, except for one fact… The fantasy is almost always the act of helping people. Helping the vulnerable, with no reward promised in return. Being a century into the genre, we’ve seen countless subversions and deconstructions of the story. But at its core, the superhero myth is about using the gifts you’ve been given to enrich the people around you, never asking for payment, never advancing an ulterior motive. We should (and do) spend time nitpicking these fantasies, examining their unintended consequences, their hypocrisies. But it’s worth acknowledging that the most eduring childhood fantasy of the last hundred years hasn’t been to become rich. Superheroes come from every class (don’t let the MCU fool you). The most enduring fantasy is to become powerful enough to take the weak under your own wing. To give, without needing to take. So yes, the superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson… The best thing we can do with power IS GIVE IT AWAY." - Joey deVilla, 2021 https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/07/04/happy-independence-day-superhero-style/