[Fic] It’s Just That Any One of Us Is Half Without Another One Is You - Chapter Nineteen

[branchandroot]

Cross-post from my archive.

Fandom/Arc: Avalanche, Naruto
Characters/Pairings: Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, Jiraiya, Sai, Shimura Danzou, Tsunade, Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto
Summary: Kakashi takes Sai under his wing and Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura help Sai start to find his emotional feet. Just in time for Madara to make his move on Konoha.
Meta: Drama, Angst, I-4
Wordcount: 5447

"Shinobi are the weapons of their villages. Their nations. Their employers. True enough. But a shinobi without the will to evaluate orders, and even modify them if field conditions demand it, is a blade without a sheath. And members of ANBU are ground to a sharper edge than any others. That's what you've been waving around your own village, Danzou."

Read: It's Just That Any One of Us Is Half Without Another One Is You: Chapter Nineteen

Comments

[annotated_em]

*hisses* Danzou is a fucking bastard, isn't he?

[branchandroot]

*brightly* Yes. Yes, he is. I really am convinced he's more than a little unbalanced (not that this is anything odd for a ninja, to be sure). He's very devoted to the village, but only to /his/ vision of what the village should be, and that's a vision with Danzou at the center.

[jjhunter]

Sai! Sai! Sai!

<3

p.s. I like your changes to canon re: Danzou & 'Tobi' - much more sensible.

[branchandroot]

*hearts* Sai really just manages to sneak in when you aren't looking. And goodness knows he deserves a fairer break!

(Tobi is anathema; as far as I'm concerned, that character doesn't exist; which, weirdly, appears to be bringing me back into alignment with canon in a way. *shakes head*)

[edenfalling]

Ooooh. I like how neatly Sai sets up his little test, and how Sakura is still furious on his behalf (rather than furious at him), and how that completely and utterly throws him. The way the fox perceives the world, and how some of that bleeds into Naruto's own perceptions, is really neat -- like he's trying to translate a sixth or seventh sense into human terms, and sometimes comes up with temperature, and sometimes comes up with a feeling of discomfort/revulsion.

Danzou's view of Kakashi is so very, very sad, in a way. For him to honestly believe Kakashi was better off before Minato and Obito and Rin got to him and retaught him how to be a human being, suggests to me that something inside Danzou is also broken. And maybe curdled. And then he takes that out on everybody around him, trying to make them equally broken (and also subordinate to his will), which is unforgiveable. I do like the interaction at the end between him and Madara -- he doesn't have many lines, but he's not stupid and he knows better than to trust that Madara would ever keep his word. (Also, this line -- Madara must be used to dealing with madmen, if he thought that kind of logic would work. -- is a thing of beauty that I want to frame and put up on my wall, because YES. Why does anyone listen to that man? Even Pain made more sense, and he was still obviously nuts.)

Minor potential typo: He appeared to be one of Tsunade-san’s new de facto first councilors since she was nearly at knife-points with Mitokado and Tarlatan over Naruto. Isn't the other councilor Utatane?

[branchandroot]

*hearts* Sai is really kind of alarmingly good at what he does. It's no wonder he and Kakashi wound up bonding. And Naruto and the fox were just /fun/ to write as they started sharing more. Honestly, it really /is/ like a huge, furry, ancient Sasuke inside Naruto's head.

*bounces* All the stuff with Danzou came through, good! Yeah, he's /seriously/ broken, and I didn't want to hammer the point but I did want to make it clear that Danzou is kind of exactly what can go wrong with powerful, dedicated shinobi. He and Kakashi are in some ways opposites, and in some ways mirrors. *laughs* And, man, seriously; Madara's sales pitches are just a testimony to how far around the bend all of Akatsuki really is.

(Argh! Spellcheck, I hate you, that wasn't what I said to do! Thank you, yes, that should be Utatane.)

[inoru_no_hoshi]

Wheeeeeee! Every chapter adds more loops and flying fun to the fic. :D

Madara is such a nutcase though. o.o

[branchandroot]

Thank you! *grins* Tasty, tasty politics.

And seriously, Madara is /so/ crazed.

[alas]

I love your mentor/mentee relationships between unexpected people that manage to be so in character (and entertaining besides). Who would of thought that any Jiraiya & Sasuke, and Tsunade & Kakashi relationship could be so darn cute :D! Also, Kakashi not being an absolutely lousy teacher who abandons students, and characters having more than one teacher is a thing of great joy.

[branchandroot]

*sparkles mightily at you* Yes! Seriously, that's a big part of why I wrote this, because it could have been /so easy/ for the teacher relationships to be better! All you need to do is mix the character types up a bit! (Though I really do think Tsunade and Kakashi are deeply alike, and both a little alarming, in their drive to protect the village.) Seriously, the spark to this whole thing was "what if Kakashi had /kept on/ acting like a teacher who had two brain cells to rub together?".