For Writing Asks: Kazusa Densetsu and 💡, ⭐, ⛰️ and 🎢 Thx!!
💡-What was the motivation behind the story?
It was a few things, actually! I was still active on my @fire-hearted-father account back then and I was doing some absolutely stellar political drama threads with other roleplayers.
There was a mun who roleplayed Tobirama, Hashirama, and Madara. We quickly bonded over our love for these kinds of plots and she lamented that it was not only hard to find Founders Era accounts, but accounts that wanted to do something other than fluffy domestic stuff. She was here to wage war and bring down the system, dammit! Why was it so hard to find that?
So...I actually decided I’d use this as an opportunity to not just give my Vines series a prequel, but also test the waters by creating a cast of Founders Era OCs to expand on some of the clans who received less attention by the fandom.
Suffice it to say, by the time I was done, Osamu and Yanagi got their own account.
⭐- What’s a scene/paragraph you’re proud of?
They called it the Black Sea of Trees: a seemingly endless horizon of fog, old forest, and shadows. None of the trees bore fruit by their own design, but rather by the legions who chose to hang themselves. Like the butterfly from the cocoon, the corpses burst and ripped apart once they reached a certain point. It wasn't the soul, but merely a buildup of gasses. It didn't make it any less impressive.
(Honestly, the whole description of that forest was fun to do. I wanted an Aokigahara of my own out there and I hope I delivered!)
⛰️- What was the hardest part?
The ending. Definitely the ending. I wrote Tobirama’s speech first, then went back and added everyone’s reactions to it. That was the easy bit...but the actual ending from Kazusa’s perspective was harder.
I wanted to end it on a deceptively hopeful and optimistic note, only because she’s the last perspective we see. She’s a teenage girl and has seen some horrible things; but as far as she’s concerned, the bad guys have gone away. The Uchiha Clan is given a special office with the Konoha Military Police Force. She’s about to lead! This could be a bright new beginning, at least from her perspective.
But I also wanted the readers to look at this, realize that, and see something she can’t. I want the reader to see that, pick up on the context from the other scenes, and realize that no. Things are not okay.
This whole place is fucking doomed and it’s only going to get worse a generation or two later.
🎢- Were there any scenes you were nervous about? For audience reception or otherwise?
There were two of them, and both related back to the Yamanaka Clan. They were the most fun to write, but I was also occasionally worried that I may have taken things a bit too dark or too far for most readers to stomach.
I know some of my readers get squicked by medical gore and I had a lobotomy scene. I strongly implied that there was some incest going on, too. Or at least some uncomfortable attachment between the twins they weren’t supposed to have.
I also worried about the peacemaking scene gone horribly wrong in Black Sea of Trees and even ended up taming down the Madara scene because it got too intense for one of my beta readers. I cut some of the more graphic bits and just left the rest to everyone’s imagination.
But hey. At least I got to use Osamu again in Hiruzen Monogatari!
