#loveelemental

Alternatively, one extremely long noodle that Shikako can follow and find all the people with curse seals and, like, eat JUST the curse seals, lolol.

Anko is maybe one of the few people who aren't Shikako's parents or the other kids to think of Shikako as a child and not, like, some weird Nara eldritch entity blood limit thing. Or, like, a Nara equivalent of the Inuzuka's ninken or the Aburame's hives.

Hm, to be fair, it could be that since it was a "prototype" curse seal, people could have just assumed that it was temporary/meant to break down over time/her own chakra system burned through it. At this time, there are no sealing masters in Konoha, so who can say for sure, lol.

There's also the fact that Anko's seal seems like a far better kept secret than, say, Naruto's for example. People avoid her because she was Orochimaru's student, not because of the curse seal from him, if that differentiation makes any sense.

This kind of touches on this post in which an anon asked about why I didn’t have Shikako and Gaara have biological kids with each other, but obviously less cringe-inducing. I think Shikako would make—or massively contribute to or, at the very least, consult the pioneers behind it—a seal/tech-based external womb not for her own benefit (because I do maintain SHE doesn’t necessarily want [more] children) but for someone else.

The first go to that comes to mind would be Risshuu Shingon and Saidai Nara (aka, Ritsu Shingon’s parents from the Sunshine Sidestories) who have, as you previously said and which I still find absolutely hilarious, “incompatible meatware” to have biological children of their own. We literally see their wedding in the side story so that they can build a stable domestic household for their daughter. But we also see how nervous Risshuu is about it and even Saidai, in his Nara way, given he wanted to get the wedding done IMMEDIATELY, because even though he was reassuring Risshuu the whole time, he must have also felt that if he didn’t seize the opportunity NOW, with the clan heirs being acting clan heads, then they may not be able to do it UNTIL the clan heirs ACTUALLY because clan heads — a decade or more, he said.

All that being said: I would think after some time of letting the concept of being legally married settle in their brains, when they’re no longer so worried of it being taken away from them, they would want to consider having another child. And, like, obviously they’re considering adoption or surrogacy because… you know… that’s what’s available… but I do like the idea of Shikako hearing about it (maybe from Ritsu, who’s old enough to understand what’s happening, but not old enough to know not to tell her hero intimate family details) and then showing up at their house during breakfast and sitting down—just really giving Risshuu deja vu—and dropping the “Do you want biological kids?”

And, well, they’re not going to say no to that. They just… didn’t think it was an option.

And Shikako does say—well, it’s not an option… YET.

And then she sweeps into the next Sealing Group meeting and just throws this topic into the ring and everyone just goes all in on this. It’s the exact overlap of sealing and medicine and “impossible” with further/alternate applications. Because I think the steps to make a functional external womb which WOULDN’T require constant concentration or exact chakra control could also lead into things like… how do bacta tanks work in Star Wars? Or stasis/travel seals to bring injured patients from the field back to a more incorporated hospital.

And, you know, there are probably a bunch of OTHER people who would appreciate an external womb: other couples with incompatible meatware, fertility issues in general. The more, uh, “corporate” equivalent would be clans with members who are reluctant to have kids but are the prime example of their blood limits so if the clan agrees to take care of the kid, they don’t mind donating their genetic material. Or even maybe civilian nobility? But that gets iffy.

OOOF, that’s definitely one version of Fun™, loveelemental. I don’t know if that would be an “I need to talk to your cousin Shisui” question so much as an “I need to talk to you older brother Itachi” question, and even then it’s a little… like… I don’t necessarily know if that would work, anyway?

Like, “An alternate universe version of your brother wrote you a letter!” doesn’t really fix the fact that “This universe version of your brother killed your entire family and tortured you mentally” you know? And especially considering how many alternate universes exist in which Itachi NEVER did those things—not just because of a time jump, but because the circumstances were different, or the Uchiha found a different way to deal with Danzo. Or someone else (Shikako) dealt with Danzo—it both kind of falls flat as a “heartfelt message from your brother” and also, again, doesn’t seem like this is the one thing that ONLY youngest!Shikako can do, you know?

… Or, wait, hold on, maybe I’m mixing up the worldbuilding for this one. Is it that the Space only reaches across different versions of canon!Shikako or that it reaches across to different versions of Gardens!Shikako?

So if it is a Space that only reaches across different versions of canon!Shikako, then yes, youngest!Shikako would have the easiest time getting a letter from a not Kotoamatsukami-fied Itachi.

Incompatible meatware is one of the funniest phrases I have ever seen, loveelemental, congrats! That is also a very interesting twist on “I see the ghosts of all my/your ancestors.” I have to assume it’s not just biological children, though, because why would that ability differentiate in that way. I also suppose… is it an any children you WOULD have or any children you COULD have? Which isn’t too big of a distinction but would vastly affect who/where you see these apparitions…

And is it children or, like, any shared descendants? How many generations deep are we going here?

Because one very quick way I can see how this would be Shikako’s fault is if she at some point either invents via seals or manifests via Uchiha with Mangekyo Sharingan witnessing her goddess status a way for future people to view their ancestors’ lives as a sort of “learn from the past”/Assassin’s Creed Animus type thing maybe as a somewhat safe training simulation, but for some reason the person who has the curse/power in modern day can SEE all of the future people looking back at them?

Like, for example, if this was Sasuke and all of a sudden he’s seeing a bunch of strange ghosts looking at him and his life choices and, well, as kinda gross as it is, I do headcanon that Konoha would attempt an Uchiha repopulation program provided it is a sane/not evil Sasuke. Like, probably not ALL of them are descended from Sasuke (because I do also headcanon that there were a bunch of “half-blood” Uchiha that weren’t accepted into the clan before the massacre and then kind of felt like they had dodged a bullet by not claiming the name, or some Uchiha children that weren’t Sasuke that Danzo had scooped into ROOT—hence the “kill your training partner” thing, he was trying to kickstart a brainwashed army of Mangekyo Sharingan users loyal to him) but a good chunk of them are. And he was, for a while “The Last Uchiha” so if you have to learn how to be an Uchiha from someone, maybe start with him and work your way backwards?

Basically, if you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan, just imagine Ezio being able to see Desmond and Clay as they watch his life via the Animus. Or, if you’re a Avatar The Last Airbender fan, it would be similar to if Roku could perceive Aang’s spirit watching him from the future (if Aang could astral project himself into the past, that is). I’m trying to think of other metaphors, but I’m not sure…

Do you think the wielder of Mangekyo Shikabane-hime gets to see what happens in the It's a Wonderful Life-ing or do you think they just send it like a laser and have to wait for the target to say what happened to them?

On the one hand, being able to see what happens in the It's a Wonderful Life-ing does provide EXTREMELY POWERFUL INTEL and does differentiate it from the Tsukuyomi's "I trapped you in a powerful, unbreakable torture genjutsu, mwahahahaha" but on the other hand, it does make it less useful as an attack. Then again, I think that was @donapoetrypassion's point about both Mangekyo Shikabane-hime and Mangekyo Gelel being UNDENIABLY POWERFUL but kinda useless as a combat skill.

Although, the audacity of a follower of the Shikabane-hime to USE the literally god-given skill AGAINST her?!?! OoO Full on Miette, jail for a thousand years. Then again, you did mention well-meaning usage. You do get that sort of... not angst per se, but solemnity of the user trying to be like "I wanted to surprise you (in a fun way) but you are neither surprised nor having fun. Oops."

Using it on Danzo would be so unrecognizable. Like... how many things did he influence (for the worse)? How many schemes and plots did he spearhead in his megalomaniacal grab for power?

It's either Well-skilled Doe or Monarch of Cadavers. One of these titles is a lot more threatening than the other and I'm sure Shikako has a preference lololol