#lurking

Now the real question is

I see people ship them, but what I really want...

Is for them to start a "Black Sheep Book Club."

by Roman Novikov

first is of course the new prompt series one except actually covering sasuke and naruto's meeting instead of jumping into the future. or maybe alternating... kind of like how i did a year and a day. uzu never falls, kushina becomes pregnant with naruto on a mission to steal the scroll of forbidden techniques and then absconds with the scroll and, unknowingly, minato's son. uzu closes it walls, no uchiha massacre, and on sasuke's first mission out of the village (bridge escort to wave) he's given the curse seal by orochimaru and kidnapped. orochimaru doesn't make it out of wave, instead running into naruto's genin team and his jounin sensei chases him off. but now what to do with a cursed and injured sasuke? protocol states returning him to his team, since they are allies, but naruto insists on bringing him into uzu even though outsiders are not allowed so that they can save him from the curse seal. jounin says no, naruto carries sasuke on his back, flashes his eyes and says well, let's see them not let me in. and of course they do. kushina is like what are we going to do with you? and he insists on helping sasuke, who's in pain and scared and doesn't understand what's happening, but agrees to whatever it takes. naruto uses the demon chakra to burn out sasuke's chakra coils to get rid of the curse seal. the next few weeks the uchiha and konoha thinks he's dead, but he's just recovering and hanging out in uzu with naruto. and he keeps it a secret when he leaves but he and naruto meet up together again, and again, and again

second is the same premise as godnonsensical - mikoto secretly taking care of naruto and encouraging sasuke to be friends with him out of loyalty to kushina - but with a different result. shisui doesn't die, instead washing up on the side of the river mostly dead right where naruto and sasuke are playing. naruto screaming for help, knowing that the anbu are watching him, and it breaks protocal but kakashi comes out. shisui tells them what danzo is planning, what itachi is going to do. naruto and sasuke run to the compound while kakashi takes shisui to the hospital and goes to get the hokage, which he doesn't like, but realistically sasuke and naruto are safe. mikoto and fugaku are alerted, meet itachi at the gates, stalling him. itachi doesn't want to do it but he points at sasuke and asks if they want him to die, mikoto saying it's too late sasuke and naruto know the truth, itachi saying he can make them forget. danzo, hokage, and kakashi show up. hokage puts a stop to it, orders itachi to execute danzo for treason instead. hokage still considers punishing the uchiha, but naruto leverages his loyalty and status as a demon container against the hokage, saying the uchiha have always taken care of him and if he hurts them, he'll let the fox finish what it started (a lie, of course it's a lie, but he's a kid and he's scared and a he could do it, is the thing. he won't. but he could). so the uchiha basically get away with it and now naruto and the uchiha are twined together, both hated and feared by the village and unwilling to abandon the other. kakashi joining the uchiha to keep an eye on them for the hokage but also to take care of naruto since he knows about him now. sasuke and naruto are pulled from the academy and made apprentice to itachi (incredibly fucked up by the whole situation) and kakashi respectively. are twelve and should be chunin by now but the council won't allow it, still distrustful of them, says they have to get promoted the old fashioned way. so naruto and sasuke are put on a team with the top kunoichi, sakura, with shikaku as their jounin sensei. shikaku there to see if these kids are as much a threat to the village as everyone seems to think and sakura, with her weak civilian background, is another test. can naruto and sasuke work with her long enough to become chunin or are they complete lone wolves? can a civillian overcome all her prejudices and learn to trust them?

third is sasuke time travels back to them becoming genin after finally getting it beat into him that naruto really does mean all the bullshit he says and there's literally nothing sasuke can do to lose his love and affection. and he knows what's coming, he knows how all the pieces fit together, and he knows so much of this is going to come down to him and naruto kicking everyone's ass. and he's tired. he'll push them more in training, use all the shortcuts he can since he knows what they end up becoming, but the truth is that right now this is just a waiting game. this go around he's just going to believe in naruto from the beginning and skip a lot of the bullshit, so they'll get strong enough to take out the akatsuki and save the world without nearly losing it first. struggles talking to naruto because they haven't even had the wave mission yet, they're not what they were, and ends up just telling naruto he likes him. only naruto misunderstands and is like you LIKE ME? and sasuke goes to correct him and is like. well. this actually isn't a bad excuse. and it's not like it's anything they both haven't been accused of through the years. this way he can blame some of his more childish avoidant behaviors on having a crush on naruto and not wanting anyone to know. so he says yeah, but don't worry about it. but naruto gets upset, thinking that sasuke is trying to be cruel to him, and sasuke panics and goes, i like your eyes, i like blue. which is true, but not like that, but naruto looks at him and actually seems to buy it. and then naruto goes quiet and tells sasuke he doesn't like him like that and he's sorry. and sasuke feels a pang of fondness for even back then, back when pretty much everyone still hated him and he was alone, there's this core of kindness in him. sasuke's never had that. maybe naruto can teach him. and sasuke says it's fine, he gets it, no worries. thinks that'll be the end of it. but the next day naruto starts to greet and hit on sakura, freezes, and gives her a normal greeting instead and does the same to sasuke, rubbing the back of his head. and sasuke doesn't get it and then he does. naruto is worried him pursuing sakura will hurt his feelings, since he told the idiot he has a crush on him, so he's not doing it. and there's that sweetness again, that consideration that sakura has certainly never given him when she's giving sasuke heart eyes. and it just changes the dynamic completely (real love triangle could have saved team 7). because even though naruto doesn't like sasuke, he doesn't want to hurt him. so when they have a mission of clearing out a field, he picks out a bouquet of flowers for sakura and sasuke, so it's fair, and sakura doesn't have any reason to say no if sasuke is getting one too, so she doesn't. and eventually sakura picks up on what naruto is doing and why and decides to do the same thing. she brings snacks to share with both naruto and sasuke and so sasuke doesn't reject them and stops talking about her crush on sasuke and it actually lets him relax a little with her. and they actually become friends and her crush falls away. except naruto keeps being sweet and fair and considerate to sasuke and at some point sasuke realizes his crush on naruto isn't a lie anymore. which really sucks since naruto has never once wavered on not liking him back

Huge, intelligent spiders have infested your apartment building in indie survival horror game, LURKING!

The full game is coming to Steam:

I like to lurk and check in on them from time to time.

Just… watching my friends.

It’s… interesting.

The Walking Dead

S9E10 - Omega