I've been rereading the End poem from Minecraft and I wonder if any of the hermits who were close to Gyusha would recite it to his tomb? I thought that maybe they told him about the End poem and how someday maybe he would experience it, and know that he was loved by the universe.
The "wake up" part in the End poem makes a scene pop up in my head where they're trying to revive him, reciting the near end part of the poem, where he is loved by the universe, that he is daylight, that all that he needs is within himself, that he can begin anew. Wake up.
Idk that just popped into my brain cuz I couldn't stop thinking about your HCxNaruto fic. I keep rereading it cuz it's just so fun.
Alrighty, I'm assuming you are the same anon- I promise I'll get to the other pending ask but this one driving me crazy. This idea has been looping in my head for days now. This is so. Good. I cannot focus on the other points as this one is eating all my brain space. Maybe they revive Gyusha? I could see it happening as a one shot!
So many eldritch-god-beyond vibes-! And we love those.
"And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love.
You are the player.
Wake up."
You are the player?? Maybe players can be created instead of spawning in? This entire idea is driving me absolutely insane in an excellent way.
I just imagine an image that is dark, so dark, and there are the hermit's eerie eyes hovering around like they are standing above the viewer with the words "wake up" in the center. Reciting the poem is so excellent. Thank you so much for sharing this with me, this idea is incredible. I adore it!
If I end up putting anything like this in any sort of media I'll be sure to credit you the best I can. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes the brain water wheel turn!!
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Draft of Ch 1. of Set in Stone, the prequel to YCTiB.
“Hey Sakumo!”
Sakumo paused midstep, tilting his head just so to acknowledge he’d heard Hiroko’s call. Over the years the Shiranui ended up working with the Hatake often enough that the two clans had something of a rapport. Sakumo and Hiroko in particular were not quite friends, but certainly past being mere acquaintances.
There were footsteps for a moment as Hiroko made to approach, and in response Obake made a sound between a growl and a sneeze, causing Hiroko to wisely freeze in place. He raised his hands to show that he was unarmed, even if it was a relatively useless gesture for a jonin. “Just wanted to say hi,” he grumbled.
“You can say hi from over there,” Obake rebuked, one ear flicking with annoyance. Sakumo agreed, though he wouldn’t have been so rude. Some people were a bit more touchy-feely than he personally liked, but in this case it was just that Obake and Hiroko had never gotten along.
Hiroko’s expression soured. Sakumo knew from past experience that he was valiantly refraining from calling Obake a mutt or a dog. “Whatever. Just letting Sakumo know that a few of us are hanging out at Three Point later tonight. He’s invited.”
“We won’t be there,” Obake said.
“We might swing by,” Sakumo said at the same time.
The look Obake shot him was deadly, and Hiroko snorted, not put off by the ill tempered wolf. Obake was grumpy on a good day, and most people who had worked with Sakumo and his partner had adjusted to the wolf’s sour disposition.
“Great. See you then,” Hiroko said, “or not.”
:::::-:::::
They did, in fact, go to Three Point that night (much to Obake’s displeasure). Sakumo could tell, right off the bat, that things were tense. An sense of unease ran through the patrons like a current.
Sakumo decided to rip the bandage off, so to speak.
“Alright then, what’s the news?”
Kaede raised a deceitfully delicate brow. “They’re not repealing the early graduate initiative,” she said slowly, “and they’re not changing the wartime criterion for team formation either.”
“What?” someone asks sharply, and Sakumo isn’t sure if it was him or not. It felt like he’s just had the wind knocked clean out of his lungs.
“But that means…” Fumiaki uttered, looking as shocked as Sakumo felt.
Face twisted in a particularly ugly way, Tanaka spits what they’re all thinking. “They’re still putting the kids on canon fodder teams.”
“But why?” someone asked. No one answered, but Sakumo had a few ideas. The war wasn’t as over as they had thought if the higher ups were fearing enough skirmishes to make those undertrained, filler teams necessary.
Hiroko had a grimace etched into his features, and it’s easy to see that the lines slowly carving themselves into his skin are not lines of laughter, but stress. Obake nudged Sakumo’s leg reassuringly and he returned the gesture by knocking his knee into the wolf’s shoulder. Nobody was happy with the news.
“Oh,” Fumiaki gasped softly with growing horror, “oh no.”
Kaede narrowed her eyes. “What-?”
Slumped with defeat and suddenly quite pale, Fumiaki stared listlessly with glazed eyes at the wood grain of the table. “My wife… we just found out she’s… pregnant.”
A child. Something that should have been celebrated, something that ought to have caused joy… it sounded like a death sentence.
“Maybe they’ll change it in a few months,” Tanaka offered.
Fumiaki’s hands clenched into fists on either side of his untouched plate. Nobody spoke for a long minute. “We thought it was over,” he said eventually. “We thought it was over. They said it was over.”
Hiroko scoffed. “Still, rushing to have a kid so soon after-“
“You don’t get it Hiroko!” Fumiaki snapped with an uncharacteristic fury. “There are three men left in my clan- three! I had to. I have to. We’re almost dead.”
“… Three?” Tanaka echoed into the ensuing silence. “Shit Fumiaki, I didn’t realize it was that bad.”
Fumiaki lost his steam, and with his deflation the defeated slump of his shoulders was all too apparent. “There’s so few of us left. What happens when I die? When Fuyu dies? And Fumihiko’s in his sixties! Like hell he plans to remarry. The fate of my entire clan rests on my- and Fuyu’s- shoulders. So if one of us dies…”
“I- sorry,” Hiroko said awkwardly.
Fumiaki didn’t acknowledge him.
“I’m in the same boat,” Kaede added after a moment. “We don’t have a lot of people left. And I know we have to try to preserve our clans, but what’s the point of having kids if they’re going to be sent to the slaughter?”
Murmurs of assent swept across the table.
They were right, of course, but the conversation was quickly heading towards talk that could be counted as treasonous. “Right. Everything’s got ears,” Sakumo reminded them. “Let’s not talk like this.”
“But when are we going to address this? How? We can’t just take this lying down,” Fumiaki refuted.
Hiroko looked around the table. “Maybe it will be a few months more. Just like insurance, you know? In case negations go sour. Just until things settle down.”
Sakumo didn’t know if Hiroko was trying to convince them or himself.
:::::-:::::
That night he found himself reading though the clan records. The toll from the past five years alone was staggering.
His father, dead. His older brother, dead. His remaining uncles, dead. Both of his aunts, dead. Seven of his twelve first cousins, dead. Most of his second cousins, dead.
With twelve civilian women bound to eventually marry, very possibly out of the clan, and only eight men left in the clan, the Hatake were in pretty bad shape. Including the elders and widows that had managed to survive time and the loss of their partners respectively, the clan was 28 members strong; 28 was not even a third of the number of clansmen they’d started the war with.
He was the clan head, damnit, why did it take some random conversation in a bar for him to finally realize the severity of the situation?
They were headed down a path there was no coming back from. Sakumo pressed his hands into his face, as though the pressure would help make his horrible realization any easier.
The minecart wasn’t that bad. Clonekashi has no idea if that was because of some weird property, like the goop water, or if it was because he was a clone.
The… thing? Entity? The being that went by Cleo had trapped him, but had otherwise left him alone in the cart. It had prodded one of the creatures in the cages, somehow adding several limbs and a tail to what had previously been a bipedal worm like abomination, for several hours that stretched into a handful of days before vanishing from the lab for a prolonged period of time.
Clonekashi took the unsupervised time to communicate with the other clone and found out that the earth clone had been damaged whilst trying to escape a man that could effortlessly control mud and, to a lesser extent, dirt.
Sounded like Scar.
Scar had been the one with Grian when the earth clone had been made, and in addition to that, Clonekashi knew that Scar was absurdly powerful when it came to earth jutsu. It made sense; Scar was not to be trusted in the slightest, especially not if he was in league with Cleo. Now if only he could pop to get the information back to the original…
The copies of the Copycat were not alone for long. The woman who had fought Scar, Carol, meandered in as casually as anyone could walk into a place. Clonekashi knew admittedly little about her, just that she ironically seemed to like violence but dislike blood based on her bout with the Uchiha.
And Tango had mentioned her, hadn’t he? He’d said that his sister and False were like the ‘Rens’ and Cleo and Carol.
Clonekashi resolved to pay extra attention to her. She didn’t do anything nefarious, didn’t mess with any of the experiments in any way, only walked around with a clipboard and marked down wherever it was she was looking for to record. When she finished with that she stood at a very tall lab table and began shuffling sheaves of paper around.
Was she an assistant? That was something of a relief. True shouldn’t have too many strong feelings about leaving if False was just her employer.
“I guess there’s not really a chance you’ll let me out of here,” Clonekashi eventually voiced. Cheesy, but always worth a shot. And it was a good way to get your captors to spill some extra details.
Carol paused her reading, peering at him from over her papers. “Maybe at some point. Cleo wants you here for now, but we can negotiate if she ends up forgetting about you at some point.”
That was a much more pleasant response than he’d been anticipating, unnaturally so.
“How could she forget?”
Carol lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “We forget lots of things. She even forgets me, which I’m sure you understand. I hope that puts into things into perspective.”
Clonekashi considered his next move carefully. He knew how many floors there were, but he also knew that family was really important. Escaping Inja no Machi was critical.
“What’s that mean, exactly?” he asked neutrally, hoping to bait her into revealing more about the relationship his sister and False supposedly had. It was a tactic that worked wonderfully around here, and it did not disappoint.
“Well, neither of us are real,” Carol elaborated slowly. “We’re part of them. And if she forgets a part of herself then I reckon there’s a good chance she’ll forget about you, too.”
Before Clonekashi could say anything about that new information Carol pressed on, “Haven’t you ever been forgotten? Unneeded? Surely you’ve been left behind before.”
Clonekashi shook his head, bewildered. “No, I keep good track of my clones.”
Carol set her papers down with a look of clear disbelief on her face. “How old are you exactly?”
“I was made a few days ago if that’s what you’re asking,” Clonekashi joked, hoping a lighthearted approach would help build a rapport with Carol, especially since she hadn’t shot down the idea of helping him escape.
It seemed to backfire. Carol stared at him, and stared, and stared.
“Right,” she said, collecting her papers and standing, “I think experimenting on a baby might be a bit too evil, even for me.”
“Maa, like you said, I’m not even real,” Clonekashi pointed out, curiosity shining through his working eye. What was going on in her head?
“No, you and I are real,” Carol refuted as she headed toward the door, “we’re just also connected to something far, far bigger than ourselves.”
Hi! I'm the previous anon. Here I am with more ideas, although I feel like I wrote too much for a Tumblr ask, and I apologize for that. I hope you don't mind!
1) Based on the timeline, Kakashi is about 23 years old, which means that, if we follow the anime's timeline, there are suddenly new reasons why Kakashi would stop being an ANBU that year, lol.
2) TFC is a Hyūga, and probably one of the secondary branch. If this is the case, did Xisuma remove his seal? I think the seal was capable of destroying the Byakugan from a distance to prevent the eye-stealing so beloved among ninjas. A younger brother of Hiashi and Hizashi? Probably a cousin. But his "disappearance/kidnapping" (depending on which story his clan gives) puts a new spin on Hinata's kidnapping and Hizashi's sacrifice.
3) Doggies! I can't wait for Kakashi to show his ninken to the Hermits! It'd be like:
Hermit: Are you telling me I could summon an animal to help me find (insert plant)?!
Kakashi: …You could do that with a regular animal.
Hermit: Yeah, but they can't understand my jokes :c
Speaking of the ninken, I hope they don't get considered Mobs like the clones did. If they do, I hope they don't catch Cleo's attention. Although, well, would Cleo be capable of hurting a puppy with such soft paws? Ah, speaking of clones.
4) Kakashi goes to sleep after his world turns upside down for the 373,827th time.
Kakashi, almost jumping out of bed: And my clones?!
5) When Kakashi and his siblings return from the Nether, I can't help but think about the interactions he'll inevitably witness. For comedic value, sure, but also because it's not impossible to think that Etho probably has a mark on all of Inja no Machi. "Oh, that door? Etho created that!" "Yeah, only Etho understands how this thing works." "Etho helped me create this whole system, isn't that great?" Basically, Tango and Doc in chapter 14, multiplied by a hundred. And with that, comes the heartbreaking realization that this is Etho's home. Inja no Machi is to Etho what Konoha is to Kakashi. It would be so sad, because Kakashi only knows how to live as a weapon for his village. How can he fulfill his role as a brother when he barely remembers what it was like to be someone's son?
6) On a different note, how long will it be before Konoha starts wondering about Kakashi's whereabouts? Because when you're a renowned ninja, your cause of death isn't falling into a ravine and breaking your neck; someone must have killed you, obviously. I'm imagining something like:
Kakashi, two months after leaving the village: Hokage-sama, I've come to make my report.
Hiruzen, who was half an hour away from declaring him dead and starting an investigation into his murder at the hands of an enemy village, inevitably causing a war: Ah, Hatake, I was about to start getting worried.
Hello previous anon! Welcome back and please, feel free to write as your heart desires! I do take longer to reply to longer asks, but that’s because I write a lot too and get distracted :P
And I apologize for the delay Q-Q
1- About 23- you are correct! He’s 25 in YCTiB. According to everything I could find he’s 26 when the Naruto series starts. Kakashi leaving ANBU is going to be a full circus in my fic. In canon his friends approach the hokage and are like “hey, Kakashi is Not Okay TM” and the hokage is like “damn, you right” so Kakashi gets genin duty (he fails a few teams before he gets the canon team) and this ask made me realize that I screwed the timeline bc he should be out of ANBU already…
2- If you don’t mind spoilers… yes, this is the case! Xisuma probably didn’t remove the seal, I figure TFC may have done it himself (he did more automation in mc than I can manage, he’s a tech player… I kind of want to translate that to some sealing skill) and I was also thinking about having Mumbo or Beef + Doc/Cleo do it. Mumbo is already associated with enchanting and cursing so he is an option, and alternatively, Beef could use his clan’s technique to make a copy of TFC’s head and have Doc and or Cleo swap his sealed head out for the new one (Beef is the source of heads in this hardcore world).
The Hyuga kidnapping plot thickens :>
Sounds like an excellent side story tbh- I really like the idea! Neji and TFC would have some interesting interactions…
3- Summons are meant to come up soon. I’m rewriting a chapter atm so I’m not 100% sure they’ll stay in, but they are intended to appear. I will warn that they’ll be seen like a tamed mob /villager mix by the hermits, like someone’s cat but a bit more complex. Luckily for them Cleo won’t take notice, she’s rather occupied (for better or for worse).
asfahajajk “they don’t get my jokes :c” THIS and the find plants *perfect*
4- He has a “wait…” about the missing clones soon, and funnily enough it is while he’s trying to get some sleep. I just can’t decide if he has this epiphany whilst Tango snores and drools on him or if that’d be too much XD
5- :)
Kakashi is 100% self conscious about being a good family member Q-Q
6- Hard to say! I imagine that sometimes people can go for a while without contact. I think people put the wave arc in timeframes ranging from a few days to a few months. I’ll admit I got super side tracked at this section and was looking up and reading different timeline ideas/canon events to figure something out, but I’ve forgotten where I was going with this. Kakashi will have to go back to Konoha soon-ish, but from the YCTiB timeline he’s been gone a little more than a week (I think) so we have plenty of time!
I enjoyed the anecdotal ending segment
Thank you for your patience and for the really interesting thoughts and questions!
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So like I was thinking about yctib while I was playing some modded oneblock skyblock. Like create and silents gems and refined storage ext.
Like Kubikiribōchō kinda feels like it is enchanted with mending or life steal (silents gems) + life mending (apotheosis). The latter moreso (lifesteal steals your opponent hp life mending takes your hp to mend your gear whenever you regen)
I'll start by confessing that I know next to nothing about Hermitcraft and my Naruto knowledge is anything but extensive. That said, I found You Can't Take It Back in the Unreliable Narrator tag, and it's hilarious.
Like, you wrote Batman falling into the Looney Tunes world. This fanfic is a slice-of-life comedy for everyone except Kakashi because that guy is living a psychological horror movie. This story sometimes has the energy of Goofy's cover of Evanescence's Bring Me to Life. I'm in love.
My favorite part is when Kakashi interprets things in the most horrifying way possible, and that's in almost every paragraph.
I can't wait for Kakashi to have to tell another ninja about his experiences in Inja no Machi and for that person to come to the conclusion that the prodigious Copy Ninja has finally lost his mind.
Imagining scenes for this fic always brings a smile to my face, even if I know they'll never happen. For example, Kakashi, upon realizing the village has no children, asks a couple of questions, which the Hermits answer in the most confusing way possible. His catastrophizing mind then concludes that a) "Asuma" doesn't allow them to have children, or b) THEY'RE FUCKING STERILIZED.
Just another beautiful (erroneous) conclusion to add to his brother's "marriage" and the situation with his sister's soul, among many, many others.
I can't count how many times I've reread this story. Honestly, what a gift.
So, thank you for writing one of my current favorite fics! <3
Thank you!! :D
I’m super stoked you like the story!
The crazy minecraft stuff is pretty hard to explain, especially in the context of “real life”.
Imagining scenes? The “wait why are there 0 (zero) children” scenario you pose is excellent. I’m munching on it. Idk if you draw/write or do bullet point outlines or what but if you do, feel free to dabble and PLEASE share it, I love seeing what people come up with and Kakashi thinking they are sterilized?!!?! Omg that is so good, he’d descend into another layer of hell-
Erroneous conclusion? What are you talking about? Etho is married, said so himself ;P (on like his 5th divorce too-)
I’m really glad you are enjoying the story! Especially since the source material is unfamiliar- it means a lot that you read it regardless. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and enthusiasm with me :D
