#team six

We've not made visual references for Team Six masks, but some of our fantastic fanartists have!

We talked through our inspiration for the masks here.

Leiaham made a very early design for Ryouma's mask which we've used for years:

@wombywoo made a series of all 4 Team Six boys with their mask designs as background. I'll reblog them all separately, but f'rex here's Genma:

They have an anbu legacy tag with just some gorgeous fanart as well.

@altiloquenta did an amazing design of the ANBU uniform, though not a specific Team Six mask.

And I highly recommend just scrolling through our own fanart tag for some an amazing designs and artwork over the years.

Glad you loved them! Can’t promise when the next missions will be going up, but I’m curious: what do you think the differences would be with a Team Six-only mission vs missions with other parties involved as well?

Because let’s face it, Konoha is 100% wasting Team Six’s spectacularly good looks by having them wear masks all day:

Genma

Probably the most versatile of all of Team Six. Can definitely do wholesome, understated clothing, like Land’s End, Brooks Brothers, and J Crew, or scale him up into a nice, classic Burberry. Doesn’t he look like an upstanding, responsible young man? One you’d feel proud to bring home to your folks, and then feel slightly resentful afterwards because they’ll all end up liking him more than you? He seems like he’d do his taxes on time and call your mom on her birthday. In fact, just looking at him makes you want to do adulting things too, like steam clean your carpets.

Alternatively, travel advertisements: have him laugh in the golden sunlight, alongside his beautiful golden-haired spouse and their beautiful golden-haired children, on the golden sands of an expensive resort. Or he could stand alone, against a backdrop of stunning scenery and impressive monuments, with just enough empty space beside him to make you wish you were there with him.

Genma’s also got a secretive, sultry side though, which would make him a prime candidate for a perfume model. Plus, that mouth and those eyes deserve all the close-ups in the world, especially if the ad is tinted gold instead of black and white. He wouldn’t do the hypermasculine ads; he’d do the sensual and unsubtly bisexual ads, where he’s smouldering into the camera, sandwiched between a beautiful man and an equally beautiful woman. This ad has no target audience. It just has an audience, and the audience is everyone.

Raidou:

In a perfect world, Raidou would do the Chris Evans truck stop hooker ad, specifically because it’s deliciously subversive, with its clear female-gaze and slightly vulnerable sensuality. Stereotypically hypermasculine power fantasies are so passé.

Which isn’t to say that Raidou wouldn’t do the Rugged Man ads, but he’d want a sensitive, gentle twist. He’d model flannel shirts and hiking boots, but also wear an apron as he makes you a delicious dinner. He’d climb a mountain and reach the top with a two-day beard and glistening muscles everywhere, and then take out art supplies to paint a beautiful landscape. He’s probably bearded in a lot of his ads, wearing cozy sweaters. Possibly holding cats, because Raidou is the kind of Farmer’s Market Hot that makes everyone swoon.

A body like Raidou’s should also do athletic wear. What sport? All the sports. Do you want Raidou dripping wet as he comes out of a pool, wearing skintight jammers? There’s an ad for that. What about Raidou in tiny rugby shorts? You bet there’s an ad for that. You think no one could possibly make wearing a parka sexy? Just wait until you see Namiashi Raidou in his winter cabin photoshoot, sitting in front of a fire, offering you a mug of hot chocolate that he probably made himself out of cocoa beans he harvested with his bare hands.

Raidou kind of meandered into modeling. He really didn’t like what the fashion industry did to people, especially women. So he made a promise with himself to never date within the industry, because that way lay drama and Raidou was so not for it. Naturally, he met Genma the next day, and his second thought (we all know what his first thought was), is "..... FUCK." Fortunately for them both, Raidou’s self-imposed boundaries didn’t last long.

Now, Genma and Raidou do joint photoshoots for The North Face or Land’s End, where they are hot, domestic husbands of such high caliber that even Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka would consider them #goals.

Ryouma:

He would do the hypermasculine perfume ads, but instead of the kind that advertise a Hot Night, he’d advertise the Morning After — smirking at the camera with an expression that could not be described as anything other than well-fucked, his hair tousled and his lips bitten. His neck’s bitten too. There might be faint rope burn around his wrists. He’s probably shirtless because his shirt is hanging off of someone’s shower rod. The message of the ad is clear: you too, could look like you've been ravished by every hot person within a 5-mile radius if you wear this perfume.

But we all know that Ryouma’s true calling is underwear. He’d be the rare underwear model who’s encouraged to show his face, because his face is a national treasure. In every ad, he’d pose with one thumb tugging down his waistband, because he doesn’t just pose for underwear, he poses for underwear that you want to take off, preferably off him, preferably with your teeth. Is it the underwear or is his ass actually that perfect? You don’t know, but you can’t stop staring at it. He has helpfully bent over to give you a better view!

He could do regular menswear stuff too, but there's probably a clause in his contract that stipulates a state of undress. So he can model a shirt, but he has to be in the process of taking off said shirt. Look, he worked for his perfect abs and he wants people to see them, okay?

Kakashi: (Now with fanart, courtesy of @kuebiko-draws) 

High-end watches. The kind that looks like something James Bond would wear, all slim and clean, but with a billion functions concealed under the deceptively simple watch face. This watch could probably drive your car for you if you pushed the right button. But why would you even look at the watch when you could look at the devastating elegance of Kakashi's hands? His fingers are the definition of hand porn. His bare wrists are so obscene that most of the time, he wears black leather gloves that reveal only a pale sliver of skin between the end of the glove and the band of the watch. But somehow, that just makes him look even sexier. How is he so erotic when he's 99% covered up? Ask the Victorians, IDK.

Formal menswear, but not for the kind of gentleman who just stands around, looking pretty. Lesser models can do the boring, leaning-against-a-wall poses. Kakashi’s ads have him fencing in a waistcoat, or crouched on a moonlit roof with his jacket billowing over his shoulders like a cape. Who would be the target audience for formal menswear that has such a great range of motion? You probably don’t want to know the answer to that.

Even in model!AU, you never see his full face. He’s only shot in black and white, for the drama, with stark shadows across the elegant planes of whatever part of his face is actually visible. Every suit he wears is slim-cut and dangerous. Every expression he makes is focused and dangerous. He looks like he could assassinate you and you’d thank him for it. No one knows if he’s actually as hot as the camera makes him look, but the general consensus is that he’s even hotter.

Kakashi and Ryouma have an ongoing rivalry thing, because Kakashi is kind of snobby about underwear models who do nothing other than stand there with their clothes off, and Ryouma is annoyed with Kakashi because anyone stupid enough to go into modelling when he can barely stand to show people his face has no right to judge anyone else. Somehow this leads to rough, passionate sex in a hotel room. No one actually knows how it happened. Least of all, Kakashi and Ryouma.

The two of them eventually do a formal menswear ad together. Kakashi had done one before, with Genma, where they both looked gorgeous (Genma with his hair up was a revelation for many people, including Raidou). Kakashi and Ryouma’s ad also looks gorgeous, but also very BDSM-y. Possibly this wasn’t the intention, but it was for Italian Vogue, and, well, Europeans. Besides, no one’s complaining.

Bonus: Kurenai

If you take a more liberal definition for Team 6, Kin gives the best hugs, hands down (or paws down, as the case may be). But if it’s human Team 6 members only, they each give different kinds of hugs:

Raidou has giant arms that he uses to crush you against his giant chest. His hugs make you feel like you’ve just wrestled a bear -- but in a good way!

Genma gives warm, comforting hugs. You wouldn’t think that a man so lean would be a good hugger, but Genma’s got depths. Squishy depths.

Ryouma pretends to be a bro-hugger, but if you hold on past the accepted three-seconds-and-a-back-pat, he’ll just melt against you. Short people should be prepared to get a face-full of pecs -- which may or may not be a good thing.