a brief introspection on sunflowers — KakaSaku, age swap, modern day AU. Written for KakaSaku Month 2021.
the problem with how time works — KakaSaku, age swap, canon divergence-sorta? Written because Sorta-Dom!Sakura and Respectfully-Flirting!Kakashi are fucking hot, okay??? OKAY.
WIP
actions and consequences — KakaSaku, historical and arranged marriage AU. Written because I live to torture these two hot idiots.
it’s a long, bloody road to the fairytale ending — KakaSaku, same age, fairytale AU. Written because Bluebeard is my favorite fairytale and I want to see Sakura get stabby with some treacherous husbands.
snakes and snails and puppy dog tails — KakaSakuSasu, same generation AU. Written because I am a horny piece of trash.
a rare blip of kindness — KakaSaku, same generation AU. Written because I want Kakashi and Sakura to be Naruto and Sasuke’s parents so badly.
BEHIND THE SCENES/DVD COMMENTARY
#the problem with how time works
Chapter 2
Chapter 6
Chapter 10
#snakes and snails and puppy dog tails
Chapter 2
#a brief introspection on sunflowers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4 re: the chaotic bro fight
Chapter 5 re: that one love triangle
Chapter 5 re: Sakura and Mebuki’s relationship, some glimpses of Kizashi
Chapter 5 re: Sakura and Kakashi’s conversation about Kizashi
✅ All my posts (save for the list of my stories) are currently on private as I'm reevaluating the type of content I want to share on this blog.
Happy reading. And remember to support your favorite authors with a comment, even if it's an expiring extraterrestrial sound, a gif, or even a keyboard smash 🖤
I’ve noticed when rereading “Actions & Consequences” you shifted from using Japanese honorifics to English honorifics for brother/auntie/etc. What warranted the change?
Hi anon! Thanks for the question. I honestly didn't think anyone would notice the change 😶
After observing some conversations between fellow authors about Japanese honorifics in fanfic, and I decided it was better for me not to use them at all if I had no concept of Japanese grammar 🤦🏻♀️ (However, I did choose to keep the honorifics denoting social rank!)
And the thing is I knowwww it's just fanfic and mistakes are not that serious...but I'm pedantic, so during my time writing chapters of a&c, I'd constantly look up really specific questions like, "In Japanese, how does someone refer to her older sister/mother/any-other-family-member when talking about them to someone else?"
It was difficult for me to find answers independently, and I also didn't think it was worth bothering folks with my questions because it all ultimately boiled down to the fact that I was trying to mesh Japanese linguistic/cultural rules into English sentences. I saw this unnecessary problem become increasingly annoying with each chapter, so I opted out.
So TLDR: what warranted the change was the fact that the family honorifics became such a huge headache for me to use and I also didn't want to use them incorrectly. The story can stand on its own and keep going without them!
Thanks for re-reading a&c, and if you haven't already dropped a comment, I'd love to hear what you enjoy about it 🖤
Hey mittens! Thank you for the delicious food 😘 What was your favourite line to write in 'wicked games'?
Hi anon! Thank YOU for enjoying wicked games. Not once did I think I'd be here writing an AU of one of my AUs, but here we are.
Hmmm...I have a lot of bangers in here, but I really like this section featuring Madara:
When Sasuke, after a year and a half of only indulging in insignificant indiscretions, comes home late smelling like that beautiful, dreaded bouquet of black pepper, dark chocolate, and expensive leather once again, Sakura does not cry.
Instead, she goes to Madara for advice regarding Sarada’s future plans.
But when Sakura visits Madara’s home for the third time within the space of a week, he leans in close, his lips brushing against her ear, and mutters, “Watch yourself, Sakura-chan. I enjoy your company, but not so much that I would risk ruining this clan or your marriage by enabling your more destructive whims.”
Thanks again for the love, anon! I appreciate you! 🖤🖤🖤
Does your writing ever help you with your professional career? I know it's a creative and time consuming process, is it all about creative satisfaction?
Hi anon! These are some really cool questions; thank you for your curiosity.
Now that I think about it, I guess writing does help me to a certain extent when it comes to my career. (Fan)fiction writing allows me to use my skill set in more playful and creative conditions.
The creative satisfaction is certainly a huge aspect of why I do it. I’ve been writing for myself since childhood, so I consider the page my first playground. Although it can be frustrating and there are days when I spend half my writing time staring into space because I can’t quite figure out what’s happening next, I embrace the fun and the frustration with equal enthusiasm. No matter how many blockades I encounter, writing has always felt like home 🥰
Thanks for stopping by, anon. If you’d like to discuss writing some more, I would be super happy to speak with you over DMs 🖤
What a lovely title for "a rare blip of kindness", I love the relationship between Sakura and Naruto in this fic and the the fact that the whole narrative can change with that little bit of kindness!
Hi anon! Thank you so much for this kind message 🥺🖤 One of the most astounding parts of Naruto’s story is how not a single adult showed him any kindness. I suppose it sort of makes sense in a world where children step up to the challenge of fending for themselves when they suddenly find themselves parentless (e.g. Kakashi), but still! How sad.
Anyway, there are a lot of fix-it fics out there, so thank you for giving mine a chance 🖤 I hope I can complete it soon!
Hiii i'm just here to let you know that I love a brief introspection of sunflower very much! I read it when it was still available for guest in AO3 and I really can't remember if I ever left a comment and I feel guilty because I truly love it! It was such an honest story about life, relationship, and people. I still think about it from time to time.
I'm not a kakasaku fan though I do read it from time to time and finding sunflower was such a pleasant surprise. It's like meeting a stranger who you didn't realize would eventually become one of your most treasured friends. A lot of people look down on fanfictions simply for being fanfictions and I can't disagree more because yours has proven to me how much love and warmth a fanfiction can give. I'm not exaggerating when I say sunflower has a special place in my heart.
Reading sunflower was an experience and I remember crying very much throughout the read. You gave every character so much life and layer that I'm still truly in awe. Everyone just seems so humane and complex. For once, I wasn't only rooting for the main pairing, but every side character as well.
I love how you handled karin's character and how she reached an understanding with sarada. I love your sarada too, how she was hurting and intentionally tried to hurt other because sometimes that's just what humans do. The revelation about madara and mebuki plus shi was shocking. And there's also one little detail that's still stuck to me to this day: kizashi's pet name for sakura. It perfectly encapsulates their relationship and kizashi's parenting. Kizashi calls her his star because that's what he does, only ever loving her from afar.
So yeah, that's basically it. I love sunflower so much. Thank you for sharing it with us. Hope you have a great day!
Hi anon 🖤 It's been a very long time since anyone's talked to me about sunflowers, and reading this made me tear up a little.
To this day, I'm endlessly overwhelmed by the strong responses this story has elicited from so many readers. I love that you gave this story a chance despite not being a fan of the main pairing in the first place. I love that you love the side characters as much as I do. I love that you saw the deeper meaning behind Kizashi's pet name for Sakura.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reaching out to me eventually with all your precious thoughts. I am truly so honored to be able to connect with you through our mutual love of stories and complex characters 🖤🖤🖤
Hi! I'm a big fan of your work and am in the process of trying to revive a very old hobby of writing my own fanfics. I would love to hear what your process of writing is like. How do you go from an idea to a story line? How do you deal when you reread what you've written and think, wow, that is some lengthy exposition/dialogue/etc there? I have reached out to a couple authors in the community with the same questions so no worries if you aren't able to get to it!
Hi @whenthespandexgetstight! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for enjoying my writing. Let's take a look at your questions:
How do you go from an idea to a story line?
Sooo some writers will do this by using an outline, but this doesn't quite work for me, so I don't really go outside the "ideas" zone. It usually looks like me asking, "How would Character A react in this situation?"
Usually a story evolves from me "observing" the characters and letting them figure out what to do with the predicaments I've thrown their way.
If you also struggle with outlines, maybe you can try out this process instead. I break it down into more detail in this post.
How do you deal when you reread what you've written and think, wow, that is some lengthy exposition/dialogue/etc there?
Oh, that's easy! I hit that Delete/Backspace button indiscriminately if I've written something I've already told the readers in earlier sentences, paragraphs, or chapters.
For what it's worth, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with lengthy exposition or dialogue, but writers should always consider what kind of effect such a thing will have on the reader. If the writer doesn't like the answer they come to (e.g. "This is too much exposition in one paragraph. My reader may feel bogged down in all the details."), then it's up to the writer to find a solution.
I've written other posts about my writing process, so if you'd like to check those out, you can always do so over here.
Thanks for the questions, and I wish you the best of luck with your writing! As long as you're having fun and you're happy with your product, there's not much that can go wrong. 🖤
Hey mitts, loved the new chapter of a&c 😘 it was thrilling to see the complicated history behind the current day plot. you don't introduce orochimaru as an important villain until chap. 11 and yet the insight into his motivations felt earned. if you're okay answering, how did you get into orochimaru's headspace? how did you figure out the pacing? thank you for your time 🌻
Hello dearest anon, I am so happy that you enjoyed Chapter 12 🖤 I'd be happy to address your questions! I ended up writing quite a bit, so my answers are below the cut:
--
How did you get into Orochimaru's headspace?
This was my first time writing him, so I'm not even joking when I say that I read the Nardo wiki page on Orochimaru about a thousand times to understand what was quintessential to his character. At the end of the day, what makes Orochimaru so inherently fascinating is his desire for longevity and his never-ending thirst for knowledge. Finding a way to translate that into this AU without turning him into a cartoonish caricature of a villain was incredibly challenging but so much fun at the same time!!!
Also, I want to address the whole "villain" thing since I got several comments expressing surprise at how they could somewhat empathize with Orochimaru even if they didn’t necessarily agree with his actions: I don't really think of villains as "evil" as much as I view them as people who are willing to go to extraordinary lengths and sacrifice significantly more than the average person to achieve their dreams — much like the heroic figures we adore. Their goals just happen to clash with the goals that our protagonists have.
Villains are the heroes of their own stories — this was something I kept in mind as I wrote this chapter. And I’ll continue to keep that in mind for the next. 👀
How did you figure out the pacing?
For the chapter? I honestly copied and pasted AAALL the bits I wrote that involved Orochimaru into one document, and then I realized oh...we can't follow the usual chapter format where the first 30% of the chapter is a flashback that sheds light on some of the present-day events. The more I read everything I wrote about Orochimaru, the more I realized that he needed his own chapter. So here we are.
As for the story in its entirety? Uhhh, I don't know. I am once again feeling like the biggest fraud in the world because I'm telling the truth when I say that none of this was planned when I smashed that Post button for Chapter 1.
The only shit I planned in advance that actually made it into the story was Kakashi's silly ass prank on Sakura way back in Chapter 2. In fact, I originally envisioned the story as a romantic comedy (LMAO) with each chapter detailing the most ridiculous prank war between Kakashi and Sakura, with the rom-com aspect being that the prank war is how they end up falling in love with each other.
So yeah. All this tragedy and these characters just sprouted out of nowhere, and all of it was too intriguing to ignore.
If you're looking for writing advice, I really do mean it when I say that it's always a good idea to tell the story that YOU want to read. Follow your nose!!!
Thanks so much for these questions, dearest anon. And thank you for reading my stories 🖤
mittens, it’s so good to have you back 💕 chapter 12 was 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hi anon! It feels good to be back!!! I’m so happy you enjoyed the Orochimaru-centric chapter of a&c. I was incredibly nervous putting it out, but the more I thought about it, the more I understood that this backstory was needed.
Hi Mittens-san! I'm just slipping into your ask box to wish you a very happy new year! You are incredible, as are your works. <3
Hi darling @meoowwxx! A very Happy New Year to you as well 🖤🖤🖤 Please know that I’m such a huge fan of your amazing art and I can’t wait to see what else you choose to share with us!
Hello my patron saint of writing Mittens-san. Can you give me some encouragement? I have been staring at my blank word document for weeks and nothing is coming to me.
Hi anon! 🖤 I’m very touched that you would think to come to me for encouragement.
Since I’m not privy to the specifics of your situation, I’ll just gently remind you to take stock of your strengths and work with them rather than against them.
Also: when that writer’s block hits so hard that the usual remedies don’t work, I find that talking to someone helps a lot.
If you’d like that someone to be me, please know that you are always welcome in my Tumblr Chat!
I wish you the best of luck with your writing, anon. I’m rooting so very hard for you 🖤
Dear author, another day, another question! I just realized I never asked this about ch 9 of A&C: When Sakura discovers Kakashi's romance novel and reads it while he's away, she finds that it involves "a sordid romance between a lone, clanless warrior and a noblewoman". I was immediately reminded of how Kazumi seduces a clan matriarch in The Gutsy Shinobi (Kakashi's book from Sunflowers)!! Are these the same stories??👀
Hi @birkastan2018!!! YES, these are the same stories 💀 It's odd; I never thought I'd be able to write enough to be able to make a canon of my own with KakaSaku, but here we are, and Kakashi being associated with a sordid romance between a clanless warrior and a hopelessly beautiful woman above his station called The Gutsy Shinobi is part of that canon!!!
My personal favorite theory is that the scrolls Sakura read in Chapter 9 were actually written by Kakashi himself!!! But since he never made mention of writing stories of his own, she assumed that the story was authored by some random person who only goes by the pen name Hokage.
actions and consequences, chapter 9: deleted scene
It killed me to cut this scene from the final version of Chapter 9, but that doesn’t mean y’all still can’t read it!!! Please accept this extra content as reparations for this week’s late upload.
Obligatory ping for the lovely @birkastan2018 because her faves show up here!!!
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Ichiro frowns, eyes narrowed against the light of the rising sun as he and Kenji stand by the stables. With Kakashi’s blessing, Sakura promised to introduce them to Pakkun the day before they had to leave for the third test.
But she has yet to appear. They even had time to run to the kitchen to take some extra apples.
It is not like Sakura to be late. And she is very, very late.
He communicates this thought to Kenji with a single twitch of his right eyebrow, and Kenji responds in kind: Let’s find her.
Wordlessly, they weave their way through the compound, bobbing and dipping around the various clan members starting their daily routine. Ichiro takes great care to keep an eye on Kenji; although his brother has not said a single word about it, Ichiro knows that Kenji’s broken ribs make it painful to do almost anything, even something as simple as breathing.
Are you alright? Ichiro asks anyway, furrowing his brow.
I’m fine, Kenji replies, nodding upwards in the direction of the home Sakura shares with Kakashi.
The houses of the elders and main clan members are high up on the cliffs of Mount Myōboku to overlook the entire compound, the terraced paddy fields, and even the waterfalls in the distance. As they ascend, Ichiro lets out a little hum of appreciation; perhaps this view was the reason Sukea was always mooning over the perfect words to describe nature.
Ichiro is startled out of his thoughts when Kenji raises a hand.
Do you hear that? Kenji asks.
Ichiro frowns again. He shakes his head, but he trusts his brother; Kenji’s hearing has always been much better than his own.
At Ichiro’s signal, they both inch closer to Sakura-oba’s house with some caution and —
“What are you two doing here?”
Ichiro and Kenji whip around to see Hideo holding a basket of fruits.
“Looking for Sakura-oba,” Ichiro says, and even though he isn’t lying, he also doesn't know why he chose to whisper. “What about you, nii-san?”
“Having breakfast with Daichi-ojii,” Hideo says breezily. “It stops him from missing my otou-san too much.” Suddenly, Hideo’s eyes widen when a pained moan cuts through the cool mountain air. Then he clears his throat and whispers, “Maybe you should find Sakura-hime later.”
“I think she’s hurt!” Kenji whines, and because Kenji has always been much faster than Hideo, he slips around Hideo without much difficulty and sprints up the mountain.
Ichiro follows, and behind him, he hears Hideo cursing as he drops his basket.
“Boys, come back!” Hideo hisses, panicked.
No. Kenji is right. Sakura must be hurt; now that they are outside the doors, Ichiro can hear heavy breathing, scuffling —
Kenji nudges the door open, stifling a gasp. Ichiro peeks through the gap, and his heart drops to his stomach when he sees Sakura face down on the table, her wrists pinned to the surface as Kakashi hunches over her and snarls in her ear.
“Get away from her!” Ichiro shouts, bursting through the doors and throwing an apple.
Apples make for surprisingly good projectiles but Kakashi-oji is Kakashi-oji, so he dodges it with ease. The apple explodes against the wall.
“Boys, what are you doing here?” Sakura yelps as Kakashi removes himself from her. Ichiro sees an opportunity to take Kakashi down, so he takes it; this will be no different from the second test.
Kenji seems to agree. He gives Ichiro a boost with his shoulders, and Ichiro squirrels his way onto Kakashi’s back, squeezing around the man’s neck.
“Ichiro, Kenji!” Hideo is roaring from the doorway. “Stop! Get out of there now!”
“What is all this racket?” he hears Daichi grumbling.
“Kakashi-oji was hurting Sakura-oba!” Ichiro shouts indignantly when Daichi appears in the doorway. And for good measure, he lands a punch against the fading bruise on Kakashi’s jaw.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Kakashi says, and the saccharine quality of his voice makes the hairs on the back of Ichiro’s neck stand on end. “Hideo, catch.”
He hurls Kenji towards Hideo the way one would fling a used yukata into a laundry basket. Kenji lands in Hideo’s arms, and despite the relatively gentle impact, Kenji still grimaces from the pain.
As for Ichiro —
He is dangling from Kakashi’s grip by the scruff of his neck, and it is embarrassing because Hatake warriors should never allow themselves to be incapacitated this way, not even when they’re nine years old.
Sakura is standing against the wall, hiding the lower half of her very red face behind the sleeve of her yukata, but Ichiro doesn’t see why she doesn’t take this opportunity to speak out. More people have started gathering by the doors, including Sakumo and Aiko who should be more than willing to set their son straight.
“What is the meaning of this?” Kakashi says in that same pleasant voice.
Ichiro lets the shudder run down his spine.
“You were hurting her,” he says, sulking.
“Why would I hurt your Sakura-oba when she is carrying a new child for the clan?” Kakashi asks calmly.
“If you weren’t hurting her, why did you trap her on the table like that?” Kenji asks from Hideo’s arms.
Sakura has now hidden her entire face behind her sleeves.
He hears Sakumo cough, and Aiko giggles as she ushers the small crowd away: “Everything is fine. There was a misunderstanding.”
Interestingly, Hideo’s face is also a bright red.
“Hideo, let Kenji down. And find Takumi.”
“Yes, taichou.”
Hideo leaves swiftly, closing the door on his way out. Ichigo finally feels the floor underneath his feet.
“Take a seat, boys.”
“Not at the table,” Sakura says suddenly, her face still bright red. “Let’s sit over here.”
She ushers them to the middle of the room, away from the walls. This must be her way of protecting Kakashi from any future attacks; it is much harder to climb up the length of Kakashi’s body without help from another vertical surface.
The four of them sit. Ichiro smirks under his mask when he sees the bruise on Kakashi’s face has spread.
“Boys,” Sakura says patiently, “why did you come all the way here?”
Kenji’s eyes tear up. He hates getting in trouble.
“We got worried,” Kenji says, his voice tremulous. “You didn’t show up at the stables.”
Sakura looks startled. Even Kakashi’s expression softens.
“I’m so sorry,” Sakura says, sounding very apologetic indeed. “I lost track of time.” She looks at Kakashi, her face red again. “Boys, I really do appreciate your concern, but Kakashi wasn’t hurting me.”
Ichiro is not convinced.
“Then what was he doing?” he asks, crossing his arms.
Kakashi clears his throat before saying, “We were playing a game.”
Kenji perks up.
“What kind of game?” he asks.
Sakura is hiding behind her sleeve again.
“That’s not important,” she says, her voice muffled by the fabric of her sleeve. “What’s important is that you understand that Kakashi was not harming me at all.”
“And that you don’t go looking for your Sakura-oba if she’s only a few minutes late,” Kakashi says nonchalantly. When Sakura glares at him, he adds, “Or rather, if you must look for her, remember to knock. Please remember to knock.”
“Is that clear?” Sakura asks.
“Yes oba-chan, taichou,” they mumble dully.
Right on cue, a sharp tapping sound comes from the front door.
“Come in,” Kakashi says with a sigh.
The door opens slowly to reveal Takumi, and his face is a bright red as well when he greets everyone. Ichiro scowls. He truly hates it when all the grown-ups behave strangely for no discernible reason.
“Have you apologized to Kakashi-taichou and Sakura-hime yet for disrupting their morning?” Takumi says, sounding thoroughly disappointed in them.
Ichiro and Kenji glance at each other.
We didn’t disrupt their morning! Ichiro says, narrowing his eyes.
Yes we did! Kenji says, his eyes wide with panic.
We saved oba-chan, Ichiro insists, narrowing his eyes even more.
Just do it! Kenji pleads.
Ichiro rolls his eyes: Fine.
“We’re sorry,” they say in unison because everyone always thinks they look and sound much cuter when they speak together.
It works. Sakura looks like she is about to cry.
She whispers something to Kakashi, who smirks to himself before nodding.
“How about we walk to the stables together?” she says brightly. “Let’s go.”
Dutifully, they follow her out of the house, but not before glancing expectantly at their father.
“Go ahead, boys,” Takumi says. “I want to hear what happened from Kakashi-taichou. I’ll get your side of things this evening.”
Some twenty minutes later, as they are successfully feeding Pakkun some apple slices, Kenji says, “We’re really sorry, oba-chan. It’s just that Kakashi-oji — Kakashi-taichou looked really angry.”
Ichiro hums when Pakkun licks his hand.
“I still don’t understand why Kakashi-taichou was so mad. He looked like he was winning the game,” Ichiro says matter-of-factly.
Sakuba-oba is hiding her face again, this time into Pakkun’s neck.
“It’s better if you don’t think too much about it, boys,” she says, sounding defeated.
She really does look mortified, so Ichiro respects her wishes and thinks little of the incident from that point onwards. Instead, he rolls his eyes every time another clansman blushes around Sakura.
Word spreads fast in the clan, so it’s not surprising that everyone has already heard what happened.
And Ichiro sagely concludes that it must have been a particularly embarrassing game to lose if everyone, even Hideo who thinks losers are an absolute waste of space, feels sorry for Sakura.
