fun fact: the original concept of the bookends au was inspired by veronica mars
i was watching the anbu arc for the first time
(one of the great highlights of my life for the record)
and i was so fascinated by the kakashi/itachi dynamic
in the aftermath of the uchiha massacre i felt like kakashi - when he wasn’t busy blaming himself for not truly knowing itachi - had a hard time accepting that itachi could do that
and even though he moved on deep down there may have been a lingering feeling in his gut that there was more to the story
and that reminded me of keith and his doubts about the lily kane murder
and my brain kinda ran with it from there
formerly lauded detective kakashi being ostracized and shunned by everyone for pursuing a seemingly open-and shut-case and investigating a wealthy respected member of the community for orchestrating the murder of sasuke’s parents
having to rebuild a new life after his fallout with the force and try to move on from the case in order to give newly orphaned sasuke the best home he can
he opens his own one-man P.I. operation and sasuke works in the office after school doing secretarial stuff for him
but when sasuke accidentally learns that kakashi had been continuing the investigation of his parents’ murders on his own he starts digging too
and eventually the two would work together
tho initially with much push back from kakashi
kakashi’s seeing history repeating itself - his own father went down the same path sticking with his beliefs and paid for it with his life
leaving kakashi father-less and alone
he just wants sasuke to be a normal kid and move forward with his life - not stay stuck on the past
but even he can’t walk away from what’s right in front of him
sasuke connects dots that kakashi had missed
the story would go from there
yamato - kakashi’s only remaining ally within the police - would ‘unofficially’ assist in the investigation
and the team 7 kiddos would be the wallace and mac equivalent and help sasuke
obviously bookends took quite the departure from that original concept
and that is a very VERY good thing bc i am LIVING for this au
especially now in the wake of finishing naruto *sniffle*
but i still think about the original idea
and had i inherited stronger long fic genes in me i’d consider pursuing it