Writing my favourite Naruto characters have different challenges.
There’s Hashirama. I love him ever since Orochimaru Edo Tensei-d him for a second time in July of 2013 so Sasuke could ask him the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. (or what shinobi and village means, same difference) Instead of telling him it’s 42, Hashirama sat down on the ground cross legged, ignoring a sulking Tobirama and a war waging on nearby and told Sasuke the story he always wanted to tell. It was about Madara, aka Gift of the Divine. He told a tragic love story, of two boys giving up on their honest dreams and feelings and making wrong decisions. How Sasuke made any kind of decision based on this story was always beyond me.
When I write Hashirama, I tend to let him go on about Madara. He’s a happy character as long as Madara is around and he can ignore any problems. I like Hashirama’s blind faith in Madara and find it tragic how he let it (and generally all his light-hearted idealism) go when he was left with no other choice but kill him. But – that’s what we have fanfic for, to correct the mistakes these characters make in canon!
Writing Hashirama is easy most of the time. He’s the one I relate to the most, so channelling his thoughts as I see them is a mostly straightforward job, whether I went for the happy-sunshine side or the darker I-would-kill-anyone-for-this-village one. (I have been asked if I hate Hashirama when I explored this dark part of him. No, I don’t.) He mostly does what I want him to do, and we can get from point A to point B in the plot. Maybe it takes longer than expected, as we take detours around how wonderful Madara is, but as long as it’s up to Hashirama, we get the job done.
Then there is Madara. Chaotic, smart and stupid at the same time Madara with his ISSUES. Look, I tell him, this is a simple story. A short story with a happy end, let’s cooperate. And Madara will do everything in his power to resist happiness. Trust Hashirama? Maybe if he proves again and again that he is ready to gut himself to save Madara. MAYBE. Why accept simple things, when you can make the most complicated and nonsense plot ever known to the Naruto world? Making Madara happy is an impossible job and I can’t fault Hashirama that he failed. Not that I’m giving up, just saying that’s how we get long fics full of angst instead of easy little oneshots.
