#kizunaverse

[sasubaeuchithot]

Kizuna Yoake - Kizuna Hikari Prequel

:)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Thank you all for your patience through my terrible writers' block. I greet you now with this little guy, a 10K prequel, to tide you over until the sequel.

This follows along with canon of 699, what I headcanon of Sasuke and his mindset. Technically, it is the canon of the anime, as Sasuke's jail time is not manga canon- but I hope you can see why I consider it pretty canon compliant based on Sasuke's headspace of that time in his life.

This can be read as a standalone one-shot if you have never read the main fic!!

Thank you all!

[sasubaeuchithot]

just wanted to let you know that naruto describing sasuke's scent in kizuna shiten is one of my favourite descriptions of someone's scent ever. "oh he smells like mint and grass" NO!! you are WRONG!!!

"He smelled deep. He smelled like the purple color of his chakra, gentle but saturated. Sasuke smelled like childhood afternoons in their academy class. He smelled like a lake- like that lake. Like training fields and bridges and waterfalls. Like the Forest of Death. Sasuke smelled like the feeling of being pierced by the Chidori, like blood and bruises and screaming. He smelled like the way he kissed."

scent has so much power to me. especially when certain scents are so woven into specific memories- like you can describe the notes with as many words as you like, but the physical scent itself means absolutely nothing when it's rivalling the emotions tied to it. why would the reader need to know the specific notes in that moment? they're basically unimportant- unless I was planning on bringing it up again for an important moment later in the story

I have retrograde amnesia- I don't remember anything that happened in my life before 2013 when I got into a car accident. i have no memory of my childhood. and yet there are certain scents to me that are so damn tied to moments in my childhood that I genuinely feel nostalgia for. it's so overpowering that even though I don't remember what specifically the scent is tied to, I feel the moment. i feel the emotions I had bad then. it's kinda trippy lol. i wanted Naruto to feel that for Sasuke's scent. i wanted him overwhelmed by the emotions sasuke brought him. all of those memories came back to haunt him, flashing through him so strongly he became almost catatonic

[sasubaeuchithot]

i am 20k words into the kizuna hikari sequel and am only just now getting to the part that I thought would be the opening scene for YEARS

[sasubaeuchithot]

One thing I love is that you took the "it wasn't actually the bed that gave him that good of a sleep, it was being next to him<3" trope and flipped it on it's head and said: actually, it WAS the bed. The bed is magic. Tsunade made the bed to get rid of Naruto's nightmares.

LMAO. YEAH.

people always say this to me and I kinda. like. have to spell it out a bit for them- Sasuke DID fall asleep for the entire nights he spent in Suna. the first night he only woke up because Naruto had a nightmare. and then second night he "slept dreamlessly on top of Naruto's chest".

(he also almost fell asleep in the bath tub with him lmaoooo. he really only didn't sleep well in the second part of the chuunin exam, when he had to be on alert 24/7)

reminder that Sasuke is an exceptionally unreliable narrator :3

[sasubaeuchithot]

What made you tag Kizuna Hikari as "Protecting Sasuke Uchiha" and then go and hurt Sasuke like that in it. /hj. "Joking" because I loved the fic and I do think you did him a LOT of justice but also "half" because it hurt and I wasn't prepared.

SORRY LOL.

it's really funny to me, because in my mind, everything I did to him in that fic IS protecting him. a lot of people would see a "protecting Sasuke uchiha" fic as like, him living alone in the woods, or else blowing up the entire world lol. but like. that's not protecting him in my mind.

I want Sasuke to be happy. happiness doesn't come from destroying the world. it doesn't come from running away from it either. I think people who want that to be how Sasuke is protected fail to remember how much Sasuke's character theme is centered around love. Sasuke deserves to be able to form love with others easily again, which would take a hell of a lot of healing. so in KH, i laid down a foundation of healing for him. let him have connections with people from his childhood again.

unfortunately i DID have to hurt him a little more in the name of healing him. the entire third chuunin exam debacle was written because I needed a way for the entire Shinobi world to finally see the way Sasuke had been manipulated. i had his crash out at them be basically on the largest stage that world has ever seen so that public opinion could be swayed. I needed kakashi to fuck up (both bc it's in character lol) to show readers a closer view of a konoha citizen coming to terms with their involvement in Sasuke's hardship.

if a bone heals incorrectly, you have to break it again before you can reset it back in place to heal properly. i guess that was my mindset for viewing the fic as "protecting Sasuke uchiha". my goal wasn't to write him already in a perfect post-war Shinobi world. I wanted to write HOW that world could come to be. sasuke's perfect world is a world where he and Naruto together fix the world's system and norms. he's too love-focused to be destroying things, and he's too goal-orientated to be ignoring the world in a cabin in the woods. a perfect life for Sasuke to me is one where he can love freely again, and that's where I hope to take the kizunaverse in the future

[sasubaeuchithot]

Soooo, how much of Sasuke's heavenly sleep is dependent on The Bed™ and how much of it has to do with Naruto's presence?

And yes, at the start, I feel like The Bed™ definitely plays a bigger role, but I also get the impression that the fact that it's Naruto's Bed™ is not insignificant

(why yes, I'm rereading your beautiful work of art)

It's a great bed, but for sure the best thing about it is Naruto's presence- even when he's not there, the bed smells like Naruto, is surrounded by Naruto's possessions, is the place where Naruto himself is safe, and that's enough. The bed is comfortable, but Sasuke the real reason Sasuke felt so comforted in it was because it felt like he was being surrounded by Naruto.

When they sleep together in a place that's not the bed (like in Suna), Sasuke's sleep is less relaxing because it's impossible to feel as safe and protected in a place that's not 100% Naruto, even if Naruto is right there with him. Being in Naruto's bed is like being completely encased in Naruto. There is a level of vigilance Sasuke has to hold when they're not in Naruto's home that keeps him from truly resting.

But make no mistake that it's a damn comfortable mattress. I imagine that Tsunade invented memory foam and Naruto's bed is the only one in-universe lol. If Sasuke were to come across that mattress in an inn of some sort, he DEFINITELY would have still marvelled at its comfort and probably would go back to that inn every once in a while to sleep on it. But it wouldn't have been as all-consuming to him as it is without the Naruto Factor™

[sasubaeuchithot]

hi!! im such a fan of kizuna hikari and can't wait for the sequel!! I was wondering if you were planning on releasing it all at once or chapter by chapter as you write? thank you so much for your services to the sns community 🫡

it'll be posted chapter by chapter, but I'll need to have written the entire thing before i start posting. i need to have one whole cohesive plot completely fleshed out before I start posting, because I'm someone who routinely goes back and adds things to early chapters to make them tie nicely into the later ones!! but I still like to lengthen out the joy of posting to typically one chapter every day or two for multiple reasons: one, so I can spend time really scouring for grammar and spelling for the finished piece. and two, because it's more fun getting to see commenters post their theories and thoughts in between chapters!!!

[sasubaeuchithot]

Alright, alright, strap in for my nonsense.

First of all, let me just properly and orderly express my excitement at your comeback (and what a comeback it was), I can't believe I didn't get an email for this?? What the hell, ao3??

After devouring this prequel, here are all the notes I manically jotted down in my Notes App.

-Ofc we're starting with Sasuke being in pain, because what else would we be doing

-Oh, spectacular, he's in prison

-"They had bound his arms, his lost one white-hot with pain as they did so, and then he reminded them of his eyes. He wished they would have done the same to his ears, so he wouldn’t have heard Naruto’s cries…" gay 🫵

(No no, jokes aside, Sasuke really can't stand seeing Naruto in pain after all they went through, oh how I've missed them :((( )

-"But Naruto was going back to the village, and he had to follow him." sasuke i know what you are (tragically traumatized, pathetically gone for the blue eyed moron (affectionate))

-He didn’t even need to raise his voice back. “ Naruto ,” was all he had to say, calm as ever.

('Sit down' 'im sat🧎‍♀️')

-There's something to be said about Sasuke's persistent insistence at being locked up, because he honestly has no idea what he'd do if he wasn't. His anger at everyone celebrating the fickle newfound peace, that largely came at the cost of his family, in contrast to the faith he puts in Naruto, and only Naruto, to make it right in the long run?? His loyalty to his clan and his loyalty to Naruto, and his imminent desire to do right by both of these, knowing that the only way to achieve that is by letting Naruto keep his promise?? Being afraid that his hurt and his fury wouldn't allow himself to do that, being unable to fathom the "how"'s of Naruto's plans but still being convinced that he can come through?? I'm eating my fist

Throughout this entire fic, the way you've portrayed Sasuke's conflicting emotions, and the way he attempts to process them through logic because Sasuke-can-deal-with-facts™, has been an absolute delight to read.

Also, Naruto being an equally persistent brat, demanding to see Sasuke?? Lmao, he's so real for that.

-"He did not want Naruto to see him in his cell. Naruto had his own life to worry about, his own goals that needed to be met. Sasuke needed Naruto to fix the world first before Sasuke reentered it, however long that would take." Ohhhh bitches have BEEN making me sickkkk

-"He scoured his own body until he was sure the first layer of skin was gone with the grime, and then he continued on until the guard came in and took his sponge away from him. He considered fighting him to have it back. But the guard helped him back into a new, fresh straitjacket, and Sasuke decided he liked whichever guard this one was."

I can't lie to you, this is so inexplicably funny to me. Sasuke, my pissy king

-"Maybe he’d gouge his eyes out, destroying the Rinnegan, removing the last Sharingan from existence…"

It's heartbreaking to witness Sasuke seriously contemplate blinding himself, after destroying all other Sharingan left, because of how sick he is of being exploited. These eyes got his entire family killed, but no they didn't, but yes they did, and all the pain they've ever caused him, all the pain they still do, serves as a reminder of who exactly he is and who he's been forced to become and I'M EATING MY FIST AGAIN

-"Sasuke liked the dark… why was his heart racing now at the thought of going back to it?"

Sasuke ilysm, you're breaking my heart with this mx. Yaoi

-"And then they were gone, and Sasuke was offered the best therapy he could ask for."

*proceeds to Fuck Shit Up™* sasuke ripping all that danzo built to shreds is immensely gratifying

-"He didn’t want to visit Naruto. The thought of seeing him now made him feel worse than his fever. It made him feel worse than his aching left arm."

Part 83749283828828399201 of sns making me violently ill

-"“Allow Sakura to heal you so you can return from Obito’s hideout and be of some use to him.”

His help? “My form of help is antithetical to Naruto’s goal,” Sasuke announced firmly.

“Naruto’s goal involves you being by his side,” Kakashi opposed bluntly. It made Sasuke’s nose scrunch to hear. Perhaps that was what Naruto envisioned. Sasuke at his reach every step of the way.

“The best thing I can do to help him is stay out of his way.”

At this Kakashi hummed, and Sasuke sent a spiteful glare his way. He was met with that annoying, all-knowing gaze his old teacher was so fond of having. “What do you think Naruto would say to you if you said that to him?”"

I'm actively in pain btw, thanks for this. Sasuke, my man, I need you to lock in (yes yes, I know that he's never been anything other than locked in, but SHHHHHH), that man is not about to play about you. He NEEDS you there, in his life, if you ever want him to focus on anything else (Naruto has BEEN pathetically down bad, what can you do 🤷‍♀️)

-"“You can’t help him if you let this injury kill you.”

Infuriated, Sasuke couldn’t help imagining how that would go. “He’d only be sad for a bit.”"

I actually burst out laughing. Be so srs, Sasuke, your man would actually be depressed for the rest of his life

-"Sasuke couldn’t allow this injury to kill him. Naruto would be crushed."

Sasuke rn: ugh. suicide is looking so blissful, but my one and only would be sad and i'm no longer in that business, so im gonna have to suck it up and keep existing. this is inconvenient.

-"To his left, Kakashi sighed deeply. “If you leave without seeing Naruto, he’ll be very disappointed.”"

Kakashi, try not to use the one good thing in Sasuke's life as a means to manipulate him challenge! (level: IMPOSSIBLE)

-"He had to be Naruto’s eyes. He had to destroy the rest of the Sharingan before someone else got to them first. He had to protect the little sanctity left of his clan, of himself, to protect this new world Naruto was building for him."

sasuke you're so subtle and discreet in your affection (not)

-"Sasuke needed to see the world from Naruto’s perspective. Naruto believed it could be saved without violence. Naruto believed it could be saved with conversations. It was such a foreign concept to Sasuke who had known nothing but war and bloodshed his entire life. He could not believe this world could be saved with such timid actions. And yet, he believed Naruto was right down to his very core."

Like I said, Sasuke's unwavering faith in Naruto's capacity to achieve the impossible is making me want to curl up in a fetal position and weep.

And, hey, I could wax poetic about how much Sasuke loves and trusts Naruto, and how mutual that feeling is from Naruto's perspective, for the nth time, but I'll just settle for another ORJEKEIJSISJSJWKIWJSNWKWOEJSNNWNWKEJ

-"Sasuke turned to them both when suddenly he wanted nothing more than to run back through the gates, dash to the hospital, to whichever room Naruto was staying in, and-"

a) you're never beating the allegations, homo

b) did I, by any chance, mention that OFJEBEJJSKWORJDNFKDKSBBDKWKDJDJDJJE

-"His fingertips tapped against her forehead. Distance."

THE FINGERTIP GESTURE, UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Always makes me cringe when I see sasusaku fans use this moment to celebrate their ship. It's not exactly the win they think it is

-"And of course Naruto knew that Sasuke was planning on…

Sasuke’s mind reeled. An overwhelming power flooded his chest. Naruto knew him."

SCREW MY FIST, IM EATING MY ENTIRE ARM THEY MAKE ME SICK THIS IS DISGUSTING

-"As Naruto pulled away, he took Sasuke’s breath with him."

Area homosexual is acting gay again, he truly can't help himself

-"Sasuke kept the scratched headband in his cloak’s inner pocket, directly over his heart."

OH I KNOW THAT CHEEKY LITTLE REFERENCE TO JUST OVER HIS HEART, YOU'RE REALLY FUCKING ME UP WITH THIS, HUH? YOU THINK YOU'RE BEING SUBTLE??

FUCK ME WITH A CHAINSAW, WHY DON'T YOU???

Okay, so, I'm losing my mind. May as well call me Dory, with how repetitive I'm getting, but you (yes, you 🫵) are awesome and I'm a die-hard fan of your writing. And your brain.

(Which, btw, does this relentless praise ever get boring?? Do you ever think that I'm just blindly fangirling over you? If so, I do understand where you're coming from, but I swear to everything that is dear to me, I do in fact filter everything you write thoroughly, before I decide to relentlessly, shamelessly, drool and wag my tail over it like a pathetically exuberant puppy.)

Super happy you're getting out of this behemoth of a writing slump, seriously hope you're happier with your not-so-new-anymore job!

Anyway, I'll just leave this here, while I go start me reread of kizuna hikari.

(...what? you thought you'd drop a prequel, and i wouldn't immediately jump back on my kizunaverse bullshit?? what do you take me for??? a casual fan????) (in my defense, it's been a while since my last reread! Three quarters of a year is a lot, you know??)

yyyeeEEEEESSSSSSSSSS LOOK AT ME OVER HERE RUBBING MY HANDS NEFARIOUSLY AS I SETTLE IN TO SINK MY TEETH IN AND DEVOUR THIS MONSTROUSLY GIANT INDEPTH COMMENT ON MY WRITING BLESS YOU BLESS YOUR FAMILY BLESS YOUR COW

like how you feel reading my work is how I feel reading this ask. you turn me into a pile of mush. to answer your question: it absolutely NEVER gets boring. I blush over just about every comment I get, and yours are like. god tier. like look at this. i genuinely hope every person who ever publicly shared their writing gets to experience feedback like yours. like it makes me revert to using the ancient texts. you make me >\\\\\\\\\\\\\<. you make me ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). you make me ( T , T ), you make me ( ^ o ^ )

thank youuuuuuuuu for this!!!!!!!!!!!