#mutemelody

[kiro-sveta]

Taking a nice breath of fresh air with your loved ones on a beautiful picnic day.

My shinobi spring exchange gift for @mutemelody! I hope you like it! 💜

[keepyourpantsongohan]

A Drop in the Ocean

Discord 30 Minute Gift Exchange for @mutemelody​. | Prompt: Rin, hidden, red.

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“Remind me again,” Rin asks, with a heavy sigh, “Why we had to enter this cavern? All the ‘Beware’ signs really don’t instill confidence.”

“The map has been leading us here all along,” Obito insists, waving the weathered parchment around. Rin doesn’t bother to tell him it’s upside down. 

Behind them, rowing the small dingy they have managed to squeeze into the narrow line of the rocks, Kakashi drawls, “Well, if a pirate wrote it down, then of course they had to have good intentions.”

“We’re pirates,” Rin points out. 

“We are seafarers nobly rebelling against the crown,” Obito says, with grandeur.

Rin snorts. “I’d feel nobler if the walls of this cavern didn’t have so much dry blood.”

It doesn’t take the wealth of Rin’s medical knowledge to know that is a bad idea. It had been a bad idea when Kakashi had found the map, and when Rin had decided to hold it by a candle to reveal its hidden markings, and when Obito had talked the two of them into seeing the journey through. But they are a team, so any bad idea they have is one that they all share. 

“There’s something in the water,” Obito says suddenly. His hand points down to a glowing light beneath the surface.

“It might not be friendly,” Kakashi warns. “We should—”

But it is too late. Whatever is in the water has already spotted them. It comes rushing at them, right towards to middle of the boat, right at Rin. It jumps out of the water, and when Rin expects an impact on her chest, instead, it passes straight through her. 

What is stranger, however, is that seconds later she finds herself on a much larger ship. It is not unlike the one that they had landed at the shore just hours ago, but it is full of people she doesn’t recognize, dressed in dark clothing and armour. 

“Where are we?” Kakashi asks. 

“At sea,” Obito supplies, somewhat unhelpfully. Their company doesn’t seem to be happy they have found themselves on this ship either.

“Look out!” Rin shouts, as they are surrounded. 

Knives and swords unlike any design Rin has ever seen before rush at them from all directions. All three of them are talented at combat, but they are outnumbered ten to one, and Kakashi had given up his sword to plunge into the cavern’s entrance. 

Just as Rin is wondering what she can do to protect her friends, a warmth like a hot liquid burns through her. It stings, but it has the enemies backing away. 

“Rin? Are you okay?” she hears from either side of her, but she is too busy running towards their opponents. 

It is over in a matter of instants.

As she is throwing the enemy’s bent and broken swords overboard, she catches her own eye in the water, oddly still given all that has just happened. Her gaze is glowing red. She blinks, and they are back on their own boat. 

Obito laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. “So, have you always been able to do that?”

[kiro-sveta]

My @sloaners' Disastrous Discord's Seasonal Summer Santa Solstice Siesta Fiesta (or SSSSSFiesta) gift for @mutemelody. (There is more under the cut)

(I'm not a good storyteller, but I like to think this is an AU where Rin and Kakashi had some help against the Kiri nin, and Isobu was somewhat stabilized. Obito didn't get to escape, because Rin's life wasn't in enough danger. Madara tried to put the image of her dead in his mind though, but it didn't awaken Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan, so he shoved the boy aside or something. And sometime later, Konoha notices some odd activity underground, near a certain location, and several ninja are sent to investigate.)

[keepyourpantsongohan]

All at Sea

Don't give up until the very end. (Third Data Book) | Discord 30 Minute Gift Exchange for @mutemelody​. | Prompt: Kushina, surprise.

When Kushina wakes up, the first thing she notices is that her abdomen hurts like hell. Which, she suppose, is to be expected, when someone has given birth, had a bijuu ripped out of them, and been impaled by a giant claw in the span of less than an hour. Still, she'd been expecting better, given her new location.

“The afterlife is awful,” Kushina announces, to no one in particular, curled up on an unfamiliar beach.

She's by the water, at least. It's a strange comfort, after years of being in Konoha, whose shinobi organized so far from the coast.  The salted breeze and the warm sand beneath her toes remind her of Uzushio.

She looks at the water, and wonders if she'll be able to see Naruto from here. Or what 'here' is. In all of her grandfather's stories, the afterlife had been a place of great comfort and meeting with kin. Yet she's in pain, there's sand making its way into the creases of her elbows and knees, and she's alone.

Well, she's never been one to stand idly by. “I'm going to give whoever runs this place a piece of my mind, 'ttebane,” she says, rising unsteadily to her feet.

She walks to the edge of the beach, where the sand fades into sparse grass and rocks. She didn’t bring shoes with her, but compared to the other aches she has, the hot stones beneath her feet are barely worth notice. A practice she's used to, really. She already misses Minato, who would walk beside her with her shoes in one of his hands, holding onto her with the other.

“Kushina,” she hears faintly in Minato's voice, and wonders if this place is meant to echo her thoughts. Just in case, she thinks expletives.

As she walks forward, she hears it again. “Kushina,” louder and clearer. She turns.

“Minato?” she asks, dumbfounded, as she spots her husband running across the beach.

“Kushina,” he says a third time, barrelling into her and almost sending them careening into the ground. “You're here. How are you here? I didn't— I should be with the Shinigami, and you should be in the Pure Lands.”

“I don't understand,” Kushina says, reaching for his face and frowning. “Then where are we? In the belly of the Shinigami, or the afterlife?”

“Neither,” says a third voice, startling them both.

Kushina spins to find a familiar face, younger than she has ever seen it. “My name is Uzumaki Mito,” says the woman, for Minato's benefit. “And you are not dead.”

[kiro-sveta]

For @mutemelody 💜

[kiro-sveta]

Happy birthday, @mutemelody! I hope you have a wonderful year! You deserve the absolute best.

[uniasus]

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

Fic rec! Keith centric post-s4 Voltron. 3.7K

Summary: Voltron doesn’t see this, Keith remarks detachedly as he wipes the blood off of his hands from when he tried but failed to save another rebel. They don’t know the numbers of rebels dying every day in the hope that they were bringing the universe one step closer to stopping Zarkon.

Comments: Look, I know Keith is not the cuddliest of characters, but I will deal with any amount of hissing and wiggling and jabby elbows to hug him after this fic anyway.

I love how there’s this separation of how Voltron experiences the war and how the Blade does. It’s different missions and different consequences. And that’s a hard thing for Keith to go through, especially hot on the heels of his experiences with with Kuron. Boy’s got issues, and while they just seem to get worse and worse as the fic goes on, it’s nice to see it end on a note that just might help him.

[nexecutioner-blog]

@mutemelody followed the Executioner!

  --Oh, it was her. A friendly and welcome face, for more than one reason. The Executioner sheathed his axes on his back, then did a couple of.. motions with his hands. It was sign language! ‘Well, if it isn’t one of my favourite people in the world! What’s up, Sona? Long time no see, yeah?’--