okay so, i’ve been a red cross volunteer for a long time and sometimes we go and take care of the elderly etc (I don’t go much anymore because i have no time, but i used to). And recently there was this old lady who had literally no one in her life, and she died alone in her flat. Her body was discovered two weeks after her death by her neighbour. Because she had no one who’d check up on her.
So, y’all know i derive a lot of my plots from IRL issues, and I was thinking that hey, the increasingly isolated lives of seniors in certain cultures is actually a problem.
It’s a less common problem in a lot of other cultures where families sticking together is very common, but I think the points this post brings up are also very valid.
So, how do we squeeze a Naruto plot out of this one?
I was thinking that while civilians would have their close-knit big families, and so would clans and q lot of shinobi, there’d still be those who have already lost everyone they have. And there would be those who not only lost everyone they have, but also had to retire from being a shinobi due to some grave injuries etc
So you have a lot of lonely ex-shinobi who no one really knows or particularly cares about, because hey that’s what shinobi sign up for, right?
So what ends up happening is that pre-Academy Naruto ends up chilling in those hoods, and he talks – and boy, can he talk. And even though some don’t like him, some don’t like kids at all and some just don’t give a fuck, days aren’t so boring when you’re listening to a little boy talk about every fucking thing in such a sunny, enthusiastic way.
And maybe it becomes something they look forward to. And eventually they start talking back. They share stories. They give advice. Like, real advice about life of a shinobi and the things he can expect in terms of emotional damage etc.
Naruto wouldn’t be like super powerful (I don’t like fics like that) but he’d know so much random shit like how to perform some basic version of autopsy, the sign language used in Suna, several useful but uncommon trades that he could use when travellin outside of Konoha (ratcatcher, sweep, entertainer etc) and idk body language etc.
Sigh.
This is so good??? Sorry! I shout, as I rush by to hijack yet another one of your Excellent posts.
So these ex-shinobi, do they live in isolated condos all over Konoha or is there like, a loosely defined area just for people who fall under these conditions like a giant ‘don’t forget, you’re here forever’ retirement home with no orderlies where everybody just kinda does their own thing? And they tend to all be bitter and unfriendly anyway, but there’s still this vague sense of community? NO ONE IS HERE FOR US, WE AREN’T EVEN HERE FOR US, BUT THERE IS AN US AND DON’T FORGET IT
I could see there being some bonds between these people who have been collectively forgotten like Kikyo, who used to be a poisoner and she specialized in a particular strain that medics now know repeated exposure over a long period of time causes severe nerve damage (and when her hands shook so badly she couldn’t mix her own compounds, couldn’t even coat her weapons, she was booted out of active service and she’s been existing here the longest of many) and Nobu, who voluntarily retired with his wife, only to watch her catch the pox and die a year later, and Nari, who rarely talks at all and never about the past, and Mitsuko, who technically still has a family but she was disowned (the reason why changes every time she tells the story) and hasn’t spoken to them in decades. They come together sometimes for tea and bitching every few days, sometimes every few weeks if they’re having a rough patch, and that pushes back the loneliness a bit.
And into this comes Naruto, who chatters like there’s about to be a shortage of words but he also listens when they have something to say. There’s a kind of power some people just don’t understand in having a captive and willing audience, in having someone hang on your words with bated breath, in standing in the spotlight of a child’s genuine interest and unhidden awe.
So one day, Kikyo, who is very very old, probably 150 in normal person years, maybe 78 in Naruto-verse, makes a decision. She is loyal to her village and the Hokage, yes, but she’s also reached that peculiar stage of inner peace where nothing really phases her anymore. Plus, fuck it, what are the odds she lasts another year anyway? What’s a punishment going to do to her? So she asks Naruto to make her a promise, to keep a secret from absolutely everyone (no exceptions), and then she sits him down and tells him about Uzumaki Kushina (who she knew personally) and the Yellow Flash (who she saw around the village all the damn time) and then, later, she tells him about the Kyuubi too.
And things change a lot.
(the thing i love most is the idea of naruto have lots and lots and lots of jii-sans and ojii-sans, leave me in this pit)
AW YEAH. Welcome back partner ❤
BUT. YES. YES TO EVERYTHNG YOU SAID.
And like, I definitely think they’d be in an area that’s unofficially theirs. Civilians don’t go there, shinobi don’t go there – hell, nobody goes there unless they have to. It’s full of cranky ex-shinobi who’re pretty much forgotten by the system that used them and then threw them away. Because for shinobi without families or clans you either die on a mission or wither away, forgotten and lonely.
And omfg I’m HERE for Kikyo and Nobu and Nari and all the others. And because Naruto grows up with people he can call family, he won’t be so dependent on approval from Kakashi (im sorry i just have issues abotu favoritism ok). And at some point Naruto’s like “I wanna be a Hokage!” and that’s like, ew why would you want to be stuck in this village forever if you could just… travel the fuckin WORLD?
And they all have different stories about cities twice as big as konoha, some high on mountains or deep in the woods and a few even somewhere in the sea. They tell Naruto about the lives they’ve lived away from the village, being spies and healers and fighters. Someone joined the circus for 3 months, another tried to become a Geisha but goddamn that shit is hard. Someone became a pirate to try and find themselves, someone else used to be an ANBU, then became a Hunter Nin, then lost both legs and hates both organizations and the enitre shinobi system too.
Naruto listens and talks and learns, and they teach him basic things too. Even math is more fun when there’s an actual story to tell him why he needs to know these things. History is so different when it’s told by people who actually lived it.
But sabotage is still a thing and combined with Uzumaki “Attendance Is Optional” Naruto, his grades are still shit, and he ends up in Team 7 the way he did in canon. Thing is tho that Team 7 aint fucking ready for this kid. The bell test goes sideways the moment Naruto decides that bitch you said get bells, but not THOSE bells. And Kakashi’s like hold up that’s a technicality, and Naruto’s like loopholes, bitch.
Also consider this: Gaara seeing Naruto dance during some sorta fun performance (nothing sexual, just a show) and he just fucking falls in love with that sunshine of a person.
marlowfication 