WHAT PAPER I SEE NO PAPER

Dec 11, 2009 10:20

*fingers in ears and humming*

Okay, so I may or may not be working on a semi-crack fic right now. It may or may not be called Sophomoric, and may or may not be about Team 7 going through that period known to adults as "puberty" and teenagers in the midst as "hell." The story may or may not focus a bit on the actual training inevitably involved in any fic about Team 7, and the missions that go along with it, but, if it is actually being written, which is unclear, it would mostly be about the growing-up process.

Thing is? In this hypothetical fic, Sasuke didn't leave. This is a bit of a problem, because I happen to be a proponent of the theory that after Itachi shows back up and does his little mind-fuck, it's nearly inevitable that Sasuke will leave. However, without the mind-fuck, Sasuke simply does not have the motivation to be as good as he gets in canon. Itachi got that right, at least. Trauma is generally a hell of a motivation for Sasuke, and he doesn't have the physical capacity to be that good without it (see: Adi's rant on 'genius' versus 'prodigy' in the shinobi world). Plus, if Sasuke just comes back, Sakura and Naruto don't have the motivation (getting Sasuke back) to do well themselves. It's a real problem, one that by the way is dealt with very well in askerian's Teamwork verse which all of you should read if you haven't *nudges you towards it*, but is in this particular case completely unacceptable for the course of the storyline.

So! How does one let the Itachi thing happen and still get Sasuke to stay, without him just running off again at the first opportunity and/or being extremely discontent and breaking up the team anyway in Konoha? My answer to this is that everyone somehow convinces him to let Naruto and Sakura help, which would allow for their motivation to keep training (it's not that Sasuke left them, it's that he might leave them if they don't keep up). Also, Kakashi leads the team during the Sasuke retrieval arc, thus negating the VotE.

Which leads me to my problem: how the hell do Naruto and Sakura a) come to the conclusion that offering to help Sasuke (via "We three are one," etc.) is the way to keep him around, and b) how do they actually convince him to let them?

Seriously. Any thoughts on this are welcome.

It is entirely possible that I overthink crack-fic. Shut up. u.u

plotting, fandom, naruto, fanfiction

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