[Fic] Naruto: AU!Gen: It's All A Matter of Chemistry, [meta] fic scenarios
It's in every fandom these days: the high school AU's. Typical cliché. I only go to writers I trust to handle it.
But for some reason high/grade school!Naruto in particular strikes me as interesting. That or college!Naruto. Grade/high school because without their super saiyan abilities, having Naruto and Sasuke bicker cracks me up. Mostly since, again, without their super speshul awesome powerz they're just these massive losers with zero social skills. That doesn't mean I don't think they still couldn't kill each other, I'm pretty sure no matter what universe, even if they were raised in My Little Pony land, sooner or later they'd end up in the hospital. But the potential is interesting. Usually in an AU Sasuke has his family, but he's still a dick. That doesn't really make sense to me, since while crazy IS a Uchiha gene, prior to massacre Sasuke was a pretty cute potentially crazy/effed up kid. I think he'd eventually get a bit dickISH because his dad is a total retard when it comes to a loving family environment, but he never had it in him to fully resent Itachi or his dad, because he wanted their approval so badly. So if Sasuke has a family, I expect him to not be so volatile, unless there's a good reason for him acting PTSy. If his family is still dead, there's a certain freedom you can work with, what with present day court systems and therapy, to create a Sasuke that goes somewhere in between. Same with Naruto, since his parents were 'lol dead' in manga canon. If he has a family, Naruto, I don't think, would be so angry either, or as obsessed with being noticed. Who knows -- he might be a spoiled brat, and Sasuke's the one who's 'good' (wow I think my brain broke there).
Going off of that, in a school AU, what is their competition? What is the equivalent of being 'strong' -- or the strongest ninja? Captain of the soccer team? Football quarterback? Valedictorian senior year? Is the equivalent of Anbu for prestige in their minds just getting accepting into Harvard, or is it working for a branch of inter/national security, a level in the Air Force, a recognized brain surgeon, or what? In manga canon, Naruto's not good with the books (...or the brawn, at first), and while Sasuke was the prodigy, it was Sakura who was stronger than him book-smart wise, and therefore in class ranking. So is she still the class genius in the school AU, or does it get flip-flopped and she's the multi-varsity star and Sasuke/Naruto are science nerds (LOLOL) who get kind of clueless with a basketball?
If there was a fic with them in a Glee!-like scenario I'd love it so hard.
Plus, in Konoha there's the collective mindset where the 'it takes a village to raise a child' comes into play. In Konoha Naruto and Co are raised with pride in their village, how does this 'patriotism' (or lack thereof in a total school!AU) affect their characterization? One of the major conflicts since the VotE is that Sasuke is more than willing to shed allegiance with Konoha, but Naruto can't separate himself from it. In the school!AU, does Naruto still have this loyalty/hope for his community or the world? Does he still even have that drive to change the world at a young age?
A lot of people don't like addressing any of that and just dump Sasuke and Naruto as is into the AU because, I guess, Sasuke/+Naruto without their obsessive fucked up issues = boring. So there's dealing with the epicness of Sasuke/Naruto's relationship in general, in a complete AU where there are no super powers. I'm not saying it has to be EPICCCCCCC or AS beautiful, double-edged sword-y (lol, thank you Merlin), I'm just asking how Sasuke and Naruto translate.
Maybe I'm weird, but I prefer Sasuke and Naruto having AU shenanigans either in a 8th grade/freshman/sophomore in high school AU. I'm probably just traumatized from scary AUs where Sasuke and/or Naruto are extremely horny rabbits instead of two guys. Yes, when hormones kicked in you all a bit stupid and thought about it once every five minutes, but the character assassination makes me so paranoid I'm ready to sprint off in the other direction at the slightest warning. Whereas when Naruto and Co are younger I'm more likely to find fic dealing with the friendships, or relationships that are kinda friendships/kinda might lead to something when they get older but you don't know. lediz and vikki are two such authors that accomplished total AU's AWESOMELY in the YGO fandom; vikki I like even more because it's not strictly 'yaoi' -- but then, neither lediz or vikki use those terms (that I am aware of). Even when it IS slash, it's not about the boysex, it's about the evolving relationship. There's issues, like lediz took on approaching sexuality. And it's not easy. It's frustrating, scary, and downright harddd. Kiss Me Deadly on ffpitnet is a Naruto AU with evolving Sasuke/Naruto, and what I like about it is the pure, but realistic combination of anger and attraction. They're two violent, unstable boys that kinda just want to hug each other but would NEVER do that because only pussies do that. Infinitives by Flibberty Gibbet I thought pulled it off making Sasuke and Naruto relatively more stable, I loved their bickering 'I'm your friend BUT DON'T TELL ANYONE' crackness. It reminded me of the "pre-time skip and pre-Itachi fucks with Sasuke's head" where their little competitions weren't exactly anger, but more retarded grinning that they probably didn't realize. I somewhat liked Sticks and Stones...but then I lost interest. D: IDEK why, and when I go back and try to reread it I end up stopping, and it has the gen I'm usually all over!
But yeah, so far for Naruto fandom, I have not found my Coolness Factor equivalent. Supernatural!Naruto AUs are another animal altogether.
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It's All A Matter of Chemistry
summary: au/middleschool/hs-ish where naruto and sasuke are still destructive, and sakura is soooo held back by their retardedness from getting into standford (she would)
"We're going to be handling some complex formulas today," Sakura noted as she ran her finger down the Honors chemistry textbook. She adjusted her protective goggles nervously, shyly raising her eyes to Sasuke...
Who was looking out the window. Dammit. She averted her attention elsewhere. "I think we should divide the substances up don't you, Sasuke-kun?"
"..."
Double dammit. Blushing harder, she tried to focus on the directions. "I-it says here we each pick an element and using the materials here --"
Naruto smirked. "Guess that makes me hydrogen."
Sakura looked up over their beakers, irritated. ”I'm sorry, what?”
Naruto puffed his chest, very pleased with himself. “Element number one,” he stuck out his tongue while Sakura rolled her eyes. “Nyah, Sasuke.”
Sasuke eyes shifted to stared at him for a few beats, and then his lips curved to a slow -- in Sakura's opinion somewhat disconcerting -- smile. ”Naruto...”
“Henh?” Naruto jumped a little, then squinted. Sasuke rarely called him by his name.
”You're boron.”
”Huh? Whatever Sasugay.” He thought that would fuse out Sasuke's temper, but he only continued to smirk.
Wait.
Boron…sounded like…Naruto leapt over the table at that stupid, smirking face. ”You bastard!”
“Wait!” Sakura screamed. “No! No you two don’t!” Too late. Naruto and Sasuke’s scrambling knocked over the burner, right into the dangerous viles of--
Naruto and Sasuke froze mid throttle of the other’s throat, while Sakura dove for Kakashi’s desk. The boys’ eyes widened as all the other children fought for the exit.
“Oh shi…”
BOOM.
(After school)
”And soooo,” Kakashi concluded with a happy smile to their cowering faces, “The three of you will be cleaning the labs after school. Every day. Until you die.” His smile brightened, frightening them more, before he spun away from them and waved over his shoulder. “Ta!”
The door shut with a foreboding 'click.'
Sakura’s head was bowed, shadows covering even her enormous forehead so Sasuke, missing a third of his right eyebrow, couldn’t tell what was going through her mind. But he knew it was probably best if he watched his words around her for the next couple days…maybe hide from her more than usual. He shuddered, and almost wished he hadn't been so pretty. Almost. He flicked a singed bang--he had to be better looking than Naruto.
“He can’t do that,” Naruto said to the door. He had no eyebrows at all. “Can he?”
Sasuke threw the markerboard eraser at him. “Usura -”
”BOYS!”
”YIKES!” Naruto yelped, and he and Sasuke spent what felt like the next five hours cowering under a force equally, if not more, frightening than Kakashi-sensei: a girl.
With, Sasuke admitted, as Naruto's body flew past him despite his pleading apologies, a somewhat impressive right hook.
While Sakura was still yelling over his crumpled body Sasuke snuck out the window their teacher typically left unlocked, since it was suspected but never addressed that any vandals entering Kakashi's classroom would be hunted, killed, and their body found bobbing in a lake a decade later. Landing gracefully off the first floor ledge, he got to his feet. He slid the window shut again quietly, then brushed off any dust, imagined and real. Shoving his hands into his shorts pockets, he strolled around to the side of the school.
He almost paused coming to the courtyard. Then, with a snort, he moved through the grass not caring how obvious he was. Nearing the paint-chipped picnic benches with his usual bored face, he was practically a walking contradiction to the birds and sunshine oozing cheerfulness everywhere else.
"Ten bucks Naruto thinks I developed magical powers." He said, stopping in front of Kakashi.
Kakashi frowned as the boy sullenly dropped next to him on the bench. "That's not fair, I wanted that side."
Sasuke blinked when Kakashi lowered the book and saw something laying against the pages.
"You're watc--you have a camera in our classroom?"
"Or the terrorists will win. Now shut up."
"..."
"Sakura has a great right arm."
"Naruto won't hit a girl. Moron."
Kakashi's one-eyed gaze slid over. "Sasuke, you're a real jerk."
He shrugged.
-------------------------------
....yeah idek.
But for some reason high/grade school!Naruto in particular strikes me as interesting. That or college!Naruto. Grade/high school because without their super saiyan abilities, having Naruto and Sasuke bicker cracks me up. Mostly since, again, without their super speshul awesome powerz they're just these massive losers with zero social skills. That doesn't mean I don't think they still couldn't kill each other, I'm pretty sure no matter what universe, even if they were raised in My Little Pony land, sooner or later they'd end up in the hospital. But the potential is interesting. Usually in an AU Sasuke has his family, but he's still a dick. That doesn't really make sense to me, since while crazy IS a Uchiha gene, prior to massacre Sasuke was a pretty cute potentially crazy/effed up kid. I think he'd eventually get a bit dickISH because his dad is a total retard when it comes to a loving family environment, but he never had it in him to fully resent Itachi or his dad, because he wanted their approval so badly. So if Sasuke has a family, I expect him to not be so volatile, unless there's a good reason for him acting PTSy. If his family is still dead, there's a certain freedom you can work with, what with present day court systems and therapy, to create a Sasuke that goes somewhere in between. Same with Naruto, since his parents were 'lol dead' in manga canon. If he has a family, Naruto, I don't think, would be so angry either, or as obsessed with being noticed. Who knows -- he might be a spoiled brat, and Sasuke's the one who's 'good' (wow I think my brain broke there).
Going off of that, in a school AU, what is their competition? What is the equivalent of being 'strong' -- or the strongest ninja? Captain of the soccer team? Football quarterback? Valedictorian senior year? Is the equivalent of Anbu for prestige in their minds just getting accepting into Harvard, or is it working for a branch of inter/national security, a level in the Air Force, a recognized brain surgeon, or what? In manga canon, Naruto's not good with the books (...or the brawn, at first), and while Sasuke was the prodigy, it was Sakura who was stronger than him book-smart wise, and therefore in class ranking. So is she still the class genius in the school AU, or does it get flip-flopped and she's the multi-varsity star and Sasuke/Naruto are science nerds (LOLOL) who get kind of clueless with a basketball?
If there was a fic with them in a Glee!-like scenario I'd love it so hard.
Plus, in Konoha there's the collective mindset where the 'it takes a village to raise a child' comes into play. In Konoha Naruto and Co are raised with pride in their village, how does this 'patriotism' (or lack thereof in a total school!AU) affect their characterization? One of the major conflicts since the VotE is that Sasuke is more than willing to shed allegiance with Konoha, but Naruto can't separate himself from it. In the school!AU, does Naruto still have this loyalty/hope for his community or the world? Does he still even have that drive to change the world at a young age?
A lot of people don't like addressing any of that and just dump Sasuke and Naruto as is into the AU because, I guess, Sasuke/+Naruto without their obsessive fucked up issues = boring. So there's dealing with the epicness of Sasuke/Naruto's relationship in general, in a complete AU where there are no super powers. I'm not saying it has to be EPICCCCCCC or AS beautiful, double-edged sword-y (lol, thank you Merlin), I'm just asking how Sasuke and Naruto translate.
Maybe I'm weird, but I prefer Sasuke and Naruto having AU shenanigans either in a 8th grade/freshman/sophomore in high school AU. I'm probably just traumatized from scary AUs where Sasuke and/or Naruto are extremely horny rabbits instead of two guys. Yes, when hormones kicked in you all a bit stupid and thought about it once every five minutes, but the character assassination makes me so paranoid I'm ready to sprint off in the other direction at the slightest warning. Whereas when Naruto and Co are younger I'm more likely to find fic dealing with the friendships, or relationships that are kinda friendships/kinda might lead to something when they get older but you don't know. lediz and vikki are two such authors that accomplished total AU's AWESOMELY in the YGO fandom; vikki I like even more because it's not strictly 'yaoi' -- but then, neither lediz or vikki use those terms (that I am aware of). Even when it IS slash, it's not about the boysex, it's about the evolving relationship. There's issues, like lediz took on approaching sexuality. And it's not easy. It's frustrating, scary, and downright harddd. Kiss Me Deadly on ffpitnet is a Naruto AU with evolving Sasuke/Naruto, and what I like about it is the pure, but realistic combination of anger and attraction. They're two violent, unstable boys that kinda just want to hug each other but would NEVER do that because only pussies do that. Infinitives by Flibberty Gibbet I thought pulled it off making Sasuke and Naruto relatively more stable, I loved their bickering 'I'm your friend BUT DON'T TELL ANYONE' crackness. It reminded me of the "pre-time skip and pre-Itachi fucks with Sasuke's head" where their little competitions weren't exactly anger, but more retarded grinning that they probably didn't realize. I somewhat liked Sticks and Stones...but then I lost interest. D: IDEK why, and when I go back and try to reread it I end up stopping, and it has the gen I'm usually all over!
But yeah, so far for Naruto fandom, I have not found my Coolness Factor equivalent. Supernatural!Naruto AUs are another animal altogether.
------------------------------------------
It's All A Matter of Chemistry
summary: au/middleschool/hs-ish where naruto and sasuke are still destructive, and sakura is soooo held back by their retardedness from getting into standford (she would)
"We're going to be handling some complex formulas today," Sakura noted as she ran her finger down the Honors chemistry textbook. She adjusted her protective goggles nervously, shyly raising her eyes to Sasuke...
Who was looking out the window. Dammit. She averted her attention elsewhere. "I think we should divide the substances up don't you, Sasuke-kun?"
"..."
Double dammit. Blushing harder, she tried to focus on the directions. "I-it says here we each pick an element and using the materials here --"
Naruto smirked. "Guess that makes me hydrogen."
Sakura looked up over their beakers, irritated. ”I'm sorry, what?”
Naruto puffed his chest, very pleased with himself. “Element number one,” he stuck out his tongue while Sakura rolled her eyes. “Nyah, Sasuke.”
Sasuke eyes shifted to stared at him for a few beats, and then his lips curved to a slow -- in Sakura's opinion somewhat disconcerting -- smile. ”Naruto...”
“Henh?” Naruto jumped a little, then squinted. Sasuke rarely called him by his name.
”You're boron.”
”Huh? Whatever Sasugay.” He thought that would fuse out Sasuke's temper, but he only continued to smirk.
Wait.
Boron…sounded like…Naruto leapt over the table at that stupid, smirking face. ”You bastard!”
“Wait!” Sakura screamed. “No! No you two don’t!” Too late. Naruto and Sasuke’s scrambling knocked over the burner, right into the dangerous viles of--
Naruto and Sasuke froze mid throttle of the other’s throat, while Sakura dove for Kakashi’s desk. The boys’ eyes widened as all the other children fought for the exit.
“Oh shi…”
BOOM.
(After school)
”And soooo,” Kakashi concluded with a happy smile to their cowering faces, “The three of you will be cleaning the labs after school. Every day. Until you die.” His smile brightened, frightening them more, before he spun away from them and waved over his shoulder. “Ta!”
The door shut with a foreboding 'click.'
Sakura’s head was bowed, shadows covering even her enormous forehead so Sasuke, missing a third of his right eyebrow, couldn’t tell what was going through her mind. But he knew it was probably best if he watched his words around her for the next couple days…maybe hide from her more than usual. He shuddered, and almost wished he hadn't been so pretty. Almost. He flicked a singed bang--he had to be better looking than Naruto.
“He can’t do that,” Naruto said to the door. He had no eyebrows at all. “Can he?”
Sasuke threw the markerboard eraser at him. “Usura -”
”BOYS!”
”YIKES!” Naruto yelped, and he and Sasuke spent what felt like the next five hours cowering under a force equally, if not more, frightening than Kakashi-sensei: a girl.
With, Sasuke admitted, as Naruto's body flew past him despite his pleading apologies, a somewhat impressive right hook.
While Sakura was still yelling over his crumpled body Sasuke snuck out the window their teacher typically left unlocked, since it was suspected but never addressed that any vandals entering Kakashi's classroom would be hunted, killed, and their body found bobbing in a lake a decade later. Landing gracefully off the first floor ledge, he got to his feet. He slid the window shut again quietly, then brushed off any dust, imagined and real. Shoving his hands into his shorts pockets, he strolled around to the side of the school.
He almost paused coming to the courtyard. Then, with a snort, he moved through the grass not caring how obvious he was. Nearing the paint-chipped picnic benches with his usual bored face, he was practically a walking contradiction to the birds and sunshine oozing cheerfulness everywhere else.
"Ten bucks Naruto thinks I developed magical powers." He said, stopping in front of Kakashi.
Kakashi frowned as the boy sullenly dropped next to him on the bench. "That's not fair, I wanted that side."
Sasuke blinked when Kakashi lowered the book and saw something laying against the pages.
"You're watc--you have a camera in our classroom?"
"Or the terrorists will win. Now shut up."
"..."
"Sakura has a great right arm."
"Naruto won't hit a girl. Moron."
Kakashi's one-eyed gaze slid over. "Sasuke, you're a real jerk."
He shrugged.
-------------------------------
....yeah idek.