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Dear Exchange no Jutsu Author/Artist,
Thanks for writing or drawing! This is my first year participating in this exchange. I’m very excited about it! I hope you’re excited about it as well. I’m FireBatVillain on Ao3, DW, and Tumblr.
The stuff I’m including in this letter is optional, but I hope you consider them as you work. Whatever you make, I’ll appreciate it regardless, and I look forward to whatever comes. Prompts are just suggestions.
Fandoms
I’m comfortable with elements from any part of Naruto canon, including Boruto, though my interests lie in Naruto-era characters. I’ve read DoS but am not requesting anything from that since it has been a while since I last read it.
Things I like:
Bittersweet endings, angry or sad endings with a spark of hope in them, happy endings. Good communication, wordplay, honor, pointless heroism or love even if it won’t succeed. Meta, canon-compliant off-screen fics that explore things are great! So are non-canon-compliant fics that fiddle with the story and its premises. Any AU! I also love fics that are allegories for other things or where there’s some kind of idea or lesson that’s left unsaid. I’m cool with any seaworthy ship. I also like revolution! Death to kings! No gods no masters! Orochimaru did nothing wro-Things I don’t like / DNWs:
In writing: Character bashing, mpreg, monarchist apologia, and extreme underage.In art: Character bashing, mpreg, monarchist apologia, and underage.
Re: the monarchism thing, which I know is a weird preference for a Naruto fic where you have the Hokage, I’m 100% okay with characters in a feudal or monarchist setting, and even protags who are monarchs, and even these characters triumphing as monarchs as long as the story itself isn’t apologia for monarchism. Characters who like monarchism, who think of themselves as good kings, who want to restore the throne, who will be the Hokage one day, believe it! - all good by me. Mostly I prefer not to read a work where the final moral of the story is that democracy is bad and we should all be ruled by a single person with absolute unchecked power, as presented by the author.
Some other notes:
Unrequested characters, ships, and ideas are A-OK with me, as is explicit content. Please feel free to use whatever prompts you like and don’t feel constrained by my suggestions here. I do not mind darkfic.
Request 1 – Fic – Solo: Orochimaru
So, I’ll admit to being something of an Orochimaru fan. I love Orochimaru as a villain, or as an antihero, or as just a terrifying force to be afraid of. Give me an Orochimaru straining for immortality against the bonds of the village, or an Orochimaru triumphant within or outside of Konoha. He can be scary or hurt or misunderstood, as long as he’s snake-ey and ominous enough. It could be a character study, or just something showing off something from his past, present, or AU future. It could be up close and we could know what he’s thinking, or far away with him as an enigma. Of all the characters in the story, he’s one of the ones with the most agency, and it feels like of all the villains he’s the one who really gets away clean – or as clean as you can get. I like him when he’s tempting people or surprising people, or manipulating shinobi with his wiles. What a great character! If we matched on this, I’m sure I’ll like whatever you write.
A prompt: For some reason, any reason, Orochimaru is still in the village at the start of canon. Maybe his research was deemed too valuable for him to be a traitor, or maybe he managed to shift the blame onto Danzo, or something similar. How do things pan out for him after this? As a powerful Konoha ninja, he might be given opportunities to teach genin, or be in the right place at the right time during the night of the Kyuubi attack, or the Uchiha massacre. The Sand invasion would pan out differently, or not at all. Would he make a play to become Hokage after Minato’s death?
Request 2 – Fic – Solo: Sakura
I have always felt that Sakura was a bit under-served in canon. I am a regular browser of works in the BAMF Sakura tag, the best tag on all of Ao3. I want a fic where Sakura is an actual badass fleshed out character who kicks ass and competes with and outperforms the other members of Team Seven. Whether it’s because she’s some kind of amazing secret heir to a bloodline, or she’s so good at chakra control she can come up with new jutsu, or she’s just smarter and wants it more, I want her to be awesome. Sakura may not have the Sharingan or a tailed beast sealed into her (or does she??? in this AU???) but she’ll find a way. This could be dark and obsessive, or triumphant and proud. I just want to see her be strong.
A prompt: Sakura has an opportunity to turn to another mentor during the training period leading up to the Chunin Exam finals and makes the most of it. Maybe this could be another canon character we know of, or it could be Kabuto trying to get closer to Team 7 prior to the invasion, or she somehow acquires summons and they train her, or Inner Sakura does it – but somehow, she has an amazing month. Maybe after he experience in the Forest of Death she wants to really match up to Sasuke and Naruto, and even surpass them. And when the exam finals comes, she’s awesome.
A prompt: Sakura slips into obsession and pursuit of power after Sasuke defects. She wasn’t able to make him stop, and Naruto and Sasuke are both gone. She sets out on her own to try to bring him back, either with or without permission. Maybe she sees it as her failing he left, or she just believes her love should be able to conquered anything. Sometime following his defection, she leaves the village, becomes stronger in the process, whether she succeeds or fails in finding him or bringing him back.
Request 3 – Fic – Jiraiya & Orochimaru & Tsunade
I really would love to see other takes on the dynamics between the Sannin, who have decades of camaraderie, enmity, and angst between them prior to the start of canon. Whether they’re fighting Hanzo or doing other acts of heroism, these three were all teammates and war heroes. What was it like for them when they were genin and when they went on C-ranks? Or when they were trying to make chunin rank, or when war broke out over them in their teenage years? For things to fall apart as badly as they did by the time of canon, they must have once been friends, had each other’s backs, and has the small beginnings, maybe, of the tensions that would one day lead to the disaster that led to them all leaving Konoha, in one form or another.
A prompt: with the village at war, cracks begin to show. In the 3rd Shinobi World War, the Sannin are at the height of their power, stronger and more experienced than the last one, some having even trained genin teams of their own. What are they up to? It won’t be long now until Minato is made 4th Hokage, and Orochimaru eventually defects. Jiraiya has students of his own, and they may not be a team any more, with Tsunade having started her medical division. But in war, perhaps they come together again, and we can see that they’re not the same people they were 20 years ago during the last war.
Request 4 – Art – Solo: Sakura
Like in my Sakura fic request, this one is focused on how I feel Sakura could have been more badass and better treated in terms of power level in canon. I’d like a piece of Sakura-focused artwork that displays her courage, tenacity, or abilities in some way. She doesn’t need to be spewing a huge fireball or anything like that, but Sakura-as-a-warrior, Sakura as someone who can fight, Sakura as a capable combatant in her own right on par with Sasuke or Naruto – I’d love to see that.
Request 5 – Art – Jiraiya & Orochimaru & Tsunade
I’d love to see this old Team 7 back when they were still working together. Just hanging out on a training ground, or goofing around, is ideal. Bonus points for any snakes hanging out with them. Extra bonus points if Orochimaru isn’t in a bad mood!
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Thanks for reading through! Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Avoiding the DNWs is significantly more important than any of this. Please consider this paragraph a blanket permission to ignore my requests, and do what makes something good, what inspires you, if that conflicts with these requests.
Thank you.