beachlass: red flipflops by water (smiling)
[personal profile] beachlass
Fic posting 
Spoilers for recent Naruto chapters 
Ibiki belongs to Kishimoto 
Amiri belongs to [personal profile] messypeaches 
The idea that Ibiki builds models belongs to the players at Scarlet Spiral, which is a fantastic RP. 

If you want to read a good 20 truths about Ibiki, there is one here by [profile] 5essence 

If you want to read mine, don't complain I didn't offer you a good one instead.
For [personal profile] messypeachesand [profile] jbmcdragon, who should have to shoulder at least some of the blame for this

20 truths about Morino Ibiki

 

 

  1. While it is commonly known that Ibiki builds model ships, what is less well known is his fondness for knitting.
  2. When Ibiki brings his knitting into an interrogation room, his subordinates know it is going to be a long session. The tension in a room ratchets up when he pulls his knitting out of the deep pockets of his long black leather trenchcoat. Ibiki knits while leaning back in a chair, legs outstretched, counting stitches and offering feedback on his subordinates interrogation techniques.
  3. Ibiki only brings projects into the interrogation rooms that he doesn’t mind getting blood on.
  4. Receiving a new, handknit pair of socks with pre-existing blood stains is a badge of honour among Konoha shinobi.
  5. A few shinobi own delicate handknit lace shawls: they are a badge of suffering.
  6. Anko received one after Ibiki finished interrogating her when she returned from Orochimaru. The lace pattern echoes her curse seal.
  7. After they’d been dating for a year, Ibiki gave Amiri a silk shawl, black and filmy, and she wears it to bed, until Ibiki slides it off her shoulders, with his big hands firm and possessive on her skin.
  8. Kurenai received her first one in her second week of convalescence after a mission went horribly wrong due to bad intel, and she was captured and tortured before being retrieved. It is red, matches her eyes and smells faintly of cigarette smoke.
  9. Kurenai’s second one is a delicate shibori scarf. It was white on white, bleached and stretched around stones and branches to produce a pattern like smoke spiraling into air.  She slapped Ibiki across the face when he gave it to her, and cried, before stumbling on her broken ankle to where Shikamaru was standing holding dog tags and a funeral shroud made in the same pattern
  10. Ibiki had access to everyone’s medical files, and  had a small blanket tucked away which he saved, and only sent once the midwife had been called for, months later. Kurenai cried again, and then later, another cry eased her heart a bit: a child with dark hair and her father’s eyes, new life wrapped in the pattern that had sent her father to his rest.
  11. Ibiki learned to knit from his grandmother, who insisted that a pair of handknit socks were as essential as sharp kunai on missions.
  12. When he was a chuunin, and watching other shinobi limp on raw feet, he knew she was right.
  13. Ibiki learned to knit lace when he was convalescing in the hospital, when he could move his hands, and needed something to distract him from the pain and itchiness while his scalp mended. Something to distract him from the nightmares.
  14. Kakashi has that first piece of lacework. He inherited it from Rin.
  15. Kakashi and Rin were the extraction team sent in to retrieve Ibiki, the Fourth’s personal medic and guard, his treasures sent out to retrieve the mission partner he’d left behind. When they were surrounded, only the speed of the Yellow Flash had any chance at opening up an escape route. The Hokage was too precious to lose to capture, and spelling out a lack of options to Ibiki would have added insult to abandonment, so the Fourth had disappeared, and Ibiki had let himself be captured as a distraction, to buy his leader added time and breathing room.
  16. Ibiki had understood the promise and determination in the Fourth’s eyes when he had been left in enemy territory. He had waited, blood dripping down his scalp, feeding misinformation in broken gasps, until the rescue promised in a look had appeared, Kakashi crackling with electric determination, and Rin patching him up enough to run back to safety.
  17. Ibiki didn’t understand the grief in the Fourth’s eyes, until the first time one of his Intel agents was captured, and the retrieval team sent after her killed. Four days after they were sent out, the body of the youngest member of the retrieval team was found nailed to the front gates of Konoha, his ANBU mask lying in the dust below his mangled and bloody body.
  18. When Kurenai, Asuma and Kakashi returned later that afternoon from the A-ranked mission they’d been on, the body was gone, and even Kakashi didn’t notice the bloodstains as they passed through the gate. They had been ambushed, were late, he had spent a day unconscious from overusing his Sharingan, and was walking carefully to the mission office to avoid further jarring his broken ribs. Asuma was signing off on the mission report when Ibiki strode into the room and punched Kakashi in the face. After a second hit to the chest, Asuma slammed Ibiki face first into the floor, and Kurenai heard Ibiki say “You came and got me… .Why weren’t you here to get her?” as her fingers carefully found another broken rib under Kakashi’s vest. Kakashi ignored her fingers, and her attempt to shield him with her own body, and kneeled down, wincing, to murmer “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” to Ibiki while Asuma sat on him, and Kurenai looked on.
  19. At Asuma’s funeral, he gave Ino a pair of slightly bloodstained armwarmer, knit in a soft lilac mohair. He gave Chouji a slightly bloodstained scarf, with spirals worked in intarsia.
  20. At Asuma’s funeral, he gave Shikamaru a set of doublepointed knitting needles, a skein of wool, and orders to report to T&I headquarters the following day.

 

Date: 2006-10-28 12:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jbmcdragon.livejournal.com
...duuuuude. I have chills. And my eyes are prickly. This was a brilliant way to make 20 truths into a full story--a heartbreaking story. I loved the description of the white on white shawl for Kurenai, after Asmua died. Also, this line:
... the rescue promised in a look had appeared, Kakashi crackling with electric determination, and Rin patching him up enough to run back to safety.

That is just a great image. Inspires stories all on its own. ;)

Ibiki's emotional pain on 18 was really well done; not over done, and still heartwrenching. *sniffles*

And giving knitting needles to Shikamaru? Chilling. Like, "Shit. That's an honor and a curse, all in one right there..."

Ohh. I still have goosebumps. :D

J

Date: 2006-10-28 12:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
You LIKED it!

*happy chair dance*

Date: 2006-10-28 02:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thursday-kat.livejournal.com
really really lovely! such an interesting mental picture, ibiki and knitting. and the implied meanings behind every piece he's given anyone....and shikamaru....i agree with jbmcdragon....very much an honor and a curse. beautiful work! :)

Date: 2006-10-28 02:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
Thank you!

Date: 2006-10-29 06:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eshala.livejournal.com
Love -- You amaze me.
And make me wish I was waaaaaay ahead of where I am at with the Naruto. The impact/meaning of knitting and the memorializing possibilities keeps coming up...
Very nice work. Really. So nice. Craftiness, sexual innuendo, history, story-telling and handy 20 truth parallels... Hmmmmm... So good.

Date: 2006-10-29 06:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
well... Let's see if the medium sized boy will put some Naruto manga in my overnight bag.

Thanks, love you too.

Date: 2007-02-13 03:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rurounitriv.livejournal.com
Oh, damn... that's got a kick to it.

Date: 2007-02-13 05:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
Thank you. Don't let Ibiki kick you too hard.

Date: 2007-02-13 05:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rurounitriv.livejournal.com
No worries, I know when to run. XD

Date: 2007-02-13 08:55 am (UTC)
doire: (Default)
From: [personal profile] doire
pointed here by [livejournal.com profile] hiddenvillage

Nice. Intricate and with a bite.

I hope it's okay that I've added you as a friend.

Date: 2007-02-13 02:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
Thank you and welcome!

Date: 2007-06-29 05:35 am (UTC)
ext_177486: (Default)
From: [identity profile] travellyr.livejournal.com
Beautiful. As a knitter myself, this is heady and powerful.

Date: 2007-06-29 09:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
Thank you. Such a treat for me to get feedback on a story from a while back.

Date: 2007-09-16 09:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] guani.livejournal.com
that was so intense.
i love the memories and things implied in all the special pieces ibiki hands out, and i love what's implied in who hasn't gotten one.
man, and to imagine shikamaru slowly gaining ibiki-esque traits is insane!

it's beautiful!

Date: 2007-09-17 02:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
Thank you for reading and the very thoughtful feeback.

Date: 2009-04-21 03:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crimsoncourt.livejournal.com
This is one of my favorite pieces of Naruto fanfiction. I love the way you managed to weave twenty truths into an actual story and not just a collection of facts. It's one of the first things I ever read that made Ibiki a compelling character for me.

Date: 2009-04-21 01:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beachlass.livejournal.com
Thank you so much! This was one of the very first stories I wrote, and it's such a treat to get feedback on it, and know has a life of its own.
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