^^; Okay, so... for those of you who aren't aware, about a week or two ago, I posted a rather furious rant on Kushina's Wife Test, venting over the frustration that some of the haters and complainers of the series were giving me. You won't find that rant now, because I realized soon after posting said rant how much of a mistake it was to blow up like that on everyone, and some of the scathing comments I'd gotten certainly didn't help me feel that much better :/
I don't regret saying some of the things I said though; Ever since I started writing and posting these mature fics, readers have mostly respected my work, and by that, I'm NOT talking about just praising my writings; I'm talking about understanding what I wrote, and accepting, if not necessarily appreciating/agreeing with how or why I did things. SE:AMS? I know people were taken aback/somewhat turned off by the dark tone that ch13-14 gave off, but they still seemed to appreciate why I did what I did, and continue to enjoy it regardless.
KWT, however? Right out of the gate, people started complaining that Naruto and Hinata would be cheating on one another for Kushina! ...But nobody had any sort of issue with Naruto having moments with, even straight up fucking Anko or Naruko in SE:AMS!? ^^; Internet, I just... I don't get you!
I could go on for hours about such frustrations, but that's not what I'm talking to you folks about today. I'm here to discuss the future of KWT.
Some of you may notice that I've added to KWT's description that it's on hiatus, but that's not necessarily true: Technically, I've discontinued it completely.
But don't worry! I have NOT quit on nor discontinued it! What do I mean? Well, let me explain:
You see, I haven't discontinued the series because these haters have gotten to me; actually, it's because I myself am unhappy with how the series has turned out so far, and overall, I had little planned for its future. Basically, I'd written myself very tightly into a corner! So, looking for some glimmer of hope for it, I decided to look back at my writings, and, well.... I can see a lot of places where I screwed up. Not in the whole 'Naruto and Hinata are cheating on each other!' or 'it's stupid that Kushina had their lessons separately!' way, but in other, more relevant ways that I just can't get into here.
And to be perfectly honest... I haven't had much fun writing the series :/ You see, for me, writing is a hobby first and foremost. The reason I've written the successful fics that I have is because I've simply had fun writing them, from "Nudist?", to SE:AMS, to my lesser known works, such as "Judai is a Woman?". KWT, however, began as a commission for DeviantArt user and commission connoisseur LawMan09, and so the main reason I even completed the chapter that I did was just to get it done and over with! (And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I don't do requests or commissions!) So while I've had some inspiration with the idea, it just wasn't as much fun to write as it could have been.
So I've rambled on for a while, but where am I going with this?
Simply put, I'm rewriting Kushina's Wife Test! I'm currently working on a new, drastically improved first chapter for a new, drastically improved KWT that I'm having more enjoyment with already! And this time, I'm doing it to please myself, not some stuck up Suzume-folk who take enjoyment out of twisting other people's words to absurd levels! :P
I can't give an exact date when the new first chapter will be finished, but please know that I WILL be deleting the current series, and replacing it with the new one when this first chapter is completed.
"But where will I be able to read the old chapters that I liked?", you might be asking at this point. Well, I have confidence that the new KWT will be so much better, you won't even care about the old chapters, but if it's really so important to preserve relics of the past, then... I'll make a new blog or something for them, I don't know :P I'll worry about that when I get there.
Anyway, just one last thing before I get back to doing what I love to do: I'm proud to present to you all a preview of Kushina's Wife Test's first redone chapter! Enjoy!
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Complete despair.
Those are the words that would best describe the state of
the Village Hidden in the Leaves on October 10th. Kyuubi no Yoko, a
tremendous rust-red demonic fox with blood red eyes and nine lashing tails
roared as it destroyed forests, crumbled mountains, and decimated cities, the Shinobi
of the Land of Fire, despite their best efforts, unable to even come close to
subduing the mighty behemoth.
But just as all hope seemed lost, one man with golden hair
in a long white coat stepped forth to oppose the beast, summoning a brown,
scarred toad whose height rivaled that of the demon that threatened the
village.
This man was the Fourth Hokage, greatest of all ninja of the
Land of Fire.
An intense war broke out between this masterful ninja and
the demon that threatened his village, and though the Hokage put up a valiant
fight that no other ninja could hope to match, he soon realized that he was no match
the Nine-Tailed Fox, and his summoned beast was felled before the demon.
As he slowly recovered his battle wounds, a mysterious
masked man stood before him, a newborn infant with golden hair that matched the
Hokage’s in his arm, an armed hand raised, threatening the child.
The Hokage made quick work of the masked man, able to save his
son and take him out of harm’s way, but the masked man wasn’t so easily
defeated. As he realized he was outmatched, he gave a lazy gesture, and the Nine-Tailed
fox snarled as it loomed hungrily over its victim. The Hokage, weary from his
battle with the beast, stood helpless before it as it raised a claw to him.
However, as all hope seemed lost, the beast growled in pain
and anger as spiked, golden chains sprang from seemingly nowhere, binding it
tightly and restraining its movements. The Hokage smiled as he turned to see an
exhausted woman with long, deep red hair, who was barely able to keep a solid
grip on the restraints that protected her husband.
Frustrated, the masked man gave an inaudible order to the
monster, who thrashed furiously, breaking its bindings loose and dropping an enormous
claw onto the baby, both husband and wife throwing themselves in front of the
sharp claw that threatened their child, large holes being torn through their
bodies as the demon’s bloody claw stopped just inches short of the baby,
protecting him from harm.
The Hokage created several quick hand signs before ending in
a clap, an ominous white figure appearing before him, who ripped out the soul
of the destructive demon, and in a blaze of chakra that burned red like fire,
everything faded into nothingness....
A woman awoke with a loud, frightened gasp, long red hair flying
as she shot up in bed, panting in terror at the vision she bore witness to. She
shuddered as she recalled the dream, cold sweat soaking her face, her mind
erratic with fear and confusion.
For who knows how long, she had slept, reliving the same
horrible dream again and again, and while some parts of the dream changed, the
same terrifying events presented themselves to her repeatedly, seemingly
without end. And now, at long last, after what felt like days of tormented
sleep, she was free!
She wiped her brow of sweat and smiled as she looked down at
herself, feeling a smooth, flat stomach. After nine months of pregnancy, it
felt strange to Kushina Uzumaki to no longer have such a massive belly, to feel
so light, and to think that at last her son was born! However, what felt
stranger still was that she couldn’t remember giving birth to her child at all.
Sure, she had dremt of it several times in the days she’d
slept, but to think that such a nightmare could really have happened was
absurd; impossible, even! How could the Nine-Tails really have been extracted
from her body, when she practically had every Shinobi in the Leaf Village to
keep such a well-known weakness of its seal from being exploited? How could that
strange masked man have only now been known to the world? How could the village
really have been destroyed by the Nine-Tails when she sat here comfortably in
bed, and very much alive? And more over, how could she, Kushina, still be alive
now, after not only undergoing the deadly pain of having a Tailed Beast be
extracted, but also be impaled right through the heart?!
It was then that Kushina took in her surroundings, and she
came to the understanding that where she lay was in a hospital bed, possibly
the place where she’d given birth to her son, who she wanted to name Naruto.
...But wait. The seal that bound Nine-Tailed Fox within her
would only falter when giving childbirth. So why, then, would she have her
child be born in a hospital, a place where hundreds of people would be killed
if something went wrong? And where were the ANBU sentries that would have no
doubt been watching over her and ensuring her protection? And where was Naruto?
Where was Minato? The more she regained her awareness of reality, the less
everything made sense to her!
She sighed, plopping back in bed and trying to relax her
confused mind. Nothing seemed to make any sense, her head felt light, and even
after waking from a deep sleep, she felt incredibly tired, so she just tried to
relax, and let herself heal for a moment.
...But why would she have the need to heal? She was
perfectly fine; a little bit light-headed and somewhat disoriented, sure, but
hardly in need of any significant medical attention, especially not since she
had the Nine-Tails’ regenerative powers. So what was she doing here in a
hospital bed? Why was she not in her own bed, waking up to the sight of her husband
and newborn son?
Anxiety getting the best of her, Kushina got out of bed and
walked out the door, brushing past a young woman with short pink hair, who
stared incredulously as Kushina strode down the corridor, ascending a flight of
stairs to the roof of the hospital.
She pushed the door open, a light breeze of fresh air sweeping
past her as she rushed through several clotheslines with freshly laundered
white sheets wafting in the wind, her legs weakening with every stride she
tood, and gazed upon Konohagakure with a mix of shock and confusion
This, most certainly, was NOT Konoha as Kushina remembered
it. In her life time, she had memorized the landscape of the village to the
point that she knew the location and appearance of every notable place like the
back of her hand, but more than half of the village’s layout was almost
unrecognizable to her, and everything looked as though it was recently
constructed, like she had stepped back in time... but as she gazed up at the
Hokage Monument, she realized that she was gravely mistaken about stepping back in time.
Near the top of a gigantic cliff that overlooked Konoha, the
faces of the Hokage, the greatest Shinobi in the village of their times and
leaders of Konoha and the Land of Fire alike, were carved in the stone wall, as
though the men themselves watched over their land even in death.
But this monument also differed greatly from Kushina’s
memory, as not only did the faces show signs of wear that certainly would not
have happened in a matter of days, but a fifth face now accompanied the other
four, etched in the rock next to the Fourth Hokage, which throughout her
lifetime had always been blank space.
“This is...
impossible.” Kushina thought, gripping the side of the building to maintain
her footing. “This... all of this has to
be some sort of messed up dream.” That was the only explanation, she
thought. Right now, she had to still be sleeping, and what she was seeing was
just another weird dream.
“Yes, that’s it.” She declared aloud. “None of this is real!
It couldn’t be. It’s all just some crazy, messed up dream!”
Her vision started to blur, and her body weakening even
more, her legs now shaking to keep her up.
“Lady Tsunade! I found her, she’s up here!” She turned to
see the same pink-haired woman she passed on her way up hurrying to her,
accompanied by several other doctors as her sight faded to black, and she
passed out on the ground, the warped sound of alarmed voices being the last
thing she heard before everything went silent as she went unconscious.
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So, what did you all think?
And better yet, how do you all think Kushina's Wife Test can be improved? Please, leave your thoughts on this preview and the remake KWT in the comments below. I would very much appreciate any feedback that you can give :)
