Epicfic Cycle

''That's like going "I want a sci-fi movie that's a commentary on apartheid in South Africa!" and getting District 9.'' ''It's more like going "I want a sci-fi movie where someone shoots a missile at a space ship and someone else CATCHES IT!" And the rest of the movie was invented solely to justify that scene.'' "-- Word of God on the nature of Hangaku's storyline"

The Epicfic Cycle is a series of prospective Naruto fanfictions. Reaching across many years of continuity and focusing on many different sets of characters, it’s hard to write down a single summary that encapsulates them all. But one thing is for darn sure: It is an epic series of fics.

The Epicfic Cycle consists of:
 * Soragakure - Jiraiya finds himself revived in a new body after his battle with Pain… thanks to Orochimaru. Who is not only alive but also a woman. With a husband. And Tenkage of the newest and most hidden of the Hidden Villages: Soragakure, the Village Hidden in the Sky.
 * Land of Loess - An offshoot of Soragakure, it follows Sasori’s involvement in the history of the Land of Loess, an isolated desert nation where sentient human puppets are a legitimate minority group, as well as Sasori’s attempted return years later.
 * Buddyfic - Itachi, surviving his final battle with Sasuke, drags his little brother away from his battle with Danzou before he can do anything stupid and embarks on a journey toward a more peaceful life and reconciliation with Konoha, with Kisame in tow. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Blood and Procrastination - Madara discovers a human puppet named Dezain living in Amegakure, a runaway experiment of Sasori’s that may or may not be his beloved senpai, Deidara, reborn.
 * Backbone - Taking place directly after Blood and Procrastination, it follows Madara as he sets out to restore his clan with a little help from Zetsu and some… creative use of his body-splitting technique. They succeed horrifyingly well.
 * Unnamed Dezinofic - Follows the unlikely friendship between Dezain (now known as Dezaina), who is now a budding artist, and Ino, sent to Iwagakure on reconnaissance.
 * Unnamed Continuation of Backbone - Picking up where Backbone left off, this Darker and Edgier story arc/fanfic starts right off the bat with Madara being blinded, captured, and imprisoned in Konoha. It gets worse.
 * Kabutofic - A brief alliance with Kidoumaru and Kin, and a stay in Otogakure with Kabuto are covered here. It's a sweet situation, but not for very long.
 * Piratefic - The arc directly following Kabutofic, the early childhoods of Madara's children and his and Kin's career as pirates on the oceans of the Land of Water are laid out and established.
 * Unnamed Hidanfic - After being dug up by a farmer and put back together, Hidan has a spiritual epiphany upon seeing the Rinnegan manifested in the child of Asuma and Kurenai. Said baby is promptly stolen, with the intent of being raised as the perfect Jashinist Messiah.
 * Futurefic - A cohesive joining and continuation of the previous fics, it follows the fates of the next generation of ninja, born to a wide variety of characters over the years. To say the least.

In addition, the fics draw from Fanon previously set out in several other written fanfictions, along with a handful of other, smaller fics and unwritten oneshots. It’s kind of a lot of stories.

All tropes are subject to Take Our Word for It, however, as, there are currently no plans to have the fics properly written out in any way, shape, or form. Doesn’t mean they’re not beautiful stories, though.

These stories provide examples of:

 * Alliteration: Naruto, Nanadamine Hokage-to-be, is called Nananaruto by one of his students. The name sticks.
 * Aloof Big Sister: Tomoe/Ane
 * And I Must Scream: Hidan is buried underground for a good 3 or 4 months. He has a lot of time to think to himself while he’s down there.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love: Madara, to Setsu, after a heartrending "The Reason You Suck" Speech directed at himself, and Setsu’s gentle rebuttal.
 * Arc Words: “I won’t let it bother me,” in Backbone.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Hangaku, minus the kung fu. Though she does know a considerable amount of taijutsu, thanks to her Sharingan.
 * Ascended Extra: Ranmaru, of the filler, joins up with Hidan and apparently stays with him for several years as his sidekick and assistant.
 * Babies Ever After: Happens to the expected amount of people between Backbone and Futurefic, though the story is far from over when said babies are introduced.
 * Back From the Dead: Nearly every member of the Akatsuki is revived in some way or another: Orochimaru brings back herself, Kakuzu, Sasori and Itachi through a soul-transfer jutsu; Deidara is spiritually reborn in the puppet Dezaina, who possesses his heart; Hidan is put back together; Pain is reincarnated as Kushin. Team Dosu, the Sound Six, and the remaining two Sannin are revived in similar manners. Though Tsunade has to be killed first, because she's in a coma.
 * Badass Adorable / Cute Bruiser: Rock Joy. She won’t hold back against you in a fight, but you can bet your bottom dollar that you’re getting a hug after your defeat.
 * Beyond the Impossible: Jiraiya and Tsunade manage to have sex through the bars of a jail cell. Multiple times. Orochimaru does tries not to think too hard about the mechanics of this when she finds out.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Rock Joy, just like her father.
 * Biological Mashup: Setsu’s method for making herself into what is, for all purposes, a full-blooded Uchiha. She’s essentially a perfect genetic mix of Obito and Itachi.
 * Bizarre Ninja Biology: Zetsu and Setsu’s inner workings are best left undescribed, likewise Mizuko's. They bewilder even Kabuto.
 * Blush Sticker: Rock Joy.
 * Break the Cutie: Poor, poor Sai.
 * Body Horror: Setsu will do anything to protect her unborn children. Up to and including detaching her womb from her body and giving it sentience by fusing one of the fetuses to it.
 * The medic nin operating on Setsu to deliver her first two children are quite disturbed when random organs began disappearing before their eyes.
 * When Takate and Kote are born, the kindest thing that Kabuto can say about them is that they look "like Sakon and Ukon doing a Kidoumaru impression."
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Hidan’s letters to Kushin. He’ll go from asking about Kushin’s grades in school to how many innocents he killed the other day in the same paragraph.
 * Brick Joke: The reason why the Sea Dragons lost at the playoffs the first time.
 * Why, exactly, is there glitter in Gaara’s sand on the morning that Itachi shows up in Sunagakure?
 * Butt Monkey: Raiga. Especially after death.
 * Calvin Ball: Waveball, a sport native to Water Country that is followed with a fanatic intensity by the Seven Swordsmen, as well as Itachi (and, later, Naruto, Yamato, and the Inuzuka family). The rules are never explained in-depth, but the Sea Dragons are apparently the team to root for.
 * Character Development: All over the freaking place.
 * Cat Smile: Mizuko's near-permanent expression. :3~
 * Chekhov's Gun: The fact that Madara and Setsu can’t keep their hands off each other is actually plot-relevant.
 * Kushin's Jashinist tattoo turns out to be way more than just a gesture of rebellion in the long run. Especially in battle.
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Combat Medic: Rock Joy, eventually.
 * Creepy Child: Mizuko. Oh god, Mizuko.
 * Cryptic Background Reference: Itachi and Kisame enjoy quoting old black and white slapstick films from the Land of Water at each other, though the actual movies are never seen in full. The movies themselves make for an important plot point, though.
 * Cute Kitten: Madara has a small herd of cats living in one of his hideouts, whom he greatly enjoys playing with. When Itachi discovers him in the middle of a “kitten attack,” he is offered a kitten to keep his mouth shut. Itachi names the kitten Sasuke.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Hangaku, who has her adoptive daddy’s blue skin, funny eyes, and gills on her neck by the time she’s 14.
 * Daddy DNA Test: Sai, though technically it's to find his clan lineage instead of his daddy, and technically that lineage comes from his mother's side.
 * Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: Madara and Setsu have to make a run for it shortly after the twins are born due to Setsu’s Glamour Failure, but they cannot carry two babies at once, so Hangaku is given to Itachi to raise before Madara flees with Tomoe and Setsu.
 * Daddy's Little Villain: Hangaku sure is shaping up to be one, in regard to both of her daddies. Quite possibly Tomoe as well.
 * Dead Guy, Junior: Not exactly the same, but Itachi adopts a cat that Juugo brings with him to Soragakure and names it Shisui.
 * Dead Little Sister: Kisame has both a dead sister and baby brother. It doesn’t bother him much anymore, though.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Madara reaches, and perhaps even crosses, this point when he's imprisoned and tortured by Konoha. By the time he's actually rescued, he's all but shut down his capacity for love and thankfulness. He gets better, though. At least a little. For now.
 * Depraved Bisexual: Sasori certainly thinks this of the Land of Loess’ daimyo.
 * Door Step Baby: Attempted by Madara on Itachi’s windowsill, minus the anonymity.
 * “It’s the stork~!”
 * Dynamic Entry: The many, many ways Zukazuka chooses to appear whenever the story calls for her. They start with her grabbing Sasuke from behind and slinging him over her shoulder and just continue to get better.
 * Embarrassing Nickname: Waro has a habit of giving nicknames to just about everyone. Tomoe is not pleased at all when he starts calling her Moe-Moe.
 * Emergency Transformation: Setsu has to do something drastic when ANBU try to forcibly cut a baby out of her. The results are not pretty.
 * Emotionless Boy: Ken/Yari, despite Sai’s best efforts.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Madara's a Manipulative Bastard and the Big Bad of the canonical series, and yet he cares just as much for his family as the standard mook would. Though there was a very dark time when he viewed them as little more than living assets. Tomoe learning how to crawl rather changed that.
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Rock Joy. As the child of Rock Lee and Haruno Sakura, to expect anything else would be ludicrous.
 * Eye Scream: Poor, poor Sai. It's especially terrible when he meets with Madara with an empty, infected socket, covered up only by a scrap of what used to be part of his sleeve. And this isn't the first time he's had eyes forcibly taken from him.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Fan Nickname: Team WTF, which consists of Guy, Yamato, Anko, and Shizune. Madara’s children are frequently referred to as bbz, even after they are grown up.
 * Hidan is affectionately known as Manny to some parties, after having his religion more or less described as "Manifest Destiny, but with killing."
 * For the Evulz: Madara and Setsu taunting the survivors of one of Dezaina’s more destructive works of art from the safety of a giant clay bird, as well as Madara unplugging Itachi’s fridge after checking in with him to see how Hangaku is doing.
 * Forgets to Eat: Sasori. To the point where he has a heart attack due to malnutrition.
 * Fourth Date Marriage: Guy and Haruko. They’re engaged within two weeks of meeting each other, though they don’t get married for about a year.
 * Fridge Horror: Shinneri, the adorable Dogged Nice Guy who wants to have children with Hangaku, is her genetic uncle. This, and the fact that Uchiha are genetically hard-wired to find each other attractive, and all the current living Uchiha in Konoha are all Itachi's children.
 * And then it actually happens. Not with Shinneri and Hangaku, but a pair of half-Uchihas unaware of the fact that they were related. Needless to say, everyone involved gets very upset.
 * Gender Bender: Setsu.
 * Genki Girl / Cheerful Child: Rock Joy. In SPADES.
 * Geodesic Cast: Lampshaded when the chuunin exams roll around and Naruto comments on how the teams all seem to be made of one Loud Guy, one Quiet Guy, and one Girl.
 * Lampshaded repeatedly in Soragakure, whenever a team needs to be sent out to gather supplies.
 * “There’s no way they’ll think we’re ninjas, we have two girls in our group!”
 * Kushin and his team take gleeful advantage of this during the exams.
 * Go Through Me: Setsu, when she and Madara are cornered in a base by Team WTF. Guy finds it every distressing.
 * Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Played with; Jiraiya and Tsunade have nothing against deciding to abort the child they make while in Soragakure. Unfortunately for them, the only person who could possibly perform the abortion for them is Orochimaru. And she is very, very unwilling to help.
 * Hannibal Lecture: Madara pulls an absolutely glorious one on Sai.
 * Happily Married: Orochimaru and… Kakuzu. This bewilders Jiraiya and Tsunade to no end.
 * Hates Being Touched: Dezaina.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Itachi and Kisame. Lampshaded by Kisame when Sasuke questions the nature of their relationship.
 * Hidden Depths: Tayuya has a part-time job as a maiko in a Land of Waterfalls geisha house. Dosu wants to become a human puppet like Sasori. Itachi and Kisame love old slapstick movies.
 * Kisame and Zetsu both had to raise their siblings alone, and are understandably great with kids as a result. Not that Zetsu would ever admit it, but. Hidan's also a big brother and thus very good with kids, though his parents were around as a kid.
 * Hidan's eyesight also ain't the best. He left a pair of reading glasses in one of the Akatsuki bases.
 * Killer Bee makes a MEAN chicken sandwich.
 * Believe it or not, but Sasuke is actually a very avid Tabletop RP player, a hobby he picked up in Sound from Kabuto. Not that he would ever tell anyone, but...
 * Meanwhile, Kidoumaru is a legendary DM, capable of keeping an entire convention of gamers in the same campaign without any of them realizing it until the end. He can also tell exactly which class and feats you'd choose if you play Bounties and Bushido, or if you played at all.
 * Kin's a pretty good street magician, a skill she picked up to make money in the slums as a kid.
 * Hope Spot: Madara finally realizes he really does love Setsu, which is precisely when ANBU chooses to try and assassinate him while he’s… preoccupied with her.
 * Honorary Uncle: Hangaku grows up calling Itachi and Sasuke her uncles, even before she makes the connection that she's an Uchiha.
 * Hot Dad: Itachi. Sort of. He’s a sperm donor. But he still pays child support for all his "kids."
 * Hostage Situation: What occurs when Team WTF stumbles upon Madara and Setsu camping out in an abandoned Akatsuki base. When Setsu goes into premature labor, Guy gives himself up willingly so that Shizune can treat Setsu herself.
 * Hot For Teacher: Blacker Zetsu had an enormous crush on his sensei as a child. It didn’t end well.
 * Humiliation Conga: The lengths Sasuke goes through to get a signed copy of a children's book for one of Itachi's kids.
 * The Igor: Dosu, to Sasori. On the surface, that is.
 * I Have Your Wife: ANBU, to Madara, at least four times. Setsu actually does something about it later on, though.
 * I Knew It!: In-universe example: Sai begins to suspect a few things about his lineage due to Madara’s recent actions and some things from his past, so he has a blood test performed. Turns out, he is half-Uchiha.
 * Outside of the story, Zetsu's cloning technique was predicted by the author a good two months before it actually appeared in the manga.
 * The Illegible: Madara’s handwriting is notoriously bad, to the point where he prefers using pictograms instead of kanji.
 * Important Haircut: Itachi cuts off most of his hair to impersonate Madara on a mission to Amegakure with Tayuya, who impersonates Karin.
 * In the Blood: History just loves repeating itself with them Uchiha. Freakin' Sharingan.
 * Innocent Flower Girl: Mizuko. Sort of. It’s quiet and it likes flowers quite a lot. It doesn’t exactly have a gender, though.
 * Involuntary Transformation: Setsu has a difficult time looking… human when she’s under extreme pain or stress. Her skin turns white, her eyes turn yellow, and her body starts reverting to a more androgynous state.
 * I Say What I Say: Happens on occasion when Whiter Zetsu and Setsu are near each other. Madara thinks it’s hilarious, though the feeling isn’t mutual.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Or, in Kakuzu’s case, hearts. He’s the most incorrigible miser the world has ever seen, but he still bought wedding rings to propose to Orochimaru properly with. A shame that Itachi happened and she defected before he could give one to her.
 * Madara may be a mass-murdering psychopathic man-child, but he loves Setsu, Dezaina, and his children more than anything else, and would do anything to protect them.
 * Keet: Waro. Oh god, Waro. The kid calls Mizuko “Mimi-tan” for heaven’s sake.
 * Kick the Dog: Madara forces Setsu to state that she is nothing more than a vessel for his children in a fit of anger. He feels extremely guilty about it once she’s out of earshot, and tells Sai to never do anything so cruel to any man or woman.
 * All Shinneri wanted to do was go out with Hangaku (and eventually have children with her someday.) Instead, he's cruelly manipulated into granting her passage to Konoha, and then beat over the head and left in the woods to die. Oh, and this is all so Hangaku can gain access to Kushin. So she can kill him too.
 * Kissing Cousins: Madara tries to pass himself and Setsu off as this when Team 8 discovers them in Amegakure. It works, to an extent.
 * Knight Templar Parent: Orochimaru, full stop. Madara and Setsu, to some extent.
 * Law of Inverse Fertility: Played painfully straight with Orochimaru’s struggle to have children with Kakuzu, whose new body is sterile. Jiraiya and Tsunade manage to conceive without even trying, and they don’t even want the kid.
 * Les Yay: Dezaina likes calling Ino “babe.” Ino rather likes it.
 * Love At First Sight: Guy and Haruko.
 * Mad Artist: Dezaina. In addition, Sasori and the salon of puppet artists in the Land of Loess.
 * Magic Ampersand: A rather popular Tabletop RPG in Oto, "Bounties and Bushido," which has a Cattle Punk setting.
 * Master of None: Hangaku, who eagerly learns new techniques but doesn’t bother becoming terribly proficient in them.
 * Mauve Shirt: Poor Shusuke. We hardly knew you.
 * Meaningful Name: Just about everyone.
 * Setsu’s name can be interpreted as “offshoot,” “weak,” or “filthy.” Zetsu thinks all these things of her.
 * Tomoe and Hangaku, the two oldest siblings, are named after female samurai.
 * Mizuko means “aborted or miscarried child.”
 * Kushin’s name shares one kanji with Jashin, and it means “pain.” He happens to be the next user of the Rinnegan.
 * Guy laments that the only woman he will ever marry will be the woman that returns the springtime of his youth to him. Moments later, he meets Haruko.
 * Dezain’s eventual shift to the name Dezaina as she gains her own identity.
 * Three of Madara’s children take on the names Ane (big sister), Shoutei (foolish little brother), and Tanechigai (half brother/half sister) during the chuunin exams.
 * The Messiah: Hidan believes that the Rinnegan-bearing child of Asuma and Kurenai is this.
 * Min-Maxing: Kabuto's most absolute favorite thing... when it comes to his player characters, that is.
 * Moment Killer: Madara, to Ino and Dezaina. A disgruntled tea house owner, to Madara and Setsu, a good hour or two later. ANBU, shortly after that, acting not so much as Moment Killers but Moment Annihilators.
 * Mother to Her Men: Orochimaru, who regards Team Dosu and the Sound Six as her children in every sense of the word. Hugs are very common occurrences.
 * Mundane Utility: Too many to count, including using the Sharingan to memorize star charts for navigation at night, using Amaterasu to heat up cans of soup, and using Susano’o as… an umbrella.
 * Kisame manages to keep everyone alive in the deserts around Sunagakure by using his water-generating jutsu. It doesn’t keep them going for long, though.
 * Nakama: Itachi, Kisame, Sasuke, and Killer Bee.
 * Never Live It Down:
 * Naruto still teases Sasuke about the infamous video, even years later.
 * Madara still knows where Danzou keeps Ono Ritsuko’s panties.
 * Itachi likes to bring up the fact that Sasuke has quite the fondness for pastel-haired girls.
 * Nice Guy: Takate is quite possibly the most well-adjusted character in the entire story. For some reason, he's Madara's favorite son.
 * The Nicknamer: Good god, Waro has a name for everyone.
 * Noodle Incident: The only way to erase burned-in-your-mind Sharingan memories is to get so plastered you cannot see straight. Itachi found this out through experience. Kisame assures him that he does not want to know what, exactly, he wanted to forget.
 * No Pregger Sex: Oh so very averted by Madara and Setsu.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Inverted; Madara’s “default” personality is “Tobi.” It’s the seriousness that’s an act. His genius is all real, however. The guy just likes to have fun.
 * Oh Crap: Madara’s inner reaction when Kakashi sees through the Sudekaba. Good thing Dezaina rigged the entire Hokage cliff face to blow…
 * Sasori’s entire mindset when he realizes that Dosu is now permanently tied to him through chakra strings.
 * Hangaku more or less freaks out when Kushin summons the Outer Path during their duel. And this is after he activates his Curse Jutsu and gets all skeleton-fied.
 * Opposite Sex Clone: Setsu. Dezaina, also, though she’s a puppet and not exactly a clone.
 * Promotion to Parent: Subverted; Madara gives Itachi one of his daughters to raise, which Itachi flat-out refuses to do. Played straight when Itachi gives the baby to Kisame, who is a much better father than Itachi could be. Madara agrees.
 * Somewhat of a grand tradition within the Swordsmen in general, as just about all of them have raised or are raising a child or sibling alone.
 * Punny Name: Quite a few, especially Kugi Shusuke, a student of Naruto’s whose last name means Sacrificial Animal, and whose first name has the kanji for “crimson” within it. He’s a Mauve Shirt, though he wears a literal Red Shirt.
 * The title of Blood and Procrastination comes from the Japanese word "daradara," which is both an onomotopoea for dripping blood, but also a term for tedious things that drag on. Think about it.
 * Puppet Permutation: Sasori’s process of turning himself into a puppet. Works out relatively well the first time around, in the Land of Loess. Not so much the second time.
 * The Rainman: Mizuko, who is blind, physically stunted, and anatomically wrong in almost every other way, is a genius when it comes to numbers and analysis of raw data.
 * Retired Badass: Itachi is more than happy to settle down and work at a bookshop for the rest of his life, sewing clothes for his extended family.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Ino and Dezaina.
 * Running Gag: “I got Questions. Questions that need Answers.” Cue Killer Bee sneezing.
 * Itachi’s greasy hair and appalling lack of personal hygiene.
 * Sadistic Choice: In order to get the Mangekyou Sharingan she so craves, Hangaku has to choose whether she wants to kill her father or her best friend, Kushin. She chooses to go after Kisame. First.
 * Schrodingers Cat: Though their children are alive and well during the Futurefic, it is uncertain if Madara and Setsu are still living during the events of Futurefic. The same can be said of Ino.
 * Screaming Birth: Justified, in that Setsu was undergoing a Cesarean section. Without pain medication.
 * Sdrawkcab Name: Madara’s ultimate technique, the Sudekaba.
 * Selective Obliviousness: Madara is much happier not thinking about the fact that Setsu is technically male.
 * Separated at Birth: A few of Madara’s children: one of them is being raised by Kisame, the other by Danzou and Sai.
 * Serious Business: Waveball, and the traditions that go along with properly watching it. This includes eating shrimp and properly compensating for Raiga’s Curse.
 * Sex Equals Love: Played straight for a while, before Madara starts really thinking about what Setsu means to him. His cruelty to her astonishes him.
 * Simultaneous Arcs: Buddyfic, Soragakure, and Blood and Procrastination (later Backbone) happen at around the same time, and occasionally cross over.
 * Ship Sinking: Being a Main Family member, Hinata cannot marry outside of her clan. She gets over it eventually, though.
 * Something's Different About You Now: Orochimaru chose to be restored in a female body. Jiraiya and Tsunade have a very, very hard time getting used to it, referring to her as “him” in private conversation.
 * Spin Offspring: Futurefic’s main cast contains Madara’s brood of children and the child of Asuma and Kurenai, as well as Rock Joy, the daughter of Lee and Sakura.
 * Invisible to Gaydar: Gaara. Yep.
 * Sue Donym: Sasori calls himself Ningyou while in the Land of Loess. Madara calls himself Osuri around Dezaina.
 * The Talk: Itachi attempts this with Sasuke one afternoon, while Kisame’s out shopping. Hilarity Ensues.
 * After hearing his parents going at it one night, Takate innocently asks them what they were doing at breakfast. Madara uses a gardening metaphor. Once more, Hilarity Ensues.
 * Talking to Themself: Zetsu, as is expected.
 * Tear Jerker: Sakon and Ukon’s final battle, the two of them choosing to die by each others’ hands, rather than going out quietly but painfully. And when they wake up in Soragakure and see each other again…
 * Itachi losing his sight after a skirmish with some ANBU forces him to use the Mangekyou Sharingan. He tries to memorize a dictionary before his sight fails for good using a bunshin, and takes off his hitai’ate and ties it to Sasuke’s forehead so he can at least have a memory of his brother wearing a Konoha headband.
 * “I only made it to the N’s.”
 * Madara takes off his mask and pleads an almost-dead Setsu to hold on while their babies are delivered.
 * "LOOK AT MY FACE, SETSU. THIS IS WHAT AN UCHIHA LOOKS LIKE, ALL RIGHT?! THIS. IS WHAT. YOU ARE.”
 * Madara saying goodbye to his newborn daughter Hangaku, memorizing her face as she opens her eyes for the first time, before giving her to Itachi.
 * Teleporter Accident: Due to a loophole in the way that Izanagi works and the fact that Itachi effectively committed suicide while using it, there are now two Itachis running around, one in Soragakure, the other with Sasuke in Konoha. Only the one in Soragakure knows the other exists, and he is incredibly bitter about it.
 * Tell Me About My Father: Hangaku