Welcome to the Jungle:

Here is another one of my ideas for You. Do not be surprised by its shortness – it is just an idea after all, not a story. It may or may not be fresh but that is life.

Up for Grabs Two: Song-fics

You know them and You have probably read at least one in Your life because You are curious and want to try everything. The concept is sound enough. Every song exists to tell a story or give a message and sometimes that story or message is terribly reminiscent of how You feel, of what You have done, of what You have seen. Some other times it is reminiscent of works of fiction. This is hardly surprising because art imitates life and life imitates art in a vicious cycle.

Well then, what could I possibly have to tell You about Naruto song-fics that You have not already heard countless times? You may be surprised or at least I hope You will be. While there is undoubtedly a huge number of songs in the world that can perfectly fit characters and goings-on in Naruto, those songs were composed independently of Naruto – they were just "happy accidents". However, there are songs that were composed with at least a little bit of Naruto in mind. I am talking about nothing else but the opening and ending themes. They should be the perfect material for Naruto song-fics. A great example of that is the fifth ending theme "Imamade Nando Mo" by The Massmissile.

Of course, I cannot be sure whether this has been attempted or not. The fact that I turn away and look elsewhere whenever I spot the expression "song-fic" in a story's summary does not help me one bit. No offence to those who write them, I am not saying that they are bad; I am just no longer interested in that concept in the broad sense. Except for this idea here, which is a special one. I got it probably around the time I lost interest in song-fics.

The only real problem of this is getting accurate English translations of those songs. All the decent fan-subs have those one-and-a-half minute long segments of the songs transliterated and translated but the rest of the lyrics is a little harder to come by. Although I am sure there are quite a few people here that know enough Japanese to be able to translate the songs for themselves even using only the transliterations that are easier to find. If You are not one of those, I will have to refer You to the site Anime Lyrics dot Com - the address is www. animelyrics. com/ anime/ naruto (just get rid of the spaces).

So, let me explain to You what I have in mind for this:

1) I would like to get someone experienced in writing song-fics to invent stories of undetermined length, in any genre desirable, involving any number of main characters, whose plot would be directly based on the lyrics of the opening and/or the ending themes. Really, the stage is Yours and there are very few limitations.
2) It would be a huge plus, in my opinion, if You could also take cues from the animated sequences that are accompanied by those songs. The animation team always strived to at least reflect the mood of each song so it would be absolutely perfect if You tried this similar approach.
3) I would like to not have the lyrics of those songs in the text. That is one thing I do not like about song-fics – that the lyrics are usually put inside the story in their entirety, including the choruses. I think they detract from the story itself and I cannot fully focus on them either. Since everyone who watches Naruto is already intimately acquainted with all of the songs and has at least once read the lyrics translations by the various fan-subbing groups, there is really no need to waste space like this. It will also contribute to the immersion factor. However, one line here or there will not hurt.
4) I would prefer that all of the songs would come in two collections: one for the opening themes and the other for the ending themes. An alternative could be to also split those collections further into themes for Part I and Part II (Shippūden). I do not have a set idea for titles for these collections. In fact, even something completely descriptive and unimaginative like "Naruto Opening Themes Song-fics" would do. Nevertheless, it would be best to give the individual chapters the names of the songs. For example, the second chapter of the opening themes collection should be called "Haruka Kanata". However, I am not against the idea of having a secondary title for each chapter, one that would further specify what story You wrote or one that would be a translation of the song title, if it is in Japanese, or both.

If You think that these instructions and requirements are a little too demanding or excessive or retarded, I have another proposal for You, something a little looser. Think karaoke. I do not remember there being karaoke bars anywhere in the anime but since Naruto is based on both ancient and contemporary Japanese culture, and since there is even an album of Naruto themes sung by the Japanese voice actors, karaoke is perfectly acceptable. You could gather all Your favourite characters and have each of them sing one or more of the songs. You would have to come up with reasons for why this character chose that song but taking cues from the mentioned album (it is entitled "Naruto All Stars" by the way) is also acceptable. There would be no other restrictions regarding the plot. If You manage to squeeze in the majority or all of the opening and ending songs from Part I or even Part II, You could even make Your story a parody crack-fic for all I care. Sounds good? Although I would prefer the former, the more serious, approach to be taken, I am not selling a licence to this idea. Anyone who is interested is free to adopt it and work with it.

What do you think then? Are my ideas crazy enough to turn out good? Or should they have stayed inside my brain and died of old age?

Goodbye Blue Sky:

Refer to the Author's Notes in chapter 1 for further instructions and stay on that safe side, damnit!