Current mood:

artistic

Real Author's Note
OK, now that I sit here with 50000 words under my belt, I feel that I should write out a proper Author's Note because the one I wrote at the start of the story is a bit too rambling for its own good. This one, I'm sure, will be twice as rambly in its own way, but hopefully usefully so. So, with the amazing power of hindsight, here goes:

This piece of random fiction started out as a very crack-filled and non-serious idea, until I actually sat down to write it and discovered that I can't keep people in character if I do something like that. So the premise became one of those "What if?" gate-fics that I am so prone to write (yes, no kidding, it's all I write, though I'm sure I'll wear myself out on it soon enough). I did my best to respect the canon of both series, and I think I did a fairly decent job. I hope the things I had to make up fit in believably enough (I know I got a little off on the random promotions in the military, but my excuse was that it was a very tumultuous time). As I was finishing this up, I really amazed myself at some of the connections I was drawing, and I don't know if I finally knocked people into character, or if I just ran off with my odd interpretations of them until I believed them myself, but I'm rather proud of the way the final parts of this story turn out. I know it's uneven, and often rather rambling (it's probably fairly obvious where I was having trouble with writer's block or general frustration), but that happens when you're writing with time and word count in mind. I have the feeling that people drift in and out of character occasionally, especially the Naruto characters. You can probably tell that I stuck with mostly minor characters until the end of the story, since I found how uncomfortable I am with their characterization. It's strange that after 240 chapters of the manga and 112 episodes of the anime I can still be iffy on the characters, but... yes, I am. And I hate to write people one-sided. I believe that, near the end though, when the Naruto characters finally take control of the story again, they settle in. I'm still not entirely happy with them, but so it goes. My research on WWII is severely lacking, I realize, but that's mostly because it's been three years now since I've had a history class that wasn't Ancient Mediterranean. Also, I apologize for the parts in other languages. They are never long, and I hope I was skillful enough with them that you don't actually have to understand them for the story to make sense. For the most part, things were written in a different language to make a point, and you shouldn't necessarily have to be able to understand what was said. If you can, great. If you can't, and it's not in the context, you didn't need to know it anyway. And in the first few chapters, I make a lot of random jabs at the Naruto fandom... and just anime fandoms in general (mostly you know, the unfounded male relationship stuff that I swear I don't ever read... yeah...). I'm sorry... they amused me at the time. Yes, the Konoha they initially end up in isn't exactly canon, but I'm not going to go back and change it now. It all turns out alright in the end.

Non writing-related, Naruto and FullMetal Alchemist don't belong to me, but if they did I'd probably still be doing something like this because in some twisted way I think connecting things like this is fun (which is why they don't belong to me). There are officially spoilers for everything up to the end of FMA, most specifically 25, 44, and 48-51 (I think that covers the things mentioned explicitly). As for Naruto, I went easy on the spoilers. If you don't know what happens after the chuunin exams then... well, I guess that will be spoiled. And unfortunately, since this takes place during the three-year time-jump in the manga, there are spoilers for.. ooh... let's say chapters 224-238 or so (basically wasn't hasn't been covered yet in the anime). But... most of what I say has been a pretty obvious future event since about episode 80 or so. Well, probably even since whatever episode it was in the 30s when Orochimaru gave Sauske the cursed seal.

Anyway... as I think back through this, I'm pretty sure that's all I had to say. If I think of something else I should clear up, I'll sneakily stick it in here. Reviews make me super-happy, hint hint. (I'm so subtle). Thanks for actually taking the time to read this!