Quietus (Fanfic) - TV Tropes

Quietus is a M-rated Fusion Fic by Seraphina Scribes ^notepreviously known as AngeLhearteD that blends Naruto and Greek mythology in a modern-day setting, first published on FanFiction.Net in 2011 and added to Archive of Our Own in 2014. It is chiefly an adaptation of the Hades and Persephone myth, with Sakura Haruno as Persephone and Sasuke Uchiha as Hades, though it also contains a myriad of subplots (both original and adapted from the source material).

The tale begins with Sasuke catching sight of Sakura, a mortal girl, while collecting a newly departed soul from a funeral. Instantly obsessed with the blazing purity of her soul, Sasuke vows to claim her as his queen at all costs—even if it means kidnapping her from the surface and imprisoning her alive underground. And after two years of impatiently waiting and stalking her nightly, he does exactly that.

But Sakura is no ordinary human: her disappearance has triggered a premature autumn aboveground, and the other gods are beginning to suspect that one of their own has violated the natural order. What's more, she claims to dream of Sasuke in the company of a goddess named Kore, who bears a chilling resemblance to Sakura and about whom Sasuke can remember nothing at all. As he begins to investigate the origins of his unusual captive, Sasuke discovers that his missing memories of Kore may be connected not just to the downfall of his clan in the Titanomachy from eons past, but to a dreaded nemesis long thought sealed away for good.

A nemesis who is beginning to stir once more in his prison, high upon Mount Olympus...

As this fanfic borrows plot points from both Naruto and the Greek myth canon, spoilers will only be marked for plot points unique to Quietus while events, character traits, or revelations from either source will be left unmarked. Readers unfamiliar/up-to-date with Naruto or Greek myth should proceed with caution.

Readers should also take note that most of the characters go by two names in the text, their canon Naruto names (their true names in-universe) and their deity names based off Greek myth. To keep character identities straight, all names will be handled under the following rules:

Characters will be mentioned mainly by their canon name in examples relevant either to the story as a whole, including personality traits and skills, or to present events in-universe. If the trope relates to their godly alter ego as well, both names will be used instead, e.g. "Sasuke-as-Hades".
Mythological names will be given preference in examples pertaining to events set in flashbacks with canon names listed as needed—for example, "Hades (aka Sasuke)".
No canon or mythological names will be spoilered out unless they are integral to the plot, whether in the past or in the present.^*

You can find Quietus here on FanFiction.Net, scrubbed of all sex scenes to avoid potential conflict with site policies regarding explicit content. The uncensored version is posted here on Archive of Our Own. A companion piece titled Quietus: The Appendices was additionally published on FanFiction.Net in 2012, containing bonus materials such as a sporadically revised dramatis personae. The beginning chapters have also been posted on Wattpad.

Content warning: This work contains multiple tropes and examples related to potentially triggering content, including but not limited to abduction, stalking, physical abuse, suicide, mental injuries, and sexual violence.

Quietus contains examples of:

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Tropes #-D

Abduction Is Love:
- Double subverted, surprisingly. While Sakura does eventually develop an attraction to Sasuke, who himself grows kinder and more considerate through her influence, she's not above calling him out on his cryptic demeanor and efforts to isolate her in her final conversation with him before she returns to the surface.
- On the other hand, Kore and Hades invert this trope with the former being Sakura's past identity. Kore happily engages in her affair with Hades on the surface and is only abducted after Hades breaks up with her to protect her from Cronus; ironically enough, Cronus still manages to hold Kore hostage both to exploit (or rather, pervert) her life-giving powers and to twist the metaphorical knife in Hades' gut. She is shattered by Hades' rebuffing her and by the Uchiha clan using her as a pawn against her fellow Olympians.
Abhorrent Admirer: Karin is characterized as one essentially from her introduction, no thanks to her ruthless and petty personality combined with her fanaticism toward Sasuke. There's a measure of irony in Sasuke, misanthrope supreme, being repulsed by someone who has no issues roughing up his mortal subjects to keep them literally in line as part of her guard duties at the Styx riverbank.
Action Dress Rip: Sakura rips off the lower half of her ball gown with some reluctance during her fight in the Winter Ball against a host of mythological beasts.
Action Girl: Sakura morphs into one when Sasuke begins training her in swordsmanship at her request, which she'd put forth as part of her ruse to borrow Sasuke's sword, and even gets some practice in combating a legendary creature via simulation at one point. After she returns to the surface, her friends and family continue to teach her everything they know about chakra and combat in preparation for the second war against Madara-as-Cronus, then during the Winter Ball she takes control of a panicking mob and doles out a couple of devastating punches to the beasts hijacking the dance at Orochimaru-as-Deimos' command. We later see her not only devise successful combat strategies and puzzle solutions on her own, but also back Sasuke in combat with her sword while he is fighting the griffins guarding the first of the four relics to be used in unsealing the surviving Olympians' powers.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- A downplayed version. In their original canon, Karin shows sympathy for and eventually befriends Sakura. In this fic, Karin is completely determined to hate Sakura to bits for having Sasuke's attention, due to having clamored for Sasuke's favor for all the centuries she worked for him as one of his Styx riverbank custodians. She later gets over her petty hatred for Sakura after leaving Sasuke's service, to the point that she hopes even Sakura is safe from harm when she hears about the Titans being unleashed from the underworld, but they're still a far way off from being friends.
- In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was lovers with Ares despite being in an Arranged Marriage with Hephaestus, and was rivals with her sister Athena. In this fic, Ino is Aphrodite and has no romantic connection to either Ares (Pain, a villain who serves Cronus/Madara and threatens Ino and her friends) or Hephaestus (Kakashi, an older god who is only a mentor figure to the younger ones). She initially has feelings for the male version of Athena, Athenos (Shikamaru), but later falls for Hermes (Sai), who had no relationship with Aphrodite in the myths.
Adaptational Villainy: In the original mythology, Ares was unpopular with both his fellow gods and the Greeks because of his violent and hotheaded nature, but was still very much a loyal Olympian at heart and was devoted to his loved ones. There are no such redeeming qualities for this version of Ares, who is a villain by virtue of being Pain and serves Cronus/Madara in his schemes against Olympus.
Adapted Out: Sakura's canon parents (Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno) are not present here, due to Tsunade being made Sakura's mother.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: As in their home series, Itachi-as-Thanatos frequently poked Sasuke in the forehead as a gesture of endearment when the latter was a child. Naturally, he does so one last time before leaving Sasuke and dying in battle against the Olympians.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played with. Sakura finds Sasuke attractive from the very first time she sees him by the carousel at the festival (without knowing who he really is at the time, and a while before he abducts her), but after he kidnaps her, she finds him terrifying and infuriating for being her captor and refusing to explain why he stole her away from her loved ones. She's conflicted by her attraction to his good looks and her repulsion by his actual personality, which is intimidating, unfriendly, and often downright cruel. She does begin to care about him as she gets to know him as part of Suigetsu's plan (which entails her acting friendly to Sasuke in order to trick him into letting his guard down and make it easier for her to escape), but that doesn't stop her from eventually enacting the plan by poisoning him with a kiss and escaping. Later on, she avoids this trope when she briefly becomes attracted to Kenji, a kind and normal person who's one of her fellow medical students, and seriously considers dating him, but their relationship obviously does not work out.
All-Natural Gem Polish: In Chapter 24, Sasuke gives Sakura a tour of one of the twelve gemstone mines he owns. The mines are vast caverns filled with naturally sparkling jewels (which are extracted by centaurs), and Sakura is completely dazzled when she sees so many in one place.
All-Powerful Bystander: Chiyo embodies this trope as Hecate, the prescient goddess of witchcraft and the crossroads. Due to her prodigious knowledge, she has to avoid meddling with events as she sees them unfold, but it doesn't mean she's any happier about it.
Alluring Flowers: At the beginning, Sasuke twice uses a flower in his efforts to abduct Sakura. The first time is in Chapter 3, where he leaves a magic purple and peach-colored rose trimmed with silver at her front door and the fragrance from it when she picks it up causes her to fall asleep. He nearly kidnaps her, but is thwarted at the last moment and forced to leave when Tsunade arrives home. In Chapter 4, he lures Sakura away from her friends and into the woods by having his harpies disguise themselves as children and steal her book bag, which leads her to a field enchanted with an illusion to look like a meadow. She sees a magical rainbow flower and tries to pick it, leading to it dissolving in her hands, the ground splitting apart under her, and Sasuke swooping in on his chariot to abduct her.
Always Someone Better: This accurately sums up Sasuke's past opinion of Itachi as a combatant and clan member, though his inferiority complex is justified by his inexperience, the latter of which gradually diminishes as he learns to exercise all of the Uchiha's abilities by himself.
Amnesiac Lover: Both Sakura and Sasuke count, what with Sakura not remembering her past as Kore and Sasuke-as-Hades not remembering Kore or his relationship with her at all. Later, we learn that Kore's and Hades' memories were locked away by Thanatos and Hypnos in order to protect both the troubled young deities and the life-death balance in the world.
And I Must Scream: Thanks to Sasuke targeting them both for different reasons, Sakura and Sai fall victim early on to this trope.
- In Sakura's case, Sasuke is keeping her against her consent in his kingdom as his companion and future lover until she eventually escapes in Chapter 49, and he voluntarily lets her go. Since she's already in the realm of the dead, dying would only trap her in his domain as a shade under his eternal rule. Then there's her seemingly endless reincarnation cycle which is revealed to end with Sakura herself, who will either die as a mortal or ascend once more to her role as the underworld-dwelling Persephone. And speaking of underworld-dwelling, Sasuke eventually tricks her into eating a handful of pomegranate seeds which, owing to their extramundane origin, will remain in her stomach forever and tie her inextricably to his kingdom. The pomegranate seeds stop her from being reborn, leaving her connected permanently to the underworld.
- If Sakura is miserable underground, at least Sasuke cares for her wellbeing and general existence (and he later demonstrates genuine remorse for having kidnapped Sakura and endangered her life). Not so with Sai, aka Hermes: the poor boy bears a seal on his tongue, courtesy of Sasuke, that is cursed to terminate his existence if he so much as hints at Sakura's true whereabouts to anyone, his fellow surface gods in particular. On top of that Sasuke has no qualms whatsoever about physically abusing or stalking Sai to ensure the latter's complicity culminating in Sai nearly dying during his confrontation with an enraged Sasuke at the entrance of the Underworld. Nevertheless, this is complicated by the fact that Cronus manipulated Hades' mind and memories to make him irrationally hate and seek the ruin of the surface gods before he was sealed on Mt. Olympus. Hence, most of Sasuke's character development in the second part of the story is focused around learning what and who he can really trust.
- Sasuke's general existence can be summed up thusly as well. Not only does he live alone in the Underworld, he has to run the entire kingdom by himself with no chance of retiring or quitting because he's preordained to wield all the powers of the chthonic deities alone. This only occurred because Cronus felt that Sasuke would be easy to manipulate in the future and because Sasuke's family made calculated moves to ensure his survival leading up to the war. If he dies, as had nearly happened once, the balance of life and death will be irreversibly overturned. His role is also critical in ensuring the survival of Sakura now, which appears to have been anticipated in some way by Minato, Itachi, and Shisui 2,000 years ago.
Anguished Declaration of Love: An inversion occurs between Kore and Hades during their final dance together at the Uchihas' masquerade ball in Chapter 56, where Kore vows to despise him eternally for having toyed with her trust and cast her aside afterward.
An Arm and a Leg: Like in canon, Itachi rips Orochimaru's arm off after finding out about his schemes to get a perfect vessel by hijacking Sasuke's body.
Attempted Rape: At one point Sakura stumbles upon a pair of nymphs beset upon by satyrs while wandering through a maze in Sasuke's gardens. She manages to rescue one of the nymphs, but is too late to save the other, who is traumatized from having been assaulted.
Author Appeal: The author has an eye for detail and enjoys providing descriptions of the surroundings and attire of her characters.
- For starters, the architecture in Quietus tends toward the opulent side of things, featuring such elements as Palladian windows framed by silk drapes, ceilings covered in elaborate heavenly tableaux, and gem-encrusted double doors. Considering that the story is about gods, this is not surprising. Hades is the god of death and riches in Greek myth and the Underworld and its palace reflect this wealth, abounding in opulence and beauty.
- Sakura's wardrobe in the underworld largely consists of beautiful dresses, most of which are described in detail and have butterfly sleeves and/or sweetheart necklines more often than not. After her return to the surface, her fancy gowns in later chapters often have long, trailing cape sleeves instead. Her dresses in general also tend to have decorative belts.
Back from the Dead: Chiyo's sacrifice in Chapter 105 resurrects the long-dead Itachi/Thanatos and Shisui/Hypnos, though they don't actually appear in person until Chapter 107. Sasuke is also brought back to life after being turned to stone by the Curse Seal, via Itachi purging the seal and Orochimaru's soul from his body.
Ballroom Blitz: After her homecoming, Sakura and her friends decide to decompress for an evening and attend the Winter Ball. They end up getting more excitement than they bargained for when Orochimaru-as-Deimos sends a hydra and a chimera to crash the party, hurling them into a brawl with the legendary beasts that threatens to unmask them as otherworldly beings to the other, decidedly mortal guests.
Beautiful Dreamer: In the times that Sakura is asleep, during the time he was stalking her and in her time as a captive, Sasuke unashamedly takes his time to admire her looks and peaceful atmosphere - wondering what it is that draws him to her. He has to stop himself from doing anything else.
The Beautiful Elite: Everyone in the main cast who lives on the surface is conventionally attractive, not to mention wealthy enough to live in mansions and buy (not borrow or rent) lavish outfits for special occasions like balls. Naturally, this gives them room to develop a plethora of personal issues that would not be out of place in a soap opera.
Becoming the Mask: Sakura initially feigns interest in learning more about Sasuke and his realm at Suigetsu's suggestion to cozy up to him to make it easier to pull the wool over his eyes and escape. She ends up genuinely enjoying the time she and Sasuke spend together, which includes combat training and tours through the underworld, and this makes it harder for her to go through with Suigetsu's plan.
Belligerent Sexual Tension:
- Sakura and Sasuke's dynamic in the earlier chapters of the Underworld arc has shades of this; they often clash because of Sakura's strong will and Sasuke's stubbornness and refusal to explain himself most of the time, but their attraction to each other is undeniable.
- Suigetsu and Karin bicker and insult each other every time they interact, but it gradually becomes more obvious later that it's a cover-up for their unresolved attraction to each other. It's eventually revealed that they slept together in the past when Karin still lived in his ocean kingdom.
Beta Couple: Naruto and Hinata (this fic's equivalents to Apollo and Selene) have mutual feelings for each other, and their relationship is much more smooth sailing than Sasuke and Sakura's. Ino and Shikamaru initially seem to be shaping up to be this as well, but later end up with their canon love interests (Sai and Temari, respectively) instead.
Better as Friends: Ino and Shikamaru have an implied attraction to each other in the early chapters, but ultimately both choose to maintain their friendship instead of acting on it. In Chapter 86, when Sakura watches them leave after seeing her off before her obligated return to the underworld, she thinks they may be better staying as friends because they seem happier and more relaxed that way.
Big Bad Triumvirate: The main villains are Madara (Cronus), Orochimaru (Deimos/Phobos), and Obito (Moros), who are responsible for causing the Olympians' divine war.
Big Brother Instinct: Similarly to canon, Itachi/Thanatos demonstrates this for his younger brother, Sasuke/Hades. The first thing he does after being resurrected is to save Sasuke by expelling Orochimaru's soul from his body and sealing the snake bastard into his sword, Totsuka.
Big Brother Worship: Sasuke thinks his older brother, Itachi, "was just naturally perfect. At everything." Or so he did.
Boom, Headshot!: Tenten is killed when she picks up a glass orb at the Winter Ball that explodes, giving her fatal head and neck wounds.
Bowdlerization: Invoked by the author. The fic has some fairly explicit intimate scenes between Kore and Hades in the flashbacks to their past together (and later, also sex scenes with Sakura and Sasuke after they finally get together), but they are only present in the uncensored version of the story posted on Archive of Our Own because of FanFiction.Net's policy against sexual content.
Boy Meets Girl: More like "boy steals girl", given that it's based off the Rape of Persephone, but this does apply for Sakura's previous life as Kore, where she courted Sasuke's past self, Hades, of her own free will.
Break Her Heart to Save Her: Hades attempts to pull this off on the life-giving Kore, thinking that she will be shielded from Madara-as-Cronus if he severs all contact with her. Unfortunately for him and his ex, this leads to her being captured by Madara anyway—and as extra punishment she's turned into a walking dead zone that eventually kills her as well.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Sasuke and Sakura. Also applies to Naruto and Hinata, as in canon.
Bunker Woman: Sakura spends a good chunk of the story in the Underworld from Chapter 5 onward; she makes a few attempts to flee early on, including nearly allowing some sirens to drown her because they promised to return her to her mother. Then she knocks Sasuke unconscious with poison and makes her (mildly guilt-ridden) escape for real in Chapter 49.
Canon Foreigner: There are several Original Characters in minor roles. The most recurring ones are Sakura's assigned maids in the underworld palace, Ume and Chizu, and Sakura's fellow medical student, Kenji Saito, who has a crush on her. Cronus/Madara's late wife (and the first underworld queen), Rhea, is also an original Greek mythology-based character with no Naruto counterpart (kind of a necessity, since Madara didn't have a love interest in canon).
Cerberus: Cerberus reprises his mythological role here, though he's also a Big Friendly Dog that's plenty affectionate around his master Sasuke.
Cherry Blossom Girl: This version of Sakura could practically be the poster child for this trope! To wit:
- She retains most of her canon characteristics associated with cherry blossoms: pink hair, floral name, birthday in early spring, and status as both healer and love interest.
- Then she checks off the rest of the list with her connections to the cherry tree (her mother Demeter/Tsunade created her, fashioned her appearance, and named her after the blossoms), death (her lover and future husband is the Lord of Death himself), and fate (she is bound to Hades/Sasuke as the reincarnation of his first love). She also wears a lot more pink.
- And there's the requisite invocation of traditional Japanese culture which she manages to fulfill partially twice. While her absence of affinity for traditional Japanese culture keeps her from being a complete Yamato Nadeshiko, she nevertheless comes off as graceful, polite, and nurturing yet fierce most of the time, and also practices ninjutsu as per her canon.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Karin is very attached to Sasuke at the start and doesn't hide her envy of Sakura for having his attention, not that he approves of her interest in him. She goes so far as to rat out Sakura and Suigetsu's escape plan to Sasuke in Chapter 49 out of the hope of winning his favor, nearly ruining the entire thing.
Costume Porn: The author enjoys describing the characters' outfits, especially during Sakura's extended stay in the Underworld from chapters 5 to 49. Downplayed since the outfits themselves aren't that over the top, but are still primarily designed to make the wearer attractive. This even applies to the biker attire the characters wear while traveling on motorcycles in the Relic Arc later.
Crystal Prison:
- Zeus (aka Minato) and Hera (aka Kushina) sacrificed themselves together to defeat Cronus by sealing him away within Olympus, and their bodies were trapped in crystal by Cronus afterward.
- Thanatos (aka Itachi) and Hypnos (aka Shisui) were entombed in crystal within the waters of the Lethe river after their deaths. Chiyo was the one who buried them there, which Sasuke only finds out far later. In Chapter 103, he expresses his rage at her that she knew where they were and never corrected his belief that their bodies had been lost in battle.
Damsel in Distress:
- The plot kicks off with Sasuke kidnapping Sakura and taking her to the underworld, where she's kept as a prisoner in his palace for 44 chapters. Her family and friends try to find a way to rescue her, while she looks for a way to escape.
- In Chapter 67, Ino and Hinata are kidnapped (along with Neji) by Obito through portals that suck them in. They're imprisoned at Orochimaru's base, where Ino is tortured by Madara for information on Sakura and Hinata is forced to watch Neji's eyes be gouged out for his Byakugan. Sakura, Naruto, and their team are able to save Hinata, but are sadly too late to prevent Neji from dying, while Sasuke's team ends up rescuing Ino. In the same chapter, Karin also ends up being petrified by a harpy and captured for experimentation by Orochimaru, necessitating rescue from Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Jugo.
Damsel out of Distress: Sakura starts off as Sasuke's helpless and hapless captive, incapable of any form of self-defense and overwhelmed by fear and confusion. By Chapter 50, she has managed to successfully trick Sasuke into ingesting poison so she can steal the Kusanagi, Sasuke's legendary sword and the only key capable of unlocking the gates of the Underworld, and returned to the surface through her own efforts instead of being rescued.
Dances and Balls: Several are featured in the fic. There's Sakura and Sasuke's private ballroom dance in Chapter 29, the Winter Ball Sakura and her friends attend in Chapter 61, and the Uchihas' masquerade ball in the past, where Kore was forced to waltz with Hades after the Uchihas kidnapped her.
Dance of Romance:
- Sakura and Sasuke waltz together in his ballroom in Chapter 29, which causes them both to feel even more attracted to one another (although Sakura is more confused and flustered about her feelings than anything else).
- A twisted version occurs in Chapter 56, in the flashback to the Uchihas' masquerade ball. Cronus abducted Kore and made her attend the occasion, where he tormented her further by magically manipulating her body to force her into a waltz with Hades. The dance looks romantic, but in reality is anything but, and Kore declares to Hades that she'll hate him forever for stringing her along and casting her aside.
- At the Winter Ball in Chapter 61, Sakura dances with Kenji, which leads to him asking if he can take her out more often on dates to get to know her better (read: start dating for real). She accepts with the hope that she can move on from her conflicted feelings over Sasuke, but it turns out to be for nothing when the attack on the Winter Ball leads to Kenji having his memory of the event wiped by Sasuke's genjutsu on him and the other mortal guests that makes them forget what they saw. Sakura chooses not to tell him about it because she doesn't want to put him in further danger.
- In Chapter 117 (the last chapter before the fic was officially discontinued), Sakura and Sasuke dance together in the same ballroom from Chapter 56. (There are three other ballrooms in the underworld palace, including the one from Chapter 29, but Sakura chooses that room because of what transpired in it in the ancient past.) Sakura apologizes and affirms she takes back what she said to Sasuke before because she now knows he only broke up with her for her protection and he hadn't known Cronus had kidnapped her until he saw her at the masquerade ball. She tells him she wants to leave that part of their past behind by making new, better memories with him there. They dance again together, this time alone and of their own free will.
Dark Fic: The fic features mature themes throughout (stalking, suicidal ideations, attempted or considered sexual assault, somewhat graphic violence, etc.), and has explicit sex scenes in the uncensored version on AO3. There are lighthearted moments of friendship and affection throughout the story, but it is rated M for a reason.
Dark and Troubled Past: Quite a few members of the main cast have severe trauma.
- Despite her sheltered and comfortable upbringing in her current life, Sakura turns out to embody this trope hard thanks to all the horrors inflicted upon her past self as Kore. Let us count the ways:
  - Just when things were going smoothly between Kore and Hades, he broke up with her out of the blue and dismissed her feelings for him. As he had been her first love and sexual partner, this crushed her beyond belief.
  - Shortly after that, his family kidnapped her as collateral in their campaign against the Olympians and put on display as Hades' dance partner during their final masquerade ball, where she confessed her undying hatred and resentment of him before attempting her escape. To no avail, unfortunately: she ended up captured again and poisoned by Cronus' power, causing her powers over nature to bring decay, the latter of which inevitably killed her as she was violating her divine duty.
  - To rub extra salt in her wounds, Hades stumbled upon her in her final moments with her best friend Aphrodite, and was visibly horrified and stunned by but unable to reverse what his clan had done to her. Worse, she spent most of her final hours pummeling herself mentally for falling for someone who discarded her like a broken toy after finishing with her, an impression that her ex could do nothing to challenge even as he watched her die.
- Ino-as-Aphrodite. Poor girl has been spending the past two millennia growing up and regressing to childhood ad infinitum just so Kore's reincarnations won't have to be alone. And did we mention she held her best friend as the latter died in her first life? Or that her best friend's ex-boyfriend showed up during Kore’s death and was unable to do anything but watch? Additionally, most of her powers have been relinquished so she can protect Kore's mortal shells, making her one of the few Olympians unable to access even an iota of her divine energy and almost as mortal as Sakura herself.
- Sasuke used to be a sweet (if slightly awkward) boy. Then his brother killed their parents and his clan leader led the rest of the family into slaughter, for reasons unknown to and deliberately hidden from him until eons after the massacre.
  - On top of that he has to run an entire kingdom on his own, with no formal advisors shown or even mentioned at any point. It's even stated later on that if he ignores his subjects for any reason, their endless entreaties (which only he can hear) will eventually drive him mad—which nearly happened when he first ascended to the throne.
  - He also watched his ex-girlfriend die in her best friend's arms while being excoriated for his apathy by said best friend and being unable to stop his ex's agonizing death.
- In Naruto's past life as Apollo, he had sworn to protect Hinata-as-Selene after the rest of the Hyuuga clan, save Neji, was killed in battle against the Underworld-dwellers, and his subsequent failure to do so continues to haunt him to this day. He was also isolated from his best friend when Cronus altered Sasuke's memories. His parents sacrificed themselves to seal Cronus in Olympus as well, and their bodies were then preserved in crystal by Cronus.
- Sai-as-Hermes bears a seal on his tongue that physically blocks him from revealing the truth about Sakura's abduction until Sasuke releases it. Moreover, he has been targeted and at one point nearly killed by Sasuke for intuiting, perhaps instinctively and unintentionally, where Sakura had gone. He also once had a brother who offered himself up to be killed when pitted against Sai during their first and only battle, mirroring Sai's canon story arc.
- Some of the older gods count as well, particularly Tsunade-as-Demeter who not only lost her mortal lover to death in her youth, but has had to watch her only daughter endlessly die and be reborn for over two thousand years.
- Karin turns out to have this as well in far later chapters, once her backstory is revealed. She was ostracized by the other ocean nymphs because her tracking abilities extended to the land as well as the water, making her a freak in their eyes. Her desperation to be loved led her to sleep with mortals on the surface; when they discovered the healing properties of biting into her skin, they locked her in a cage, paraded her around villages as a "miracle cure" for diseases, and sold her from one owner to the next as if she were a slave. She eventually snapped and murdered her last owner, who kept her chained to the wall in a dark cell and fed her nothing but scraps. This led to her meeting Sasuke, whom she fell in love with instantly because he offered her a place to finally belong by hiring her as one of his Styx riverbank custodians.
Dead Fic: The fic was ultimately discontinued after Chapter 117 in 2024, on the eve of Sakura's rebirth as a goddess in the final arc, due to the author's heavy real life commitments and lack of free time to finish the story.
Death by Adaptation: Some characters who stayed alive in Naruto canon die in this fic (or, if they died in canon but came back to life later, stay dead for keeps), establishing how grim the brewing war between the gods and Titans is. Tenten, Chouji, Shino, Guy and Rock Lee, Iruka, Shizune, Gaara, and Killer B all end up kicking the bucket. Kakashi is a subversion; he seems to have fallen victim to this as well when he's reported dead, but he later turns out to be alive and trapped in Obito's Kamui.
Death of the Hypotenuse: Downplayed. Kenji is Sakura's mundane romantic option who gives her the chance for a safe, "normal" relationship in contrast to her significantly more turbulent and dramatic connection with Sasuke, but she eventually realizes she can't return Kenji's feelings and they can only be friends because she doesn't want to endanger him further after the attack at the Winter Ball. She doesn't get the chance to tell him this because Ares/Pain possesses him to kidnap her (along with Sasuke) in Chapter 79 and murders him once he's served his purpose.
Death and the Maiden: Tack "a love story" to the end of this trope, throw in some kidnapping and Reincarnation Romance spice, and you have the romantic arc of much of the first half of Quietus.
Defiant Captive: As Sasuke's captive in the underworld, Sakura does everything she can to defy him. She initially tries to go on a hunger strike (not knowing that eating pomegranate seeds will tie her permanently to the underworld) and refuses the food she's offered by wrecking Sasuke's dining table. Because of this, Sasuke temporarily brainwashes her with a genjutsu to get her to accept being fed by her assigned servants, Ume and Chizu. She also searches for a way to escape and agrees to Suigetsu's offer that he'll help her get out of the underworld if she steals Kusanagi for him.
Defrosting Ice King: The whole point of Sasuke's character arc is this. He initially abducts Sakura only because he knows he wants her light and pure soul, but can't understand why he does, and he treats her with coldness and disdain at the beginning of her stay in his palace. As the story goes on, he begins to sincerely fall in love with her and becomes protective of her.
Desperately Craves Affection: As the story progresses, this is revealed as one of Sasuke's reasons for stalking and abducting Sakura. Loving childhood or not, centuries of living alone in the Underworld, with only subjects and servants for company, has left him bereft of the unconditional love he misses.
Died Happily Ever After: In Chapter 90, almost a year after Tenten's untimely death at the Winter Ball, Sakura sees Tenten happily dwelling in the Elysian Fields and showing another deceased girl how to skip stones across a lake. She's emotional at the sight of her friend and glad that Sasuke ensured Tenten's safe passage into paradise, though it's also bittersweet since she can't interact with her (Sasuke stops her from going to see her, explaining she cannot disturb the rest of those who have passed on).
Died in Your Arms Tonight:
- Kore slowly died from Cronus's poisoning in the arms of her best friend Aphrodite, who was helpless to do anything but hold her in her final moments.
- Tenten fatally bleeds out from neck and head injuries in Neji's arms at the Winter Ball, much to the grief of their shared friends.
- In Chapter 105, Sasuke succumbs to his Curse Seal and ends up turning to stone in Sakura's arms, which kills him. He's only brought back to life when the resurrected Itachi frees him of the Curse Seal and he and Shisui place him on the underworld throne to heal him.
Distress Ball: In Chapter 67, Karin picks this up when she carelessly looks into a harpy's eyes while escaping from Orochimaru's base, which gets her petrified. She's imprisoned in Orochimaru's lab to be experimented on as a result, and Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Jugo have to rescue her because they need her skills as a tracker to find more of Orochimaru's laboratories.
Distressed Dude: Neji is kidnapped alongside Hinata by Obito in Chapter 67, and they're both held prisoner in Orochimaru's base. He makes a deal with Orochimaru to have only his eyes removed for the Byakugan in exchange for Hinata's being spared, but Orochimaru naturally reneges on the deal and plans to kill them both for their Byakugan anyway. Their friends arrive in time to rescue Hinata, but are tragically unable to save Neji, who dies from blood loss after the removal of his eyes.
Divine Conflict: The war between the gods is a central conflict in the fic, though it only starts to kick into gear in the aftermath of Sasuke's abduction of Sakura and after Sakura returns to the surface.
Dogged Nice Guy: Kenji, Sakura's fellow medic, is attracted to her from their first meeting and forms a friendship with her out of the hope that they'll later become something more. Sakura appreciates his kind nature, but their relationship doesn't go anywhere for a variety of reasons (he's a mortal whom she doesn't want to endanger by involving him in the god-related complications of her life, and she's also in love with Sasuke). He doesn't mind, though, and is fine with waiting for her and staying friends in the meantime... and that all turns out for naught when he's killed by Pain, having never found out what was really going on.
Doorstopper: As can be seen on FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own, this story spans over 1,000,000 words and 100+ chapters (plus a prologue) and counting. Some updates span around 15-20k words in later chapters. As this is a fanfic without a professional editing team, and began over a decade ago, the story and writing style have developed over time.
Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Zigzagged in Chapter 11. Sasuke doesn't kiss or rape Sakura after placing her in a trance, but he does touch her intimately and try to undress her while taking in the view and considering taking her by force. He thankfully stops himself from doing anything worse, but it's mainly because he expects her to eventually submit to him.

Tropes E-K

Easing into the Adventure: The fic takes a good five chapters (including the prologue) until it gets to Sasuke's kidnapping of Sakura to the underworld, initially showing Sakura's daily routine as a college student (while also focusing on Sasuke's plotting from the shadows to take her).
Eating the Eye Candy: Sakura and Sasuke both often engage in this with each other (internally noting how good-looking the other is, even when they aren't getting along), though neither will admit to it.
Endless Winter: A downplayed version, but Sakura's imprisonment in Sasuke's realm beginning in Chapter 5 precipitates the arrival of autumn on the surface. Scientists around the world are baffled by the abrupt drop in global temperatures as well as the accelerated decay of plant life, blaming it on climate change in absence of a better explanation. It's eventually revealed that the surface world has fallen into a famine because the divine essence of spring within Sakura is unable to maintain plant fertility while she is underground, which leads to Sasuke planning to let her go if only to maintain the life-death balance. In true ironic fashion, he only realizes he needs to release Sakura after she has already planned for her escape with Suigetsu.
Entitled to Have You: This is Sasuke's modus operandi for the first arc, where it seems like he only wants Sakura to sleep with him because he is a god and he says so. As the story progresses, however, he grows out of this mindset after more is revealed about the reasoning for his actions (he's been isolated underground for so long that he has virtually no social skills, on top of subconsciously recognizing Sakura as the reincarnation of his lost partner). He leaves this trope behind for good after he releases Sakura from being his prisoner at the end of the Underworld arc.
Everybody Hates Hades: Zigzagged. Sasuke is Hades and starts off as a clearly villainous figure, stalking and plotting to take Sakura for himself from the shadows for years and eventually kidnapping her. During Sakura's stay in the underworld, she initially finds him horrifying and wants nothing to do with him, and it's only at Suigetsu's suggestion that she starts to get closer to him as part of an escape plan. However, she starts developing genuine feelings for him, and Sasuke in turn falls in love with her, rather than just creepily lusting for her, to the point that when he finds out she will die from the essence of spring inside her if she stays underground, he voluntarily releases her after she has escaped. This is also played with for the rest of the Uchihas; they were a clan that resided in the underworld and resented the Olympians for being free to rule the surface world, and Madara/Cronus, their leader, planned to wipe out the other gods and take over Olympus. However, Itachi/Thanatos and Shisui/Hypnos secretly opposed Madara and worked with Minato/Zeus to stop him. And on top of all that, Sasuke was not evil at all in his original life as Hades; he was only unfriendly and brooding at worst and had a happy and loving relationship with Kore, Sakura's original incarnation.
Everybody Loves Zeus: Played straight with Minato-as-Zeus, whose philandering and moments of ruthlessness are completely absent, and he's a purely benevolent king and loyal husband. The most of it that's alluded to is that Kushina-as-Hera apparently disapproved of him spending time with Jiraiya-as-Dionysus.
Eye Scream:
- While trapped in one of Orochimaru's underground labs in Chapter 67, Neji ultimately sacrifices both of his eyes to save Hinata from losing hers to Orochimaru. He dies shortly after from severe blood loss.
- In Chapter 105, Obito gouges out Sasuke's left eye for his Rinnegan before the latter's body succumbs to his Curse Seal, and Madara tears out his own left eye in the next chapter to receive Sasuke's Rinnegan. Itachi transplants a crow's eye onto Sasuke to replace his missing one, and Sasuke awakens a second Rinnegan to make up for the one he lost.
Flashback Nightmare: In Chapter 76 Sakura finally dreams of her last moments as the mortally wounded Kore: She is freed from the Underworld—and by Hades of all people—and runs home, only to discover she is both poisoned and poisoning the earth around her. Cut off from her main source of energy and forced to go against her divine prerogative, she soon succumbs to her internal injuries and dies in agony, cradled by her best friend Aphrodite. Then Thanatos and Shisui show up to lock away her divine essence, memories and all, to hide her away from Madara.
Flower Motifs: Shows up more prominently in early chapters.
- Sakura dreams of standing in a field of carnations while holding a red one, representing intense romantic passion, in Chapter 2. Later in that chapter, Sai shows her an eerie replica of the carnation field from her dreams in his sketchbook.
- In Chapter 14, she mentions peach blossoms (meaning captivity) and cypress (death) in her letter to her mother as a subtle warning that she is currently being held hostage by the Lord of the Dead. The letter sadly never makes its way to Tsunade, thanks to Sasuke burning it.
- While in fruit form rather than floral, the pomegranate pops up on a regular basis as a symbol of both death and desire.
Food Porn: The food in the underworld palace is described as supernaturally delicious and more filling than ordinary surface food, due to being made from ingredients created to thrive underground without need for sunlight.
Force Feeding: In her despair and frustration over her abduction, Sakura attempts to go on a hunger strike when presented with a lavish meal in Chapter 11. (She even trashes the table to vent her anger.) Sasuke rewards her tenacity by temporarily brainwashing her with a genjutsu and ordering his servants to feed her until she's sated.
Forceful Kiss: Sasuke does this to Sakura in a few situations, much to her anger.
- In Chapter 33, he is unable to resist his desire for her and kisses her after she innocently eats the forbidden pomegranate, which binds her to the underworld and thus to him. She is understandably shocked and upset that he stole her first kiss, leading her to ask if giving her this kind of treatment was the reason he uprooted her life.
- It happens again in Chapter 39, in which he loses control during a sparring match with her and kisses her. This time, however, he earns a slap as well because she's furious that he keeps doing whatever he wants without her consent.
Forging Scene: In Chapter 18, Sakura walks in on Sasuke while he's hard at work in creating a training sword for her in the forge, and is stunned to see him shirtless during the process.
Fortune Teller: Sakura consults a fortune teller, Madame Mystic, at the second Spring Festival in Chapter 67. The fortune teller proceeds to tell Sakura she is marked by death and must die to be released from her cycle of mortal rebirth.
Fusion Fic: A mix of Naruto ninja lore, Greek mythology, and Abrahamic angels (seraphim in-text).
Gem-Encrusted: Sasuke's palace has many vast rooms decorated with gemstones, as befitting his domains as the god of both the underworld and of underground riches. In Chapter 26, he gifts Sakura an emerald and gold bracelet that he personally forged himself from the emerald he saw her eyeing in the jewel cavern he showed her in Chapter 24.
Glimmering up at her was the most stunning piece of jewellery she had ever seen. Rich, deep green glinted hypnotically in the candle and firelight surrounding her – and she was immediately struck with a jolt of recognition. The clarity of the emerald was unmistakeable. She had seen it before, when her eyes had lingered upon the impressive stone in the jewelled cavern. And evidently, Sasuke had noticed the attention she had paid to it, too – and chosen to set it into a solid gold bracelet, wrought with pretty golden leaves, studded with smaller cuts of emerald. The gold's rich colour suggested it was of the highest carat.
Gender Flip: The goddess Athena is a male deity named Athenos in this fic, due to being Shikamaru's divine identity. Justified, since Athena's association with wisdom and strategic warfare is analogous to Shikamaru's intelligent personality.
Gilded Cage: Sasuke's underworld palace serves as this for Sakura during her stay there. It's a vast, gorgeous place with jewels on almost every surface, but Sakura was taken to it against her will and obviously has no desire to remain a prisoner.
God in Human Form: The Olympians who survived the first Titanomachy currently live in disguise as normal humans. Sakura is a unique example, being the reincarnation of the goddess Persephone, or Kore, in the latest of many human forms. She eventually prepares to discard her mortal body entirely and be reborn as Persephone once and for all, though the fic was unfortunately discontinued before she actually underwent the rebirth.
Go Mad from the Isolation: Sasuke plays this trope straight in Chapter 64; his sorrow over his family’s massacre, among other things, overwhelms him and he engages in self-injury alone in the throne room. Later he is so enervated by his trauma that he lies catatonic on the floor, waiting for death to release him. Then Chiyo shows up and snaps him out of it.
Grand Staircase Entrance:
- In Chapter 29, Sasuke surprises Sakura during her exploration of the palace by showing up at the top of the stairs when she finds the ballroom.
- In Chapter 56, Kore is made to enter the Uchihas' masquerade ball against her will. She arrives by descending down a staircase into the ballroom, with Nyx (Mikoto) leading her.
Green Thumb: Kore can command plants to grow as she pleases on the surface, being a spring goddess in charge of plant fertility. In Chapter 60, she's trapped in the underworld, where the plants defy her command because she was already poisoned by Cronus at this point.
Guardian Angel: Some members of the cast, like Neji and Lee, are seraphs.
Hated by All: Just like in myth, Cronus aka Madara Uchiha has no fans among the other deities, especially not the Olympians he tries to oppress and destroy.
Hate Sink:
- Karin is initially depicted as nothing but a creepy, unlikable mean girl who's defined by her obsessive lust for Sasuke, her irrational hatred for Sakura (whom she sees as her rival for Sasuke's love), and her rudeness to most folks, Suigetsu in particular. However, she slowly grows out of this in later chapters, starting with her participation in Team Hebi. After she leaves Sasuke's service upon his dismissal of her in Chapter 88, she ditches this trope completely by finding honest work as a housekeeper, genuinely caring for the kind old woman who employs her, and gradually falling in love with Suigetsu.
- Unlike canon, Orochimaru firmly remains this trope and never shows any sign he can get better, being nothing but a loathsome, slimy schemer who performs horrific experiments and unleashes his monsters on mortal civilians at the Winter Ball, endangering their lives in addition to his actual targets.
Heel–Face Turn: Sasuke eventually reforms and becomes more selfless and heroic as he learns to care about Sakura as a person.
Heel Realization:
- In Chapter 46, Sasuke realizes how wrong it was of him to kidnap Sakura when he learns that Sakura, as the latest reincarnation of Kore, has the essence of spring inside her and will die if she is kept underground and away from the surface world. After he lets her go in Chapter 49, he gradually starts to better himself.
- In Chapter 112, Obito only grasps the reality of his crimes against the gods and innocent mortals when he's forced by Shisui's Sharingan to admit everything he's done during his reunion with Rin in the Elysian Fields. Seeing Rin's horror and hatred of him makes him realize for once that he has nobody to blame except himself.
Heroic Sacrifice:
- In Chapter 67, Neji sacrifices his own eyes for Orochimaru to gouge out for his Byakugan in exchange for Hinata being allowed to live, leading to his death from blood loss. Although Orochimaru goes back on the deal and plans to kill Hinata too, the heroes arrive to save her just before Neji uses his dying breaths to entrust Naruto with Hinata's care.
- In Chapter 105, Chiyo creates a sequence of forbidden seals to resurrect Itachi and Shisui in order to stop Obito and Pain from conquering the underworld and handing over Sasuke and Sakura to Madara, which takes her life in the process.
The High Queen:
- Nyx, aka Mikoto Uchiha, is described as having been this in life. Sasuke remembers her nurturing kindness and devotion to her family, as well as her elegance and grace in performing her duties as queen of the underworld. She was responsible for tending to the underworld palace's courtyard garden and creating stars as the embodiment of the night, and he maintains the garden in her memory.
- Hera (aka Kushina Uzumaki), the Queen of Olympus, is also shown to be this in flashbacks, being a loyal wife to Zeus (Minato) and loving mother to Apollo (Naruto). She heroically fought alongside her husband to defend Olympus from Cronus (Madara), to the point of sacrificing herself with Zeus to seal Cronus away.
- This is also clearly what Sakura is meant to become in the future when she inevitably marries Sasuke and becomes queen of the underworld. She eventually decides to go through with leaving her human form behind to be reborn as Persephone, which would make her fully in line with her Greek mythological counterpart.
History Repeats: The brewing Titanomachy in the second arc? Yeah, it's not the first time the gods have gone to war with each other.
Hopeless Suitor:
- Karin pines madly for Sasuke while working for him, and resents that he only has eyes for Sakura (fittingly, her Greek counterpart is Minthe, the nymph who tried to seduce Hades and was turned into a mint plant by Persephone for it). After Sasuke rejects her for the final time and releases her from her contract to him, freeing her to leave the underworld, she starts to get over him by taking an honest job as an old woman's housekeeper and later becoming closer to Suigetsu.
- The Original Character Kenji, Sakura's fellow medical student, is smitten with her from the first time they meet. Although Sakura does like him, her feelings for Sasuke are stronger, and he's completely unaware that he never stood much of a chance with her because of her eons-spanning romance with Sasuke.
How They Treat the Help: Despite Sasuke's unfriendly and cold demeanor, everyone in his palace staff respects and worships him as their king. When Sakura meets his chefs and other servants in Chapter 88, the chefs proudly explain to her how they make the food and the servants gush about how generous Sasuke is to them. She sees that the servants' quarters are all warm, comfortable, and not overcrowded (with each servant having their own bed), and are divided between several different wings with dining rooms, laundry rooms, and bathrooms—all indicating that they are well cared for.
Hypnotic Eyes: The Sharingan, of course—it offers the ability to entrance just about anyone with a single glance, among other less mundane abilities.*
I Am Not Pretty: Sakura doesn't see herself as beautiful, and dresses plainly without care for her appearance at the beginning (to the point that the only reason she dresses up at all is when Ino insists on it). The abundance of gorgeous dresses with matching jewelry and accessories she gets to wear in the underworld leads to her putting more care into her looks and starting to enjoy wearing fancy things, which disturbs her because it means she's getting too used to being Sasuke's prisoner.
I Hate Past Me: Much later on (after Sakura's return to the underworld in Chapter 86), Sasuke looks back on his kidnapping of Sakura and cruel, entitled treatment of her during her initial captivity with regret and harshly berates his past actions as those of a fool.
I Have Many Names:
- Downplayed, but many members of the Naruto cast are known by both their canon names and the most commonly used names of the Greek deities they're intended to personify.
- "Kore" is one of Persephone's many epithets, being the name used to signify her status as an innocent spring maiden. After Kore had sex with Hades for the first time, she requested for him to call her "Persephone" from then on because she was now no longer a maiden.
I Have Your Wife: In Chapter 104, Obito holds Sakura hostage by dangling her over the flames of Tartarus, infecting her with spores from the Black Zetsu, and threatening to have the Zetsu release its venom into her if Sasuke doesn't comply with his demand to remove the barrier on Tartarus and take him to where the Titans are sealed.
The Ingenue: Subverted. Kore seemed to be this, and her mother certainly treated her as such (not allowing her to attend the festivals that celebrated her worship and having her always surrounded by nymph maidens), but she was secretly rebellious and willing to sneak around behind Demeter's back to be with Hades.
The Insomniac: Sasuke rarely if ever sleeps, thanks to his memories of the Uchiha clan massacre (among other traumatic events) haunting him in his dreams every time he tries.
Interrupted Declaration of Love: In Chapter 88, Karin leaves her designated post at the Styx riverbank to approach Sasuke on his underworld patrol and ask him if she and Jugo have ever been anything more than servants to him (though it's obvious that she's really only asking about herself, not Jugo). She tells Sasuke how she's loyally served him for centuries after he gave her a home and purpose when she had nowhere to go, and that she would continue doing that if only he would return just a bit of what she feels for him. Sasuke cuts her off from actually admitting what she wants from him (read: his love), and coolly tells her that she may leave and she is free of her contract to him, which causes her to ditch the underworld to go to the surface.
Ironic Name:
- When written with the same kanji as those used for a certain famous ninja, Sasuke's given name can be roughly translated as "assistant", a surprisingly humble name for a divine king. (Both kanji^†佐助 if you want to know also mean "to help, to assist".) Too bad he's anything but helpful toward the Olympian gods, especially during the quest for Minato's seals beginning Chapter 71—though he's showing signs of being more cooperative and collaborative as of Chapter 76.
- Hinata Hyuuga's name means "facing the sun" or "place in the sun", and she's also the in-universe incarnation of Titanian moon goddess Selene. As a bonus, Hinata's forename and surname are alternate readings of the same kanji.^‡They're 日向 for those curious.
I Want My Mommy!: Not played for comedy, considering the situation. In Chapter 4, when the ground breaks under Sakura and she tries to get to safety before Sasuke kidnaps her, she sobs in fear for her mother. When she later tries to flee from Sasuke's palace and runs out to the Styx riverbank, she breaks down clutching her mother's necklace and crying for Tsunade.
The Jailbait Wait: Mainly applies to the prologue, but Sakura is no older than sixteen when the physically-twentysomething Sasuke begins stalking her every night. (It's even more apparent in the Appendices side stories that he was obsessed with her when she was still a young teenager.) Largely averted by the main text, though, as Sakura is already eighteen by the time Sasuke yanks her off the surface, and they don't have sex until well after she's turned twenty.
Ki Manipulation: Chakra shows up here in virtually the same form as the canon.
Kiss of Death: Sakura delivers paralyzing poison to Sasuke by kissing him, leaving him unable to stop her from stealing Kusanagi and making a break for the underworld gates to escape.
Kiss of Distraction: Sakura administers a poisoned version on Sasuke as part of her grand escape in Chapter 49.

Tropes L-R

Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- Sasuke remembers nothing of his past as Hades and his relationship with Kore, due to his memories having been manipulated by Madara/Cronus and sealed away by Itachi/Thanatos.
- At the Winter Ball in Chapter 62, Kenji and the other human guests all fall into a deep, magically induced sleep after the chaos of the beasts' attacks, which Sasuke casts on them with a genjutsu (in addition to a command that they will forget the night's events). When Kenji wakes up, he has only a hazy memory of that night and doesn't remember anything that happened at the ball, where Sakura accepted his offer to start officially dating. Sakura decides not to tell him about it, wanting to protect him from the dangers of her life as a reincarnated goddess.
Left Hanging: Due to the fic being discontinued, the story stops at Chapter 117 on the cliffhanger of Tsunade (Demeter) and Jiraiya (Dionysus) finding Kisame (the Titan Oceanus) at the sacred spring Sakura was to be reborn as Persephone in, which Kisame is about to destroy.
Locked Out of the Loop:
- Sakura grew up believing she was a normal human girl, and thought her "asthma attacks" were just that, not knowing that they are actually the reactions of spring's essence inside her because she is the reincarnation of Kore/Persephone. At the start of the fic, she is the only living Olympian who has no idea of her true nature, and her friends and family have kept this and their divine selves a secret from her for years. Sasuke is the one who tells her the truth before she escapes the underworld and reunites with her loved ones, after which they stop keeping her in the dark about the gods.
- Some of Sakura's friends at the Academy (Tenten, Chouji, Kiba, and Shino) are ordinary humans with no knowledge of or connection to the Olympians, which means they're completely unaware that their other friends (Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, Sai, and Rock Lee) are gods and seraphs in disguise. In Chapter 61, they're very confused when Ino and Shikamaru start talking about evacuating the "humans" (the mortal guests who aren't gods like them) and tapping into divine "seals".
Longing Look: Sasuke is deeply infatuated with Sakura and he is often, and unwittingly, giving her passive yet intense stares of desire right to her face which leaves her nervous and embarrassed. She later points this out in Chapter 46 during an argument about his selfish habit of pushing his feelings onto her.
Sakura: I was- you confuse me! Sometimes I feel like I can't even think when you…
[Sasuke stares at her]:...
Sakura [gestures frantically at him]: When you look at me like that!
[Sasuke scowled, and bristled defensively] What was she talking about? He wasn't looking at her like anything.
Long Runner: First published in 2011 (2014 on Archive of Our Own), the story ran for almost thirteen years with semi-regular updates. The fic's total chapter count on AO3 was set to 127 chapters, but the story got up to 117 before the author announced its discontinuation on her Tumblr in 2024.
The Lost Lenore:
- Kore is this for Hades/Sasuke after her death, though he does not actually remember her because of his memories having been manipulated. His unconscious longing for her, however, is why he sets his sights on Sakura and kidnaps her because she is Kore reborn in a mortal body.
- Just like in canon, Rin is this for Obito/Moros. In this setting, he follows Madara/Cronus and serves him as a pawn and a host for the tailed beasts because he thinks becoming his puppet king of the underworld will let him find Rin's soul. To ensure his compliance with the plan to use him to infiltrate Olympus, Itachi/Thanatos and Shisui/Hypnos arrange for his reunion with Rin in the Elysian Fields under their conditions (Shisui uses his Sharingan to force Obito to confess all his crimes to Rin and be nothing but honest, or else she will fade away from him, and Itachi gives her water of Mnemosyne to ensure she remembers him). Unsurprisingly, Rin is horrified and disgusted when she learns of the atrocities Obito committed against the gods in her name.
Love Redeems: This is the fulcrum of Sakura's and Sasuke's relationship arc, though it takes a lot of time to get there. Thanks to Sakura's influence, Sasuke goes from allowing mortals to die out of spite to personally slaying a pack of mythological beasts attempting to massacre Sakura and her fellow mortals, the latter of whom he additionally protects by wiping their memories of the attack.
Lust Object: Sasuke's attraction to Sakura (due to their romantic past together when she was Kore) initially manifests as a rather creepy sense of lust and a desire to claim her for himself because of it. It's subverted when Sasuke gradually falls in love with her and starts caring about her as a person, to the point that he planned to let her go free from the underworld when he realized she would die from her spring attacks if she stayed underground. Sasuke himself is also this for Karin, who fantasizes about bedding him.
Magical Romani: Madame Mystic, the fortune teller Sakura talks to at the Spring Festival in Chapter 67, had obvious hints of this in the original version of the chapter, being described to have an "exotic accent" and a foreign appearance. After feedback from readers about the character's ethnic stereotypes, the author rewrote the chapter to remove this description.
Male Sun, Female Moon: Naruto is the energetic sun god Apollo, while Hinata is the calm moon goddess Selene. Naturally, they're love interests.
Masquerade: The gods and seraphs all live in human disguises, and humanity has no idea that the Olympians are anything more than ancient myths. Because of this, Sakura grew up under the belief that she was a normal girl like any other, not knowing that her mother and most of her friends are gods and that she herself is a goddess in a mortal form.
Masquerade Ball: Chapter 56 features the Uchihas' masquerade ball in the ancient past, which Kore was forced to attend after Cronus (aka Madara) kidnapped her as leverage against the Olympians, and where she was made to watch Cronus's speech to his clan about how they would destroy Zeus and his pantheon and take over the surface world. Cronus also forced her to dance with Hades, who had recently dumped her (out of the mistaken belief this would protect her from his family), just to twist the knife further.
A Match Made in Stockholm: Well, it is based off the Rape of Persephone. Zigzagged up the wazoo though: Sakura initially despises and fears Sasuke for abducting her but grows to empathize with and even desire him, only to exploit their mutual affection to secure her escape after which she continues to pine for him. This is further nuanced by Sakura being Kore, Hades' former lover, reincarnated.
Meaningful Name:
- Applies to Sakura, natch. When read last name first, her full name Haruno Sakura means "spring field of cherry blossoms" in Japanese.^noteAt least it does when written 春野サクラ Haruno Sakura as in the canon, where 春野 Haruno means "spring field". Coincidentally, her name can also be interpreted as 春の桜 haru no sakura, or "cherry blossoms of spring". Considering her role here as an endlessly dying and reincarnating spring goddess, the name suits her to a tee.
  - The divine names Kore and Persephone count as well. Kore means "girl, maiden" among other things in Greek, and folk etymology, while in no way completely reliable or accurate, glosses Persephone as "bringer of death". The latter name is especially ironic considering that Sakura's past self as Kore had spent her final moments brainwashed by Cronus into withering plant life. Not surprisingly, the poor goddess couldn't withstand the pain of shirking her divine duty against her will and died soon afterward.
- Hinata's name also falls under this trope: Her name can be translated as "facing the sun" and she just so happens to be in love with resident sun god Apollo, aka Naruto.
The Mole: Upon learning that Sakura wants out of the Underworld, sea god and fellow prisoner Suigetsu suggests that she pretend to reciprocate Sasuke's interest in her so that she might borrow the Kusanagi and open the gates, which she had failed to open on her own. Sakura reluctantly agrees out of her desire for freedom and eventually learns (and learns to care) more about Sasuke and his realm than she ever anticipated.
Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: Sakura's two suitors are Sasuke, the enigmatic and brooding god of the dead who kidnaps her to his palace, gradually warms up to her over time, and is later revealed to share a past life with her, and Kenji, a nice and normal medical student who takes her on a few casual dates and is completely unaware of anything to do with the Olympians. Although Sakura tries to give Kenji a chance, she doesn't want to put him in danger because of the reality of her life (and on top of that, she's also already in love with Sasuke), and knows she and Kenji can only be friends despite his feelings for her. The whole issue is eventually rendered moot when Kenji is brutally killed by Ares (aka Pain) in Chapter 79, much to Sakura's grief and guilt.
My Beloved Smother: Tsunade as Demeter is this to Sakura, to the point where the latter feels as though she is constantly being chaperoned even by her own friends. She eventually loosens up, though.
My God, What Have I Done?: In Chapter 46, Sasuke experiences a massive one when Sakura almost dies as a result of her body trying to activate Spring while in the underworld. He realizes that he was the cause of her severe "spring" attacks and almost killed her by keeping her underground instead of on the surface, where her abilities are meant to naturally flourish in spring. It's made even worse by the fact that he has already bound her to the underworld by tricking her into eating six pomegranate seeds.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Sasuke's abduction of Sakura has the accidental side effect of reigniting the war between the gods. There's also the fact that Sakura's status as the reincarnation of a dead spring goddess means that her disappearance from the surface casts the mortal world into an indefinite famine.
No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Just like in canon, Karin wants desperately to get into Sasuke's pants. Sasuke, however, only has eyes for Sakura, who is initially off-limits by virtue of living on the surface world (before he acts on his interest by abducting her).
No Sense of Personal Space: Sasuke is only this way with Sakura. He can't stand being touched by others after the death of his family.
No Social Skills: Sasuke is terrible at socializing and forming social bonds in general, due to having been surrounded by shades and servants for centuries.
No Sympathy: Chiyo's response to Sasuke nearly succumbing to grief and severe depression in Chapter 64 shows signs of this. In Chapter 69, she averts this completely and shows a softer side in her final meeting with Shisui and Itachi, the latter of whom pleads for her to protect Sasuke from their family enemies (but especially Madara/Cronus) in his stead.
Obliviously Beautiful: In the beginning, Sakura sees herself as an average girl and has no idea that others find her attractive (nor does she know at that point about Sasuke's existence and obsessive desire for her). When Ino gets her to dress up in more feminine clothes by wearing a cardigan and skirt with accessories, she's surprised when her looks turn heads.
Ordinary College Student: Sakura begins the story as a seemingly normal college freshman, not knowing who she really is or that her family and friends are mostly comprised of Olympian gods in human forms (with only a few exceptions).
Passed in Their Sleep: In Chapter 91, Sakura gets dangerously close to this after she falls unconscious from a spring attack. She meets her original self, Kore, who refuses to listen to Sakura's insistence that Hades/Sasuke didn't betray them and tries to trap her in their shared mind to prevent her from ever waking up again. Shisui's spirit shows up in time to stop Kore, and explains to Sakura that he added some extra chakra to the seal he and Itachi wove on her memories as a safeguard against things like this.
People Puppets:
- In Chapter 56, Cronus forces Kore to waltz with Hades at the masquerade ball against her will by using the bracelets he put on her ankles to manipulate her limbs.
- Ares/Pain also has the ability to possess people and manipulate them to his whims. He hijacks Kenji's body in Chapter 79 to kidnap Sakura and Sasuke, then disposes of Kenji afterward once he's served his purpose. In Chapter 104, he possesses Sakura into stabbing Sasuke in the gut with a dagger during his and Obito's attempted coup on the underworld; in Chapter 105, he possesses Sasuke's ferryman Nagato to threaten Chiyo with Sakura's death if she doesn't remove the barrier around the underworld throne. Those he possesses don't remember anything of what they do under his control, as Sakura attests to in Chapter 110.
Pimped-Out Dress:
- Sakura wears tons of these (most of which are described in lavish detail), due to receiving an entire wardrobe full of them in her bedroom at Sasuke's underworld palace. One of her maids tells her that wood nymphs wove them from the finest silks just for her. Special mention goes to the dress featured in Chapter 29, which goes with a golden flower hairpin with pearl strings and matching gold-and-pearl earrings:
  The silk-chiffon dress was pale pink, embroidered with hundreds of tiny, glittering gold sequins along the gold-trimmed sweetheart neckline. Thousands more sequins adorned the stunning, feminine corset. The dress's short, off the shoulder butterfly sleeves were floaty and semi-transparent, and its softly flowing skirt was full and trailing, consisting of a rippling, glimmering, sequin-dotted outer layer, which parted down the middle to reveal a dusky, slightly darker hued pink skirt underneath. An exquisite, slender chain of gold rested around the flattering waistline, wound three times to accentuate her natural curves.
- Ino and Hinata also wear a few, both in their past respective identities as Aphrodite and Selene and in the present. At the Winter Ball in Chapter 61, Ino wears a spectacular off-the-shoulder, backless baby blue sequined mermaid gown with a floor-length train, while Hinata has a pale lavender ball gown with a pearl-encrusted illusion neckline, pearl belt, and a full ombré skirt with layers of pearl-sewn tulle.
Pink Means Feminine: Several of Sakura's dresses, most prominently the gown she wears for her ballroom dance with Sasuke in Chapter 29, are pink to match her hair and emphasize her femininity as the goddess of spring.
Plot Coupon: The surviving Olympians later have to find four relics from Olympus, which Minato/Zeus scattered across Konoha and neighboring countries, and piece them together to receive their full instructions on how to unseal their powers.
Punch-Clock Villain: Nyx (aka Mikoto) claims as much to Kore in Chapter 56 while braiding her hair to prepare her for the Uchihas' masquerade ball. She is kind to Kore and sympathetic to her fear and unwillingness to attend, telling her that she's sorry for the younger goddess's distress, but she and her clan must do as Cronus bids because he is their king. Because of this, she implores Kore not to resent her youngest son, Hades, for having broken her heart.
Puppet King: Cronus/Madara's scheme for world domination includes disposing of Sasuke and installing Obito as the puppet king of the underworld, due to Obito already having long been turned into his pawn. Obito only agrees to the plan out of the hope that having control over the underworld will allow him to reunite with his deceased beloved, Rin. He and Ares/Pain attack Sasuke and Sakura and try to take over the underworld, and the Titans are unleashed when the gourd form of Itachi's sword Totsuka breaks. Chiyo sacrifices herself in Chapter 105 to stop Obito from getting the throne by weaving a seal that takes her life in exchange for resurrecting Itachi/Thanatos and Shisui/Hypnos, the Uchihas who originally sealed Totsuka shut. Itachi and Shisui thus restore order, with Itachi trapping Orochimaru within Totsuka and both of them locking Obito in the palace dungeons with his chakra sealed off.
Rape as Drama: Sakura and a random nymph are nearly raped by satyrs in Chapter 34. Luckily, they escape intact thanks to Sakura's self-defense skills. Unfortunately, the nymph's friend is not so lucky and is last seen traumatized and weeping.
Really 700 Years Old: Pretty much all of the gods and seraphs. Double subverted with Kore, who has been dying and being reborn in a mortal shell for a couple thousand years. Sakura is her final life and apparently the one most closely resembling Kore in personality and appearance.
Recursive Fanfiction: In addition to the main story, there are also The Appendices, a companion piece with multiple bonus vignettes and outtakes, and Angelus Mortis, a spin-off that the author co-wrote with a fan, which is an alternate timeline of events in the same setting. There's also an entire DeviantArt community based around the fic (that can be found here), and one fan on Tumblr even created an indie game, inspired by the fic, about Kore escaping Hades' underworld.
Reincarnation Romance: Sasuke and Sakura originally fell in love in their past identities as Hades and Kore, only to develop this by virtue of Kore dying and being reborn over eons. Overlaps with Resurrected Romance.
Related in the Adaptation:
- In canon, Tsunade and Sakura were mentor and mentee. In this fic, they are mother and daughter as the equivalents to Demeter and Persephone, and Sakura's canon parents (who were minor characters) are Adapted Out.
- Hades (Sasuke) is the son of the Titans Erebus (Fugaku) and Nyx (Mikoto), and the brother of the death personification Thanatos (Itachi), rather than the son of Cronus and Rhea and brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. He's still related to Cronus, who is Madara, but only distantly by virtue of being from the same clan.
Rescued from the Underworld: Sakura's friends and family spend much of the fic trying to find and save her from the underworld after she was kidnapped by Sasuke, to no avail. Eventually, Sakura manages to abscond to the underworld's entrance on her own with Suigetsu's help, but after Suigetsu reveals he was planning to imprison her again for leverage, Sasuke shows up and rescues her. Sasuke then releases Sakura after flinging her into an illusory version of Tartarus, and she wakes up on the surface shortly afterward.
Resurrected Romance: Sasuke and Sakura were once lovers as Hades and Persephone until Persephone's death and eventual rebirth into Sakura. This overlaps with Reincarnation Romance, thanks to Sakura more closely resembling her original self as Kore than any of her past rebirths.
Riddling Sphinx: Chapter 75 features two enormous sphinxes that guard the relic hidden in the tunnel that Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi have to go through. They speak in rhyme and give the team four riddles to solve, each with a time limit of one minute and two chances for the right answer, with the threat of killing Sakura (the only mortal in the group) if they get any wrong. Naruto fails every effort to solve the riddles because of his impulsive and not well-thought out answers, but his teammates answer the riddles correctly.
Romanticized Abuse: Zigzagged. Sakura and Sasuke's romantic arc is started by him kidnapping her and forcing her to stay in the Underworld against her will, all because he lusts after her for reasons he himself doesn't understand. However, Sakura does not begin to care about Sasuke or see him as anything but her evil captor until he starts showing kindness to her by giving her combat training, tours of his realm, and gifts in the form of jewelry and her own horse to ride. Things are further complicated by the fact that they are drawn to each other because of their relationship in their original identities as Hades and Persephone, which was a normal, idyllic romance until outside interference from Hades' family ruined it.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: Sakura, even more so than in canon. While she's still a little boisterous around her friends (particularly Naruto and Ino), her sheltered and peaceful upbringing under a doting mother has amplified the softer and sweeter aspects of her personality.

Tropes S-Z

Sacrificial Lamb:
- Tenten, portrayed in text as one of Sakura's best friends as well as a cheerful and kind person besides, becomes one in Chapter 62 when she sustains critical neck and head injuries leading to her death by blood loss during the attack on the Winter Ball.
- Kenji, the friendly Nice Guy who liked Sakura and wanted to be her boyfriend, is horrifically murdered after Ares/Pain possesses him and uses him to kidnap Sakura and Sasuke in Chapter 79.
Said Bookism: The author tends to use action verbs as speech tags, especially in the chapters published before 2015. This becomes less common in the later chapters, though.
Scenery Porn: Prominent in Sakura's time in the Underworld (spanning around chapters 5 to 49). Later chapters particularly those revolving around Minato's lost seals still contain some detailed depictions of the characters' surroundings, but not to the same effusive extent as in the Underworld arc.
Sealed Evil in a Can:
- Madara/Cronus was sealed into Olympus when he tried to conquer it long before the fic's events, with Minato/Zeus and Kushina/Hera being the ones to sacrifice themselves to keep him imprisoned. The Olympians' war is restarted when he breaks out and starts to wreak havoc again.
- In Chapter 106, the newly resurrected Itachi immediately uses Totsuka to rip Orochimaru's soul out of Sasuke's Curse Seal-overtaken body and seal him away into the blade. Later, as part of Itachi and Shisui's plan to use Obito as a decoy to distract Madara while they retrieve Minato and Kushina's crystal-entombed bodies and the Helm of Darkness from Olympus, Itachi transfers Orochimaru's soul from Totsuka and into a shadow clone of Sasuke to fool Madara into thinking the underworld coup succeeded. What prevents Orochimaru from waking up and gaining control is an illusion that keeps his consciousness trapped.
Semi-Divine: The Olympians may count in their mortal forms, what with their full powers being sealed away. Sakura herself plays with this trope—her human body is fully mortal, as is the majority of her soul, but she contains the essence of the dead goddess Kore and has been reincarnating ad infinitum over the past two thousand years.
Ship Tease:
- Ino and Shikamaru are initially implied to be interested in each other, then abruptly switch over to other targets (Sai and Temari, respectively) from Chapter 66 onward, presumably to comply with their canon relationships.
- Karin and Suigetsu get some of this in much later chapters when they work together, with Karin being flustered and in denial about her growing crush on him because she doesn't like the way he makes her feel (they once slept together in the past, but she initially has no interest in rekindling their attraction). It's all but directly spelled out that she'll move on from her unrequited feelings for Sasuke and fall in love with Suigetsu.
Shrinking Violet: Hinata is shy and soft-spoken, as per her canon characterization. She becomes openly braver as the story goes on out of her desire to help her friends and her love interest, Naruto.
Silk Hiding Steel: Sakura eventually morphs into this; she never quite loses her polite and nurturing demeanor, but she learns to stand up for herself, occasionally in underhanded ways, and to channel her anger in the face of despair.
Single-Target Sexuality: Sasuke has only ever had eyes for Sakura, both in her past life as Kore and in the present, though Sakura herself somewhat avoids this with her casual dating of resident nice guy (and original character) Kenji. Karin also initially seems to have this for Sasuke because of her initial obsessive crush on him at the start, but later starts moving on from him via Suigetsu.
Skewed Priorities: Ino has a screaming match with her personal hairdresser in Chapter 4 after her car crashes into a ditch, and even Hinata gets roped into it. They are both so distracted by the ensuing brabble that they look away just in time to avoid seeing Sakura wandering alone into the nearby forest. Needless to say, this is what leads to Sakura's abduction by Sasuke and kicks off the plot.
Smug Snake: Orochimaru aka Deimos, god of dread and terror, natch. He's essentially the same villain he was in Part 1 and early Part 2 of his canon series.
Sssssnaketalk: Orochimaru speaks this way for the most part, albeit he doesn't drag out his S's to outrageous lengths. Still justified in that he's a Snake Person here as in canon.
Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Describes Sasuke to a tee. Doesn't help that he's also been living essentially alone for eons either.
Spared by the Adaptation: Played with. Itachi and Shisui are both initially long dead before the start of the fic. However, they are eventually restored to life by Chiyo's last resort sacrifice in Chapter 105, and are major players in the present from Chapter 107 and onwards.
Stalker with a Crush: Sasuke is fixated enough on Sakura to haunt her from the shadows for two years, to say nothing of nabbing her off the surface to keep all to himself, but the depths of his obsession are even more thoroughly reinforced by these three chapters of the Appendices. Further keeping tabs on her when she returns to the surface is done to as minimalistic a degree as possible, as he is remorseful for his former actions.
Stalking Is Love: Sakura downplays this trope in her view of Sasuke; she starts off less than flattered by his tracking her every movement, but in time, her growing affection for Sasuke as she gets to know him begins to edge out her dread of him. This is largely the result of her seeing Sasuke's character development and learning that his memories (hence, also his personality) were manipulated by someone in the past.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Kore and Hades, Sakura and Sasuke's past identities, were deeply in love and pursued a secret relationship before eventually being torn apart by the schemes of Hades' family against Olympus.
Stern Teacher: Sasuke becomes this to Sakura once the swordplay lessons begin, right down to the steady stream of sarcastic takes on her mistakes.
Switching P.O.V.: The fic features multiple perspectives from many different characters. The main ones are Sakura and Sasuke's by virtue of being the leads, but most of the supporting characters get at least one part each from their perspective.
Sympathetic P.O.V.: Played with in several cases.
- Sasuke's perspective establishes his desire for Sakura from afar that leads to him whisking her away to his underworld palace, starting with the prologue (where he notices her at a funeral and sees her soul is inexplicably brighter and purer than the other humans'). His lust for her is obviously portrayed as creepy, to the point that he occasionally considers forcing himself on her (which he only refrains from doing because he expects her to give in later, not because of morals). As his tragic backstory is gradually revealed, his perspective also delves into his loneliness and misery from ruling the underworld by himself for centuries. This, combined with him uneasily bonding with Sakura by training her in combat and showing her more of his realm, leads to him slowly reforming and falling for Sakura for real. He eventually solidifies his change for the better when he lets her go free and unharmed, even after she poisoned him to escape the underworld. From then on, he betters himself by taking heroic actions to defend mortals and later enters a loving, consensual relationship with Sakura after she returns to the underworld.
- The parts from Karin's point of view initially avert this during the Underworld arc, showing just how fanatically and hopelessly obsessed with Sasuke she is and her spiteful hatred toward Sakura just for having his attention. Her desire for Sasuke is portrayed as shallow, with her only fantasizing about his brooding good looks and imagined sexual prowess instead of anything about him as an actual person. But much later on from Chapter 88 and onwards, starting with Sasuke's formal dismissal of her from his service and her departure from the underworld, she becomes more sympathetic as her backstory is explored; she remembers she was an outcast among her fellow ocean nymphs because of her unusual tracking ability on land, treated like a living "miracle cure" by her mortal lovers when they discovered the healing ability of biting her skin and sold as property because of it, and eventually forced to kill an abusive owner to escape, which led to her going with Sasuke to the underworld to work for him because she couldn't fit in anywhere else. This also coincides with her starting to get over Sasuke and move on from her unrequited feelings for him.
- Firmly averted with Madara/Cronus, whose perspective (which is only shown in a few chapters) only serves to further establish what a power-hungry monster he is. Even his reminiscing about the few loved ones he had, such as his late queen Rhea, is more about how useful they were to him than about how he cared for them.
Taken for Granite:
- In Chapter 67, Karin is turned to stone when she makes eye contact with a harpy during the escape from Orochimaru's base. She's kidnapped while petrified and imprisoned in Orochimaru's lab until Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Jugo free her.
- In Chapter 105, Sasuke is gradually petrified as his body is fatally weakened by the Curse Seal Orochimaru put on him. He turns to stone in Sakura's arms while she's trying to haul him to his throne to heal him and restore his chakra, leaving her devastated and grieving just as Obito and Pain are about to usurp the throne. Thankfully, Chiyo's sacrifice in the same chapter brings back Itachi and Shisui, who undo this and save Sasuke.
Taking Over Heaven: Madara attempted this on Olympus once, but was ultimately defeated and imprisoned in his new domain by Minato and Kushina's sacrifice.
Tall, Dark, and Snarky: On top of possessing divine good looks, Sasuke is also prone to offering acerbic observations of others’ incompetence or letting his visible silence speak for him. He is as he was in canon.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: This is on display when Sasuke later has to work with Naruto and Kakashi, in addition to Sakura, to retrieve the relics as part of his sentence for kidnapping Sakura.
Title Drop: Present in Chapter 67 when Sakura is consulting with a fortune teller at the Spring Festival.
The Madame's eyes locked right onto Sakura, as if looking through her. "You must die," she murmured, breathing heavily. "Quietus. It is the only way to achieve release..."
Together in Death: Subverted. Sasuke is an immortal and full-blooded god by way of being Hades, while Sakura is the reincarnation of a goddess who died in her first life and was constantly reborn in numerous subsequent lives.
Tongue-Tied: Sai has a seal on his tongue that Sasuke put on him that ensures he will die if he ever speaks about Sasuke's abduction of Sakura, and suffers through having this until Sasuke eventually removes it. Ino also has a tongue seal that stops her from talking about Sakura's true nature as a goddess. When Madara interrogates her and uses a genjutsu with his Sharingan to force her to tell him about Sakura, she faints when the seal's safety mechanism makes her pass out to ensure she can't say anything.
Tracking Spell: After kidnapping Sakura, Sasuke puts magically created golden shackles on her ankles to serve as this so she can't go anywhere in his realm without his knowledge. They also come in handy when he has to rescue her during the times she finds herself in danger from the Underworld's denizens. In Chapter 33, however, he removes them to prove his point that she is not merely a prisoner.
Trauma Conga Line: Both Kore and Hades underwent much pain and sorrow in their past together, which carries over to Sakura and Sasuke in the present. Kore was led to believe that Hades never loved her during their time together, then was kidnapped and fatally poisoned by Cronus, which led to her being reborn and dying over and over in a cycle of new lives. Hades was forced to callously dump Kore out of the hope it would keep her out of Cronus's crosshairs, only to be mistaken when Cronus abducted her for leverage against the Olympians anyway and poisoned her, leading to her death (which Hades witnessed). And after that, Hades' family was massacred and his memories tampered with so that he no longer even remembered Kore.
Trickster Mentor: Chiyo is a downplayed version, since she doesn't exactly serve as anyone's teacher. That said, she pops up every so often to offer information that moves the plot along.
Truly Single Parent: Unlike the Greek myths, Demeter created Kore on her own to be her child. As a result, Tsunade is Sakura's only parental figure.
Universally Beloved Leader: Cronus's fellow chthonic gods happily pledge their fealty to him as their patriarch due to his charisma, ambition, and steadfast loyalty to the clan. ...Or at least, most of them did when they were still alive, having known nothing about Cronus' true nature. It turns out Thanatos and Hypnos (Itachi and Shisui, respectively) had allied themselves in secret with Zeus (aka Minato) in a vain attempt to halt the impending Titanomachy, thereby subverting this trope. Hades (aka Sasuke) had also grown to distrust Cronus after witnessing the latter's indifferent, even disappointed, response to his parents' murder.
Unrelated in the Adaptation: In the original mythology, Persephone was Demeter's daughter with Zeus, but in this fic, Demeter (aka Tsunade) is established to be a Truly Single Parent who created Kore/Persephone (aka Sakura) on her own. Zeus (aka Minato) is only the father of Apollo (aka Naruto), as in line with canon. Hades (Sasuke) and Poseidon (Suigetsu) are also not brothers to each other or to Zeus, Aphrodite (Ino) and Athenos (Shikamaru) are not related like the sisters Aphrodite and Athena, and Cronus (Madara) is not the father of the first-generation Olympians.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: Sasuke and Sakura develop this during the Underworld arc from Chapters 5 to 49, being attracted to each other but being unable to properly act on it. It finally becomes resolved when they enter a relationship for real after her return to the underworld in Chapter 86.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Similarly to canon, Sasuke was once a kind and awkward young boy who wanted nothing more than to be just like his older brother, Itachi, before his family was killed.
Villain Protagonist: Sasuke starts off as this, being the gloomy and scheming god of the dead who kidnaps Sakura because of his creepily obsessive lust for her unusually pure soul. He gradually grows out of this behavior and becomes more heroic as he genuinely falls in love with Sakura and reckons with his troubled past.
Walking Wasteland: Sakura's past self as Kore was tasked with protecting and nurturing plant life as the embodiment of spring. Then it is revealed in Chapter 64 that Madara poisoned and brainwashed her into inducing vitiation in vegetation as an opening shot against the Olympians, whom he sought to overthrow. Having no choice but to violate her divine operative, she perished not long after.
Warrior Prince: Naruto is naturally this, being a powerful sun god and the heir to Olympus as the son of the rulers Minato and Kushina (the setting's equivalents to Zeus and Hera). Sasuke also technically used to be this as Hades when his parents were still alive, having always been a fierce combatant and a royal, though it was Madara (Cronus) who was actually king.
Was It All a Lie?: In Chapter 70, Sakura attempts to confront Sasuke in his cell for holding his tongue during his and Suigetsu's trial before the High Council. He responds by accusing her of leading him on during her stay in the Underworld.
"You would know," he finally intoned coldly, his voice low enough to ensure only she heard him. "About telling lies."
Sakura flinched despite herself – before bristling indignantly. [...] He thought her a liar. He doubtlessly believed now that she'd just gone along with Suigetsu's plan, and had faked everything – even her genuine interest in his world.
[...]
Sasuke's intense gaze held hers for a few seconds longer – before slipping dismissively back to the floor. As the ANBU reached the door, Sakura swallowed, and shook her head in frustration. Then she turned away.
We Used to Be Friends: Similarly to canon, Sasuke and Naruto were once best friends in their past identities as Hades and Apollo before the machinations of Hades' family destroyed their friendship.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Strongly implied with young Sasuke—at one point in his childhood he breaks a sword during training and has a minor meltdown over potentially disappointing his father Fugaku. Itachi offers to take the blame off him and hide the truth from their dad.
What the Hell, Hero?: In Chapter 75, Kakashi sharply calls out Sasuke and Naruto for bickering so much during their missions to find the relics and nearly getting them all killed in a sneak attack from the amphisbaena (right at the worst time, too, because Sakura had one of her asthma attacks from spring trying to activate in her body again).
You Can't Fight Fate: Although Chiyo knows and sees everything, she can't divulge all of her information to those who need it because it would meddle with their decision-making (and thus, their destinies). She says as much to Sasuke in Chapter 69:
"I am the Goddess of the Crossroads. If I intervene with the will of the Fates, and what is intended – if I reveal things before their time, before their due course unravels – I go against my own purpose, Little King. There are many things I know. It is the price of my gift, a cruel paradox – that I am unable to share this with others."
You Do Not Have to Say Anything: Sasuke deliberately exploits this trope in Chapter 70 during his trial before the divine High Council. Upon being informed that his silence will be seen as an admission of guilt, he chooses to remain largely silent when prompted to explain his crimes against Sakura and his fellow gods, despite Danzou's unsubtle attempts to bait him in the trial. Sasuke admits to having done this as he feels that he is guilty and punishment is warranted.
Your Favorite: A creepy version. In Chapter 18, Sakura notices while eating that her favorite foods (such as syrup-coated dumplings and pickled plums) are readily available alongside the fancier and more exotic underworld cuisine. She's disturbed by the fact that Sasuke knows her tastes enough to be able to have his servants make her favorite dishes.

Quietus

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Content warning: This work contains multiple tropes and examples related to potentially triggering content, including but not limited to abduction, stalking, physical abuse, suicide, mental injuries, and sexual violence.

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Content warning: This work contains multiple tropes and examples related to potentially triggering content, including but not limited to abduction, stalking, physical abuse, suicide, mental injuries, and sexual violence.

Quietus contains examples of:

Previous

Index

Next

Quietus

Following