Author has written 39 stories for Naruto, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Misc. Anime/Manga, Death Note, Young Justice, Prince of Persia, and Bloom Into You/やがて君になる.
ICTOAN here, I'm an English woman (?) in my mid twenties, aroace, or maybe aro lesbian (I'm working on it). I specialise in writing tooth-rotting fluff and trying-too-hard introspective angst, with a huge focus on character and a vague wiggly hand gesture reserved for plot. If you liked one of my fics PLEASE don't be shy about saying so! Even a short "this is really good!" will make my entire week I promise you and if you ever spot a typo please.. tell me... I don't know I can stand the pain of coming across any more several months after they've gone up... fair warning though: here be horrendously sporadic updates
You can expect mostly Naruto fic from me for the foreseeable future, particularly narugaa, but I've got a plans for other pairings too... most of them involving Gaara, sorry he's just my fave. I've also got some Death Note fics in the works and I've gotten Very into Nabari No Ou lately... There will be no character bashing from me, ever, not even for Walking Fashion Disaster Sasuke.
You can also find me on ao3 and tumblr, my username's the same everywhere, so just search artlessictoan and you'll find me easy enough (there's an ao3 exclusive naruto/steven universe crossover series I'm writing that some of you might be interested in!)
Current WIPs:
Here are all the fics I am currently working on, I’m still trying to find a balance where I can update more regularly without sacrificing quality, I don’t know if I’d be able to work on more than 3-4 fics at a time, but I will probably be experimenting with having five or six on the go at some point – I do tend to get easily distracted and having more fics I can bounce between might actually be easier for me
Like Smoke into the Sand – 50% complete
A Time for Change – 90% complete *ao3 exclusive
Breaking the Cycle – N/A (no set plot or plan)
Nice to Meet You – N/A (oneshot collection) *ao3 exclusive
The Fearful Unknown – 25% complete
Heliotropism – 20% complete (very rough guess)
False Starts – On hold until I figure out my.. Feelings on this one(note that these are rough estimates and I have been known to extend a fic’s planned length by a couple of chapters before, so take these percentages with a grain of salt)
Planned Multi-Chap Fics:
My ideas for future fics (in order of when I will most likely start them), they’re mostly still in early stages of development and everything here can and probably will change by the time they actually come out
(recent additions/alterations are marked with * if you just want to skip past the old stuff!)
Next in the Gem AU – *ao3 exclusive· Sequel(s) to ATFC
· Pairings: NaruGaa, NaruHina, HinaGaa, NaruHinaGaa, SakuTema, SakuTemaTen, KakaIru, KankuKiba, InoShikaCho
· Follows directly off of ATFC, the second act of the overarching LTL plot, will be similar to ATFC but more action and plot oriented
· There will also be a third fic to follow, along with a few spin-off oneshots/drabble collections
False Starts –
· Kase-san fic
· Mid-to-long fic, mostly fluffy, slice-of-life romance, but with exploration of things like depression and mid-life crises, the girls will be about 32-34 in this, possibly a little olderLiquor Bottles and Ukuleles –
· Pairings: ChoGaa, ShikaTema, SakuKarui, InoTen, ex-LeeGaa, ex-ChoKarui, Aro!Kank
· Long-ish fic, college AU, Chouji is a happy but lonely student, who has accepted that he’ll never meet ‘The One’, until his best friends shove a cute redhead in his direction, mostly a fluffy romance fic, though there will be some drama
· Blind!Gaara
· Lots of close friendships (InoShikaCho, ChoKarui, ChoOmoi, ChoKaruOmoi, InoTema, Sand Sibs)
College AU –· Pairings: NaruGaa, HinaMatsu, possible others
· Short fic, each chap split into two sections, one following Naru/Gaa and one following Hina/Matsu, though they will sometimes intersect, both pairs will be getting equal billing, mostly a sweet and fluffy fic, it might (Might) have some smut (mIGHT)
Ghost Hunter AU –· Another series, made up of short stories following a particular character/pairing
· Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuIno, KakaGai, TemaTen, HinaOmoiCho, ShikaShino, KankFuu, possible others
· Each fic will be standalone, but will reference other fics in the series (first in series will likely be NaruGaa, then SakuIno), Team 7 are a gang of ghost hunters who travel the country dealing with paranormal activities, meeting all sorts of new people and strange situations along the way
YodoChou Fic –· Pairings: YodoChou, probable others
· Canon-verse, next gen, I’m thinking this fic will be much more similar to the Naruto manga than my other fics, with an action adventure story that has ninjas doing ninja stuff, though that doesn’t mean I’m not going to just ignore Everything that happens in Boruto, it’ll be more like the first few arcs of the original manga, where the conflicts/stakes are relatively small scale and it’s more about the characters than any big world-shaking events
NaruGaa Gym AU –· Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuTema, probable others
· Short fic, modern AU, Gaara is the sickly noodle boy who is roped into going to the gym with his big sis, where he meets the chipper, chubby gym-bunny Naruto, who peptalks him onto a treadmill and then laughs for ten hours when he Immediately trips over literally nothing and sprains his ankle (and then buys him a coffee to apologise), meanwhile Temari has managed to get into a weightlifting competition with buff lesbian Sakura and it all gets a bit out of hand
InoHina Modern AU – · Pairings: InoHina, NaruHina (kinda), probable others
· Based off a tumblr post
· Post-college AU, Ino owns and runs a small boutique, when one day a shy, modest-looking woman comes in and starts browsing the more ‘scanty’ range, quickly picking up on her uncertainty and discomfort as she brings a miniskirt and low-cut tank top to the counter, Ino decides to help her get the guy she’s been mooning over for years (Naruto) by giving her a makeover that works with Hinata’s style, before realizing that she’s totally fallen for her somewhere along the way and now has no idea what to do about it
SakuKarui Modern AU –
· Pairings: SakuKarui, HinaTema, KankuShino, SaiFuu, Aro!Gaa, InoCho, NejiLee, OmoiNaru, possible others
· Continuation of a drabble
· Short fic, post-college, Karui is a struggling artist trying to make a living as a recent grad, Sakura is her loving, but delinquent, girlfriend, a med-school dropout, who somehow always manages to get into fights, both dealing with quarter life crises and trying to build a life together
Mythology AU –
· Pairings: TemaRui, SakuInoHina, Aro!Ten, KarinFuu, KurotsuFuu, KureKonan, Aro!Yugito, ShizuRin, KaruraKushiMei, ChiyoNade, possible others
· Continuation of a drabble
· Not entirely sure what I want to do for this, but I just really like the idea of exploring the ‘all the nart girls as goddesses of war’ idea somehow, will probably be a short drabble collection, each chap focusing on different characters/relationships, I’d like to keep this to only the girls (though some will be nb in this)
Hospital AU –
· Pairings: SakuTema, InoKarin, ChoGaa, KankuKiba, NaruHinaLee, Aro!Shika, ex-TemaTen, ex-NaruSaku
· Continuation of a drabble
· Short fic, real-world setting, most of the gang works at a hospital, centres on surgeon!Sakura and administrative manager!Temari’s mutual unrequited love, and the scheming of their friends who’re trying to get them both to realise how head-over-heels the other is for them, a fluffy comedy with some Sad
Sci-fi AU –
· Pairings: HinaMatsu, ShikaNaru, InoChoTema, LeeGaa, NejiTen, KibaRui, ShinoOmoi, KakaGai, AsuKure, Aro!Saku, Aro!Sasu
· Continuation of a drabble
· Long-ish fic, (light) sci-fi setting, a team of scientists from all fields is on a (likely one-way) expedition, hoping to push the boundaries of human knowledge and discover more about the galaxy and potential life outside the solar system (without disrupting it if at all possible, I’m really keen to try and keep any colonial themes out of this) sending any knowledge back to Earth to help humanity improve itself, while trapped on a ship with little to no hope of ever returning, the crew build new lives and relationships slowly develop, will probably be a slice-of-life fic with the space stuff just as a background
· Will definitely have alien life, but I’m not sure if I want sentient aliens who’re as developed/more developed than humanity, I’d like to keep this to the more “realistic” end of the genre and the focus to be mainly on the crew and their friendships, but thoughts would be welcome!
Olympic Lesbian Shenanigans – *
· Pairings: uh, idk actually…… Every Girl x Every Other Girl?
· Loosely based on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
· Short-mid length fic, modern au/period setting, a pair of girls (leaning towards Ino and Karin but could go any way at this point) end up on a multi-week cruise ship with the Konoha Ladies Olympic Team (which will somehow include any non-Konoha girls too)……. things get very Gay
· Possibly smutty?
· …Probably smutty
· Purely me-pandering ngl
· Oh god what am I doingSpy AU –
· Pairings: NaruGaa, InoTema, ShikaCho, HinaTen, NejiLee, possible others
· Long fic, plot-focused action thriller, will likely end up exploring dark themes, but also I might change my mind and go for a more fun 70s spy-thriller type vibe (I’m thinking about making Gaa a trans woman in this one but I’m still kinda unsure? Feedback would be welcome)
Sand Sib Fic –
· Possible implied NaruGaa and ShikaTema, but the focus will be on the sibs
· Will probably be similar in style to BTC, following the sand sibs and their relationship as it changes over the years (not sure if I’ll go right from the beginning, or just from the chunin exam arc up to the end of the war arc), going into much more detail about their development since Kishi dgaf about them, especially Gaara’s struggle to change himself after the exams, how and why he got Suna to accept him, Kank and Tem and their very complex relationship with Gaara (and each other) and Gaara’s long recovery from.. y’know. death. I’ll probably diverge from canon in some places (like the Rasa/Gaa reunion during the war)
Samurai AU –
· Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuHina, TemaTen, KibaIno, ChoKarui, possible others
· Similar to SITS but more plot-focused, long fic, historical drama, set in Sengoku era Japan (or more likely a version of the Naruto world based heavily on it), no fantasy elements, might get dark in places, the story will mostly be focusing on Naruto, so it might be split into a series or have short spinoff fics focusing on other characters
Jinchuriki Fic –
· No pairings planned thus far
· Canon-divergent, after the chunin exams, instead of deciding to become Kazekage, Gaara instead wants to be for the other jinchuriki what Naruto was to him, follows the time-skip with Gaara traveling the continent and inadvertently starting a nomadic jinchuriki tribe, will probably be slice-of-life, though I might also just run with the idea and rewrite the whole Naruto plot based on this (and other) changes, for example:
· Temari takes the position of Kazekage and her and Kankuro are taking steps to change their village for the better (they’re in regular contact with Gaara and constantly send letters to his new friends reminding them to make sure he eats)
· Hinata and Neji are both much more active in their goal to destroy their clan’s caste system
· Sasuke returns to Konoha earlier and him and the other rookies do their own investigating into their village’s long history of reprehensible actions
· Cut the entire war arc. All of it.
· Make the conflict less about big grand battles against ultimate evil mcbadguys and more about actually revolutionising the ninja world at its very core
Model AU –
· Possible pairings: NaruGaa, probable others, it’s all very uncertain
· ……. Look idk the idea just won’t leave me alone ok?
Planned Oneshots:
(Same deal as my planned multi-chaps!)
Narugaa, based on a tumblr post, Naruto trips over at a train station one day and ends up cackling uncontrollably on the floor, even as a cute redhead helps him up, the next day a friend shows him a craigslist ad from someone who helped up a laughing man at the train station and was too shy to ask his name at the time but was hoping that he was alright
Narugaa, based on a tumblr post, Naruto lives in the same apartment building as The Most Beautiful Man In The World, unfortunately they only ever cross paths when Naruto happens to have horribly embarrassed himself in some way, meanwhile The Most Beautiful Man In The World has been quietly trying to find excuses to see his cute blond neighbor, who must be really confident to not care about that giant salsa stain down the front of his shirt and wow he wished he could be so free and self-assured
Temari-centric oneshot about her strict training and life growing up
InoShikaChoTema, ot4 fluff oneshot
If there’re any fics here that you’d really love to see, then do let me know! I can push the stories with more interest to the top of my agenda, keep in mind though that I won’t be starting anything new until I’ve at least finished ATFC (possibly SITS too) and that my more ambitious fics will require a lot of pre-production before I’m willing to start them – I spent a good six months doing research for SITS and that process is still ongoing tbh – so fics like the spy au and the samurai au will need a lot more time to get started than, say, a college au
As always, I’m open to requests and if anyone has thoughts on anything I’ve already got planned that they’d like to share, then I’m open to chatting! Almost all of these fics (apart from everything in the LTL series and the ChoGaa fic) are still very early in development, so things can change a little, or a lot! I reserve the right to reject ideas that I don’t feel comfortable writing/don’t fit my vision, of course, but I’m pretty opened minded about this stuff, so don’t be afraid to gimme a shout