The Promise
is a Naruto/Inuyasha crossover by Liangnui, starting as a sort of continuation fic of the latter and a Fix Fic for the former. Things got slightly odder as time went on. Canon is followed or generally adapted around in a few cases, and interpreted to fit the situation.
It all starts with the end of an ancient cold war. A mysterious man makes the mistake of tangling with the creatures that live beyond the mountains and completely derails his own plans. Then the foxes start moving in on the elemental countries. As it's well known, many stories start with a curious fox.
Oh, and Obito lives.
Not to be confused with the first fic in the Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic series Echoes of Eternity.
The Promise contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Iruka, Obito, and Souten.
- Asian Fox Spirit: The fox clan, who very pointedly do not count the Kyuubi as an actual fox.
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: What Madara unintentionally does in the backstory, just by being his usual manipulative self. Turns out that trying to use genjutsu-based mind control on an actual kitsune (and not the Kyuubi) was a bad idea.
- Badass Family: The entire Namikaze-Uzumaki mini-clan, which happens to include all of their adopted kids too. Their family is widely considered one of the most dangerous groups in the world, even including organizations such as Akatsuki and Oto.
- Similarly, the extended clan led by Sesshoumaru is this trope scaled up even further, though the youngest ones are still growing into it.
- Battle Couple: Minato and Kushina, even more so than in canon since they get the opportunity to show off their combined skills. Which is what finally undoes Madara.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Brought up regarding Nariko in one of the side stories. She's not loyal to causes or organizations, but to people. There are only a few of them. If they all died, she'd leave Konoha to rot without a qualm.
- Butterfly of Doom: Only crops up once, when the Kumo ambassador's attempt to kidnap Hinata goes a little differently. He gets caught red-handed by Obito, Nariko, and Kakashi, and handed over to Ibiki. Minato, meanwhile, refuses to be cowed by the Raikage and relations between Kumo and Konoha are a little...strained.
- Creator Cameo: One of the three members of an all-kunoichi team helping to proctor the Chuunin Exams.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Whenever Minato gets within three feet of a fight. There's a reason he's the Yondaime Hokage after all. The fight with Madara is the only time this is averted.
- A specific example of this is Minato's rescue of his team during the mission where Obito would have died in canon. It takes him less than ten seconds to kill the entire attack force.
- Also, Team Seven's bell test fight is hilariously one-sided in Kakashi's favor, as usual.
- Fix Fic: It was started because Obito is the author's favorite character.
- Flat "What": Kakashi's basic reaction to the insanity when he's a teenager.
- Happily Adopted: Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Iruka, Itachi, and Sasuke.
- Happily Married: All of the married characters.
- Harmful to Minors: Pretty much the entirety of the Massacre, particularly for Iruka and Itachi. Obito's experience on that same night makes him come in as a traumatized third.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Haruki's death.
- Hero of Another Story: Souten and Utakata.
- In Spite of a Nail: Iruka's parents still die, just under different circumstances. Madara still attacks Konoha. The Uchiha clan dies, just eight years ahead of schedule. The Kumo ambassador still tries to kidnap Hinata. Iwa and Konoha still don't get along.
- Japanese Mythology: A prominent part of the backstory, given that the Inuyasha cast is pretty much a living representation of many of the youkai involved. Oddly enough, only Momo (out of the kitsune seen so far) has a hoshi no tama. In Konoha, Nariko functions as the local loremaster.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Chakra is the primary type, and the most versatile. Bijuu chakra is still considered chakra, just too intense for humans to handle. Then there's reiki, which is the exclusive domain of Kagome since she's the only miko in the entire story. Finally, youki, which is the energy type used by youkai of all types. The latter is extremely dangerous to humans with chakra—the mix seems to make youki even more intense. Reiki, meanwhile, blows right through most youki.
- Also, ninjas have to train themselves to detect youki, but they can't sense reiki at all. Youkai lack chakra coils, but the effects of youki attacks can occasionally be mistaken for extremely powerful ninjutsu by an inexperienced observer. The only real difference to a layman is that youki never requires hand seals.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The kitsune youkai clan.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Brought up regarding most of the Inuyasha couples, aside from Shippou and Souten, since both Kagome and Rin are human with inexplicably long lifespans. Nariko gives this as her reason that she won't pursue a relationship with a human, since she has no workaround.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapters six and seven relative to the rest of the story.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Umeko's death.
- The Nicknamer: Obito, at least with people he doesn't like. This led to him called Kisame "Sushi" and Orochimaru "Chalky."
- Nariko eventually picks up the habit from him, and decides to read other characters' names literally. So, Kakashi is "Scarecrow" to her.
- No-Sell: Kitsune youkai are entirely immune to genjutsu, which screws Madara over in the backstory. Likewise, inu youkai like Amaya and Sanyu are immune to/can attack freely despite Madara's space-time manipulation. This is because of the use of the dimension-slicing Meidou Zangetsuha from the Inuyasha series and the traits being passed down.
- Noodle Incident: How Iruka passed his Chuunin Exam, how Obito got that one nickname, and why Kakashi has a fanclub.
- Original Character: Nariko, Haruki, Umeko, Momo, Sanyu, Amaya, Aoi, and Yukihana.
- Power Trio: Generally, the various teams qualify.
- The Promise: What started it all. Once upon a time, Souten promised Sakumo that her family would look after his in a time of need. Unfortunately, he died before she could fulfill it. It fell to Nariko nearly ten years later. Foxes, after all, can't break their word.
- Red Baron: Lots of the characters picked up nicknames over the years. These are just the non-canon ones.
- Kakashi: Konoha's White Wolf. He also has "Second Coming of the White Fang" because of Obito.
- Obito: Copy-Nin Obito, Konoha's Burning Assassin.
- Red Right Hand: Momo has a fox-shaped shadow that gives away her human disguises.
- Running Gag: Nariko getting stabbed all the time and generally being a dead weight in a fight, Kushina pranking people almost at random, Kakashi being chased by fangirls, and Souten popping up every few chapters as though to remind people that she's still alive.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Obito, Minato, Kushina, Rin...
- Spanner in the Works: Amaya, Umeko, and Haruki were all on-site when Naruto was born. This completely throws off Madara's plan to kidnap the infant Naruto and forces him to attack Konoha without the Kyuubi. It didn't go well for him.
- The Stations of the Canon: The Wave mission still happens, as will the Chuunin Exam invasion. However, as a result of a lot of changed backstory and characters interfering with each other from both canons, the specifics are going to be quite a bit different.
- Summon Magic: In addition to the canon contracts, there are a few more.
- Iruka: Dolphins.
- Obito: Hawks. Picked up from the same place where Sasuke got his, presumably.
- Survived the Beginning: Nariko Inabikarito, despite being the four-tailed fox youkai, survives the prologue where her siblings are slaughtered. There's the added symbolism of her having black fur, a color associated with life in Japanese Mythology.
- Terms of Endangerment: Inverted with Nariko, who will refer to nearly everyone with "-chan," even villains and people she doesn't like. She reserves "-sama" for people she respects more than all others. Meanwhile, Orochimaru keeps his old habit of referring to Sasuke as "Sasuke-kun."
- Theme Naming: Lots of examples! It's practically a Running Gag on its own.
- Team Sakumo: Sakumo (crops), Kuwa (hoe), and Kama (scythe).
- Team Obito: Akai (red), Hakuto (white), and Momoiro (pink).
- Team Takomi: Takomi (octopus), Mizuki (water), Koi (fish), and Iruka (dolphin).
- Time Abyss: One of Sesshoumaru's features. He's been alive for so long that most people just do not have any clue what it actually means. This is mainly because the shinobi countries don't have the same scale of history that the youkai characters are used to. They think a three hundred is a pretty long time for a village to be around, since their world is so violent and ever-changing.
- Took a Level in Badass: For absolutely everyone.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What about Natsu, the zombie-apocalypse-causing nekomata? She runs afoul of Nariko in a side-story.
- Youkai: Pretty much the entire Inuyasha cast. The first one to make an actual appearance is Souten. It's their presence that ends up changing the course of the entire story.
