Chapter 8 – Struggles and Triumphs, Part 1
Chapter Notes:
• One clone crawled out from underneath the dogpile and raised his fist at Katsuro. “Come on! I can take you! Don’t underestimate—” But he didn’t get to finish. — More unruly clones that are facets of Katsuro’s personality. And this one is even trying to use Naruto’s one line against him.
• “Good,” he said again. “Now take all of that light and line your fingers with it. You know, the way you focus it into your fingertips? But this time, curl it over the backs of your fingers.” She turned her hands over, and they both watched as the pale green light amassed over her knuckles, turning a shade deeper as it coalesced. — Katsuro isn’t showing her something she doesn’t already know. In theory, she knows that infusing her chakra into anything is more powerful than nothing at all. But she’s never spent time training at it. Katsuro — the scrappy survivor and out-of-the-box thinker — is the one encourages her to get creative and level-up her skill. It didn’t come from her Team 7 training. Neither here nor in the original manga.
• “Pretty little pink-haired girls should never leave their safe, little villages.” He stayed close as he completed the circle, face next to hers, voice low and intimate. “Isn’t that what your teammates think…um…Ino-chan?” — Katsuro’s use of the -chan suffix (here with Sakura’s fake name) will be a twist on the manga. It won’t always be a sign of affection. Sometimes he’ll use it to press her buttons and reliably stoke her anger.
• “But what about you? You’re with them,” she said, thumbing up to the floors upstairs. “So why are you different?” He blinked a few times, thinking about it. He shrugged finally. “Well, I guess I’m like you then,” he said with a half-smile. “I don’t want to kill someone if I don’t have to, either.” — Here, he admits he recognizes himself in her. He has been slowly identifying with her the whole time. This is an important facet of their relationship in the manga, so it gets a spotlight here too.
Spoiler Notes:
• Beside her Katsuro was rocking one of the curved fragments with his toe, when he realized what it was. “Oh! It’s a bell,” he declared, and squatted to examine the remains of an intricate floral design etched into the outside of the bell shape. “It must have been huge,” he said finally. — Later on, Katsuro will help out someone and recognize the pattern of the bells. His kind deed will have a little connection to Sakura.
• The wall was full of empty cubby holes, like the kind used for storing scrolls in the Kage’s tower. She looked down the line of rack into the room behind it. In the darkness there were more racks, all empty. She looked back at the sad pile of left-behind scrolls. “Guess the music ones weren’t worth taking,” she said with a soft laugh. — So this little detail fills in a larger backstory. This was a temple of some kind of spiritual knowledge about the sage who brought chakra to the world. But at some point, all the knowledge was taken away. This theme will recur — people dealing with great power, but without any knowledge of how to handle it. And this imagery — empty racks missing the documents they were meant to hold — will be brought up again, in some very different places.
• It was alluring to think of her as someone equal with him, someone to train with, he thought. He wanted to continue. — He’s training her, but it’s not as someone more advanced as she is. This is a shift in their relationship. They are working together as teammates.
• When she didn’t answer right away, and Katsuro realized she may be tired or overwhelmed, or maybe just not as much like him as he wished she was. “Or are you too tired. I mean, we could stop, you know, if you don’t want to keep going. That’s fine too—“ She gulped a breath. “Yeah! Of course I want to keep going! Do you want to keep going?” He laughed at her, and she laughed too at her own enthusiasm. “Oh yeah! Bring it on!”— This is little scene represents him recognizing himself in her. It’s a bit like the scene from the manga where he begins to understand why he likes her. But it’s more complex. It isn’t a crush/love scene, instead it’s about being teammates.
• They sparred continuously, filling the days with training, evenings with talking. — When he returns to Konoha as Naruto, he will know a lot about the people and place because of her stories.
• He laughed and watched her back, thinking how nice this was. It was like seeing the dragonfly on the window ledge. This felt special…and fleeting. He wanted to hold onto this strange little harmony they had for as long as he could. — Reference to the dragonfly again, but with a touch of sadness from Katsuro’s perspective. There is a shadow to all these experiences. He is already thinking he will miss it when it leaves him.
• “They know who they are. They know what they want. And they are going to tear you apart.” His tone chilled her to the core. “No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.” — These words will stay with Sakura as she moves through the different changes in her life.
• She nodded her head against the dusty floor. “Fake it,” she repeated quietly. She understood. — This little bit of advice will pay off for Sakura when she returns to her village.
<< Return to Chapter 8 • Go to Chapter 9 >>
16 Jun 2010 No Comments
Chapter 8 Notes
Chapter 8 – Struggles and Triumphs, Part 1
Chapter Notes:
• One clone crawled out from underneath the dogpile and raised his fist at Katsuro. “Come on! I can take you! Don’t underestimate—” But he didn’t get to finish. — More unruly clones that are facets of Katsuro’s personality. And this one is even trying to use Naruto’s one line against him.
• “Good,” he said again. “Now take all of that light and line your fingers with it. You know, the way you focus it into your fingertips? But this time, curl it over the backs of your fingers.” She turned her hands over, and they both watched as the pale green light amassed over her knuckles, turning a shade deeper as it coalesced. — Katsuro isn’t showing her something she doesn’t already know. In theory, she knows that infusing her chakra into anything is more powerful than nothing at all. But she’s never spent time training at it. Katsuro — the scrappy survivor and out-of-the-box thinker — is the one encourages her to get creative and level-up her skill. It didn’t come from her Team 7 training. Neither here nor in the original manga.
• “Pretty little pink-haired girls should never leave their safe, little villages.” He stayed close as he completed the circle, face next to hers, voice low and intimate. “Isn’t that what your teammates think…um…Ino-chan?” — Katsuro’s use of the -chan suffix (here with Sakura’s fake name) will be a twist on the manga. It won’t always be a sign of affection. Sometimes he’ll use it to press her buttons and reliably stoke her anger.
• “But what about you? You’re with them,” she said, thumbing up to the floors upstairs. “So why are you different?” He blinked a few times, thinking about it. He shrugged finally. “Well, I guess I’m like you then,” he said with a half-smile. “I don’t want to kill someone if I don’t have to, either.” — Here, he admits he recognizes himself in her. He has been slowly identifying with her the whole time. This is an important facet of their relationship in the manga, so it gets a spotlight here too.
Spoiler Notes:
• Beside her Katsuro was rocking one of the curved fragments with his toe, when he realized what it was. “Oh! It’s a bell,” he declared, and squatted to examine the remains of an intricate floral design etched into the outside of the bell shape. “It must have been huge,” he said finally. — Later on, Katsuro will help out someone and recognize the pattern of the bells. His kind deed will have a little connection to Sakura.
• The wall was full of empty cubby holes, like the kind used for storing scrolls in the Kage’s tower. She looked down the line of rack into the room behind it. In the darkness there were more racks, all empty. She looked back at the sad pile of left-behind scrolls. “Guess the music ones weren’t worth taking,” she said with a soft laugh. — So this little detail fills in a larger backstory. This was a temple of some kind of spiritual knowledge about the sage who brought chakra to the world. But at some point, all the knowledge was taken away. This theme will recur — people dealing with great power, but without any knowledge of how to handle it. And this imagery — empty racks missing the documents they were meant to hold — will be brought up again, in some very different places.
• It was alluring to think of her as someone equal with him, someone to train with, he thought. He wanted to continue. — He’s training her, but it’s not as someone more advanced as she is. This is a shift in their relationship. They are working together as teammates.
• When she didn’t answer right away, and Katsuro realized she may be tired or overwhelmed, or maybe just not as much like him as he wished she was. “Or are you too tired. I mean, we could stop, you know, if you don’t want to keep going. That’s fine too—“ She gulped a breath. “Yeah! Of course I want to keep going! Do you want to keep going?” He laughed at her, and she laughed too at her own enthusiasm. “Oh yeah! Bring it on!”— This is little scene represents him recognizing himself in her. It’s a bit like the scene from the manga where he begins to understand why he likes her. But it’s more complex. It isn’t a crush/love scene, instead it’s about being teammates.
• They sparred continuously, filling the days with training, evenings with talking. — When he returns to Konoha as Naruto, he will know a lot about the people and place because of her stories.
• He laughed and watched her back, thinking how nice this was. It was like seeing the dragonfly on the window ledge. This felt special…and fleeting. He wanted to hold onto this strange little harmony they had for as long as he could. — Reference to the dragonfly again, but with a touch of sadness from Katsuro’s perspective. There is a shadow to all these experiences. He is already thinking he will miss it when it leaves him.
• “They know who they are. They know what they want. And they are going to tear you apart.” His tone chilled her to the core. “No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.” — These words will stay with Sakura as she moves through the different changes in her life.
• She nodded her head against the dusty floor. “Fake it,” she repeated quietly. She understood. — This little bit of advice will pay off for Sakura when she returns to her village.
<< Return to Chapter 8 • Go to Chapter 9 >>
by tricksie in Chapter Notes