Chapter 15 – Background Notes

Chapter 15 – Returned

Found these, thought they might be an interesting sidenote. As I write, it helps me to jot down scenarios of why the characters act the way they do. So, these are some notes of mine about what Katsuro and Sasuke’s motives to fight were, as well as how the Konoha nins came to be out in the woods.

• Katsuro is fighting against them taking her, against the whole village. He’s been looking for someone to pin it on, vent all his anger on. And Sasuke fits the bill. He is the downfall of Sakura, the Leaf nin side he hates, and his mission objective from Itachi.

• Sasuke is fighting because he’s possessive. He doesn’t feel anything for her, no more concern for her than any other nin, regardless that she’s his teammate. But he also see this as a fight to release his pent-up aggression at something being taken from him. Something else making him broken. All of his frustrations he wants to unleash on the clear bad guy in all of it. He wants to strike back at Itachi any way he can.

• Konoha team pursuit — The Konoha team has fanned out, anticipating the camp was still far away. So Sasuke’s discovery was just a fortunate one.

Sasuke finds her first, hears her begging for him to kill her. Sai doesn’t hear the exchange. Sasuke makes a quick plan to distract the rogue while Sai snatches her. The plan is a good one and works. Sai follows Kakashi’s orders, collects Sakura and immediately heads to the rendezvous where they will meet before the returning to Konoha.

But Sasuke is furious and takes matters into his own hands, going against Kakashi’s orders completely.

Kakashi is trying to circle around, make sure the area is secure, that they can make a clean get away. Sasuke was not to engage with the enemy. They were going to verify what group it was and get a fixed location on their camp, so that they could come back and round everyone up. But Sasuke, rash and arrogant, saw that the enemy had left an opening, and that the rogue nin was going to pursue his teammate. Sasuke unleashes his katon and the whole place explodes in flame.

They get a little bit of fighting in, until Kakashi comes back, and there are other nins streaming in. Kakashi knows they are no match for an unknown stronghold and that Itachi is too formidable without backup. And he worries about his unknown goal with Sasuke. Voices are starting to come up from the woods around them. Time is running out. Sakura’s still missing (he doesn’t yet know she’s been found). Sai’s no where to be seen. And now he’s got to worry about how to get Sasuke out of there.