{"id":1033,"date":"2014-02-12T19:39:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T00:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/?p=1033"},"modified":"2014-06-02T09:31:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T13:31:26","slug":"ch-36-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/?p=1033","title":{"rendered":"Ch 36 Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0The Last Goodbye \u2014 Song inspiration for this chapter comes from the Jeff Buckley song, \u201cThe Last Goodbye.\u201d Go listen to it and break your heart.<\/p>\n

\u2022 He breathed in, as if seeing her again had awoken some part of his soul from a deep, colorless winter. \u2014<\/i>\u00a0So, language here that Katsuro\u2019s life is like winter without her, colorless and cold. This theme will be touched on again.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0For an instant, his heart still knew hope\u2026. Hope that she really saw him. Hope that it was all some horrible mistake.<\/i> \u2014 Another moment where the pieces of who he once was are slipping away.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Somewhere along the return trip his fiery rage had given way to a chilling numbness. It lodged deep into him, like a shard of ice into his heart.<\/i> \u2014 So Katsuro is battle between frozen emotions and fiery rage this chapter, neither of which are good options. But the language reflects that inner battle. The idea of \u201ca shard of ice\u201d lodging into him is a reference to the fairy tale \u201cThe Snow Queen.\u201d There are many versions, but the one I know features a boy who is touched by the Snow Queen. She puts a shard of ice in his heart, turning him cold, cruel and heartless, and takes him back to be her companion in her frozen castle. The girl who loves him has to travel long and far, accomplishing many impossible tasks until she rescues him, thaws the ice in his heart and they can return home together, now as young adults. As I wrote this chapter, with Katsuro\u2019s battle between icy despair and fiery rage, I kept thinking of this tale.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Konan: \u201cYou have a second one,\u201d Her voice was flat. It was not a question. A cloud of breath hung in the air. Pain: But Pain did not move. No breath, no rise of shoulders, no movement. He just stood in front of him, like a wall.<\/i> \u2014 So, writing this chapter, I realized that you could write a whole novel about Konan, Pain, etc. They are so tragic and terrifying, at the same time. I tried to write Rain authentically, like the images from the manga, dreary and very much like a Dementor\u2019s world. Where it sucks the hope out of everything. And I tried to imagine Konan as being strong while ruling a destroyed country with the reanimated corpse of her lover. Past the daily, if not hourly, emotional trauma, there would be other differences between a living human and a dead one. She has a breath of fog, he has nothing. Pain\u2019s fingers are freezing when he brushes Katsuro\u2019s hand. Their immediate surroundings must be frigidly cold to prevent decay (my invention), which also adds to the intimidation factor. Konan hears\/feels the squelching sounds of piercings that Pain does not notice. She has kept her humanity in a nightmare world. Tragic, tragic.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0The flock circled by again, and Katsuro realized they were all paper. White paper birds. \u2014<\/i> The birds are shown in the Rain images in the manga, but it never says what they are. I just figured it would be cool if they were paper and used as Konan\u2019s messengers and watchers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Konan\u2019s extended her hand again into the drizzle. \u201cAnd the package has arrived at the shoreline.\u201d<\/i> \u2014 So the Rain is chakra-infused and monitored by Konan. So when Katsuro has the feeling he\u2019s being watched\u2026well, it\u2019s because he is. And that\u2019s why no one comes to greet him or chaperone him, yet they know when to meet him on the shoreline.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cHey there!! All-you-can-drink special going on right now!!\u201d Katsuro jumped at the booming voice. \u201cCome on in to Club Frog!! You look like you could use a drink!!\u201d<\/i> \u2014 Woo-hoo! It\u2019s Jiraiya! From his infiltration of the Rain in the manga, when he swam in and transformed a frog into a house\/bar. He\u2019s there gather information, but really he\u2019s searching for you-know-who. \ud83d\ude09 And their paths almost<\/i> cross. Ah, so close! (ps. He doesn\u2019t die in this story! Woot!)<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAt 21,\u201d he said firmly, \u201cthe kyuubi\u2019s chakra will fuse with your own. Only then you will truly become the ultimate weapon. Not just a mere vessel.\u201d<\/i> \u2014 Because this is an AU story, not all of the details of Naruto\u2019s life in the manga line up with this story. This is one of those instances. Just like Itachi, Pain has chosen a different path to get to his goals. And that path involves Katsuro. More to come on that.<\/p>\n

\n

Spoiler Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0That was no fisherman. He was another soldier. That was no fishing village\u2026. It was a military outpost! <\/i>\u2014 This moment is a marker for later on, to show how much Katsuro has changed. Now, he\u2019s surprised\/dismayed. But in the future, he will become hardened, and see it just like a Rain soldier. So it serves as something interesting now, but more importantly it sets up a contrast for later on.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Katsuro rose and looked straight into his eyes, mentally contradicting him. Yes, I do. I\u2019ve got nothing left to loose. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not interested\u2026. <\/i>\u2014\u00a0Foreshadowing for next chapter. Katsuro doesn\u2019t yet realize but, yes, there are a few more things that he can loose before everything is said and done. Katsuro is only thinking of Sakura, but Pain\u2019s loss is all-encompassing. Katsuro will come to understand this.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cYou have done nothing on your own,\u201d Pain said, face darkening. \u201cItachi has carried you. And he has only gotten so far because I have carried him.\u201d<\/i> \u2014 So there are some hints at friction between Itachi and Pain. They both are seemingly moving toward the same goal, but they have different ideas on how to get there.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAt 21,\u201d he said firmly, \u201cthe kyuubi\u2019s chakra will fuse with your own. Only then you will truly become the ultimate weapon. Not just a mere vessel.\u201d<\/i> \u2014 Okay, so the story hinges around this fact. At 21, Katsuro will become a master weapon. But does that mean that he will gain ultimate control of the demon\u2026or that at 21 they can take control of him? More on this plot point to come.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Walking around the table, breath coming in little puffs, Konan clasped her hands in front of her to keep them from shivering, and waited.<\/i> \u2014 Maybe this is why her hands are always clasped over her stomach in the manga? Maybe she\u2019s just really cold. lol<\/p>\n

\u2022 Without warning, Pain drove the spike sideways through the man\u2019s nose, filling the air with the sound of crunching bone and cartilage. Konan was unable to stop herself from cringing. The spike punctured the other side with a wet pop<\/i>. \u2014 So this scene sets a point at which Katsuro\u2019s behavior will be contrasted, and Konan\u2019s humanity will be reinforced. I don\u2019t want to give too much away, just point it out. It will come up again in a few chapters.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cYou are too cold, Konan,\u201d he said, voice flat and without sympathy. \u201cI can tell by your hands.\u201d She looked down suddenly. The tips were colorless and quivering slightly. Frowning, she curled her fingers into her palms, hiding them. \u201cGo warm yourself.\u201d <\/i>\u2014\u00a0Pain is not being mean, he\u2019s just admonishing Konan for letting her humanity show. She has different needs than he does, like warmth. Just another difference between Pain and Konan. She can not stay cold like Pain does because she\u2019s still alive. Also touches on the theme that being physically cold is link to despair, and she says a few chapters down that her hands are never warm anymore. She\u2019s may be still alive, but she feels dead inside.<\/p>\n

\n\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter notes \u2022 \u00a0The Last Goodbye \u2014 Song inspiration for this chapter comes from the Jeff Buckley song, \u201cThe Last Goodbye.\u201d Go listen to it and break your heart. \u2022 He breathed in, as if seeing her again had awoken some part of his soul from a deep, colorless winter. \u2014\u00a0So, language here that Katsuro\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-notes","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hctF-gF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}