Author\u2019s Notes<\/b><\/p>\n
Happy Lunar New Year 2020! Glad to be back writing and posting! I want to get this story moving along, so my plan is to try to get something up once a month\u2026not once a year! Lol! So I\u2019ve broken this chapter into two, which works well with the chapter title! \ud83d\ude42 Hope you liked my take on Sakura, Konoha, and her interactions with everyone. It\u2019s been fun writing about Konoha and its environs. More Konoha scenery and some adventures from academy days in the upcoming chapters! As always, read and review. And for extra notes, spoilers, and chapter previews and early chapter releases, check the website listed in my bio.<\/p>\n
Chapter Notes<\/b><\/p>\n
This chapter was very much about Sakura and her experience growing up in a village that held both shinobi and civilian areas. They coexist, but neither side seems to cross. Sakura is the exception. And I wondered how she would take it. Would she love it? Hate it? Like some things and be embarrassed by others? Would her parents support her or discourage her? Would shinobi clans encourage her or look down on her?\u00a0<\/p>\n
One thing\u2019s for certain: After writing this and the next few chapters, trying to answer these questions, it\u2019s completely clear that Sakura is far from being the \u201cnormal one\u201d on Team 7. She\u2019s just as unique, over-powered and out-of-place as the rest of them. So, it took me a while to figure out where to go with Sakura\u2019s story, but I got it. And it\u2019s going to be awesome!\u00a0 And this chapter is the beginning of her journey. And as you\u2019ll see, the \u201cTwo Worlds\u201d theme will come to represent many things in the course of the story. Even \u201cHeaven and Earth\u201d could be considered two worlds, right? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
Themes<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cTwo Worlds\u201d \u2014 This chapter is very much about the seen and unseen, about what is contrasting because it\u2019s right out there in the open (like the shops in the districts) and what is more hidden away (like the Nara deer park). So even though it\u2019s two worlds, there are many, many more: The shinobi district and the civilian district in Konoha. The clan upbringing of all the other shinobi and the civilian upbringing for Sakura. Sakura\u2019s shinobi duties for Tsunade and her family obligations to her mother. The civilian market and the shinobi market, and again with the shinobi market and the thieves market (which really might not be a thieves market at all\u2026). So the Two Worlds theme is very, very much multi-layered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Next came the bakery, and, at that moment, a waft of sweet bean cakes hit her nose. She breathed deeply. <\/i>\u2014 Red bean cakes are the best. Happy Lunar New Year everyone!<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Civilian district \u2014 Sakura\u2019s walk is a tour of the civilian side. I\u2019m curious about what life would have been like for a non-ninja in a ninja village. It was never explored in the original manga. The question I kept coming back to was how did Sakura manage these two lives?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Shinobi district \u2014\u00a0I have wondered how the village dealt with old, injured or inept shinobi. And how they supported the shinobi side while keeping in all their secrets. This is my take on it. Having the old nins come back and be farmers while running shady operations just seems to fit. And having the ones who can no longer take it, or weren\u2019t that great to begin with, run the shops and lead a quasi-civilian life just makes sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sakura loved it. Her parents hated it.\u00a0<\/i>\u2014 Hahaha! I just imagine Sakura\u2019s parents would be so stressed out for their daughter! I can\u2019t remember if they were nins in the manga or not. Doesn\u2019t matter though, cause in this story they\u2019re not. So I think Sakura would be at a significant disadvantage trying to be a nin and not coming from a clan. Those who raised her (her parents, her neighbors, etc.) would not understand her drive nor be able to help her. It would be very different than being in a clan, where everyone lives and breathes shinobi goals. Ultimately, there has to be some distance from her previous civilian life to make Sakura reach out to her team. If she were happy in that old life, then she never would have worked so hard to be a nin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0TenTen and Lee came out of a shop that sold weapon scrolls. They waved and Sakura said hello. Sasuke said nothing.\u00a0\u2014<\/i>\u00a0Sasuke is such a grump! Haha! But I\u2019m having fun writing him. I\u2019m not trying to make him nice or mean. Just real. He\u2019s had a seriously messed up life. And I think it\u2019d be hard to let that PTSD go, even with friends and teammates he has come to trust. I\u2019m just trying to write him honestly and hopefully do a better job with him than the manga did.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u201cOhayo Sakura!\u201d Ino flipped back her blonde ponytail and waved brightly. <\/i>\u2014\u00a0I\u2019m making Ino and Sakura better friends. No jealous girl trope here, thanks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 <\/i>Even though shinobis and civilians lived side by side, their worlds couldn\u2019t be more different. Sakura was one of the few who crossed over those lines. For Sasuke, the civilian side didn\u2019t matter. In fact, if it wasn\u2019t for her, he\u2019d probably never even noticed it. \u2014<\/i> I also want to focus on how Sasuke would have been completely unaware of her life, of things that were completely out of the realm of ninja life. So while Sakura is thinking they are the same, the really are quite different.<\/p>\n
\u2022 <\/i>Kakashi\u2019s voice suddenly boomed, \u201c\u2014then you are banished. Forever!\u201d There were gasps from inside the room. \u2014<\/i> Two Worlds theme of these chapters could also extend to Kakashi, that notoriously slack teacher who sometimes scared the crap out of his students. He definitely has two sides!! Super fun to write him too.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Sasuke rounded on her, as accusing as he\u2019d been in their youth. \u201cYou knew about this and didn\u2019t tell me\u2014\u201c<\/i>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sasuke\u2019s like the Kylo Ren of Naruto! Hahaha! But actually, it\u2019s just to show how distrustful he still is, expecting the worst of even Sakura. He\u2019s still learning to trust. More on this in the next chapter.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cThat\u2019s right, Sakura! You\u2019ve always looked \u2018underneath the underneath!\u2019\u201d \u2014<\/i> \ud83d\ude42 Could also be a theme for this chapter. Are you<\/i> looking underneath the underneath? There is another meaning here! Sakura isn\u2019t seeing it yet, but she will. Have you<\/i> picked up on it? \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0The meshy clumps in the \u201cSwampmoss\u201d bowl looked dewy and almost medicinal with their vibrant green. There were handfuls of hairy twigs tied in the middle and labeled \u201cBitterroot,\u201d and the dried petals of something called \u201cFeverfew.\u201d \u2014<\/i> The bowls on Ma and Pa\u2019s table are a mix of real and imagined items. Feverfew is a real flower, the leaf parcels are filled with some ingredients for chai tea, and the molted beetle skins are a real medicinal remedy. But the rest are made up. I know of NO sulphuric yellow smoking berries! I\u2019m trying not to stick to one cultural, medical, or herbal remedy system. Instead, I\u2019m trying to write things that someone could understand from anywhere in the world. Whether you\u2019re on a sandy island at the equator or in a snow-locked town inside the arctic circle. I\u2019m trying to make sure I write things that readers could have a picture of, even if they\u2019ve never ever seen it. Like hairy roots or meshy moss clumps. Some are real, some sound real. Some are completely made up. I\u2019m not a doctor, so don\u2019t go brew dried pond scum like tea! Haha – the point is that we should feel like Sakura\u2026a little weirded out!<\/p>\n
\u2022 She continued on, enjoying the birdsong and crunch of gravel underfoot as she walked towards a natural rise where a tall roof was jutting through the canopy.\u00a0\u2014<\/i> Gravel here is to denote this as a sacred area. It is common to have gravel walkways leading up to Japanese shrines, lined by tall trees. So in this story, the sound, the crunch underfoot, reinforces that you are entering a quiet, sacred place. And sometimes the gravel is likened to water, and used to reinforce the idea that the shrine is a place set apart from the rest of the world. So all of this is here in Sakura\u2019s entrance to the Nara park. (Also, the Nara Deer Park is an actual sacred deer sanctuary in Nara Japan! So cool!)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cSo she\u2019s a healer?\u201d\u00a0Shikamaru snorted. \u201cNo, she\u2019s a shinobi. Like me.\u201d\u00a0His mother watched her turn out of sight. \u201cI thought she was a medic\u2014\u201c\u00a0A whine crept into Shikamaru\u2019s voice. \u201cI don\u2019t know mom. I guess she took some classes or something.\u201d \u2014<\/i> I think not everybody would know or care that Sakura did medical work. Again, her not being from a clan, it would simply be beneath most shinobi to even notice. Basically, each clan member was taught to believe that their skill was the most powerful, most vital, most important to the village. So Sakura logging some hours at a civilian hospital would be seen as charitable work at best (by giving away her healing energy for so little in return), or just beneath them at worst (by them simply not caring what happens to those foolish or unlucky enough to wind up in a hospital).<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cNo, but do you know what is? The state of that barn. I think you need to get in there and clean it out\u2014\u201c Shikamaru slumped his shoulders and trudged off. He knew if he hung around she\u2019d find more work for him to do. \u2014<\/i> Okay, writing the interactions between Shika and his mother is just too fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 <\/i>Leaves blew up the road, and Sakura thought she could feel the sadness emanating from the place. \u2014<\/i> Seriously, how is the Uchiha compound not the most haunted place in all of Konoha? Much more on the clans and Sakura\u2019s interactions with them, and her classmates and teammates in the next chapter.<\/p>\n
\n
Spoiler Notes<\/b><\/p>\n
Theme notes \u2014 Two Worlds<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Different paths of medics<\/i> \u2014 So one of the hidden meanings of the \u201cTwo Worlds\u201d title is the duality of being a chakra-based medic. You can either use it to heal or you can use it to kill. In this chapter, Sakura is perusing the table, wondering if Tsunade needs the things for a poison or for a cure. So, Sakura doesn\u2019t realize it yet, but that\u2019s the dichotomy of being a medic. And very soon, Sakura is going to learn that, just like shinobis, chakra wielders can also chose very different paths. She will be tested.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Animal Spirit world<\/i> \u2014 Two Worlds has another much bigger meaning – on the surface it\u2019s about Konoha\u2019s civilian and clan. But underneath, it\u2019s about the human world and the animal spirit world. They are very much intertwined, even though most people cannot see it. Tsunade does, and she knows Sakura has some connection to it, even though it may not have fully awakened yet. So she\u2019s sending her on errands that have very little to do with her career as a shinobi or as a medic. Sakura thinks it\u2019s completely bonkers. \u00a0<\/p>\n
So the biggest spoiler by far from this chapter is the hint that the universe of human and animal spirit is much bigger and more interactive than any of the characters even understand. There are ancient powers being fought over and old wrongs to be righted. There will be much much more about this, but if you\u2019re reading this, then you already know and can look for the signs. There is much more spirit animal interaction going on than any of the main characters realize, except, of course, for those who are charged with protecting them. (cough, cough\u2026Tsunade, the Naras\u2026cough, cough) And those who are desperately trying to find the most powerful human\/animal spirit hybrid before it\u2019s too late. (cough,cough\u2026Naruto\u2026cough,cough) And of course, the one person in the village, the one person in a lifetime, who has shown an amazing potential to channel chakra and possibly connect with this spirit world (cough, cough\u2026Sakura\u2026cough, cough). Naruto is clearly the one with the animal spirit locked inside, but Sakura has a big part to play in his life. And this is where she begins to understand her own unique and amazing powers.<\/p>\n
Spoilers<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Sakura stretched her hand out into the darkness until she reached the warmth.<\/i> \u2014 The opening of this chapter is foreshadowing an event in the near future where Sakura will have to use her inner ability of guiding her chakra into places unseen. It\u2019s very much about her being a healer. She has to use her skill to guide her to places she can not see inside the body, and do a precise healing technique. So walking through the networks of Konoha with her eyes closed is a macro of what she has to do when she heals. And its a foreshadow of how she has to use her skills in the very near future. I don\u2019t want to spoil the surprise! Just know that this is foreshadowing something specific that will happen to her!! This little scene is happy, warm. The next one\u2026eh, not-so-much! lol<\/p>\n
\u2022 She imagined Konoha\u2019s streets glowing gold, running away from her in big straight veins before fracturing down into the maze of lanes and alleys that connected the other districts. <\/i>\u2014 Oh man. Not exactly a spoiler, but this is a theme that won\u2019t be revealed until the very end. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
\u2022 The district was the one constant for all Konoha nins. And if they didn\u2019t come for supplies or the camaraderie, then they came for the food.<\/i> \u2014\u00a0So, in future chapters, when we switch back to Naruto, one of the reasons I want Konoha to feel so full of life and overflowing with food and friendly people is because Naruto\u2019s world is the exact opposite. He will be a real-life ninja, with no food, no friends, no roof over his head. Just the mission. So Sakura\u2019s life in Konoha, on the one hand, is fascinating (and I have LOVED writing this!). But on the other hand, it is setting up a giant contrast for how Naruto\u2019s life is, being constantly on the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 That\u2019s why the shinobi district suited her perfectly. It was like everyone there understood each other. Even though they were so different, this area was what made them all the same, connected them as shinobis of Konoha.\u00a0\u2014<\/i> Ok. So giant blanket statements in stories are usually an indicator that the statement is going to be proved wrong. And this one is no different! Sakura is completely certain everyone in Konoha feels the same as her, and in the shinobi district they are all the same. No matter their background or skill. But, in time, she will come to see that even the shinobi district there were people who went against the grain, who worked against Konoha. (cough, cough\u2026Orochimaru\u2026cough, cough)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0These imperfections \u2014 the rundown buildings and cluttered rooflines \u2014 may be at odds with the civilian side, but there was an order here, as reliable as the roads. Yes, she understood this too now. And she was happy she finally found her place in it. \u2014<\/i> Again, a little foreshadowing. Her view of this happy place is a tad oversimplified. And the farther she gets in shinobi career, the more she will come to see that.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cA fake? All this time?\u201d Kakashi grinned wider. Iruka and Sasuke laughed, which made her turn on her teammate. \u201cDid you know?\u201d\u00a0\u201cOf course! Didn\u2019t you?\u201d \u2014<\/i> Sakura doesn\u2019t realize it, but of course Sasuke would have known. His awful brother was in it. He would have been monitoring it. He also grew up in a clan, so he would have seen it before, from some of the older family shinobi. Sakura only thinks of him as someone like her, having these shinobi experiences for the first time. She doesn\u2019t realize the gap between them, because she doesn\u2019t yet understand the depth of Sasuke\u2019s loss. So there are comments between them that show they don\u2019t exactly understand each other. Sasuke doesn\u2019t care about her non-clan family, and Sakura doesn\u2019t know anything about what life in a shinobi clan would have been like. They are opposites, but because they are such exceptions to each side (shinobi and civilian) they actually have things in common.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Once the well-wisher was out of earshot, Kakashi\u2019s voice dropped again. \u201cSorry for the ruse\u2014 Can\u2019t be too careful\u2026.\u201d \u2014<\/i> Sakura thinks everyone understands each other in the shinobi district, and muses on this a few times. But even right in front of her Kakashi, who is older and more worldy wise, knows that even in Konoha you have to take precautions. Sakura doesn\u2019t catch that though. She just thinks her teacher is cagey and weird. Which, of course, he is! But this is a bit of foreshadowing for the future, when she understands why Kakashi takes some extreme precautions.<\/p>\n
\u2022 She tipped her head, looking at him full in the face. \u201cI would never keep something like that from you.\u201d She paused, then added, \u201cWe\u2019re Team 7. We move as one. Remember?\u201d \u2014<\/i> Future flashback of a team-building exercise that they get terribly wrong, a lot, before they get it right. But it will be a Team 7 type of mantra in the future. When they figure it out!<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0She passed a table with an innocent-looking coiled rope. She glanced up to see a tall figure in the shadows of the booth, watching her. Eyeshine flashed back, but she couldn\u2019t make out a face\u2014<\/i> The eyeshine is a big tip off that whoever is back there is not human. Or at least not all human\u2026.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ma and Pa –\u00a0 Both had leathery, wrinkled skin and were quite small, coming only waist-high on her. \u2014<\/i> Okay, so I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve figured out who Ma and Pa were! Frogs disguised as humans! SO, from that you can guess what else was going in the market by the other sellers with eyeshine flashing back. It\u2019s not at all a thieves market\u2026. \ud83d\ude42 I imagined this as more of an animal spirit market \u2014\u00a0a place where those who had business with the spirit world come come and interact, buy weird charms, potions and talismans, make connections, perhaps even sign animal contracts. So, more on this in the future. This is just the first brush with a different world than Konoha. And Tsunade is directing her to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 So Tsunade did know them. Her instincts to trust these weird little people were right. Sakura smiled, more at the nickname than anything else, bowed and backed away. \u2014<\/i> Foreshadowing here. Sakura\u2019s trusting these people because Tsunade knows them. So she\u2019s giving them a lot more leeway than she would other people. She\u2019s not acting as a shinobi should, which would be to maintain a healthy distrust for anyone claiming to know her leader. It could have been a trap.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Around a rather large tree, an old stone lantern came into view. Its base was carved with the Nara crest \u2014 a deer antler. \u2014<\/i> A few of these themes, like the gravel leading up to the Nara\u2019s as indicating it\u2019s sacred, will be touched upon again with Naruto. The unlit lanterns are one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sakura turned. Across the gravel courtyard, standing at the edge of the tree line, were a half-dozen deer. They watched her with shining round eyes and twitching noses. \u2014<\/i> A couple things here. First, the deer are interested in Sakura. They are special deer, with a deeper connection to the spirit world. So they are sensing something that Sakura doesn\u2019t yet know about herself and coming to check her out. Second, this interaction is foreshadowing a future interaction with Naruto, when the deer will again show an unusual interest in someone from the outside.<\/p>\n Author\u2019s Notes Happy Lunar New Year 2020! Glad to be back writing and posting! I want to get this story moving along, so my plan is to try to get something up once a month\u2026not once a year! Lol! So I\u2019ve broken this chapter into two, which works well with the chapter title! \ud83d\ude42 Hope […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2883","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-Kv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883","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=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3152,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions\/3152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}