{"id":3329,"date":"2020-05-15T18:58:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T22:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2020-05-20T17:56:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T21:56:06","slug":"chapter-44-notes-and-spoilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/?p=3329","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 44 – Notes and Spoilers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author\u2019s notes:<\/strong> Again, the theme of \u2018two worlds\u2019 is continuing to build. This time with Sakura balancing her civilian life with her shinobi one. You can understand Sakura better when you know where she\u2019s come from, and sadly that was missing from the manga. This is my take on her backstory!<\/p>\n

\n

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

\u2022\u00a0Sakura\u2019s building was a narrow grey box. No one would ever call it charming. But for Sakura, it was home.<\/i> \u2014\u00a0Sakura\u2019s home is in contrast with the storied clan homes and mystical history of Konoha. She doesn\u2019t dislike it\u2026. It\u2019s more like she\u2019s aware that hers is serviceable. Not flashy or charming or mysterious. She doesn\u2019t think much of it, and it is completely disconnected from her shinobi life. You get the idea that she\u2019s never brought Sasuke there. But one day, maybe she will meet someone who will be thrilled to see it\u2026. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Sakura took a breath, straightened her vest, smoothed back her flyaway hair and poked the loose pieces back into her braid before opening the door.<\/i> \u2014 The braid theme is already present in her hair. Her mother expects things to be perfect, but Sakura doesn\u2019t even have perfection in her own life. Sakura spends the evening making \u2018perfect\u2019 braids, but this one represents the real her. Just as the first braided talisman represents her. The rest are the \u2018perfect\u2019 ones she makes for everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura\u2019s mother and father \u2014 both are facets of Sakura. Her mother is diligent, fastidious, naturally talented at working in detail, and ready to dig in to a full workload \u2014 Sakura as a medic. Her father is pleasant, positive, delights in dumb jokes, and ready to work with others and do whatever he can to find a solution to their needs \u2014 Sakura as a shinobi.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura\u2019s parents careers \u2014 I wanted them to be in a line of work that has a valued position in a traditional Japanese village. Whether it was a samurai\/feudal era one or not. Kimonos, fabric dying, embroidery, tassel making, cord weaving (kumihimo), and traditional Japanese handicrafts associated with fabrics and embroidery were vital to families of all walks of life. I think it would be the same in Konoha. If ninja clans passed jutsus down, then civilian clans passed down these talismans and techniques. And by making Sakura a civilian, I wanted her to fully live into that life. Not just have her family be shinobi-adjacent. But that Sakura actually could have chosen a different path, and maybe her parents are still hoping for it!<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura\u2019s mother suddenly focused on something behind her father\u2019s back. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d He produced a folded parcel of fabric, turning it in his hand as if he\u2019d forgotten it. \u201cOh this? Just a last minute repair\u2014\u201c <\/i>\u201cWhat?!\u201d<\/i> \u2014 Okay, this whole little exchange I could just see happening between a grown up Naruto and Sakura. So it was fun to write them.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Each year, Sakura\u2019s mother made small braids of rice straw for the festival. They were decorations to be hung on doorways, windows, or wherever a person needed one. She made piles and piles of them. And each year, as many people came by to pick one up. <\/i>\u2014 Sakura\u2019s braid is inspired by the Japanese shimenawa, a sacred twisted rope that is often hung at temples and that was the inspiration for Orochimaru and Sasuke\u2019s rope belts. I made hers as a braid because A) way more cultures use plaits, braids or braided talismans than rope, and B) it was way easier to write! \ud83d\ude00 But the symbolism of twisting or braiding individual threads together to strengthen them will come back.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The hours slid by. Her mother worked ceaselessly, matching the thread and the stitches of the Hyuuga seamstress so exactly that anyone would have a hard time finding where one woman\u2019s stitches ended and another\u2019s began. \u2014<\/i> So again, I\u2019m using Sakura\u2019s mother\u2019s skill to describe Sakura\u2019s healing abilities. This is the mindset Sakura applies when mending the tissue and muscle, she\u2019s doing it so finely that no one can find a difference.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cYes, the red is for luck. And for love. But mostly, it\u2019s for remembrance.\u201d<\/i> \u2014 *sigh* this will come up again. But right now, it\u2019s a beautiful symbol of connection between mother and daughter, and a nice symbol tying these chapters, including the one to come, together.<\/p>\n

\n

Spoilers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura\u2019s mother\u2019s career in embroidery and her father\u2019s career in kimono fabrics and procurement will come back many many times in Sakura\u2019s life. She will be picked for missions based on her knowledge of kimonos. She will understand when something\u2019s been tampered with based on her knowledge of tassels. And the old books that her mother keeps on old patterns might hold the key to a mystery at the end.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

\u2022 The hours slid by. Her mother worked ceaselessly, matching the thread and the stitches of the Hyuuga seamstress so exactly that anyone would have a hard time finding where one woman\u2019s stitches ended and another\u2019s began. Her mother sat up, stretched, held her fingers for a moment, and sat back to inspect her work. Sakura could find not a single fault. Not a stitch out of place. It was like it never happened.<\/i> \u2014 Sakura is not a seamstress and her mother is not a shinobi \u2014 on those points they couldn\u2019t be farther apart! But here, her mother is mending the tear with such precision and care, that it is very much the same as Sakura\u2019s healing abilities. She just mends humans instead of torn fabric! Sakura works her chakra so finely that you can\u2019t tell where the healing has occurred, and in the end, for the patient, it\u2019s \u201clike it never happened.\u201d So, it was important for Sakura and her mother to have this hidden connection. Some day they\u2019ll realize they are more alike in their separate paths than they know.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0She turned back, but not before seeing her mother\u2019s gaze sweep over her clothes, making sure she didn\u2019t look the part of her \u201cother\u201d life, as her mother once called it. Sakura knew she didn\u2019t.<\/i> \u2014 Again, I wanted to make Sakura more like a real life civilian one. Where her parents are concerned for her safety. And that translates into disapproval. I think the shinobi clans would be much more accepting of danger and weird powers than a civilian family who has never been exposed to it. So I\u2019m using this to illustrate just what a balancing act Sakura has to do to follow her path.<\/p>\n

\u2022 She squinted through it, then wiped it quickly, not meaning to but bringing chakra to her hand in a green swipe on the glass. \u2014<\/i> An example of Sakura\u2019s chakra seeping out when she doesn\u2019t mean for it to. This will come up again in other flashbacks about how her skills are identified when she\u2019s a child.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0In her memory the woman who looked up had strangely exaggerated features. A too-long neck. A pointed chin and pointed fingers. A column of black hair that hung down far past her back and curled up on the end, flipping independently as she moved. She tipped her head inquisitively, eyes reflecting a shine when they locked with Sakura\u2019s overly wide green ones\u2014<\/i> Again more strange people returning to Konoha for the festival. First it was the Ma and Paw Frog, then it was the Slug woman. Now it\u2019s someone from the Cat clan, the one that the Uchiha were connected to. And so, you can deduct that the people young Sakura is seeing are not from the local temple.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura chuckled at the memory. A lot of things scared her back then. Most of them imagined. The priests did visit houses, but the ones she\u2019d seen didn\u2019t looked like her dream.<\/i> \u2014 So the interplay of imagined fears and real fears will continue into the next chapter. It\u2019s very much about her growing up safe in a village where a little fear is kind of fun. Next chapter she confronts real fear and loss when she visits the Uchiha compound.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0And she\u2019d never heard of spirits coming back to eat the food, but she was pretty sure a few stray animals were getting a free meal on those nights.<\/i> \u2014 Much later, Naruto and Sakura will be stranded somewhere, and Naruto will admit that he sometimes grabbed food from those plates. Because he essentially is a stray. So Sakura is not completely wrong about who comes and eats them.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cThe different colors are for thanks \u2026or for finding love\u2026.\u201d \u201cHuh,\u201d Sakura said, ignoring the last remark. \u2014<\/i> I love the idea that Sakura is constantly dodging pressure from her civilian life. If it\u2019s not about her job, then it\u2019s her mom hinting that she might \u2018find a nice boy and settle down.\u2019 I think it\u2019s such a normal family pressure, and Sakura is the \u2018normal\u2019 one in the group. There\u2019s another aspect here that\u2019s important to me here: I want Sakura to be orphaned from her civilian life. Naruto, Sai, Sasuke, even Kakashi and Iruka are orphans. Sakura it technically the only one on her team that\u2019s not. But I want to highlight that she is choosing to turn her back on what she has in the civilian world and go into the shinobi world where she has no support, no clan, no \u2018family.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cYes, the red is for luck. And for love. But mostly, it\u2019s for remembrance.\u201d <\/i>\u2014 This will come up again, a few times, in poignant ways for Sakura and much much much later for Naruto. Specifically the use of red thread.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura\u2019s mother explained one time that it would bring bad luck on them to profit from blessings from the spirit world, as much as it would bring bad luck on the asker if the spirits found out they paid for it.<\/i> \u2014 I have no idea if this is true or not, lol. I just made it up. I was thinking more about exchanges of spirit power could not be bought by earthly means, and that so much of the quest for the tailed beasts is about controlling power, instead of being in harmony with it. And that there is hidden information in these old traditions.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0She\u2019d never been taught it. Never even heard of it. But she could feel it working as she hoped it would. She smiled into her mother\u2019s face, looking for any signs that she noticed. She didn\u2019t.<\/i> \u2014 Sakura\u2019s confidence in her natural affinity has her inventing new ways to use her chakra, on the fly. It\u2019s also one of the skills that sets her apart from everyone else and puts her on a level with Naruto and Sasuke.<\/p>\n

\u2022 She squeezed her hands back. \u201cI\u2019m glad you were here too.\u201d And she leaned forward and kissed her daughter\u2019s forehead, surprising Sakura, who let go when her mother pulled back.<\/i> \u2014 A variation on Tsunade\u2019s forehead kiss, but from mother to daughter.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Her mother nodded. \u201cSo this one, wants a bow with a series of knots, representing rice. So I guess they\u2019re from the Rice territory.\u201d <\/i>\u2014 Sakura\u2019s mother is tying the tassels in shapes that represent their countries. This will come back later when Sakura is able to identify scrolls by their tassels \u2014\u00a0a definitely non-shinobi skillset.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cYou are always welcome to stay, you know. Your bed is always here.\u201d Sakura smiled. It was tempting, but she had to get home.<\/i> \u2014 She\u2019s really living her shinobi life now, but there will be a time when she accepts and decides to stay in her old home.<\/p>\n

\u2022 But she was surprised to discover that this year, a great many visitors wanted to speak to her as well. \u2014<\/i> I l loved writing this whole part, imagining Sakura trying to navigate questions about her life and love to the people who\u2019d known her her whole life, but didn\u2019t know what she did now. And dodging the civilian herbalists with their potions and secrets. The whole thing is something that she alone would have to deal with. None of her shinobi friends would have any experience like this.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0She cringed when she pulled it out into the light. The only one left was her first braid. Lumpy, bumpy and sticking out at the edges. But it would have to do\u2014 She grabbed a length of her mother\u2019s fine embroidery floss \u2014 a deep shade of crimson red \u2014 and tied it around the bottom, wrapping it more thickly then the others because there was too much thread. But it hid the white twine, and the knot was neatly centered. Done.\u2014<\/i> So in the end, Sakura has to put out the one that looks the most like her. And with the extra deep red thread. It\u2019s not blessed, but it\u2019s much finer, and will hold its color for much much longer. This little talisman will come back into her life again, sadly, just when she needs it the most.<\/p>\n

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

Author\u2019s notes: Again, the theme of \u2018two worlds\u2019 is continuing to build. This time with Sakura balancing her civilian life with her shinobi one. You can understand Sakura better when you know where she\u2019s come from, and sadly that was missing from the manga. This is my take on her backstory! Chapter notes: \u2022\u00a0Sakura\u2019s building […]<\/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-3329","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-RH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329","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=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3338,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions\/3338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}