\u201cThe Odd Ones\u201d is a play on the statement that \u201cKakashi had a nose for those odd ones\u201d from the beginning of the manga (from the first chapter, I think). But, which ones are odd? Are all of them? Some of them? Kakashi\u2019s pretty odd too, lol. So it fits. And Sakura\u2019s perception of them being the \u2018odd ones\u2019 while she is the \u2018normal one\u2019 could get turned on its head in coming chapters, as she comes into her real power. The challenge of making a Team 7 without Naruto is a big one. First off, Sai is added, but he\u2019s like the opposite of Naruto in terms of emotions, lol. And though Sasuke was just as mean and distant, Naruto kind of took the edge off that. Without Naruto, all Sasuke\u2019s anger is directed squarely at Sakura. As for Sakura, without Naruto she receives no real encouragement. (We know he was always her biggest fan.) So she has to decide that to keep going, she will just have to rely on herself for support. Hopefully, reading between the lines, you can still see some of Naruto there.<\/p>\n
\u2022 And then it was over. Sakura was admitted into her last year with absolutely no fanfare, just like a normal kid. No one looked at her to laugh or be afraid or impressed.<\/i> \u2014\u00a0In a chapter titled \u201cThe Odd Ones,\u201d there is weight placed on Sakura being normal. It\u2019s not just about her being from a \u2018normal\u2019 civilian family. Here, Sakura is pleased just to be one a normal shinobi kid as well. And again, there are shades of Naruto\u2019s story throughout hers, even though he\u2019s not here. Naruto would have felt this way as well, grateful to be in academy and happy to be finally seen as a normal kid by the others.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sasuke Uchiha waited alone. The teacher trailed his pen down the board. \u201cUchiha, you\u2019re last on the list.\u201d The teacher didn\u2019t need a demonstration. He didn\u2019t even seem to want to look at him. \u201cYou can join the rest,\u201d he said with a single nod.<\/i> \u2014 Sasuke should have been treated like a prince in the village, being the most powerful student and a survivor of the massacre. (Like, why didn\u2019t the Hyuugas immediately take him in and raise him as their own? They could have married him off to one of their daughters, then consolidated all Uchiha properties and become the most powerful.) But Sasuke was pretty much shunned as well, although no real reason was given for this. So here, his story feels like both his and Naruto\u2019s from the original. He\u2019s is too powerful for his young age, and it makes older nins nervous. Without Naruto\u2019s constant interest in him, Sasuke really is isolated. Academy is not a happy experience for him. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 On the playground, Sakura always went along with the Ino and the other girls who thought he was cute. But secretly, she wasn\u2019t so sure about him.<\/i> \u2014 In the original, Naruto\u2019s interest in Sasuke validated and elevated him. Without Naruto there, Sasuke just becomes a really weird, stand-offish kid. No one wanted to be like him or be near him. Naruto alone wanted those things. So without Naruto, Sakura might not think so highly of Sasuke, even though the other girls think he\u2019s cute. Sakura, who was still so new to this world, would have seen past his looks to someone who was dangerous and different. And she very much wants to fit in. Sasuke, without Naruto, might not have had as much appeal to her.<\/p>\n \u2022 Iruka\u2019s oddly dark humor was common among shinobis, she\u2019d come to learn, especially the more seasoned ones. It was like the more they\u2019d seen and lived through, the weirder their sense of humor became.<\/i> \u2014 A little foreshadowing of Kakashi as their teacher. He\u2019s such an oddball too. lol<\/p>\n \u2022 It wasn\u2019t until a field medic came to speak to the class about healing and chakra that she began to see it differently.<\/i> \u2014 Filling in the gaps of Sakura\u2019s story and answering a lot of questions. Sakura had some knowledge of medical skills before Tsunade arrived, but how did that come about? What happened to nins who were not cut out for fighting? The Hyuugas have an abundance of healing abilities, how are those used in the village?<\/p>\n \u2022 But Sakura thought, at the moment, Hinata looked very much the way she felt. She was glad it wasn\u2019t her being forced to go up there.<\/i> \u2014 Sometimes Sakura is portrayed as unsure and doubting. But really Hinata had that attitude all locked up way before Sakura ever did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 They were thrilled, jostling each other on the way down and showing off their \u2018wounds,\u2019 most of which amounted to nothing more than scraped knees and splinters.<\/i> \u2014 Naruto could be any one of these boys. Or all of them. lol<\/p>\n \u2022 Hands dropped and whispers of \u201cS-Rank?\u201d \u201cIs that a real thing?\u201d ricocheted around. Then the hands of some of the rowdiest boys went up, followed by several others who didn\u2019t want to miss out on that adventure.<\/i> \u2014 This. Just this. It\u2019s Naruto, right?<\/p>\n \u2022 The shadowy figure lurking within earshot at the edge of the field, smiled at this development. Jamming his hands in his pockets, Kakashi strode off, whistling into the cool night air. He knew he\u2019d made the right choice when he picked her.<\/i> \u2014 No tricks here. He was serious when he said he didn\u2019t make mistakes. He picked her, and several other teams wanted her too. It was actually Sasuke that no one wanted. \ud83d\ude00 More on this later.<\/p>\n Spoiler Notes:<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022 <\/i>Barely visibly beyond the top of the fissure, the night sky was reduced to a thin river of stars. It seemed so far away, streaming far above the darkness that engulfed them.<\/i> \u2014 Same visual foreshadowing for Sakura, of being far below an open space. This is the same foreshadowing building from previous chapters, the skeleton at the base of the Forest of Death, and the lantern outside the old woman\u2019s cottage. She is cut off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 This was a polite was of asking if she were secretly someone else\u2019s child.<\/i> \u2014\u00a0She would have probably been asked this a lot!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0He leaned closer to inspect it. Little drops of chakra were oozing down through her fingers, turning her whole hand into a luminous ball of light. If she held it long enough, the chakra would begin to slide off the back of her hand in big fat drops.<\/i> \u2014 Sakura\u2019s chakra is like water. It\u2019s pure, undiluted. It\u2019s in a raw form. Right now, Sakura thinks there is something wrong with it because she doesn\u2019t understand what that means. It just flows and flows and doesn\u2019t stick to anything. This theme is being built through each chapter.\u00a0 <\/span>And of course, just because she doesn\u2019t see it, doesn\u2019t meant that others don\u2019t also know what her innate abilities are\u2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 She was just an anomaly. Like her pink hair.<\/i> \u2014 This line, the idea of Sakura being an \u201canomaly,\u201d will come back. It it what defines her power as being different from Naruto. He was made, turned into a vessel for power. But Sakura is a true anomaly. She has power, but there is nothing known about it. There is no reason<\/i> for it. And they do not know how it will turn out. And her pink hair is what people readily see, but there is another anomaly that people who \u201cknow\u201d about these things are looking for. There is a sign of hidden power in Sakura, that she doesn\u2019t see or know about herself.<\/p>\n \u2022 Scars meant someone had seen battle or strife. And if it was bad enough to mark them on the outside, then it most certainly changed them on the inside as well.<\/i> \u2014\u00a0Sort of a reference to Naruto\u2019s scars on his cheek (even though he hides them in this story), and Sakura\u2019s little scar on her arm. As well as things that change you on the inside, like the marks that you cannot see, such as Sasuke\u2019s trauma. The difference here is that Iruka smiles despite his scar. He has accepted whatever happened as part of who he is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 He looked at each one of them like he meant it. Then he smiled again. It was brilliant, warm and welcoming. It stretched up the mark on his face, made happy wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and immediately won them over. <\/i>\u2014 Iruka\u2019s smile is wider than the scar, and outshines it. The scar (the bad thing that happened to him) is not fixed in place; he controls it. His smile moves it, not the other way around. In a story full of people with trauma, Iruka has a positive outlook and shares it freely. This is what wins them over and makes him such a good\/beloved teacher.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u2022 Hands were raised, but not so high in the air and not with such force of certainty. Sakura considered this option. They were of a middle range of skills, and she was thinking that she\u2019d probably be safer in this group than with the more boisterous ones\u2014<\/i> \u2014 Here, Sakura choses for herself to be in the middle range of kids. Her motivation is to fit in. But Kakashi chooses her for a team with over-powered teammates that will inevitably go out on big missions. Just a little insight to her character. What she said in the beginning was true \u2014 he saw in her something she did not. She has the ability and drive to reach beyond where she is.<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cSakura-chan, I\u2019m afraid this is too hard on you.\u201d She patted her hand where it rested on the table. \u201cYou know, you don\u2019t have to go back if you don\u2019t want to.\u201d Her voice turned firm \u201cI don\u2019t care what the Kage wants, it\u2019s your choice\u2026.\u201d <\/i>\u2014 So hopefully, you can see some family resemblance from Sakura\u2019s mom to her. Even though her chakra legacy is unknown, Sakura\u2019s determination and clear disregard for rules and status quo comes from her mom. Lol. Her mother would thwart the Kage to make her daughter happy! Small foreshadowing too that to love someone means that you give them free will to let them make choices about their lives. Even a young girl.<\/p>\n \u2022 Sakura knew then she had to return to the shinobi academy. She wasn\u2019t going to let one dumb speech scare her, was she? She wasn\u2019t just going to give up now, was she\u2026?<\/i> \u2014 Sakura talks herself into going back, specifically telling herself not to give up. This small act of bravery, when it\u2019s only to herself and there\u2019s a much easier way out, is the foundation upon which her other brave acts are built.<\/p>\n \u2022 Sakura realized then that the speech was meant to scare them. Maybe even weed out anyone who didn\u2019t believe in themselves. It was, like many things in the shinobi world, a trick.<\/i> \u2014 Another theme that will be explored more. While violence and super-powered techniques of course work, just like they are being taught, the smartest shinobis employ tricks to get their missions accomplished. It expends much less energy and still get the job done, without revealing anything of your true power. Small foreshadowing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Kakashi cut a look down at her as if she\u2019d said it out loud. He seemed to read it on her face. \u201cYou know, if this is not what you expected, you can still back out. Do it now, while you have the chance\u2014\u201c<\/i>\u00a0 <\/span>\u2014 Another step in Sakura\u2019s journey to realizing her ninja code of \u2018not giving up.\u2019 Kakashi asks her directly, gives her an opening to leave and she still doesn\u2019t back out (even though she dodges answering him directly).<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cME!?\u201d she shrieked. \u201cYou and Sai don\u2019t fit in! You both are the weird ones! I\u2019m the normal one! I come from a normal home, I have a normal family and\u2014\u201c<\/i> \u2014 Play on Sakura always being the \u2018normal\u2019 one in the manga. She is there, but she\u2019s not here. Lol<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0\u201cIf I were you,\u201d he said quietly, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t come back tomorrow. You were lucky today. But your luck will run out.\u201d He pointed at her, delivering it like a command, \u201cGive up now, before you get yourself killed\u2014\u201c<\/i> \u2014 Couple things here: First, this is the least mean thing Sasuke says to her this chapter. It\u2019s actually focused on her. She was, in fact, lucky, and she still might get herself killed. Sasuke\u2019s not wrong. But Sasuke doesn\u2019t know how to be nice. So even something that might have been a first step toward some sort of teammate connection comes out as a command. Second, this attitude of young Sasuke\u2019s will unwittingly be repeated to Sakura by an older Naruto, after he returns. His frustration with her will mirror Sasuke\u2019s younger, angrier, deflective nature. He will tell her she\u2019s going to get herself killed, then dive into save her or be saved by her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 All of Sakura\u2019s pent-up frustration and self doubt boiled over. She unleashed it in one explosive yell. \u201cI\u2019m not giving up!\u201d Shocked, Sasuke shut his mouth. \u201cI\u2019m not ever giving up!!\u201d Her voice echoed off the trees. She was glad to hear it come back to her. Even if she didn\u2019t come from a \u201cclan\u201d like all the rest or have good teammates or even ninja parents to tell her to keep going, then she\u2019d just tell it to herself. <\/i>\u2014 Sakura fully realizes her \u2018never give up\u2019 ninja code that she tells Katsuro about. And hearing her own voice is the replacement for where Naruto should have been if he were there. He would be the one to tell her. But he\u2019s not, so her character evolves by learning to rely on herself instead of her teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Odd Ones\u201d is a play on the statement that \u201cKakashi had a nose for those odd ones\u201d from the beginning of the manga (from the first chapter, I think). But, which ones are odd? Are all of them? Some of them? Kakashi\u2019s pretty odd too, lol. So it fits. And Sakura\u2019s perception of them […]<\/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-3638","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-WG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638","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=3638"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3642,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3638\/revisions\/3642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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