{"id":3840,"date":"2021-12-25T23:45:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T04:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/?p=3840"},"modified":"2022-02-25T12:42:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T17:42:19","slug":"50-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/?p=3840","title":{"rendered":"50 – Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

\u2022\u00a0\u201cThe Puppet\u201d at first refers to Sakura being Chiyo\u2019s puppet, then flipping it to be her own body as the puppet, and then Chiyo. The puppet ends up operating the puppet master by the end. Chiyo and Sasori have ideas about control \u2014 through puppets \u2014 and Sakura turns that on its head by using their own skills against them. First with Sasori, then with Chiyo.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are a lot of themes in this chapter \u2014\u00a0themes of darkness and abandonment, with some of Sakura\u2019s deepest fears being exposed; themes of natural energy versus human-made containment of that energy; themes of ancient and hidden power, which open up questions about who was powerful enough to build these structures, and for what end. All these answers will point Sakura straight to one jinchuriki. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura is allowing herself to think of Katsuro again (yay!), in a way that she hadn\u2019t for a long, long time. Which is bittersweet, because she still doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s happened to Katsuro (*sob*)\u2026. More on this to come\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura levels up so many times during this chapter. She pushes her own chakra to take on a new form to get her out. She rebuilds an ancient structure that apparently many people were unable to do before her. But she uses her intuition and ability to follow the pathways of the original builder. Then she becomes a better puppet master than Chiyo by using her own body as her puppet. Then she takes out Chiyo and uses her to permanently reseal the creature that\u2019s a threat to them all. Sakura\u2019s innate ability to take what\u2019s around her and make it her own to survive really shines through her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 The shadow side to all these gains is that Sakura has had to give up parts of herself. She\u2019s had to make herself more like Chiyo. She\u2019s knows it\u2019s to survive, but that doesn\u2019t mean there won\u2019t be long-term fallout from those choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\u2022 \u201cJust pretend it\u2019s like the game,\u201d she said aloud, if only to hear any sound in the emptiness. \u201cIt\u2019s only a game.\u201d Her voice, raspy from fear, was swallowed by the darkness. It did not echo back.<\/i> \u2014 Ties to Sakura\u2019s habit of mapping her surroundings by closing her eyes, like she did in Konoha for fun. But also represents her actual skill: reaching inside and healing someone where she can\u2019t see and can\u2019t go. This space, and her ability to work within it, is something that only she could do. This is her specialty. None of the other characters could do it. So she\u2019s definitely afraid, but it\u2019s also like a life-size version of the healing she does within a body. In the dark, feeling it all out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Another time, Sakura might have marveled that chakra could be used that way\u2026she clearly had not been taught that in Konoha. But perhaps they didn\u2019t know it to teach it. <\/i>\u2014 Sakura\u2019s first realization that there might be other techniques and methods for using chakra.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Her head fell back against the stone, and she ran her hand down the flat boulder she leaned against. It sat flush with the ground, as if it were an ancient building block. Her hand stopped. This was familiar to her, like it had happened before\u2014\u00a0 <\/span>A long buried memory swept through her\u2026. She was with Katsuro, in a soft blue night that seemed welcoming compared to where she was now. They were climbing up a starlit mountainside to a partially destroyed temple, scrambling over boulders the size of houses.<\/i> \u2014 It\u2019s not an accident that the blocks are so similar and that Sakura is reminded of the old temple. There are many similarities. This gets at a deeper question in this chapter, who made this? And whoever was adept enough to build structures on the inside of human must have started on the outside.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Bitter anger at Katsuro mingled with her own shame at ever trusting him. She had locked him away in a part of her memory where she would never have to see him again.<\/i> \u2014 Connection here to the temple, where there are lovely things all locked up and hidden away. Sakura has locked up her memories and emotions tied to Katsuro, like the paintings have been locked in the temple.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 But images of him came sliding back anyway, without any effort. And she discovered that it did make her feel a little better, a little less alone. <\/i>\u2014 Her memories of him come back as images, literally like the painting in the temple room. Just scenes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0There were more memories, she could feel them surfacing, tugging on her heart. But she pushed them away. Because in the end, it all ran to the same terrible place. <\/i>\u2014 Like the painting in the temple, Sakura\u2019s memories always have an unsatisfactory ending.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 She pushed it all away, sweeping the memories back into the dark corners of her mind as she swept the dust from her legs. She pounded a fist into the ground, welcoming the anger in to fill up the hole of despair that was opening inside her.<\/i> \u2014 Again, emotions and memories, considered dusty and forgettable, just like the temple.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The pool of green chakra was changing around her, morphing, becoming a beautiful tangle of roots and vines. It was like she sat at the base of a giant tree, held there, protected. <\/i>\u2014 Parallels to the Forest of Death here. Sakura is terrified of becoming abandoned to a forest of \u201cdeath,\u201d yet her chakra taps into some ancient power that is life itself, just like she feels just below the surface in the real Forest of Death that surrounds Konoha. This foreshadows some future events in the Forest of Death, where its true nature is revealed to her<\/p>\n

\u2022 Like the watery nature of her chakra, the tendrils rolled away from her with barely a suggestion. They twisted and turned, reached and explored. Little green leaves unfurled here and there. The vines were gently moving across the boulders, like little emissaries, each returning information to her. \u2026 Sakura listened as they crawled down over the stones and sank deeper and deeper, like roots disappearing beneath an abandoned temple. <\/i>\u2014 This calls back to the green vines that grew around the well room in the old temple. It also foreshadows a deep connection between her, that place and her chakra. More on that in future chapters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Vibrant little looping vines raced out from her fingertips. Seeing the glowing tendrils, Sakura\u2019s chin crumpled. Her chakra had flowed and flowed without stopping. And when she needed it most, it had even given her a new gift. This delicate new form that looked like life itself. And now she had to destroy it. \u2014<\/i> Sakura already understands that this is unique. That it\u2019s more than just a shape, that it\u2019s an extension of \u2018life,\u2019 coming to help her as she confronts something that wants to take life away from her. She\u2019ll get a better understanding in the next chapter. Of what it means for her chakra to change its shape\u2026.and what it means to lose it.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0But she still didn\u2019t realize how hollow she\u2019d feel inside. A cold weight was settling into the place where her chakra sprang from, the place that always felt flowing and alive. The more chakra she reabsorbed, the more she felt it. \u2014 <\/i>Sakura has always felt life in her chakra. But now, for the first time, she is feeling the absence of organic life, and instead the cold substitute of a things she controls. It\u2019s not death, just the absence of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Sakura pulled the rest of the energy back to her core as fast as she could, ignoring the cold that was sinking its tendrils into her body, her soul\u2014<\/i> \u2014 Just as the vines extended outward, exploring and going deeper, the tendrils of cold, emptiness, and loss are now inside her, going deeper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/i>She looked down at her body. It must be the energy, unlocking the pieces of herself that she\u2019d locked up inside. It knew what she needed to hear. It brought him back to her.<\/i> \u2014 Later on, she will realize that in her time of deepest need, when all hope was lost, it was Katsuro that she thought of for support. Not Sasuke. Sasuke is her partner, but there is a deeper connection with Katsuro that has never truly gone away. No matter how much she wished it would have. She comes to realize this here.<\/p>\n

\u2022 But an even more ancient energy was scattered across the blocks. She had to tune out all the other chakra just to feel it. But it was there. Pale silver smudges were still visible at the edges, like deteriorated fingerprints.<\/i>\u2014 Sakura is discovering the first person who built these places, who used energy to contain and control. Foreshadowing the backstory about Naruto, the fox and him being a vessel, as well as Sakura\u2019s growing abilities. Discovering an ancient ability might help her\u2026or it could attract attention from the wrong people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 This was a vessel for containing monsters. Whoever built it must have been a genius. Sakura knew what she had to do now.<\/i> \u2014 Sakura doesn\u2019t know what the \u2018monster\u2019 is, or the history behind why someone would contain it. But this foreshadows some problems to come. She understands that she\u2019s rebuilding a vessel, and it\u2019s the only thing she can do to survive. But later, it might present some conflicts for her, when she realizes that she has no idea what she\u2019s done to Gaara.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The last ray of light closed on Sakura\u2019s desperate face, the darkness stealing across her green eyes like the closing of a door.<\/i> \u2014 Being lost to the dark, is Sakura\u2019s worst fear. The metaphor here ties her to the paintings in the temple room. The door is closing over her just as it did over those paintings, sealing away her light and color forever.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sasori turned his puppet head with a slow ratcheting sound. His human heart was still pinned to the wall with Chiyo\u2019s vicious looking dagger. He watched the scene with interest, tipping his head to get a better look. A slow smile curved up the corners of his beautiful mouth\u2014 When he looked back at Chiyo, new life had come back to his face. Pink spots appeared on his cheeks and a light had returned to his eyes. \u2014<\/i> At that moment, because of his angle, Sasori was able to see the green chakra coming from under Sakura\u2019s body. He knows she\u2019s got fight left in her. So he decides to right then to thwart Chiyo by helping Sakura.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chiyo\u2019s stopped pushing for a second, rage taking over. \u201cThe Slug Princess killed my teacher!! I will never forgive her. I will strike at her any way I can!\u201d<\/i> \u2014 Revealing a bit of Chiyo and Tsunade\u2019s backstory. Chiyo hated her in the manga, though it\u2019s never fully explained why. In this story, it\u2019s becomes a lifelong rivalry that is fraught with death and tragedy, not unlike Orochimaru on Tsunade\u2019s own team.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cNo,\u201d she said slowly, looking up at the cavern ceiling, thinking. \u201cShe may be the best healer of her generation. Maybe even several. Who knows what her future might have held had she lived longer.\u201d She refocused back on Sasori, with a toothy smile. \u201cBut she wasn\u2019t powerful enough to take down me!\u201d \u2014<\/i>\u00a0Chiyo acknowledges just how much of a prodigy Sakura is. But it\u2019s not enough to make her stop her destructive nature. This is a constant theme of those who seek extreme power in this story: they end up destroying everything to get it.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u201cShe told me everything I needed to know. Couldn\u2019t keep her mouth shut! She didn\u2019t know how to use her own power. So her destiny was always to be used by someone more powerful than her: Me!\u201d<\/i> \u2014 Sakura\u2019s trustworthy nature is absolutely turned against her here. It\u2019s a lesson she won\u2019t soon forget.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Life flooded back into Chiyo with her rage, burning spots on her cheeks. \u201cTsunade did that when she killed our teacher! How do you think she got her skills? She ripped them out of her body!\u201d Her voice was shaky, reliving some painful memory. \u201cBroke her body, poured our teacher\u2019s power into herself, then left an empty husk behind.\u201d\u00a0Chiyo\u2019s face was twisted with rage at the memories.\u00a0\u201cI was there! I saw her do it! Ask her, she won\u2019t deny it!!\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 Sakura will grapple with the fallout from this knowledge in the future. Did Tsunade do it? Is it possible to steal someone\u2019s power and place it in yourself? And once she learns of the death of someone she loves\u2026Sakura will need to know, can power be stolen and transferred to someone else?\u00a0The images from Chiyo has left her with will haunt Sakura. Especially when she learns that someone else’s she cares about might have been killed and emptied of his power….\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWhy do you think I killed her precious love,\u201d she snarled. \u201cTo make her pay!\u201d She annunciated every word and punctuated it with vicious laugh. <\/i>\u2014 In this story, Tsunade\u2019s fiancee was killed by Chiyo as revenge. Tsunade doesn\u2019t know it. But it will be one of the things in Tsunade\u2019s backstory that Sakura will have to come to terms with.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cBut you. You\u2014 \u201c Chiyo continued, voice dripping with cruelty. \u201cA girl who can hold me and that at bay. A girl who is too stupid to conceal her power, just handed it over to me. And a teacher who\u2019s still too meek to educate you on the what your real value is\u2014 What real power looks like, in the hands of a true master\u2014\u201c <\/i>\u2014 This has two connections. First, to Katsuro, in the temple, when he says they didn\u2019t train her before sending her out into the world. Second, it is a parallel to what is said to Katsuro by Itachi and Pain. That someone else knows more about you than you do. This will come to haunt Sakura.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Chiyo tipped her chin up defiantly. \u201cSo I choose my own death. Upstart girl, you will not take that from me. But it will be worth it\u2026.\u201d <\/i>\u2014 Parallel to Chiyo\u2019s earlier words about medic\u2019s only getting to chose death, not life. Sakura clearly is choosing life, but Chiyo has chosen death.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAnd I\u2019ve saved my best for last.\u201d Chiyo looked like she was finally victorious. \u201cI\u2019ve poisoned you,\u00a0 <\/span>you will never detect it. You will never know it\u2019s coming. And when you finally figure it out it will be too late.\u201d <\/i>\u2014 These thoughts will follow Sakura home, and no matter how hard she tries she will not be able to shake them off.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cYou are my student now.\u201d <\/i>\u2014 Prophetic words from a crazed, vengeful woman. In death, she hopes to drive one more knife into Tsunade by turning her student against her. Sakura brushes it off, but like everything that has happened to her in this battle, it has changed her in ways she simply cannot yet comprehend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0The light in Chiyo\u2019s pale blue eyes flickered out.<\/i> \u2014 This is about death dimming the light in her eyes, and it\u2019s also about the light of her chakra going out. Just as Sakura\u2019s eye color matches her chakra, in the last line Chiyo\u2019s eye color is revealed to her chakra too. It is a mark of masters, of those uniquely gifted. Sakura doesn\u2019t know it yet. But Chiyo certainly did. But in time, Sakura will try to conceal her connection to her chakra so that others can\u2019t use her the way Chiyo did.<\/p>\n

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

Chapter notes \u2022\u00a0\u201cThe Puppet\u201d at first refers to Sakura being Chiyo\u2019s puppet, then flipping it to be her own body as the puppet, and then Chiyo. The puppet ends up operating the puppet master by the end. Chiyo and Sasori have ideas about control \u2014 through puppets \u2014 and Sakura turns that on its head […]<\/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-3840","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-ZW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840","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=3840"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3905,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions\/3905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}