Alright, for real this time… maybe; i’m still struggling with the fact that i’m not very interested in Sasuke myself, so i’m not sure if i can write him in a way that’s interesting for anyone else.
[RANT] On top of that, this scene has also made me remember what a stupid technique the Chidori is. It’s noisy and obvious, it takes several seconds to activate, it consumes a huge amount of chakra, and you need to have the Sharingan just to do it without getting yourself killed – and this qualifies as an ‘assassination technique?’
I can see how it might be useful, if applied intelligently against opponents that 1) are already aware of you, and 2) have vastly superior armor-based defenses (and how does any of this sound like any sort of proper ‘assassination?’), but common sense was apparently something that Kakashi either neglected to or was unable to teach. The two times Sasuke used the Chidori against Gaara he either couldn’t see Gaara’s vital points or just didn’t bother to aim for them.
I am currently at a loss for how to explain this level of idiocy. Also, if you can attack that fast, why even bother with the Chidori? Just stab them in the face! [/RANT]
Ugh! Anyhow, enough ranting for now. I only have a tiny bit done at the moment, and i’m dunno if i’m happy with it, but hopefully now that i’ve started i’ll be able to beat Sasuke into submission a bit more easily. Yes, this is still going to be a Sasuke and Ino scene. Yes, it still follows the previous scene; in canon, Sasuke went off to play in the woods by himself after Kakashi left to go play with Itachi. Ino comes in later, because of what Sasuke heard in this version…
Finally, as the title suggests, this section is a Work In Progress. Plus, since this is a first draft of a scene with a character that i’m uncomfortable writing, anything you read here is even more likely to get the axe than normal. You have been warned!
[Edit - March 16, 2009: Got a few paragraphs done tonight but... ugh - there are reasons i try not to write angst. I need to hurry up and write a fun character into this scene before this gets out of hand -_-;...]
[Edit - March 17, 2009: Wherein somebody else gets the wrong idea. A bit more done today; almost ready for plot movement - yay!]
[No Edit - March 18-21, 2009: Sorry for the delay; i haven't vanished again, i'm just deciding what to do. This section was mostly to shed a little light on Sasuke's thoughts, and i already know how it ends, but i haven't decided yet whether i want to do anything special with Ino or not. It's been a while since she had any direct interaction with Sasuke, and she deserves some love and screen time too ^_^...]
[ Edit - March 23, 2009: Wherein we see how, when Sasuke is trying to be cunning and manipulative, it's just not as cute as when Sakura does it; a few edits to earlier text, as well as a small additon that gets the ball rolling for Sasuke's tragically doomed 'master plan.' Hopefully i'll be able to finish this part today, after lunch...]
[ Edit - March 23, 2009, #2: Still writing, but I hope i can do Ino justice here; as the Leaf genin kunoichi in Naruto go, she's probably the only one that has had her act together right from the start, and she doesn't take crap from anyone; not even Sasuke...]
[ Edit - March 29, 2009: A bit of a change of pace here, since this time i did a rather large 'rip out and replace' with the end bit. Technically, i would normally call the part inside the flower shop a 'new scene,' since now it switches to Ino's perspective, but this time i'm just going to keep going in this post. I'm still not sure i want to do it like this, but i think it's informative (and fun) to see what Ino's thinking feeling at this point - and to see how much difference there is between a social hermit crab like Sasuke and relatively well-adjusted girl like Ino, who is comfortable with herself and her relationships with nearly everyone else around her (with one glaring exception)... ]
[ Edit - April 5, 2009: Sneaky people having evasive conversations are difficult and annoying to write -_-;... ]
[ Edit - April 5, 2009, #2: I think that may be it for this section! Woo! ]
Panting heavily as the high-pitched keening faded from his ears and the pain in his hand began to subside, Sasuke straightened to survey his handiwork. To his flash-blind eyes, the new gouge he’d carved into the boulder in front of him was still just a pit of murky shadows, but as he continued to squint at the hole, trying to make out how deep it was, something seemed to flicker within the gloom; a ring of gold, shining like a single eye staring back out at him.
A startled step back allowed the gray light of morning to spill into the crater over Sasuke’s shoulder, revealing a tapered, meter-deep tear in the stone, but nothing more. Snarling in disgust at the way his heart still clenched in his chest at the memory of that hungry, inhuman gaze, Sasuke tore at the wrappings on his left arm, biting down to hold back a hiss of pain as the bandages pulled off little bits of dead skin as they unraveled, leaving raw, red patches behind.
Still not good enough… Almost three weeks after Kakashi had taught him the technique, and he still couldn’t control the lightning well enough to keep from searing his own skin. Even worse, while he could feel himself growing steadily stronger, he knew he still didn’t have the stamina for a third Chidori – at least, not without a paying a far higher price than the technique normally extracted.
‘Aim well and you’ll only ever need to use it once…’
Sasuke snorted in annoyance as Kakashi’s words returned to him. Fine advice, if your opponent’s not a monster who can wrap himself in a cocoon of living sand. Even with the Sharingan, reading and evading Gaara’s attacks had taken practically all of his concentration. He’d barely had room to breathe, much less aim. But if I could’ve held onto it long enough for a second pass-
“Hmph, I might as well wish for Naruto to stop being an idiot while I’m at it,” Sasuke spat, scowling darkly as he began rooting around in his first aid kit for burn salve and gauze. He already had to fill his body with chakra until he thought he might burst just to activate the Chidori for a few seconds. It was hard to imagine the power it would take to feed it for longer than that.
Naruto might be able do it, though, Sasuke thought bitterly. As greedy as the Chidori was, compared to the chakra it must have taken to summon that giant toad… “How can there be so much difference between us?” Sliding into his guts like a traitor’s dagger, the proof of his inferiority seemed to sap the strength from Sasuke’s limbs, nearly driving him to his knees. Leaning against the boulder with his right arm over his head, Sasuke stared down at his burned, trembling left hand. “How – how can he have that kind of power?”
It was like some sort of cruel joke. Back at the academy, Naruto had always been dead last in everything. The only reason he hadn’t been kicked out was because he was too stubborn to give up and he had the endurance to keep trying over and over again until he managed to get a passing mark – but now that stupidly incredible stamina let Naruto fight on the same level as a beast like Gaara, using techniques that Sasuke couldn’t even touch, even though the numbskull still couldn’t beat a bookworm like Sakura!
Thinking of the pink-haired girl brought a fresh stab of irritation. Back at the dango shop, Asuma-sensei had suggested that Sakura might become like Orochimaru or… or that man, but the comparison was just so absurd that Sasuke couldn’t even take it seriously. What could she possibly have done for him to say that? Sakura had changed a lot since the end of the survival exam, so much that sometimes she seemed like a completely different person, but her actual skills hadn’t improved that much.
She hasn’t shown us everything, though. Unlike Naruto, who didn’t seem to care who knew about his techniques, Sakura was keeping her secrets close to her chest. Even the concealment technique she often used was still largely a mystery; Sakura was careful to hide her hands whenever she formed the seals for it, and she absolutely refused to explain how it worked, even when Naruto had gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for a hint.
She must be able to hide her chakra, somehow, Sasuke concluded, sitting down at the foot of the boulder to re-wrap his arm.
Despite what Sakura had said about her ‘best techniques’ all being genjutsu, Sasuke was starting to think that her newfound ability to elude his gaze was just some sort of advanced kakuremi no jutsu. The other improvements she’d shown were all in the use of basic tools and tactics, so it made more sense for her to have just gotten much sneakier, rather than for her to have found some way to fool the Sharingan with genjutsu.
Still, genjutsu or not, that kind of stealth would be useful to have; if only he’d found Kakashi-sensei sooner. Kakashi-sensei had mentioned that he had a mission debriefing this morning, so Sasuke first gone to look for him at the Hokage’s tower. When he’d finally found the dango shop where the jounin had gathered, it had sounded like they were talking about Sakura’s techniques, but Asuma-sensei had already moved on to this ‘Kitsune-Tsuki’ thing that had apparently gotten Sakura into so much trouble with ANBU.
Seriously, what on earth did she do? Shaking his head in confusion, Sasuke stood up and dusted himself off before absently starting toward the center of town. Knowing Sakura, she’d probably found some forgotten technique scroll that had been misfiled in the genin library, and had made a mess of trying to use it, but that still didn’t seem like it would merit the attention of Konoha’s secret police and special forces unit; Sakura just wasn’t strong enough to use any really dangerous techniques.
Unfortunately, it looked like he’d have to ask Sakura about it himself if he wanted to know more. He hadn’t been able to contain his surprise and anger at the sudden mention that man, and the teachers must have heard him; they’d stopped talking immediately and the shop had been empty when he dared to peek around the doorframe.
At least now I know why she was acting so weird, Sasuke mused, remembering the other major point that Asuma-sensei had made. ‘Mentally unstable’ was definitely one way to describe how Sakura had behaved on the day of the Hokage’s funeral. Sasuke had hardly recognized the glib, sarcastic, foul-mouthed girl that he’d seen sparring with Naruto, and afterward… Maybe that thing she did to Kiba was ‘Kitsune-Tsuki.’
Sakura had exuded an almost tangible aura of malevolence during the confrontation in the ramen shop, and although it was funny to see Kiba scream like a little girl and dump a bowl of ramen over his head, the way Sakura had kept on laughing that cruel, maniacal, bloodthirsty laugh, even long after the dog-boy had fled… While Sasuke hadn’t been avoiding her or anything since then, he was almost glad their team hadn’t been given any missions lately; without Kakashi-sensei, they’d only be allowed to do pointless D-rank missions, anyway.
Still, this left Sasuke with a lot of time on his hands. He could only practice the Chidori once a day, since any more than that would leave him too exhausted to do anything else. There had to be a faster way to build up his stamina, but Kakashi-sensei had been resistant to the idea of teaching him any other techniques; every time Sasuke asked, the jounin would blow him off with the excuse that he’d teach them all something new once he had more time to supervise them.
Dammit, this is all their fault! Snarling in frustration, Sasuke kicked a small stone out of his path, watching as it ricocheted off of three trees before disappearing into the underbrush. Naruto was an idiot who needed to have everything explained to him ten times before he finally got it, and Sakura had apparently caused so much trouble while he was gone that she wasn’t allowed to study on her own anymore, but there was no reason for Kakashi-sensei to hold him back too!
I can’t let them keep getting in my way like this! If Kakashi-sensei wasn’t going to help him, then he’d just have to help himself – and he could start by learning the two good techniques that Naruto currently held over him. He knew Kuchinose no jutsu would be useless unless he could find a summoning contract to sign, but the Kagebunshin would definitely be a powerful addition to his arsenal – especially combined with the Chidori.
Asking Naruto to teach him the Kagebunshin would be humiliating and difficult, but that was where Sakura could make herself useful. She obviously had nowhere near the chakra reserves necessary to use it, but if he could get Sakura to take an academic interest in the technique, he was willing to bet that Naruto would be happy to explain it to her – perhaps in exchange for her explaining her stealth technique, which would be a double win for him.
Of course, while it seemed like a reasonable plan and he had nothing better to do today, first Sasuke would need to find his teammates. Locating Naruto wouldn’t be hard, since he could reliably be found at Ichiraku Ramen at least twice a day, but catching Sakura might be a bit more of a chore. Naruto had once asked him if he knew where Sakura went when she wasn’t at home or hanging out with Ino, and while he’d told Naruto to figure it out for himself, Sasuke had honestly never given it much thought.
After a moment of consideration, Sasuke was forced to admit that he had no idea what Sakura did with her days; before, he would’ve guessed that she spent all of her free time stalking him, but Sakura had gotten much… better about that, lately. I suppose she might be off training somewhere, he mused uncertainly, resisting the sudden, irrational urge to activate the Sharingan and look around.
Sasuke was half-tempted to swing by the Hokage’s tower again to see if Sakura had booked time at any of the public training grounds, but since he was already in the area he decided to check the flower shop first. Even if Sakura wasn’t there, Ino would probably be able to point him in the right direction – provided he could put up with her for long enough, that is.
Humming softly a she skimmed an article on recent hair-style trends in the capitol, Yamanaka Ino looked up from her magazine to check the time. Already 10:30? She still had half an hour before she had to meet with her team, but it would probably be good to start closing up shop. Dad won’t be back until late tonight, after all – and with any luck, neither will I!
A grin of anticipation curled Ino’s lips as she went to take in the potted plants that were on display in front the shop. With Sakura gone, her teammates probably don’t have much to do other than train, Ino surmised, grinning wider as she imagined a certain broodingly handsome boy moving through a slow taijutsu kata, his body flushed and glistening with sweat.
For now, Ino had no illusions about tearing Sasuke away from his training to spend some quality time with her, but he was still a teenaged boy. As one of the prettiest and most capable young kunoichi in the village (if she did say so herself), Ino was confident that she’d be able to wear down his resistance enough for at least a date or two; he couldn’t deny nature forever…
Unless he’s also… no. Nonononono! Shaking her head violently to dislodge that rogue fantasy, Ino began closing out the till, her fingers stabbing the ancient mechanical keys with unnecessary force. Sasuke definitely wasn’t happy after that little ‘kiss’ with Naruto, back at the academy, so he can’t be… he’s probably just too caught up in being ’serious’ to think about chasing girls right now.
Ino had a few ideas on how to fix that problem, though, now that she had time to work on him in earnest. Asuma-sensei had only been able to arrange a few short team meetings since the war, and he usually just told them to go get a D-rank mission to do, but today he’d promised them at least an hour. Likely, he’d be teaching them some new technique or tactic that they could practice on their own, which meant that after he left, Shikamaru would quickly lose interest and Ino would be free for the rest of the day!
On top of that, today was the second day of Sakura’s long mission, and Ino was finally starting to feel a bit less crazy. Yesterday she’d been total basket case; between worrying about what Sakura had told her and squirming over how close the pink-haired girl had come to openly flirting with her the day before, Ino had been so distracted that she’d ruined an entire 15-piece funeral arrangement and she’d been forced to close the shop all afternoon while she fixed it.
Not today, though! No more distractions! Sakura’s mission to the Wind Country would go smoothly and when she got back Ino would sit her down and they’d have a long talk about Sakura’s real feelings and get this whole mess sorted out before anyone got hurt and Sakura would find some other girl to like and she’d help Ino bag Sasuke and everything would be fine!
Slamming the cash drawer shut so abruptly that she nearly took the tips off of two of her fingers, Ino leveled her 100,000-volt professional ’smile of denial’ at the doorway as she sensed someone walking in. “I’m sorry, but we’re – Sasuke-kun!”
Hurtling the shop counter and crossing the room in one smooth motion, Ino pounced on the grim-faced boy before he had a chance to get his bearings. Grabbing him up in an ambush hug, Ino gave Sasuke a quick squeeze, and then loosened her grip so that she could look at his face. “I haven’t seen you in forever!” she exclaimed, ignoring the way his shoulders had stiffened under her arms.
“Yamanaka,” Sasuke hissed through clenched teeth. It was probably meant to be a greeting, but his cold, coal-black eyes were clearly screaming ‘Go away!’ as they bore down on her collarbone, as though he were trying to push her away with his gaze.
That was one of the funny, unexpected things she’d discovered about Sasuke; he could have easily escaped her grasp, or even avoided her ‘attack’ entirely, but he never did. Instead, he just glared and sulked and refused to respond. It was actually kind of cute, in a ’spoiled little prince’ sort of way, and Ino couldn’t resist teasing him about it – especially since no other girl in their class had ever dared to.
Still, Ino didn’t want to press her luck too far. Disengaging, she backed away a step to give Sasuke some room. “So, what can I do for you today?” she asked, linking her hands behind her back and leaning forward to grin up at Sasuke’s scowling face. “I can’t imagine you’re looking for flowers, so you must be here for something else.”
For a moment Ino thought he might snap at her, but then his expression relaxed, a secretive smile teasing his lips. “Actually, I suppose you could say that I’m looking for a flower,” Sasuke replied in smoky, smoldering voice that brought a flash of heat to Ino’s cheeks. Caught of guard, she nearly missed the look of triumph that flashed across his face as he added, “Have you seen Sakura today?”
The blonde kunoichi felt her mask begin to slip as she held back a grimace of chagrin. Hmph, he says he’s not interested in girls, but I’ll bet he spends an hour every morning practicing that look in the mirror, Ino decided, her playful mood swiftly evaporating. While that was probably just the reaction Sasuke was hoping for, Ino’s annoyance soon turned to worry as Sasuke continued to peer at her expectantly.
Don’t tell me he really is looking for her… Sakura had mentioned a few times that she was having trouble talking to her teammates, but Ino found it very hard to believe her painfully insecure rival would just skip town like that, without even telling them. That would only make things even more awkward for her when she got back.
Unless she wasn’t allowed to tell them, Ino realized with a start. After all, she did say that she wasn’t supposed to be talking to me about it, either. Given that Sakura had been forced to ‘quit’ being a ninja as part of the prep for her mission, Ino could see how they might have forbidden her from having any contact with her ‘former’ teammates.
But then why did she tell me? That idiot! Ino fought the urge to grind her teeth in frustration. Normally, Sakura was one of the most careful, meticulous people that Ino knew, but her common sense seemed to switch itself off whenever she got emotionally involved. Ino was still glad that Sakura had chosen to confide in her, but now she had to figure out what she was supposed to tell everyone else.
For now, I guess I’ll just play dumb. Affecting a sheepish look that strained her fragile smile almost to the breaking point, Ino injected a bit of hesitation into her body language. “Um… the last time I saw her was a couple days ago,” she confessed, watching Sasuke closely to make sure he’d hadn’t caught on. “Why, is something wrong?”
Sasuke’s expression soured, but he didn’t stalk off in a huff like Ino had half-expected he would. Instead, the Uchiha heir crossed his arms and looked to the side, as if considering his options, before asking in a guarded tone, “What do you know about a technique called the ‘Kitsune-Tsuki?’”
Probably about as much as you do, Ino thought ruefully. While there was a chance that Sasuke already knew more than she did, Ino’s gut told her that he was fishing for info. Maybe Sakura had told him the same thing she’d told Ino, or maybe he’d overheard her talking with Kakashi-sensei about it, but Ino got the definite sense that Sasuke was trying very hard to hide how few of the cards he was really holding.
“I know a little about it,” Ino replied defensively, making a show of shoring up her wounded pride; after that nasty bait and switch he’d pulled on her before, Sasuke deserved to sweat a bit. “Sakura used it on me once, though I didn’t know what it was at the time,” she added, sweetening the bait with the promise of a first-hand account.
Ino had to swallow a whoop of triumph as Sasuke’s brows drew together in the middle of his forehead. Gotcha! Though he didn’t press her to continue, the frown of impatience on his face told her all she needed to know. Now she just had to explain that she needed to leave for a team meeting, but she would be happy to hook up with later, so they could ‘talk.’
As Ino was preparing to open ‘negotiations,’ however, a new presence suddenly made itself known – and only a few feet away! Turning along with Sasuke, Ino blinked in surprise at the petite woman in ANBU armor that now stood on the threshold, one hand planted on her hip though she’d been waiting for them to notice her.
Immediately, Ino was reminded of another mysterious, masked visitor that had burst through that very same doorway over a month ago, but while the slender, washboard-flat figure looked about right, Ino was fairly certain that this wasn’t Sakura in disguise. Aside from the fact that Sakura was supposed to be out of town, there were a few other details that didn’t fit; her close-trimmed brown hair was a far cry from Sakura’s shoulder-length pink locks, and the stylized, red-on-white animal mask that hid her face clearly declared her a hunter-nin.
Wait, wasn’t Sakura wearing a hunter-nin mask when she met with Anko later that day? In the flurry of confusion and hurt feelings that had followed that unfortunate incident, Ino had completely forgotten about that weird little detail, but she’d definitely have to ask Sakura about it when she got back.
“Yamanaka Ino?”
“Ah!” Snapped out of her musings, Ino lifted her head to focus on the source of the unfamiliar voice “Yes, that’s me,” she replied, absently noting that the ANBU sounded somewhat older than she looked.
The masked woman nodded in acknowledgement. “Your jounin instructor, Sarutobi Asuma, has been detained by other duties and will not be able to meet with your team as scheduled,” she explained. “Instead, I have been authorized to assign your team a C-rank delivery mission, to be completed under your own recognizance.” Reaching into the square leather case on her left hip, the ANBU pulled out three small scrolls and offered them to Ino.
WHAT? Ino almost said shouted out loud, but she managed to maintain enough outward composure to accept the scrolls with only a nod and a look of inquiry. WHY? Why now? Why today? Turning to Sasuke, Ino was about to tell him that she’d get in contact with him when her team got back, but then the ANBU spoke up once more.
“Uchiha Sasuke?” the rat-masked woman intoned. At Sasuke’s suspicious nod, she continued, “Your jounin instructor, Hatake Kakashi, has also been detained by other duties. By the authority of the village council, you are hereby ordered to accompany me immediately to a secure location, where you will remain until further notice.”
GOD DAMMIT!
つづく (To be continued – Section Complete?)
I think you got him down pretty good. Beware of frustrated, angry and angsty teenager. XD
I think the reasons as to why Sasuke seems to rely so heavely on this this techniqueis might be: 1) One god hit and your enemy is dead and a gloriously messy corpse if done properly. 2) It’s most likely the only one of his techniques that is’nt standard or a family technique and therefore the only one that Itachi can’t already do better than himself. 3) Even though I don’t think it has been confirmed, his ‘element’ is probably lightning, so he probably feels some sort of affinity for it. 4) It’s the only technique he can do that has the potential to be at par with Naruto’s (rival) Rasengan.
Though as you pointed out it’s not exacly a sneaky attack (Slow to ignite, noisy and flashy) and the cost and risk seems to high compared to the chances of a killing blow. I somehow doubt Itachi will just stand still and take it (he easily disarm it in canon) and once done Itachi could potentialy copy it.
It’s seriously ‘assassination technique?’ I would call it a last desperate resort.
Sasuke seems to have little belife in trying to conceal it and is probably counting on becoming fast enough to properly deliver it. The idea that there exist genjutsu that can fool the sharingan and potentially hide the Chidori, himself and/or other attachs would probably interest him though, like anything else that have the potential to help him against Itachi.
It’s called an ‘assassination technique’ in the series, but yeah, i think ‘desperation technique’ fits better as well – and don’t even get me started on the Rasengan or its later derivatives O_o;….
At this point, though, Sasuke still seems to be flailing around aimlessly in his quest to get strong enough to beat Itachi. Maybe the way Sakura keeps ‘beating’ Naruto will knock some sense into him, maybe not…
Same here. Every couple episodes/chapters and in every movie Naruto seems to develope a new version of it. Better not get started on the theme.
Yeah, it makes him an easy Orochimaru target. If he had seen a clear way to gain power in the village, he probably would have stayed.
No, while he consider Naruto a strong rival he is still the “dobe” and Sakura has always been smarter than him. He would probably have to be defeated by her himself for the message to sink in. She used to be placed firmly in the “to weak to aknowledge/not a treat” (Fangirls, civilians, most people) cathegory. Now he’s probably more uncertain as to how to consider her but most likely against the idea of moving her higher up to either the “rival/threat/comrade” cathegory (Naruto, Neji, Gaara, Shikamaru?, Lee?) or the “possible source of power/teacher” cathegory (Kakashi, Orochimaru) (Itachi has his very own cathegory “Ultimate target/Sworn enemy to kill”). I doubt he would like the insecurity and the fastest and most “Sasuke” way to solve the issue would probably be to challenge her to a serious fight at the first avalible moment, and let the result settle it (At least after he hears Asuma talking).
Heh, maybe… but i sort of don’t want to answer the question of whether or not Sakura can beat Sasuke yet, and I’m not sure if Sasuke wants to know that either…
Chidori is a pretty blunt technique, but rasengan just seems like crap because naruto can’t use it for shit. Think about it, a one handed jutsu with no seals and no flash, just bamp instant internal damage to the face in like less then a quater of a second: its only because Naruto’s control is shit and he has no concept of subtlty that it sucks so much in his hands. I mean Naruto takes like four fucking seconds to charge it, but Jiraiya could pump it out in like half a second casually, the yondaime could probably do it even faster.
Still, for what it actually does, the Rasengan is again pretty excessive; i can think of less complicated ways (present in canon) of inflicting roughly the same amount of damage…
It doesn’t do tons more damage than an explosive, and obviously you could just ’stab them in the face’ like you said.
I think the rasengan’s niche is that it’s unblockable by any conventional means.
The Naruto series often misuses terms (‘genius’ when they clearly mean ‘protégé’ forex.) in the case of ‘assassination techniques what they appear to mean is ‘guaranteed kill’ technique – a technique that will allow you to penetrate any defense and kill the person or cause so much damage there’s no way the victim will survive. Of course in typical anime fashion they then proceeded to ‘one-up’ various characters until it seems everyone can survive these ‘guaranteed kill’ techniques and any defense can stop them.
Do you mean “prodigy”?
Otherwise, I agree with you on term misuse.
I find it interesing how you also show how it has another faulty aspect how it blinds the user…Sasuke relies on his eyes too much so that really isn’t good for him.
It’s only after the time skip that we see how Sasuke changed the technique to use it with his sword and do all that other crazy stuff in the fight with itachi. (At least after it’s not just a short range attack…)
While i too say it’s too flashy to be an assassination technique Kakashi probably taught him it only because that was the only thing he new that could for sure break though Gaara’s Ultimate defense. And it also seems like a good way to build your chakra reserves.
I think you did a lovely job with making him ‘in character’.
I just followed the evidence presented to its logical conclusion: if you have a technique that creates lightning, you’re probably not going to want to look directly at it while it’s turned on…
I would agree that it’s a probably a decent way to build chakra reserves, but it seems to me that there are probably a lot of less costly ways to break through a defense like Gaara’s – especially considering he miraculously developed Lee-like speed in under a month. You have no idea how much i wanna retcon that absurd little detail…
My impression was the blinding lightning issue was why you needed an activated Sharingan to use it – the Sharingan allowed the person using to actually see what he was doing.
the explanation given in the manga after kakashi first uses chidori is that moving so quickly in a straight line causes tunnel vision making it easy for your enemies to intercept your charge, which is why kakashi was banned from using it until he gained the Sharingan which is able to track movement at that speed.
also my conclusion into why kakashi taught sasuke the chidori was to dissuade sasuke from relying on the cursed seals power.
Which explains why Lee was limited to lower speeds when fighting Gaara, oh wait he wasn’t.
That might be the official explanation in the Manga but like many such ‘explanations’ it contradicts canon events both before and after the ‘explanation’
I believe Lee said something about not daring to make straight on attacks at those speeds due to everything blurring.
And if you watch his fight with Gaara most of the time he runs around and attacks from a bunch of angles other than the front (at least until he has so many gates unlocked he doesn’t care) so I’ve been thinking he just ignores the blurring and maneuvers so that it’s harder for his opponent to counterattack than it would be if he came at them straight on, only attacking the front after he’s done the back and sides.
Though you are right about canon sometimes being inconsistent.
The thing is whatever the reason Lee was able to maneuver and attack from the side at those speeds, or even higher speeds. This means that it’s possible to do so even without the sharingan, much less with it so there’s nothing limiting the Raikiri/Chidori do direct suicidal frontal attack in a straight line, much less requiring a sharingan while doing it. for that matter even if it was an issue any Hyuuga would be able to use it without any of these problems, probably some other clans as well.
Ah, but the original version (another case of canon contradicting itself) helped pull the user forward and thus had limited sideways maneuverability.
And Lee could maneuver around Gaara because Gaara doesn’t move much, so even at high speeds he stays relatively easy to track.
There was also the fact that gaara’s sand defense was automatic. So Lee probably figured that while he was going at those crazy fast speeds and hitting randomly he might be able confuse the sand and/or find an opening in it.
I don’t think lee had any problem seeing what was right in front of him but it’s another thing with his peripheral vision. It’s like when your in a car going really fast, the side window views aren’t as clear as the windshield up front.
What Lee also had to learn was making fast reactions, or split second decisions. That’s why he’s the master of hard work. He taught his muscles to automatically do things through muscle memory. Sasuke’s bloodline gives him an advantage in that it allows him to see movement before it happens, so he has more time to react to situations. Even if he’s eyes weren’t very advanced at that point i’m sure it still helped.
I think calling the Chidori and “assassination technique” was simply to make it something cool & dangerous for Sasuke to have; something to both (1) make Sasuke an even more studlier genin and (2) to make him a viable threat to Gaara.
The disadvantages of the Chidori were created so that it couldn’t be used to end a fight right way. (Sort of like the way Voltron never formed it’s Blazing Sword (to kill the giant monster with a single blow) until the very end of the episode.) It could only be used to end a fight dramatically by forcing his teammates to hold off a superior foe (and getting pounded into the ground for their trouble) long enough for Sasuke to charge it. There also had to be a reason why only Sasuke could use it. (As Naruto has already proven he could learn techniques of that level overnight.)
As far as for your story, I’d just let the reason it’s an “assassination technique” be because there’s no way to use it in a friendly spar, if it hits it’s target, it will always cause damage severe enough to warrent a trip to the hospital. (Because let’s face it, if it’s got enough amps to arc like that, it should electrocute you fairly well.)
Of course the underneath the underneath reason it’s called an assassination technique, is because you only teach it to those you want to have kill themselves using it.
Hehe… all good points, but i think i’m still gonna have to figure out some logical reason for it to be called an ‘assassination technique,’ if only because i like things to make sense. Power balancing has been kind of hard in this fic, because Sakura is sort of ‘cheating’ the whole system of ‘dramatic power escalation’ by learning skills that actually make her more sneaky and… well, ninja-like…
I’m guessing that it’s called an assassination technique because it is, when all else, fails, practically guaranteed to get the job done, just by cutting straight through essentially any defense that the target can put up. In theory, anyway. It’s an assassination technique of last resort.
When all else fails and the job HAS to be done, stealth and anonymity be damned, you can cut through all the bullshit and just kill.
I’m not sure if ‘practically guaranteed to get the job done,’ is how i would describe this technique. As far as i know, no Naruto character has ever successfully killed their intended target with this technique in canon. Granted, we’re probably meant to assume that it works every other time it’s used, off-camera, against folks that probably aren’t even dangerous enough to warrant such excessive overkill…
The problem is mainly that Kakashi, like Naruto, fell prey to the Destructo Disk Effect.
Don’t expect too much of that here; i’ve had to enforce that a little on Sakura-chan, but her techniques are every bit as dangerous as they seem. Thus far, she has never actually killed another human being, and despite Anko’s influence on her personality, she subconsciously tries to keep it that way (thus, non-lethal poison needles in her fight against those sound nins, rather than face stabbing). If she wanted to, though… Kakashi kept awarding her points in her spar against Naruto because Sakura kept maneuvering him into positions where, if she’d actually wanted him dead, he would be dead, no questions asked…
Ha, if he’s already moping about Naruto being stronger he’ll really be pissed off when he overhears Asuma…i sort of feel bad for him…only a little though…lol!
The moping, it is canon; save what sympathy you have for our poor little emo-panda, for the true torture has yet to begin…
My God, Sasuke really needs to have this attitude problem fixed, and someone really needs to beat it into him that the sharingan isn’t an infallible god-send.
BTW, your Sasuke writing is interesting, but mostly because, personally, it makes me want to hit him over the head – repeatedly. Also – maybe because I really do not like twelve-year-old!Sasuke – the last few paragraphs came off as you making fun of his superiority complex.
Actually, in the manga the Sharingan is an infallible godsend. This is one of the parts of Naruto canon that i really don’t like, along with ‘Greater power always triumphs!’ and ‘Genjutsu sucks, except when done with the Almighty Sharingan!’ so Suiren won’t be sticking quite so close to canon in those respects…
If the Sasuke i depict is a kid that you just want to hit upside the back of the head a few times, then i think maybe i’m doing it right – and while i wasn’t explicitly trying to make anyone laugh at his superiority complex, if you think he’s silly, that’s perfectly fine with me ^_^…
I really do want to punch his face in…(maybe that’s a bit too violent…nah), so he didn’t hear that she created Kitsune-Tsuki…lol. I’ve always hated how they make the Sharingan the ‘ultimate bloodline’, it’s so stupid.
There aren’t many ninja that use genjutsu in the fist place. I personally think genjutsu is a lot more affective then any other technique…a ninja’s all about being subtle. In the episodes where they do use genjutsu, Naruto totally gets owned by them.
Well, Naruto ninja aren’t about being subtle at all, but in this story it wasn’t always that way, as will be revealed later on. If you couldn’t tell already, i agree that genjutsu can be powerful, but the advantages it grants are more… tenuous, or maybe ‘fragile,’ i suppose, in exchange for the techniques in general requiring much less power to perform (in this story, anyway…)
Oh i can tell
. But you’re right genjutsu requires really good chakra control so that the illusions don’t waver…and a knowledge of how the human mind works too.
You’ve made sakura into a perfect candidate to being a genjutsu user. (or really naruto’s creator…but he never really did anything with it…grrrr) Since all she’s been doing for two weeks is research. I don’t think any of the other kids in her class ever thought of the theory behind any of their techniques. (Or in Shikamaru’s case too lazy to really care) And with that knowledge she also is the most likely to start creating her own.
YOU’RE AWESOME!!!
(I wish you could get sakura to knock sasuke down a couple pegs…but that doesn’t seem likely at this point…*sighs*)
I think the kids in Naruto in general just learn techniques way too fast. Though i can’t really take that away from them, Sakura’s approach does give her a far better idea of how her abilities work, so she consequently uses them more effectively, and she’s more likely to tweak and optimize them for better effect.
Sakura uses the ‘basic three’ ninjutsu, kawarimi, henge and bunshin, more effectively than any other genin in Suiren, and she’s modified at least one of those three to make it better. Sakura is also continually improving her self-made techniques in little ways. It hasn’t come up yet (explicitly), but she’s already figured out one way around the ‘broadcast’ effect of her ‘influence’ genjutsu, so there won’t be any more ‘Ramen Shop’ incidents…
Thanks; i’m glad you approve ^_^… hopefully i can keep from screwing things up for a little longer – and while it’s kind of unlikely that Sasuke and Sakura will have a major confrontation at this point, things may change in the future…
Sasuke: the strangest little ball of inferiority and superiority complexes in the Naruto manga.
About your lil rant on chidori: the best I can figure is that somehow having a big ol’ ball of lightning in your hand makes your feet go faster.
Not that that makes sense, either.
Bleh, they hand-waved that away by saying that Sasuke spent the month drilling Lee’s taijutsu style (which he apparently copied in its entirety just by fighting Lee once), which allowed him to somehow increase his speed to Lee’s level in just that one month, so he only needed to spend a day or so on learning the Chidori itself…
Well, the parts he didn’t copy, Kakashi saw (with his Sharingan exposed) during the Lee-Gaara fight.
I still think the physical conditioning should have taken longer, but there’s an excuse as far as technique goes–and this wouldn’t be Lee’s whole style but it would be the parts that Lee himself thought were most relevant against Gaara. Given that Kakashi only seems suddenly interested in teaching Sasuke because he’s going into a death match, those are probably the only parts he learned, just like the only technique he learned was best used for smashing tough slow things (like Gaara).
And I thought the Chidori actually did increase your forward momentum, because it’s not really lightning, no matter what it looks like. Lightning doesn’t cut or stab. It’s ‘chakra’ which functions like whatever form of energy it feels like. In this case, it’s actually some kind of kinetic force that pulls the user towards the target and then discharges into the one hit when contact is made (as evidenced by the giant holes made in rocks hit with it).
Remember the lightning nickname has to do with some stunt Kakashi supposedly did with the blade AGAINST lighning, not using it.
What about Kakashi also fighting with Gai you know how Gai’s always challenging him or something…or has Kakashi ever really fight him…i wonder how many of Kakashi’s wins have been from rock-paper-scissors games to actual fights.
If he has fight Gai with Sharingan he could have copied Gai’s technique and since Gai is Lee’s teacher…well you catch my drift.
I wonder if Sakura after time skip could break garra’s ‘Ultimate Defense’ with her super strength…probably, but Garra would still win because of the sheer amount of sand he controls…
But didn’t Sasuke after the time skip against itachi actually use the lightning in the clouds to fight with Itachi…
After the time skip Sasuke did begin using more ‘lightning element’ techniques; he even developed the chidori into a ‘lightning current’ type attack that he could channel through objects.
Tsunade and Sakura’s super strength has always struck me as kind of bogus; since i started writing Suiren, i’ve been struggling with how to explain it in a way that makes sense and can be reconciled with everything that we see them do. That said, with the canon version, i think either one of them could wipe the floor with Gaara. I say this for one reason alone: if they’re strong enough to shatter the earth for hundreds of feet around with just one finger, how much kinetic energy do you think one of them could impart to a thrown weapon?
Tsunade and (later) Sakuras monster strenght in canon actually sort of make sense to me. I don’t remember all the details but I’ve heard several times that most people only use a small percent (10%?) of the the muscles capabilities. The reason for this is that the brain limits (unconsiously)how much strenght you can exert in order to stop one from destroying one’s own body. However this limit can be breached. This happens mostly in cases of emergencies. Like the story obout the mother that lifted a car of her son. This of course comes with a price. If I remember right the mother in the story broke both her arms during her feat.
To me it seems that both Gai and Tsunade’s super strenght/speed/stamina relies on breaching those limits (temporaly). They also pay a price for it afterwards. Tsunade and Sakura not so much as Gai and Lee. But I guess that can be explained by the fact that they also use controled amound of chacra for the feat and are midic-nins. If they can use chacra to heal other people then why not to protect and/or heal their own bodies while breaching the limits.
Though repeatedly splitting the the ground open is over the top. But what in naruto isn’t. Can’t say I have ever seen real human beings jump around like pretty much every shinobi, genin or othervise does.
Though even if I like the idea of Sakura having Tsunades super strenght, I somewhat hope that you aren’t going to turn her into a medic nin (healer) in this fic. To me it seems that you are moving her in the direction of an infiltrator (like Kurenai) or assassin? (like Anko). But I guess we will see when Tsunade enters the picture (if she does).
Also will we ever know what ‘elemental type’ Sakura is. Cloning, self copying? The Gaiden chapter pretty much made that a big mystery.
Well, saying Tsunade could wipe the floor with Gaara isn’t saying as much as you’d think since she’s a Sannin and then the Hokage–I’m pretty sure Jiraiya and Orochimaru would stand stand a good chance too (remember what it looked like the first time Naruto fought him?). Sakura, like almost everyone else in Naruto, just levels her powers up towards whoever she’s getting them from too fast.
Hmm… in many ways, Tsunade is much like all other kunoichi in Naruto; i.e., she is not as strong as/doesn’t win fights against male characters at the same ‘level’ as her. I mean, Kabuto was able to give her a run for her money, when they fought.
I just assumed that meant he was a ‘badass’. Considering he also came the closest of anyone to killing the main character, took a Rasengan, then got back on his feet. Oh, and fought Shizune. That was a busy fight for him.
Well, that and that she was out of practice and would have done better if he didn’t know about her phobia.
Still, there is presumed to be a difference between the ‘badass’ level of Kakashi and Kabuto and the ‘badass’ level of the Hokage and the Sannin; Tsunade seems to be at the low end of their ‘power level’ in most respects -_-;…
Actually, the understanding that i gathered from the way its described in canon is that Tsunade’s enhanced strength functions in a completely different from the ‘Celestial Gates’ that Gai and Lee use to enhance their abilities. Rather than flooding their muscles with chakra, Tsunade and Sakura instead exert precise amounts of chakra directly at the point of contact… and don’t even ask me how that translates into to super strength, because i still haven’t figured that out. My current theory is… well, i may explain that later, as Tsunade is scheduled to make a brief appearance in this fic, theoretically.
There are a lot of inconsistencies with how speed and strength are presented in Naruto. For instance, a lot is made of Gai and Lee’s incredible speed, but nearly every ninja of chuunin level or above (and a lot of genin as well) can use ‘Shunshin no Jutsu,’ usually translated as the ‘Body Flicker technique.’ This is a super-speed movement technique where ninja focus chakra into their legs, allowing them to reposition themselves over short distances so quickly that it looks like they ‘vanish.’ It’s also used to perform better quality kawarimi no jutsu, but ninja apparently can’t actually attack while moving using this technique. I don’t understand that all.
Regardless, Sakura’s development in Suiren is obviously not going to be the same as her development in canon, but i’m not going to say that she won’t pick up some medical skills in addition to the other things she learns; given that she’s gifted with the control necessary to use them, it would be kind of stupid for her not to at least learn some basic medical ninjutsu first-aid.
At the moment, Sakura’s elemental affinity (if she has a clear elemental affinity; some people might not) cannot be determined using the usual ‘litmus test,’ due to the interference of the Kitsune-Tsuki. In the future… well, i suppose that’s Anko’s business. She may or may not know any strong elemental techniques either, since her talent lies more with genjutsu as well, and most of the stuff that Orochimaru taught her is just plain weird…
Maybe Shunshin requires too much focus and or chakra to actually do anything else while moving, unlike Gai and Lee’s muscle based speed?
Perhaps the reason why a person using ‘Shunshin no Jutsu’ is unable to attack while performing it has to do with either reaction time or multi tasking.
I can imagine that it’s pretty hard to actually see much, much less aim attacks or react to changes while moving at such speeds. Regular eyes (the sharingan being an exeption as always -_-…) might only se blurs. Therefore it might be much safer to just consentrate on a spot near the enemy move there and then see, attack and react as fast as possible.
It might also simply be to hard for most ninja to consentrate on moving so fast, aiming, attacking and avoiding counter attacks at the same time.
Though the real explanation is most likely that it would be to boring for fans to just see/read attacks to fast to be seen=mostly blurs.
Though I think we sometimes get to see it happen sometimes when two people uses it (or something similar)at the same time. Ex: Under the attack during the Chuunin exam we sometimes just se air-movement, the flash of kunais clashing and hear the sound.
Also I’m all for Sakura learning some medical skills (they’re damn usefull), as long as it just doesn’t become her main thing. The ‘new’ Sakura just doesn’t strike me as nurturing and passive type to mostly avoid battles so that she can heal the wounded.
I’d considered those possibilities – that it was a ‘perception’ limitation or a ‘focus’ requirement that prevented Shunshin from being used much as a direct attack ability – but given that ‘normal’ human beings like Lee and Gai can learn to fight at that speed (though not as well as the goddamn Uchiha) those seem like somewhat weak arguments. I suppose they’re all we have, though (sigh)…
But, if it’s a ‘focus’ isssue then it makes sense given that you’re taking a short cut via chakra instead training your body to adjust to ludicrous speeds over years (Sasuke aside). Most people just learn the version that takes more focus but can be mastered in a few weeks or whatever the standard technique learn time is for normal people and then learn other techniques rather than doing Gai-level training (which seems to match how most Naruto ninja operate)
Perhaps…
Ah well; this is something i’m definitely going to have to think upon for the future of Suiren, so i’ll figure it out when i get there, i guess.
Actually, later on the author himself seems to retcon that; when they’re introducing Naruto to the concept of elemental techniques, i’m pretty sure that the chidori is specifically defined as a ‘lightning element’ technique. That was another reason Sasuke was ’special’ – he has an affinity for two elements, lightning and fire.
Sigh… But it’s a stupid retcon.
I was unaware of it, so that must have happened after I stopped reading (around the time Akatsuki started dying in droves against people younger than them who were less accomplished than the Akatsuki members were at their age). Oh well.
It may be stupid, but even if it wasn’t retconed it would still be hard to justify what the chidori does, and how easily/quickly Sasuke mastered it.
“the proof of his inferiority seemed to sap the strength from Sasuke’s limbs, nearly driving him to his knees.” Shouldn’t it be: “from his limbs”?
“Asuma-sensei had suggested that Sakura might become like Orochimaru or… or that man” For some reason Sasuke refering to Itachi as “that man” seems somehow wrong to me. I think it would be more likely for him to (unconcious perhaps) mentaly refer to Itachi in a more familiar way, like: “His brother”, “Itachi” or just “HIM”. As much as he hate the guy, he is still his brother and while he might have refered to him as “that man” while speaking I dont think he would be able to distance himself that much when thinking.
But hey, that’s just my opinion.
Also what is kakuremi no jutsu?
Otherwise I think you’re doing a wonderful job of keeping Sasuke in character and portraying him realistic. I’m not much of a Sasuke fan either and if I had tried to do the same he would probably have come out as an sulky and angsty five-year-old (It would have been to hard to resist). So, great job
-I dunno why i would use ‘his’ rather than ‘Sasuke’s’ in that first point; can you explain?
-I’d debated about how to refer to Itachi in Sasuke’s thoughts. I’m not sure how much ‘brotherly’ feeling Sasuke would be willing to admit, even internally; Itachi slaughtered his entire clan, and while he may have been Sasuke’s favorite person in the entire world before that, he might be trying to divorce Itachi from the idea of ‘family’ at this point. ‘Him’ might work, though…
Kakuremi no jutsu are the general stealth techniques that all ninja supposedly know to some degree. They range from simple stuff like how to walk quietly, to really complex things like Kabuto’s trick of temporarily stopping his own heart, or the way Yoshinari creates a thin skin of ‘turbulent air’ around his body – both of which are used to fool observers with especially good hearing or the ability to sense nearby air movement.
The difference between kakuremi no jutsu and what Sakura does is that all kakuremi no jutsu essentially work by reducing the things there are for an observer to notice (making the ninja more ’stealthy’), while Sakura’s genjutsu works by actually going into the minds of those around her and drastically changing how likely they are to notice these things at all, and how they’ll interpret them if they do.
I think it’s a little easier to portray ‘young Sasuke’ if you remember to not take him so seriously. In a story with as many comedic elements as Suiren, lampooning him a little bit by having him make incorrect assumptions based on his misconceptions and superiority/inferiority complex is a reasonable way to do it, since i’m less likely to make him pay with his life for being an idiot…
Sure. Sentence: “Sliding into his guts like a traitor’s dagger, the proof of his inferiority seemed to sap the strength from Sasuke’s limbs, nearly driving him to his knees.” That sentence otherwise uses the words: His, him when refering to Sasuke. So it seems to me kind of out of place to suddenly go from his to Sasuke’s and back to him in the same sentence. Do you get what I mean?
Now when I reread it again I see that the sentence work the way it is. It was just something I paused at when I read it earlier.
Thanks for the explanation.
You know, they CALL it an assassination technique, but it’s actually something Kakashi invented for open warfare when he was something like ten–as revealed in the flashback before the timeskip–where Kakashi actually killed several people before the last guy could set up a counter.
Because Chidori mows through people so badly it doesn’t even usually slow down and you can catch multiple guys with a really hard to stop attack that slices through most defensive jutsu.
But ‘assassination’? No. Ambush, maybe. Yes, it’s loud, but you could spend the time people aren’t aware of you charging it and by the time they hear it it’s charged and it actually sucks you forward, making it very fast once it gets going.
As far as blinding people goes–Naruto actually sticks to the idea that normal human eyes can’t track very well when things are moving at high relative speed and Chidori pulls you that fast, which is why it needs Sharingan to work right. Since Sharingan is ridiculous, it probably can deal with lightning glare, too.
So, really it’s a mediocre jutsu-hard to use and unsubtle but hard to stop (in theory).
I think you did a decent job on Sasuke. Remember– he’s not really that interesting in canon, either, and this sounds right.
Hmm… but has any actual competent ninja yet been killed by it (other than Haku, who threw himself on it on purpose)? When Kakashi was a kid, i think he was probably using it against legions of genin redshirts until that last guy that nearly killed him.
Anyhow, i don’t like how it’s defined, and i would agree that it’s really not a very good technique, in the balance, but what can you do? [shrug] I suppose i’ll just concentrate on getting Sasuke so mired in the mess that is Sakura’s life that he’s too busy to use it…
I can understand the reasoning to call the chidori a assassination technique. Its most definitely not what you would call a general combat technique. Assassination though? I can buy that. When most people think of assassinations they think of a lone gunman sniping people from hills, or at least car bombs for noisy ones. But the two rednecks in a big beat up pickup truck plowing their way through the fence with the bulldozer shovel welded to the front of it and proceed to hit a duck with an RPG before driving of through the rose garden still assassinated a duck, no matter how messily and obviously.
Now as to whether anyone has successfully killed someone with it onscreen as it were, nope, dont think so, mind you I’m only sure about the parts up to the Gaara retrieval bit. Although it does show to be… very damaging in the hands of someone who truly knows what they are doing in the flashback with Kakashi
Hmm… i’m actually not sure i’d say those rednecks ‘assassinated’ that duck so much as they just plain ‘killed’ it, but that’s a close one. Most definitions of assassination require that the killing be carried out in a ’sudden,’ ’secretive’ or ‘treacherous’ fashion, and the problem with the Chidori is that there’s never any question about who is doing it or what they intend to do…
Hmmm, lets see…
Sudden, I can kinda see it as a sudden attack depending on how long it takes to charge if your good at it, or at least if you out of sight to not warn then and the rapid movement does lend to that.
Secretively, no after it got famous uh uh, no way no how. But before that people may have heard it coming but the question is if they understood it.
Treacherously, depends entirely on point of view and personal use. So it can easily be used this way.
So it can be looked at as a sudden killing technique, basically a one shot one hit one kill technique. A finishing technique that tended to be used in a assassination manner during the war and got stuck with a label when it got famous?
Well, from what we’ve seen it seems to take a few seconds to charge, even for Kakashi; he actually had to restrain Zabusa before he used it – and Haku was still fast enough to get in the way. It can definitely kill most opponents in one hit, but i still have to question its general effectiveness given this weakness…
A thought just struck me.
Ino might not have talked to Sasuke since before the whole glorious mess with Sakura started. Now (if I remember right) she thinks that Sakura doesn’t really like boys, but girls and her in particular. Also that there is’nt and perhaps never was a real rivality over Sasuke.
God, I can’t help crack up on the thought of the already pertubed Sasuke recieving those ‘news’ XD.
However I’m not sure whenever Ino would say anything about her ‘realisations’ (theories) to Sasuke or not. Perhaps, she might feel that he has ‘the right to know’. In any case I think that most of her interest in Sasuke (though it might has started out as a childhood crush) was due to the rivality between her and Sakura. Getting him would be a prof of her superiority.
Now that she belives that Sakura is’nt really interested in him I think Ino’s interest also would drop. He would still be a hot guy in her eyes, but probably not much more.
Hmm… i dunno if Sasuke would get any more perturbed over being told that Sakura likes girls, but he might be upset and confused about why she was always after him before, which would of course require more explanation about how Sakura has only recently come to this revelation, and how she need all the support that everyone can give her…
I’m pretty sure Ino declared her crush on Sasuke first, and then Sakura initiated the rivalry by declaring the same, but yeah, after a while it probably changed (for Ino, at least) into mostly a battle for superiority, rather than a fight over a boy. Still, for Ino, getting Sasuke might be a way to get Sakura to give up on her, as well as a way to encourage Sakura to finally let go of the ‘act’ and just ‘be herself’…
Goes and get English-Norwegian dictionary… Whoops, wrong word sorry. I meant confused and maybe a little disturbed.
I think he would belive it and perhaps see it as a cause for her change in behavior. I however cannot see him being supportive, at least not without it turning into a very akvard crack moment. Gratefull that she might stop pestering him perhaps, but not supportive.
Yeah Ino might consider this a good time to get a boyfriend and Sasuke is probably high on her list of candidates. However I don’t think he has any interest in starting dating, I think he would consider it a drag that he would’nt have to go through until after he has killed his brother (if he survives that is).
As for Sakura current feelings for Sasuke. I don’t know what you picture them to be at this moment, but to me her ‘feelings’ towards him seems to have cooled down. She seems to like him more out of habit than anything else. She’s been real busy lately so of course that could be the reason that it seems that way. Though I hope that she’s getting over her crush, and perhaps realising how Sasuke consider her (as you so wonderfully rendered in this new edition) as a hinder and a tool to be exploited.
Looking foreward to your next update
I hope you’re right about her not liking Sasuke in this story. He’s an ASS!! (grrr!!!)
I’m not really sure how i picture Sakura’s feelings toward Sasuke at the moment; those things tend not to solidify in my mind until i have the two characters standing in front of each other and interacting – and Sakura’s got a pretty volatile temperament lately, so how she feels ‘now’ can change from moment to moment…
Unfortunately, though, some girls actually like asses. I’m not saying Sakura does, but i think she really needs to feel her pride being threatened by Sasuke before she’ll be able to see him for the ass that he is…
Another thing. This ‘trip/mission’ Sakura is currently on, will it be counted as a completed mission (in her stats) when completed, (after she gets reinstaded as a ninja) or will it officially never have happened. Or something in between?
One ought to give the girl some kind of carrot if she pulls it of. Official or not.
If it were to be counted as a mission, what rank would it have?
I’m very sure that in Wolves, the mission scroll that Kurenai gives to Sakura’s grandfather was labelled as A Ranked.
The escort contract is indeed an A-ranked mission, but Sakura isn’t technically included on that particular contract. As to how this little excursion will actually reflect on Sakura’s record… you’re going to have to wait and see for that ^_^…
I almost forgot that Sakura legally isn’t a ninja anymore. Yeah, any hints on how it’ll be reflected on her record? Because I doubt that something along the lines of civillian tag-a-long would do.
As i said, these things will be explained in time ^_^;. Not every little twist in this story is necessarily important to the plot, but i do tend to often go back later on and suddenly decide that some random element of detail that i happened to have inserted actually is going to be important after all, just because the story has gotten out of hand and turned that way, so i try not to lay down my cards on the table too often – because they’re effectively all jokers…
What an ASS! I REALLY want to punch him! I can’t wait until itachi whips his ass at the hotel…
I love how Kakashi wants to teach them ALL something new…hehe, i think he’s finally getting the whole teaching-the-team business now.
Agreed, lets hope Sakura punches him or something if he tries to approach her with his ‘master plan’. He ought to be on her shitlist. Wonder how sour she could make his life using the technique that fools his allmighty sharingan. XD
Mmm. He’s finally stopped favorising, and of couse that doesn’t go over well with the little Uchiha.
For Kakashi, this may sadly be ‘too little, too late,’ but i guess you have to give the guy points for trying, and i’m thinking that Sasuke probably won’t get to try out his ‘master plan’ anytime soon, since neither of his hapless targets are currently in the village. Plus, while he is an ass, i don’t think Sasuke has treated Sakura badly in any obvious way (or at least there’s never been an occasion where Sakura can’t blame his treatment of her on her own behavior), so her impression of him is still up to him to decide…
True. In the beginning of the series she really was acting like a lovestruck fangirl (annoying). Now her outward character and mannerism have completely changed, and she has matured. Sasuke however seems to ignore these changes and is expecting dealing with the ‘old’ Sakura.
It will be interesting to see how the future interaction between those two will play out.
Yeah, the thing about Kakashi is that most people accuse him of favoring Sasuke, but I accuse him of just plain not wanting to teach. He teaches three kids one chakra precision exercise when they are likely going to fight Zabuza again, then doesn’t seem to do much until he realizes Sasuke has a death match against Gaara, so it’s cram time for that one kid because he doesn’t want him to die, when he could have been teaching him earlier.
Sasuke isn’t necessarily ignoring the changes so much as… well… not really understanding them – though i think he might be forgiven a little bit due to the fact that he’s had limited exposure to her since the war. Sasuke tends not to ’see’ people very well in general, though, other than through his valuations of them as either ‘tools’ or ‘obstacles,’ with regard to his vengeance. I’m not sure how much i’m going to be able to address that part of his personality, though; if Suiren has a ‘goal’ at all, it’s goal is to explore how large changes ripple outward from small ones… and if Sasuke’s happens to be pushed away from the ‘center’ of this change as a result…
Anyhow, we shall see i guess. I keep going back and forth on how much i want him involved in this story; it’s driving me a little crazy >_<;…
Regarding Kakashi’s teaching efforts (or lack thereof)… for all that he goes on about teamwork, he really doesn’t do anything to actively encourage it. He tries to get Naruto and Sasuke to ‘bond,’ but that’s about it. Individually, Naruto and Sasuke are amongst the strongest of the rookie 9, but in terms of effectiveness as a team, team 7 was the very worst, because he just left that part up to the kids to work out… so yeah, Kakashi != Teacher seems about right.
“- perhaps in exchange for explaining her stealth technique, which would be a double win for him.” This sentence is missing a “her”.
Fixed; thanks!
“in 0.13 seconds, and she standing in front of him”, is missing a ‘was’.
Fixed… and then replaced ^_^;…
Oh i like this new point of view! If i have to hear any more of Sasuke’s thoughts in this chapter i’ll scream.
I think you write Ino very well, she’s not an air head like a lot of writers make her out to be, onsidering she’s the top kunoichi in her class. Plus she’s already mastered quite a few of her clans techniques herself. And with her creating that rope bind with her hair on such short notice, i haven’t scene Sasuke make anything new technique-wise…all Sasuke’s been doing is stealing from others…grrrr…it’s so unfair that he steals Lee’s fighting combos (and does them perfectly on the fist go) so easily when Lee had to work his ass off to perfect them.
That eye technique is so cheating, i mean all they have to do is train to be fast and have enough chakra so that they can keep up with their opponents and then they’ll have no problem copying everything to getting the upper hand…then again they probably know nothing about how the technique works other that instinct and they rely on their eyes way to much.
I really want to know what Ino’s going to tell him…hopefully she’ll be vague about where Sakura is to piss him off. Sasuke’ll probably think good riddance when he finds out about Sakura ‘quitting’…maybe that could be why he goes to see Kakashi at his apartment only to find out about Itachi…
Where’s ANKO!!!! I miss her…lol!
It’s hard to write Ino sometimes, since i feel kind of obliged to let her have the upper hand in most conversations. When i was trying to pick distinguishing character traits for her to flesh out the cardboard-cutout characterization from the manga, i decided that she should be much more confident and socially savvy than Sakura, but i constantly have to remind myself that she can also be very bossy, vain, and temperamental.
But yeah, i may have cheated a little bit by letting her develop her ‘hair bind’ technique into something that powerful, but from a theoretical standpoint, what she did with it in the manga is already pretty impressive; she made her hair as strong as steel and subtly maneuvered it after cutting it off so that it formed a snare. With some tweaks and extensions, i can see a lot of possibilities there, but i dunno if canon Ino would have been crafty enough to come up with them…
I’m trying to give Sasuke a little more credit as well, though; in canon, he never shows any interest in learning the Kagebunshin, despite the fact that he probably has enough chakra to make a small handful of them – nowhere near as many as Naruto can, but he would probably be able to employ them better than Naruto does as well.
I don’t think it was unfair that Sasuke was able to steal the actual motions that Lee used, but i do think it was grossly ridiculous that Sasuke was able to copy Lee’s speed as well, since Lee worked for years to get that fast.
Anko isn’t gone forever, but with the glacial speed that Suiren moves at, i’m having trouble getting back to her. Please bear with me for a bit longer -_-;…
That’s pretty much how I felt about Sasuke’s power boost as well.
Well, as long as we get to see Anko again eventually, all’s well.
As for Ino, you’re right that while canon Ino’s not the world’s best ninja, she at least seems to understand social interactions a little, which puts her miles above many of her peers (and adult ninja), not that that takes much.
Yay for another update. It’s interesting to see the same scene from Ino’s angle, particulary after having already read it from Sasuke’s viewpoint.
I wonder why Sasuke doesn’t dodge the ‘attacks’, is because that would be to un-Sasuke, does he think it will stop if he just glares long and hard enough or does he just enjoy being the center of attention to much (more than he dislikes the pawing)? Hmm…
“As one of the prettiest and most capable young kunoichi ‘in the?’ village (if she did say so herself),” The sentence are missing some words.
Random note:
Yesterday I stumbled over a fanfic that caught my interest. The idea of the storyline isn’t all that original. It’s one of the stories about what would have happened if team 7 had gotten a different teacher that Kakashi. However in this case they get MORINO IBIKI (the leader of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Unit) of all people as a teacher, so I just had check it out. It was a suprisingly good fic and after all the discussing about Kakashi (failings) as a teacher I found it really refreshing.
Title: Something to Die For
Rating: T
Summary: Morino Ibiki was thought to be the last choice for a jonin sensei, but thanks to the efforts of Umino Iruka, he finds himself saddled with a familiar team of new genin…
Chapters: 8 (incomplete)
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3003800/1/Something_to_Die_For
(Eimii. I hope you don’t take offense that I recommended another fanfic on your site. Suiren is still the KING. I just couldn’t help myself after stumbling across it right after all the dicussion about Kakashi as team 7’s teacher. It was just the perfect “what if?” sidetrack).
Looking foreward to your next Suiren update as always.
I’d say Sasuke’s ‘tolerance’ of Ino’s attentions is a little of all of the above. He has an image to maintain and he probably thinks he deserves the attention, even if he doesn’t necessarily enjoy it; his ego is a fragile, conflicted thing.
Thanks for pointing out that mistake; fixed!
Finally, i don’t mind folks recommending other fics on my site; i read fanfiction too – and i don’t mean my own! I’ve read that fic; it’s entertaining, but i have some reservations about the path that’s being chosen for Naruto’s development – though i guess i could say that about the canon characters as well. Too-capable heroes always annoy me a bit, and canon Naruto and Sasuke have the potential to be absolutely godlike at anything they set their minds to -_-;…
All male egoes are fragile conflicted things.
I agree with you one that one I remember snorting “yeah right!” When reading that part. Naruto is in no way or shape a natural born assassin. I guess the reason for that part is that the writer is (judging by the fic) a big Naruto supporter, and this is his way making Naruto stronger and ‘cooler’. And what’s with some of the OCC’s. I understand that the author needed to make up some members for the unit since the only known member is Ibiki, but ex-mist-nins in such a important and secretive unit and the lovebirds, I mean really… Entertaining though.
Yeah. Uber-powerfull characters are annoying. One of the big reasons why neither Sasuke nor Naruto have ever been my favorites. In my opinion one of the most common mistakes made by fanfic authors is overcompensation when writing about their favorite characters (OCC or canon). It’s just plain annoying to read about a character (even one’s fav) going from zero to hero in 0.9.
Authors undercompensating and/or bashing character they dislikes is almost equally annoying to read, unless of course one agree.
But bashing characters you dislike is so much fun sometimes…it gives you an outlet for your frustrations.
I mean come on you gotta agree with me that Sasuke’s one-track mindset for revenge is annoying sometimes…He finally kills itachi only to find out he was ordered to kill everyone.
Mandara said Itachi did it all to keep the village as a whole safe. Why join Pains marry band of missing nin to destroy the whole village when it’s the fault of those stupid old geezers up top. No one else knows of the Uchiha plot in taking over the village. They’re all just power hungry idiots with too much pride.
I know someones going to probably argue with that last little bit but it’s my opinion. I wonder what would have happened if the Uchiha’s where to have become the leaders of the village when the village first started…
And yes i totally agree that it is frustrating when someone makes there fav character’s uber-powerful with a made up bloodline within the first chapter of a story. Or making someone so out of character you want to scream. (Though sometimes they’re really funny to read.)
It all comes down to one point really, how much artistic license/creativity you enjoy in what you read. Everyone has there own imaginations and opinions on things. So i guess there’s no use in really complaining about it. (Even if I do anyways…lol)
I’m not sure i have a leg to stand on here; Suiren Sakura is very clearly much more capable than canon Sakura. Most notably, she has an inventive streak that canon Sakura has never displayed, which allows me a lot of creative leeway when it comes to creating her techniques ^_^;…
I think you have a leg to stand on. Two in fact.
What sets your way of portraying Sakura and making her stronger off from fics that I would consider bad is the fact that you do it in a realistic and belivable way (More realistic than in the canon in my opinion).
You base the developements on pre-existing abilities and hints like inteligence, chacra control, Ino vs. Sakura genin-fight, inner thoughts and similar from the manga.
You (unlike a lot of others) doesn’t pull an über-bloodline or mysterious ancient power out you a$$ when you want Sakura to become stronger.
You take what is already there and develops it.
The inventive streak that you talk about is something that I feel that Sakura should have had anyways. (Also shouldn’t she be at least somewhat inventive with techniques in order to be able to be a good medic nin?) She is probably one of the genins with the most knowledge and understanding of the theories and principles behind the different techniques and therefore the one most likely to be able to develope existing techniques and creating new one.
Very much more likely to do so rather than Naruto, that mostly work by using pure intuition, extremely many tries and probably dumb luck. And has teachers teaching and supporting him while he’s at it. He shouldn’t be able to use the rasengan in the first place, much less develope it into (god knows how) many different new versions.
However Naruto is as we know a (shonen) manga created by a man for boys and it shows. Particulary when it comes to the abilities, powerlevels and developements of the female characters.
(I’ll stop my rant there before it gets even more out of control ^-^;)
Well, i do try to cover my ass as much as possible when i introduce things. I’m obsessed with making sure that things make sense… which often makes writing Naruto fanfiction very frustrating.
I’ve actually have written a tiny spamfic for Naruto that crosses it with 3×3 Eyes, where i made Sakura a sanjiyan unkara (i even had an explanation for it, too!), so i can’t say i’m blameless when it comes to pulling things out of my ass… but i rarely carry experiments like that very far, unless i can find a way to make them entertaining.
I also have a Naruto/Neon Genesis Evangelion fic that i currently have on hold while i try to find a way around the fact that the Children (aside from Rei) would probably have serious moral reservations about the ninja lifestyle O_o;…
I actually read that fic, but I had no idea what serie you were trying to cross the Naruto verse with. My guess was Elfen Lied. 3×3 Eyes, is that the serie where some of the character have eyes on their forehead? I’ve seen clips of it in AMV’s but am not familiar with it.
I know what series Neon Genesis is, but not the plot ^x^;
A crossover with Elfen Lied… Now that I think about it that could actually work really well. Sakura could fit as a Diclonius, Pink hair, a violent inner voice, unknown parents, hell even the way she wears her forehead protector could be to hide the horns…
Yeah, 3 x 3 Eyes is an old, old supernatural action series. In that fic, Sakura is a member of an extinct race of demi-humans that have three eyes, magical powers a tendency to develop a split personalty. They can also create an immortal protector called a ‘Wu’… so basically, Sakura is herself, with three eyes and magical powers that aren’t quite so impressive by Naruto standards, and Lee is her immortal servant ^_^;…
I’ve never read/watched Elfen Lied, but from reading the wikipedia description it does sound like that might be a good fit… though the powers associated are, again, not quite so impressive by Naruto standards -_-;…
Oh, okay.
Actually the powers are much more impressive and lethal than they sound. You can use the links to the three Elfen Lied AMV’s underneath if you want to see.
[Gore and nudety warning]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yG10fWSeXc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnK589S9w7A
One other thing about these kinds of crossovers: in either case (3×3 Eyes or Elfen Lied), the physical change would most likely be considered ‘just another advanced bloodline.’ As such, there is a reasonable chance that they would be regarded (in Konoha) with admiration or at least in indifference/tolerance, rather than persecution.
Against normal people, the telekinetic powers of Diclonii are nothing to sneeze at, but Naruto ninja tend to be much, much tougher than normal human beings, not to mention stronger, faster and more varied in attack/defense options. The ability to use these powers instinctively from a very young age might be considered an unusual advantage, but otherwise, many of the advanced bloodlines in Naruto are capable of more impressive feats…
True enough. The naruto-verse is crazy enough that much strangness is accepted.
However there’s one big diffrence in this case between the Diclonii and other advanced bloodlines. This power are’nt just passed on from parents to kids, it is also like a contageous disease.
If a person comes in contact with the vectors of a Diclonii and are’nt killed in the process, all that persons offspring will also be Diclonii and perhaps not pass on the parents bloodlines.
And since a Dicloni are’nt technically/genetically human anymore, it is possible that they can’t crossbeed with regular humans and have fertile offspring (not sure).
For ninjas with no bloodlines getting powerfull Diclonii kids might be a step up, but in clanes with esteemed bloodlines like the Uchiha and Hyuugas the Diclonii may actually be considered a big threath to the future of those bloodlines. So I doubt they could avoid percecution or discrimination.
I’d think the real advantage would be that, although the audience can see them, the attacks are really invisible (except maybe to cheating eye justu) until they connect with something.
Oh and on Naruto/Neon Genesis, Asuka might be able to function as Naruto does, wherein she just usually tries to keep her body count down (by beating up her foes and then leaving them to be tortured and possibly killed by her allies) but Shinji would require multiple browbeatings I suppose (and might become a missing-nin by running away).
Weren’t the ‘viral’ variant of the Diclonii always born sexless/sterile, and thus only able to ‘procreate’ by further spreading the ‘infection?’ In any event, while that aspect would probably cause alarm even in the Naruto world (especially with all the contact she would be having with other students during the course of the series), it all depends on whether or not anyone knows that little detail yet.
Also in question is whether or not the ‘genocide instinct’ really is a genetic imperative. Among the canon characters, i think Orochimaru would be the most likely to have researched these topics…
I don’t remember the spessifics but it sound familiar so you might be right. I know that the first ‘natural born’ Diclonii, Lucy is reffered to as the queen and that she can breed. So the Dicloni born by infected humans might be like bee drones all female(?), but sterile.
Though even if the ‘drones’ are sterile they can still spread and be a treath in any case.
If (as you pointed out) this is known.
The genes vs. environment question when it comes to the ‘genocide instinct’ is never (as far as I know)answered in the series.
Yeah, if sounds like something Orochimaru would have a lot of fun researching.
Story history-wise, since queen Diclonii are born naturally to human parents, there might have been previous ‘outbreaks’ that had been violently suppressed. That would give the persecution angle a bit more traction. With how ninja society seems to work, information on this ‘dangerous bloodline’ would probably be scarce outside of the higher echelons, leaving the rest of the populace nothing but general paranoia to work with.
Since the Third is such a big softie, he might decide against having any new Diclonii killed at birth. Instead, there would probably be some unpleasant ‘rules’ to prevent the creation of drones, like ‘Never use your bloodline against an enemy that you do not intend to kill,’ and, ‘Any enemy you have used your bloodline against must be killed without fail.’
With that sort of setup, I’d imagine that if Orochimaru discovered a living specimen of this strange, ‘infectious’ bloodline, he might very interested…
Ya i just started watching the series it would be interesting to see a story with that…
That’s what I meant with the last sentence. If one doesn’t like the character that’s being bashed, it can be quite entertaining. While if you do, not so much.
Unless of course it’s a crack fic. In crack everything goes.
I’m not so much a Sasuke fan, I don’t hate him, but I don’t mind him being riddiculed. (I’ve done it myself in drawings. It’s fun, very childish, but still fun) By the way search ‘uke’ (manga) on Wikipedia and get yourself a good laugh.
I also got kinda confused when he joined Aktsuki. My guesses are 1) Sasuke wants revenge on the village for screwing up his life 2) It’s his way of avenging his family (Itachi included) 3) He does’t really know whats going on and what the Akatsuki were planning 4) Something about him and Madara being the last Uchiha’s and the past makes him think that their motives are similar 5) He has nothing better to do 6) He’s a fruitloop. Take your pick, it doesn’t make sense to me either.
(Quite frankly I think the whole canon plotline become to compicated and that Kishimoto got enough said #&#¤ let’s blow the village up and start from scratch with fewer characters to consider. Or of course it’s his way of getting closer to the end of the series in a much faster way. Who knows)
I’ve long since given up on making sense of Sasuke’s motivations or the canon plot. To me, Naruto is a story with a lot of things that seriously need to be ‘fixed,’ which is why i can bring myself to write fanfiction for it. I never write fanficts for series that i’m totally satisfied with ^_^;…
If you make yourself remember Sasukes background story his actions beginn to make a lot of sense. As does his character. Btw. anybody who calls him Emo misses the Point of beeing emo. Which is having no reason to be a whiny little bitch.
If having your parents murdered in front of your eyes, then beeing mindraped by the person you most idolised and all after beeing told your clan is generaly the best, most powerfull. Doesn’t drive you insane, quite frankly you already were.
So is Sasuke an ass? Hell yes. But really if we were in his position we would be too.
I have no trouble remembering Sasuke’s back-story, but most of the time he still doesn’t make sense to me – unless we are to assume that he is an impatient, shortsighted idiot. Yes, Sasuke was traumatized, but his coping mechanisms leave a lot to be desired, and his reasoning tends to get so snarled in his emotional knee-jerk responses that it really seems like he has no foresight or hindsight at all…
Well I would say that his emotional development was brutally cut short, actually his entire development was cut short. So yes I think he is an impatient shortsighted idiot. What was the term savant? He’s only really good at Ninja techniques. And anything that has to do with that so tactics and combat strategies are golden.
Social interaction, long term planing beyond combat and empathy are nearly non existant. In essence he’s still a child even more so than the others. He only apears mature because he acts so moody.
But really he wants Revenge and training now. He wants to fight Itachi alone. He goes into the car of the guy who promises him candy…
He’s a child… in more ways than the obvious. And again you can’t blame him for it.
And you know you have me defend him and I don’t particulary like him. It’s just that with the constant bashing of him(only mildly present here but still) he fell into my underdog folder and well I kinda feel for them^^
I think maybe the problem with Sasuke is that while he has a past that might inspire sympathy or pity, his personality and actions actively discourage it. I don’t like him and can’t really enjoy writing him, so i try to avoid it, but by the same token, i hope i managed to make his appearance in this fic consistent with his canon character, and not more negative than he warrants.
Well I don’t think a person with as many mental problems as Sasuke would be very likeable^^ So no problem there from me. As I said I don’t like him much either.
But I understand why he is the way he is and why he acts the way he does. And I don’t blame him for it.
Or call him emo. Which isn’t apropriate at all in my opinion.
What he really needs is a good shrink. But I somehow doubt you’ll find one in the hidden villages if all the halfway insane characters are any indication.
At first, the genjutsu focus got me because, by canon, genjutsu is supposed to require very good control, and canon Naruto starts out with very, very poor control… but then i realized that later on Naruto exhibits genius-level control, when mastering the Rasengan, and i just got really annoyed (see my thoughts on too-powerful characters -_-;…) The OCs… eh, i normally dislike OCs with a passion, but the author hasn’t done much fleshing out of them yet, so i think i’ll reserve judgment.
Personally, i try not to bash characters unless i can justify it by their canon traits and i can make it sufficiently entertaining.
Mastering or learning?
Because the latter was more a genius way to cheat around control requirements by using as many crutches as possible.
Well, he does later master it, and he learned it at a speed that was supposedly ‘impossible’ – but then, the technique was supposed to be ‘impossible’ to learn at all -_-;…
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means…”
Supposedly impossible? When he’d been doing a lesser version of the technique for over three years?
I think the person saying that just conveniently forgot that he might have been improving incrementally all that time.
Nice Princess Bride reference.
Yes, supposedly impossible. Before Naruto proved her wrong, Tsunade, the ultimate chakra control genius, kept mocking Jiraiya about how he was ’still trying’ to teach someone else ‘that impossible jutsu.’ Apparently the Rasengan is so hard that only four people have ever learned it. (The Fourth > Jiraiya > Naruto > Konohamaru)
And thanks; any chance that you can use that one, or “My name is _____. You killed my _____. Prepare to die.” is a chance not to be missed ^_^.
Actually as far as we know these people are also the only ones which has been taught this technique. If that is so that means what 100% of those who has tried to learn the Rasengan (under the guideance of one who has aleady mastered it) has managed it.
The Rasengan might be hard to learn and demand a lot of chacra and control but I belive that the main reason why so very few have mastered it is mostly due to the fact that those who know it is interested in keeping the technique secret and only teaches it to one (?) close apprentice before they die.
It might require one to have enough stamina, chacra, decent chacra control (or like in Naruto’s case enough stamina and chacra to keep trying until you get it right) and perhaps an wind affinity.
However many more ninja should be able to master it if they were taught and had enough time.
I think i would disagree with that assessment, at least with regard to Naruto canon; the way Tsunade spoke to Jiraiya strongly indicated that he had tried and failed to teach it to other students before Naruto.
Didn’t kakashi know how to do it too, it was when he was trying to help naruto combine it with elemental chakra…i think…
Anywho Rasengan is just pure chakra it probably doesn’t matter what kind of affinity you use. But i guess wind would probably be the easiest element to use while using it since it uses the air around it.
Plus naruto was guided on how to learn each step by step jiraiya…the fourth is the mastermind of the technique since he’s the one to figure out how to manipulate his chakra to do it. Naruto had it a lot easier.
I just assumed she meant impossible for a kid like Naruto. I mean, clearly it’s not impossible given that the Fourth taught it to Jiraiya.
And it turned out to actually be impossible for him to muster the right amount of control back then.
Another three years of practice meant that he took as long mastering as it took it’s creator to invent it (and making something that no one’s ever done before is harder than getting it from someone who knows how to do it).
Actually, Tsunade specifically said that the only people capable of using the Rasengan are Jiraiya and the Fourth.
I totally agree with you on that!
GRRR! Stop being so nosy Sasuke! If Ino tells him she doesn’t know it, he’ll for sure realize she’s lying. I wonder how she’ll get out of this predicament. But knowing her she’ll probably (hopefully) get out of telling Sasuke. I mean Sakura specifically told Ino not to tell anyone…right? (Even if she told Azuma…)
And if she does wiggle out of this problem Sasuke will probably be even more curious and frustrated…I find i like the idea of keeping Sasuke in the dark…it makes good entertainment…*smiles innocently*
Actually, Sakura never specifically asked Ino not to talk to anyone about the Kitsune-Tsuki, Sakura just indicated that she didn’t think they should be talking about it because it’s a kinjutsu. As such, Ino is under no real obligation to not do investigating of her own; the fact that it’s a dangerous kinjutsu and that it’s hurt Sakura in the past, is probably justification enough for her to want to find out exactly what it does…
Maybe Sakura had told him the same thing she’d told Ino, or maybe he’d overheard her talking with Kakashi-sensei about it, but Ino got the definite sense that Sasuke was trying very hard to hide how few of the cards he was really holding.
Didn’t she ask Asuma? not Kakashi?
Well, she wasn’t talking about her, she was talking about Sakura. Ino has no idea who Sakura has talked to about the technique, but she sort of assumes (incorrectly -_-;) that Sakura would have at least told Kakashi about it.
Haha poor Kakashi in the dark.
Small, flattchested and rat-masked ANBU. Is that Asano? I wonder, did she choose to interrupt right then, before to much could be said…
Detained, well that’s one way to put it.
Hmm. What might Ino’s team’s C-rank delivery mission involve?
Also Sasuke being moved into hiding. Then the Sasuke meeting Itachi (and being pwned) incedent whon’t take place? Sasuke should hope that Anko isn’t back yet and assigned to do the babysitting. He’s like a perfect little torture target XD.
Can’t wait for the next part
That would indeed be Asano; as always, her timing is impeccable, but most ANBU tend to be like that…
The answers to your other questions should all be revealed in the next section, so hopefully you won’t have to wait too long ^_^;…
It’s always neat to see other characters discussing Sakura. She’s such an oddball in this fic that there’s plenty to discuss.
It felt like Ino was much more ‘together’ in this scene (for lack of a better word) than she was in earlier chapters, though I’d need to go back and re-read to make sure.
I definitely liked Sasuke (pretending he knows more than he does to fish for information? Definitely a Sasuke move), and I’m pretty interested in finding out why he’s going to the ANBU center. For the cursed seal, or to get warned off from asking around for Sakura (Asano’s appearance was certainly timely), or for some other reason?
Who knows.
Most of Ino’s other appearances have been with Sakura, and Ino is currently having a lot of trouble dealing with Sakura in a level-headed manner ^_^;…
There are logical canon reasons why they might want to stick Sasuke somewhere safe… too many of them, really; it makes me wonder why they didn’t, in canon…
Random thought:
It just struck me that canon Nagato/Pein and fandom Sakura’s ability seems to have some (perhaps shallow) similareties.
Sakura apparently somehow through chacra implants an copy(?) of herself into a living ‘victim’ that manages to repress the ‘host’ and (temporarely?) takes over. While Nagato somehow broadcasts himself through the use of the Rinnegan and special piercings/rods/antennaes into corpses that he controls? And at the same time recieves direct feedback from, he is able to see ‘live’ through all his ‘puppets’ eyes.
So far Sakura seems to only be able to gain information from her copies if she partly or completely reabsorbs the her injected chacra. Similar to how one can gain the knowledge of one’s own kage bunshin clone after they have been dispelled. Also she doesn’t appear to have any dirrect link with her ‘copies’ or anyway to control them.
I wonder if it could also be possible for Sakura to somehow (with or without devices like the rods to) broadcast her chacra and syncronise with her ‘copies’. Perhaps gain intelligence from them, sense their position or similar without having to ‘reabsorb’ or directly communicate with them. Could it also be possible for her to ‘posses/animate’ recently dead beings? Or is this all impossible for her?
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Will there perhaps be more info about Sakura’s ’special talent’ later in the storyline. Yoshinari or some else ought to figure out something about the ‘Kitsune-tsuki’ soon, or are everybody to busy with other things at this point?
(shrug) I suppose it all depends on how much control we want to assume he has over his own behavior…