🎉[shop update]I restocked most of my FE merches and added some new prints. Also a new series of narusasu prints/stickers/acrylic standee are now available in my shop!🎉
people rightly criticize how team 7 reacted to sasuke's pursuit of justice for his clan, but one thing i feel is always overlooked in these discussions is how sakura literally is not granted the option by the narrative to learn about what sasuke has been through — not in the way that naruto, kakashi, or even team taka are. throughout all of part 2, she is operating under the assumption that sasuke killed itachi and then turned on the village for no apparent reason.
in part 1, she offers to help sasuke with his plan to kill itachi and even says she'll come with him so he won't have to handle a clearly dangerous and unstable sannin alone. she tells him she wishes he would be more open with her because she wants to understand what he's going through. (all of this stands in stark contrast to naruto, who says he'll break every bone in sasuke's body to bring him back, or kakashi, who projects his own traumas on to sasuke.) then in part 2, she can't bring herself to hurt him despite ample opportunity and even though (as far as she knows) he's become a violent criminal. throughout the series, she's averse to inflicting harm on others (aside from the punching naruto gag). is it really so unreasonable to imagine that if she knew sasuke was avenging the state-sponsored genocide of his clan, she would respond differently? with more empathy and compassion for his circumstances, and anger of her own towards konoha?
Silly little hc that has solidified its place in my heart over the last few weeks: I feel that when Itachi was young (5ish) he was exactly the type of kid to have those little glow in the dark star stickers on his ceiling.
Having now read the manga adaptation of Sasuke Retsuden, I noted a couple of changes where they gave Sakura some moments that actually were initially Sasuke in the novel (Sasuke is the first person to note that that ink paintings remind him of Sai, and he is the person who is marvelling at the beauty of the snow when the tyrannosaur makes its last attack). It's not any huge difference, but I did prefer the novel's choices there, because those moments do mean something for Sasuke.
However, by far the best change they make is that rather than ending the manga on the quite sad conversation between Sakura and Shikamaru around Naruto's deteriorating health, they have that conversation earlier and instead let them have a fun goodnight scene where Sakura gets to tease Sasuke (who hides in his own hair) and then they have a little moonlight canoodle on their balcony:
Pretty interesting to think about how the Mangekyo Sharingan is the only dojutsu in the original run of Naruto that can’t be traced back to Kaguya. It can’t even be traced back to the Sage of Six Paths, it first appeared in his son, Indra. This is cool to me because Indra and Asura are the first Otsutsuki to be more “human” than “alien/deity”. This ability that stems from love being corrupted and turned into hatred, trading all the light in you life for power? …That is a uniquely human thing in the world of Naruto