🌊 for the Naruto ask game.
Th-there as an anon in my askbox?!
I may or may not have actually jumped in shock.
And then spent the next several hours writing expositions to mentally process the fact that I got an ask.
🌊 favorite story arc (and why)?
WHY DID YOU GIVE ME SUCH A HARD ONE?
My answer (all of our answers, actually) changed over the years, for sure. While I still think Shika vs Hidan is one of the most incredibly well-done arcs of the series, I have hindsight now that I didn't used to.
Now? I cannot stop returning to the three of the first arcs, the Naruto Bridge, the Chuunin Exams, and the Sasuke Retrieval. Haku, Zabuza, understanding each of them more than I ever thought I would, understanding who Zabuza was trying to kill and why, AGREEING with his goal, realizing that Haku was officially a Kirinin as well, seeing their dynamic in a whole different way. (and yes, still hard shipping them.)
Gaara. I haven't updated our carrd page yet, but uh, yeah. Obvious reasons for loving him are obvious. But even just as a character, he's always been high on the favorite list. Neji. The wonderful asshole genius I want to punch hug at the same time. (I did a breakdown to some friends once about the single panel of all the Jounin stopping him at once and the significance of who did what where.) LEE.
Now, put the three of them together.
Gaara and Lee's dynamic and relationship, the way their interactions change each other so drastically, and then how Lee being the most sweet precious cinnamon roll basically secured Gaara's stability. (Also the fact that we get to see him use his kekkei genkai here when we don't anywhere else, and when it happened nobody knew it was a fucking kekkei genkai he was using with his sand!)
Neji and Lee's relationship changes so drastically. I have something I'm writing with my writing partner that goes through the full transition of Neji and Lee fighting outright to beginning to realize what's at risk for Lee and that he understands him more than he would previously admit. Both of them are based heavily in a martial art culture that none of the other characters outside of Gai adhere very strongly to, so when others are telling Lee to stop trying to train, Neji gets pissed off. We see how much he's processed his trauma and how it's no longer holding him back, he's not a tiny whirlwind of anger and fear anymore.
And then there's Kakashi.
I could go on for hours and hours and hours about this man. The amount of personal growth and recovery we see is astounding, and terribly subtle. This is another area where hindsight makes me appreciate what he goes through in these arcs even more.
To know how much all three of Team 7 resembled his own, to know everything Naruto doesn't understand about his own situation and not be allowed to say a thing - because it would probably get him removed from the team, and he has his priorities in the right places, to know he is directly tied to both boys of the team through one's father and the other's brother having been student to one and mentor to the other, to be in a state of complex and complicated emotions in regards to the one man easily responsible for doing the most harm to himself and the only child of his teacher as he goes from being streamlined for war to being the village grandfather to everyone except Asuma as the village finally secures peace and has what he believes is necessary for his own teacher's and Hashirama's dreams to be reality. What a fucking transition, even if he's still far from perfect. Even if it took Asuma playing the "I'm literally your son, so fucking listen to me" card to get Kakashi out of ANBU and then kept him off S-Rank and likely off most A-Rank for years, to the village at large he was a very different influence. He's clearly conflicted when Hiruzen dies.
And that's only a small facet of the complex ball of anger and anguish that is Hatake Kakashi.
I could go on, and on, and on, about four of the aforementioned (Kakashi, Haku, Gaara, Neji), indefinitely. I have a deep love for them and the relationships they have, all of the complexities and intricacies, in-depth analysis. I write for all four of them, among other characters, such as my blond namesake.
But this has taken me, uh, ten... hours... (admittedly with a four hour break, but still).
It's now 8pm and I need some pain meds and lying down time.
Thank you, anon. This really, really made my week.
