[Komorebi - sunlight filtering through the trees]
I am neck-deep in Naruto nostalgia and @wobblyspelling ‘s fic series “Komorebi” over on ao3 came directly for my kneecaps. So, obviously I had to try my hand at the make-over designs for Team 7 for their story :3
Some thoughts on my my design flavors and decisions under the cut:
Overall, I wanted to incorperate wobblyspelling’s descriptions for Naruto and Sakura as closely as I could, as I thought them to be very fitting for the story and characters. But I also added a bit of my own flavor into the mix to pull the general designs together.
First and foremost, everyone got a new central color to their design: turquoise for Naruto, green for Sakura, and lavender for Sasuke. They all symbolize the start of their growth as people - changing from their original colors when leaving Konoha.
The colors themselves also have a meaning beyond “more sensible for the job as a shinobi”:
Naruto’s turquoise is more muted than the bright orange and blue that scream “Here I am!!” - it shows in part that he is not constantly vying for everyone’s attention, now that he has people who see him and care for him. But he still has his signature orange in the jacket - he still wants to earn the respect of his village; he still wants to become Hokage but his reasons for it begin to change.
Sakura mentions that part of her discarding her red dress is that she wanted to let go of who she was in Konoha - of the little insecure girl who wanted nothing but for her crush to notice her. Instead of becoming a shinobi for the sake of Sasuke returning her affection, she wants to carve her own way as a shinobi. A strong difference from how she used to be. Thus the complementary color green was chosen to underline her change in mentality.
For Sasuke the design process was pretty difficult, as there are no physical descriptions of him I can recall. However, a central theme for Team 7 is letting go of their old selves from Konoha and of convictions that hinder them from growing in a healthy manner. For Sasuke that means to let go of his rage as well as letting go of his clan.
Sasuke, under Obito’s and Kakashi’s tutelage, slowly comes to terms with the reality of his situation and what taking revenge on Itachi would truly mean for him. He evolves from blindly following his clan’s traditions to becoming his own person. His original Uchiha blue, red and white becomes lavender. He is still an Uchiha at heart but one that will not be bound by the tragedies of the past.
The 2nd central idea was to give all three of them certain clothing elements that either overlap (fingerless gloves, pants) or are at the very least similar to each other (all of them have high collar-ed elements in their outfits etc.)
Through that, I wanted to convey that over the course of the story the three kids start to truly see each other and value each other. For them to survive and grow stronger, they have to learn to work together as a team - to watch out for each other and to make compromises for the benefit of the group.
So, while the colors reflect their growth as individuals, certain articles in their clothes also indicate Team 7′s progress as a functioning group that will (hopefully) not repeat the mistakes of the past.
(Some side notes at the end that didn’t fit elsewhere:
Naruto’s jacket is inspired by Boruto’s because I thought it would make for a nice easter egg.
Sakura has additional elbow pads, so she can better elbow drop you. Also several pouches on her back for sealing scrolls and medical equipment.
And because Sasuke still has troubles with handling a Katana like Kakashi, he got a simple Wakizashi for now, since it’s smaller and lighter and also cheaper.)
