Blindfolded

hajnalmadar @ 2008-01-26T21:00:00

2008-01-26T20:21:51Z

hajnalmadar @ 2008-01-27T19:50:00

2008-01-26T18:50:16Z

News

2007-12-18T09:33:16Z

Edited: 17th April

Chapter 10 is done, I'm waiting as eagerly as I hope you guys ^_^"" to receive the beta edited version.

Sai

2007-07-20T10:24:17Z

Actually as I was translating the story I realized I completely forgot about Sai.

So for those who'll miss him: one day Sai was walking down the street to Ichiraku Ramen, when a big, heavy anvil falled out of the sky and landed on his head. (whoops, the author's hand slipped:) By request I can write a oneshot about his funeral.. with pleasure ;D

Encyclopedia - Part I

2007-07-17T18:33:37Z

It's because the snow reflects the light of the sun so efficiently, that if you don't wear protection in the mountain, you can go blind. Actually one of the reasons why ice age hold out for so long is the same reason, since snow reflected back the light it couldn't melt away.

Mountain sickness is an illness that ranges from a mild headache and weariness to a life-threatening build-up of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema) at high altitudes. Mountain climbers try to avoid mountain sickness by climbing higher in the daytime, then descending to sleep lower. In this way they get accustomed to the difference in pressure and in oxygen-density.

So far the story was serious and tragic, which gave the keynote to it's dark atmosphere. But from Chapter 2 these deep tones will be supplemented by high ones and the story will become a tragicomedy (with a happy ending of course:) Itachi's character is the source of both the tragedy and the humor -with the latter, I intend to show, that even when no one believed (even he), that it's possible, he tried to change himself and the course of his destiny.

In this chapter Itachi will make an appearance and he is, in many aspects, different from the anime - my plot simply wouldn't work otherwise. Therefore let me introduce him to you, to show a glimpse of his motives and emotions.

On a superficial level Itachi is not really hostile. He just categorizes people: most will be neutral, as long as they don't threat him or his cause. To them, he may appear as any young introverted man. For him communication is a tool, has a function thus if he has nothing to say, he doesn't talk; if he wants to say something, he does. His way of speaking is functional, too: say what you want with the most accurate sentence.

In the deep inside however he's not as composed as he looks. He didn't simply loose everything, he had to be the cause of it. To be devoted to his role, but to hate it at the same time; this contradiction fights inside him. In a twisted way it's similar to when you know, that what you're about to say will hurt the other, but you feel you have to do it (the end justifies the means). This way of thinking made him evil; but at the same time preserved part of his innocence.

Art by shybyakugangirl.devianart.com

Itachi's views on fate was inspired by Stoic philosophy, namely causal determinism. According to the Stoics all events throughout the course of history are connected to antecedent events that cause them, and that they in turn are themselves antecedent causes of what must follow after. In other words there never has been and there never will be even a single event that is not caused. Everything is how it is because it has been determined to be like that by prior circumstances that caused it.

Such words as 'random' or 'accidental' are only given names for causes, that has not yet been discovered. 'Probability' also exist only in case when we don't know the causes. Therefore when we say 'there is a probability that this and that will happen' means that we are not aware of the cause-consequence chains behind the events. In case we were aware of them, we would know for sure what is going to happen.

Courier ninjas a greately underrated, yet actually they have the only independent ninja organization that has an its own City-State, a beautiful monastery built on a mountain in the Land of Birds.

The organization is called Hikyaku Ninja no Soshiki or Courier Ninja Organization - or simply CNO. People generally call them postmen or mailmen, which they find highly degrading, since they consider themselves monks: CNO has its own esoteric philosophy, they have their own jutsu system as well as their own ninja school, and on the contrary of general belief it's not easy to become a courier ninja: one must undertake years of practice and meditation in order to become an active member.

Any ninja or civilian can join, discarding their name and nationality. They in exchange receive a number - as well as a new life. Some criminals could successfully earn a chance for a better future as a member of this independent organization, since once they could become a full-pledged member, their records was deleted: they became none-existent to the world.

In order to learn more about the origin of their organization let's take a look at their name written by kanjis:

飛脚忍者の組織

The first two kanjis 飛脚 are pronounced as hikyaku and means 'courier'. The first kanji of courier means 'to fly', while the second kanji means 'leg'. Indeed, just like Hermes in Greek or Mercury in Roman mythology, the World of Naruto has its own Messenger of Gods, who founded the organization and the courier ninja profession according to their legends.

I'd like to show you something interesting. Please look at the third-fourth kanji 忍者 which means 'ninja'. The original word for ninja was shinbi-no-mono 忍の者. Shinobu means 'to conceal, spy, sneak' and the kanji for mono means 'person'. Thus ninja came from the different reading of the same kanji.

Now, Naruto wants to become a Hokage because he wants to get people acknowledge him as a great ninja, right? The word for 'admit' is mitomeru in Japanese, and is written by the following kanji: 認 If you look at it closely you can see that the right side of the kanji looks like this: 言 which means 'to say', while the right side of the kanji is the kanji of shinobi! That is exactly what Naruto wants, to make people admit that he's a good ninja, in other words to acknowledge him! Isn't it as if the legend of Naruto takes shape behind this kanji?

When the heart breaks we also die with it a little bit.. and although we can come back to life and mend the broken heart, it gets harder and harder each time. It's better not to find out whether we have nine lives like cats or not...
In Chapter 2 Sakura tells us about the times her heart was broken, though I didn't (want to) list all of them.

hajnalmadar @ 2007-07-15T07:57:00

2007-07-15T10:10:19Z

So who is that monk character and what is he up to? Many of you asked me, some of you have already guessed it. You'll definitely get most of the answers in the next chapter :)

>>did people really spend money on..rubber chickens??<<

It was rather a media craze in Hungary, but maybe many people would have bought it had rubber chicken been available in shops. Luckily it wasn't ^_^"

>>But Sakura will indirectly help Sound if Orochimaru collects the scrolls... Will Tsunade be mad, if she happens to know what Sakura's doing?<<

To be precise Sakura might indirectly help Orochimaru if Sound collects the scrolls. Because this is an affair between Daimyo and Daimyo. But who knows maybe you're right and the Daimyo wants the scroll for Orochimaru.. then the answer completely depends on whether the scroll is useful for a ninja or not, right? Who knows... ^_~ About Tsunade, maybe you're right. But I don't see what other choices Sakura could have besides staying close and watch.

By the way this picture is not here without a reason;) Especially that strange, green stone in the young monk's hand...

Art from albumen.stanford.edu

MAP

2007-07-12T09:12:19Z

The lands are the following:

Land of Earth, Land of Waterfall, Land of Rice, Land of Sound

Land of Vegetables, Land of Honey, Land of Rain, Land of Grass, Land of Fire

Land of Wind, Land of River

Do you see that bug-like thing between the Land of Honey and Rain? Well that's the mountain where Blindfolded starts :)

hajnalmadar @ 2007-07-11T19:30:00

2007-07-11T18:36:44Z

Hello everyone, I'm Hajnalmadár (pronounciation is haynalmadir, where a is like 'lack' and i is like 'child'). -which is the beautiful Morning bird that you can see on my picture, corresponding with my real name, Hajnal.

I'd like to introduce my Itachi-Sakura story. The title is 'Blindfolded' which indicates Sakura, the main character of the story. As most of us, she has a stable value system,

has belives and principles and thinks that her life -as a faithful ninja of her village- consist of allies and enemies. However as the story goes on she has to reconsider her previous judgements and has to realize that she was blindfolded, the truth is more complicated than what it appears to be.

In one hand the story is about Sakura, on the other it focuses on the tragedy behind the other main character Itachi. In the anime Itachi has a pretty simple character, in my opinion. I took the challenge to change him into something much more interesting, a person who is binded by his own fate. In the anime Itachi was raised to be lawful good, since his clan maintains the police in the village. However (and here comes my change) as he grew up and learnt pieces of the truth he had to realize, that in order to remain lawful good he has to become lawful evil towards his village. This contradiction, playing with black and white inspired me to write this story.

It's actually a general - adventure - humor - romance, AU since I changed many things like geography, history, politics and many more -to make the world of Naruto fit into my plot. It's not as complicated as it sounds:)