There's so much to say about this chapter. Most of it is just random thoughts I had after reading it just before uploading it online.
Most of the thoughts center around Harry being awesome in his own unique way.
So bear with me as I go through some of my favourite Harry skills/etc.
If you've read the chapter- you would have noticed an abundance of Harry sleeping in highly uncomfortable places and always waking up not feeling as grumpy as he ought to. I envy him. If I wake up with a stiff neck/back, I'm very inclined to beat someone up and then claim that was a stretching exercise.
Another awesome Harry skill from this chapter? The ability to bring out Naruto's emotions- good, bad and just adorable. But then I sort of go- Harry is way too awesome as an older sibling when he deals with Naruto! My older bro isn't as awesome. His idea of dealing with my bad moods was to hand me a glass of cola and leave me alone.
Hmm, now I wonder if I put too much awesomeness in Harry. I mean he is awesome to begin with- but maybe I've overdone it somehow by making him an idealized version of an older sibling?
Anyway some actual notes about things in chapter 13
Shikamaru still smoking- In the manga, they show Shikamaru smoking during the days after Asuma's death, before he meets Hidan and Kakuzu a few days later. It just seemed too easy for Shikamaru to just stop smoking after getting his revenge. Even with the whole symbolism of putting Asuma to rest with the cigarette motif- it was too easy. Letting go of the dead and anything connected to the dead is not supposed to be that easy. So Shikamaru is going to have a smoking problem- not to be considered cool or badass, but because he's a teenager who's dealing with the loss of a mentor as best as he can.
The memorial for the monks- I added that just to have some closure about what happened at the temple. The only real way for Harry to get information about the temple was to get it from a monk. Plus I remembered a reviewer asking me if Sentoki had died too- which I thought was hilarious because that was just such a large leap of logic there. (Also I find it so weird that readers want explanations for the smallest of things- even things that aren't important to the plot at all)
Sake- I read up so much about it- trying to find out if you can actually get hungover from drinking too much. Of course, the more I read, the more I got distracted from my original search. Eventually I learnt about the different kinds of sake and the etiquette behind sake drinking. I think I spent a good part of Dec last year just reading more and more about it in my spare time (for no reason other than curiosity). Here's the
interesting website for more info.
Jiraiya- He's one of my top ten favourite characters in Naruto. So I was very careful about how I wanted him to act. But he's complicated. I personally think he was the most broken of the three sannin. While both his team-mates lost themselves to their grief and ambitions, he pushed himself to not be like them. But that doesn't mean he wasn't jaded after living so long and losing so much along the way. I also wanted to capture just how much of a ninja he is- so I made him cool in some small unexpected ways. I don't know if that came across though.
Harry-decoy plan- Well, what were you expecting? I doubt they'd want to make Harry's trip/disappearance public knowledge in Britain. It works rather nicely for AtO's ending- what I have so far at least.
Harry and alcohol- Teenagers in dorms without adult supervision and friends with the Weasley twins- he must have tried some Firewhiskey. Well, in my head, I'm sure Harry must have at least sipped it out of curiosity.
Lapifors- Is a spell from the Harry Potter games (shows up earliest in the PoA game) Similarly, Avifors is another spell from the games and it shows up in the first game. Thank goodness for the wikia- otherwise I wouldn't have known these spells existed at all.
Mom and Mum- Naruto uses 'mom' while Harry 'mum'. Yes, that is deliberate on my part. I suppose it's a way to keep Harry's Britishness even though he's not actually talking in English with all the Naruto characters. But using this might show that he has a foreign accent compared to the ninja.
Sirius's quote from the movie- I liked it, so what?
Tidbits of information about chapter 13
1- The first time Harry creates his Patronus, the happy memory he's thinking about is actually a mix of memories- reading his grandmother's letter, hearing from Tsunade that Naruto is his cousin and having Naruto call him nii-san. It's the reason why his Patronus was slightly larger than usual and why he probably cast faster than usual.
2-Naruto could probably say Hermione's name. But in the end, he sort of realizes that if he messes it up too bad, he might upset her. And also he doesn't want to look too bad in front of Harry's important friends, also he might be a bit overwhelmed that Harry told other people about him and those people were excited to see him.
3- A few of the toasts that Harry makes over the course of their drinking would have made if he had been truly drunk. "To old people who need more warm socks." "To monks who miss their hair." "To Nara-san's shogi BS-ing skills." "To cat-san and not-cat-san and all other cats."
Side note: Jiraiya's drunk toast- if he ever managed to get really drunk: "To ****** who ****** and *******"
4- When Naruto and Harry are using the two-way mirror- eventually, Hermione sees the frozen blue birds and ends up going into a lecture mode-which doesn't shock Naruto at all actually.
5- Amount of words deleted/moved on to other chapters = Rounded up estimate is almost 3100+ words (about a 1000 of those words got removed just before I uploaded)
Some bits I removed from the chapter (they just didn't fit in)
Someone smacked the back of Harry's head.“What the...”
Sai looked at him unapologetically. “Sakura said this is what Naruto would do.”
“Right.” Harry rubbed the back of his head. “That makes perfect sense.”
“It does?" Sai said. "I don't understand the necessity. And it does seem rather harsh considering you are rather delicate...”
“Thank you for the flowers. I'll be sure to tell Naruto you dropped by. Oh! Would you like a moment alone? I can come back in a bit.”
The girl eeped slightly and shook her head vigorously. “You don't have to... I mean, uh... I have to get going.” She spared one last look at Naruto, blush becoming more vivid, and hurried out of the room.
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I think that covers just about everything.
Happy reading.
Polar
The Wandering Tiger
Some imagery that inspired the creation of the teahouse.
