Major_Redd
01-11-2010, 03:41 PM
http://img110.mytextgraphics.com/glittertextgraphics/2010/01/11/c9c7f0a04e46921089325389e9074a05.gif
The outgoing, violent and yet empathetic medic-nin and the introverted, tactless and yet loyal ex-member of ROOT. What were we thinking?
From the start, it looked as if any kind of bond between Sai and Sakura was doomed to fail as his initial attitude towards Team 7 caused major conflict. However, at the same time he also quickly caught on to the bonds the team already had and became interested when Naruto and Sakura expressed their desire to bring back Sasuke. From that point we have seen him trying to understand the meanings of “teamwork” and “friendship.” What’s interesting is that out of all his teammates, Sakura was the one to try and start off on the right foot with him.
I’m pretty sure all of us pairing shippers have all come across the old argument “opposites attract,” and this one certainly falls into step with those. Yet at the same time, the pair still has its moments in the manga.
Without further ado, join the SaiSaku FC today!
Ye Olden Rules of the Club:
#1. NO HATERS = NO BASHING!
#2. No Flaming
#3. No Spamming
#4. No cursing or foul language, “damn” and “hell” are acceptable.
#5. No randomly Down-Repping anyone, or I’ll find out where you live and put the kibosh on you!
#6. Post here in the thread or PM me if you’d like to join.
#7. Please do not post fanart on this thread, it is against the forum rules.
Possible Discussion Topics:
1). Speculate all you want on possible upcoming SaiSaku moments.
2). SaiSaku fan fictions you’ve read and/or would like to recommend.
3). Brainstorm with your fellow fans about some ideas for SaiSaku fan fictions.
4). #2 & #3 with Fanart.
5). Why are they such a totally epic and awesome pairing?
Why We Love Them:
Firstly, we must remember that Sai doesn’t choose to be emotionless and doesn’t purposely push Naruto and Sakura away. He was robbed of the luxury to express emotion at birth, when he was made into a ROOT member. Past his layers of detachment, we can see that he’s a good person who wants to be close to both Naruto and Sakura. We can also see how loyal he is because he’s defying Danzou right now which could very well lead to his death, yet he’s doing it anyway.
No fan who has read the manga can deny that, out of everyone, Sakura reached out to Sai first. Despite her temper and violent tendencies, she somehow acts as the peacekeeper in Team 7 so it stands to reason that in order to lower the initial animosity in the team, she would approach him in some semblance of a truce, after the new Team 7 got off on the wrong foot.
Moments:
The Drawing Book:
The drawing book incident is the first. I would not consider this pro-SaiSaku romance, because I’m not crazy or an idealist, but what it does accomplish is forming a solid foundation for their bond. I doubt anyone has actually reached out to Sai before in his life other than his late brother, let alone try a bit of friendly chatter. He’s bound to appreciate that, even though he has trouble showing it aside from his “fake smile.” On the other hand, Sakura appreciates the artist in him as a nice side despite his rather blunt and vulgar language.
Of course, when Naruto shows up he’s not so tactful and it turns into another exchange of heated insults. Before they leave however, she decided to take another step in forming a bond by helping him clean up his art supplies, which is where she stumbles upon his drawing book.
When she asks to see it he isn’t necessarily blowing her off. He explains his reasons as it’s not complete, he makes a point of not showing it to anyone, and that it was his brother’s. Although Naruto does see it first later, it stands to reason that it’s simply because he’s closer to Team 7, and he wants to relate to the brother bond between Naruto and Sasuke and compare it to his own. Had Sakura been there, he might have let her see it, too. A few chapters later when Sakura finds the book and recognizes it, they all know it’s about Sai and his late brother. However, it is only Sakura who can think back to when he said that he can’t find a title for any of his pictures because he feels no emotional connection to them. She can fit the pieces of Sai’s problems together and become more tolerant of his fallacies in expressing emotion and lack of discretion.
The Library:
Probably one of the more common moments viewed by fans. Out of all of his teammates, Sakura expresses the most support as he learns about gesture, and she verbally acknowledges him for it. Moreover, she also commends the fact that he noticed how she doesn’t address Naruto with a suffix, which indicates that they’re closer. He then drops the suffixes on both of theirs in lieu of nicknames, which he also read is an indication of closeness. No, his nicknames did not go over well, but he wasn’t trying to be crude, he had all the best of intentions but due to his lack of socialization, he didn’t understand that it was an insult. The point is that it was Sakura who paved the way and opened the door for him.
Recent Manga Chapters:
Sai has expressed an impressive amount of concern when he was ardent about her not going about the Sasuke problem alone and that she should let him help her; he’s a member of Team 7 too. I don’t think I’m reading too much into this simply because it’s impossible to read too much into anything that Sai says because he doesn’t have the emotion yet that we can try and decipher and look for “hidden meanings.” We have to take most things he says at face value because that’s all there is to him now, and the outward display of concern he showed was quite impressive for him.
After the confession chapter, I don't think Sai hung back because he simply wanted Naruto to know the decision about Sasuke. While there is all this speculation in the air of whether or not Sakura was lying to Naruto, it seems that Sai doesn’t believe that it was a lie. It’s interesting how he words it, “She thought she’d lessen your burden by giving up on Sasuke and confessing her love for you. But you still wanted to save Sasuke…” (Ch. 474, pg. 4). Not something like “By giving up her love for Sasuke and confessing to you.” My only point here is that he doesn’t believe she could be lying, nor does he think that she’s capable of it. What we think is irrelevant here.
What’s also interesting is while Naruto and Kakashi still seem to view her as Part I Sakura, even when they can see what she’s capable of now, Sai is busy saying, “Sakura isn’t stupid. And she’s not so much of a child as to not understand other people’s circumstances” (Ch. 474, p. 3). When he's speaking in this part, he's constantly defending her and her choices because he understands why she couldn't tell Naruto the truth. He's also the one pushing the fact that Sakura isn't daft and that she understands that Sasuke needs to be dealt with. He’s the only one doing this, by the way.
He also partially blames himself for the confession and feels like it's also partly his fault that she's looking for Sasuke in the first place. Admittedly, it's hard to gauge his emotions, but the ones he's showing seem to surround Sakura the most at this point.
Forgive my episode of fangirling, but I also like when he later says to Kakashi, “I’ll be with Sakura. I won’t let her get near Sasuke. So just rest easy.” (Ch. 476, pg. 8) Yeah, it’s not much, but it seems like so much more coming from the apathetic Sai.
The Team 7 Dynamic:
In Part I, it was Naruto and Sasuke who were the highly focused brother/friend/rival duo while Sakura had the tendency to try and play peacekeeper whenever their rivalry got out of hand. Nevertheless, she was constantly left out of the mainstream bond of Team 7.
In Part II, it is Sai who is left out of the bond because Naruto and Sakura are close enough to also be considered best friends and they have history. Although he tries to bond with them, he would still be one of these people who’s constantly out of the loop because of events in their genin days.
Moreover, Sasuke is still not left out of the equation and is still considered Naruto’s best friend, so Sakura is left out of the dynamic again, especially because she was never close to Sasuke. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t have a lot of friends outside of the team or a family that we really know of. She has many acquaintances, Tsunade, Shizune and her rekindled friendship with Ino, but that’s about it. That's why if given the chance, she and Sai could become much closer if he could express himself better because they both know what it's like to feel excluded from the group dynamic. A way to break down the friendships of the group could be: Naruto/Sasuke, Sai/Sakura and Kakashi/Yamato. The last one is due to their experiences as high-level shinobi and being close to the same age, they could relate to one another better.
The Competition:
In all actuality, NaruSaku and SasuSaku are probably the only pairings that actually threaten this one. Of course, there’s also the probable outcome that the manga won’t end with any pairings. However, I’m not going to put down either of these pairings because that’s not what this FC is about. To be honest, I could probably dumb BOTH pairings down to even the playing field, but like I said, there is no flaming in this FC so I won’t do it. The truth is there will always be rivals for any pairing, but if SaiSaku continues to develop it might become as much of a threat to them.
Then there’s SaiIno. I never really understood this one. Did fans forget that when he was deciding on a nickname for her that he had an internal monologue and decided that girls don’t like to be told the truth? That is where “beautiful” came from. In all likelihood, he was about to call her an “Ugly Dog” too.
What’s interesting about that one is that’s he’s dropped his nicknames for Sakura and Naruto. While fans may argue that it’s simply because he didn’t want to be crushed by Sakura or Naruto anymore, I find that unlikely. Since when has Sai shown any fear towards Sakura’s wrath or Naruto‘s yelling? Never. This is a theory, but perhaps calling her an “Ugly Dog” has nothing to do with her appearance. Afterall, he did call her a “hag” when she knocked him back like 10 feet when they first met. Perhaps he’s dropped this nickname because he no longer considers her “ugly” because she’s showing a compassionate and caring side of her when she interacts with him now. As an artist, it wouldn’t be too farfetched for him to consider “inner beauty” above all else, especially because the drawing he’s making during their drawing book encounter is an abstract and not the scenery he was facing, which is an “outer beauty.” The next point here is that they each see a more favourable side of one another.
Admittedly, Sakura at this point just views him as a friend, but since when has Kishimoto NOT liked one-sided romance? What makes this pairing interesting as well is the fact that we don’t really know how they’d interact if Sai was more capable of expressing himself through emotions and gesture. We’ve only been given snippets of emotion in recent chapters. It’s also interesting that it was because he was expressing concern for Sakura’s wellbeing when I think many fans expected it to be for Naruto’s first and foremost. As for Sakura, it’s a bit of a moot point because interactions with him are often times vexing, so if he were to improve his expressions she might react differently to him, as well.
Out of many Sakura pairings, she and Sai probably hold one of the most prominent chances due to the rules of propinquity and that they care for one another beyond the category of comrades. She is also more influential over him due to the fact that she possesses more emotion than three average shinobi put together AND she reached out to him.
SaiSaku as a Borderline Canon Pairing:
Bare in mind that “Borderline Canon” does not imply “Canon.” If someone told me, a SaiSaku fan, that they are 100% going to become a couple by the end of the series I’d laugh in their face.
There are largely considered the 4 categories for pairings:
Borderline Canon implies a lot of pairings, believe it or not, what differentiates them from Noncanon is simply because they have more interaction, and are from the same side/alliance and are more realistic in the “Big Picture.” Of course, Canon implies that the pairing has happened or will happen with 98% accuracy. The last 2% is left for unfortunate circumstances, like a character death. Not many actually fit into the “Canon” category, no matter how much we argue. Then there’s Crack pairings, in which neither character have ever met or interacted in the manga, a meeting is highly unlikely, and are yaoi/yuri pairings.
For example, ALL of these are considered Borderline Canon:
NaruSaku, SasuSaku, NaruHina, LeeSaku, ShikaTem, ShikaIno, ChoIno, KibaHina, ShinoHina, NejiTen, LeeTen, SasuKari… etc, etc.
Catch my drift? Anyone with a decent amount of interaction is largely considered “Borderline Canon.” So, SaiSaku definitely qualifies, especially because they’ve interacted positively more than most of these pairs.
This Club is in Alliance With:
The New Haruno Sakura FC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40246)
The Sakura FCCC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40622)
The Anti-SasuSaku Club (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40891)
The Team 7 Bonds FC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41311)
The Multiple Sakura Pairings FC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41749)
~Click on the links to visit!~
Members:
VIP Members:
Major_Redd (Founder)
firegirl (Co-Founder)
flamie_chan (Spam Officer)
♥Mira Blossom♥ (3rd in Command)
ThePurpleChidori (4th in Command)
Members:
Sosuke Aizen
mangagirl
Taker369
Dattebayo1027
SakuraGirl
ShiningStar
FlippedMyLid
The outgoing, violent and yet empathetic medic-nin and the introverted, tactless and yet loyal ex-member of ROOT. What were we thinking?
From the start, it looked as if any kind of bond between Sai and Sakura was doomed to fail as his initial attitude towards Team 7 caused major conflict. However, at the same time he also quickly caught on to the bonds the team already had and became interested when Naruto and Sakura expressed their desire to bring back Sasuke. From that point we have seen him trying to understand the meanings of “teamwork” and “friendship.” What’s interesting is that out of all his teammates, Sakura was the one to try and start off on the right foot with him.
I’m pretty sure all of us pairing shippers have all come across the old argument “opposites attract,” and this one certainly falls into step with those. Yet at the same time, the pair still has its moments in the manga.
Without further ado, join the SaiSaku FC today!
Ye Olden Rules of the Club:
#1. NO HATERS = NO BASHING!
#2. No Flaming
#3. No Spamming
#4. No cursing or foul language, “damn” and “hell” are acceptable.
#5. No randomly Down-Repping anyone, or I’ll find out where you live and put the kibosh on you!
#6. Post here in the thread or PM me if you’d like to join.
#7. Please do not post fanart on this thread, it is against the forum rules.
Possible Discussion Topics:
1). Speculate all you want on possible upcoming SaiSaku moments.
2). SaiSaku fan fictions you’ve read and/or would like to recommend.
3). Brainstorm with your fellow fans about some ideas for SaiSaku fan fictions.
4). #2 & #3 with Fanart.
5). Why are they such a totally epic and awesome pairing?
Why We Love Them:
Firstly, we must remember that Sai doesn’t choose to be emotionless and doesn’t purposely push Naruto and Sakura away. He was robbed of the luxury to express emotion at birth, when he was made into a ROOT member. Past his layers of detachment, we can see that he’s a good person who wants to be close to both Naruto and Sakura. We can also see how loyal he is because he’s defying Danzou right now which could very well lead to his death, yet he’s doing it anyway.
No fan who has read the manga can deny that, out of everyone, Sakura reached out to Sai first. Despite her temper and violent tendencies, she somehow acts as the peacekeeper in Team 7 so it stands to reason that in order to lower the initial animosity in the team, she would approach him in some semblance of a truce, after the new Team 7 got off on the wrong foot.
Moments:
The Drawing Book:
The drawing book incident is the first. I would not consider this pro-SaiSaku romance, because I’m not crazy or an idealist, but what it does accomplish is forming a solid foundation for their bond. I doubt anyone has actually reached out to Sai before in his life other than his late brother, let alone try a bit of friendly chatter. He’s bound to appreciate that, even though he has trouble showing it aside from his “fake smile.” On the other hand, Sakura appreciates the artist in him as a nice side despite his rather blunt and vulgar language.
Of course, when Naruto shows up he’s not so tactful and it turns into another exchange of heated insults. Before they leave however, she decided to take another step in forming a bond by helping him clean up his art supplies, which is where she stumbles upon his drawing book.
When she asks to see it he isn’t necessarily blowing her off. He explains his reasons as it’s not complete, he makes a point of not showing it to anyone, and that it was his brother’s. Although Naruto does see it first later, it stands to reason that it’s simply because he’s closer to Team 7, and he wants to relate to the brother bond between Naruto and Sasuke and compare it to his own. Had Sakura been there, he might have let her see it, too. A few chapters later when Sakura finds the book and recognizes it, they all know it’s about Sai and his late brother. However, it is only Sakura who can think back to when he said that he can’t find a title for any of his pictures because he feels no emotional connection to them. She can fit the pieces of Sai’s problems together and become more tolerant of his fallacies in expressing emotion and lack of discretion.
The Library:
Probably one of the more common moments viewed by fans. Out of all of his teammates, Sakura expresses the most support as he learns about gesture, and she verbally acknowledges him for it. Moreover, she also commends the fact that he noticed how she doesn’t address Naruto with a suffix, which indicates that they’re closer. He then drops the suffixes on both of theirs in lieu of nicknames, which he also read is an indication of closeness. No, his nicknames did not go over well, but he wasn’t trying to be crude, he had all the best of intentions but due to his lack of socialization, he didn’t understand that it was an insult. The point is that it was Sakura who paved the way and opened the door for him.
Recent Manga Chapters:
Sai has expressed an impressive amount of concern when he was ardent about her not going about the Sasuke problem alone and that she should let him help her; he’s a member of Team 7 too. I don’t think I’m reading too much into this simply because it’s impossible to read too much into anything that Sai says because he doesn’t have the emotion yet that we can try and decipher and look for “hidden meanings.” We have to take most things he says at face value because that’s all there is to him now, and the outward display of concern he showed was quite impressive for him.
After the confession chapter, I don't think Sai hung back because he simply wanted Naruto to know the decision about Sasuke. While there is all this speculation in the air of whether or not Sakura was lying to Naruto, it seems that Sai doesn’t believe that it was a lie. It’s interesting how he words it, “She thought she’d lessen your burden by giving up on Sasuke and confessing her love for you. But you still wanted to save Sasuke…” (Ch. 474, pg. 4). Not something like “By giving up her love for Sasuke and confessing to you.” My only point here is that he doesn’t believe she could be lying, nor does he think that she’s capable of it. What we think is irrelevant here.
What’s also interesting is while Naruto and Kakashi still seem to view her as Part I Sakura, even when they can see what she’s capable of now, Sai is busy saying, “Sakura isn’t stupid. And she’s not so much of a child as to not understand other people’s circumstances” (Ch. 474, p. 3). When he's speaking in this part, he's constantly defending her and her choices because he understands why she couldn't tell Naruto the truth. He's also the one pushing the fact that Sakura isn't daft and that she understands that Sasuke needs to be dealt with. He’s the only one doing this, by the way.
He also partially blames himself for the confession and feels like it's also partly his fault that she's looking for Sasuke in the first place. Admittedly, it's hard to gauge his emotions, but the ones he's showing seem to surround Sakura the most at this point.
Forgive my episode of fangirling, but I also like when he later says to Kakashi, “I’ll be with Sakura. I won’t let her get near Sasuke. So just rest easy.” (Ch. 476, pg. 8) Yeah, it’s not much, but it seems like so much more coming from the apathetic Sai.
The Team 7 Dynamic:
In Part I, it was Naruto and Sasuke who were the highly focused brother/friend/rival duo while Sakura had the tendency to try and play peacekeeper whenever their rivalry got out of hand. Nevertheless, she was constantly left out of the mainstream bond of Team 7.
In Part II, it is Sai who is left out of the bond because Naruto and Sakura are close enough to also be considered best friends and they have history. Although he tries to bond with them, he would still be one of these people who’s constantly out of the loop because of events in their genin days.
Moreover, Sasuke is still not left out of the equation and is still considered Naruto’s best friend, so Sakura is left out of the dynamic again, especially because she was never close to Sasuke. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t have a lot of friends outside of the team or a family that we really know of. She has many acquaintances, Tsunade, Shizune and her rekindled friendship with Ino, but that’s about it. That's why if given the chance, she and Sai could become much closer if he could express himself better because they both know what it's like to feel excluded from the group dynamic. A way to break down the friendships of the group could be: Naruto/Sasuke, Sai/Sakura and Kakashi/Yamato. The last one is due to their experiences as high-level shinobi and being close to the same age, they could relate to one another better.
The Competition:
In all actuality, NaruSaku and SasuSaku are probably the only pairings that actually threaten this one. Of course, there’s also the probable outcome that the manga won’t end with any pairings. However, I’m not going to put down either of these pairings because that’s not what this FC is about. To be honest, I could probably dumb BOTH pairings down to even the playing field, but like I said, there is no flaming in this FC so I won’t do it. The truth is there will always be rivals for any pairing, but if SaiSaku continues to develop it might become as much of a threat to them.
Then there’s SaiIno. I never really understood this one. Did fans forget that when he was deciding on a nickname for her that he had an internal monologue and decided that girls don’t like to be told the truth? That is where “beautiful” came from. In all likelihood, he was about to call her an “Ugly Dog” too.
What’s interesting about that one is that’s he’s dropped his nicknames for Sakura and Naruto. While fans may argue that it’s simply because he didn’t want to be crushed by Sakura or Naruto anymore, I find that unlikely. Since when has Sai shown any fear towards Sakura’s wrath or Naruto‘s yelling? Never. This is a theory, but perhaps calling her an “Ugly Dog” has nothing to do with her appearance. Afterall, he did call her a “hag” when she knocked him back like 10 feet when they first met. Perhaps he’s dropped this nickname because he no longer considers her “ugly” because she’s showing a compassionate and caring side of her when she interacts with him now. As an artist, it wouldn’t be too farfetched for him to consider “inner beauty” above all else, especially because the drawing he’s making during their drawing book encounter is an abstract and not the scenery he was facing, which is an “outer beauty.” The next point here is that they each see a more favourable side of one another.
Admittedly, Sakura at this point just views him as a friend, but since when has Kishimoto NOT liked one-sided romance? What makes this pairing interesting as well is the fact that we don’t really know how they’d interact if Sai was more capable of expressing himself through emotions and gesture. We’ve only been given snippets of emotion in recent chapters. It’s also interesting that it was because he was expressing concern for Sakura’s wellbeing when I think many fans expected it to be for Naruto’s first and foremost. As for Sakura, it’s a bit of a moot point because interactions with him are often times vexing, so if he were to improve his expressions she might react differently to him, as well.
Out of many Sakura pairings, she and Sai probably hold one of the most prominent chances due to the rules of propinquity and that they care for one another beyond the category of comrades. She is also more influential over him due to the fact that she possesses more emotion than three average shinobi put together AND she reached out to him.
SaiSaku as a Borderline Canon Pairing:
Bare in mind that “Borderline Canon” does not imply “Canon.” If someone told me, a SaiSaku fan, that they are 100% going to become a couple by the end of the series I’d laugh in their face.
There are largely considered the 4 categories for pairings:
Borderline Canon implies a lot of pairings, believe it or not, what differentiates them from Noncanon is simply because they have more interaction, and are from the same side/alliance and are more realistic in the “Big Picture.” Of course, Canon implies that the pairing has happened or will happen with 98% accuracy. The last 2% is left for unfortunate circumstances, like a character death. Not many actually fit into the “Canon” category, no matter how much we argue. Then there’s Crack pairings, in which neither character have ever met or interacted in the manga, a meeting is highly unlikely, and are yaoi/yuri pairings.
For example, ALL of these are considered Borderline Canon:
NaruSaku, SasuSaku, NaruHina, LeeSaku, ShikaTem, ShikaIno, ChoIno, KibaHina, ShinoHina, NejiTen, LeeTen, SasuKari… etc, etc.
Catch my drift? Anyone with a decent amount of interaction is largely considered “Borderline Canon.” So, SaiSaku definitely qualifies, especially because they’ve interacted positively more than most of these pairs.
This Club is in Alliance With:
The New Haruno Sakura FC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40246)
The Sakura FCCC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40622)
The Anti-SasuSaku Club (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40891)
The Team 7 Bonds FC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41311)
The Multiple Sakura Pairings FC (http://naruto.viz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41749)
~Click on the links to visit!~
Members:
VIP Members:
Major_Redd (Founder)
firegirl (Co-Founder)
flamie_chan (Spam Officer)
♥Mira Blossom♥ (3rd in Command)
ThePurpleChidori (4th in Command)
Members:
Sosuke Aizen
mangagirl
Taker369
Dattebayo1027
SakuraGirl
ShiningStar
FlippedMyLid