A continuation of Five Petals
Yamazakura; A cherry tree that grows in the wild, uncultivated.
Everything Sakura's been working toward, all her efforts over these two years in the dark will finally bear fruit. She can feel her headband sitting heavy in her weapons pouch. She resists its call. She can only wear it again when her mission ends, however it ends.
Sakura takes a deep breath and opens the door.
Time to shed her skin.
The most recent entry in the Five Petals series, Yamazakura was something I bounced off on first attempt. The second attempt has reminded me why: it's
bleak. Of the three plots it's juggling, there's the obligatory Akatsuki action which is honestly pretty similar to what happens in canon. There's Sakura in Sasuke's role, wandering around the country after having killed Orochimaru doing various things, and then there's the Konoha characters progressively uncovering the extent of Danzo and ROOT's involvement in Konoha.
Both of the latter two are full feelsbadman.gif, and worse, they're
related. Everything Sakura does, everything good she tries to build, dies through no fault of her own, and the poor girl's already so strung out at the start of the story that I'm 95% sure she's developed an eating disorder. I really don't want to read more of it. The Danzo part is less distressing but more infuriating, because the author really leans into the "shadowy mysterious antagonist" schtick, to the point that 225,000 words in and the characters
still don't know it's even Danzo and the story ends with Shikamaru captured and in the ROOT base being reprogrammed. Fucking
Christ.
If the rest of the fic weren't like this I'd really enjoy a fic about Naruto having to re-fit himself in the Konoha tapestry after being away for two years, but I just can't. You're not on the list.
There is a ghost in Hallownest. This ghost lies within the Abyss after swallowing Her light.
They are not alone.
ON HIATUS DUE TO IRL STUFF
So this one's a bit simpler to deal with. Sequel to grief is just love (with no place to go), it faceplants early when it decides it would be a good idea to cover the Soul Master getting incinerated by the Pale King from
five different perspectives. Why. Why do authors do this shit. Weave 👏 the different👏perspectives👏together👏
in the same damn chapter. And then there's a long interlude about one of the Siblings and I just did not care in the slightest.
You're not on the list.
Sasuke hadn't meant to end up in the past or accidentally create an alternate universe. Apparently things like this happened with dojutsu users more often than clans would like to admit. The responsible part of him says to try and keep the timeline as pure as he can. After all, his life turned out pretty well... eventually? Yeah, no. Besides, staying out if it would be boring anyway.
I'm dithering on this one. On the one hand, I mostly enjoy future-Sasuke taking over teaching Team 7 and working on ironing out their flaws. And Danzo getting immediately mind-whammied and exposed as Sasuke's first step is always appreciated. The future stuff is warm, fun, and fluffy, and doesn't go too heavy handed on the author tracts about the mistakes both the narrative and the characters made. Seeing Naruto bond, seeing Sasuke break out of his avenger mindset... it's great.
At the same time, there are niggling flaws throughout. The author has no idea how to spell several characters' names. The story goes all-in on blaming every bad thing that happened in the past on Danzo, which I think really cheapens the manga's messages. And while the fic doesn't often go into author tracts, when it does it's fucking insufferable, the conversation between Ino and Sakura especially. It just mangle's Sakura's voice in the interest in attacking the mindset the two started the story with, something I think the author is at least unconsciously aware of.
Ah, what the hell. The good stuff's good enough. You're on the list.
