#caxy is also about to have a fucking stroke because its 11 at night and my animation deadline is tomorrow

[stripesquadsideblog]

so what did kagura say to shizuma?

I know pretty much all of us stripe squad fans are annoyed by this  convo that we cant hear between shizuma and kagura. Its kind of a cheap story telling ploy to keep us interested so i kind of see why they did it but im irritated never the less.

I think given the criminally short amount of time these “bad guys” were actually on screen we really could have been doing with more information.  As it stands Buntan (and kinda Hassaku if you squint at that shark jesus scene) are the only ones with any backstory. Not even shizuma, the main antagonist , has much fleshing out other than hes a hoshigaki with a bad attitude and a personal space problem.

Of course this could all come in later arcs but we fans are not patient people.

SO LETS TOTALLY OVER THINK THINGS TOGETHER

this is a MASSIVE post so its under a cut to avoid bloking up peoples feeds

Ok first off : this, THIS RIGHT HERE, is not the face of apology.

Shizuma is smirking and kagura looks scared, nothing fun is happening here. Jesus shizuma is behind what looks like a good 2 inches of solid glass  and poor turtle child is still afraid.  Further more shizuma is not the apologizing type. He does it sarcastically or as a means of gas lighting or emotional manipulation .

This right here is mockery. I can see shizuma saying something with a tone of “oh look the mizukages pet got free who would have seen that coming”

something rude , hurtful or other wise insulting 

I mean

Kagura is literally recoiling in horror and fear. Hes still scared of shizuma and why shouldn’t he be? Shizuma went feral and nearly killed them all not that long ago ( time line is a wee bit dodgy here because everyone was knocked out at night . hassaku and shizuma are up and about , even if shizuma is a little bit scratched, but buntan Ichirota and possibly hebiichigo are still clearly injured so im not sure how much time has actually passed).

Kagura is freaked out and ready to leave. He cant do what he came to do because shizuma still has power of him.

That is until he realizes chojuro has his back

Look at chojuros face. The little hand on his shoulder : thats the kind of reassuring body language you use to tell someone  “youve got this but im right behind you” .Suddenly he’s much more confident. What exactly would be so scary to kagura that he couldn’t do it alone?

He clearly came to say something. Hes not armed so hes not here to kill shizuma. The building theyre in isn’t like any prison weve seen in the naruto world( like the blood castle or karins prison during the war arc) . its very clean and the bright lights give it a medically sterile feel. I think this might be some sort of combination prison/mental hospital.

Which tbh is probably what shizuma needs, coup or no coup.

So what do i think happened?

I think for Kagura to have any kind of closure from this incident chojuro insisted he see shizuma one more time to say what he needs to say. To get some things off his chest so hes not them around with him. Chojuro has an enormous amount of faith in Kagura . hes given him 2 chances at his own expence. Kagura is clearly  unstable in some situations. Mei and chojuro have both spent the better part of 20 years sorting out the mess Yagura left behind. So why stick his neck out?

( side note i love how all the stripe squad are just ignoring shizumas antics. Like kyoho is just stairing into space like “i wonder if i left the stove on....”)

Sorry back on track

There was very little from stopping chojuro from treating kagura like everyone else does but he doesn’t. He goes out of his way to build kagura up. Its pretty much implied that hes actively choosing Kagura as his replacement as 7th mizukage.

But for chojuro to help him achieve that goal, kagura needs to get over some stuff. So he has to confront shizuma. Yeah ok maybe Kagura needs a little help to do it but hes there none the less

 What is kagura doing?

Well i think its 1 of 3 things

The most likely answer

Option 1 ) Hes telling shizuma he forgives him.

As i mentioned shizuma is not an apologetic person. That ladies and gents is the face of shock. Shizuma really only understands violence, like pretty much any blood mist kiri nin. So what would be more shocking to him that forgiveness? To me this shot just screams “ how could you forgive me after all i did to you.”

Furthermore do you have ANY idea how DIFFICULT it is to forgive someone who hasn’t even said they’re sorry? Lets be real here, shizuma was AWFUL to kagura. He literally called him a tool and told him hed use him till the end . he told him he was a murderer and that he was of no use to anyone but him.

I really admire people who can let stuff go like that. I had to learn through a lot of therapy but here kagura is doing it off his own bat. 

 SERIOUSLY i am really struggling to think of something that would shock  shizuma more than heartfelt forgiveness  except maybe option 2

Option 2 ) kagura is the one apologizing.

Now this seems unlikely  to me as i doubt chojuro would let kagura put any blame on himself for shizumas actions. That kind of goes against the established plot of ‘chojuro build up kagura’ by letting kagura accept blame for something that wasn’t his fault. But it could be kagura is apologizing for something else. Maybe “ im sorry it came to this. When im mizukage things will be different, ill make everyone happy” or “ im sorry shizuma but you clearly arent well, this is where you belong “

something along those lines

Yes im looking at the ninja world with rose tinted glasses here but it is a possibility. The stripe squad are disillusioned with the ninja world to the point of thinking they have nothing else to live for if they don’t succeed ( just look at hassaku “the executioners blade is all i have”). Kagura and chojuro aren’t stupid. Maybe Kagura knows this is something Shizuma needs to hear as much as he needs to say.

Option 3 ) kagura is goodbye/goodluck/im done with you.

This is another fairly likely one.Now what kind of put this one down for me was these two clips

Look at how determined kagura is. This isn’t the most forgiving of faces but then again id hardly expect kagura to break out his best cinnamon roll impression for an abusive asshat like shizuma . its possibly hes doing some sort of “ i forgive you now lets never speak again” sort of thing.

When hes done he bows his head: maybe in relief ? maybe he just cant stand to look at shizuma anymore. We don’t know and We don’t find out .

The second bit is this. Chojuro looks like hes ready to kill a bitch. This is his warning face: hes pulled a lot of stringers for kaguras sake and even shizumas. Like do you think if this kind of shit had happened in Yaguras kiri shizuma would still be alive and talking crazy through the glass? No hed be  buried in the flower beds nourishing the tulips before you could say  “whats the blood mist?”

The combination of orochimarus voice over and chojuros face makes things pretty damn clear :you mess with kagura again and i wont be so forgiving.

And then shizuma is just left alone. Kagura is done with him , hes gone, hes finished and by siding with chojuro and accepting his training to become hirameikaris wielder ( and possibly eventually the mizukage) hes essentially telling shizuma “ i don’t need you im stronger without you.”

And ouch thats gotta hurt someone with as many emotional issues as shizuma.

Hence sad shark boi above^^^

 I feel what would have really made this scene for me is if we got to see shizumas reaction to Kagura walking away from him. Like shizuma has demonstrated an unhealthy level of possessiveness over kagura: to see his tool walk away from him, get the better of him and be the better person would fill him with some sort of emotion.

Like did he pound on the glass screaming about how kagura needed him and how kagura was nothing without him? Did he freeze ?defeated by kaguras words, some sort of final revelation that he was in jail/ an asylum  where he belonged ? did he slide to the floor sobbing because all he’d worked for, one of the vital pieces of his plans was walking away from him and his team mates were all ignoring him? jesus did he even throw a little hissy fit???? we just dont know.

We’re missing a big piece of the puzzle here in not knowing what shizuma did after kagura left and the worst part is we’ll probably never find out