#shinobi of the sand

[nonoel-art]

Temari of the Sand🌪🍃

[nonoel-28]

Kankuro: They don't make them like me no more. I'm the last of my kind.

Temari: Thank goodness.

[valeriacasaleart]

Sabaku No Gaara ❤️ Gaara was one of those characters that I loved from the first moment and who accompanied me throughout my life. I started drawing when I was little to feel closer and make real those characters that populated the books and comics that kept me company. I wanted more than anything that they could speak to me, that they would continue to live outside of the pages they read. As a teenager I must have drawn Gaara a million times, and as I grew older I think I drew him every time I felt I had made a little progress in my technical ability. Today I feel I have made some progress, and for the first time on the canvas I see something that reflects what I imagine when I think of this character. I feel a little moved, as if a circle has been closed.

(in the last photo, an obscene portrait of Gaara taken during my first year of concept art, if I'm not mistaken. Let's say three-four years ago)

[the-winds-of-sunagakure]

Some more amazing Images of our Kazekage!

Sorry for spaming them, but I can't get enough of this man. And I want to share my Addiction with you. 👀

[turnqpsole]

Naruto C515

"¡Explota la guerra!"

[Shinobi]

[skrmbrks]

taijutsu practice...?

[hirazuki]

I cannot express how much I love the pose they chose for Sasori here.

Like why. Why have him hunched over, grasping his head in his hands like he's sobbing into them or he feels like he's going crazy or he wants to die. Itachi and Kakuzu are standing normally; sad, yes -- at least Itachi looks like he is -- but they're standing normally. He could have been standing normally with his back turned, too. But no, this was a deliberate decision.

My eternal thanks to whoever created/approved this ♡

[backgroundcharacterno5]

Gaara’s audition for @dayeongi idol AU Fighting dreamers!

A reluctant Gaara but his singing helped him pass the audition

[leportraitducadavre]

Naruto re-read XXVI

Chapters covered: 209 - 217 Twentyfourth Volume of the manga

Site used: https://manga4life.com/manga/Naruto (VIZ translation of the manga)

Disclaimer: This is intended as a list and simple observations of the topics that particularly interested me in the aforementioned chapters, in that sense, do not expect a linear -or totally deep- analysis.

Tumblr’s update doesn’t allow me to attach more than 10 pictures, therefore, all of them will be LINKED. Apologies.

306) Hinata appears on the Chapter’s cover, her hands are dispositioned in her usually anxious manner but she’s seen smiling, she seems to be waiting. It’s unclear what she has to do with it.

307) Shikamaru states that it’s “against his code” to strike a lady (x), despite her being a kunoichi and the one that’s confronting him and keeping him from reaching and helping Naruto. Yet, because Tayuya doesn’t fit the “definition” of what a woman is (she’s on her Lv2 stage, which shapes her human form to something more monstrous), he’s okay with using violence to defeat her (she blocks his attempt regardless).

Now, I know that this particular aspect of his character is, as I’ve said before, to establish Temari as his romantical interest (x), she doesn’t break his preconceived notions, as some believe, she simply becomes the sole exception to his mentality, yet having a shinobi not willing to take an enemy seriously nor strike them down for the sole premise of their gender it’s strategically dangerous, and a person with such “moral code” can’t be leading an entire platoon of people (x).

308) Shadow Paralysis consumes a big portion of the user’s chakra, and again, it works by how much chakra the enemy possesses (x), as Tayuya increases her horns’ size (she increments her chakra by accessing further stages of the seal) and his shadow-strangle-technique is forced back.

309) Sasuke’s body, which has been sealed inside a dark fog to prevent him from dying after taking Seishingna Pills, seems to be ready and re-emerges (x):

“Seishingan pills (x), apparently, the Curse Mark Orochimaru gave his pupils (including Anko, likely she never took Seishingan pills and that’s why we never see her transformed into a “monster-like” figure like the Sound Four or Sasuke) boosts their strength but it’s only in the First Stage. This medication awakens the Seal’s power, raising it to its Second Stage, but the moment the Seal develops, the Curse eats away the user’s body, which if left unattended will surely kill them. To prevent this from happening, the user must acclimatize their body to the Seal’s power and Cursed effect for an extended period of time; the Sound Four want to prevent Sasuke from dying using a barrier Jutsu to control the side effects -inducing him into a comma of sorts.” (x)

310) When Sasuke wakes up, he ignores Naruto’s attempt to return to Konoha. Naruto, remembering Sakura’s plead, tries to follow (x), gets almost killed by Kimimaro and saved by Lee (x), whose shinobi career was saved by Tsunade (x).

311) Ino is the next one, appearing on the cover of CH 210 (x).

312) Kimimaro states that Lee isn’t as “easy” as the others, it’s unknown if he’s referring to the rest of the team or to Naruto specifically (x)

313) A little explanation of how a Jönin squad lost against the Sound Four (x), Tsunade sent an entire group of Gënin (with no backup) against a team that she was told won against full-fledged shinobi. She even attaches Sasuke’s value as a Sharingan Wielder (she doesn’t even mentions him by name, but the doujutsu he possesses); Jönin and Chünin were sent either to missions to gather wealth for the realm or to Konoha’s border to monitor possible dangers to avoid war –strange how a village decimated by destruction and whose numbers dwelled considerably after the invasion relies on small groups of shinobi keeping guards to avoid armed conflict instead of trying to solidify a political nexus in between Konoha and potential invaders. It’s likely more a plot device introduced by Kishimoto to give the gënin squad a chance to fight strong enemies without Konoha’s elite interfering but it doesn’t change the fact that, bureaucratically, Tsunade made a mistake as not only she sent gënin with immense potential (the Hyuga prodigy, the Nara and Akimichi heirs and the nine tails Jinchuuriki) to a dangerous situation that goes beyond their capabilities but also compromised further Konoha’s military and political situation.

314) Lee escaped Konoha’s hospital and found Naruto fighting Kimimaro (x) so following the trail of the team is possible and more gënin could be sent as support to guarantee a better success rate at recovering “the Sharingan”, is Tsunade unaware of how many gënin Shikamaru took? Lee consumed Tsunade’s alcohol which makes him particularly violent (x).

315) Kimimaro is very beautiful (x) and his Kekkei Genkai is incredible: It gives him complete control over his osteoblasts and osteoclasts (x); while the human body is composed of two hundred bones, Kimimaro can grow more from every part of his body and pierce his skin in order to use them as weapons against his enemies or defend his organs against attacks; it appears that his skin regenerates as he’s seen without open wounds after the bones disappear. Apparently, according to Kabuto, the Kaguya clan was whipped out by the nation of Kirigakure and Kimimaro was the last survivor (x), Orochimaru states that the clan never left behind the prototypical behaviour of the families during the Warring States Period (x) and when trying to go against a “well-governed body” that likely surpassed their numbers, they found their demise. It’s unclear why they went against Kiri, albeit it wouldn’t be strange if it was a response against the Kekkei Genkai cleansing.

Kimimaro’s death is all the more tragic when we learn he thought Orochimaru will keep him alive by remembering him and having him in his heart (x), yet that turns out to be a wish he will not have, as Orochimaru doesn’t care for him (x). Later on, it’s Juugo the one who keeps his memory alive, as he follows Sasuke when he becomes a cage for him, reminding him of Kimimaro.

316) Continuing from point 314. Tsunade did send reinforcements when she asked for the Sand siblings (x) and they were able to reach all of them in time to save them: Kiba, Shikamaru, and Lee did not win against the Sound ninja, rather, they lost and were saved by the siblings; and while them three are particularly strong as all of them reached the third stage of the Chünin Exams, while the rest of the Konoha Gënin didn’t, why rely on someone at least three days away?

317) “I owe Konoha a great debt.” (x) Considering Shinobis’ nationalistic mindset and how the individuals are linked to their village of provenance it’s not strange that Gaara associates the place of origin of the one that actually saved him to Naruto himself, so by helping Konoha, he helps Naruto by direct association. He likely ignores the fact that hadn’t been for Hashirama, he wouldn’t have become Shukaku’s jinchuuriki, as it was Konoha’s first Hokage the one that decided to cage the tailed beasts inside vessels to distribute their power amongst the newly formed ninja villages.

Temari admits that her actions during the invasion (and her actions now) weren’t of her choosing nor personal preference, as she was/is simply “following orders” (x). It’s established that shinobi do not compromise their moral parameters when performing a mission, as they simply justify their conduct by establishing another person in a higher rank or the structure in place as directly responsible for everything they do; in the same manner, these principles are never to compromise the village’s political gain and military power, so they either morph to fit Konoha’s, get repressed as to them not interfering with the mission at hand, or grow to become a direct opposition to the village’s. 

Gaara’s sentence about “how sad it is” that Orochimaru brainwashed Kimimaro (x) is paradoxical considering how his devotion to the Sannin is no different from his devotion to Naruto, Suna, or even Konoha. He gloats about how an entire kin will cease to exist as he’ll kill the last member in lieu of the mission he was given; Kimimaro dying regardless as a consequence of his disease (x, x) –and he did as they admitted they won by mere luck, does not modify Gaara’s overall antithetical behavior as he did not eliminate nor reduced his manners but rather he modified his violent conduct to be in favour of his village and those he considers allies (x) while Naruto, on the other hand, refuses to use killing force. 

318) Temari has a summon: a kamaitachi (x) –The kamaitachi, translated from Japanese as the sickle stoat; is a Yōkai from Japanese folklore with a mustelid-like appearance and extraordinary speed. "Kama" is a kind of Japanese sickle, also used with some modifications as a weapon by the peasants of the time. Itachi means weasel. He is always armed with a sickle or according to other versions of such shaped claws, occasionally inflicted cuts or scratches on people for no reason.

Summoning: Quick Beheading Dance (Kuchiyose: Kirikiri Mai)

Ninjutsu, B-rank, Offensive, All ranges User(s): Temari

Roaring whirlwind!! The rampaging and slashing dance of the Kamaitachi!!

Temari of Sunagakure controls the wind with a massive fan!! She whips up a tempest, and summons a Kamaitachi that rides the winds slashing through everything it touches!! The effects of the jutsu stretch outwards for several hundred metres. The swirling winds also whip up the mowed-down trees and boulders which rain down on the helpless enemy!! It is highly effective when surrounded on all sides or when the enemy is hiding behind a shield. The sole weakness of the jutsu is that it exposes the user’s position.

Source

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[catharsistays]

Does anyone else think Sunagakure (Village Hidden in the Sand) could closely resemble Mesopotamian culture?

Im trying to make cultural links between the Naruto World and ours since im not finding a lot of canon exploration in customs or socialization of villages/countries.

Currently in the Naruto wiki, its referenced that Suna's buildings are most likely made up of Stucco. Which is an architectural technique used across a good bit of cultures but generally it was used in Egytian, Minoan and Etruscan architectural sculptures. BUT- besides maybeee Egypt, the geography doesnt quite fit.

Other cities that use/used Stucco were Iraq, Arabia, Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan and around Southern India. Which btw i think fits CLOSER to what we see of Suna in the anime. But im not sure if there was any place that was specifically quoted as the inspiration behind Suna's anthropolgy if there was any.

Im thinking perhaps Mesopotamian culture and locations could be used in reference to expand upon the finer details of Suna's culture and society cause i refuse to think of them as just 'Aggressive Sand Village' yknow?

Please feel free to mention any other aspects you think should be explored since i just got hyperfixated on the mention of a real world historical technique in the Naruto wiki. It was probably just a comparison the writer made but thats good enough for me.

[nonoel-28]

Allies of the Leaf

[whotookmysenbon]

Hey, Shiranui— Found your file while digging around in the archives the other day, and it made me wonder what your genin days must have been like, since you're two years older than Ebisu and three years older than Gai. I'm guessing that's when the mother hen instincts started?

Jeez way to make me feel like a fossil. Actually, I got most of the mother hen traits from my dad. He was the reason I graduated at twelve rather than earlier like my genin teammates. There were whispers of war all throughout my childhood and my dad point blank refused to let me become a child soldier. He begged the academy to hold me back as long as they did.

It stung, at first. Made me think I wasn’t good enough in his eyes. Now as an adult having fought in two major wars, I almost wish I had waited longer still. And when I see genin nowadays trying to grow up so quickly they miss their own relative safety in youth… I think dear old Dad had the right idea. Kids should be kids.

[assortednarutoheadcanons]

Kankuro: Gaara, don't you have enough children now?

Gaara: What are you talking about? I only have-

Gaara:

Kankuro:

Gaara: How many nieces and nephews do you have now?

Kankuro: THAT'S WHAT I'D LIKE TO KNOW TOO!

[nejitenotp]

we should talk about the fact that temari was the only girl in the whole Chunin exams to get past the preliminary duels [and still held up in her final round]

[west-coast-baby]

[team7-headquarter]

I love how grim was the original Naruto.

I really miss when adults were portrayed like that, like actual soldiers who had to indulge in several vices to control their PTSD. They smoke or do drugs or read porn or drink or become addicted to work or physical exercise. They are all perverted in their own ways, broken, traumatized, damaged.

I miss when they had big ass scars and when you could tell they were shinobis used to killing for a living just by looking at them.

I miss how Kishimoto used the kids view to make everything look kinda innocent at first, but slowly turned everything worse the more that they lived to reveal to real shinobi world, not how the kids dreamed it to be.

There was something so appealing to it, to the contrast of innocence vs a world submerged in war and violence.

Kakashi starts the Land of the Waves arc being a funny dude with hearts in his speech bubbles and it progresses to Kakashi putting his hand through Haku's heart with a chidori. There's suicide and there's extortion and there's old men molesting Sakura and people being crucified and genocide and corruption and—

There are moments when you can feel the reality of their violence, like when Orochimaru appeared on The Forest of Death. He showed Sasuke and Sakura with a genjutsu how he'd decapitate them. Like when Hiruzen gave his soul to a demon to try and seal Orochimaru's soul too. Like when Gaara started killing people by exploding them with his sand. Like when Rock Lee was told that if he went along with the surgery he could die and if he did not he would never walk again. Like Orochimaru experimenting with kids or like when Neji revealed the secondary branch of the Hyuugas were slaves marked like cattle that would only find freedom if dead. Like Itachi forcing Sasuke to live again and again the Uchiha massacre with a genjutsu.

Shippuden has a lot of it. It is brilliant at times, but doesn't have the consistency of the original.