Butterflies
"Me? I'm nobody. I'm not skilled like Uchiha-san. I am not passionate like Haruno-san. I am not smart like Nara-san. I'm not as strong as Chouji-san. I'm not as collected as Aburame-san. Or as pretty as Yamanaka-san. I'm not as confident as Inuzuka-san. If anything, I'm like Hyuuga-san, socially awkward. Oh wait, no, she's just shy. The socially awkward one is me." OC! Team 7 remix!
Bonus Content 1 – Namiki Aya
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Aya was originally envisioned as a Byronic Hero (google it, it's fascinating). She began with an almost crippling social anxiety, unable to hold the most basic of conversations, and so much pain and anger in her heart. She honestly believed her parents were dead, that the village all but disowned them. And she hated people for that. This, of course, warred with her innate need for a pack, her need to be social, her need to be valued and needed. So even though she was almost narrow mindedly devoted to her self-appointed mission, to guard Naruto from the shadows, she refused to let anyone near her.
She put into words that she didn't want to hurt people with her death, and this is true. But she also didn't want to ever be hurt again.
Over the course of Butterflies, she was forced to face her ghosts, her fears, her shortcomings. Nara Yoshino is by far the biggest catalyst in this, even though I'm sure most assumed she was the catalyst that forced Hatake Kakashi to grow into the Team Leader his team needed him to be... and to an extent this is arguably true. But if you compare the changes in Kakashi to the changes in Aya? If you were to compare Aya from the first ten chapters, to Aya in the last ten?
In Aya's growth, during the worst of her growing pains, Aya changed people. It's true that Yoshino is Aya's catalyst, but Aya, in turn, is the catalyst for Naruto, Kakashi, Chouji, Ryuuzetsu, Hitomi, Kin, Ikoku, Yasu, Sakiko... etc. And yet, Aya cannot bring herself to see things that way. She would have died long ago if not for Naruto and Yoshino. So, she argues that she isn't responsible for any of those life altering moments, but a messenger... an extension of Naruto that saves people for him.
She isn't like that because she's humble. She isn't humble. At all. The humble bow to the lowest and crawl before the elite. Aya stands tall even when daimyos are trying to manipulate her, she doesn't give a damn and she's proud of that. So humility isn't the cause. She simply believes in the notion that everything that happens, everything she accomplishes, is the direct result of those that saved her. And though she only verbally credits this to Naruto, in her heart it's always been Yoshino, Ino, Chouji and Naruto. Had just one of these four failed her, she would have crumbled. That's why Butterflies: She-Wolf is such an intriguing Spin-off for me. Remove one of the four, what happens? How does the delicate being in her cocoon develop when you take away so critical an element from her?
That's how I planned this story, by the way. Stages of a butterfly's metamorphosis. It starts off in her caterpillar form, before Yoshino becomes Yoshino-sensei. Then she slowly starts wrapping herself in silk; the makeup, the dress. And she starts to change. Little changes at first, and it takes, in her opinion, far too long. But those little changes snowball into bigger and bigger and bigger changes. This continues until the chapter A New Butterfly Unleashed. Yes, it's a play on ANBU, but calling her a butterfly that first time was pivotal.
Which brings us to why the story is named Butterflies to begin with. Arguably, you could say that it's because of Chouji's name and Aya's fascination with butterflies. But, like naming anything in Japanese, names need to have an obvious and a hidden meaning. The obvious meaning is, of course, the name and the fascination. The hidden meaning is the change. To start off as something no one wants to be (a caterpillar), that no one wants to be with (a fat, ugly little bug), and to slowly grows into something, someone, that people would die for.
There's also a reason why wolves fit so well into this. The pack mentality. The core of the story –the moral, if you will– is that no matter what live brings us, we need to face it together. No matter the bond shared, no matter the trouble fate brings, it we face it together then we will make it. That's why Aya got a bit preachy when she was explaining what 'Namiki' really means. One single pillar cannot hold up a ceiling. No matter how strong the pillar is, pillars were meant to be surrounded by other pillars. Just as wolves are meant to be surrounded by other wolves. It's just the way it is.
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Bonus Content 1
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A/N: Starting to get a bit long winded :P I have a lot more to reveal, but... I need to hold something back in case you guys hit another hundred reviews ;)