Author's notes on the story
(disclaimer: everything related directly to canon and writing fanfiction is the author's opinion)
Hey guys. Skarrow here.
I've resisted commenting on the story for this past month of nonstop day-to-day updates so I could try to put all of my thoughts in one place. So, were you guys entertained by the story? Even a little? I hope so, because keeping to this strict updating schedule was really hard! I even nearly missed one day, oh man. And I did it for you. But anyways...
A Little Black Box is originally a story request from the old Naruto kink meme. The requester was HersheyBby (she goes by a different username now) and someone had written a oneshot about it already. But I really liked the idea, so we got to talking and the project was put on my backburner.
The story request was asking for a Young!GaaraxOlder!Sakura onesided puppy love kinda story. It was easy to make Sakura born seven years earlier than canon in order to fit the requirements perfectly, since we barely know anything about her home life. Other than her early birth, everything else pre-shippudden is the same as the original.
This Sakura never had a friend to help her get over her shyness. So no Yamanaka Ino. Instead, she internalized the kunoichi training to the fullest, hence why Sakura still has an Inner - because kunoichi classes were supposedly training female ninja how to blend in and pretend to be civilian girls. But Sakura is still Sakura, very sensitive about her appearance (forehead) and her place in the world. Wanting to stand out and gain adoration. Since all kunoichi already focus on beauty, it was only second on her list of things to achieve. In the Naruto guidebook (I forget which), it said that her (canon) father Kizaki loved gags and tricks. Sakura picks up the sleight of hand from her father, who used it to prank his friends while she used it like a magician's magic trick. She had been in the middle of practicing during her C-rank escort mission to Suna when Gaara first saw her.
Having Sakura and Gaara meet as six year olds, in my opinion wouldn't make them instant friends because pre-Ino!Sakura is a person who wants to belong somewhere. She's also a good girl who follows the rules. She wasn't friendly with Naruto, why would she be friendly with a red haired kid whom even adults fear and warn others to stay away from? The Sakura who befriends Ino won't even look Gaara's way after a passing glance because she likes Sasuke and spends all her time looking at the Uchiha.
The way some other authors write how Sakura and Gaara become childhood friends borders on unbelievable in my opinion, especially on Sakura's part. If anything, Ino would fit the role of Gaara's hypothetical childhood (girl)friend better because of how outgoing and sociable she is. Which is why I approved of the Young!GaaraxOlder!Sakura friendship request when I first saw it: A genin Sakura would be a bit more grounded and mature than her six year old self. She'd be more independent at least, and as a kunoichi she would be aware that Gaara's sand is Just Another Ninja Thing That Doesn't Need to be Explained, so she'd also be a little more open to making friendly with the cute kid who looks at her like she's the most incredible person he has ever seen in the entire world.
On Gaara's part, the moment he first saw her in ALBB, she was in the middle of practicing her magic trick with a stone. To older people it might not be anything special, but to a six year old boy who hasn't seen anything like it before, it will be extremely interesting and bewildering. In the story, he considers her as someone who "represents all the mysteries of the universe". Yes. It was love at first sight. A love that can't be explained, which only deepened when she welcomed him instead of shunning him.
(His reactions to Sakura were actually based off my own embarrassing reactions to the older girl I liked when I was five. It was love at first sight for me, too. But instead of politely asking the girl what she was doing like Gaara, I ran up to her, kicked her in the shins, stole the rock, and ran like hell.)
The running theme of A Little Black Box is "distance", in the physical sense. Gaara and Sakura are from two different generations of ninja, they're from two different ninja villages, and they eventually part ways. Their time together in the playground was so short, not even half the chapter, because it was supposed to reflect on how quickly time passes when you are enjoying yourself. And for Gaara, those precious weeks together with her was the best thing he'd ever felt in his short life. A feeling that only intensified when she was about to leave. Their time together was short, so short that time itself seemed to be hovering impatiently around them - the image of sitting under the slide together at night, surrounded by sand, was an allusion to that.
The chapters that follow is all about kid!Gaara's impatience and frustration about the perceived distance between himself and Sakura. They take up most of the story because it was an execution style that was supposed to make the reader look forwards to the moment they would meet again, maybe even make them think that perhaps Gaara is waiting for nothing. Chapter 5 in particular is the culmination of all of Gaara's fears and sorrows - the fear that he can never see her again, the sorrow over losing bits and pieces of her as time flows on, the despair over the idea that he may never catch up.
The second time they meet can be interpreted either as coincidence, or fate. It's full of fluffy things that the reader was expecting (hoping?) for and it ends with Sakura telling Gaara that "he will be okay even without her". And it's really up to your interpretation of what exactly is considered "okay". Which means how you view Gaara's situation in the final chapter of ALBB as a successful diplomat is also up to you to decide whether or not Sakura's prediction was correct.
The "spiritual sequel" (not a true sequel) is Love and the Time Travel Paradox which could be considered a standalone story because HersheyBby only wanted the kid!GaaraxOlder!Sakura interaction of A Little Black Box. It features Sakura as a divorced woman and her internal struggles, and her budding romance with a "mysterious" man she met at the playground one day (Gaara). Again, the theme is distance, but not in the physical sense but the emotional sense. She is emotionally distant from her loved ones, her family, her own life, and this perceived distance is partly her fault.
Some might be surprised to discover her suicide attempts, because I tried to be more subtle about it; Sakura's thanatos-mentality were shown through her complete disregard for her own health (beer and chocolate, "going outside because she has nothing to lose", etc.). The problems she is suffering from is also quite complicated: the hardships of living as a divorced woman in a community of traditionalists, the suffering of a mother who tried to be the best parent she could be but still messed up and caused her only child to think negatively of her, a disillusioned female who managed to wed her first love and having all of her dreams of a happy marriage crumble before her eyes. (I wondered if I should make the rating M due to these topics, along with the suicide part, but there is nothing too graphic so I decided to keep the rating T.)
On Gaara's side, not seeing Sakura for sixteen years was purely a misunderstanding on his part, a misunderstanding born of his own feelings of inferiority and his feelings towards the kunoichi he'd befriended so long ago. He had comforted himself with his own diplomatic job, reasoning that he was working towards building a world that was better connected and open: the kind of world that she would have liked to live in. But somehow along the way, he saw that no matter how much time passed, he was falling into despair. Not even being able to different places like he'd dreamed of doing as a child wasn't as good as he thought it would be. He's utterly confused about what he really wants, where his true goals lie. And he is still a very lonely person despite having the ability to hold extended conversations (he himself has admitted to "not having a family" and "not caring about Suna citizens").
Both Gaara and Sakura have their foibles. They are learning how to move on independently with their own lives. In the past, Sakura considered the little boy like a cute younger brother-type, while young Gaara's pure feelings for Sakura pushed him to kiss her (!), a kiss that he couldn't forget for the rest of his life. After much time has passed, and both of them have lived through many hardships, they face each other as two people who are the same, and yet not the same. In Love and the Time Travel Paradox these two don't even kiss, hahaha. They also lie on a bed together without doing anything.
The only part that gets even remotely sensual is chapter 17, and nothing happens then, either. It's near impossible to write a relationship between two consenting adult characters without dipping into that territory, but it was made possible with this couple! They mean much more to each other than the physical part of the relationship, it's a feeling that is so fragile that one wrong move could destroy everything and they both don't want that to happen.
Uzumaki Boruto's involvement in their story is an entirely different fanfiction plot, which I won't be commenting on here. But I can say that Boruto wasn't messing with time for their sake, but for the sake of his "mission".
Those who were disappointed by the ending of the story, I ask you all to please forgive me. This ending had been set from the very beginning, and anyone can see that there are just too many factors that hinder their chances of getting together right then. Sakura was saying that they had to fix their own lives first; she knows first hand what jumping into things would do if you don't address the glaring problems first. The distance between them, physical AND emotional, was still too wide. But Sakura this time has promised Gaara that one day when they've taken care of everything, they will meet again, unlike before when she told a kid!Gaara not to wait for her. This is intentionally a contrast between how A Little Black Box and Love and the Time Travel Paradox ends. They are both adults who can use their own power independently to see each other again and finally close that distance. So until then... Gaara will be waiting for Sakura. Again. Oh come on, don't look at me that way. The story summary warned you clearly: "How long did he have to wait before he could see her again"? How long, indeed. Was it truly just a stone's throw away?
Okay, what else is there to talk about?
Right. The format of writing in the story is an intentional choice in style: it is heavily introspective, full of symbolism, minimalist, and "shows by telling". There is also repetitive phrases, very little dialogue (what's there is in White Moon Reminiscence, and in Love and the Time Travel Paradox between Gaara and Sakura and a bit of Kakashi), and I completely avoid using names.
I admit that I do not do well with introspective pieces and symbolism but I tried. First, there is the sand, which is only used sparingly and in relation to time. I barely associated it with Gaara, however, because he is supposed to be shown to be more than the sand that protects him. He is just a lonely little boy. I notice that writers like to wax poetic about his sand, so I tried to do something much differently in his case. Similarly with Sakura, I barely referenced her forehead or her hair, and I focused on the magic tricks she was doing in an attempt to portray her as a person who was more than a pink-haired girl with a big brow.
The stone was established from the beginning as being a "part" of the mysterious foreign kunoichi in Gaara's mind, so when he loses the stone that she entrusted to him, it is the biggest blow to his heart, losing the only piece he owns of her, despite not being fully aware of why he is really suffering from the loss so much. When she eventually hears about the missing stone and forgives him, even giving him a little black box to replace the stone with, Gaara's young mind recognizes that while there are many stones that can be replaced, but nobody can replace Sakura.
It's kind of abstract, but the words "mystery" and "wonder" is symbolism for Gaara's attraction/love towards Sakura, and vice versa. He's enthralled right from the beginning while they were kids, and also when they were adults. The clouds represent the "gray area" between sunny days and rainy days: stolen moments in which they spend time together. The folded paper cranes are an obvious reference to Gaara's wish to fill the emptiness in his heart and be reunited with Sakura. Sakura's magic tricks is also a representation of their relationship: something that cannot be explained just by looking at the surface, and can only be understood by studying the inner workings. In other words, the couple's relationship is like the Black Box theory.
The swings they always sit on, both in Suna and in Konoha, are Gaara and Sakura's whole world. A world that belongs to the two of them, where they can live simply and beautifully just like innocent children. The swing breaking from underneath Sakura is pretty much the "wake-up call" that she needs to stop whining and hiding like a child and start taking responsibility for her own welfare, confronting her own demons. The playground itself is extension of their private world, and when they mutually decide to go out and spend time in Konoha outside the confines of the playground, they are taking the mature steps in developing their budding relationship. For the dialogue, Gaara and Sakura are the only ones who really have any (barring White Moon Reminiscence) because their voices are the only ones that matter to each other in the story. Kakashi getting dialogue with Sakura is supposed to show that he still means something to Sakura.
In regards to "show vs tell", many authors will tell you that "showing" is better than telling. I will agree with them, usually. But once in a while, "showing" just won't portray the story that you want to give the audience the way you envisioned. In the case of this story, "showing" would have just confused everybody unnecessarily, I think, with all of the symbolism. Introspective pieces also do better when the medium is "tell" rather than "show". But what about the emotions? What about making the readers empathize with the characters? What about the nitty-gritty details and interactions of the characters? And the lack of name usage is pretty strange, isn't it?
I said earlier that I was trying to "show by telling". The lack of names is a conscious attempt at making the readers emphasize with the characters within ("this could happen to anyone." "This already happened to you, or somebody you knew."), while forcing the readers to keep an objective 3rd person perspective the whole time. Lack of details doesn't necessarily mean there are no details. Everybody already knows what Gaara is all about, his backstory, his childhood. Everybody already knows what Sakura is generally like but this Sakura is very mysterious, and makes you want to know more about her, so you emphasize with Gaara. The reader's imagination is sometimes much more effective than whatever words I could use to describe what is happening so I stuck to being as minimalist as possible. With as little words as possible I try to tell the story, and things that are left unsaid are just as powerful as things that have been repeating throughout the tale.
You may or may not have noticed the words/phrases/situations that ironically echo one another. The obvious ones are the magic tricks, the swings and the playground. The less obvious ones involve the cranes, the daydream Gaara had about Sakura where they walk in an unknown grassland together, Sakura's sentence to Gaara ("I'm sorry for everything that's happened to you. I'm sorry that your life will continue to be one of hardship. But you'll be fine. Even without me, I know you'll be fine."), the phrase "jade met emerald", and more. I wanted this to be a story that made the reader think. Do you think I succeeded? Or is it too much?
Anyways, I've rambled way too much. Time to cut it here.
Now that the story is over, you can ask me any questions about ALBB.
Again, thank you for reading!
Chapter guide
(for those who still have no idea wtf is going on)
A Little Black Box
Ch 1
-Gaara meets Sakura. They become friends while spending stolen moments together at the playground. Sakura leaves, and Gaara understands the meaning of his existence.
Ch 2
-The chapter highlights the many ways the young Gaara is influenced by Sakura, even without her there.
Ch 3
-Gaara escapes getting killed by Yashamaru. He doesn't go mad with hatred, and he doesn't get the "love" tattoo. But the Ichibi still tricks Gaara into sleeping, and it goes on a rampage anyways.
Ch 4
-Gaara is incarcerated and isolated for getting possessed by the Ichibi. He knows better now, but he has no choice but to remain many days without sleeping, without reading, without anything besides the stone he cherishes in his pocket.
Ch 5
-Gaara decides to escape from Suna to see Sakura. He becomes greatly discouraged...
Ch 6
-...But then he stumbles across Sakura herself, who is already an apprentice of Tsunade the Godaime Hokage of Konoha. They part ways onc more the next morning, Sakura gives Gaara the little black box.
Ch 7
-Matsuri's first chapter serves to show Gaara at 13 yeas old, and Sakura being married already.
Ch 8
-Gaara is now a diplomat. Sakura has a child.
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Love and the Time Travel Paradox
Ch 9
-Sakura's life is slowly revealed in bits and pieces. She meets a mysterious man (Gaara) by chance. Gaara on the other hand just can't ask outright of she's really Sakura so he speaks in riddles instead.
Ch 10
-The next day, Sakura meets the man again. When she returns home, she finds a letter written by a child's hand, asking her to come back.
Ch 11
-Meeting the man, plus the letter she found, make her feel just a bit better about herself. She goes to the playground with a romance novel and proceeds to make an ass of herself in front of Short, Pale and Handsome. The next day, the man buys her coffee and they become even closer.
Ch 12
-It's a montage of scenes that show Sakura getting closer and more comfortable with her new friend.
Ch 13
-Sakura decides to go out on a sunny day for once. Sakura cleaning her home is symbolism for clearing out unwanted excess in her life, and by doing so she finally finds the old magic kit, or in other words, she remembers who Gaara is. The sun here is one big metaphor for "coming out of the darkness and confronting the truth". This refers to the "truth" of each others' identities, and the "truth" that he is actually a boy from her childhood. She asks Gaara "are you a stranger", also referencing their previous relationship in their childhood.
Ch 14
-Tsunade's interlude is an objective explanation of Sakura and Kakashi's hardships as a married couple, and their broken family. Note that Sakura married Kakashi before he got the chance to make piece with Obito and his father, so this Kakashi is harder to deal with than the one after the Fourth Shinobi War.
Ch 15
-This is the only time in Love and the Time Travel Paradox where Gaara and Sakura's names are spoken/mentioned. It happens immediately after Sakura performs a sleight of hand trick, just how she did in the old days.
Ch 16
-Gaara and Sakura spend time catching up with each others' lives. They lie in bed together under the blankets, in an echo of in Ch 6. THey also decide to go out in the village together - a step forwards in their relationship.
Ch 17
-Sakura discovers a colder side to Gaara and a childish side to him. That cashier seems to recognize Gaara...
Ch 18
-Matsuri'ss second story reveals Gaara's murder of five out of six men. The sixth guy is the cashier from Ch 17.
Ch 19
-Gaara emphasizes that he is not a kid anymore to a nervous and shy Sakura, but Sakura's ex Kakashi interrupts.
Ch 20
-Sakura treats Kakashi's wounds. Gaara asks Sakura to date him.
Ch 21
-Sakura decides on her own to keep pursuing Gaara. And Gaara tells her just how much she means to him.
Ch 22
-Sakura finally spills the beans and tells Gaara about her innermost feelings regarding her messed up life.
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White Moon Reminiscence
Ch 23
-In another time and place, Boruto confronts the 6th Kazekage, Gaara, who is also known to be crazy and blood thirsty.
Ch 24
-Boruto continues to confront Gaara with the knowledge of Sakura's death.
Ch 25
-Gaara tells Boruto the truth.
Ch 26
-Gaara finishes telling Boruto about the truth behind Sakura's death. It's heavily implied that Boruto will go back in time twenty years in order to save Sakura from committing suicide two days after meeting Gaara at the abandoned playground, and therefore bring about the events of Love and the Time Travel Paradox.
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Love and the Time Travel Paradox
Ch 27
-Sakura decides to return Gaara's feelings
Ch 28
-Matsuri's final story reveals the horrible thing she did to Gaara that he blackmailed her with in her second story.
Ch 29
-The last chapter. Sakura decides to not date Gaara so they can fix their own lives first.