That would make this so tragic though wouldn't it?
It seems like there should be a greater purpose for such a thing even with the humor of Kushina thinking Sasuke should've been a girl. After Kushina says that she hopes they would be good friends. But if Madara did learn the location because Mikoto knew it would be a betrayal.
Which what I think happened- remember Mikoto was intimately involved in the Uchiha coup plot along with Fugaku. How sad, someome Kushina thought was her friend actually hated her enough to cause her death.
Wonder if Mito Uzumaki had red hair too? I wish Kishimoto would have done color pages, I would have liked to have seen Kishimoto's colors for Kushina's hair and clothing, since Studio Pierrot messed up on the colors of Kushina's clothes. I would have liked to have seen colors for Mito Uzumaki too (I want to cosplay as Mito as well and I'd like to have the colors Kishimoto decided since the animators can't be relied on anymore to do correct colors. I'd like to make the costume for one of my ABJ dolls too.)
Interesting that Biwako dressed in Hokage robes too- my guess Hiruzen considered her his co Hokage even though she wasn't officially that. She's another tsundere character too
She kind of looks like a Yamanaka- not just the hair, but something about the face, even aged, looks like a Yamanaka. Hmm, that would make a strong reason why Asuma was chosen to be Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru's sensei- his mom being a Yamanaka clan member.
Neither Mito or Kushina dressed like their husbands but they too played the role of a strong partner to Hashirama and Minato, but it appears they had to live secretive lives beside the men they loved, where Biwako lived a very public life. Sakura will almost assuredly have a relationship with Naruto as Hokage much more like Biwako did with Hiruzen, so she might dress pretty similar to Naruto as his wife.
And I think more it settles it that Sakura is the oldest. After all, Tsunade was born before Jiraiya and Kishimoto has explicitly laid out- Tsunade=Sakura, Jiraiya=Naruto, too many parallels to discount her being older, plus the way she acted around Naruto at 12 has the vibe of her being older than Naruto, at 12 that sort of thing is more important to kids younger or older- thus another undercurrent with the growing breach- at that time, of Sakura with Ino. At 6 Sakura was a meek, scared victim of bullying, as she gains a bit of self-confidence she begins to chafe under what she feels is Ino domineering personality, by around age 10/11 she breaks off the friendship with Ino.
A younger person with a more dominant personality can overpower a less dominant older person- see Konohamaru and his team mates- he's the youngest of the three but he's the team leader because he has the most dominant personalty. Konohamaru and his teamates- Udon born April 3, Moegi June 8, Konohamaru December 30- note, Moegi is over 6 months older than Konohamaru...
The school year in Naruto's world is not based on the Japanese or Western calender year at all- (The only hint we get of when the school year starts is when Sasuke begins, it's after his sixth birthday, but seems to be shortly after- it also appears to be summer- no spring flower blossoms in the air, no fall leaves in the air, and the leaves are green on the trees in the anime, so perhaps late July, early August) so what makes the most sense is anyone born in that calender year began school at the same time. This ties into traditional Japanese concepts of age in children- for the Shichigosan temple vists- 3 year old girls and boys, five year old boys, and seven year old girls- any child born in that calender year goes to the temple on that day in November and is considered that age, even if they haven't had that birthday yet. Also on New Years Day in traditional Japan- following the Chinese lunar calendar- so late Jan-Feb depending on the year- a person was considered a year older (and even today people consider themselves as symbollically a year older on Jan 1), Kishimoto also brings in the lunar calendar element in this chapter- a pregnancy is just about exactly 10 lunar months long- which is how Japanese people still count months in a woman's pregnancy- the fan translator makes it sound like this is unique to female bijuu's hosts but those words weren't in Ohana's or the other Japanese spoiler, it's simply stated the 10 months of pregnancy because that is how pregnancy months are counted in Japan- (I thank Tashiro Makiko sensei, my college Japanese teacher for me knowing that info- she was pregnant with her first child during the last semester she taught us, and me being another female, and curious about women's roles in Japanese culture -both historical and modern. She shared information with me after class about pregnancy and other women's topics in Japan). It still has influence on Japanese culture- as witness the Shichigosan temple visits, and also the much more modern holiday called "Coming of Age" day- anyone that turns 20 that year is considered 20 that day in January, even if their birthday is December 31 of that year.
This would also make Kakashi graduating while he was still 5 years old make more sense. He started at 4 (he was not quite 5) and graduated shortly before he turned 6.
Edited by ciardha, 01 July 2010 - 08:20 AM.
Dream you dream alone is only a dream, but dream we dream together is reality- Yoko Ono 1971
When you go to war, both sides lose totally- Yoko Ono
Remember, our hearts are one. Even when we are at war with each other, our hearts are always beating in unison- Yoko Ono 2009