"You have the same eyes as me"

[thistlechaser]

(I wish there was a big fanbase for Naruto like there is for HP, a group where you could discuss the meaning of individual lines and scenes as is done in HP...)

Last night I paused near the end of the Haku/Zabuza arc, and so I'm finishing it now. In ep 17, during a flashback scene to Zabuza "adopting" Haku on the bridge, I noticed something odd. Haku (4? years old?) look up at Zabuza through the snow.

Zabuza: A kid like you will not be needed by anyone and will die a beggar.
Haku looks up at him, smiles happily, and says: You have the same eyes as me.

Not only is the timing on that comment odd enough to raise eyebrows, but quite clearly they don't have the same eyes:

..
(Click for larger/different view.)

So what does Haku mean? He's (accidentally/defensively) a murderer and Zabuza is one as well (though quite willingly and gleefully), but would a kid as young as that not only be able to read that in someone else, but acknowledge that he did it as well (especially when it was his father? and probably other people from the village?). And unless I missed something, these are the first words Haku says to Zabuza -- that has to be significant.

This ties together with something else I wondered: How did Zabuza know that Haku had the Bloodline Limit inside him? That can't be something ninjas can just sense, otherwise Kakashi and the others would have picked up on it themselves. Is it a special ability of Zabuza's? Or did he know of Haku's village and heard what happened there? Or the thing that sort of pings the most: Are the two related? Maybe Haku recognized something like that in Zabuza's eyes? (Even when he was older, Haku didn't want to kill people, so I doubt this was a "one killer recognizing another" sort of thing.) I refuse to believe this is a plot hole. :)

Mm. Or maybe it's some Japanese cultural thing that I have no idea about... I wish I had time at work to search for fanfics about this, but I won't have a bit of free time for a couple weeks yet.

Comments

In the Eyes

[ladycosmos.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh..Naruto discussion. I feel rather deprived of these.

It could possibly be that Haku sees the same emptiness he feels in Zabuza. You have one kid that has no where to go, no family, no one to care for him; in Zabuza, you have a guy who has basically lost faith in whatever it was he was doing, someone that has next to no compassion about human life, and that doesn't have too much of a reason to live.

I believe Zabuza was surprised when he heard Haku say that so that also leads one to think that Haku saw something that Zabuza didn't want to acknowledge or wanted to hide from people.

As for how Zabuza knew, I don't think he knew about Haku's powers right away. Instead, I think he saw Haku as a waist of a life and only later realized his potential. I don't believe that Zabuza saw Haku as a killer since Haku didn't want or mean to kill anyone. He wasn't the same as Zabuza.

Also, as for "sensing" these bloodlines, I think you're right that they can't sense them. Kakashi didn't sense Haku's powers and neither did Team 7. And also Zabuza didn't realize that Sasuke was an Uchiha so he apparently couldn't sense that power either.

I think Zabuza finding Haku was either sheer coincidence, or he knew who he was looking for. Bloodline powers were looked down upon and the children with them killed. So it could be that the village wanted to kill Haku or let him die because of his powers and Zabuza was able to find him because of this.

Re: In the Eyes

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm, the emptiness (loneliness?) could fit, yeah.

I believe Zabuza was surprised when he heard Haku say that so that also leads one to think that Haku saw something that Zabuza didn't want to acknowledge or wanted to hide from people.

Yep, he was startled by it. I replayed that scene a couple times, watching for various things.

I guess it could just be that Haku was a really empathetic kid, to pick up in the emptiness in someone who was both a perfect stranger and an adult trying to hide that. (Hide it since otherwise it'd be a weakness people could use against him... which hmmm, fits with something from earlier. Zabuza said Haku could always see through people and find their weaknesses -- he only needed to fight them once to spot their weak points. That would fit with him seeing Zabuza's loneliness so quickly.)

Knowing Zabuza's character, I could see him actively looking for Haku if he heard he had killed his family and wandered off. Because really, what a perfect tool he'd make, if he could take him under his wing while the kid was still so young...

Totally OT, but...

[gmth.livejournal.com]

I just had to share this with you. I had the *weirdest* dream last night, and you were in it. My son and I were hiding out in our car because you and a gang of hoodlums were terrorizing the neighborhood with fake guns. We were scared out of our wits, and when I finally realized the whole thing was just some weird joke, I went to the 7-11 that your parents own and posted a big sign on the door saying how horrible I thought you were.

??????

*giggles madly* So odd....

Re: Totally OT, but...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*laughs!* That's so funny! Well, I'm sorry for terrorizing the dream-you!

Thanks for sharing that!

BTW...

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I still see your LJ posts, but given how taken over by anime they've been, I've taken to skimming them. :)

A suggestion? If your post is entirely anime, make a note in the Subject line like [anime] or something so I know that. I don't want to miss anything non-Anime! :)

Re: BTW...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'll try to keep the subject line fitting, sure thing.