#karinsaku – @thefairyletters on Tumblr

Road to Serial Shipping

It starts with SasuSaku usually... Then it evolves to NaruSaku. You stay with NaruSaku and then SaiSaku creeps in. You're reminded of how you liked SasuSaku when Sasuke makes first attempt on Sakura's life. It disappoints you, angers you and you wonder if SasuSaku has any hope. You shift back to NaruSaku and hope the best for the two cuties. Then NaruHina starts looking up and you are once again disappointed that all NaruSaku development was for nothing.

By the time, Sasuke is done with his second attempt on Sakura's life you've given up on both SasuSaku and NaruSaku and instead move to start shipping KakaSaku. Itachi's truth reveal hurts bad and you think Sasuke doesn't deserve neither Itachi's sacrfice nor Sakura's love. Things start looking up for KakaSaku when war starts and you're very happy. Then you suddenly come to realisation that reincarnated hokages look great and start thinking if Sakura was born at wrong timeline. But that's just a passing thought and you never think that again, right? Wrong, but you wouldn't know it until much later into future.

While war rages on, you're in a hell where you ship NaruSaku again but harder and you know you'll be disappointed. When war comes to an end, you are convinced there wasn't any hope for NaruSaku, and you realise you've been played (wronged!!) because Sakura's emotional development up till the point was all for nothing because she once again ends up back to square one where she turns blushing mess before Sasuke. Disappointment couldn't begin to describe what you feel. You wonder if there's a hope for KakaSaku. You'd have shipped wholly supported LeeSaku really. But you know deep down there's no hope for Sakura and her brilliant future.

You start picking up movies now that series is over and you remininse over the wasted potential that is NaruSaku and LeeSaku. It's heartbreaking but you watch it anyway. You've sealed your fate when you watch Sakura being lifted like a princess by none other than Uchiha Itachi. You know you're in deep shit when you rewind and watch the scene over and over. ItaSaku starts appealing to you more than it should, stronger than any other ship. You're disappointed at yourself because that ship had never sailed and never will because Itachi is dead. But you steel yourself because canon sucks anyway.

It's when you look up the Google for KakaSaku and ItaSaku pics that you come across the term fanfiction. You've heard about it but never thought it's worth your time because if YouTube videos taught you anything it's that fanfictions are written by 9 year olds and you're 15+ now. You refuse to lower yourself to that level but...you give in because, curiosity.

Wattpad was awful, and FFN turned out quite better and that's where you stay for couple years. Your expectations goes up, up, up. You find AO3 and it becomes your holy scripture.

It started with canon and semi-canon ships, it ends with piles of crack. It starts with shinobi from other villages. And Gaara is single, cute and alive. Isn't that just great? Well, yes, but then Mist Shinobi are just so compatible with Sakura's aggression... Why you are shipping Chojuro and Suigetsu with Sakura is mystery even to you but you are still doing it. You never thought one day you'd find youself shipping Sakura with any past hokage or dead, evil men... Actually you did but that's not important, anyway so you are now on the stage of conversion. It's just Sasori anyway, he is handsome, redeemable with enough love and care, and you like Sakura who has so much love to give and is just so shippable... Ahem.

You pick Naruto again and see if you'll be able to get your mind out of gutter. No, it went overdrive because you're now picking signs that you never had noticed before. What is this? Ino was better match for Sakura all along. My OTP is right here and I never noticed?? That's how you also end up picking up KarinSaku. Shit, Naruto should have ended up with Sasuke and let Sakura have Hinata. It might just be that you're hallucinating but you figure MadaSaku and ShikaSaku have good compatibility.

Shipping Sakura with someone who is not only married but also father to someone is a line you never thought you'd cross. But you did. You're horrified, hate how your mind works and you know there's a special place in hell for you but... Curiosity is a monster.

Finally, you give up trying to 'purify' your ways and just decide 'to hell with it'. Now there's not a single Sakura ship you've not yet seen that's already out there... And you're always open for something new.

It's been xx years since you first picked a fanfiction... You're not proud of yourself at all and you wouldn't tell a soul outside of fandom community that you read fanfictions, least of all the kind of fanfictions, but you're happy.

Your happiness is all that matters.

If someone asks you what your OTP is... uh, just smile, wide. Or say it's complicated. They will probably drop the subject, probably.