The cards.
Hoshinarabe (星ならべ, Viz: Star Lines) is a card game popular among the prisoners of the Astronomy Research Institute, discovered in the Institute's library a few months prior to the events of Sasuke Retsuden. The game uses a deck of sixty cards, with five copies of each of the twelve card types. Players are dealt a hand of six cards, and then take turns discarding and drawing new cards. After five turns, whoever has the best hand, or "role" (役, yaku), is declared the winner. The game is noted to be similar to poker.
The cards' pictures are based on paintings originally done by the Sage of Six Paths, kept as a collection known as the Map of the Heavens (天体絵図, Tentai Ezu). Although the paintings themselves are unattributed, they use a type of ink not native to the Land of Redaku; Sakura Haruno recognises the ink as being used by Sai for his Super Beast Imitating Drawing, which leads her to suspect the Sage as the original painter. Close examination of the original paintings reveals dots throughout, signifying that they represent different constellations visible from Redaku during each month of the year. This in turn connects each card with one of the zodiac signs, and by extension a specific hand seal.
The Sage created Hoshinarabe as one of the clues to acquiring polar particles, a strange substance that can cure an illness unique to jinchūriki. By performing the hand seals dictated by the two strongest roles, Star and Earth, at the location where the polar particles are hidden, the polar particles would reveal themselves.
Cards[]
| Picture | Name | Description | Inspiration | Month | Zodiac |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tanuki (狸, literally meaning: raccoon dog) | "A family of tanuki playing in the sand dune." | One-Tail | January | Rat |
|
Cat (猫, Neko) | "A cat staring at the lantern flame." | Two-Tails | February | Ox |
|
Turtle (亀, Kame) | "A turtle climbing a rocky mountain." | Three-Tails | March | Tiger |
|
Monkey (猿, Saru) | "A monkey drawing a picture on the ground with a tree branch." | Four-Tails | April | Hare |
|
White Horse (白馬, Hakuba) | "A white horse swimming in the sea." | Five-Tails | May | Dragon |
|
Frog and Slug (蛙と蛞蝓, Kaeru to Namekuji) | "A frog and a slug crawling in a swamp." | Six-Tails | June | Snake |
|
Tree Trunk (木の幹, Ki no Kan) | "A tree trunk dripping thick sap." | Seven-Tails | July | Horse |
|
Cow (牛, Ushi) | "A cow peering into a jar." | Eight-Tails | August | Ram |
|
Bonfire (篝火, Kagaribi) | "An orange bonfire." | Nine-Tails | September | Monkey |
|
Giant (巨人, Kyojin) | "A giant about to be born from the earth." | Ten-Tails | October | Bird |
|
Shepherd (羊飼い, Hitsujikai) | "A shepherd looking up at the starry sky through a glass ball." | Janmāru-Tataru | November | Dog |
|
Old Man (老人, Rōjin) | "A white-haired old man with a cane." | Sage of Six Paths | December | Boar |
Known Roles[]
- Star (星, Hoshi) - White Horse, Shepherd, Cat, Bonfire, Giant, Turtle
- Earth (土, Tsuchi) - Cat, Bonfire, Tanuki, Frog and Slug, Turtle, Old Man
- Theia (双瑛, Teīa) - Old Man, Shepherd, Tanuki, Tanuki, Turtle, Turtle
- Sunset (夕焼け, Yūyake) - unspecified
- Flame (火焔, Kaen) - unspecified
- Clear Sky (晴天, Seiten) - unspecified
- Young Leaves (若葉, Wakaba) - unspecified
Trivia[]
A card's reverse side.
- The backs of the cards use a picture of what resembles a lizard on a rock. Sasuke Uchiha, after initially thinking the lizard looks like Menō, realises it is actually a picture of a dinosaur and a meteor.
- Because the cards are centuries old, each has a unique blemish, such as a tear or scratch, that can be used by players to identify which cards their opponent has. Because of the attention to detail this would require, as well as the sheer amount of memorisation it would demand, none until Sakura Haruno had thought to do so.