Qia

I like SK xD. Btw a lot of people mistranslate Karin's reaction to Sasuke's apology. When she gets close to him, and he has that weird look on his face, is because he's not sure what to expect because she's speaking in a scary tone. It was explained on Tumblr by a reliable SK and NS supporter. 

I'll just say this: You don't need to love someone to have a child with them. That is all. 

I must be the only one who didn't think that her confession to Naruto was fake, but just done at the wrong time.

 you're not the only one. I've held that view ever since it came out, and yes I have considered alternative views and they never made sense with previous scenes shown, words that were said in the moment and after, actions made, and Kishi's supposed defense of Sakura after it came out. 

 

That's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for posting the link!

 

Here's some of my favorite highlights from that article:

 

1) Kobayashi asks if it was too late to drop her, and Kishimoto says that he just had to persevere with her, and thought about how to raise her popularity. In the 4th volume, a cover page shows her with Katsuyu, so this was the direction he tried to work in. In later volumes, he tries to draw her more beautifully. On the cover page of Vol 66, he drew Sasuke and Naruto quickly, but with Sakura he took a long time to draw her beautifully and was using source materials as guides. But he says that in the end no one really took notice (it had no effect), and Hinata’s popularity just kept going up on its own.

 

2) Kishimoto explains that Hinata, like Sakura, never really did anything but her popularity just kept going up and up, so part way through the story he started to wonder whether he should make her the main heroine instead, or at least gradually write her into the direction of the heroine.

 

3) The Edo Tensei was mostly a way to draw Madara out into the story. (I knew it.)

 

4) About the final battle, Kishimoto says he didn’t want them to use ninjutsu. He said he wanted it to end in a boys’ fist fight, despite it not being in the usual spirit of Jump (and they bothered him about it). (This was probably the sentiment throughout the whole ninja war arc when everything became about biju bombs, megazord samurais, and laser fox).

 

And my favorite part:

 

5) On Neji’s death - Kobayashi comments that there were many casualties during the war, but he was surprised about Neji, and asks Kishimoto why he was chosen. Kishimoto explains that because he decided to make Hinata into the lead heroine a while back, he used Neji’s death as a way to bring her and Naruto together.

 

Well there you have it. Neji died for a pairing. What a waste of his character...

 

These are not theories or guesses. These are the LITERAL words from Kishimoto himself as he is being interviewed by Kobayashi. Try and debate that. Although I'm sure some will find a way... 

If this is true...this makes me really sad. *holds Sakura*   But it does make sense considering she got shoved in the background after the Sasori fight. Feelsbad. 

Honestly, I think it's best to agree to disagree when it comes to something as complex as love (romantic love specifically) because, for the people that view Sasuke's actions as unforgivable, it's nonsensical that anyone would still romantically love him seeing how much he's changed from what they knew of him. Thus, Sakura's love appears to be shallow in this sense. There are also other people, like myself, that are in the situation where Sakura's love for Sasuke has always left a bitter taste in our mouths, since even in her second confession to him she sort of puts herself down a little for not being able to save him (when IMO it's not really so important that it should say anything about her as a person). On the other side, you'll have people that, of course, disagree with these views based on their own view of love. And...I just don't see any point in arguing about what love is when it's so different for everyone. 

 

I get where you come from, but regardless of what world we talk about, perfect peace is impossible, because a human being in any world is fundamentally flawed.

 

That said, Naruto's resolution of cooperation and unity did have significant positive impacts, Konoha changed, Technology flourished, we have inter-nation marriages, nations working cooperatively together, no war at least up to the present. The brightness of Boruto you could say is the impacts of this. There are still missions, still work, because you can't just snap your fingers and have peace like that forever and forever. You are still going to have people that do bad things, realistically speaking, even in the quadrants of the Shinobi world. 

 

Kishimoto does not chose to present an Utopia, instead putting in a realistic image. Perseverance of peace takes effort, it is not something you set up and are done with. 

If perfect peace is impossible then why did Jiraiya and Nagato believe that Naruto could be the one to find an answer? Even if it's not the greatest one it would be something that works for his world since that is the task and role he's been given to accomplish and that's established in the story at the end of the Pain Arc. (I mean, we're also talking about a fictional story about people who can spit fireballs and poison out of their bodies here). And even if humans are flawed it's not like Naruto is any ordinary human...he's literally the reincarnation of a God (or God's son I suppose) and related to the sage of the six paths. If there's an exception to this rule it would be him. Saying that he doesn't need to provide an answer is like saying that Jesus Christ in Christianity shouldn't need to provide an answer to us humans since he, himself, was made a human according to the bible (I hate to bring up religion here but I can't deny the similarities lol). 

Unless of course I'm supposed to assume that Naruto's answer is the same as Asura, that answer being love. But if it is, it's not clearly stated in the manga at any point that this is also Naruto's answer. In fact, it's not even shown how exactly he accomplished spreading love and bringing peace to the ninja world once the war is over. After all, as Obito/ Madara stated (I forget which) it was merely a temporary alliance. 

In other words, why didn't we at least get to see this "effort" that Naruto made? Considering the importance of this particular theme, it seems strange that it would be left out. Feels like a cop out tbh. 

 

That is the thing though, we know true peace is not a thing, and Kishimoto doesn't offer an answer to achieving permanent peace. We do know though that they, including Naruto, have worked hard to make peace last with unity and cooperation, to their credit. 

My problem with this was that the idea of Naruto finding the answer to peace in the SHINOBI world, in HIS world (not ours), was given so much emphasis that for him not really giving an answer and for Kishi to just sort of let this slide makes it seem like one of the huge failures of Naruto's character, at least for me. I absolutely cannot accept seeing flashbacks, like the particular one with Jiraiya, more than once depicting Naruto as being the key to this answer, only to be given only half the solution to the problem. Makes this part of the story seem incomplete. 

Honestly, from the moment Orochimaru was introduced I knew I was in for some f***** up kitten. Like, legit, sometimes I'd be afraid of watching Naruto around my parents as a kid lol not gonna lie. 

Edit: WAIT A SECOND. THE SITE CHANGED YOUR CURSE WORDS TO KITTEN. N OWONDERRRRRRR AHHHH

Honestly, if you're not attached to someone or willing to give them a chance after they've risked everything for you, and nearly died in the process...I think that might be just a tad bit on the selfish side. But what do I know? 

Except...it would make those actions of Naruto selfish don't you think? To think "Well I did all of this for you, so you owe this for me now" is not something that sits well with me. The most Sakura owes him, or anyone in a situation where someone does something for you with selfless intentions is gratitude. That's it. How someone chooses to show that gratitude should be entirely up to that person as well.  

And you make it seem like she didn't give Naruto the time of day or ease up on him a little after when the first thing they both agree to do is go on a date after he asked her out after the 3 year time skip. Granted, she teased him a little by saying that he would have to pay, but it's definitely different than him being straight out rejected or punched in the face. Sakura also started showing more concern for him, more than usual compared to part 1 and even expressed that she wished she could do more for him during the Sasuke retrieval arc. And I can go on and on about it and mention other moments where Sakura did try to get close to Naruto, like offering to feed him ramen, but I think I'll stop here xD since this isn't about the thread topic. 

So I did a little searching and found that, even as great as the HP series is (and it truly is), even it has its own plot holes similar to the above mentioned one. For instance: Voldemort's timing 

"This particular plot ‘hole’ is very clearly a structural element to the books, but we’re including it anyway, because Lord Voldemort is bizarrely predictable with his timing – always attacking at the end of the school year. The Dark Lord attacks Harry Potter directly at the end of Years 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7… and we’re guessing that he’s not just concerned about disruption for the students. Why wouldn’t Voldemort make more than one attempt on the Philosopher’s Stone during the school year? Why did it take exactly a school year for Tom Marvolo’s spirit to taunt students about the Chamber of Secrets? Oh, and (more on this in another entry) why construct such a gloriously convoluted plot to get Harry into the Triwizard Tournament? It often seems as though these nefarious plans are designed specifically to take an entire school year."

I got this from screen rant by the way if you're interested in reading more. But this is just my way of emphasizing the above-mentioned point: That even the best works have plot holes that the author may have missed as a story is being constructed and that you won't really notice until the end. Therefore, there really is no need to strongly defend everything Kishi has done by relying on assumptions.   

Even if we were to assume it was extracted for the Ten-Tails even then, one can easily assume that he couldn't when Naruto was young because the seal wasn't weak at the time. I mean, it was specifically stated that he knew that the seal would be weak during childbirth and he specifically waited till that time for his own reasons (whatever they are I forget if they were ever stated). But it's not really much of plot hole as the example I gave before IMO. 

Playing Devil's Advocate: The Eagles were prohibited by Manwe from acting directly. They're not truly eagles anyway. 

 

I.E...not a plot hole.

 

Besides, they don't have the Eagles on beck and call, so it's not really much of a plan you can put on a table. 

 

Further, The Eagles are more of a Deus Ex Machina thing, as much as I hate labels, specifically their use in the Hobbit. The story would be -worse- if they were used that way to end the Lord of the Rings, and unsatisfying. 

I think you're missing his point lol. If his question of why Obito couldn't have gone on with his plan when Naruto would be more vulnerable cannot be logically answered based on what we know from the story, then it results in a plot hole as the story, at least this aspect of it, no longer makes sense within its own rules and consistency. 

For instance:

"Naruto is said to have failed the final exams three times (and the exam at the start of the series is his fourth), but is in the same age group as others from his class (who are presumably taking it for the first time). This would mean he must have advanced through the earlier classes much faster than others (notably Sasuke and even Neji) and yet he is called a failure and a dropout."

Example and definition provided by tv tropes. 

As much as I agree of the abuse from Sasuke to Sakura, Sakura has also shown that she can be emotionally manipulative and, thus, emotionally abusive when it comes to him through her two confessions to him (the bench scene before he leaves and just before the genjutsu scene). Just wanted to add that since it may not be as obvious as someone getting physically abused.