Namaenash

Just to remind everyone that we should refrain ourselves from bashing other fandoms ;) keep calm and enjoy narusaku.

the comparison with Chiyo and Tsunade was well done. I guess Sakura might give part of her life to Naruto to help keeping him alive. I imagine Naruto would die, but this is too soon...

as for sasukarin, sorry but I really despise that pairing. You just don't easily forgive and come back to the man that has literally hurt you...

Ok, I'm going I'll admit I don't really like Hinata, but...
 

662

Let's just celebrate our otp and ignore her. The whole tripping over thing was basically her story in a nutshell. She tries hard, but Kishimoto doesn't really want to make her relevant. Not exactly funny...

I second that. Let's enjoy the ns moments and don't waste our time and energy on Hinata. If anything, the scene sums up her importance in Naruto's life. She cares, but life have its own way, and may not be always according to what one wished for.

I really like the scene between Naruto and Sakura. The way she pledged for Naruto to keep alive is more or less what I would've imagine. She's not the crybaby and lovey dovey type of woman, which makes her character stands out.

a fierce women to protect her beloved ones. The final page says it all about the main heroes love life.. And probably will foreshadow how the relationship will be established moving forward.

enjoy the show comrades, and no bashing please ;)

First off, happy holidays everyone!

As for the chapter, it was a really good cliffhanger and made the plot move forward.

I'm not worried about Hinata entering the center stage, I doubt Kishi will choose that path. She'll make some appearance, together with other rookies. She belongs to that group.
As proven with the recent article about the manga's sales volume this year, picking Hinata as focus and including the infamous hand holding panel with her was just backfired the publisher. The sales were dropping. I know it may not be the only reason it dropped, but I believe it contributes to it. Maybe it's anecdotal, but I stopped buying Naruto manga since volume 64 came out, and I think I'm not the only NS fans which were disappointed. Anyways, as for Hinata, people just need to realize she's not as popular as what they claimed to be.

I think Sakura entering the center stage would've been more appropriate, for the reasons stated in this thread before. It just fits the context and it has buildup during the war arc. Just take a look back at few chapters back when she worried about Naruto being weak because he distributed his chakra to everyone. Not only that, if one tried to link back up till the Gaara rescue arc, it's still linear and you can connect the dots. Much like 631 with 500-ish (Kushina flashback), and so many more foreshadows.

However, I'll keep my expectation low as always. Who knows we'll get a beautiful surprise like 631 ;)

After 631, I'm 100% sure it'll be canon.
did have doubts when 615 came out, but Kishi is still keep his pattern. After NH or SS moments, he will close it with NS moments.

I think this chapter re-established Shikamaru's position in Naruto's world. He summed it up in simple phrase: IF Naruto ever becomes a hokage, he would need someone reliable enough to be on his side. To this point, it is either Shikamaru, Sakura or Kakashi.

 

Kishi has this pattern for at least two of the hokages: Hashirama+Tobirama and Tsunade+Shizune. The assistant serves as a counter balance to their respective hokage. It's not surprising if Naruto would have someone to aid him throughout his journey as hokage (if he survived this war). Initially I thought it would be Sasuke, but ever since he consciously decided to join Orochimaru, it's a gone case. I cant recall which chapter the flashback about Shikamaru wanted to walk besides Naruto --but now since we have it shown, it all makes sense... suddenly we could relate and connect the dots backward.

 

I'm more than happy to see Sakura again. She's so pretty and fierce. Yet, at the same time always worried about Naruto. You can see that she's very delighted Tsunade praised her. I could imagine that Tsunade is a very tough and difficult teacher to deal with, and Sakura is that underdog girls (with no special ability or bloodline limit) trying to proof herself.

 

This chapter also displays obvious contrast between Sakura and Hinata. When I checked back the chapters in which they are displayed together in a chapter, it seems that it always made to show the contrast and differences.

 

Here, we have Sakura that worried about Naruto overdoing himself and was very happy that Naruto helped her saved Shikamaru. She even told Shikamaru that she wont let him die because "Naruto..no everyone still needs you...". Implicitly doing this for Naruto's sake, as her initial thoughts. (If anyone could translate the raw, I'm curious if this was really the case). Kishi could write that by omitting Naruto, but he choose not to. For Sakura, whether she (or we, as readers) realized it or not, she almost always unconsciously put Naruto first. For Sakura, it's almost always for Naruto's sake.

 

On the other hand, we have Hinata which always think to do her best to be on Naruto's side. The subtle difference between Sakura and Hinata is the receiving end of their resolution. 

 

Sakura -> almost all the things revolved around Naruto is for Naruto's sake. It's for his goodness.

Hinata -> almost all the things revolved around Naruto is for Hinata's sake. It's for her to be with him. Please don't get me wrong, I don't dislike her character at all, but this is fact.

 

Was Hinata's statement romantic? Well, it depends on how you see it. We're talking about Hinata here. Everything that comes from her towards Naruto is almost always in romantic lights. But, that's hardly a news isn't it? So, why would we always have this "to be on Naruto's side" statement reinstated again since few chapters ago? Frankly, it's reiterated too much that it becomes nothing special to ponder upon. If it is her resolve to do her best to be on Naruto's side in romantic light, why do you need to do so? What's her definition to "do her best"? Some more, if you put that sentence in the context of the facial expression she wears in this chapter, you'll see that it *may* not be "standing by his side" in romantic light. For fellow women around here, let's ask ourselves, have we ever put such fierce expression to "do our best" to win the love of our live? I highly doubt so. If we ever think about doing our best for that purpose, we'll wear a soft smile instead.

 

So, I personally don't think her resolution to "stand by his side" is to become Naruto's love interest. We'll see further in the future. But at least, this chapter has given me enough comfort that it was not the case. Remember, it takes two for a relationship to work. You got to factor in Naruto's feeling in the equation. And so far, his feeling for Sakura is unwavering (chapter 631 approves this).

I think Sakura is injured, but her chakra wasn't drained. You can see that those people who have been drained were not glowing anymore --Sakura is still glowing. I think this is a plot to make Sakura unable to heal Naruto ;( too bad, I was expecting them to work together as a team... Hopefully I'm wrong and Sakura make a badass move next week...

The sad thing for Hinata is, the focus is always 'I', instead of 'You'.

if you look at both Naruto or Sakura, regardless of where they stand now... They always put their own feeling/desire as a second priority.

Naruto with hospital scene when Tsunade first arrived, the POAL, beaten by Darui, and many more.

Sakura with Tenchi bridge scene, the confession (no matter how you look at it, she's willing to kill Sasuke to relieve Naruto's burden), and many more.