HalfDemonInuyasha

In terms of Naruto's status, Hiruzen probably kept his birthright hidden partly because he didn't want Naruto growing up with a big head and partly because he knew there were many people, both foreign AND domestic, would who seek to either eliminate Naruto or seek to use Naruto for his status. Basically, many people in the village who would kiss his ass, like they probably did with Sasuke after the massacre, in order to gain "favor" with Naruto, or use him like some figurehead type for their own intentions (for those who know of it, think of the child emperor in Akame ga Kill! who is used by the Prime Minister). With his Jinchuriki status, Hiruzen was clearly naive in his belief in the "goodness" of people, but as many fanfics have brought up, it was also probably made public as a message to deter other villages from considering trying to attack Konoha since it was weakened with its losses from the attack itself coupled with those over the years (Orochimaru betraying Konoha, Tsunade ditching it, Jiraiya constantly absent for his duties, and so on)

In terms of Jiraiya, it's much more the way he tried to train Naruto that irked me. As brought up, it's understandable that he ACTUALLY had an important job that required him to be absent (unlike a certain someone). It's primarily due to the fact that he focused so heavily on Naruto relying on using Kurama's chakra even though, from spying on the Akatsuki, he knew one of their goals was collecting the Biju/Jinchuriki and should've been able to deduce from what members he knew were part of it that the members were set up specifically to combat such opponents. Having Naruto completely rely on Kurama's chakra and little to nothing else would be playing right to their advantage rather than in Naruto's favor. That's not to say that Naruto should not have learned to use it at all, but he should have been taught a whole lot more than that in various other areas, especially during the time skip. You would think Jiraiya would have done so especially after his bad encounter with unlocking more of Kurama's chakra for Naruto to use, only for Naruto to go four-tailed berserker and nearly killing him, thus making him realize that Naruto relying on Kurama's chakra was not only going to handicap him against fighting Akatsuki, but was also just plain too dangerous to Naruto himself and everyone else around him.

That was why I was actually excited when, after the four-tailed incident at the bridge, Naruto proclaimed that he would get stronger using his own power, and half-created the Rasenshuriken...and then things went downhill.

I'll just copy/paste my rant that I put on Facebook...

 

Personally, I never really care about pairings in general (quite low on my list of priorities for anime, even for romance genres)

Like Bryon though, if there is to be a pairing(s), then what I care about is that there is consistent, mutual development on the part of each person both individually and romantically.

With Sakura AND Hinata, both of them started out with shallow crushes, "loving" them based much more on what they saw in front of them, but not much deeper than that (of course, extremist NH fans try to make out Hinata's crush as "different" somehow). The only difference was that Sakura was loud about her crush while Hinata was silent about her own.

However, as the story continued, Sakura actually grew and developed as both an individual character and with her relationship to Naruto. As mentioned many times, she went from someone who bashed Naruto without knowing him, to learning and understanding him bit by bit and seeing he's nothing like what she thought, and the same when it came to Sasuke; that he wasn't the person she thought or wanted him to be and that everything she wanted from Sasuke she was finding more and more in Naruto. She found herself not just wanting to help him attain his dream of becoming Hokage, but also wanting to protect him from harm on a much more personal level than simply because of being a comrade and fellow shinobi of Konoha hence why she tried to get him to let go of his promise to her of "saving" Sasuke, because, in part to Shikamaru and Sai's words to her, she realized how much pain trying to keep that promise was causing him and she didn't want to see him continue to get hurt (both physically and emotionally) over it, especially given, as said, Sasuke was not the person she thought and clearly didn't want to be saved. But when Naruto refused to let it go, she tried to take the matter into her own hands by trying to kill Sasuke herself in order to lift the burden off Naruto's shoulders. While she may not have been able to do it (which extremist NH lovers try to say is "proof" that she truly loves Sasuke and not Naruto), the fact that she even made the attempt speaks volumes.

Yes, she's not perfect and is flawed, but that's what also makes her far more realistic and relatable to viewers. She and Naruto have not had, do not, and would not have a perfect relationship. There would be ups and downs, disagreements and arguments like any relationship would have which, again, makes it realistic and relatable.

And as brought up countless times, there's the constant symbolism (Hinata tripping and pretty much giving up, despite having some, if barely any, Kurama chakra left whereas Sakura had none left, but fought like hell to get to Naruto and save his life with her bare hands) and parallels made throughout the story too. For Kishi to try to actually blame the fan base as "misreading" all of that is a huge insult and is really one of the main reasons much of the fan base hates him now. An author trying to blame the fan base rather than take responsibility for his own mistakes...it's like a commanding officer making a poor strategic decision that results in not only a huge failure, but the deaths of many soldiers along the way, but rather than admit he was wrong about the decision and taking responsibility, he places all the blame on the soldiers for doing a poor job or something.

Of course, you still have Naruto constantly showing he loves Sakura, putting her own happiness ahead of his own, not even trying to deny her as his girlfriend to Edo-Minato.

On the other hand, Hinata never went anywhere after the Chunin Exams. In fact, they took what little strength and background they gave her back then and tossed it aside, turning her right back into that same "blank" girl we were introduced to back in Part 1 when she appears again in Shippuden, as if we're being introduced to her for the very first time again (and right when I first read that part, it made me wonder how the hell she was even able to make Chunin rank to begin with given Chunin aren't just about strength, but about leadership qualities and such). But instead of trying to actually (re-)develop Hinata into getting her out of that Part 1 mentality, truly becoming stronger and developed, and expanding her horizons, they instead regress her character into someone completely obsessed over Naruto to the point where nothing else around her matters as long as Naruto is there in some way.

Who cares what happens to Ko (her bodyguard) if I die (would most likely be executed for failing to protect me if they managed to survive) or the rest of the village? Naruto's in danger! I must throw my life away in order to make a death bed confession, resulting in Naruto becoming pissed off that someone died and nearly releasing the Kyubi and destroying everything himself (including the rest of my Clan), and if by some miracle he managed to come back from that, probably kill himself from thinking he was personally responsible for it, being too kind to blame me for it when it would be obvious to anyone!!! But at least I managed to confess! That's all that matters!

Naruto got kicked?! Oh no! I must take my attention away from the obvious enemy right in front of us to make sure he wasn't killed by that simple kick!

Neji died right in front of me and his corpse is still laying just inches away? Who cares? Naruto's hand is so big and manly!

Hanabi got kidnapped and her eyes getting ripped out? Who cares? I must finish knitting this scarf for Naruto!

If there is anyone who has not changed at all from Part 1, it's Hinata. Well, she did change, but for the worst.

And not once in the manga has Naruto ever showed any sort of reciprocation or mutual development of those "feelings" from Hinata. He still remained completely oblivious up until her confession, and even then, it was never revisited in the manga. The two of them have never had any sort of normal conversation outside of battle (what few times they start to always results in Hinata fainting or something after but a few words). They never hung out together alone (Hinata would faint anyway and nothing would happen). They never actually get to know one another, much less Hinata ever coming close to understanding Naruto's feelings on things or his pain on others and vice versa. The best one could call them in the manga are acquaintances, not even "friends" really.

What is that thing about Kiba jealous of Naruto I just saw on Tumblr.

Please tell me it's not in that gaiden.

It's making me wonder if Kishi is going to try to now purposely destroy all the established relationships from the epilogue now, thinking it will win back the fan base. Pfft.

Like Sarada will be Karin's daughter and Sakura has simply been in denial this whole time, hence taping her photo over Karin (or under a secret Genjutsu by Sasuke at some point, so she never noticed before, and why she faints so much, unless they're simply trying to give Sakura one of Hinata's stupid calling cards, thinking it will make her seem more appealing)

Naruto will end up being having an affair with Sakura as she uses him for a rebound (thus Kishi will have an excuse to trash her as a "terrible woman" even more while thinking he's giving the fan base what they want by having them "be together")

Kiba will (try to) be Hinata's rebound which will break him up with cat girl.

Ino will make a move on now (or always) single Sasuke which will end up breaking her from Sai.

And others will be broken up somehow, like Temari finally having enough of Shikamaru's attitude. Something happening between Chouji and Karui, and so on.

 

The war ruined one of the biggest phrases from the manga 'It's the job of the new generation to surpass the previous generation' the war showed us the new gen is weak compared to the past.

And other hypocrisies like, "The future can be changed" or "ending the cycle of hatred", and whatnot. Instead, Naruto and the others are now just more cogs in the same system that Naruto swore to change/destroy, that was seen as the "source" of the problems.

Heck, I felt the whole "new generation surpassing the old generation" was screwed the moment Naruto and Sasuke were being handed more and more hax power-ups after the Kakuzu and Hidan Arc instead of, like most of the previous generations had done in their careers, actually working for them and then training to master them.

In general, no, I don't believe Sasuke should have died. As mentioned a bunch of times already, Sasuke dying would've rendered Shippuden completely pointless as his redemption was, at the time anyway, Naruto's ultimate goal, even ahead of becoming Hokage and such.

At the same time, Sasuke definitely should NOT have been let off with literally no punishment whatsoever. I've always told my friend (Bryon_Konoha_Ninja) that I believe that Sasuke should have survived, but should have also lost his eyes due to his final battle with Naruto or something. As we've seen with Sasuke, and other power-hungry Uchiha like Madara (at least before Kishi decided even Madara needed a sobby, sympathetic back story), he treasured his precious eyes more than anything, and he proves it constantly throughout the series, especially by taking Itachi's eyes and getting the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, even though he said he would never do so and didn't need them (I think the ultimate Naruto lesson after all of this is "Just be hypocrites"), and the fact that he completely relied on them and their power with the way he just kept spamming their use after obtaining the normal Mangekyo (hence why he goes almost completely blind after just a few weeks at best as opposed to Itachi, who managed to go for years because he didn't use them too much).

Losing his eyes would force Sasuke down to the level, or even below, others that he constantly looked down upon before simply because of his eyes and his family name. He would actually have to work hard if he wanted to live out even a normal life afterwards, and learn to accept help from others without thinking it made him look "weak" and such.

However, if Sasuke were to be made to die for some reason, he could only be allowed to after having some sort of deathbed style redemption scene so that, technically, Naruto still would've "succeeded" in "bringing Sasuke back", sort of like how Anakin Skywalker returns to the Light Side just before dying in Luke's arms in Return of the Jedi thus, as Anakin himself said, Luke still did save him.

She called it upon herself. Sure the way she was treated was wrong. The way her father thought of her was wrong. And nothing wrong that she found inspiration to get better each day from Naruto. But it stops at that. I.N.S.P.I.R.A.T.I.O.N. She turned Naruto into an object!

Hinata and Naruto are no different when it comes to being an underdog. Both of them were looked upon as useless and good for nothing. But Naruto instead of succumbing to it, fought for it, trained harder than anyone out there and became what he was. He knew struggle. He had it in him to change the way other people looked at him! But Hinata...she just..gave up and became Naruto centric. Naruto this...Naruto that...If she really would have cared for Naruto she'd have promised to become stronger by herself and not by clinging onto someone. Nothing wrong in getting inspiration. Everyone needs that. But that same inspiration becomes a problem when it gets transformed into obsession.

And cmmon! I guess full grown adults understand the difference between inspiration and love. Hinata didn't even know that!!!! If she really knew and cared for Naruto....she'd have let go of him since she knew how much Naruto loved Sakura. But....NO

The way Hinata was treated and looked upon...not her fault. I give her that. But how she ended up....definitely hers! Having someone like Naruto as an inspiration and still turning out the way she did.....a disgrace to Naruto's impression. Look at Konohamaru! That guy freaking damaged someone as good as Pain with a Rasengan holding Naruto as an inspiration. This is how it should have worked for her. Konohamaru doesn't have an obsession towards Naruto. How she was at the beginning....I give her that...but how she turned out to be...definitely hers. Now I really know....what her sister and the so called 'Hyuuga queen' means to her....

We also can't forget that Hinata said in her own mind that she would STOP chasing Naruto after the war was over. That gets followed up later with the now-(in)famous tripping scene which, in ways, also corresponds with her giving up. Sure, she had little Kurama chakra left, but she just lies down and gives up and, as usual, only quietly "supporting" Naruto from a distance whereas Sakura, despite having no Kurama chakra left, fights her hardest to reach Naruto to keep him alive and doing her damndest to ensure her voice reached him, even falling back on older, non-chakra medical practices to save his life, like manually keeping his heart beating with her own hand and using CPR and such, Unlike Hinata, Sakura was truly taking Naruto's lessons to heart, like never giving up.

Most of the times Naruto and Hinata have been in the same area of a fight, Hinata just constantly proves how little faith she truly has in him. Of course, (extremist) NH fans try to say "Oh, but anyone would be worried for the one they love in a fight!". Yes, I can give them that in general, however, that reasoning gets completely nullified by Hinata herself by her claiming she "believes in him". You can't say Hinata loves and believes in Naruto if she worries that he's seriously injured from a simple kick like that Naruto took from "Tobi", or feeling that she needs she jump into the middle of a fight against an opponent even the one she supposedly "believes in" was having extreme difficulty with, and so on. Those same fans also try to use Sakura not doing what Hinata did as "proof" that she doesn't love him that way, however, one can just as easily say that her not doing so was a combination of her being realistic in that she knows she would die if she fought against Pein, of her having faith that Naruto would win in the end, and of her knowing, due to her knowing Naruto much better, that if she were to throw away her life senselessly for his sake like that, Naruto would only be upset, not just at her death, but at also for such a reason (he wouldn't want anyone dying for his sake like that), so she was doing what he would want her to do what she could with what abilities she had and that was making sure the villagers and other shinobi/kunoichi would survive thanks to her medical training.