For Naruto to "misunderstand" Hinata's feelings for him after she selfishly tried to commit suicide in front of him well "defending" him against Pain, (and I only use that word because I don't know what else to call it when you knowingly throw yourself in front of a bullet, well also knowing that that person you are throwing yourself in front of will likely die anyways) would require him to be one of the stupidest individuals to have been born on the face of the planet who didn't have a developmental disability. Which isn't possible.
Any attempted explanation beyond that is just self indulgent drivel.
You know something interesting? Some months back, I had this sudden, and saddening, bit of insight re-reading Kushina's wish list for Naruto and his responses. He clearly replied to every thing she had said, no matter how mundane it was, except for when it came down to her request that he finds a woman like her to marry. He totally dodges it like it was the draft. The wish list comes up much later on, and Naruto acknowledges the request's existence, but, again, refuses to comment on it in any way, shape, or form.
I found that interesting for a long time. Why would he do that? Within an in-universe mindset, why would Naruto blatantly not talk about the kind of girl he should/would be with even within the privacy of his own thoughts?
And then the answer came to me -- Naruto honestly believed that he would never meet a girl that would want to marry him. And the idea of that was something that troubled him so much, he would do whatever it took to ignore it, act like the issue wasn't even there. Of course, no child wants to disappoint his parents, especially one that only just now met them in the last few months post-mordem, so, rather than saying something that shocking, he opted to not address it, like it'll quietly go away if he just didn't think about it.
Which now repaints Naruto's response to Edo!Minato when he asked if Sakura was his girlfriend. Because the first time I read the page, I commented on how Naruto looked when asked the question. Long story short -- deer-in-headlights. And he hemmed and hawwed for a few seconds before answering in possibly the most contradictory pattern he would ever comment in: "Yeah! ...well, more or less..."
I don't know about you guys, but that just felt like a blatant lie to me, even to himself. The startled look in his eyes, the bit of sweat, the hemming and hawwing before confirming, then kinda-sorta taking it back immediately... that was nothing like Naruto when he was 12 when Konohamaru asked him if he and sakura were an item.
And that's whan I re-read the Kushina part and discovered that Minato's parting words were, "Listen to your chatterbox mother." And in light of this theory that Naruto truly felt that he would go unloved and unmarried for all of his life, Naruto effectively lied to Minato for the sake of upholding the image of his mother's wishes and to put Minato's mind at ease, even though he himself did not feel it would ever come to pass.
That's my theory, based on information from the manga, excluding any reasons that occur outside the Naruto world (pretty much anything involving Kishimoto, sh*tty writing, editorial pressure, Studio Pierrot and the like). Do you feel that it's at all possible for Naruto, in-universe, to feel such things? Why or why not?
Edited by goldenarms, 14 April 2015 - 05:57 AM.
