Too true, Nate, but even with that, Naruto still has Sage Mode as a trump card since Sasuke can't follow the flow of Natural energy due to his not being a Sage. And given Sasuke, he might get slightly overconfident and assume he can beat Naruto still.
All in all, this chapter shows what a good guy Naruto is, even if dense. I assume he's keeping his promise because he assumes Sakura still loves Sasuke, and also because of Sasuke having been a friend. He was really gutsy to let Samui pummel on him, because of his remembering his dad's words as well as Nagato's, and wanting to make sure that the chain of hate that has been formed is broken.
Anyone else detect some bull with Danzo's wanting to assassinate Anko possibly?? It isn't wanting to protect the village, it's just wanting to protect himself, like his hunting down Kabuto before Anko can find him. We know Danzo can't be trusted since he chose to turn tail and run just to solidify his position for now... all in all, he will be exposed if you ask me. We'll just have to wait and see how.
Bryon
Sasuke being unable to follow the flow of energy only relates to Sharigan's predictive power. I don't see how it helps he out of Genjutsu. Killerbee got out of it using 8-tails, but the difference there is he has a relationship with his beast that Naruto doesn't have with Kyuubi and as far as we know the sharingan can only control Kyuubi. Unless is grants him an ability similar to what Byakugan and Sharingan have, Naruto is still vulnerable to genjustsu. I think even Kakashi knew what Tsukiyomi was before he got hit with it and he still couldn't break it.
One of Naruto's biggest weakness as a ninja is he does a terrible job of seeing underneath the underneath. He thinks well on his feet, but he seems to always believe what he eyes tell him, which makes him really vulnerable to genjutsu. I think of the Mangekyou's techniques Naruto's biggest problem is Tsukiyomi and not Susanoo or Amaterasu.
I agree in that I think he may still believe Sakura loves Sasuke, but that's only part of the reason. Even if he didn't think that, he knows she still cares for him and even if she didnt't, I still think it'd be a matter of personal honor for him. He made a promise and he intends to keep because he promised.
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I'd wager it's more like impossible. Something as rooted in death and destruction as ninjutsu can never truly purge it; hell, it's a good deal of what it's about. Even if you bury the hatred and death, you just need to scratch the surface to see the festering wounds below.
It's a noble goal and very much in character for Naruto; that doesn't mean it's a very realistic one though.
I'd wager it's more like impossible. Something as rooted in death and destruction as ninjutsu can never truly purge it; hell, it's a good deal of what it's about. Even if you bury the hatred and death, you just need to scratch the surface to see the festering wounds below.
My question is also what exactly what would he change it to? At its core, what ninja's do is accept missions from clients in exchange for money. They have the own seperate existence from the countries in which they reside, but their income and, really, most of their relevance derive from their missions. They aren't simply a military arm of the village of country in which they operate that are only deployed in times of war. Those missions involve assassination. In such situations, the ninja themselves may no hold animus to the target, but someone likely does and the killing will generate more of it. Even if they don't possess it themselves they still further hatred, almost by the very nature of their existence as ninja.
I suppose they could, as a whole, refuse to take such things, but that requires an enormous amount of trust and will break down the first time someone cheats.