Yeah, I've wondered that as well. Where is SS in all this?
I can'really say. Maybe they will show up in the new series instead. Or maybe they powers-that-be have decided that the story has focused enough on Sasuke, and they want it to be squarely on Naruto and his progeny. It could be that the love triangle of the future is between two girls (one being Salad) and a boy (Bolt), rather than such a heavy focus on the bonds of friendship with a little love sprinkled in as filler.
Ultimately, I think Sasuke and Sakura, as individuals, take too much spotlight from Naruto and have too many ties to the old manga which they are trying so hard to distance themselves from. I think Sakura from the manga has the power to outshine Hinata with anything she does, and that's why they have to neutralize her into being a housewife, to make her a less-threatening presence. With Sasuke they can conveniently send him out of the village on 'missions' until he's ready to come back and play his role as plot device before leaving again.
Both of Naruto's old distractions, Sakura and Sasuke, have been conveniently erased from the storyline, so there is no competition with his attention for Hinata. This is THE ONLY WAY a love between NH can work. And so that theme continues on through the new series as well.
I have no proof of this, just conjecture based on what's been presented and how I would handle it if I were in the creative war room and I were tasked with squeezing the most money from the Naruto series as possible. This is how I would set up the storyline.
Sakura and Sasuke, unfortunately, make very the first targets in an NH bingo book. They'd be the first to go.
The thing is, it's not a sensible decision as an industry motivated by revenue to cold-shoulder Sasuke. He emulates the traditionalist Japano-cultural idea with his looks, his clan's societal structure, and the Shinto mythological underpinnings of their blood inheritances more than anyone. From a practical standpoint they should be strengthening his presence in the new series. Sasuke still carries the mystique and intrigue to earn favour from newcomers and old fans alike. Hinata alone is not enough to maintain a long-standing interest in any new exploits of the series. She holds some minor degree of favour with the pairing factions, sexual deviants, and the isolated fanbase who hold an interest in the Hyuga clan. But it's not enough to warrant siphoning off time to her petty little thoughts. If she does receive screen-time, we can interpret it as the byproduct of Naruto's adult life and Kishi's twisted ideal of fatherhood.
I don't believe the new series is going to emphasise or even hold a romantic subplot. What the spawn of Sasuke displayed didn't appear to be romantic curiosity. She didn't express any of the common symptoms of a girl who has fallen in lust in this series.
A girl who aspires for the affections of a boy is supposed to blush in the presence of their object. There's a shortness of breath. Their airway constricts. Speech patterns become incoherent. Sensibility is lost, sometimes to the degree where they become inconsiderate of the feelings of others, sometimes it becomes so severe they develop suicidal thoughts, because their vision is tunneled by their superficial fantasies of said object. What we saw from her held none of these commonplace symptoms. Her facial expression was taut and her eyebrows furrowed, as if she were scrutinising the boy in a harsh, detached manner.
The female spawn maintained a close observational lookout of the male spawn. It implies that she does have an interest in him of some kind. But for what? To hazard a guess, I would say his personality. The male spawn is socially outgoing, brazen-minded to such a degree that he actively goes out of his way to disrupt public order by defacing historical monuments to garner attention. No doubt this is a projection of his own insecurities over the neglect he has endured from an apathetic father who prefers to waste away at an office rather than address the obvious plight of the creature he helped the Hyuga girl create. But this is steering too far away from the original subject.
My point is that the female spawn can see something in this boy that's not so apparent in others. Maybe it's the notional half of her mind that draws her towards this person. He's someone who she hasn't quite been able to understand. Maybe she wants to learn something from him. Something that can help broaden her own scope of human emotions and personalities. I think she did admit to not having an understanding of his mentality. That could explain why she's clinging to the shadows in order to observe him.
Edited by Atheck, 26 November 2014 - 05:40 PM.
