The CPR scene.
Then Minato and Obito show up and Naruto is finally saved and we're left with this image:
What happens in this scene? Naruto loses the Kyuubi, so he is dying. Gaara wants to save him so he takes Naruto to a group of medical shinobi which includes Tsunade and Sakura. He asks Tsunade to come with, but Tsunade sends Sakura instead. Sakura does and tries to heal Naruto with Mystical Palm, but it doesn't work. Gaara explains that this is because they took the Kyuubi from him, and he can be saved by receiving the other half of the Kyuubi that the Yondaime has. So they go to find Naruto's father. Sakura keeps him alive in the meantime by compressing his heart manually and giving him mouth to mouth. He eventually gets saved by the combined efforts of Minato, Obito, and Sakura herself.
When making this post, I was struck by how long this scene is. It spends a huge amount of time showing how distraught and desperate Sakura is. I am not sure if the correct translation for "Your dream..." is "It's right in front of us" or "It's right in front of you", but if it's the former that makes everything even worse.
So why does Sakura get so damn emotional? You know, it's hard to say. She certainly didn't get like this with Shikamaru earlier.
I mean, she wouldn't even come along with Gaara at first. He tells her basically to shut up and get on the damn sand. But she wants an explanation right now because she's so upset about what happened to Naruto.
For me, it's not so much that her state doesn't make sense given the ultimate pairing choice. It could still have made sense in the story. It's just the way that this event was treated and the method that Kishimoto used. It doesn't work the way he did it. Sakura should not have freaked out to this extent. Kishi shouldn't have devoted this many panels to it. She should not have ultimately associated herself with Naruto's dream if she didn't see herself as a really important part of it.
And the choice of CPR, and especially the choice of her holding Naruto's heart in her hands is in very poor taste given what ultimately happens in the end. Naruto was dying. His heart had stopped beating. Through Sakura's actions, and Sakura's actions alone, it started to beat again. She was holding his heart, and in that moment, it was beating just for her. The ending not only WASTED this symbolism, it made the symbolism wholly inappropriate.
If Kishimoto wanted NHSS, any sane editor would tell him to do something different.
So what does this mean for NaruSaku? Well, what was it supposed to mean? Sakura is the one who makes Naruto's dream possible, because she's a part of his dream. Sakura acknowledges this about herself, but somehow didn't acknowledge that Naruto was the one she wanted to be with?
You must also consider that Sasuke was dying at the same time. Yes, Sakura didn't know this. But Kishimoto did. Kishimoto also made the extremely questionable choice of having panels at the end with Sakura kneeling next to Naruto and Karin kneeling next to Sasuke. This is a statement that these are the two partnerships he's going with. But then he ultimately doesn't. This is also baffling.
Why did Sasuke abandon Karin to be with Sakura? The only explanation I've ever seen anyone provide for this is "Because Karin is a walking garbage fire." That isn't good enough for me.
The extreme emotions displayed on the part of Sakura towards Naruto are actually inappropriate if she's supposed to end up with Sasuke, because Sasuke is dying at the same time. It doesn't matter if Sakura knows about this or not. You as the mangaka are painting the picture. If you want Sakura to be with Sasuke, then set it up that way.
Sakura was losing her mind over the bad state Naruto was in. Karin was losing her mind over the bad state Sasuke was in. So Sakura should have been with Naruto, and Karin should have been with Sasuke. This works great when you look back on it. What he did does not work great. It looks terrible when you look back on it.
Did Naruto love Sakura at this point? Yes... I think? At some point he stopped. I don't know if he had done so by this point, because it's impossible to say.
Did Sakura love Naruto at this point? Anyone would assume yes. But the answer was ultimately no, somehow.
I mean, Kishi didn't even have to use Sakura for this. Gaara wanted Tsunade, because he assumed Tsunade was the best. Tsunade could have done it. It would have been a little weird, but not as f***ed up as this is. Tsunade loved Naruto in a motherly way. So if Kishi uses Tsunade, it wouldn't look like he did something ridiculous just to give everyone the wrong idea.
Rating: 4. I want to say 5, but honestly, I can't. Because the story was already screwed up at this point. He had already started to destroy his life's work by ham-fistedly introducing NH. I don't even know that Naruto still loved Sakura. However, he failed to portray that he no longer loved her. Therefore, this scene is really bad considering the ending. He was connecting Sakura to Naruto's dream. Making it seem like his dream was the most important thing to her still. She held his heart in her hands.
But Sakura ultimately became a nonentity in Naruto's life. She would have left Konoha without even saying goodbye, all to be with Sasuke. When Naruto starts moving on with his life, having a family, becoming Hokage, etc, it's established that he's not really in touch with Sakura anymore. They aren't really friends. This was made clear in Gaiden when Naruto talks to Suigetsu. What a horrible result.
And all because Sakura couldn't be allowed to keep the development that she had. She HAS to abandon everything for someone who tried to kill her. Why? Because of Hinata? That's pathetic.
It seems so important to Sakura that Naruto lives. This Sakura would not trade Naruto for a victory in the war. She would have found that completely unacceptable.
Yet when everything is over with and everyone is safe. she's willing to be away from Naruto as well as everyone else in Konoha just to be with someone who never really liked her very much?
Sakura, Naruto didn't become Hokage yet. Why do you want to leave already? Either his dream is really important to you, or it isn't. Which one is it? It can't be both.
Edited by DrK, 03 December 2017 - 04:54 AM.
You see, here is the difference between Rabid pairing fans and fans of the story. Fans of the story DON'T dictate, fantasize or DEMAND that Sakura would be the perfect, loving wife for Naruto, the Narrative and her interactions with Naruto both physically and verbally, SHOW THAT. We don't ship NaruSaku just because we want to, we also ship it because the narrative and and their chemistry together provide us with all the evidence we will ever need that they would have a solid, enduring, loving and lasting marriage.
