Bail o' Lies

Yeah, like I said, head canon. I'm not ever re-reading Naruto again — just makes me angry —so I don't know the fine details as well anymore. But it always felt like if Kishi planned for Kakashi to be the one the 'raise' Naruto, then it makes more sense to have him with the connection.

 

I remember now that Obito was like the Naruto on the team. But seriously.... the kid turns into a psychopathic killer when he's like 15, 18? And kills both of Minato and Kushina in such a horrific way trying to steal Naruto. It should never have been written that way that she identified with the kid who strung her up and ripped a hole in her stomach just a few years later. 

 

If Naruto were a movie, then young Obito would always be accompanied by 'he might be a villain' music!!

 

As for Kushina, it's actually pretty disappointing that she wasn't given a more active role. Like, why? She would have been the most powerful shinobi in Konoha right? And yet she can't even get her own team? But Naruto goes on to become Hokage with the same power? Kushina should have been a super bad ass in her own right, standing equal to Minato in terms of village power, and absolutely on her own in terms of lethal power. And it would have been interesting to see her interacting with other hosts. Like maybe there was some kind of peace among the jinchuriki before Obito shattered everything. 

 

And, though I'm not pro-Uchiha anything, I can understand why they would have been pissed that the only guy from an apparently dead clan (Namikaze) gets the Kage role, while this huge clan of powerful shinobis gets passed over. 

 

Didn't the Third want Orochimaru for the role, then Jiraiya. And when Jiraiya backed out only THEN it went to Minato? Which makes it kind of funny the Tsunade has to go back and pick up the pieces. The one who wasn't even asked to do the job!

 

edit: so much of this is rhetorical too. Just thinking back over the pre-Naruto era really reveals what a mess it was. And Kishi could have tied it all together with Naruto's story – forgave his rival, succeeded where his dad failed, abolished the shinobi system that created these problems, etc. etc. Instead he just made it worse by leaving Naruto like a grown-up kid, with nothing at all resolved.

The big problem again is Kishimoto did not really give much thought to the backstory unless he had to.

...I think I explain this when you asked about Naruto's clan but Kushina didn't really exist to Kishimoto till his wife asked about her. Then to please her he made kushina like her just as Sakura had become like her. Kakashi was already developed long before she was made, so she couldn't really effect his character. Kushina didn't seem to like the Kyuubi and wouldn't use its powers. So she wasn't as strong as Naruto. She fought most likely with her chakra chains and her clans sealing techniques.

Tsunade didn't want it. She wanted either her brother or her lover to become Hokage. The third wasn't going to force it on her. Which left Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and anyone else high ranking enough that wanted the position. Jiriaya had the Old Toad's prophecy to think about as well as his own aversions to the role so he supported his student taking the role instead.

 

The Uchiha's eyes are the swiss army knife of eyes, they have everything and can do everything.

Speaking of their eyes, can someone explain to me how does transferring ones Mangekyo eyes into another give you Eternal Mangekyo.

I mean my understanding of how it's suppose to work is that once you gain the Mangekyo you start losing your sight, the more you use its powers the quicker you lose your sight. And in order to regain your vision and more powers even, you have take the eyes of another Mangekyo sharingan user. That's what I remember.

 

Now maybe I'm the only one that thought about this, but how does transferring the eyes of someone who's losing their vision gets you back your vision? My understanding is that in order to get the Eternal, you need the eyes of someone who's got the Mangekyo, so someone who's losing or lost their sight. How does getting rid of your bad eyes and getting another's bad eyes gets you good vision?

 

I mean I know the whole transferring eyes thing was mainly so Itachi can scare Sasuke, at least in that point, but eventually it became the rule of how it works.

Story wise I'd guess that the intent of the transfer is to basically how do I put this. its combines the two eyes into one super eye effectively wiping out the weakness of the individual eyes. and opening access to the full power of the eyes

 

individually the sharingan while powerful cant handle the raw chakra needed to use all the special powers the human eye can only take so much power flowing through it without damaging it

 

so the double mangekyo reinforces the eye to superhuman levels which allows it to channel chakra more easily meaning there's no risk of blindness as the eye no longer deteriorates with each use

Cat gave the best excuse for how it possibly works; a single set is incomplete and damages the eyes causing blindness, combining two sets somehow stabilizes the eyes' power, and also restores the sight.

As for story-wise the problems with it was a mixture of kishimoto's habit of trying to keep powers and Ninjas balance, a reason for Itachi's actions, and his obsession of the Sasuke Naruto rivalry.

1) Kishimoto tends to prefer not to make broken characters or abilities. Characters tend to be specialist that are good at one form of fighting while poorer in other fields to justify teamwork...that never really happens. While powerful abilities tended to have draw backs.

From what I recall Dosu of the Sound was killed because Kishi thought he was too well balanced compared the rest of the genin during the chunin exam. Neji and Lee were close range fighter that lack range attacks. Gaara was a defensive stationary fighter, Shikamaru's shadow powers lack offensive abilities at the time, Kankuro relied on surprised and his puppets, Temari her fan, and Shino his bugs. Look at any fight Dosu was in, he was very versatile with his vibration gauntlet that made any fight lean in his favor unless there was a massive power discrepancy.

Team 7 should had in part one in theory had: Naruto was their close combat focus fighter that could scout, Sasuke a close-mid range ninjutsu fighter, Sakura a long range genjutsu support, and Kakashi an all-rounder with a problem with his stamina.

The Rasenshuriken couldn't be thrown at first for example of powerful abilities having limits and damages the users showing drawbacks. So, the same with the Mangekyo a fire that can't be put on, instant unbreakable illusions, and summons a giant invincible armor spirit all for the price of slowly losing your eye sight.

2) Originally, at least before he finally drew him, Itachi was suppose to be evil. An evil power hungry monster that murder his entire family to gain the power of the mangekyo sharingan and his reason for not Killing Sasuke was; he needed him to be his second set to gain even more power. Of course that was abandon for what both consumed both Kishimoto and the story all things to fuel that drawn out Naruto-Sasuke conflict.

3) As all should know Kishimoto was obsessed with the final battle being a final fight between Sasuke and Naruto and spent large portions in trying to justify it. One of his obsession was Sasuke and Naruto must be equal in power no matter how strong Naruto got. The thing due to being the container of Kurama once he gained access to his power Naruto would become instantly one of the strongest ninjas to ever exist. How was Sasuke suppose to match this? At first Kishimoto gave him the curse seal, but he clearly thought it would be stupid if it got passed the level 2 staged. So that left him with things like the Sage mode which Sasuke doesn't seem the type, or power up the sharingan till it could match the power of the nine-tailed fox. He went with the latter. So, the more powerful Naruto got the more broken the Mangekyo sharingan had to be to match him.

Obito was also so much like Kushina, who Naruto completely takes after too! 

 

I have a head canon that Kakashi was actually closer to Kushina than Minato, because they were both orphans in a way. Minato was a strong, focused leader that he wanted to be like, but that Kushina was the one who kept young Kakashi grounded and empathized with him. She was like a big sister to him. 

 

Also...*sigh*... way more tragic that way considering just how many people Kakashi has lost in his life! ugh! Kushina as a big sister would have been just another terrible loss....

 

Anyway, still my head canon! 

I don't think close is the right word more Kushina likely teased him a lot, which he hated because he wanted to be taken seriously, and only remembered it fondly after everyone was dead. But I see Kakashi spending more time with Minato both because he is his team's sensei & the closest thing he has to a father figure after his dad passed. We never really see Kakashi fondly think about Kushina when he watches Naruto. While Kakashi is always reading Jiraiya's books which Minato was stated in the databooks and in flashback to enjoy...though I think the Icha Icha series came out after his death. So, a very know habit of his came most likely from fondly remembering Minato reading the tale of the gusty ninja and trying to imitate it. Kushina's hobby seemed to be cooking (also pranking and talking with people) and we never see as scene of Kakashi making a meal for his team to try to bring them closer through that...though he could be a bit trollish; so maybe he picked up that from her. When Naruto does something it either he find it amusing it, annoying, he sees Minato, or as he said to Obito he saw a lot of him in Naruto.

Again, Kakashi never really thinks about Kushina which means he was at least more close to Minato and cared more about him than her. The people we first heard her from was in a conversation between Jiraiya and Tsunade. Jiraiya talking about how much Naruto is like Minato clearly fondly remember training both, while Tsunade points out he is only like Minato in appearance in every other way he is Kushina. That implies some level of closeness between Kushina and Tsunade and they likely have some form of bond probably due to them both spending time with Lady Mito. She the only one Kushina seemed close to besides Mikoto her best friend, in story. Which either means either everyone she was close to is dead or just not involved in the plot. For a bit of head-canon and using ladygt fan-comics. I see Kushina being friends with the mothers of team seven when they were young. Kushina was the tomboy with a crush on a boy, Mikoto was the polite reserved one, and Mebuki was a punk that straightened up later in life. I see Kizashi as one of Minato's early rivals as they were both from un-prominent clans that wanted to become Hokage. However Minato's potential was spotted by Jiraiya while Kizashi was not leading to him to be completely left in the dust after a few years. Eventually, realizing that becoming Hokage was out of his reach, just retiring early, starting a business, and marry Mebuki once she finally grew up enough to say yes... and started to openly enjoy his bad jokes. Fugaku didn't seemed to be that close with Minato to me. So he was more of an unacknowledged rival as he would claim he wanted to take up the role of chief of the military police, when he secretly wished to become Hokage.

Kushina didn't seem to have a team despite her age and rank. Though that is likely because like always, Kishimoto didn't put much consideration into backstory unless its to explain something happening in the plot. Though a good excuse is that because she was the village's demon container and the last Uzumaki seal master she was too much of a target to be allowed a genin team. So she adopted Minato's trying to bond with each one, and if he ever complained she would probably joke that they are practice for when she has kids of her own.

From what I recall, Obito was her favorite, in the anime, to heighten the tragedy that he killed her along with her husband and orphaned their son leaving him to take up her role as Kurama's container...with all the suffering she knew would come from that.

Digimon Survive was good if lacking a bit in Digimon variety.

There is also a personality thing to Kakashi favoring Sasuke, Kakashi said and it was well established that he and Sasuke are very much alike. again with the parallels prevalent throughout the story. 

The time he said that was to hype up the chidori, which was going to be Sasuke signature attack from now on. Just because people have similar personalities does not mean they will be favored, hell the opposite could happen. If I were to say Kakashi favorite student it would be Naruto because he is his sensei's son, his personality is the most like his dead teammate who he had grown to idolize, and he was the most interesting. Him being similar to Sasuke just meant he knew somethings to watch out for.