Bail o' Lies

Well yeah that is a given, but I just have issue when it comes to Naruto's double standards regarding to Boruto and Kawaki's emotional needs mainly. NAruto as far as I remember neglects Boruto and tells him to suck it up when Boruto tells him he wants his father to be more involved in his life, but Kawaki Naruto sounds like he'll DROP EVERYTHING and shower him with kisses and dote on him every second he can get. That extended to Naruto's reaction to Boruto potentially being dead was casual and surprisingly nonchalant. Whereas if the roles were reversed Naruto would probably slap the kitten out of Boruto and disown him because quote "Kawaki is his brother" unquote. At least that's the impression I get so I meant if anything about that has changed at all or if I am off the mark.

Naruto, while it is hard to gauge his emotions because of the art, was suppose to be in shock. While clearly going over how he is suppose to forgive someone that just killed his son. Which he is suppose to do according to his philosophy he preaches to everyone. Its not, "whelp Bolt is dead but that's ok I liked Nail better," but more, "oh god Nail just killed Bolt. My son is dead. They were suppose to be like brothers to each other. Can I forgive him? I have to. That's what I preach everyone else do. Both of them were brothers so it was fine. Right. Right? Shup Up Shikamaru! Oh Thank God! Bolt is alive! Crisis averted. Forget about that moral dilemma; forgive instantly. Ignore Shikamaru's warnings that, this kid is a powder keg ready to go off. That understanding and hugs every once and a while isn't going to cut it."

He does bond with children that are not his own more easily. But I think that in part due to Bolt's hostility towards him. You can only be hostile towards someone for so long, before they just keep their distance, and avoid you. It helps he supposedly see himself in Nail...but again he is Sasuke come again.

Ah well that makes sense, but I felt after reading it that she was more concerned about Kawaki talking about killing so casually at the age of 13 to 14 was it(?) rather the fact he was going to kill Boruto. Naruto being so nonchalant just adds to my disbelief that there is a family bond at all between him and his biological son, but obviously that is because I'm not good at remembering things if I'm not personally reading it so if there is actually anything that shows he actually cares about Boruto then correct me on that. Other than that as you've said, the scene is just flat.

Ikemoto...there is so many ways to phrase this. Does not infuse emotion into his manga whether in how his character behave or how he presents the scenes, let's go with that. It is very hard to gauge what a character's feelings in any scene. Take for example Kurama's death, it should be a sad emotional rollercoaster. Where Naruto is at first resigned at first to dying but at least glad he stopped Jenga. To shock realization that Kurama let him make the wrong conclusion and its him dying instead. To heartbreaking sadness to seeing an old friend that has been with him his entire life die right before him. Instead its a very flat reactions the entire time in the manga. Apparently, that was fixed in the anime.

Often, I'm left guessing what characters are feeling even when it should be easy for them to express it.

My impression it was a mixture of her being upset about him talking about killing her son, him talking so casually about it, as well as the 'emotions' he express about the whole ordeal, and the fact that she had -in theory- grown to see him as a second son. Another rollercoaster of feeling and emotions. Granted at least this time he showed her crying about it.

Naruto cares about Bolt because he is his son.

You know what the funny thing about that sentiment is? Look what they've had to do to Hinata just to make her even slightly interesting. Not only is she suddenly a "scary mom", but she also kicks Naruto out the house when necessary. And from the looks of a spoiler panel from a new chapter, she slaps the Boruto rival dude whose name I don't care enough about to actually remember. Hinata is such a garbage boring character that they were FORCED to make her diet Sakura in a desperate attempt to retain readers. In other words, what I've said (and have been saying) about the NaruSaku version of that roach comic is plain as day. People don't want to read stories about the perfect people (can anyone imagine Bulma acting like a doormat around Vegeta? How lame would that be???). I couldn't care less about seeing Hinata call Shino up to easily deal with a cockroack problem. I'd much rather see Naruto and Sakura FAIL such a simple task due to their personality clashes, maybe even wreck the house in the process. Besides them actually being head over hills for each other DESPITE their differences, it's just entertaining if nothing else!!!

 

Honestly, the only way SS could get any justice without butchering Sakura's character would be for Sakura to "get over" Sasuke and for Sasuke to chase after her and slowly win her back somewhat along the lines of the Beauty and the Beast, with maybe Sakura being assertive with Sasuke than she was in the past. But the way she is now? The girl is a freaking doormat who no longer shows any other aspect of her personality. It's almost as if actually going through with this pairing was never something Kishimoto nor his original editor took seriously.

 

Good god. Is that shown in the chapter? Please tell me she is not visibly shown believing that.  

No, she does not bring up the forehead comment. It was just a general, I know you, comment. Again its more the conversation is damaged due to their relationship been previously shown to the fans. So that each comment that had can be counter by something that happened in Naruto undermining it. 

Perfect is boring. Flawed and having to learn is interesting. Hell its one of the problem with this manga. SS is flawed and it may have been interesting to see them work out their many issues, but we skipped over it for a perfect couple.

Yeah it's more of that scene was forced that any real justification for it. I don't feel it has any place it the chapter at all, you can remove it entirely and not really miss anything. And that is only just because she is not involved in any real major scenes and acts neutral at best or is completely uninvolved in "emotional" scenes anyway. And by "Emotional" I'm just stretching my imagination for it because again I read the summaries and I feel nothing

...Her slapping of Nail helped make Naruto easier to capture, as he got up to comfort and calm her down. After she heard a boy, that the story wants you to consider her seeing like a second son, openly talk about how he plans on murdering her actual son.

The scene is Naruto and Nail have a talk while Hinata observes confused. Then she comes in and slaps him. It make sense character wise to do it, as Nail is talking about killing her son, but scene wise its random.

As for the emotion in the scene, it really was flat. As it relies on the emotion coming from Nail's speech. Which feels similar to Shikamaru's recap he did for an entire chapter a few months ago. Going over and recapping general information the reader should already know before going into the important bit that takes just a few sentences. The manga for at least two years has been going on and on about; how loyal Nail is to Naruto and how he would do anything to repay/protect him. His way he will repay him is killing Bolt to kill Femmy, but no one but him knows Femmy is still active in Bolt. It would be better for this decision to come after he informs Naruto of this fact and then gets frustrated with Naruto adopting a wait and see approach while Bolt may slowly be taken over by Femmy. So then it can be seen as Nail taking the hard choice Naruto refuses to take, and an act of mercy to let Bolt die as himself before he is taken over by Femmy. But that can't happen now as Ikemoto must rush his story. This is his punishment for wasting so many chapters on useless fluff. That now something this important to the story must be skipped over.

Something like:

Nail: Hey Naruto, sir I might just be paranoid but I think Femmy is still active in Bolt. Which means while Bolt may not be physically transforming into him he may be mentally transforming into an Otsutsuki.

Naruto: What! How can you be sure?

Nail: Well he keeps acting strangely and looks like he is in deep conversation with something while no one around. Like how you used to talk to that fox spirit that used to live inside you.

Naruto:....This is serious charge. We will need to investigate to be sure. Before we take any other action.

Nail: Sure.

After investigating.

Nail: Well? Was I right?

Naruto: Yes, interrogating Bolt and doing a mental investigation; we have confirm femmy is still active in Bolt and their personalities are slowly merging.

Nail: I'm sorry. So what are you going to do about it?

Naruto: I'm sorry Nail could you give me some time to talk to my advisors and the other kages, in order to come up with a solution.

Nail: Fair enough, but we can't take too long or Bolt will be lost to us.

After a few weeks with Bolt slowly losing himself more and more to Femmy.

Nail: Well have you decided what needs to be done?

Naruto: Yes I believe we should trust Bolt can win out mentally over Femmy. 

Nail: ...What.

Naruto: I believe my son will be able to handle it. We just need to give him support, so he can win his mental battle over Femmy. We just need to give him lots of hugs.

Nail:..?...Right. You are too close to this to see the danger and that Bolt is already losing that battle. The only Humane thing is to kill him now, before he is lost to us. So he can at least die as himself. If you won't do it, I'll do it myself. SEAL.

Instead what we got:

Nail: Hey, can we talk?

Naruto: Sure, what's up?

Nail: You know I owe you big for you taking me in, right?

Naruto: Don't mention it.

Nail: Well, I decided to repay you by killing all the Otsutsuki including your son. Who is about 80% Otsutsuki. In fact, when he revived after I killed him my first thought wasn't, "thank god he was alive," but, "damn it, now I got to kill him again."

Hinata: *Slap* You monster! You are talking about killing my son! Again!

Naruto: *Gets Up* There. There. Honey. Nail I'm not letting you kill Bolt. Again.

Nail: I'm already crazy for planning on going through with it, and know this will make you hate me, but SEAL.

I'll say this about the Hinata scene. It still feels like they had it for the sake of giving her a scene. It still somewhat understandable she is upset and slaps him. Of course. I thought she had discovered him killing her son. Instead she learns of this, hears he has a twisted sense of remorse more him not staying dead than the act, and plans on doing it again.

However, she has been so uninvolved in the story. Its more, yes, she has the right to hit Nail, but is it necessary? Because she barely has any relationship with Bolt or Nail in this story. If there were scenes with them. Such as Hinata welcoming Nail into her home and bonding with him, it would work. But she barely had any scenes. The ones she has had are mainly around her daughter. There is the scene where she was seeing Bolt off. Where she was worried because he has been injured and only recently gotten better, but that's it. Honestly, with her scenes the only thing that would naturally work is her having to interact with Moe because he tries courting the daughter.