Bail o' Lies

I'll just say this, the power creep in this series is absurd and pointless. The cast and the villains do not need to be this strong on the outset. Ikemoto is trying to make his character and story impressive by making them stronger than Naruto but it doesn't come off as believable and the way he goes about it is uninteresting. The fact that the two main character are so strong due to Karma Seals instead of something like training make them feel contrived and unearned.

For example the fig... spat this chapter are suppose to be between two people that completely surpass anyone in Naruto in strength, but not for one image in this chapter or any other have they ever come off as that strong. The main cast instead just looks incompetent when they fight them. Not help that Naruto and Sasuke were entirely dependent on one power (a rinnegan eye, and kurama) to be the world's two strongest ninja and became absolute joke once they lost them; at least Naruto has.

They could have easily made Punk Haku-Level in term of strength and it would have been more believable. 

The entire series was pointless and lore breaking.

You just like killing jokes don't you?

I don't supposed you think the forest in Orochimaru's lair was him becoming a botanist do you?

Oh that was an attempt at a joke. Sorry, you were so off in your observation I notice that instead of you were attempting a joke. Let me explain. A "fate worse than death" implies that person is alive and is suffering a horrible fate which death would be preferable over it. What happened to the poor shmuck the Marada possessed can only be describe as that during the process before Kabuto stabs them with the kunia with the control seal. You're never talking about that short time frame, the one you were talking about; by the time Marada restores himself that host has been long dead. Its corpse defilement not death or a fate worse than it. So, call Marada a Corpse F*&^er it would have worked and been funnier.

Killing Jokes?

Never heard of them before. So, can't say I am much of a fan.

Actually, that forest could serve several purposes. Scientist like to test their experiments on plants before moving on to animals or people, a place to cultivate herbs for medicine and poisons, a place for mediations or relaxation, and for clean air off the top of my head. Also, botany as you mentioned. 

Okay, let me be more specific just to make sure what we are talking,

So the Edo Tensei requires a sacrifice of a person's body to bring another back to life. Correct? So after Madara used the rinnegan to literally bring himself back from the dead, whatever happened to the sacrificial body he was using?

I think this is fridge horror material here

He absorbs it. Remember the edo tensei coats and consumes the host so the dead can possess it. Its why when the body is damages it turns to ash and reforms. Only releasing the Jutsu/revived-soul do you see the original body.

The process of edo tensei using are: get a remnant of a person you want to summon, get a sacrifice, uses the jutsu to coat the sacrifice putting the revived soul in nominal control of the body, use a special kunia with a seal to both kill the host and put the revived soul under your control.

Orochimaru did it in front of the third which this was explained and Kabuto did a full demonstration for Obito.

The rinnegan turn a body of ash into flesh and blood completing the possession. The original body is gone.

It would've been better to just combine her training with Tsunade (medical ninjutsu/enhance strength taijutsu) with her original "Genjutsu" potential. That would've made Sakura competent and stay near the levels of Naruto and Sasuke. 

Kishimoto never really knew how to make genjutsu work in fights eventually dropping it to just use for exposition dumps.

He should have given her wood release as it is one of the three great powers in Naruto: Eye powers, Tailed Beast, Wood release. Guess what the other two have?

The first Hokage was able to rival Madara with only wood release while he had both Sharingan and Kurama. Madara was only able to surpass Hashirama when he got wood release as well.

So are her powers given full exposition by Shikamaru or what. On another note, i just see some irony here that Naruto and Sasuke had to be given the depower bat for dramatic purposes when supposedly everyone of the current antagonists are in Kaguya’s league at least.

Ah I skipped over that because I consider that filler. Sorry. He just explains the attraction power she has, how no one is safe, and they will see for themselves once they see her again. He doesn't even mention that Bolt and Nail are the only ones immune to it due to having kaguya clan's dna.

It would be fine if they were depowering everyone to lower the power scale, they aren't. The cyborgs are stronger than Jenga who was the leader of Kara which all the members were stronger then Femmy and Burly mustache who were both leagues stronger than Kaguya. Its the DragonBall Z style power scale where the current enemy is so strong they could defeat the last arc's villain in a single blow. Of course a story that has that, requires the heroes to be constantly training to handle the ever growing stronger villains. Problem is, Bolt and Nail are now the most powerful people in the village, that no one can even try compare to, since everyone else are just so beneath them, and they got this power not because of training but through the karma seal that made them that strong with no real effort on their part.

I imagine this is suppose to make the fights more dramatic since they can't rely on Sasuke and Naruto anymore, but instead makes the story far less interesting. Since we still don't have a sense of scale of their powers other than statement and implications, and it means everyone else is useless.

All the more reason that she SHOULD HAVE tried to befriend Naruto in childhood if the story was going for her as a love interest. The lack there of once again, shows she was never intended to be anything more than a Naruto fan girl. I have a video by the waywhich perfectly demonstrates how I feel about about NH

 

 

Skip to 0:18 if you have not played or heard about this series. Point being it perfectly describes the situation regarding Sakura and Hinata. Sakura ticks off multiple if not every love interest trope in the writing, so if she was not intended to be the love interest and Naruto was "not a romance manga" as per the anti-NaruSaku arguments all of that B%!! $#!& was a waste of time, And Hinata WAS appellation to lonely terminally online pillow kitteners.  

Well two things about the video. For one, Japan does allow adopted/step-siblings to marry. It dates back to Feudal Japan where Daimyos would adopted gifted yet low ranking Samurai and marry them to their daughters. Of course now a days, its a creepy obsessions of otaku because they like the idea of having an easy to access girl that hopefully won't reject them like an average woman would, because they grew up together or something like that.

Two since its a video game people would complain about lack of choice if they didn't get to pick the romance option. Of course the canonical one is the girl he points to, but people have other taste so they had to appeal to those people making the romance generic one scene fits all. So, it may have been better story-wise for them to just pick the main girl and write a better story than worry about the otaku complaining.

Still he not wrong that changing the girl weakens the romance and weakens the story like change the love interest did to Naruto.

Yes, I know it didn't do anything for him, which is the reason why I dislike N/H.

 

... which could have been elaborated on, if they didn't decide to go with NH and SS after the Pain arc.
I recently saw a video from Chatte Georgiana on youtube, where she explained that Kishimoto might have signed non-disclosure contracts, so he is not able to talk about this freely (it might would done damage to the "Boruto" Series). It would also explain his contradictory statements on that matter.

Kishimoto talked about it after the ending, before the backlash hit. 'He was told by his editors he should replace Sakura with Hinata as the heroine because she was more popular while Sakura was hated. He tried to fix this because he didn't want to replace Sakura for various reasons, but eventually capitulated. However, he didn't get what made Hinata so liked. So, he left the love story to the anime to do since they were so eager to do it.'

He stopped saying stuff like this because I believe three things: one) him talking negatively about Naruto-Boruto would effect sales and he is getting money for his family to live off from that, two) Ikemoto his old assistant took over and he didn't want to stab him in the back, and three) some executive must have pushed for the change and now has egg on their face.

Just found this:

 

 

I can't ... I just can't ...
 

Guess it is confirmed now. "Boruto" really is an AU

...I assume Hinata is lying to make Cups feel welcome. Which goes to show how easily she can bold face lie about something.

Wasn't Orochimaru one of the few characters you could say Naruto actually hated and wanted dead particularly for the whole Sasuke business? Of course, that went away with his insane total forgiveness policy. 

What I meant was, that Narutos' social status played no role in Hinata having a soft spot for him. It is just a part of her character that I like.

Sure, but she didn't do anything with that till after he started getting accepted by other people. She did not take the first step. She looked and wait for other people to do it before even consider trying.

Controlling, over"protective" mother while the father takes a backseat. It would fit the pattern.

 

It's kinda easy to do so ... Sakura has feelings, ambitions, wishes, etc. but they are very detached from a solid/established background/reasoning. You can only assume and I seriously wonder if this was done on purpose.
As the series went on, I was wondering when Naruto and Sakura will finally reach a point (everything pointed towards this!) where all mental armor falls of. When they would just stop acting strong in front of each other or being each others "wish fulfillers". A point, when their feelings and wishes finally connect FOR GOOD, without just throwing glimpses (like the Hug after the Pain fight or what Yamato said after Naruto turned 4-Tails). 
They have a lot of connection points besides just "bringing Sasuke back" and comic relief (which got pretty annoying after a while, because the Ship was not moving anywhere). They are just never addressed.

That reminds me ... why was Sakura so sure that Sasuke would understand her? In what way? He was so far away from her in EVERY aspect I can think about.
 

It would've been great if the series dealt with this sort of superficiality. But it never did.
This is the only point where I give kudos to Part 1 Hinata.

We barely know anything about her parents other than what was shown in a movie, what Sakura said the one time she mention them in chapter 3, and kishimoto feels they would argue a lot.

On purpose? No. Kishimoto doesn't really plan for this stuff to that degree. Always go for simple answer when talking about Kishimoto writing Naruto. He made Sakura have Inner Sakura to show she wasn't being honest with herself and her feelings as well as that it would go away as she spent time with Naruto showing the positive effect he has on her. Talking about psychology is a step too far with him.

I wouldn't give any praise of Hinata for that. By the time Hinata was introduced Sakura had already move passed the not spending time with him because of social issues. Now she spends time with him, but is frustrated by him being an idiot. Naruto really needed more arcs before the chunin exam. Hinata never spent time with Naruto at the academy. 'Support from the shadows' is not what Naruto needed.

This is definitely the mentality of someone who suffered mental and/or physical abuse in their childhood....

You did not receive the proper love and care you were supposed to when you were the most vulnerable (as a child!), so when someone is just remotely nice to you, you might fall madly in love because this might've been the best thing you've ever received. You fit yourself to crap and are ready to endure whatever it takes just to get that tiny little breadcrumb again. What a miserable life. And they portray such behavior as "Strong and desirable". URGH. 

Wasn't there a twitter post in general topic about that a few months back.

She suffered emotional abuse from her peers for her forehead making her insecure of her appearance when she was very young. Her best friend when she was young teased her about it and it was clear she was the lesser of the two in the friendship to the point she felt she had to break away and rival her to be her equal, at least in her own mind. Due to that she didn't have friends for a long period of her childhood.

She chase after a guy who didn't give her the time of day, but he did that with everyone, so it was fine.

She likely hated Naruto bugging her because he was unpopular and disliked and if she was friendly with him then she would suffer for that.

Not sure about the parents because we barely see anything. Her mother seems strict with her, and he father liked to make jokes.

Remember that Inner Sakura is Sakura's suppressed feelings, what she actually felt about a situation not some split personality. For most of part one, she is maintaining a façade to have people think positively of her, especially Sasuke. That slowly goes away during part one and is gone by part two because Naruto and Tsunade help her be herself.

Though I doubt there are many of the Naruto essay youtube videos doing any analysis like that.

In the end doesn't matter people are just inserting into her so they can have the dreamy bad boy fantasy. 

If people are wondering about how would it be different if Naruto never disguised himself and complimented Sakura's forehead.

Here is how I see it: When they were on the team she would have continue try earning Sasuke's affection but barely even able to receive any of his attention. This would depress her. Naruto would try to cheer her up with mix results. The Sasuke leaving the village scene may happen but less emotional, and the promise of a life time is unlikely. By part two, Sakura's feeling for Sasuke would have waned as both absence and lack of any affection when he was there weaken her feeling for him. Without the Promise, Naruto isn't held back from pursuing Sakura unless he does believe she is still holding the torch for Sasuke. If he doesn't feel that then those two are likely dating midway if not early in part two, and if he compliments her forehead she falls in love with him.

The only reason I can think of is that X still thinks sasuke is the one the complemented her forehead not naruto

Who?

If Sakura then yes that is likely the reason she fell in love with him. The story hints even after they got together in even Boruto that was the moment she fell in love with him. As well as, for her to move on to Naruto would require the truth coming out to break Sasuke's uninterested hold over her.

If the SS fans no. They know Naruto was the one to do it, but they ignore it because they like Sasuke more and like to fantasize about him.

This is something I've never understood. Why was she so attracted to him?
He was the popular guy and she wanted to be recognized by him. Ok. Typical childhood crush. But why? What was she thinking she'd gain out of this, in case he really did recognize her? Social status?

Why was she sooo desperate about being loved by a guy she barely knew and was emotionally distant? Did Sakura grew up in an absuive household? Was she emotionally neglected and thought that such behaviour was no big deal? Did she thought her "love" will heal him someday (Oh wait ... she actually thought that. LOL)

Why was she chosen as a bully victim? (Mentally stable children are NEVER picked!) And about something so superficial? Why does she care about looks so much?

 

This are the only valid reasons I can think of, honestly. The "Sakura was just a good person and wanted to save him from the darkness" explanation lacks just as much substance and, on top of that, is pretty self entitled. I understand Team 7 has been through a lot together and bonded through that. There is no way around it. But that guy ... he did not want to, nor could he have been saved by Sakura or her love. Why do you keep pushing yourself onto him?

 

De deeper you go, the more shallow it gets, and the more reasons you find that it would've made so much more sense for her to emotionally connect with Naruto, rather than Sasuke - if she was just a normal girl.

During the academy he was the popular guy all the girls wanted. If she got him that means she is better than all of them, even Ino. He was also cool, smart, rich, and handsome, so it was easy to have a crush on him. He was the best guy available girls wanted him and guys wanted to be him. Since, he never talked to anyone just being this cool mysterious handsome guy she could admire from afar without ever getting reject more than any of the other girls. 

The thing is, in chapter 3 she had a moment of doubt that Sasuke could ever find her attractive; especially with her huge forehead being her only noticeable feature. Then Naruto came in disguised as Sasuke and complimented her forehead, the one feature she felt no one could love. So, she fell in love with him at the moment. Again, for her to move on, the truth had to come out. 

If Naruto never did that, Sakura's crush would have remained a crush and the cold indifference he always showed her would have been seen as a rejection to her, eventually. Allowing her to move on much sooner and easier, since she would realize, he will never love her.

Instead, she thinks deep down he loves her but her awful comment about Naruto disgusted/upset him and his running to the bathroom was him being shy. So, she thinks she just has to be be near him devoted and remorseful. He will eventually he will open up return to the loving man during the time on the bench, she just has to stay devoted.

Well the story has always been pretty clear on the fact that it's pretty much the same, just turned into NaruSaku. So the only changes we're going to see are in the romance department. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same.

There was that Sasuke bit where he talked to Sakura about her feelings. Beyond that who cares. The Last story was bad regardless of the pairings. I rather this person spent those 5 years making their own story instead of doing this.