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cardcaptormeiling · 7 months ago

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Why a naruhina hug at the end of the pain arc wouldn't work from a narrative perspective

While surfing reddit recently I came across this post

I've seen this image before without really paying attention, everyone does what they want after all but reading the comments (and Tumblr pro hinata) I was surprised by how many people seem to genuinely believe that this is what SHOULD HAVE happened. No matter how much you like a character and how invested you are in a story I personally think it's important to know the difference between personal expectations and what makes sense from a writing perspective. The reason I bring this up is because the idea that Hinata is entitled to this moment and Sakura is a bitch for "stealing" it from her is a prime example of this problem. Fans are only looking through the prism of the expedition and not in terms of narrative merit. The question here is: what exactly does this moment mean and would it have actually worked if Hinata had been in Sakura's place ?

1-Why the the pain arc ending is important?

Perhaps the most important milestone in Naruto's life comes in this arc when he saves his village. To understand this, fans must go back to Naruto's main goal as a child. Obviously, Naruto aims to become the Hokage of the village, but what he really wants is the recognition that comes with being named Hokage. As the greatest shinobi in his village, Naruto would be respected and loved, and most importantly, he would never be alone again; something that haunted him as a child.

Although Naruto doesn't become Hokage in this arc, he actually accomplishes his greatest goal as he is hailed by everyone as the savior of Konoha. Naruto becomes a hero seen in the same light as the legendary Fourth Hokage and it is certainly deserved. Kishimito exposes this through Iruka's POV in a rather colorful way.

For Naruto, this is an incredibly important moment because for the first time, he is surrounded by the warmth of love that he never received as a child. He is seen as a hero and immediately gains great respect and recognition. While a Hokage certainly needs strength, if Naruto had not achieved it, he would not have come close to becoming Hokage either. This whole scene echoes the words of wisdom that Itachi would instill in him during the war "one does not become Hokage to be recognized by others, but he who is recognized by others becomes Hokage

2- the hero and his team

As much as we love seeing Naruto cheered on by the entire village, we must not forget where the heart of the series lies.

Although as previously stated Naruto's lonely childhood made him a boy hungry for connection, the recognition of certain people in particular was always at the forefront of his mind, yeah it's time to talk about Team 7: his sensei, his best friend/rival and the girl he loved were the people he wanted to impress the most:

-he thought at the time that becoming stronger would increase his chances with sakura, impressing her and protecting her motivated him in his fights and he was always very enthusiastic about her encouraging him.

-Naruto was so happy that Sasuke treated him like an "equal" that he acted even more oblivious than usual not realizing that Sasuke wasn't okay.

-He showed justified frustration about Kakashi's favoritism towards Sasuke and wanted him to take more care of him but he was also eager to show him his progress and could barely hide his joy at the idea of training with him.

Sasuke aside for obvious reasons it's not for nothing that Kakashi and Sakura are the only ones to have a moment of intimacy with Naruto while there were other characters like Iruka who could have received him after his confrontation with Nagato. This was Team 7, No one else was needed here. These two literally saw him in his best and worst moments, working hard to become stronger, never giving up, supporting him, protecting him, watching over him.

Throughout history Naruto kept surprising them over and over again to the point that he became the one they trusted the most and in return they literally became his greatest supporters in achieving his dreams (bringing back Sasuke and becoming Hokage).

This scene was just the culmination of a shema that kishi built for a long time in the manga.

But the famous Team 7 bond is of course not the only reason why these moments of intimacy are reserved for Sakura and Kakashi and work with them where they would fail with other people. It is also linked to the social configuration of the characters, I will develop what it is about by centering my argument around Sakura since it was about her moment at the base, around her and her real counterpart, the one who ACTUALLY COULD HAVE TAKEN HER PLACE.

3. Sakura's writing during the pain arc and her true counterpart

Let's say kishi forgets the team 7 connection for two minutes. Does that mean Hinata could have replaced Sakura too? NO! The only suitable character was this lady:

TSUNADE SENJU 🎉🎉🎉🎉

To understand the reason we have to go back and analyze the writing of the two characters during the arc. Sakura's feelings during the naruto'welcome scene essentially echo those of all the villagers:

Glad you made it back

We knew you could do it

You 're a hero

Welcome home

Thanks

Gratitude, relief, faith, a sense of belonging are the feelings that emerge from this scene.

The reason we as an audience are invested in this moment is because Kishimoto through the arc allowed us to connect with the townspeople' and their emotions. It's a classic case of "show, don't tell." We've seen the villagers panic and hide, we've seen the ninjas fight, get tortured, and even die. The feelings of relief and gratitude they feel are real, we can tell because we've lived through this whole difficult situation with them.

And how did Kishimito represent the character of Sakura through all of this?

As detached as possible.....🤣🤣🤣🤣 No seriously let me elaborate: one thing that jumps out at you with sakura during the pain arc is that her actions during the battle are very impersonal, the people she saves and those she works with are all "strangers" to her (and to us), all the other characters in the main cast are shown collaborating with or rescuing their parents or long-time comrades (the story even takes the trouble to specify that choza and Kakashi teamed up in the past even if we've never seen them together before).

In this way her investment is presented in a much more community aspect, the story emphasizing her duty to the village as a medical ninja. Tsunade's duty as hokage is also strongly emphasized, healing the wounded (ninjas and civilians) is their way of defending the village.

-Their position during the battle makes them ideal for witnessing and reacting to the human cost of the conflict, Sakura and Tsunade are both shown overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties.

and most importantly sakura and tsunade are the ONLY characters (apart from Naruto himself) to react in a strongly emotional way to the destruction of the village (the others only randomly note that the village was razed and their pov is mainly used to establish the state of the survivors).

Tsunade and Sakura's reactions are raw, we can say that Kishi uses them as an emotional anchor to make us feel the impact of the destruction of the village, what they fought to protect, their home: they both tremble, Tsunade even calls the village the jewel of her ancestors' dream, she is so angry that she is ready to end it with pain herself ignoring her condition, Sakura is not left out, she is completely shocked and collapses in tears and calls Naruto for help desperately echoing the confidence that Tsunade showed towards him by ordering his return to the village. They both thought that they would be able to defeat the enemy and are reassured when he actually arrives.

Tsunade basically says that everything will be fine now that Naruto is here to which Sakura nods and then Sakura thanks her for her efforts as she takes her hand tenderly. It's as if she's inviting her to rest and entrust the rest to her. It's a very sweet moment. And indeed when Naruto loses control of Kyubi she takes on the role of Tsunade: she makes the decisions to protect the residents and rescue the injured. All of this constitutes the social configuration of the characters of Sakura and Tsunade, the investment that the author wrote them to have in the conflict: their determination, their actions, their reactions, their feelings, their thoughts...

Also Naruto's real victory in this arc is not military but ideological. He did not give in to hatred and his determination convinced Nagato to bring all the victims of the battle back to life. Thematically speaking there is simply no character more appropriate than Sakura and Tsunade who during this arc were the characters most invested in the survival of the inhabitants to thank Naruto for "saving" the village. And this also applies to his little moment with Kakashi, not only is Kakashi literally living proof of Naruto's victory but above all the guy conscientiously sacrificed his life to ensure that Pain would be defeated when he had barely gotten out of it, (and we see later that the information on Pain helped Naruto during his fight). In terms of social investment he has nothing to envy Tsunade and Sakura. SAVING KONOHA WAS HIS ABSOLUTE PRIORITY!

I think at this point you can see why hinata can't be the one, she's actually way down the list of possibilities. kishi set up these scenes where we saw our ninja actually contributing to the battle, we saw konohamaru blowing up one of pain's paths, inoichi and his team working hard to gather as much information as possible on pain whether it's his true nature or whereabouts which in turn made them walking targets leading to shizune's death, we saw choji being forced to abandon his "dead" father so that the information gained from their entire team's sacrifice could be reported to the hokage by hell even kiba and shino of all people saving people and fighting!!! and then we see hinata literally sitting there. How exactly do we see her contributing to anything?

a naruhina hug would just be... incredibly out of place because hinata was just never written to be particularly invested in protecting the village whether it was in her actions or reactions, all her moments during the pain arc revolved around naruto, WHY would she thank him exactly? For being okay? Even if i were to follow that logic wouldn't such a moment be more meaningful if hinata had been able to do nothing but wait/do what she could on her end and believe in naruto (like sakura and tsunade did). Also even if pain's main goal was to find him, it was never for a second a question of killing him, in fact naruto was the best off in all this shit, his life was precious to the akatsuki, the rest of the village on the other hand? they didn't hesitate to attack civilians including women and children and torture people to death to find out where naruto was; pain literally pulverized the entire area as soon as he was sure naruto wasn't there???!!! When he didn't have to? Just so he could experience pain?? Some hinata fans consider her intervention against pain to be her most heroic moment, ironically hinata's extreme focus on naruto while being absent for most of the battle makes her incredibly inappropriate to be the focal point of a scene where naruto is recognized as the hero of the village the key word being "of the village", and also:

Small parenthesis:

Read through a romantic spectrum it's the classic trope of the hero who finds his love interest after a difficult fight. What makes the scene powerful is that despite her love the girl is unable to do anything meaningful to help the hero either because another mission is holding her back or because she has no power to act, so she can only wait, pray for his return and do what she can on her side.

This is Sakura in a nutshell during the fight. She can't see how Naruto is doing and must constantly go through an intermediary, she doesn't intervene because 1. Naruto has made it clear that he doesn't want anyone in his way and 2. Rule of the medical ninjas .... And it's the same when Naruto loses control where she can't do anything for him except contact Yamato and make sure no one else gets hurt..

Hinata not only has a clear vision of Naruto's fight but she actually intervened in said fight. Her past actions don't work in terms of building up to a possible naruhina moment written solely for a romantic reunion. In fact Naruto is the one who would have been justified in initiating something like this because he literally watched her "die" before his eyes without being able to do anything and even if he continued to feel her chakra afterwards he must have definitely still been worried about her but after being back...NOTHING..NOTHING HAPPENS. Naruto scolding Hinata for intervening (like Sakura did earlier mind you) and then thanking her for defending him is something I can totally imagine. A hug? Maybe not. A pat on the head or shoulder would fit their current relationship dynamic more..

Finally, understand that it was never a question of denying the very obvious romantic implication of this moment like yeah seriously the blushes of the public during the Narusaku hug are not there for decoration, but to make fans understand that this scene works for reasons that go beyond the feelings that Naruto and Sakura have for each other

end of parenthesis

And speaking of relational dynamics there is one last point that I would like to address:

4. Naruto as a symbol of hope

Just like I said above, the faith that others place in Naruto is the result of their past experiences at his side. It is linked to the way he changed their vision of the world, their belief to bring them to see the light in the midst of darkness. Naruto is above all a savior, yes he saves people physically but especially emotionally. (Zabuza, Neiji, Gaara, ...), It is the heart of his heroism, he emits a light that warms hearts, he is a sun!

The faith that Sakura and Tsunade put in his hands to save the village is intrinsically linked to the way they themselves bathed in his light in the past. Not only did he risk his life to protect them, but he also gave them hope when they needed it most. Naruto made promises to these two women, which led them to do so as well to him and herself , and that's what brought them to the position they are in now.

Sakura

After Sasuke left, she was desperate and felt helpless, begging Naruto to bring Sasuke back. Naruto despite his personal pain made her a promise to bring him back. After his failure Sakura had essentially accepted that Sasuke was gone even telling Naruto to drop the POAL but Naruto being Naruto he reiterates his commitment. This determination remotivates Sakura who commits to come with him the next time. This promise made to Naruto to bring Sasuke back together is what led him to want to be trained by Tsunade in the first place and therefore led him to this position during the battle.

Tsunade

She was traumatized by the deaths of her brother and her lover and developed post-traumatic stress disorder, terrified at the mere sight of blood, seeing the necklace inherited from her grandfather and the kiss on the forehead as proof of his love and support in fulfilling their dream as curses, even treating said dreams with cynicism and derision.

Naruto, unable to remain unmoved by such contempt, ended up confronting her and this led to the famous bet aimed at mastering the Rasengan in 3 days, which was considered impossible. Naruto being Naruto, he succeeded and she let herself believe in the future again. This is what led her to accept the position of Hokage, committing to protect the village. Just like with Sakura, her promise is a response to Naruto's determination and just like Sakura and (Kakashi) she gives him total trust and support in his goals. She did not classify Sasuke among the wanted criminals despite his desertion and she let Team 7 have every opportunity to bring him back.

And so the circle is complete, sakura and tsunade becoming protectors of the village as well as unwavering supporters for naruto was a response to his limitless determination, his famous nindo, it is only normal that when the situation is at its worst she places their faith in him again. It is up to them to thank him as it should be because they are the ones who called him in the first place. Instead of sakura scene I can perfectly imagine tsunade kissing Naruto's forehead saying "you have become a fine man!"😁😁😁

Ahh and the most obvious point in the world it would be incredibly OOC for hinata to hug naruto like that in front of THE WHOLE VILLAGE unlike sakura and tsunade who are known for their audacity (They have never been afraid to initiate affectionate gestures in public). Am I supposed to believe that hinata's pathological shyness just disappeared? Why? Because she confessed? Uh yes but no if anything hinata should be mortified at the idea of meeting Naruto but once again NOTHING HAPPENS everyone acts as if the confession didn't happen including hinata. I might talk about it in the future but for now I'M DONE.

THANK YOU FOR READING AND SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH

#pain arc #narusaku #anti naruhina

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