#The entire plot of OG Naruto

[sasunarualways]

[chocol4tte]

I've been reading some of dimension travel with kakaobi (also, i only know some basic information and plot of Naruto, Im yet to read the manga (NOTE: ITS JUST THE BASE OF THE IDEA, THEY MIGHT BE SOME CHANGES LATER ON), but tbh, I would love to bring over team 7 to a world where:

Minato and Kashina are both alive, with Minato as the Hokage, but Naruto died as a baby due to some Chakra complications

The Uchiha clan is very much alive thank you

Obito and Rin are alive, except for Kakashi :)

Sakumo is alive, retired, and suffering~... he is one of Obito's favorite people

The Og!team 7, after fighting Kaguya and losing (Obito died a little earlier before he and Kakashi could even speak), using Kamui, they are transported to a different dimension without knowing it, thinking that maybe, they were send to a different.

When they realize that it's not their world, it becomes somewhat, bittersweet for most of the team.

The idea of Minato and Kushina crushed that their only son died and were too afraid to ever try again, that they focus their energy and love into their two remaining students. Kushina will always sigh at the sight of babies and kids, but will deny it (Kurama would try to feed her despair and fears bc he is still full of hatred). Minato would put his mind into Hokage mode to make sure he is distracted of kids laughs and playful screams; yet both still love each other very much.

Rin and Obito kind of became only friends, protective of each other as well, due to Kakashi's death; Rin is on her way to becoming a doctor, she is still very kind and sweet, yet firmer than ever. Obito started behaving a little but like Kakashi, more serious, punctual and with more discipline... I would love that at some point, he would've tried to become Kakashi, if not for Sakumo, who stopped him. (TBH, I kinda want to write this very much).

Sakumo didn't kill himself in this timeline, he lived with the shame of the failed mission, a disgraceful ninja who nobody wanted to look at. He lived to keep Kakashi safe until he became a proper adult, however Kakashi hated him because of his actions, and like the entire community, he decided to ignore Sakumo.

Like in Canon, Obito would most likely made Kakashi realize that Sakumo is indeed a hero despite no one saying the contrary.

Kakashi still loses his eye to protect Obito, from an attack and Obito is still half crushed by a rock and saved by Madara.

HOWEVER

Kakashi is kidnapped instead of Rin, he saved her and fought teeth and nails against the other ninjas...

Now, when Rin escaped, she was found by Sakumo, Minato and other shinobi, all going to defeat the enemy, unaware that Obito was also running to save his friends, however when they arrived they only found the corpse of little Kakashi

They never got to put the Three-tailed Beast inside of him, due to his insistant fighting Kakashi was killed and the plan was cancelled. Cue to Sakumo showing why he was the feared White Fang and going all out to avenge his son.

Obito arrives just when Sakumo and Rin are holding the lifeless Kakashi and welp... the rest is history.

Man, I love the idea of Sakumo taking care of Obito and teaching him through the years. Full of angst, fluff and heal. Both making sure of take care of the other mentally, emotionally and physically.

I'm thriving to imagine not only the reunion with all the people that they lost and the consequences!!!

Edit: check the tag: Tell me About Grief

[mochiajclayne]

Hi there,

I hope you're doing well.

i read your post regarding SasuSaku and Sarada as a family and you stole the words right off my mouth.

I'd like to know your thoughts and opinions on Sasuke Retsiden because from what I can see, its only Jun Esaka (a mere light novel writer that writes non canon stuff) all over the internet being equally all over about her Sasuke Retsuden. I haven't seen any other light novel writer being more active about something non canon. Even kishimoto himself doesnt behave like this regarding his own work.

I'd like to also know about your opinions regarding Jun Esaka ATTEMPTING to remove or metaphorically kill Karin Uzumaki by making the main villain a Karin look alike and giving her sensory abilities to Sakura, which again, makes no sense. Does that woman hate Karin and SK so much? Is that woman so threatened by the very thought of SK as a couple that she had to incorporate a villain that looks like Karin Uzumaki down to a tee?

These are just my thoughts and speculations but I'm also really interested in knowing your side of the story.

Thanks for reading my long comment and i wish you a wonder day/afternoon/evening/night

Hi, @theuntamedangel! I appreciate the long comment! I hope you have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening/night, too!

Before I share my thoughts about Sasuke Retsuden, let me share that I did, unfortunately, have a sasusaku phase. I know. Shocker. The entire lore is here in case you're interested (promise it's relevant to my explanation).

I did hear about Sasuke Retsuden when I was still in college. Bits of information, specifically, about the chakra ring and from a perspective of someone who used to ship sasusaku casually, my initial reaction was okay good for them and I went on with my day. Note that I wasn't as heavily engaged in the Naruto fandom like I do now so for me to isn't active back then, hearing about Sasuke Retsuden, speaks volume on how it is over the internet that it even reached me.

I hate Sasuke Retsuden. It's badly written, it's OOC especially for OG Naruto characters, and the canon inaccuracies are more than enough to drive me into aneurysm.

Below this cut is my detailed thoughts about Sasuke Retsuden.

The villain looking like the male version of Karin caught me off guard. I don't know what the intentions behind the character design but I think they aimed for association as Jiji, one of the characters from this godforsaken novel, reminded me of Juugo.

I am not a sasukarin shipper but I do understand where the shippers are speaking from. I think they'll make a cool couple because Karin actually freaking cares about Sasuke when shit gets serious and outside of her "gag", she respects Sasuke's boundaries. Might be speaking out of the box but this novel in its existence was meant to be sasusaku-centric so the possibility of being threatened by all Sasuke-related ships, especially those making far more sense than SS, is high. I don't think Jun Esaka hates Karin. I would dare say that she picked a random character that could work as a direct contender to Sakura and unfortunately, she decided to scapegoat Karin. Moreover, the entire sensory ability shtick added to Sakura was uncalled for. I would go even further and say that Esaka's version of Sakura is what her stans hailed her to be--a superior version of [insert any Naruto's female character]. Even their pink haired kunoichi is incredibly OOC here and you expect me to take her seriously?

The funniest thing about Sasuke Retsuden is the way that they had to use SNS at first, specifically, Sasuke's mission is to find a cure for that chakra illness that Naruto alone suffers. Sure, this is SS centric but it all comes down to Sasuke and Sakura working together to find a cure for Naruto. Now, she could just write a novel about SS without using Naruto's "sickness" as some kind of a plot device, right? But no, she had to convince us somehow and an effective way to do that is literally Naruto and Sasuke.

The dinosaur. Don't even get me started. Even tailed beasts cannot fight against Sharingan to the point that canon graciously provided us evidence of both Madara and Obito controlling the Nine Tailed Beast. The very same Sharingan that made the higher ups of Konoha suspect the Uchiha clan as mastermind for that same incident. We're talking about the same dojutsu that manipulated the Fourth Mizukage. The canon inaccuracy throws me off the loop.

More inaccuracies. Suddenly Sasuke is an Earth and Ice Style user. Wow. Conveniently forgetting about Kakashi mentioning in Part 1 how Ice Style is a Kekkei Genkai that even Sharingan can't copy. As far as Naruto canon goes, Sasuke is a Fire and Lightning Style user. I don't consider Boruto as canon but even that animanga doesn't show any moment of Sasuke using Earth Style. It's insane that people claimed this as canon.

THIS DISTURBING INTERACTION. I did say that the OG Naruto characters are OOC in this shitshow novel and yes, unfortunately that includes Sakura. We've seen the way she react around Naruto's sexy ninjutsu antics. Unless objectification of women or the mere implication of it doesn't perturb her, then it says more about how Esaka portrayed her. I'd personally file a restraining order when a guy says he'd settle for my old, half smoked cigarette butts. I'm surprised that she didn't throw any snide remarks here.

WHO IS THIS SASUKE AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM. This panel made me laugh so hard because I feel like Esaka straight up ignored that Sasuke canonically spent years with his family before the Uchiha downfall happened. I don't think he'd be this clueless about how a married couple acts. Even in flashbacks, Sasuke was shown around his parents or Itachi, literally with his family. I think he knows well enough about married couples.

The ring part as well makes me cackle because Kurenai literally wears a ring in Shippuden. Trust me, Juugo-look-a-like, rings are used in Konoha by couples.

The Uchiha clan symbol takes me out because AREN'T YOU GOING UNDERCOVER IN THIS PRISON? WHY ARE YOU SHOWING THAT OFF?

The Chakra ring in question. Finding out the lore behind this further upset me and I am thankful that I no longer ship sasusaku. Show these panels out of context to someone with little to no exposure to canon and it would be romantic but if you know Narutoverse like the back of your hand, this novel served nothing. Seriously, the fact that Sasuke is incredibly OOC on this novel speak volumes. Imagine annihilating Sasuke's character to make SS work? Insanity.

Writing Edo Tensei with rose tinted glasses disgust me. That jutsu is straight up manipulating a dead body at your bidding. Tobirama shouldn't have invented that jutsu. Hinting that jutsu to be used to revive a loved one that passed away is vile and disgusting. The lack of attention to canon isn't a new thing for Esaka at this point.

Even this novel can't cover up the fact that Sakura doesn't know Sasuke well. If there's one thing that's consistent in the prequel, it was Naruto that gets into trouble. Sasuke doesn't use honorifics and he got away with it. His bluntness doesn't get him and everyone around him in trouble. Sasuke only began resorted to extremes when he was batshit blind and sinking into the unhinged depths of his hatred. Probably the only things that Sakura got correctly was Sasuke's kindness and his nonchalance about his looks but that's it. So the claim of knowing Sasuke inside and out is preposterous. The one who can say that is, guess who? Naruto.

Ending this long analysis with this panel because honestly, Ino is asking the questions for me. Unfortunately, despite being "married", their dynamic stayed the same. Sakura is still that same girl that has a crush on Sasuke, except she's in her 30s and Sasuke is still the same boy that rejected her date offers and the idea of being together with her, even reaching the point that he's away from her a lot.

I do apologize for going off to the point that I decided to pull a meta post about this. I do hope you're doing well and I appreciate the ask!

[givemeanaccountalready]

The Anti-Team 7, Formally Known as Team 6 (Komorebi)

First, I’d like to thank the wonderful @pumiih for drawing my little heathens. You made them (and Naruto) so beautiful.

It’s kind of funny. I picked the number 6 as their team number because Naruto would be the sixth Hokage (Kakashi is serving as Tsunade’s Jounin Commander for now) in my little AU world. I then learned that Team 6 was the number given to Jiraiya’s team with Minato and I thought, “Well, that’s a better reason to keep it as Team 6,” so here I am.

The Word doc that I made to actually plot this thing out to a degree has the title above for the Naruto-sensei arc. That’s somewhat touched on briefly before Naruto meets his team in the flesh, where he’s joking with Sakura that “This is their Sasuke, this is our you, and this is our me,” as the two of them look over the files Tsunade gave him. And he’s technically not entirely wrong about it lol. They just have really superficial connections to the OG Team 7. I even asked Pumiih to put them in the same order as the Team 7 picture. I haven’t posted it yet, but fic will be called Komorebi which translates to, “sunlight filtering through trees,” and I liked the imagery of that, so that’s the name.

Anti-Sasuke: Chitose Hyuuga 🍬 (prestigious clan with magic eyes)

Anti-Naruto: Kaito Isobe 🪁 (orphan, known troll)

Anti-Sakura: Tsurigane Kashiwagi 🔔 (girl)

I feel slightly bad for reducing Tsuri to that but I’m laughing too hard at the summary to care. She is probably the easiest anti-parallel to spot. Whereas Sakura didn’t really have an overarching goal until the Forest Death scene, Tsuri is the only one on Team 6 with an overarching dream/goal. She wants to gain Kage level strength, even though she doesn’t necessarily want the hat, and go down in history as a legendary kunoichi. Tsuri pretty much has a five year plan, meanwhile, Chitose is doing this ninja stuff because it’s what Hyuuga do, and Kaito is simply trying to earn a living until he finds something else that he likes. There is enough internalized misogyny in this girl to power a small village. You can thank her parents for that one. Tsuri despises fan girl behavior and she even lost a friendship over her best friend choosing to like and giggle over a boy. Eventually, she’ll reconcile with her, but for now, no. Very stubborn, very bull-headed, and very driven, Tsuri does not do things by halves.

Chitose is probably the least anti-parallel of the three, since her story revolves around bonds just like Sasuke’s had. Whereas Sasuke formed new bonds within Team 7 and wanted to protect them until Itachi and the Sound 4 happened, causing him to think he needed to sever his bonds and fuel his hatred to achieve his goals, Chitose’s story is a bit different. She wants to form bonds with others, and while she doesn’t have a deeply traumatic backstory, Chi definitely has some serious hang-ups stemming from the divide between the main branch and cadet branches of the Hyuuga family. She is not close to Neji or Hinata, but she has seen them grow into stronger, happier individuals because of their teammates and the work they do, and she wants that growth too.

While she does not have the Caged Bird Seal, Chi knows that’s only due to who her sensei is and not because the clan has changed its mind. Hinata is doing her best to change the Hyuuga’s ways after the war, but at the very beginning of the story, it seems more unlikely than not. Chi and the rest of Team 6 are about 6 years younger than Naruto so Chi couldn’t have possibly been sealed on Hinata’s third birthday like Neji was. She was going to get the Caged Bird once she either finished the Academy and became a kunoichi or sometime later if she had failed. The only reason she didn’t get sealed immediately after passing the graduation exam is because a certain someone told Hiashi that Naruto was being considered as a possible jounin leader and Hiashi wisely decided to hold off on it. The Hyuuga compound is still standing… for now.

Kaito is my lil goblin. He’s a snot-nosed brat whose fear of losing another loved one and screwy sense of self/self-worth resulted in his constant trolling and mouthing off. A little hater who graduated the Academy with two full time enemies and one part-time enemy, an unrequited rival (unrequited on Kaito’s part, he doesn’t want it). Like Naruto, he is stubborn and very perceptive of others’ emotions, but while Naruto clawed his way to acceptance and changing the way things are, Kaito is more content to crash and burn in the status quo. As a result, he does not have any big dreams or goals. If Tsurigane’s story is about learning to constructively use strength for herself and on behalf of others, and Chitose’s is about learning to let others in without making herself small to accommodate them, then Kaito’s story is about finding internal peace and taking the chance that the past won’t repeat itself.

I definitely spent too much time trying to think of what I wanted the other rookies besides Team 6 to look like. There’s three other rookie teams, and Shikamaru is the jounin leader for one. I just hope that they’ll be liked when I have enough written that I’m comfortable posting so I don’t have too much dead time in-between chapters.

And because I can… NaruSaku for the main ship. Team 6 ships it.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

MARY WINCHESTER (SUPERNATURAL)

1.) in a series famous for fridging women she is THEEE og. fridged in the first five minutes of episode she might as well be in the freezer.

AND THEN. this sounds like some real stupid spn bullshit but. season 12. she gets defrosted. and its the smartest thing the writers ever did. does some rly fun things with the dissonance between s&d (mostly d)’s image of her and the actual real human person she was and is!!

ONE SEASON LATER: they stop trying to bother giving her a tangible personality or any interesting conflict (imo this was probably motivated by poor fan response to her; a big chunk of the fanbase were just as upset as dean was that she wasn’t the perfect mother they’d pictured. HOWEVER it is still canon. a canon that is easily swayed by fandom misogyny is also misogynistic ofc). they strip away complexity they’d set up in season 4/5 by saying umm actually things would be worse if she didnt make that morally complicated demon deal in her youth <3

TWO SEASONS LATER: still not giving her any personality. worse than just not doing anything else with her complicated relationship with motherhood at this point, it feels like theyve stripped her down to nothing BUT that. they shove her into a relationship with s&d’s other parental figure with literal sub-zero chemistry for no reason. and ummm guess what :) they kill her again!! back in the fridge for you, bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THREE SEASONS LATER: s&d find a spell that was explicitly invented with the intention of bringing her back and they just say like welllllll she seems like shes having a good time in heaven. i HAAAAAAAAATE THIS FUCKING SHOWWWWWWWWWWWW

ALSO: even if she doesnt get in i recommend checking out the photo. its rly good. samantha smith milf of all time forreal.

(my last supernatural submission. sorry for putting you through this bestie. i could go on but i dont think i should.)

2.) The first scene in the show is her getting brutally killed by a demon. It is what starts the events of the entire show, since she gets fridged for manpain. And then she gets resurrected in season 12 and is a really interesting character and then she gets fridged for manpain AGAIN

3.) Going for the Guinness world record in “number of times one show fridged the same mom,” SPN?

KONAN (NARUTO)

1.)

• She is taken in as a *child* by jiraiya and trained as a ninja. When jiraiya leaves his parting comment is that she'll be beautiful when she grows up & to come visit him when she's 18 (she's still a child at this point) 🤢

• Konan isn't given the chance to express her own opinions - she's shown to simply follow nagato's lead. 

• Unlike nagato, she isn't acknowledged as being naruto's ""sibling student"" for having the same teacher. Naruto isn't shown to care about this bond and is entirely unaffected by her death.

• Wrote out of the story & killed off immediately after Nagato's death for no reason. Doesn't get a chance to exist as an independent character even after she becomes the leader of her village.

• Naruto vows to bring peace to the rain village but never does or is even shown to think about it or her. (& in boruto the rain village is even shown to be in ruins)

• Konan puts her faith in naruto and vows that she and the village will support him in his quest for peace. Despite this she doesn't ever get to fight at his side during the war because she is immediately killed off.

• She also doesn't get to show up in the war as an opponent to naruto. Despite being a founding member of the akatsuki she isn't reanimated along with the others in the war.

• While her fight against tobi showcases her skill and preparedness it only exists as a reason to kill her off. Tobi only wins due to his plot armour.

[ovyy-pvcure]

Ok well nobody asked but I'm bored so wild transmigration Naruro au borne of madness go.

So first things first Kishimoto made one gigantic mistake and that was making and naming a bit character that's easy to do the whole 'dead modern human pops into the body of a canon character' thing.

^ That's Tobio who shows up exactly once in the entire series at the start to accidentally knock Naruto off balance and kick off literal decades of shipping. This convinent oc stand in blank canvas is the turning point of the au that means when he accidentally dies as a result of that one off-canon event the universe* steps in and sticks a random schmuck in place to keep things basically on plan. There's, like, prophesies to fullfill (and cosmic schemes going on). Which is why and how a late age teenager finds themselves stuck in a 12 year old's body ("it matches your emotional age") after an unfortuante accident with nothing but the basi s of chakra and history downloaded to their brain and no psrsonal memories of the new body to call on. Oh, and a cheery "good luck" before getting dropped into basicially the start of the plot just before team allocation. Where, as the top student in the "espionage and subterfuge" class he's assigned as the final member of team 7.

To give the basic skeleton of what's taken shape in my head already the first arc would follow tobio as he tries to wrangle the cats known to the public as Sasuke and Naruto without actually letting anyone know he has literally no memory of anything that's happened to him before a couple months ago. Oh and surviving the grueling change of lifestyle inherent in becoming a Child Soldier. He's doing Great this arc. Not stressed At All as he tries to juggle managing his teammates' egos with getting stronger because he has none allies or parents or connections to fall back on if he stumbles.

Well he thinks so anyway he's Kakshi's favorite adorable little student because he's the one who keeps pulling NaruSasu apart and making them actually, you know, cooperate. Naruto likes him because tobio treats him like a person and Sasuke at least appreciates that he doesn't have a fangirl in his squad and he's even focused on getting better so no deadweight. Also Mizuki's hovering around asking how he's progressing and if he feels ready which is odd since wasn't Mizuki beaten to an inch of life for all that treason he was up to? Well, not tobio's problem.

If you're curious how tobio died so is he! He can't remember; he was just told in the void of space time that he had an accident, died and now he's getting shipped off to 12 year old boot camp. What he does know is his own sarcastic rebellious wit has nothing on the universe's* considering it called him a quote "sarcastic bitch" as it did the whole transmigiration thing.

Blah blah blah team building, lunch at ichiraku's using future knowledge to climb trees early the usual oc stuff up until Wave. Things even go kind of normal up until the city is reached where kakshi's chakra lesson gets more than a little derailed by tobio already knowing how to do the whole shebang. Instead of being sent off to guard the bridge he suggests Naruto do so with clones since he's been thinking of a way to make use of his specialized training and making this mission truly worth Konoha's time.

A reoccurring element of the first arc is that the people around him not really knowing the OG Tobio that well is a boon his training in espionage is also guiding tobio to keeping his own secrets under wraps. tobio wants to infiltrate Gato's orginization and siphon money directly into The Leaf's coffers as recompense for making it impossible for the village to get properly paid from the outset. Besides Zabuza's gonna kill Gato so it's fine. Kakshi is against it but can't deny the logic and concedes but insists tobio's top priority is his contiuned survival.

Due to all the miscellaneous ne'er do wells romping about it's easy for a trained Ninja to slip in and start liberating ryo for Konoha (and maybe some for Wave while he's at it). Things contiune apace until The Bridge Showdown where in the confusion tobio once again slips into the waiting horde of Goons. Right next to Gato. Kyubi chakra comes with a weird feeling alongside the terrifying bloodlust from Naruto himself and tobio seizes the opportunity to take out Gato himself before the order to fire on Zabuza can be given.

In the temporary silence we have a dying Haku, a dead Gato and a disguised tobio skipping out of the goon squad cheerfully announcing Gato's plan to shoot everyone left on the bridge dead before his interference and daring anyone to contradict him. They can't mostly because the small child with blood dripping off their knives has scared them silent, and instead of fighting they flee with a furious Zabuza in pursuit. Haku doesn't survive but Z does to contiune his bloodly plans for revolution but now without his restraining bolt. This will cause problems for our heroes later. But for now Wave is a success and only one of the children has killed anyone in cold blood. Only Kakashi is worried about this. Oh and all the builders who are now wary around the killer kid who mocked and psychologically attacked his victims first. Victory all around!

Kakashi can not get the privacy needed to properly talk to his genin about the thing he did until they're back in Konoha where he overhears Mizuki grilling his student for details on the mission and dropping info he really shouldn't be re: the kyubi, and implying Tobio was meant to somehow harm Naruto. Which is the conversation that tips tobio off to the divigerence which is that oops Tobio was doing himself a Treason. Thankfully tobio is a fully trained fluent liar who reports to Mizuki that he never had a chance to harm Naruto and that, no, there was no hint of the Kyubi both of which are lies the eavesdropping Kakashi catches but isn't sure what to make of. tobio himself is basicially flying by the seat of his pants as he describes Sasuke's growth and personality even as he internally starts to panic as he realizes just how epically Screwed he is since he also doesn't know Kakashi is there, and now Mizuki and Tobio's treason is his problem. Crap.

A sweep of his apartment has tobio finding a journal of his days in the academy where one day Tobio reports Mizuki pulling him aside and pointing out he'll be lucky go get a proper jonin teacher and get out of the genin corps if he continues on the normal path but Mizuki has a solution since he feels so bad for another orphan of the Kyubei attack. His new plan is to join the E&S course the so called "kunoichi class" and with Mizuki's help-all helpfully noted down by Tobio and utterly obviously manipulative to tobio-he can ace that and get put on a star team with a good future. With Sasuke he means so someone can keep an eye on the Uchiha for Orochimaru. The journal also veers off into a hateful anti-Konoha rant at the revealation of Tobio's parents killer's continued existence and favortism from the Third via Naruto. However misguided a start by the time of graduation testing Tobio had been perfectly groomed into Mizuki's personal spy who had a sneering relief that he could leave Konoha and a dead Naruto behind after they secured the scroll for their actual master.

Well, to be forewarned is to be forearmed as they say, and no one else in the village has as much foreknowledge as tobio who thinks it's high time he got serious and picked put a proper name for himself: Otogiri Tobio sounds perfect.

Otogiri doesn't know Kakashi knows even half of this but luckily neither does anyone else yet. While the poor scarecrow man tries to figure out just what is happening without directly confronting a possible traitor in his own squad even as political pressure mounts to prove one of Konoha's founding clans has a strong future by putting Sasuke (and his squad they guess. Whatever.) into the chuunin exam. With an effective A rank under their belt and Otogiri's proliferation of funds Kakashi would need a pretty sound reason not to bend to the council's "suggestion" and he doesn't want to leave the boys alone with a possible traitor but he also doesn't want T&E descending on his student for maybe nothing. So in they go causing the domino effect that ends with the K9 (sans sakura plus Otogiri) all enrolled in the annual deathmatch.

Ignorant of all this back door politicking going on Otogiri's already gearing up for the Invasion. Chuunin exams? Sure he's signed up the squad's in. Whatever. He's got bigger problems including Mizuki dropping in and telling him to meet up and assist the incoming Sound kids. No one notices the dog watching this play out not that Mizuki's sloppy enough to say anything outright but Otogiri catches the subtext, but also sees a chance to start turning the tables on that creep. After all Orochimaru already wants Sasuke, and Naruto's becoming pretty strong himself maybe they should pull everyone in?

So on the prophesied day squad 7 is coincidentally in place to welcome and show around the teens from the newly founded village of Sound. Otogiri is a little concered but the thing about Naruto is that yes he's loud and arrogant and annoying and has to be physically wrestled into bathing regularly but he's charismatic enough for all that to be liked anyway. And Zaku? Is loud and arrogant and definitely had to be wrestled into a bath at least 5 times so he likes the kid, and their friendly little mole's hinting that he's not been treated great by the Leaf so why not get along and lead the kid astray? Could be fun.

Kin has a headache. She's met louder blonde Zaku and she wants to Die about it. She and Sasuke bond over it as they have to quiet the duo down.

Dosu is amused by Kin's discomfort and Zaku's weirdly instant attachment, but as long as they serve their duty he's fine with it. They're the best the Sound has to offer that could pass as genin. The mole worries him a little, he's a little too quick witted and sharp to feel like he's really their ally and he never says anything to give him a hint of where he lies beyond the veiled code phrase he introduced himself with to mark him as the Tobio they were supposed to meet. The blonde's infectious energy and loudness doesn't leave him exposing weaknesses in the village, and The Uchia clearly looks down on their little village. Well he'd change his mind about that once the rest of his squad turned on him or Dosu would have the personal pleasure of wiping the smug off his face.

Otogiri is not having a great time he has a little over a month to get Dosu to trust him so he can derail Orochimaru's chess style pawn sacrifice strategy for his own shogi inspired pawn theft strategy. Some people might claim using alternate universe future knowledge is cheating. Otogiri would claim that he's trying to outwit someone who even with his ages combined has 20 years minimum on him so really he needs every advantage he can get. Especially because Dosu is so damn distrusting that getting an in to try and make the older boy waver on his desire to gain glory is harder than making Sasunaru work together back in the first arc.

Blah blah blah chuunin exam stuff test speech forest of death. Where Otogiri realizes there was a fight with Rock Lee but no declaration of lust from him without Sakura. And he has no connection to Ino beyond her sort of hating him for stealing what she thinks should be her place. No it doesn't matter Sakura outranked her, Otogiri's on the wrong end of Ino's many grudges and eventually despite his best efforts he winds up with an unconscious chakra dampened Naruto and a freshly Cursed Sasuke. No allies forthcoming and probably 3 teens expecting an easy kill on their way. To be killed to make Sauske stronger.

Otogiri must once again consider that actually The Universe* is just screwing with him. With a bit of deception, luck, and just plain knowing more than he should Otogiri convinces the trio when they show up they're not really meant to try and kill Sasuke it's all a test of how wisely they can act on a mission. He bluffs that Mizuki told him what The Master could do and how he marked Sasuke betting on Dosu at least managing to link Curse Seals and their Effects on the mark on Sasuke.

Sound trio on side Naruto and then Sasuke wake up groggy and foggy as hell but hey safe! With their new cool allies! Naruto's devious nature surfaces and he makes a plan to net both teams all the scrolls they'll need with his prankster past . While he has the time Otogiri pulls Zaku aside and warns him to watch his tubing around the Aburame since their bugs follow and eat chakra which is a huge vulnerability for specifically him. Sorry Shino it just ain't your time-line.

Successful plan put into motion everyone moves onto The Tournament where things play out basicially as they do with the exception of Shino getting outplayed by Otogiri's timely warning. Naruto does a little better and wins less with a stroke of luck and more by being just enough better at chakra control the seal doesn't completely stop him. And of course Ino tries to vent when she gets paired up with her new Fated Rival (that random boy who was better in class than her and hasn't given her a second thought all story) but Otogiri is tired stressed and over it so he forces a grapple pins her hand with a kunai and presses his advantage until he knocks her out because Ino is Not A Quitter. By any sane metric Ino does fine but Otogiri's got his sights aimed way higher and has been training accordingly. Sorry, Ino just ain't your timeline either.

Seconds into the fight he gets even more stressed out as he realizes all at once the various things even a brief jaunt into his soul/mind would reveal. Making him fight way more aggressivly and mercilessly which the other K9 minus s7 don't like. Zaku and Kin do but boo on them.

Easy part over Otogiri has to rededicate himself to several things all at once: untangling the invasion's plans without drawing too much attention to himself. Keeping the sound trio alive and out of Orochimaru's hands to keep him from going full Necromancer on the Third. Keeping Naruto and Sasuke safe from the wretched hands moving on them. Again not drawing aggro himself from Danzo and ROOT. Or Jiraya. Noted spymaster. Old teammate of his new archnemesis. Naruto's newest teacher. Whooo.

Meanwhile in the mountains Kakashi is training Sasuke because he got paired up against a serial killer jinjuriki. Which is one more gray hair on his head along with all the other stuff including Otogiri seeking him out in private and explaining the attack, the seals and who he suspects was the attacker. Which. Kakashi is smart, he now probably knows who Mizuki sold Konoha out to and how and why Otogiri would know who he is but he still has no idea what angle the kid is working. Or if approaching him about it is smart. Kids are hard and Kakashi has been avoiding this for years. Obito please come back and help him you were always basicially a kid you'd know what was going on.

Otogiri has come to the conclusion it's officially time to call Gondor for aid and seeing as there's maybe 3 people who could be discrete enough to trail the trio and play off if they got caught. One was on a mountain one is him and one is...capable of self replication. Welp time to put a hand over Naruto's gross mouth and explain the bullet points.

A pinned Naruto with two hands over his mouth later gives more context to the Mizuki mysteries; he confirms it was Mizuki who told him of the special pass requirement and that he never showed that night. Iruka found him and he remembers an odd smell but has no memory beyond a very verbal lashing. Neither boy knows how Mizuki got away with it, but Otogiri spells out the "truth" to Naruto about Mizuki's plans to steal the scroll and leave Naruto to rot for it. In return for the tiny lie Otogiri tells Naruto he knows about the Kyubei and has decided that Naruto's too kind and simple to be a demon fox so he's cool with him.

Before even a single sappy sentiment can be shared Otogiri launches into his suspicions about how valuable Orochimaru finds their new "friends'" lives and Naruto is all about protecting them (believe it!). Together with a little "totally unknowing" help from a certain Toad Sage they figure out Kabuto's ninja info cards have summoning seals on them and before Dosu can go and get himself killed the new duo gush about how excited they are to see Zaku and Dosu kick butt in the stadium which is enough to mollify Dosu's increasing need to go out and prove himself. Barely.

Zaku's feeling right offended they were given "information cards" as if they needed the help to kick a bunch of kids' asses in a straight fight. Otogiri could kiss that lanky moron because he just handed him the answer and he makes a big show of agreeing and saying they should prove it by getting rid of those useless cards and giving them to him and Naruto who could use the help. Dosu's suspicion gauge raises another tick but the trio do and those cards find themselves in Jiraya's hands lightning quick.

Surprise surprise the cards have summoning sutras on them to send the holders to a preset location. Jiraya with the subtly of a trained deceiver who's lead a spy ring for decades pries a lot of information from Otogiri very skillfully and concludes what Otogiri already knew regarding the intentions of summoning cards the holders didn't know about. So, the sound trio receive a friendly visit from a friendly toad man who gleefully shows them the trap on the cards and notes whoever gave them these might not be as trustworthy as they thought. The trio say nothing, cutting contact with OtoNaru.

Come the tournament a lot of the usual beats play out; late Sauske, Naruto's still heated about Nehi being the ultimate Heel wrestler, Shikamaru proves he can make wise tactical decisions and before the oragnizers have to awkwardly side step there's one too many contestants Sauske dramatic entrances in and the fight begins. A fight Naruto Otogiri and Shikamaru miss because Dosu and company have given it some thought and are going to just full Bail but they know what's about to start and at least want the duo (and shikamaru they guess) to be awake and away when the fighting starts.

Naruto Talks at them and tries to fire them up agaisnt ol copperhead as everything Pops Off including a pall of mist that descends over the arena. Zabuza's found a fellow revolutionary it seems. Sasuke takes off after Gaara with Naruto hot on his heels with a shove from Otogiri seeing as their the "same".

Otogiri rounds on the trio and decides to use his own version of Talk pointing out that they owe one person one thing and that's revenge on Orochimaru. He tried to sacrifice them multiple times hasn't been in contact with them, and was gonna do who knows what with their bodies without consent. They can flee in the middle if they want but don't they want to pop him in the metaphorical face first? Zaku does. Kin does. Dosu doesn't anymore but his almost-friends (all 4 of them) aren't budging so he figures he might as well prove how non disposable they are by messing up snakey's plans.

Shikamaru is thoroughly disgruntled because Naruto dragged him along to the Gaara mess which is going basicially like canon. Shino's even here his bugs having devoured the genjutsu and wanting to back up his non insane classmate. An exhausted Shikamaru can barely hold back a desperate Temari until the timely ringing of bells saves him. Kin's strings may not have much shadow but they are a direct path to a disoriented Temari who has to watch her little brother actually struggle and bleed before she gets introduced to a tree the same way Kin was to a wall. Naruto summons a giant frog.

Meanwhile Kakashi is meeting back up with Zabuza, his ninken already have the swordsmaster's scent and this time they do need to settle the score. Zabuza's both mad at Kakashi for reasons he knows aren't sound and persuing his goal since Orochimaru will eventually tear down Wave and he says will leave it to Zabuza while he goes after the rest. He has to make Haku's sacrifice count so Leaf has to die on the vine just in case this time the promise is real. No points for guessing who wins in this confusing melee. Final tally: 3-0 kakashi:zabuza it was close though.

Meanwhile again Mizuki's poised to take some sweet justice against Iruka for, frankly, being a better instructor ninja and person than him wheb Otogiri shows up playing it like he wants the honor. No dice, Mizuki's wanted this for awhile and the kid's nowhere close enough to be subtle and he just has to drop the genjutsu on Mizuki to make him miss and engage his manipulator in a direct confrontation to end this whole twisted mess. Good thing Mizuki doesn't have that filler arc power up because Otogiri's fighting an uphill battle on this one.

But first Hayate Gekko's girlfriend the ANBU member Cat is engaging his canonical killer Baki the sand jonin her swordsmanship sharp enough to leave Baki's attempts to entangle her blade useless. And him open to said jonin's surprise strike taking out the sandman. Oh how the turntables. Is what someone who knows the alternate timeline would say since that confrontation didn't happen in this one since Dosu wasn't trailed and Hayate killed for Knowing Too Much.

Speaking of Dosu he and Zaku have run into Kabuto who's cover is very blown because Konoha's Spymaster got a peek at his Trap Cards and no one is happy with anyone here. Dosu and Zaku aren't exactly jonin level even combined but in a chaotic melee large windbursts and balance altering soundwaves make up for a lot when your speciality is up close precision scapel attacks. Kabuto would win ordinarily but he's a wanted man and there's an angry snake lady willing to take out her misplaced sense of displacement on a willing medical collabteour. Kabuto gets away in the end but Anko takes one look at the trio once everyone's round up in the end and asks "is anyone gonna claim these kids?" And not wait for an answer.

Back to Otogiri who lacks the element of surprise of numbers to overwhelm Mizuki and is going pretty even but for all the cheap kill shots he has to prevent from taking out a defenseless wounded Iruka who himself got taken down protecting the academy kids not named nepotism. Mizuki isn't his usual sneering jackass self here because he's pissed that the kid he'd been grooming slipped out of his control and had taken to playing him for a fool. Otogiri bullshits back that after seeing how Orochimaru treated his soldiers he made the choice to back out before he was sacrificed for a madman's goals stubbronly ignorning the Danzo in the room for now.

Injured, humiliated and generally unpleasant Mizuki lunges for Otogiri and gets his hands around the boy's throat. Any plan of escape is cut off by a torrent of rage and red as Otogiri loses it after all of Mizuki's crap and he simply rips the man's hands off him and before the former instructor can process the impossible thing he just witnessed he's driven into the side of the academy and has a kunai driven through his neck. Good thing Iruka passed out from his wounds and no impressionable children saw that. Oh hi Konohamaru don't wanna come out of hiding in that closet and say hi to Naruto nii chan's friend? No? Suit yourself he's gotta hurry Iruka to a healer anyway no time to stop and ask questions like "how" or "what the fuck?"

The final results of the invasion are far from pretty. Konoha's numbers are still pretty cut down as are Sand's who are still totally playing that "Orochimaru killed our kage and was giving orders so us invading you is totes not our fault" card they did in canon. It's accepted for the same reason as in canon: the sharks are already circling with blood in the water no need to churn the tide when a perfectly good excuse is offered up.

Third watch: without two other kages backing him in a restricted space and not enough time to restructure the plan to get Mandra in on the action sun wukong and The Professor taught a hard lesson in getting absolutely whomped. Orochimaru got away alive sans a working leg, but old man bodies aren't really still made for pitched life or death combat and his body's heavily protesting the return to combat. The can can be kicked a little further down the road safely but they need a qualified non Danzo candidate and soon.

Sound Trio: the corps aren't totally happy about it but they need manpower and they've got friends on the inside and a grudge against orochimaru so...probation working with Anko. She already adopted them they can't say no. And by adopted i do mean carted them away in a net to get lodgings and food. And a good medic to look at Zaku's arms.

Otogiri: in so much trouble you have no idea. His various schemes finally came out around someone without the good sense to lie about it so T&I would like a word with him. And Kakashi? Who is now claiming before anyone can even threaten pain or a jaunt through his head that they were in already working against the threat to Konoha since Wave. Kakashi?

His claim is the money stolen from Gato to insulate Wave and brought back to Konoha was in preparation for the coming storm. Obviously deep internal agents like Mizuki and Kabuto left Kakashi little choice but to keep Otogiri in deep cover to root out the problem without drawing suspicion by having contact with known figures like The Third. Kakashi had total control of the situation the whole time. Honest.

Otogiri's just kind of nodding along because he is just getting windmall slammed by haymaker after haymaker in a pretty short window of time. Ibuki is Not Buying This but the kid's actions prove his loyalty at the end of the day and if Hatake wants to take the lumps for his kid? Well, more power to him. Ibuki reminds Kakashi there are 'proper verified channels' for internal operations and he should remember to use them in the future. He expects a full concise report regarding everything from both of them and sends the teacher-student pair off with a glare.

This is where all that Kakashi stuff from earlier gets revealed to the audience as he goes over how and when he caught Otogiri mid treason and how close an eye he's actually been keeping on the boy. It is as terrifying as Kakashi's tone is light. Otogiri's just so incredibly thankful he declares his undying loyalty to his sensei for looking out for him and following his own principals so closely. Yes, Otogiri is crying at this point why do you ask?

This is the peaceful denouement of part 1 as Otogiri goes around catching up with who he can he is left to ponder why he has Kyubei chakra. How did Tobio even die anyway? And why is Jiraya here inviting him on a trip with Naruto? Does he wanna be a spymaster? Wasn't fixing Tobio's mistake the end of the story why is there more? Help!

Miscellaneous character notes on Otogiri:

-> is fairly meta and aware of transmigration novels and some of their rules. Is wrong about as often as he is right

-> has a fairly solid grasp on the character's motives but can't predict moments of wild humanity

-> has a hard time grasping his own mortality despite or rather because he has already died once. Will blank out at the idea of dying as bad as if not worse than Sakura when intent is aimed at him. Refuses to dwell on his first death or Tobio's

-> sarcastic and frequently argumentative. He likes to pick fights when he's feeling safe with someone.

-> was a bit of an edgelord in life and has a twisted sense of morality. His interference doesn't cost Shino his life but it could have and he ignores that for his own goals.

-> early on is mildly obssessed with finding the divervent point of import thinking if he can solve The Problem he'll fade into an epilogue or something. Is in Denial.

-> connecting events in his present with his past unlocks memories of both Tobio's life and his own. Facing his own death is the only way for him to Understand.

[semi-imaginary-place]

discord naruto rambling

How can naruto be such a mess yet sooo good. Naruto has so many story problems I cant recommend it to people yet there's something special about. The world is so alive and vibrant. Kishimoto is a good designer. Naruto has so many good characters and designs. Character creation is definitely kishimoto's strong suite. Like I think Madara looks super cool between the plate armor (? reminds me of ceramic armor)and the giant fan and spiky hair. the story is executed poorly but there's a lot of good to Naruto, the characters and their dynamics, the way everything feels. And it's generally a fun battle adventure series but the emotions are very real and it does a pretty good job with a narrative about war trauma and grief.

The powercreep tho 😭 naruto breaks all the narrative guard rails and starts performing miracles growing limbs raising the dead. It destroys the narrative tension what a mistake.

When i first stated reading naruto when I was like 10 or whatever i though he was really annoying. And it's only after i dropped and then picked up Shippuden again that i started to appreciate naruto and i ended up really liking him as a character. his emotions felt so real. As much as talk no jutsu gets a bit ridiculous i do like that in the battle shounen manga the most powerful technique is empathy and talking to people. I do respect naruto for that. There's also something compelling about how hard he tries for other people. It was also pretty amusing in shippuden watching him obsess over sasuke. Bro has a panic attack over the thought of his friends going after sasuke. He swears a double suicide pact with him. Naruto's crying begging in the snow for the raikage to spare sasuke. The entire final valley of the end fight was really good and then these idiot blow off each other's arms. Insane.

the series was better before shippuden overall. Og Naruto had this charm that shippuden lacks. Because conflicts were on the smaller scale, more personal grounded stories were told. The fights were less powerful which let them be more complex, strategic and intricate instead of how in Shippuden it was about chakra blasting (the power leveling curse). Shippuden was more about nuclear explosions battles where as og naruto got to explore more normal people and convey worldbuilding and interpersonal dynamics. But i liked naruto as a person more in shippuden which is totally personal preference.

Naruto and sasuke are so stupid. It's funny how in part 1 sasuke is built up as this smart rival character but come shippuden there is not a thought in that boy's head. he has 0 plans he just keeps shifting targets of who to kill. He really is just lashing out

Obito's fascinating. The parallels to sasuke and naruto yeah between the hokage dream and underdog status to the deranged emotional unstability. obito's attachment to rin his preteen crush works narratively much better for him than it does sakura. With obito it shows how out of touch with reality he is that he is still living 20 years ago abd was never able to let go of rin he doesn't see the present. With sakura i get the impression kishimoto genuinely sees it as romantic when it is actually super cringe that sakura is chasing this guy who doesn't remember she exists. 1 pair of sharingan split between 2 people is also such an amazing concept

I do think sometimes about how orochimaru was probably the last to leave konoha. Like tsunade quit during the 3nd (?) ninja war. Then jiraya chased after her.

I wonder about the trio parallels. On one hand they create this sense of continuity and legacy. On the other hand i wonder if it implies that konoha is stuck repeating the same mistakes. or is it about naruto's generation breaking the cycle (boruto isn't real)

Edo tensei is really plot breaking (and if i think about it my head hurts) but it did allow direct contrasts between the old hokage and naruto himself. I think tobirama and sarutobi are some of the most interesting characters as they are both well intentioned and genuinely work for the betterment of konoha while each being deeply flawed and causing or contributing to some of konoha's worst problems. And 3rd hokage'# problem is that he trusts too much on the good of humanity which is so ironic. He believes that everything will work out and people will become better on their own so much that it makes him passive, believing he doesn't need to intervene when there are serious problems. And he forgives people that really shouldn't be forgiven like wow he enabled so much of danzo. And then there's hashirama who i could write an essay about. Psychologists could case study him. But in conclusion i think most of the problems in the naruto series could have been solved if hashirama married into madara's clan

[hi-there-buddies]

So dragon ball and dragon ball z is my childhood I watched half of it without understanding anything because it was not translated to my language (my older brother had to endure my constant questions when we were watching it) and I loved it! I loved the characters, I loved the plot, I loved every outfit Bulma ever had, I wanted to learn how to fly and all that ( I was 7 years old). I also loved that later I got my hands on subtitles in my language.

With time I moved on and started enjoying different fandoms and although db was always in my heart I never wandered into the fandom, never saw what was going on.

This week I got a little sick and suddenly got a lot of free time. Somehow led by nostalgia i revisited dragon ball and (after the initial warm feeling of my childhood) got so irritated. I just kept reading some takes on Goku and thought to myself "man, was I really such a bad judge of character" and decided to rewatch dbz. I'm not finished yet but my views from all those years ago didn't really change and Goku is still my favourite.

Anyway I wrote all of this to tell you that I agree with a lot of your opinions and I'm thankful that you are uploading them on the internet. You don't have to answer this but just know that you are now Defender of my childhood ❤️❤️

I feel the exact same way!!! Dragon Ball was my childhood too, and when I grew up I saw a lot of people saying it was actually bad and that everyone who liked it was blinded by nostalgia. Naturally, as a young teen I thought that I was one of those people, and compared to Naruto and Bleach, it wasn’t good at all. I just went with the most popular opinion because I thought “if this many people are thinking it, it must be true, right? It’s only popular because of nostalgia, the other shonen are much better”

Fast forward a few years later and I decided to rewatch Dragon Ball from OG to Z, and wow, I was so wrong for just going along with the public opinion. Because Dragon Ball is good!! It’s so fun and cool and satisfying, and I know it’s not nostalgia, because I’ve seen people who have never watched Dragon Ball before watch the entire series, and adore it!

I think people say that it pales in comparison to other Shonen because Dragon Ball is very subtle with its emotions. It doesn’t have a lot of flashbacks like Naruto, it doesn’t have a huge character roster like One Piece, and it doesn’t have incredibly thought out story lines like Bleach. But that’s not because Dragon Ball lacks any deeper meaning, it just finds a more natural way to convey feelings and emotions.

A really good example of this subtlety is Gohan’s PTSD. And when I say that, I don’t mean him striking Great Saiyaman poses that he got from the Ginyu force. I mean his PTSD during the Saiyan to Cell saga, and the constant nightmares he had. These aren’t one off things, either. He’s had at least 4 of them throughout the show. But he doesn’t dwell on them, so the audience doesn’t. But these nightmares illustrate one of the Gohan hates about himself: he’s always letting everyone down. This is stated explicitly in his beam struggle with Goku before going SSJ, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. It was just (say it with me) subtle

Not saying DB is better than any other shonen btw. It’s actually not even my favorite one, but I’d say it’s at least on par with the big three.

I’ll always defend Dragon Ball❤️

[joltai-showa]

naruto reread third edition chapter three woohoo

welp, it was a good run, manga sucks now lmao

just kidding, of course, but Sasuke is by far my least favorite character in the entire series. He's okay in OG Naruto, but literally every arc with him in Shippuden makes me want to bash my head against the nearest wall. And no, the fight with Deidara isn't the main reason for my passionate hatred of this prick. I've never agreed with a Sasuke fan once in those almost 10 years since I read the manga for the first time, but I do agree that Sasuke's fate is justifiedly dramatic and it's not surprising that he lashes out against those near him, but acting like he's some paragon of virtue and was right in all of his unhindged endeavors, particularly after the Itachi reveal, is first degree clownery at its finest lmao

(also the Uchiha clan sucks too. Not necessary from in-world perspective, but from writing perspective, mid-Shippuden Kishimoto really lost the sauce with those assholes and starting giving them any possible powers that he could think of)

another fun fact but I never found any of the Uchiha members attractive lmao. if you're wondering how the hell did I manage to write 35k from Deidara's pov having hots for Obito, listen, it's her pov, not mine, I just locked the fuck in and did it lmao

last thing before continuing with the chapter, main Uchiha guys from least annoying to most annoying accodring to me: Itachi > Madara >>>>>> Obito >>> Sasuke. Itachi mostly never gets on my nerves, so gotta love him for that, Madara sucks at times because he happens to appear on the stretches of manga when Kishi stopped caring about the plot and started the Uchiha bootlicking 24/7, but at least he didn't get a shitty "rEdEmPTioN ArC" (i guess i should be thanking Kaguya for that, bleh), with Obito I am stuck in a perpetual cycle of "there is no way he is that bad in canon, I must have been overdramatic when reading" -> *rereads the manga* -> "oh my fucking god he is not just bad, he is simply awful", he is just the ultimate victim of Naruto being written backwards and Kishi making a cool twist but never actually properly working on his motivations, a real shame, he's got a lot of potential, but canon Obito has one of the worst character arcs in the entire series, so I can only enjoy fanon Obito and fans' work that actually utilizes many many things this character has to offer. I already said a lot about Sasuke, but at times his writing is much better than Obito's, so he's a little less annoying to me (that's generally not an achievement on his part, it's Kishi writing Obito so badly LMAO)

bish you live like this?

but also again WHY THE FUCK NARUTO LIVED HIS ENTIRE GODDAMN LIFE ALONE??? HIRUZEN WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? IT'S A FUCKING CHILD, WHY IS HE UNSUPERVISED? DO YOU REALLY EXPECT HIM TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO MANAGE THE MONEY, COOK AND CLEAN AFTER HIMSELF? YOU SORRY PIECE OF SHIT, YOUR GRANDSON HAS A PRIVATE TUTOR, BUT THE CHILD OF KONOHA'S HEROES WHO PRETTY MUCH ENTRUSTED HIM INTO THE VILLAGE'S CARE LIVES LIKE THIS?

Kushina has a full time job of wooping Hiruzen's ass in the afterlife, I swear to god

also let's talk about the absolutely horrendous conditions orphans in Konoha live in? There are more obvious cases like the kids that Root takes in, they are raised into emotionless killing machines since the first moment they become their training (child abuse🥰), but even kids who didn't catch ANBU's eye are just... Obviously, we've got Naruto and he's a case of straight up neglect from both his supposed caretakers (literally any of his future teachers, but particularly Jiraya who is supposed to be his goddamn godfather) and Hiruzen, but this is Kishi rewriting everything there ever was and by Mid-Shippuden Naruto is suddenly a literal prophesied hero, a messiah and loved by everyone and everything and those who hate him are either irredeemibly evil or poor little babies who are waiting for a pep talk by Naruto to turn good again (c) Anyway, we've got some bigger fish to fry and it's cases of Kakashi and Sasuke in particular. I am not really worried in cases of Obito and Neji, because both of them lived somewhere near their clans (even if their clan sucked absolute ass, sorry for your loss, Neji), so we can at least assume that some of the older members of their clans could keep an eye on them and, y'know, fucking FEED them, but Sasuke's and Kakashi's living situations are... oooof. I might be misremembering stuff, but in the manga Sasuke is never shown to move from his house, he in fact is shown to return home and cry over the bloodied floor of the room where Fugaku and Mikoto were killied (Hiruzen is a cleaning service really this fucking expensive jesus christ), so what we have is an orphaned kid who lives in the same house his parents were murdered, in the same house his big brother tortured him psychologically, in the same district where piles of his relatives' corpses were lying. Also completely alone.

Do I need to say anything, Hiruzen?

Kakashi is even worse, because not only he lived alone in the same house his only other living family member aka his dad ended his life, I believe that the blade he carried later also happened to be the family relic that his dad used in his final moments. On top of all that, he continued to live alone in that house even after his teammate sacrificed his life for his sake, gave him his eye and this eye happens to be the only thing that remained of said teammate because he was crushed alive. He continued to live alone in that house even after he accidentaly killed the girl he promised to protect with his life, but ended up using the jutsu he managed to develop after aquiring a Sharingan to end her life. He continued to live alone in that house even after his only remaining team member aka his teacher died in a freak accident when half of the village got destroyed.

God damn. Like, Obito's fate is absolutely horrendous, sure, but you gotta admit at least he had a reason to continue living. The only thing I can say about Kakashi is how the fuck did you live to 27 years.

tl; dr Kakuzu should've opened a therapy service for shinobi and Akatsuki could have simply bought off all of the Beasts simply with that money LMAO

Kishi could not draw girls for the life of him at the beginning of the manga and it shows lol, she's so scrunky

honestly relatable Naruto

also Sasuke's haircut looks like a duck's ass and the resemblances only grows stronger in Shippuden

fucking hell I really am just Naruto, aren't I...

oh look it's the canon event kid :D

the following 697 chapters will be spent attempting to explain to the readers that this scene does not in fact allude to the endgame ship. unsuccessfully, of course lmao.

seriously Kishi is so terrible at writing romance, the only believable and toleralable ship he had managed to produce through the entire 700 chapter run of the manga is MinaKushi and they're fucking dead

i think I'll be mentioning extensively later what I think about Kishimoto writing women in general (spoiler: I really don't think that most of Naruto female cast is even good, most of the time they are decent at best, even if my heart is filled to the brim with love to some of the girls, they simply can not compete with women written by other mangakas), but after 10 years since my first read of Naruto I still stand by the observation that my 13 year old self made at the time: sometimes it feels like Kishimoto not only never talked with a woman, but never even seen them in the first place

"why are you so homophobic Sakura-chan😱"

I swear I'm gonna have an aneurism if these 13 year old numbsticks are called "full-fledged shinobi", BRO THEY'RE GONNA DIE AFTER 5 MINUTES ON A SERIOUS MISSION

Okay, so another weird thing that I'm really not sure if is a rewrite/plothole/whatever, BUT

jonins aka the highest ranking you can be given unless your Kage happens to have a tragic untimely accident and you are chosen as the replacement are supposed to be really rare, like "you can count the number of them on your fingers" rare. Of course, Naruto's plot is constantly revolving around at least one jonin-level character, so we as readers see them in overabundance compared to what realistically should be taking place within the universe

here's a terrible illustration by yours and only on how the shinobi rankings should be spread out in general lmao.

Coming back to what Iruka says: why is it that jonins are supposed to be teaching the three-man teams of full-fledged shinobi children? Jonins are cream de la cream of the hierarchy, they are pretty much the highest ranking officers in the villages, save for the Kage, of course, I'm pretty sure they should be busy with something more important, like leading their own fully trained squads/divisions, not looking after little Timmiemaru and making sure that he doesn't accidentaly stab himself with a kunai. And come to think of it, the entire system is weirdly skewed, because Iruka is a chunin who teaches Academy kids who are below genins in the hierarchy, so at the end of the day we have Kages who (supposedly) work 24/7 on the external and interal affairs of the village and probably the country, jonins who do the missions and train genins, chunins who do the missions and train Academy kids and genins being genins. Now I am not advocating for 13 year olds to be teaching 7 year olds, but considering the fact that you need to pass a murder exam the chunin exam to get the rank, I think there should be quite the number of people who never pass/don't want to pass in the first place, so genins can be quite old and experienced enough to teach (hi Maito Dai).

Anyway, there's certainly more than 9 students in that room when Iruka announces that they are getting divided into teams. Did the remaining 18 guys got shafted? "We've only got three available jonins, so only the most talented kids/kids from important clans will be trained"? Or did the 18 guys got some sane teachers that didn't decide to send them to the murder exam after 6 months of missions? Wait, the kids are getting paid for the missions, right? I am not sure whether I should be worried about the unpaid child labor or the fact that 13 year olds (who should really be like 10 year olds judging by the amount of times Naruto flunked the Academy exam) have to enter the workforce at such an age.

(now these are the questions that should be raised by people hating on the shinobi system, Kishi, and not twenty flashbacks in a row to the girl they liked 17 years ago)

that's really awfully convinient that the new generation of InoShikaCho happened to have abilities approximately equal to the ones of other teams, huh, Iruka

(Konoha is built on Hashirama's wood and pure fucking nepotism lmaoooo)

jesus fucking chirst that's some choice of words from the translator

was the translator aware at the time that this is a 13 year old girl's monologue they are translating? i know teenagers are freaky, but this is supposed to be the official translation, why are we getting to the upper bound of PG rating

what even in the world is this dialogue

bro really be laser focused on Naruto since his first appearance huh

nevermind Sakura's bashing on Naruto's status as an orphan (which is really weird to me, because not only that 5 years before she and others in Kakashi's, Kurenai's and Asuma's teams were born there was a giant World War and realistically quite of few kids their age should've lost their parents there, but there also was this little incident with Nine-Tails running over everyone in the village the year they were born, so there should be A LOT of orphans of Sakura's age, yet she's being this... mean? I guess, I wouldn't call her cruel, to Naruto), I've got a bigger question: how the hell did you miss the news of Uchiha massacre and Sasuke's living situation? The kids were like 8 at the time, they should have heard of it, I mean, ONE OF THE FOUNDING CLANS AND A LARGE ONE AT THAT got murked in a single night, yet in the 5 following years Sakura never learned about it, being Sasuke's #1 fan? Maybe it's me misremembering stuff, buuuuut...

(anyway Kishi I've got a bigger question but where the fuck is the Senju clan? The poor repressed Uchiha clan by the time of the massacre stiil had dozens of members if not hundreds, but Senju clan, the other founding clan of similar size, just went poof?)

(my personal headcanon regarding this is that Tsunade during her 20 year long depressive episode took all of clans money and gambled it away :D so the remaining members of the Senju clan just kinda scattered through the countries trying to find the money for themselves and just distanced from the whole shinobi business)

THE MYTH THE MAN THE LEGEND!

Holy fuck I almost died laughing at his first interaction ever, like what the fuck is this.

Kakashi: his milk's expired. Hiruzen, nervously wiping away sweat: he's just clumsy! Kakashi: he's 13 and grew up without adult supervision, I'm not even sure if he can read the dates on the milk. Hiruzen: why are you being such a hater, Kakashi?🥺 Kakashi: not as much of a hater as my sensei and his wife are going to be to you in the afterlife, I guess.

also, Hiruzen, you know what is Kakashi even better choice for? VISITING FUCKING THERAPY

"You have a talent for sniffing things out", sniffing out what, the expired milk on mini-Minato? Gods Hiruzen you suckkkkk

that is a fucking threat and you know this, Hiruzen

LMAAAAAAAAAOOOOOO

you've got no idea, Kakashi

raising these dinguses is already an A rank mission bordering S, but how about accidentaly stumbling upon the guy who you assumed died over 15 years ago after being crushed into meat paste? :D

[madraleen]

Boruto - Eps. 1-24 First impressions - A lil boring, some questionable choices, some cuteness: A Commentary. (*naruto spoilers)

-i have not skimped on boruto spoilers - given its reputation i needed to know why it's considered that bad so i wouldn't be jump-scared by horrible decisions for the OG characters. i hope to like it; i'm not too hopeful, but we'll see. the only thing i truly want is for it to not ruin my perception of/affection for naruto. 

-lol the world looks like fifty years have passed, not fifteen

-i like that hinata is more comfortable in her skin as an adult

-naruto's unfortunate haircut aside, design-wise he doesn't have that aura-farming presence that the previous hokage had just by existing. which is an incredible shame, 'cause if anyone should be aura-farming After Everything, it's naruto (and sasuke. equals in all things etc).

-boruto's as embarrassing as his dad at that age, bless

-queen temari <3 and shikamaru's unfortunate goatee. the deer designs in their house are a nice touch.

-nothing is happening :) there's no plot progression :) why aren't they doing character development WITH plot progression? :) what is the plot? :) what is boruto's motivation? or anyone else's? 

-making naruto too exhausted to show any enthusiasm for his family life sure is A Bold Choice. realistic? probably, but A Choice. considering naruto's character.

-the character designs feel so flat. non-dimensional? they don't pop, they're diluted.

-oi. shino has gotten more character development and goals than any of the young 'uns.

-anko looks so carefree, honestly goals

-ah shucks. every OG character interaction has more dimension than hours of the kids interacting.

-they seriously should have done naruto's grandchild or sth, that's TOO much technological progress

-i'm watching a school drama.

-the fact that the NPCs in some scenes are just motionless in the background is so creepy sometimes

-hehe, "senju park."

-my, sai hasn't aged a day

-"i grew up without a dad. to be honest, i don't know how to interact with boruto," YES, that's the kind of sentiment i'm looking for from naruto in this context, thank you for acknowledging it.

-SAKURA-CHANNN <333

-"this entire village is my family," i can get behind that, naruto largely absent from his family once he became the hokage because he's taking care of his larger family. that's how he grew up - every single hokage he knew considered the village their family and protected them as such, prioritized them as such. heck, most shinobi he knew did so, not just the hokage.

-KAKASHI-SENSEIII <333

-ah babe. there's only person that can do talk no jutsu convincingly, and it ain't boruto i'm afraid :( naruto's comes from a place of understanding.

-are we ever going to touch on the fact that there's a leaf police that isn't run by uchihas

-the way i screamed when naruto met sasuke. at least naruto and sasuke are still meeting, so that brings me peace.

-i'm basically interested in everything old-gen, and i find everything with the new gen a lil boring, a lil bland so far.

-judging from the kids' heights in the inauguration, naruto hasn't been the hokage for that long, right?

-a silly choice, that konohamaru had to stand in for naruto's inauguration. why aren't the creators making naruto's accomplishing his dream the big thing that it is, why are they not celebrating it even a little, i'm not fond of that choice.

-himawari is cute

-honestly, naruto doesn't come off as as bad a dad as boruto paints him to be. but it's fine, boruto is a child, and his son, it makes sense he'd feel otherwise.

-sarada hasn't even seen her dad since she was a baby, now THAT'S an atrocious dad. but seriously, i consider that a Bad Choice. you're telling me that sasuke, even if he had zero paternal instincts, would not nurture and train his child as the other last uchiha, the sole other member of the clan that he's always tried to restore? bullshit. especially considering he does come near the village and he can teleport. i'm sure they'll give a "good enough reason" that sasuke isn't around for his fam and that sakura doesn't break his nose for it, but eeehhhh i don't buy that he would not be around to THAT extent. i could maybe buy "he stays away so that he won't be associated with sarada and she won't become a target," but like lol, they're not hiding that she's an uchiha, so that's not the case.

-i'm sorry, wtf? their family picture collage is sasuke in AN AKATSUKI ROBE? you’re telling me sakura would frame a picture with sasuke in the akatsuki robe??? one of the most painful periods of her life? bullshit. that's a lazy way to have sarada find the pic.

-sakura wearing the uchiha crest is heart-warming ngl

-sakura isn't sure if sasuke ever wore glasses? bullshit, girl knows everything when it comes to sasuke.

-sarada wondering if her dad has the sharingan, another bullshit choice. are naruto and sasuke not legends, come tf on. 

-the fuck are you getting angry at the kid, sakura, she's right, her parents' relationship is odd. just because you accept to have a family that's perpetually apart, sarada doesn't have to be okay with it.

-hiiiii, sasuke, always love you, sasuke <3

-what a shame that sarada doesn't call naruto “uncle.” that right there is for all intents and purposes her uncle, yet she barely knows him. but that wouldn’t fit the plot. if she knew naruto better, she’d know much more about sasuke. 

-sasuke signs one-handed? that's sasuke for ya <3

-IT'S NOT SASUKE THAT'S ANALOG, SHIKAMARU, IT'S ALL Y'ALL THAT HAVE LEAPED ONE HUNDRED YEARS INTO THE FUTURE!

-"80% of his missions take him to places where he can't charge his devices, give him a break" naruto, making excuses for sasuke forever and always (*cough* why doesn't sasuke contact his fam during that 20% *cough* like seriously, he has no reason that isn't lazy writing to not keep in contact with at least sakura)

-naruto describing sasuke as quite handsome was not in my bingo card.

-aww, sarada feeling relaxed around naruto is so soft :')

-GIRL IS SO STRESSED ABOUT NOT REMEMBERING SASUKE THAT SHE ACTIVATED HER SHARINGAN, JEEZ!

-dad of the year sasuke not recognizing his daughter (why would he tbf). like, there ARE ways. you've established your insane tech, so why would naruto never show him a pic of his daughter, why would sasuke never ask for one, you see the storytelling gaps? unless he just did not care about his daughter at all, and that’s not the angle you’re going for, so… lazy writing :(

-sarada calling out sasuke, she's a real one. sarada ftw

-i don't think naruto ever listed "being perpetually separated" as part of his cooperation with you, sasuke.

-'kay. so sasuke failed to become the man for all to hate, so he decided to risk becoming the man sarada resents to ensure her (and the village's) bright future, and to ensure she's not stressed by knowing too much. congrats on becoming the villain you dreamed of! 

-"your father is the finest shinobi around" NARUTO STILL MAKING EXCUSES FOR SASUKE, FOREVER AND ALWAYS <3

-like, sasuke SEES sarada has the sharingan. there is no way he wouldn't train her, or at the very least make sure kakashi can train her. if not them, who?! i don't buy it. or he’d at least tell her SOMETHING about the sharingan. lazy writing.

-cho-cho is so cute, a breath of fresh air

-SAKURA-CHAN! the trio is together again! 

-sarada 'bout to faint at seeing her parents in the same place. sasuke acknowledges the sarada thing is his fault, sakura says it’s her fault. have you considered that you both messed up on the communication aspect re: your child.

-there's more plot plot-ing and characters character-ing in these few eps of sarada's arc than in the entirety of boruto's arcs.

-oh so shin isn't an uchiha, just self-proclaimed and obsessed with them. i see.

-oooh, sakura pressing sarada's forehead the uchiha way is the cutest thing

-yes, sasuke babe, tell them, your wife is not weak <3 your visual prowess just came back? from where, the nerf dimension? that’s another thing i call bullshit on, the whole “ah, peace has made us go soft skill-wise.” bullshit. you’re anticipating a kaguya-like threat and you’re not training your asses off and developing new jutsu? make it make sense.

-my girl sakura soloing the boss <3

-sakura calling sasuke "dear," so soft

-is anyone gonna tell sarada that sakura is indeed her mother? ah, not on screen i guess, but suigetsu will. pity we didn’t see naruto demanding an answer from sasuke re: sakura-karin-sarada, that would have been a fun moment. i assume that too was resolved off-screen.

-oh my heart, sasuke hugging sarada. and the forehead press <3 they're a cute lil fam. dysfunctional, but cute.

-ah, back to the school drama -.- to be clear, i have no issue with school drama in stories about school drama. but in a naruto spin-off in a ninja world where the OG characters are busy investigating parallel dimensions for basically gods that are sure to attack them, i doubt anyone’s here for the school drama, all due respect. and the MC is the most average-feeling character out of the entire cast.

-YES, SARADA, BECOME THE HOKAGE! seriously, it's an uchiha's turn, it'll be ridiculous if she doesn't. not that i think we'll see that in boruto, we should not see that in boruto, but generally speaking.

-SERIOUSLY, SOMEONE BRING IN KAKASHI TO TRAIN SARADA!

-awww, the uchiha fam took a picture together :')

[cup-halfempty]

playing ultimate ninja storm 4 when I haven't even finished OG Naruto is fun as fuck. yummy spoilers feed me more!! I wanna know the entire plot of Shippuden before I even watch it ^v^

[rokudaimehole]

I think I read your entire tag tonight with questions so I was wondering if I could ask about your AU? Like the not Boruto AU i mean. I just want to know what you would do because you mentioned a ninja cult and it’s so much better than aliens lol. Also would that mean Sarada and Boruto are still a thing ?

Well hey, thanks for reading my silly ramblings! I’m flattered you were interested enough to pick through all of my responses to ask about this. I’ll try to explain but some of the content shifts, as I haven’t ever formally plotted it.

So first and foremost, I do hate to break this to you but unfortunately the Order of the White Moon does worship the Otsutsuki — specifically Kaguya. That being said, I don’t necessarily incorporate a lot about them because I’m not as interested in it either. I think that if you review Naruto and specifically are looking for foreshadowing about the “aliens”, it’s definitely there, so I can’t say it doesn’t belong. It’s just not my cup of tea.

I’ve coined that era of Ayame’s life the “New Era”, because it’s new to me, too. Just as a reference point, let me state:

Naruto Part 1 (Classic)

Naruto Part 2 (Shippuden)

Blank Period

New Era

The cult exists as an antagonist for the OG Konoha kids (who are now young adults) and for me to showcase Kakashi actually being a Hokage because I think (no bias here LOL) that he did a lot of really, REALLY important things for Konoha that we never see and it bothers me that people brush him off as a placeholder. Due to the gap in writing, yes he does look like a placeholder, but he literally is integral for orchestrating peace across the nations and bringing Konoha into a more modern age — ANYWAY.

Yes, the cult.

I don’t want to spoil a lot so I am reticent to share a great deal, but I will reaffirm they aren’t exactly the monstrous power that the Otsutsuki are. They’re just fanatics with dangerous beliefs and they have an agenda that involves descendants of Kaguya… Which is a problem for some of my main cast. ;)

As for your other questions, I haven’t decided, if I am honest. Some days I want to stay true to the story and include that generation, sometimes the worm in my head is insistent I should break away and be true to myself to write what I wanted to see as the “end game” for Naruto’s generation. I think it is most likely that when I get around to formally writing that portion of the story, I will probably still have Sarada, Boruto, and all of the others of that generation included. It’ll just happen later than in canon because WDYM their parents are all 20??? BABIES THEMSELVES.

[kyogre-blue]

tbh I don't think the issues with Boruto necessarily stem from any negative opinions toward Naruto on the part of the creators. tbh I don't think there's that much thought and passion going into it to begin with lol

My understanding of some of these points:

The kicker is that Kishimoto, from what I've heard has not been that active in Boruto. His editor pretty much runs the show is what I have heard a lot.

The Boruto manga was not made by Kishimoto to begin with, I think this was known from the start? I believe its creator was one of Kishimoto's old assistants. In fact, there was a bit of a splash when, several years into it, Kishimoto stepped in and supposedly took over.

From wiki: It initially began monthly serialization under the title Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, with Kodachi as writer and Kishimoto as editorial supervisor in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump in May 2016, and was transferred to Shueisha's monthly magazine V Jump in July 2019. In November 2020, Kodachi stepped down, with Kishimoto taking over as writer.

it goes out of its way to shit on the Naruto series (taking away Naruto and Sasuke's power-ups at the first chance which basically reverted them to beginning of Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke).

Given that Naruto and Sasuke are basically god-level by the end of the OG series, this was always going to have to happen in some form. I don't think this can be used as indication of anything in particular, aside from the writer not being terribly imaginative.

They just really don't like Naruto as a series because: [...] They hate ninjas because everything is now aliens and machinery in Boruto. Also, a lot of retconning Naruto stuff to be oh aliens are the reason this exists.

Kishimoto did that to OG Naruto, honestly. Once he escalated to aliens with Kaguya, there wasn't really any walking back, and Boruto is generally following the trend from there. Additionally, Kishimoto also started leaning toward the tech thing himself as well, with stuff like zoom conference calls in late-stage 4th war arc, and then Naruto epilogue having laptops, etc.

Orochimaru is just there and no one remembers he's not to be trusted.

Kishimoto did this one too. Orochimaru got weirdly whitewashed way back halfway into the 4th war, when he suddenly returned from the dead as Sasuke's weirdly dependable plot device ally, and Kishimoto just never bothered dealing with him after that, so he just... made it out of the war with no consequences at all.

The general trend really does seem to be that Kishimoto started all these issues, and Boruto is just a rather bland natural outgrowth of the direction the last parts of Naruto took. I would even say that the characters going in the direction we get was set up by Kishimoto as well.

That doesn't make it enjoyable, and Boruto is not in any shape or form good at what it's trying to do, but the writing was on the wall even before it started, imo.

"Here's 40 episodes of Kakashi and Itachi in ANBU" or something, I don't know. I'd watch 10 episodes of Sasori's descent into absolute madness.

The anime fillers did this. There's also an entire Itachi novel that is... hm, not good. This kind of thing was basically handled in smaller spinoffs, so the real cashcow did need to be a more open-ended new generation thing that could be milked indefinitely.

So if you want a real answer for went wrong in Boruto let me explain.

Boruto is pretty much written by people who really don't like Naruto as a series because it goes out of its way to shit on the Naruto series (taking away Naruto and Sasuke's power-ups at the first chance which basically reverted them to beginning of Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke). The editor for Boruto is apparently a simp for Sadara. They just really don't like Naruto as a series because:

He's apparently just a missing dad but you probably knew this already.

Absolutely no respect for Naruto characters whatsoever.

They hate ninjas because everything is now aliens and machinery in Boruto. Also, a lot of retconning Naruto stuff to be oh aliens are the reason this exists.

Orochimaru is just there and no one remembers he's not to be trusted.

There's apparently a dimension where one of the villains just has multiple ten-tails clones in there and its weird.

So yeah... I don't even want to know what the fuck happened. The kicker is that Kishimoto, from what I've heard has not been that active in Boruto. His editor pretty much runs the show is what I have heard a lot.

The most I've seen of Boruto was the movie, where Naruto being an absent parent was solved because Boruto just didn't realise how cool his dad was... I think. I just kinda left that movie gobsmacked. Don't you see how cool your dad is Boruto. And also 'jutsu in a can' is illegal in the Chuunin exams for some reason? Literally why, they're a tool you can use...

Thanks for the response, I appreciate the insight. I can see how some of these problems might have come around, like trying to balance Naruto and Sasuke's absolutely absurd power levels against literally any kind of threat, or coming up with an enemy for Konoha to fight that wouldn't leave a black mark on Naruto's reign as Hokage... and the inherent issue of 'no one is watching this for the new characters, they want to see the old ones, but this isn't about them' you'll inevitably get with a next-gen sequel.

No one watched Boruto the movie for Boruto. No one.

But like... why make a next-gen sequel for Naruto of all series? I get why from a 'we want money' sense, but I feel they could've just animated the light novels or fillers into eternity and people would've been happier with those.

"Here's 40 episodes of Kakashi and Itachi in ANBU" or something, I don't know. I'd watch 10 episodes of Sasori's descent into absolute madness.

Maybe the reason they went "ALIENS" is because of Kishimoto's failed sci-fi manga? But it's weird he's hands off given I thought he took over the manga from someone else...

Btw, to add onto what the anon that sent the I gave up on Boruto ask, its a bigger problem than it being the typical female characters don't matter still in Boruto. Its that no one matters in Boruto except Boruto and Kiwaki. Everyone else just gets shit on. Like imagine the old Naruto is x fanfics but actually made real. That's Boruto. He's got everything and he's the bestest and specialest boy.

:/ That sucks. Why bother forcing so many pairings to produce kids if you don't even wanna use 'em. Sasuke didn't deserve this. But also, how are you simultaneously a simp for Sarada and don't really use her? Just shove her in stupid outfits and call it a day...?

I still don't know anything about Kawaki!? He's a moon boy too, right? It feels so weird to neglect the rest of Boruto's team, though. What's the point.

Boruto does really feel like an edgy OC. He's got Byakugan+1 AND Sasuke is his teacher... honestly, Sasuke as a mentor to Naruto's kid is cute in theory, except for the part where he's also a deadbeat dad to a whole other child (his own).

I couldn't help reading TBV thinking "...why didn't they just do this kind of plot with Naruto himself or something". Though I guess they kind of? Did? With Road To Ninja? The opposite direction?

Btw, unless I'm mistaken I don't think Naruto actually forgave Orochimaru. I think he just forgot because Kishimoto forgot about a lot of what happened in part 1 of Naruto except Sasuke imo.

Incredible.

[sockori]

Listen- though I have mixed feelings about lady Chiyo, if she ever got a novella? exploring way early suna and its origins, developing of strict culture and customs that would follow into the future? first love interest + son? her youthful, rebellious personality and experiences and how all that supposed adolescent spirit crashed and crumbled into an exhausted conservative outlook for her village later in life? HER perspective raising Sasori? I’d read the hell out of it.

[littlemonstert-blog]

Temari's Overrated

overrated.

I don't dislike Temari's character, I do find her overrated in comparison to other characters and here's why.

Let's look into character wise

Temari's not a bad character either but she literally has like 10 pages worth of screen time in Part 1. 5 pages worth in Part 2 (Shippuden) . Only reason she gets hyped so much is because Naruto fandom has convinced itself to believe a “badass girl who's kinda mean” equals best female character ever.

Her entire character in has been:

Gaara's older sister, She's great at wind style and Temari maybe has a crush on Shikamaru.

My other point, the ShikaTema ship. When you're on any Naruto social media (Twitter, reddit, tiktok etc). You've definitely seen people say it's “the best ship” or “the only ship that makes sense” and “the one ship that everyone likes”. I don't have any problems with it.

But, where were are the romantic moments of Shikatema that made them the best couple in the entire series? The only time they ever even got romantically close to one another was when Shikamaru was looking for a wedding gift for Naruto and Hinata after The Last movie.

Please do not use any filler screencaps because if it didn't happen in the manga its not canon.

And Shikamaru made it clear and that he wasn’t romantically into Temari before this event due to how oblivious he was to Temari.

People shit on Naruto for being oblivious/dense to Hinata’s feelings despite the fact that there is a canon explanation as to why he couldn’t understand Hinata’s feelings. But nobody says anything about Shikamaru being dense to Temari as well despite having a good upbringing and understanding how his parents speak with each other romantically.

Certain (some not all) people claim that Shikamaru and Temari already had chemistry since OG Naruto and only panel they use to support it this:

the only conversation between Shikamaru and Temari that can be seen as chemistry in a sense without it being half-way or taken out of context like most people do with this couple.

People like to compare them to other ships that had WAY more moments and screentime. Just because they have no drama.

most ships, these two characters have little to no interactions. What makes it worse, you can't even give them the benefit of the doubt for having offscreen interactions as when they live three days away from each other. Meanwhile, something like Naruto and Hinata or Sai and Ino likely had interacted offscreen 

Let's be honest here, the author said it himself Naruto is a battle shōnen manga romance was never a main focus. It will always be secondary part or not there at all like other shōnen.

 her power-scaling

This isn't to say Temari is weak I say she is at least Jonin level

As far as war arc, Temari literally doesn't due much at all compared to others. Manga whatever the anime adds is NOT CANON

She did one thing in war arc :

With the help of two other shinobi, she managed to damage base edo third raikage. Assuming he was actually blitzed and didn't just decide to tank it (since they stated they haven't inflicted any significant damage, implying he likely didn't even care to dodge)

This is anime-only aka filler that's not canon to manga

(Even if you did consider this a feat, Madara just dusted himself off like nothing happen and set up for fire style.)

Comparing other Konoha memebers

Can you tell me something important that Temari ever did to develop the plot? People insult female characters like sakura, karin and Ino but they contributed far more than temari. Heck, even tenten with her little screentime helped more than Temari.

Sakura: Contributed alot during the war, became one of the best medical ninja

Hinata: Assisted Ino in redirecting the ten-tails attack by linking her byakugan to Ino’s mind transfer. Saved the whole shinobi alliance including Naruto, Killer B, Might Guy and Kakashi. Helped Naruto when he was about to give-in after witnessing neji’s death.

Ino: Linked everybody multiple times during the war together. She was the only person capable of doing that from her clan. Besides her father.

Karin: Helped Tsunade retore her reserves. Also destroyed multiple shinzu arms that zetsu tried to use to kill team taka and the shinobi. She was one of the most important memebers that sasuke had in team taka.

Tenten: A memeber of the team 10(chapter258) who was sent to rescue Temari’s brother while temari did absolutely nothing. Temari only arrived after gaara had died. Tenten was also one of those who destroyed more than one of kakuzu’s heart.

I shouldn't have say much about Mei & Tsunade.

Could list more but, I want to keep this short.

Temari as a character, has no purpose after the chunin exams arc, where her best feats was defeating Tenten (basically fodder) and defeating an already weakened Tayuya.

Which begs the question.how is Temari a well written character if she's barely around. Only Gaara was the most relevant sibling. The sand village in general wasn't that important. Most notable characters were Gaara, Chiyo and Sasori that were relevant from the Sand. Maybe If I push it, their father the previous Kage and the bijuu Shukaku.

( Edit: Looking back & a comment I can't reply back for a odd reason. Kankuro did have a bit of a bigger role than his sister)

Temari seems like one of the most overrated characters in the show upon her non relevant appearances for the plot compared to other female characters.

again I don't dislike this character, I just think in certain aspects she's overrated.

[-narutoe-]

won't even cap to u, i know the entire plot of naruto literally only bc of my involvement in the fandom. tried sitting to watch it all and couldn't. COULDN'T. so this goes out to all those who actually consumed the og media and then made it possible for me to get the gist lmao.

Fanfiction of fanfiction is so fucking fun actually. Especially when you read it both without reading the original fic or the original media. Like. Have I ever read or watched naruto? Nope! Have I ever read Silver Queen's dreaming of sunshine? Double nope! Don't want to actually I have interest in the negative degrees to actually sit down and read it. However, do I read fics about our queen Nara Shikako fucking shit up? Absoloutley! They're so fun I have learned to love her!

Same for Road to Nowhere: have I read it? Nope! Will I read fics about and or set in it? Can, have, and will, babyyy

There's something so fun and fascinating about media spawning media that then spawns media. Fandom within fandoms, or fandom³, if u will

You have to cultivate such a specific fandom biome for it to happen naturally. Sometimes you'll stumble into it without even realizing, read one or two fics about fics before realizing they're spawned from the same place. It's so cool!!