#sasuke analysis

[jaguarys]

I think what makes Sasuke so painful is that there's no way out. There's no way to recover from what happened to him. There's just no way to exist after your entire family is killed by your favorite person in the entire world.

And then once he learns that it was actually the village's fault? Now the only solace he had. The only place he thought was safe. Is just as tainted. Just as culpable. Fucking of course he unravels further. There's just. There's no way to return from that.

Ultimately, that's why the others can't do anything about it. Because what can you say in that instance to comfort this person? To bring them back to the light? There's nothing you can say because it's just too much. There's nothing you can say that can mean anything real or substantial

[oodearest]

I’ve found myself back into Naruto after being somewhat indifferent to the end of Shippuden. Was not a huge fan of that final arc.

Anyways I remember initially being annoyed and/or disappointed with some of Sasuke’s actions towards the end of the series. Don’t get me started on him immediately trying to fight Naruto after they ended an entire WAR. Grrr!!

But I’m able to articulate better why I found the whole ‘let’s get Sasuke back’ rhetoric in Shippuden so frustrating. This might get long so bear with me, might as well format this as a zany essay while I’m at it.

Mission get Sasuke back — The terrible, no good experience of having your trauma ignored

It’s been a while so I could be wrong, but I feel like team 7 never address how absolutely valid Sasuke’s desire to leave is? Kakashi touches on it when he tries to reason with Sasuke pre-defection but I don’t think it ever got through.

In Sakura and Naruto’s case, they want him back, they say they want to be a team again, but none of them ever considers his perspective?

The inherent racism against the Uchiha

Their approach is pretty tone deaf honestly. Sasuke’s a victim of violence. His people were massacred. At the start of the series it’s only been like 5 years since it happened. Sasuke has no one. He also can’t trust anyone. Prior to the massacre the village ostracised them and feared them. In Sasuke’s lifetime, the village has never been welcoming to his identity as an Uchiha.

To top it all off this hatred was incited YEARS earlier by non other than the village’s own second Hokage. It’s pretty vile how much passive and oftentimes—straight up overt—racism is directed towards the Uchiha and no one ever calls it out?

Honestly after Sasuke learns the truth from Itachi, why would he ever feel at peace in the village again? How could he ever return there knowing what they allowed? Does he even fit in there? Did he belong in the first place?

The loneliness of processing his people’s oppresion

These are some complex issues. Sasuke starts tackling them at 12 when he first leaves and only really process it by the end of the war. He spends his adolescence seeking revenge, when he gets it he spends the remainder of the series grieving. He’s mourning, he’s searching for the truth, he’s trying to grasp anything tangible in this awful world he’s inhabiting.

I cannot stress how MAD I get when Sakura and Naruto are like come back, we miss you, what about our bond 🥺 Like guys priorities?? Sasuke is single-handedly tackling systematic corruption and discrimination, give him a minute.

All things considered, he handles those issues in lik four years. He’s pretty efficient.

Overall I don’t think Sasuke’s problem was ever about losing his morals or succumbing to rage. That played a role of course. But the crux of his issue was him fighting for himself, his people and getting justice for something that was largely brushed aside.

I think it’s disappointing that we don’t see more support from team 7 or the village. No rage on Sasuke’s behalf? Not even a brief acknowledgment that the previous leadership was cooked and unfortunately dropped the ball on protecting his people.

Does forgiveness even apply here?

Naruto is a series about forgiveness and redemption. Which can be so beautiful. However I get the sense they want Sasuke to move on from anger and that’s so not possible given what he experienced. There’s a reason reparations is a big part of reconciliation. Konoha was never going to do that under its current leadership.

Konoha is a system. If Sasuke opposes that system then it’s simply him paving a better way for himself. I don’t get why that concept is hard for them to understand. This village is so cooked that the Sannin peaced out of there as soon as they could. Didn’t even come back post Kyuubi attack.

Naruto is a forgiving character, but as someone who also got done dirty by the village it’s sad that he didn’t understand why Sasuke couldn’t drop all of his grief and plans, to simply return to being one of Konoha’s soldiers.

Anyways there’s a lot of nuance missing here that I didn’t go into detail about. Sasuke objectively did some horrible things. Shippuden is him processing trauma realtime, it’s not a surprise that he’s messy, raw and self-destructive. I switch between being so frustrated with him then feeling so sad about his circumstances.

They could never make me form a one-dimensional opinion on you Sasuke! You’re worth thousands of think pieces.

[sasuke-shway]

[ydsurluvhsm]

sasuke uchiha deserves to be loved out loud (´•̥﹏•̥`) ♡

✧.・゜✿・。.☆ﾟ.･｡ﾟ༓☾☼✩.･｡ﾟ☁︎*.☽✩˚｡⋆✲ﾟ｡⋆*

why is it that when sasuke is angry people call him heartless, but when itachi is silent they call him tragic. why is it that sasuke screams for help with blood on his hands and everyone looks away, but when itachi bleeds quietly, people build him altars. i’m not saying one deserves less love, i’m saying sasuke deserved more. more kindness, more grace, more forgiveness. he was a child. a boy who loved his big brother so hard he shaped his whole world around him. and when that world shattered, no one helped him pick up the pieces. so he held the shards in his hands and bled alone.

you don’t understand how devastating it is that sasuke’s entire childhood was a prologue to his pain. he was a prodigy, yes. but also soft. also kind. also eager. he looked up to itachi like he hung the stars in the sky. and when the stars fell, they crushed him. people say sasuke was obsessed with revenge, but it wasn’t about killing. it was about understanding. about making the pain make sense. about proving to himself that love hadn’t been a lie. he didn’t want to destroy itachi. he wanted him to see him. to hurt the way sasuke hurt.

and then he did. and it broke him again. and still—he kept moving. he never got to fall apart. he had to rewire his entire heart and carry on. and he kept losing people. kept losing himself. kept searching for a version of the world that didn’t hurt so much. he tried the path of light and the path of darkness and found peace in the middle of the ruins. it was messy. it was violent. it was lonely. but it was his choice. that’s why sasuke is so important to me—he chose to come back. not because someone redeemed him. but because he did.

it makes me so emotional that people still talk about naruto as the one who saved him when sasuke had been crawling toward the light on his own for so long. he just needed someone to say “i see you.” naruto didn’t save him. naruto waited for him. and sasuke came back. scarred, burned, bleeding—but alive. more alive than he had been in years. when he smiled after the final battle… i felt that in my bones. that little sliver of peace he never thought he’d get. he smiled like he forgot how and just remembered again. like the world was finally quiet inside his head.

boruto sasuke is probably the most heartbreaking version of him. like... the way he tries to be a father when no one taught him how. the way he mentors boruto with patience and grace despite having grown up without any of it. the way he watches over the village from the shadows—not to atone, but because he cares. he still thinks the only way he can protect people is by staying away from them. he doesn’t want to hurt anyone again. and it’s so painful because all i want is for him to be held. to be told “you’ve done enough.” but he never stops. he loves in silence. in exile. in scars.

and the way he treats sarada… oh my god. you can tell he wants to give her the world but he’s terrified he’ll taint it. like he doesn’t think he deserves to stand in the light anymore so he just watches from the edges. she reaches for him and he flinches because he doesn’t know how to be wanted without being feared. but he tries. he tries. he shows up when it counts. even when he’s bleeding. even when he’s broken. he shows up. that’s love. and it’s the kind of love that costs him everything. but he gives it anyway. because he’s sasuke.

he is not emotionless. he is not selfish. he is a boy whose heart was shattered so many times he forgot what it sounded like when it beat softly. but it still does. it always did. he never stopped feeling. he just got better at hiding it. but if you look close, you see it—in the way he protects, the way he hesitates, the way he listens. he’s all bruised silence and trembling hope. he is grief with a heartbeat. and he still keeps walking forward. still believes he can do better. he’s the kind of character who lets himself be hated if it means someone else gets to live in peace. and if that’s not heroic, idk what is.

sasuke uchiha is the most painfully beautiful character i’ve ever known. he is everything people misunderstood about teenage anger and survivor’s guilt and broken love. he is a mirror of the worst the world can do to a child and the best that child can still become. he’s proof that pain doesn’t make you a monster. it makes you real. and i will never stop loving him for that. ( ´•̥̥̥ ω •̥̥̥` ) ♡

✧.・゜✿・。.☆ﾟ.･｡ﾟ༓☾☼✩.･｡ﾟ☁︎*.☽✩˚｡⋆✲ﾟ｡⋆*

(♡°▽°♡): just a lil reminder: sasuke is my broken boy, but we have to talk about how he’s not the best husband or father. his trauma impacts every relationship he has, and that’s why he struggles to connect with sakura and their daughter in the way they deserve. i love sakura so much, but honestly, sasusaku makes me really uncomfortable. sakura deserves someone who sees her as the amazing, strong person she is, not as second best. also, sakura is a huge victim of comphet—she’s been pushed into a straight relationship with sasuke when it’s clear they don’t have the chemistry that should be there. comphet forces women to conform to a heteronormative narrative, even if it’s not what they want, and sakura deserves someone who truly understands her. (*≧▽≦)

[naomihatake]

Honestly, I love this take. It's realistic and it makes so much sense. I've never been a fan of Sasuke, I have to admit, but hating him isn't on the list either. I'm rather conflicted of what to think of him, but at the end of the day he is, in a way or another, a real person who lives in Naruto verse and has gone through a lot.

I don't even necessarily think I should have a certain opinion about him. If anything, I'm mad he's lost everyone around himself at such a young age and his reaction was one of hatred towards everyone, including even his friends (Team 7). The massacre was really thrown out there out of nowhere and it's infuriating. The "solution" the Third Hokage found wasn't the best at all. It's not a solution, it was just a mere option between many others.

However, this is another story

If we really think about it, what Sasuke has done wasn't for no reason, even if he chose an extreme path and he completely turned his back against his friends, thinking who-knows-what. He was young when he took that decision, but he's gone through so much. Living since 6-7 years old all on your own, losing everyone around you, your entire family, watching them die before his eyes twice (to remind everyone he got in Itachi's illusion twice and he was psychologically tortured — he saw the massacre twice when he was still a child); everything makes sense if you stay for a while and think about it

I'm not saying it was right. Hating him like a madman or saying he's done nothing wrong, both of those are extreme. Obviously, people who read the manga or watch the anime will feel whatever they feel, that's normal and understandable. At the same time, it's good to take a step back and watch everything as it is, with every pro and con his story comes with

I'll never be a Sasuke defender or a Sasuke hater — I don't agree with his actions, but what can we really do, right? He's done what he's done and it's important to remember their reality is so different than ours. Children are introduced to gruesome things since young, very young. To think Genins, kids who were 10-13 years old, fought by the side of adults, chunins and jounins in the Third Shinobi War it's insane.

My conclusion? What he's done isn't right or wrong. They were simply actions and decisions, with both pros and cons. Everything that happened was for the plot, obviously, and it had to make sense in a way. Different paths meant a different story and Naruto (the manga/anime) is great just the way it is. It taught everyone a lesson, in a way or another, including us, the readers.

one more... 13 for Sakura or Sasuke. or both!

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

I’ll do Sasuke, because fandom opinions about Sakura are so utterly unhinged (in wildly non-textual, completely contradictory ways) that I don’t even know what would count as “unpopular.”  

Anyway, my most unpopular opinion about Sasuke is not an unpopular opinion, it’s an unpopular fact, but I’m just gonna let that one lie, because even in an ask meme designed for the sowing of salt, there are some things that I just don’t have the energy to complain about. X) 

In lieu of that, I’ll say instead that I guess my unpopular opinion is that both Sasuke’s diehard haters and his diehard fans are equally disconnected from the fundamental purpose of the story.  Which is totally fine - it’s fandom, so if people prefer playing with whatever pieces of a story appeal to them and not engaging with it as a comprehensive whole, that’s fine; have fun; we’re all just here to enjoy ourselves.  But when we’re talking about reading the story as it was written and as it was intended to be read, both extremes of the Sasuke debate are missing the point.  

When it comes to his haters - when people watch this show without caring about Sasuke, without rooting for him, without hoping for him to get the closure he needs and surmount his pain and free himself from his chains and find his way back to the people who truly love him, then they’re not watching the story as it was meant to be read.  That is literally the premise of the entire manga/show.  The whole “we’ve gotta save the world from all these evil guys” stuff is just a vehicle for the real storyline, which is and always has been “will Team 7 be able to help Sasuke find his way out of the darkness?”  Watching this show while hoping that the answer to that question will be “no” is like...well, I don’t know what you would get out of it, I guess.  Rooting for Sasuke to reunite with his friends and finally be loved and cared for and healed is the beating heart at the center of this story, and if you hate him and think he doesn’t deserve that kind of resolution, then you’re not reading the story as it was written to be read.

At the same time, takes that are like “Sasuke did nothing wrong to anyone ever and has nothing to apologize for and his ‘friends’ are evil and he never should have gone back to them” miss the mark just as widely.  I understand that this attitude is probably just a reaction to the fact that the ending missed its landing so badly (yes, it IS completely ridiculous to write an ending where justice is never done and the whole Uchiha massacre/government cover-up is literally dropped like a hot potato; that is NOT the conclusion we were promised by this story’s previously developed themes and I do not accept it as believable canon), but to watch the story of Naruto unfold and legitimately desire an outcome where Sasuke doesn’t someday come home to rejoin a loving community of friends/surrogate family is like complaining that an author who wrote a book about a particular story didn’t instead choose to write a completely different book about a completely different story.  We ALWAYS knew Sasuke would come back to Team 7 eventually, because that’s what we were promised in the very first chapters of Part 1, when Kakashi teaches his students the sacredness of teamwork and lays the foundation for their friendship.  It has literally never been a secret that this story is going to be about the sundering and subsequent mending of Team 7′s bonds; we KNOW this story is supposed to be about the re-forging of these relationships; that is literally the entire point.  Loving Sasuke to the exclusion of everyone who is written as genuinely loving and caring about him is just as nonsensical as hating him and thinking he doesn’t deserve that kind of love in his life.  That’s not the story we’re being told; it never was.

[watermelonsloth]

I think the reason why Naruto fans get so passionate and upset about the series is because of how real it can be. Naruto isn’t about paragon heroes outdoing dastardly villains. It’s about human beings fighting tooth and nail to survive in a world surrounded by death. It’s about broken systems made and perpetuated by broken people.

The Hyuga clan isn’t just antagonistic or pretentious, they practice slavery.

The Uchiha clan weren’t just killed by some raging psychopath, they were systematically massacred.

Itachi isn’t just cruel to Sasuke because he’s a bad brother, he’s cruel because he’d been told time and time again that you can only survive by being cruel and he wants nothing more than for Sasuke to survive.

Nagato isn’t trying to take over the world just for the sake of power, he’s trying to take over the world because it beat him down to the point of believing that the only chance at peace there is is the world being forced into compliance through fear.

Iruka isn’t hard on Naruto just because he’s a strict teacher, he’s hard on Naruto because he knows from experience how unforgiving the world is towards orphans.

Kakashi isn’t just some silly and slightly lazy teacher, he’s a contract killer still grieving his loved ones and struggling to do better without knowing how he’s supposed to.

Sakura isn’t just a fangirl, she’s a normal girl in a very dangerous and abnormal world constantly being made to choose between what she’s supposed to do and what she feels.

Sasuke isn’t just some edgelord, he’s a survivor who lost everything then gets repeatedly told that he has to choose between keeping what he’s gained and doing better than his brother.

Naruto isn’t just trying to be the best Hokage there ever was, he’s trying to prove his worth to a society that abandoned him just for existing and, in a way, confirm his worth to himself.

The Naruto story is about humans trying to force themselves into the role of weapons because that’s what they were told they had to be. It’s a story where everyone is a perpetrator but no one is trying to do wrong. It’s a story where everyone is a victim but no one is a perfect victim.

The world and the characters aren’t simple and trying to simplify them only takes away from them. So of course we get passionate about showing off all the reasons why they shouldn’t be simplified and all of the ways they’re complicated. Of course we get upset when we see others simplifying them or selling certain aspects of their characters short. Of course we get upset when the series itself simplifies them. Of course we get upset when the series chooses to abandon them. Because it not only feels like the characters are giving up, it feels like the series is betraying anyone who chose to get invested in its complexities.

[sasukekys]

naruto uzumaki doesn’t really understand love? a few times we are shown otherwise

another attempt of rewriting my own post that is lost forever under a read more. so let’s see if naruto uzumaki is really the type of character who doesn’t understand love, as a few people claim he is. i will not put this under a read more and risk to losing it, so it will be a long post.

1. land of waves

land of waves arc delivers such a good and clear storytelling, not only for the arc itself, but it sets the tone for the rest of the manga, many important messages have its roots in land of waves and it’s unfortunate that the manga didn’t keep this arc’s level of quality, but anyway.

the reason why land of waves is so impactful it’s because it not only questions what it is to be a ninja, but how and why you do it, and most importantly, is it possible to do it without losing yourself, your values, your heart?

in this arc’s storytelling, through mostly haku’s speech, but also naruto’s thoughts, the manga tells us that you are able to become a strong ninja when you have precious people, people you care about and want to protect.

naruto is not only able to understand what haku tells him, but also he can apply that to other people and, more importantly, to himself. land of waves establishes that iruka is a precious person to naruto and naruto is able to see that.

and what is interesting is that haku doesn’t necessarily uses the word love, but the way he describes how you feel towards a “precious person”, it doesn’t take a genius to understand it either.

and then again we have naruto being able to connect such a special feeling with iruka. that should be enough to show that he understands the feeling, but naruto goes beyond that.

this translation isn’t quite accurate, because the word naruto uses in the first panel isn’t mere “care about”, it denotes feelings of affection. when haku dies, naruto calls zabuza out for seeming heartless towards it and he describes the same feelings haku has described to him, he is able to see devotion, he is able to see self sacrifice, he is able to see and tell that haku loved zabuza. and his speech is enough to make zabuza cry.

so what we can take out of land of waves, at mere first glance, is that naruto is able to see love, not only when it comes to other people, but to his own reality, and he is even able to touch people with his understanding. on a deeper look, considering the entirety of the manga as well, naruto is able to link devotion, self sacrifice, desire to protect and become stronger for someone to love, but i will mention this later again.

2. sakura’s fake confession

in sakura’s fake confession, naruto looks stunned for only a brief moment, but he doesn’t buy it and right away starts questioning her. he understands that for someone who “loved” sasuke for so long, it doesn’t make any sense that she suddenly just started to like him. sakura’s confession mostly annoys naruto and he can quickly tell that she’s lying.

as if that’s not enough, in this confession sakura basically inflames all of naruto’s insecurities, by saying she likes him because she was able to see how he has grown to be a hero. in her speech, she puts herself in the same position as the other konoha citizens (“right now everyone loves you, i am simply one of them”). but in the following arc, this is shown to be badly received by naruto through the manifestation of his dark self. naruto resents this type of demonstration because he knows it isn’t genuine. in land of waves, naruto refuses to become a tool, and later we see that he kept this idea within him. it’s not meaningful to be loved only after he’s proved to be “useful” to the village.

and besides all that, when sakura brings that sasuke is a criminal, when everybody brings sasuke’s hatred on the table, naruto talks about the deep love sasuke felt for his family and why it’s so hard to forgive those who took that away from him.

what he can take out of sakura’s confession is that naruto is not only able to understand what love is, but he surely knows what love isn’t, and in this case, it’s specifically romantic love. later with dark naruto, we are also able to see that naruto is aware that the love people feel for him for being a hero isn’t genuine, and it sickens him.

3. when he meets his mother

another thing people say to discredit naruto’s emotional intelligence is that he can’t understand love because he grew up with none. that couldn’t be any further from the truth. naruto’s meeting with his mother is pretty self explanatory.

kushina just tells naruto right away that she loves him, and this is his cute reaction.

not only that, but he feels calm and happy. naruto grew up desperate for bonds, yet with dark naruto, we see that he distrusts people who don’t love him genuinely, that clearly isn’t the case with his mother. even though he grew up without her love, he is able to recognise it as soon as she tells him, and it makes him calm and happy, as if that desperation is immediately filled.

i guess it is pretty self explanatory, he had doubts but he knows now, he can tell he has always been loved, and again we see naruto taking the notion that love is self sacrificial.

4. sasuke

like i said before, land of waves is the origin of many important messages of the manga. what haku says about “precious people” also applies to sasuke. in many instances, naruto makes sure to put sasuke and iruka in this same special group of people that were able to change his heart… because they showed love for him first. when i say land of waves sets the tone of the manga, it’s because the same way naruto calls zabuza out for seeming heartless, he refuses to act the same towards sasuke. so much of what he sees in haku is applied to how he feels towards sasuke, the devotion, the desire to protect and become stronger for that person, the self sacrifice (that is also learned from iruka and his parents), and naruto understood that that was love, it is established in land of waves that naruto understands those notions and that they are linked to love. it is established that naruto understands sasuke feels the same. even though naruto doesn’t immediately understands it, even though he says he can’t exactly put it into words, how he feels about sasuke, he is able to describe it. not being able to put a name to it isn’t the same as not understanding, and the narrative and storytelling has shown us what it is.

does he have to repeat himself? do you still not understand it? it’s almost like he is speaking to the audience.

and these are just a few instances, there are many more showing naruto isn’t emotionally inept, he is actually complex and displays a lot of emotional intelligence. it’s disrespectful to his character to say he doesn’t understand or doesn’t know what love is, that’s not what the writing shows us. if you need to believe a movie that contradicts what was written in the manga because the manga didn’t give you the love story you wanted, if you need to butcher naruto’s character like that in order to defend a ship, maybe the problem isn’t with naruto and his understanding of love, but with the ship that can’t rely on his very evident understanding. let’s not simplify a beloved character like naruto that way.

[oraclesblog]

Sakura Blossoms

One of the most significant character moments for Sakura Haruno in the original series of Naruto remains one of the most misunderstood. This can, no doubt, be attributed to the fact that a large portion of shonen fans are incapable of understanding any form of writing that isn’t surface-level and doesn’t have to be spoon-fed to them. Many view this scene as an example of illogical decision-making by Sakura because she had an “opening” to stab her opponent, as shown here:

However, Masashi Kishimoto goes out of his way to provide two specific reasons as to why this approach wouldn’t work: a practical reason and a symbolic one.

Practically speaking, it is explicitly stated that had Sakura attempted to stab the Hidden Sound shinobi, it wouldn’t have worked.

It was also established very early on that there was a massive power imbalance between the two and that, no matter what Sakura did, the Hidden Sound shinobi would always have a counterattack because they were more skilled and had more experience. Hence, instead of using the Kunai to stab her opponent, as this particular Hidden Sound shinobi expected, Sakura decided to cut her hair—not only to catch her opponent off guard but because Sakura herself knew that stabbing her wouldn’t work; she’d simply be overpowered.

Symbolically speaking, the reason Kishimoto had Sakura cut her hair (the most important reason and the entire purpose of the scene in the first place) was to signify the beginning of her character arc. To understand this, we need to look at Sakura’s initial character traits and the perceptions she carried at the start of the series.

Initially, Sakura is introduced as a superficial, appearance-obsessed, boy-crazy girl who has a no real understanding of what it means to be a shinobi.

She even outright admits to already considering herself a full-fledged ninja despite having done nothing to earn that title.

This false self-perception is what leads Sakura astray compared to her teammates. She becomes disinterested in the idea of training to become stronger and doesn’t work for the skill she so desperately needs at this point in the story. In her mind, there’s no point in training if she’s already graduated the academy and become a “full-fledged” shinobi. Her own arrogance and naïveté on the subject even lead her to believe that she’s fully superior to her teammates on Team Seven.

However, as the story progresses, we see Sakura’s inexperience in battle and taijutsu, combined with her misguided priorities (particularly her obsession with Sasuke) and her arrogance regarding her own self-perceptions, make her overly reliant on her teammates. This not only makes Sakura a burden to her team but shows the consequences of her actions, behaviours, and beliefs.

The forest of death arc is so crucial for Sakura‘s character, as it pushes each member of Team Seven into moments of growth. For Sakura, it where she learns the true meaning of being a shinobi and the trials and tribulations that come along with it. Sakura is put in a situation where she’s forced to fight on her own for the first time in her life to protect her two teammates. As she does, her enemy grabs her by the hair, trapping her. With no escape, Sakura takes her Kunai and cuts her hair.

In this moment, Sakura is physically cutting off an aspect of her identity that aided in the superficial virtues of her character, both physically and emotionally. She is unbinding herself to the girl she used to be, freeing herself of her negative qualities and traits, and most importantly, her false self-perception regarding the identity of a shinobi. The act of haircutting within literature can carry various meanings, but the most common symbolism behind it is to mark a character’s transition into a new stage of life. In Ancient Greece, it was tradition to cut one’s hair as a sign of mourning, symbolizing a positive or negative change for the character. In Sakura’s case, she is “killing” her past self and mourning this loss through the act of cutting her hair, while also stepping in to a new sense of self with a clearer understanding of what it means to be a ninja and the harsh realities that follow it. That’s why this line:

Is so important because it serves as a representation, both figuratively and literally, that it’s Sakura’s turn to step into the role of a true shinobi—to be someone her teammates can count on and, most importantly, to say goodbye to the girl she once was.

What’s more is that we actually see how this character development impacts Sakura’s throughout the series. The Forest of Death scene is more than just words; it marks a transition she carries forward, not only becoming someone her comrades can rely on but also becoming someone who understands the deeper nature of things and people rather than viewing them through a superficial lens. This growth is especially evident in her desire to become stronger, seeking out training from a Sanin, and in the way she begins to see Sasuke after the Forest of Death. Instead of viewing him merely as an attractive classmate she has a crush on, she starts to see him for who he truly is—a traumatized boy falling prey to his own pain and going down a dark path. This new perception makes her want to help him, both physically and emotionally, rather than simply wanting to make him hers, as she did initially.

Ultimately, this scene is what gave Sakura the development to become the character she was at the end of the series—a strong kunoich and a true, full-fledged shinobi, as well as someone who can genuinely understand the pain and trauma of others.

[notsorryiml8]

He only had them for 6-7 months??

Looking at a timeline and watching the Land of Waves and Chuunin exams again (how far we've made it so far with the niece and nephew) and just realized how short of a timeframe Part I really is, that in Part I, Kakashi only had Team 7 for 6-7 months before it all went downhill/Sasuke left!!! I don't know why that blows my mind. SIX -SEVEN MONTHS! By the end of Part I to Shippuden and time spent with sensei/mentors, it's like:

Iruka/The Academy : 5 yrs

Kakashi : 6-7 months (months,people, months)

Jiraiya/Tsunade/Orochimaru : 2 - 2.5 years

When looking at it like this, I really think people/fans expected WAY too much out of Kakashi. He started with the traumatized-youth-of-the-year team and had only MONTHS to work with them and from the ground up. Subtract the time he was gone on missions, in the hospital and/or comatose (looking at you Itachi) and that gets knocked down to maybe 4-5 months. He spent less time with them than any other sensei and did a remarkable job for what he was given. I think all of this to say, give the man some grace. That was wild.

When all was said and done, what he did for this little rag-tag team of traumatized feral orphans + Sakura was more than amazing. SIX MONTHS, people, six months. Well, maybe seven, but still...let that sink in. I think people fail to acknowledge this when they call him a "bad sensei-" can't believe people are still doing that years later(!). Let any of the other jonin sensei do what he did in six months and with the team he was given - any of y'all try working with traumatized prepubescents and see how long it takes for them to work together?? I do every.single.day. They're all about survival and living in that trauma mind. Trust? What's that? Teamwork? Nope, gotta look out for me. Then you go and put them on a team with Captain Trauma, himself. Smart move Lord 3rd, smart move. Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it, only other Sharingan, control 9-tails, son of your sensei, blah blah blah. Poor Sakura, btw. Poor little thing didn't know what she had gotten herself into.

I dunno, I just don't think people ever see it from this perspective - that he literally only had them for months. Guy's team - already had a year together. Asuma's team - InoShikaCho were predestined wombmates. Kurenai's team - they were well-adjusted (Shino's the most laid-back person you'd ever find; just give Kiba a puppy; and who can ever get mad at Hinata, well, other than her family).

Traversing other corners of the interwebs and didn't realize just how much Kakashi hate dislike scorn "non-like" there is out there even now. It's wild. All this to say, just showing Kakashi-sensei some love. ❤️ and respect.

[sweet-cuddlebug]

I just saw a guy declaring that Sasuke was abusive towards Sakura and that he doesn't deserve her... and now I want to implode because. What the hell.

First of all, Sasuke never wanted Sakura and that's something he made VERY clear to her.

The fact that she continued to pursue him shows the lack of respect she has for herself. Because she's not even trying to understand him as a person, she just loves (the idea of) him and wants to be with him, and after Sasuke makes it clear multiple times that that's not going to happen Sakura just starts to look stupid.

The fact that people call their relationship abusive has to be some kind of stupid joke. You're telling me that Sasuke trying to kill her after she tried to stab him in the back is abusive? That him not reciprocating her feelings and not being patient or kind after the tenth time is abusive? That him not treating her like his friend when they're enemies at war is abusive?

And I mean the relationship does seem abusive but from another perspective.

Who ignores the other's feelings and tries to make it about her all the time? Who ignores the other's decisions and goes on with her own actions? Who crosses the boundaries set by the other person multiple times? Who ignores the fact that the other is a independent person with a history and only tries to have him under her possession and tries to kill him when that option is no longer plausible? Mhhh.

Sasuke: I don't like you. I don't want you. What I want is for you to get away from me.

Sakura: I'm gonna try to chase you and declare my feelings over and over again hoping that my tears will convince you to stay with me.

Sasuke: Are you at least going to try to understand me as a person and my motives?

Sakura: Why would I do that? I just want to have you

Sasuke: ... Well that's not going to happen, and you're starting to irritate me.

Sakura: *tries to kill him*

Sasuke: *tries to kill her back*

Sakura: How is it possible that you care more about Naruto than me?!

Naruto: *Is worried that Sasuke is going to put himself in danger and ruin his life. Does his best to understand Sasuke's history and his motives. Cares immensely for him and tries to protect him at all costs. Understands that they both have a special connection and if the only way for them to be free from suffering is to die together then that's what they'll do.*

Sasuke: *The reason he wants to kill Naruto is because he is his greatest weakness. He loves him too much and he knows it. He knows that Naruto has the chance to stop him in his attempt to avenge his family. He does everything he can to protect Naruto from dying unless it is by his own hand and trying to kill him brings him great pain.*

Sakura: but I want youuu >:(

[tentenarchive]

In Defense of Tenten - the Chunin Exams' Written Test and Her Mirrors

A common joke made about Tenten is how obvious her mirror and line contraption, used to share answers with Rock Lee during the written exam, is. In this post, I'll show how her solution is perfectly reasonable and why she wasn't disqualified by the ninja proctors.

Firstly, we have to stablish what the objective of this written test is: to cheat. The written test was designed to be too difficult for ninjas of their level to be able to answer, forcing them to cheat from each other. Such is stated by Ibiki in the end of the First Phase chapters:

Next, the proctors are all higher level shinobi, better prepared and used to seeing various tricks and jutsu. It's not an stretch to suppose they're aware of EVERY cheating attempt made by those Genin, but were responsible for judging if their technique is too sloppy, obvious or ineffective.

My theory is supported by this scene, where Izumo eliminates one of the ninjas doing the test, claiming he took "five strikes".

It implies the competitors are allowed five errors before being disqualified, and one of the eliminated Genin makes it clear to the reader the "five strikes" are five times being caught cheating.

Naruto is also implied to be caught almost cheating when Hinata offers him her test answers (it can be interpreted either as Naruto being closely watched or Naruto's nerves making him think like that, half the proctors' job is to scare the Genin) and even then he is not automatically removed.

Tenten's technique may be obvious for us, as readers who have been shown by the author himself how she did it, but it's a single and successful attempt, and it's not commentated by any other characters, meaning no one caught on her besides the proctors, and they would only disqualify her if she did it more than once (which wasn't needed, she found the mole with all the answers!).

A pettier criticism i've "how isn't anyone seeing the lines?" to which the answer is very simple: manga is a visual media and the author needed the audience to understand how she was manipulating the mirror. If you take in consideration Tenten's fight with Temari in the anime - which is filler, btw, and it's up to you reading this to decide if it's a fair assessment on their abilities or not - she's shown using invisible lines to manipulate her weapons after throwing them. The lines are, conveniently, only visible when the animation needs us to understand how the weapons are moving backwards. Any other frame they're invisible.

You can see in the panel how the lines fade out towards the bottom and only show where they're attached to the mirror.

Finally: that's exactly what Ibiki expected the genin to do. There have been a few posts, specially on twitter, asking "how are you supposed to pass if you don't have a kekken genkai??". Like Tenten. That's how.

Kankuro and Tenten are the only characters which Kishimoto showed us cheating that didn't use an exclusive DNA super power. Kankuro and Tenten both use hidden threads, one uses chakra lines for puppetry and the last manipulates mirrors. They also pass their answers to their teammates, Temari and Lee.

(Sakura is the only confirmed character to do the entire test without cheating. Congrats Sakura!! You could argue Hinata used her byakuugan to cheat like Neji, but if you think she did it by herself, I will give you the pleasure of congratulating Hinata too. Congrats Hinata!)

Tenten's method was practical, and used her specific skill set: summoning and kunai work (where do you think the mirrors came from? a scroll, that's for sure). It was probably set up before the test started, during the commotion Team 7 created with their arrival. We're not shown it because Tenten is a tertiary character and Kishimoto wouldn't invest 2-3 panels of set up for a 3 panel sequence pay-off that works by itself very well. She is smart, did great and made sure her teammate was not left behind.

Tenten is not even the most absurd method used in this exam, so, as a treat, i will show you, in order, the most obvious cheats shown in the manga from least to most!

Sasuke's Sharingan If you're a ninja from the Leaf Village, you know who Sasuke Uchiha is and what a Sharingan is capable of. Unfortunally for him, the Exam is being held at the Leaf Village and all the jounin and chuunin there are from the Village. Any proctor looking at his direction in a position in front of him could see clearly his eyes and know exactly what he was doing.

Neji's Byukuugan Like the Sharigan, you can physhically see when it's activated, with the downgrade of being noticible by people sitting at up to 95º from him, as the veins are visible on the sides of his face too. A fair trade for the ability to see better than the Sharingan, even if you're not able to copy, in my personal opinion.

Ino's Mind Transfer Jutsu The jutsu's hand signal is simple and can be missed, but it's still obvious for any Konoha ninja watching, it is a very recognizable ability. There's also the higher chance of Ino being caught since she needs to do it three times (once for getting Sakura's answers, twice to pass them to Chouji and Shikamaru). Besides, the "dropping dead on the table" thing can be disruptive in a mostly silent classroom.

Akamaru and Kiba's communication Akamaru is barking all the way through the exam, and while the balloon used for the text is the one for thoughts, it's also the same used for whispered conversations up to this point in the manga. The anime makes the barks happen in the real world, and not in their thoughts, and as far as i could find, Kiba can understand dog language but there's no psychic talk between them. By the noise alone he could be caught. I think he wasn't expelled just because a full conversation between dog and human is a novel enough ability to not be considered by most ninjas unaware of the Inuzuka clan's special abilities.

The Most absurd one: Kakuro and his Puppet He put an entire guy no one knows and has never been seen in a room where all the authorities are from the same village and have, at least, a vague knowledge of each other's existence. To increase the absurdity, somehow everyone let Kankuro use his own puppet to guide himself to the bathroom. I cannot express enough how unlikely it is that, in a real info gathering mission inside a single room where all the higher rank ninjas are exclusively from the same village, Kakuro's plan could work. Most decent sensors could also catch the chakra line's signature.

I'll give it to him, making the puppet talk helps with the disguise, but it only fools his fellow attendees, not the proctors. He's too confident that he didn't raise any alarms.

But Ibiki goes as far as insinuating he knows (and has known from the start) about the puppet's existence when Kankuro comes back from the bathroom.

If Kankuro was able to finish the test and not get disqualified, even if he had what I consider the most obvious cheating attempt from the named characters shown, it's fair game for Tenten and all the other important cheaters. Besides, it's a single attempt at cheating, even if it required an entire prep work for it, so it doesn't matter if all the high level ninja's are aware, that's not enough to kick him out.

I cannot leave out the meta reasons why these characters weren't removed from the class: they're important to varying degrees to the story and they need to advance through the first phase to keep readers engaged.

Regardless of how absurd I think Kiba's and Kankuro's methods are, they need to go all the way to the fight tournament after the Forest of Death, where they have important roles to fill: Sasuke and Naruto are main characters and are prioritized by the narrative; Ino and Sakura will have an important character developments and flashbacks during their fight; Neji has an entire arc that only concludes all the way in his fight against Naruto; Kiba is the rival for Naruto in the surprise fighting tournament and he is one of the few characters able to match Naruto's silliness so he can win in a silly way; Kankuro and Tenten are both part of the two strongest cells present in the event, the Sand Siblings and Team Gai, both introduced as real threats to Team 7, and having anyone from these cells lose would undermine the narrative created around then. All of them would get through anyway.

Tenten losing against Temari in future parts of the Chuunin Exam has narrative importance too, a fight I will cover in the next In Defense of Tenten, but in short Tenten was introduced as a threat alongside Neji and Lee, her abilities and experience surpassing Team 7's. Having her lose against one the Sand Shinobi serves to show how big their gap in power is: if someone more experienced and well trained than them can't win against them, Team 7 has no chance. It's part of the build up for the future Naruto and Gaara fight, and the suspense about their real strength (since the fight doesn't exist in the manga, only the result is shown).

Conclusion: people are overly critical of Tenten because she's seen as a "lolcow" in the Naruto fandom, in part by the bad adaptation of her fight with Temari to the anime, which poisoned any feat of hers before and after it; but also because Naruto and Boruto don't give satisfying ends to any of the original female cast besides Hinata (she marries the man she loves and becomes a housewife away from the battlefield, an honorable decision i will never shit on, she never wanted to be a ninja and is a kind mother and wife, good for her!) so all female characters are seem as weak and useless when compared to their male peers. Naruto is a work riddled with undercover misogyny, never out right stated but always preventing the girls to achieve any meaningful resolution or permanent development.

That added to the ever expanding powerscalling abilities and fights make characters with simpler and down to earth abilities and feats outdated by its own universe. Knowing how big the Naruto fights and jutsu get in the future make people look down on crafty solutions like sealing scrolls, kunai and mirrors, when that is a perfectly respectable solution within the series and matches the powerlevel presented this early in the story.

Tenten is not weak, or bad, or useless. She's misrepresented by the most popular media consumed: the anime, and further misunderstood by the fans of said work. Large fandoms can be allergic to text interpretation and infighting is stimulated to the point fans of smaller characters are bullied off social media and forums (i.e. the forum where I got the list of all chapters Tenten is in is filled to the brim with comments about how OP should move the topic to "fan works" since no one would want to read about it in the canon work page, or how the mods shouldn't allow him to have a thread). I respect Tenten's feats, as well as other small characters', and refuse to be fed the same "uselessness" narrative this fandom always had, because i actually enjoy Naruto, even if i have many problems with it, and I take it seriously.

She did great.

[twomiddlefingersforthehaters]

I think Sasuke really likes the funny faces Naruto makes and his reactions.

Naruto stumbling down as he hears Sasuke call his name for the first time. This was the first time Sasuke initiated to talk to Naruto… and somehow this memory was immediately etched into Sasuke's brain.

Teasing-1

He did not complain or argue about why he was tied up and used his henge [because he loves Naruto making pranks]. But he comes looking for him only to tease him by calling him a "dobe". He may want to see how he reacts to what he does and says.

Teasing-2

He never let slip any chances he gets to tease and taunt him

Teasing-3

when they returned from their mission...it was Sasuke who just initiated to tease him by asking, "Can't you take care of yourself?"

Teasing-4

ムキー (Mukī) - SFX for a growling noise or sound of disappointment, made when one is angry or pissed. It is also used when things don't turn out the way you expected. ���シャ (basha)- splash.

Naruto was angry that he was ordered to do it... and he splashed the water, telling Sasuke to do it instead. Hearing that, he quickly changed what he had said earlier and said that three fish would be enough. It's only around Naruto that we get to see this teasing and playful side of him.

Sasuke tell naruto to do something he'll go "don't tell me what to do you piss me off so much!!!" and then do it. Something that Never Change

The scenes where Sakura introduces herself and talks about Sasuke while looking at him, Sasuke's face was never shown in those panels...But when Sakura said she doesn't like Naruto, Naruto made this funny face when he heard this, and we got a full view of Sasuke's blushing face at that very moment. Here the onomatopoeia used for Naruto is ガーン, It is used when a person is shocked/the emotion of being shocked

I thought he was blushing in that scene because he was embarrassed by what Sakura said. Then I wondered why Kishi didn't show Sasuke's face before... He could draw him when she said those things that were so embarrassing to hear. But why his face only shown when Naruto appeared in that scene with his funny shocked reaction??

He cherishes Naruto stumbling down after hearing him calling out his name. We don't know what face was Naruto making when Sasuke calls him 'dobe', only he knows. And It also becomes his precious memory. Even he added that teasing scene in there. He remembered Naruto's introduction and his dream of becoming a Hokage. So I think Sasuke blushed because of him. Naruto was so funny and adorable……maybe Sasuke found it too cute. The way Sasuke liked Naruto's pranks...he might also like this funny, adorable, silly, free-spirited behavior of his. Otherwise there is no need to remember these moments in his deathbed.

[sourinartt]

what is this obsession that nh/hnt stans have with making her some kind of "boss" who tramples Naruto whenever she wants?

I understand, the filler in the anime changed everything from Kishimoto's manga to make hnt look good, not as a submissive woman who accepts anything from her husband, but as a boss who can trample him or scold her children without shyness making her look more like a sakura

but that is not kishimoto's canon, this is the canon

a "boss" should not cry because her children feel abandoned by their father, on the contrary she should go and kick the man's ass and make him understand how much his children suffer without him

(a boss who scolds her children? better said, her own children are the ones who scold her)

but that's not hnt, she's happy to have married Naruto and that's it, she doesn't have the guts to face Naruto either, because she is a submissive woman who will not do anything without his decision

when boruto is angry at his father she does nothing, when naruto is disrespectful to boruto making him feel embarrassed among so many people, she does nothing either, but she has no problem sending her son to take care of his father's ass because she couldn't and almost died trying

this "boss" has a serious thing about abandoning her children if it were to go after a man, it's not something a "boss" does but ok

the first time she was lucky and was saved by skr, but the second time not only does her husband see her as useless for a mission knowing that she has a byagukan, but he also doesn't think about his daughter, Ironically naruto has to remind him that he has her so that he doesn't abandon her and leave her adrift

'tired sigh' seriously I repeat it again, she is not a boss who solves her children's frustrations for not seeing their father, she just cries because she can't do anything and her son gets angry with her, this "boss" has no problem abandoning her daughter not just once but twice to go after a man like she has pursued him throughout her childhood, she also has no problem sending her son into a fight where he will probably get hurt and killed as long as her man is okay

but if she has enough trouble to hurt a child that is not hers, it is only naruto's, this is a debate and I can understand that she did not want her son to be killed but girl, you haven't done anything for him, you have tendencies to abandon your daughter for a man, why do you want to become a responsible mother now?

when naruto simply decided to take care of kawaki without consulting her, she accepted it and that was it, kawaki was already a danger and the village knew it, she herself saw how he sought to fight and hurt his son at all costs, she also sees how he almost destroyed his house and literally acted suspicious almost all the time she didn't do anything either, in fact, she wanted to do something but again naruto raised his hand like a dog to its owner and she simply chose to stay still

the only one who rules the house is naruto, this family accepts anything that comes from him if that makes him stay longer, I hate that headcanon where Naruto is trampled by her because It doesn't exist, and not only hnt stan has that obsession, skr stan also has it quite a bit, just because naruto lets himself be beaten by her doesn't mean he's a lapdog for that girl

naruto can get carried away by skr until she crosses a line and then we have scenes where she cries because she can't be the same as naruto or she and her ego are simply rejected by him, yeah... Great bosses

[yotonyokai]

So, it's news to no one that the Sharingan is representative of trauma. That's a level one Naruto fact. But I think not enough fans really appreciate how that's represented through what the Sharingan actually can do. Between projecting hellish nightmares into someone's mind and perfectly recording whatever the Uchiha sees, letting them flawlessly replay it over and over again... its main abilities seem to stem from PTSD symptoms. That's the core of what the Sharingan is and why it's so tragic.

The thing that *I* think is really cool about the Sharingan is that it has two branching evolutions. The Mangekyou Sharingan and the Rinnegan. A lot of people seem to think that the Rinnegan evolves from the Mangekyou, but that isn't really true, it is connected to the basic Sharingan and that's because the Rinnegan and Mangekyou are two different methods of processing trauma. The Mangekyou Sharingan doubles down on trauma and makes it integral to one's character. The visions it can project are even worse, the user grows in power with every negative thought and the user will gain two abilities directly feeding from their own personal trauma. Obito and Sasuke have different Mangekyou Sharingan abilities because the way that their worlds were destroyed were completely different. Obito feels like a ghost floating through a fake world, while Sasuke believes that the world is very real. It just need to be burned down and reshaped from the cinders. The one ability shared between every Mangekyou Sharingan user is Susano'o. It isn't a coincidence that the Kanji for this technique breaks down into "He With The Ability to Help Through All Means". It's the Mangekyou user's best friend.

Their own chakra.

Formed from hate.

And it brings them immense pain.

It's an incredibly lonely ability, the end of wallowing in hate and being unable to heal from trauma. Pain and Blindness are the only things that awaits someone who awakens a Mangekyou Sharingan, it's one of the most bleak and cynical things in the series.

So, is the Rinnegan a better way to conquer trauma? Lol. Lmao. So, whereas the Mangekyou Sharingan seeks to exploit the user's own trauma for drive and power, the Rinnegan is the rejection of trauma and all worldly matters. The rejection of death, the rejection of humanity, the rejection of basic rules that govern our world. It is complete and utter detachment with the end goal of becoming God and just leaving it all behind. But... it's cope. Madara was the only human character to naturally possess two Rinnegan. Nagato tried to be a god, but couldn't succeed because the eyes weren't his. Obito tried to become a God, but always kept his Mangekyou Sharingan because he couldn't let go of his trauma, he didn't want to. As unhealthy as it was to cling to this, Madara's goal is even worse. Even Sasuke who gets a Rinnegan independent of Madara, notably only gets one because he doesn't want to sever his ties to the past and wants to remember his trauma, remember what he wants to preserve and why. Only Madara's insane ass is truly resolved to leave it all behind in the name of becoming a God.

[cloudwifey]

Why Sasuke's Physical Beauty Matters

Thinking about this again, Sasuke’s characterization is super interesting to me, especially how he’s physically characterized with his beauty.

Firstly, I think his extra stylized, iconic “duck butt” hair is integral to his character. It’s spiky and edgy, meant to be rebellious. He’s the ultimate revolution. Even Naruto and Itachi had pretty normal hair! But in Boruto, Sasuke's hair looks plain and flat (neutral terms--not a diss to other people with this hairstyle). The edges are completely gone--matching his newfound conformity and detachment.

And further, why is he canonically attractive and what does it mean? I think the army of Sasuke admirers Kishimoto depicts throughout OG Naruto and Shippuden adds to his characterization as the anomaly—the one who goes against the grain. He questions the chunin exams and analyzes why and how they take place. He challenges the status quo in Konoha. Kishimoto actually keeps up with this motif whereas he seems to forget about other motifs (ahem, the Hyuga clan curse).

Sasuke's beauty also emphasizes his determination and focus. He could have had anyone he wanted but remained disinterested even as an emotional teenage boy. Kishimoto even has Sasuke call it out when Kakashi brings up Sakura’s feelings, with Sasuke literally saying, “I don’t see why I should love her and why she should love me.” (Now, I will add an important caveat that in an ideal world, I don’t think he’ll stay this disinterested forever, because Sasuke too deserves love and healing once he’s ready for it and grows up more. People don't stay stagnant, and trauma deserves to be healed).

Sasuke is fiercely single-minded and driven, and is a character that acts as a foil to the protags, the main narrative, and Kishimoto furthers these motifs through Sasuke's physical characterizations.

[mochiajclayne]

Okay we all know that I love Five Kage Summit arc but what's interesting is about what happened NEXT after Naruto and Sasuke talked under that bridge. Naruto went ahead and told his friends that he'd handle Sasuke alone and naturally their reactions were how can you expect us to agree with that, we can't give in to your stubbornness, and it's pretty much an issue for the village and Naruto is like nope I'm not being stubborn and Kiba really called him out like thought you'd give us the details but I did not expect it to be this, we all made up our minds to kill Sasuke then Shikamaru really hit the nail in the coffin like you say that you'll take Sasuke alone when you're actually planning on protecting him. Naruto is like no intentions to protect Sasuke here and Neji is like Sasuke was weak at the time so why didn't you take him out and Sakura defended Naruto by saying that Madara was there then Kiba says you're a hero dude you can take him down like you did with Pain and Naruto sullenly replied that he wouldn't be able to defeat Sasuke the way that he currently is and then Choji is like what is it that you found out then Naruto fucking proceeds NOT TO EXPLAIN FURTHER and persistently says that no one should take Sasuke on and HE'S THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN FIGHT HIM as if that explanation would satisfy everyone (it doesn't) and keeps on giving them the runaround as he would tell them when the time comes. Even Sakura who was there when it happened has been mentally deliberating about what's Naruto has been hiding.

Now the interesting part is Naruto could've just explained WHY. Neji would've understood where he's speaking from as he also dealt with darkness, Shikamaru would at least try to see his point in sheer rationality making the others see his perspective but HE DOESN'T. It was a choice. Might be speaking out of the box here but with the way that everyone collectively decided to kill Sasuke behind his back, it was like a slap in the face realization for Naruto that no one really understands Sasuke like he does. And no amount of explanation would convince them otherwise--he wasn't exactly protecting Sasuke but he won't let them kill him either because killing him won't save Sasuke from his hatred. Naruto never intended to exist in a world where Sasuke dies and he made that clear in the bridge. People around them would look at their relationship like they're fucking insane but what's amusing about it is they never explained their bond to others--how can you even put into words the connection that transcends even the ninja system that fosters hatred and pain? And how can you expect the same people that unconsciously adheres to the same system to understand that?