Shikamaru calls Naruto a dunce. Granted, he gives similarly unfavorably assessments to Sakura and himself, but Jesus, how often can you call someone an idiot before they genuinely start to believe it?
Chapter 122
The Sandaime claims that all the people of Konoha are his family. Even though there are at LEAST a handful of orphans in these panels alone that we know were canonically neglected once their blood families were out of the picture.
In the following chapter, the Nidaime literally is shown to have told him that, as Hokage, it is one's duty to nurture the people of the village. How much nurturing did you do, Sarutobi, huh?
This is especially glaring because this part of the story comes right before we learn more about the Gaara / Naruto parallels. Naruto did not turn evil because of his own convictions and because of Iruka. The Sandaime isn't even featured as one of his precious people.
Chapter 129
Instead of running headlong into battle, Naruto again recognizes the danger they are in and tries to get the others to run.
Chapter 132
Naruto once again notes the similarities between himself and Gaara. However, instead of merely focusing on the loneliness or the monster vessel aspect, we learn for the first time that, even at an early age, Naruto hated the people of the village.
He hated them when he didn't know why he was being hated, and he hated them more after he learned the truth.
Iruka is the primary reason why he didn't go darkside. And we don't know exactly when Iruka started being nice to him and inviting Naruto to ramen; however, we have plenty of evidence that Iruka was frequently still a hardass in class. We also know that Team 7 only really entered Naruto's life within maybe the past half year or so.
"Even though I had the demon fox inside of me and people looked at me coldly, I got used to it." he says, which is absolutely heart-breaking. And even worse, it's been only since very recently that "it's okay for me to be alive, to exist."
He isn't even speaking of love here, which is what Gaara's narrative is focused on. Gaara's father of course actively sent assassins after him, which Naruto at least was spared from. But even so, Naruto doesn't necessarily expect love and care from his precious people. He just wants an indirect confirmation that he is deserves to live.
Naruto gets absolutely pummeled by Gaara, mainly in order to distract him from Sasuke and Sakura. Then, in spite of his earlier fear and caution, he resolves to potentially dying in the fight.
Chapter 134
Konoha has a legal drinking age, but not a minimum "become a soldier to die for the financial benefit of your nation" age.
Chapter 138
The village, at least in Naruto's perception, constantly ganged up on him, completely shunning him. Children were instructed not to talk to him. He was called a freak and also "stinky". The latter may just be a typically creative kid's insult; however, it might also be indicative that Naruto, due to living alone, actually had or has poor hygiene.
He has previously mentioned not brushing his teeth in the morning when they had to meet early for training, causing Sakura's disgust. Considering he doesn't have the means to take care of himself in terms of proper nutrition and his apartment is always a mess, he also wouldn't have the means or knowledge to take care of his personal hygiene.
Naruto describes loneliness as a "pit" which he was saved from by his precious people whom he loves. Is it really a surprise that Naruto latched on to Sasuke to such a degree, especially with the understanding that Sasuke was caught in his own pit?
Chapter 143
It's confirmed that Jiraiya has not been back in Konoha for several years, but it's unlikely that it was the whole twelve years of Naruto's life. However, while he decides to now take Naruto on as a student, mostly due to the looming threat of Akatsuki, he does not seem to view Naruto as being his particular responsibility, despite being his godfather.
He also praises the Sandaime for making Naruto Kakashi' his's student and claims that Naruto has been "well looked after."
Has he, though? I mean, really? The only one who has been looking after Naruto is Iruka, and even that is a recent development. Both Kakashi and Hiruzen have acknowledged, to other people, how shitty Naruto's life has been. Yet did never did anything to remedy the situation.
Naruto IMMEDIATELY latched on to Team 7, even though most of the time they are not particularly nice to him either. Couldn't Kakashi have checked in on him at least one a week or something??
Jiraiya wants to take Naruto on a trip. Instead of straight-up telling him they are looking for Tsunade, i.e. the next Hokage, he implies he is trying to do "research" for his new book. Naruto, who has already seen what kind of research Jiraiya's writing includes is understandably skeptical.
Naruto also expresses resentment over the fact that Kakashi is apparently favoring Sasuke
Chapter 144
Jiraiya is annoyed Naruto keeps calling him Pervy Sage, even though he only introduced himself by name mere seconds ago.
Jiraiya reveals the Yondaime was his student. He does not tell Naruto that the Yondaime was his father.
What even is the reason at this point? If originally it was meant to "protect Naruto from his father's enemies" or whatever, how does keeping Naruto himself in the dark help? If the decision was made by the Sandaime, the old man is dead now, so why stick with the rule? And Naruto already has people after him because of the kyuubi, so what's the difference?
Merely being told that he is a little like the Fourth Hokage obviously means a whole lot to Naruto. Yet he is denied not just the knowledge of Minato but also of Kushina and therefore Uzushio.
Hiruzen, Jiraiya and Kakashi regularly refer to how much Minato meant to them, how they want to protect his legacy, etc. But none of that ever includes properly taking care of Naruto.
Despite the constant lectures about secrecy etc, Konoha nin will just randomly blurt out important intel, with no care for who might hear.
Also, despite everyone knowing that Sasuke would likely be triggered by the mention of Itachi, no one actually goes after him, allowing him to leave the village and throw himself into a fight he can only lose.
They really want the Uchiha to die out, huh?
Jiraiya immediately falls for Itachi's ploy and abandons Naruto at the first sight of a pretty lady. He does not care that Naruto is upset about this, does not inform him that there are dangerous people after him and does not instruct him to be cautious or set up traps, merely handing him the room key.
So, because Naruto is not aware of any danger, he simply opens the door when Itachi knocks.
Naruto wasn't well looked after before, and he certainly isn't being well looked after now...
I’m a huge sasunaru Fan. Flesh and Bone and Clouded Mind and Heavy Heart are my favourite fanfics ever and I properly read thousands in twenty years of being in fandoms!!
Thank you! Glad to see there is still so much enthusiasm for my old Naruto works. Makes coming back to this fandom all the more rewarding.
I first started writing Naruto fic in the mid-2000s, then again in the mid 2010, and now the mid-2020s. Who knows what I'll cook up a decade from now. There have been a bunch of fandoms I returned to over the years, but nothing has every quite had a hold of me as thoroughly as Naruto/Sasunaru - at least not in terms of making me want to produce more fic for it. :)
Congratulations on Flesh and Bone surpassing 15k kudos! No exaggeration, that is one of my top three favorite fics of all time and has greatly influenced my own style of writing. A true Sasunaru gem, one that I can re-read again and again and will never grow sick of <3
Thank you! I hadn't even noticed yet. This makes Flesh and Bone my most liked fic - and the next two are sns fics as well. Which seems fitting, considering I am now so deeply entrenched in the Naruto fanfom again.
Now that I am re-reading the manga, I am actually noticing all the mistakes that are in my older fics. So maybe I will give them a bit of a polish one of these days. My writing in general also has really changed. I've gotten so much more verbose since then - can't believe my average fic length used be be just 10k.
I do have an alternative version of the Flesh and Bone premise that I am working on. I plan for it to be a big boy, and I want to finish Bittersweet and some other WIPs first, but considering Flesh and Bone turns 10 in a month, it seems fitting. :)
I feel it everywhere. It sort of runs through me in a way. It's like… dangerous. It is the best and the worst thing all at once. It's like the only thing. It's the only thing I've ever felt. It's like I'm fucking… high off of you or something. Chemically dependent. I don't know.
