Analysis ProNaruHina and AntiNaruSaku. Revisiting Naruto manga. Part 7
Just before the fight Naruto vs Neji starts, Ino makes this comment to Sakura.
Sakura’s only concern is Sasuke. In part, I can understand her, Sakura knows that something is wrong with Sasuke since Orochimaru put the seal on him but, she, at least, could show some interest and concern for Naruto, even Ino states it.
I am 100% that, if the situation was reversed, and Sasuke was the one fighting and Naruto with the seal, she would be encouraging Sasuke like there is no tomorrow.
Hinata hears people underestimating Naruto, again, and this displeases her.
When Neji and Naruto are already face to face in the sand Naruto, once again, mentions the oath of blood he made for Hinata, although she has no knowledge of this promese.
He is going to fight mainly for Hinata, and for him too, of course, because the cruel words of Neji to Hinata also affected him, but especially for Hinata, otherwise, there would no need of mention and empathize again the oath he made and he would not be so intense about it.
After the bond he felt with Hinata during Neji vs Hinata and Hinata’s inspirational words of courage just before this match, Naruto is motivated, mainly, thanks to Hinata.
Again, Naruto will win for both, Hinata and himself.
Throughout the fight Naruto receives blows from Neji, Hinata seems to have a strange reaction.
Do you remember this moment during Naruto vs Kiba fight when Hinata starts coughing blood out of nowhere?
Well, Hinata seems to have the same reaction as before, and several times.
I think it’s a pretty obvious message from Kishimoto. He is telling us that Naruto and Hinata have something special and a bond so strong that it makes Hinata cough up blood every time Naruto suffers a blow, it’s pretty deep and doesn’t happened ever nothing similar in the manga.
When Naruto is on the ground, apparently defeated, his inspiration and motivation are Rock Lee and Hinata, who have been treated as failures throughout their lifes, and have had to overcome these barriers they had in their lives: loneliness, misunderstanding, inferiority complex, fear to fail…just like him.
Hinata has more coughing attacks from the blows that Naruto receives during the fight, to the point that she loses consciousness and is not able to hear what Naruto’ll say about her later.
Naruto feels empathy for Hinata and utterly understands her. He reproaches Neji his horrible behavior towards her, it’s the first thing Naruto tells Neji. He is able to understand Hinata’s suffering and courage to change her fate, he could see why Hinata fought until the end, even if she was coughing blood. She’s so much like him, he can see this.
Naruto understands and empathizes with the suffering of Hinata. He recognizes her will to overcome and the extreme effort to change into someone better, just as he does. He also mentions that Hinata struggles to gain the respect of her clan, just like him too with the people of the village.
Naruto recall again the oath’s blood and swear to fulfill his promese at any cost because he never goes back on his word.
Naruto recurs to Hinata and Rock Lee, so they’re “failures”, just like him, to motivate him through the fight and summon Kyubi’s chakra. But i dare say, the manga put more enphasis in Naruto recalling Hinata than Rock Lee though, Naruto mentions Hinata over and over again and his oath of blood for her.
In the end, Naruto, consciously, resorts to the nine-tails chakra to defeat Neji.
This is a very little detail that is usually overlooked by people, even by myself when i first read the manga, and is the fact that this is the first time that Hinata (and Rock Lee) but, mainly Hinata, is the motivation for Naruto using nine-tails chakra and not during Pain moment in the future.
Finally, Naruto defeats Neji and, for the first time, the people of Konoha show him their respect.
This is a very important moment for Naruto, he’s starting to earn Konoha’s respect and admiration and, nevertheless, the first person he thinks about is Hinata, he wonders if she has watched the match and him defeating Neji for her.
Let’s really think about this. Naruto‘s just defeated one of the strongest shinobi until this moment. He’s just proved to everybody, not only all teachers and comrades, but all Konoha as well, that he can change his destiny. He has guts and nothing is gonna stop him. The people of Konoha and other shinobi nations are acknowledging him. This is incredible for Naruto and, despite all that, he is thinking of Hinata. This have to mean something. I can’t even believe how there’s people out there, antis specificly, who claims that Naruto never cared about Hinata. Well, just seeing this panel dismisses that ridiculous statement.
Meanwhile, we have this panel of Sakura feeling jealous of Naruto because she feels like she is falling behind both, Naruto and Sasuke. Well, for once, you’re right Sakura, you are VERY behind Naruto and Sasuke. She’s the one who’s holding Team 7 back, not Naruto, just like she claimed in previous moments.
During the confrontation of Sasuke vs Gaara in Chunin Exams we are reminded, once again, the strong feeling of competition and jealousy that Naruto feels for Sasuke. It’s something that Kishimoto wants to recall us through all the manga and i want to point it out for the future because, NaruSaku, basically, exist because of this: Naruto’s feeling of competition for Sasuke. Even Shikamaru, being the genious and analytical person he is, can see this side of Naruto.
Ok, and now we reach the part of Naruto vs Gaara in the Forest of Death.
Sasuke is defeated by Gaara and just when Gaara is about to charge against Sasuke, Sakura gets in the middle to protect him.
Naruto sees Sakura in danger of death and says ‘what am i supposed to do?!!’ . I was even surprised when i reread this, we all know that Naruto is someone who acts through instint, when he sees someone he loves (not necessaryly romantically) being hurted or in danger. And nonetheless, when he sees Sakura being attacked by Gaara, who, clearly, wants to kill her, he doesn’t know what to do.
Where is the strength, passion and motivation Naruto that had when Sasuke was in danger?
Where is this? That moment when Naruto woke up, unconsciously, the fox chakra, just by seeing his rival/friend being hurted or in danger.
Where is that strength and desire to do anything for Sakura? Where is his instinct of protection when he sees her, clearly, about to die at the hands of Gaara?
Throughout the fight Gaara threatens Naruto with crushing and killing Sakura if he doesn’t do something to protect her, he even provokes Naruto to come at him and yet, Naruto still doesn’t transform or resort nine-tails chakra from anger.
We see him pissed off, yes, after all, she is his teammate, but he doesn’t get the strength and passion as we already seen with Sasuke or even Hinata when she was fighting Neji. Naruto seemed more angrier towards Neji than towards Gaara.
Naruto, inmediatly, launched towards Neji after his provocations. Naruto doesn’t know how to contain his impulses and emotions when someone is, truly, important to him.
In Hinata vs Neji, we even saw him trying to control his anger because he couldn’t interfere during the fight.
But with Sakura, despite he’s seeing her suffering, and not even so, Naruto feels the instintive response of awakening the fox chakra, just like he, previously, did with Sasuke.
Gaara says to Naruto that his motivation to exist is to kill, and this thought comes to Naruto.
Naruto considers Team 7 as his family. It’s the first time he feels to be part of something. He feels recognized, supported and needed by them.
Honestly, I believe that Kishimoto had to include Sakura in this moment out of pity because, it’d be rude for Naruto and out of character if he talked about them and not included Sakura, just because she’s a member of Team 7 because, let’s be frank, at this moment of the history, Sakura has not recognized Naruto, she’s started to show some acceptance for him but she keeps seeing him as a nuisance and a burden for the group, she thinks he’s in the middle of her conquest to Sasuke and i would dare say she even feel some kind of envy for the bond Naruto and Sasuke are starting to create, of which she is not part. She has done absolutely nothing for Naruto nor contribute anything for his character development.
As I said, it would be rude not to include her, being part of Team 7; and as for Sasuke, it’s clear that the act of sacrifice he did for Naruto in the Wave Arc speaks a lot about how much he cares about Naruto and, deep down Sasuke respects him.
But the point is that, within Team 7, they protect each other, and for Naruto, this is like feeling to have a family.
After this, Naruto still does not face Gaara, despite threatening to kill Sakura.
It’s Sasuke himself who has to tell Naruto that he must rescue Sakura.
It’s Sasuke who insist to Naruto in rescuing Sakura, no matter how. Her safety is left to him.
Let’s see, if you’re so in love with someone, nobody has to come to tell you to protect her, that instinct should emanate from yourself and not because someone tells you.
I’m not saying Naruto is not worried about Sakura, but the fear he feels for Gaara is very strong and is, clearly, superior to his concern for Sakura. It’s Sasuke who has to tell him to rescue her. Sasuke trusts Naruto and leaves Sakura’s life in his hands. This makes Naruto commit to Sasuke to rescue her, and we already know how Naruto is with the promises he makes. In adittion to this, the feeling of competition Naruto has for Sasuke gives him the motivation he needed and to not fail in front of him in rescuing Sakura.
So, finally, Naruto decides to face Gaara so he can demonstrate Sasuke he is capable of rescuing Sakura.
Sasuke recognizes Team 7 as the most important people for him at this moment, he even insinuates they are like his new family he don’t want to lose again. This words reinforze the family feeling Naruto feels with Team 7 and he will do whatever it takes to protect them. This motivates Naruto and helps him realize, again, that the real strength comes out by protecting the most important people.
Sasuke motivates Naruto to fight for his most precious people and he will do anything to protect them which, in the future, will make much more sense, if we consider that Naruto spends the entire series struggling to bring Sasuke back. It’s ironic that Sasuke himself was, in addition to Haku, who teaches him this lesson, in a foreshadowing way, he is saying Naruto to never give up on him and keep fighting for him.
And now, with the motivation Naruto needed he will face Gaara (Shukaku) once and for all. He’s not just protecting Sakura, after Sasuke told him so, rather all of them.
When Naruto invokes Gamabunta and they are looking for Sakura, the little toad thinks Sakura is Naruto’s girl. This reminds me a lot to Konohamaru when he sees Naruto with Sakura and thinks she is his girl.
Neither Konohamaru nor the toad know anything about Sakura and simply by seeing her next to Naruto, they automatically think that she is his girl. They would have made that comment even if it was Tenten who’s next to Naruto.
Anyway, let’s continue with the fight.
When Naruto sees that Sakura is in danger, in case it wasn’t obvious beforer, he, voluntarily, decides to awaken kyubi’s chakra to defeat Gaara and save her.
About time Naruto, your “love” Sakura was about to be crushed and murdered by a giant hand.
Now seriously, he has to resort, voluntarily, to the fox for chakra, that is, he is unable to use this chakra by himself and not asking the fox. He doesn’t have the protective instinct just by seeing Sakura in danger of death, if that was the case, he would have awaken nine-tails chakra automatically, just like when he saw Sasuke in danger.
After half the fight not knowing what to do and afraid to face Gaara, he had to, consciously, ask for energy from the fox. And he also emphasizes that he does it to save everyone, not just Sakura.
Naruto recognizes Gaara as an equal. Both have been considered monsters by their village and know what sadness and loneliness is. Naruto understands and empathizes with Gaara.
Now, Naruto knows, thanks to Sasuke, that he is loved by him, as a family, as his brother, and Naruto will do anything to protect the people who have protected him and love him.
In this part, Naruto refers to Team 7 and Iruka, i suppose. From his point of view he thinks they‘re the only ones that recognize and love him, they have saved him from the loneliness and the life of loneliness he had before and, therefore, he loves them. They are his family.
Once again, frankly, I don’t think Sakura deserves these words at all. Despite being a little nicer to him, she keeps understimating him, insulting him and let’s not talk about her physical abuse to him. She is, literally, the representation of Konoha’s hatred towards Naruto in Team 7, and for this, i think is very unfair to put her on the same level as Sasuke, who was willing to sacrifize for him, or Iruka who finally saw how wrong he was with him all this time and sees him as his little brother and sacrifized for him too at the beggining of the manga. But, again, i guess Kishimoto thought it would be unproper to not include Sakura in the pack, i mean, it’s not like Naruto is going to say ‘they saved me from my pit of loneliness…well, except Sakura, who’s a total bitch to me’.
As i mentioned before, how would Naruto react if he knew that someone had been believing in him from the beginning, never underestimated or belittled him, and always respected and recognized him? And above all, loves him for who he is? Obviously I am talking about Hinata. How would Naruto feel if he knew this?
Part 5 Part 4 Part 3 Part 2 Part 1 Part 6
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