What do you think about the omake The day Naruto became Hokage? What is Kishi trying to say here? Why is Sasuke not even around that day? And even Naruto was not able to attend his own inauguration.
Oh yes, that one...honestly, I didn't even read that chapter after getting to the end at the time, didn't see any point in doing it. I read it much later. And I wasn't disappointed. Which is to say I couldn't have been more disappointed than I already was. And I was right.
This chapter doesn't really give you much overt information apart from a few things that are more obvious.
It opens with this, where Naruto is sleeping on the couch on his big day.
This man whose character was developed as this boy who wanted to be hokage more than anything else. Well, as it turned out, not more important than loving and caring for Sasuke, his true dream, his true ambition. To be able to become like him, to be able to become worthy of his friendship and companionship. Naruto would have rather borne his burden and died with him, even at the cost of his dream of becoming hokage.
Anyway, one would have expected him to be excited, looking forward to his big day. But somehow everything about this chapter screams that he isn't really. It has become a rote job, something he does out of a sense of duty, sans the motivation and exhilaration that he used to nurture earlier.
Look at his face. Look at the resolve, the confidence, the mirth, the elation, the determination. And now look at this.
These are all the panels featuring Naruto in this chapter. Look at him. He looks the opposite of enthused. Sure, he is a prospective hokage and it's a tiring job. But isn't this a special day? Shouldn't he have had at least one panel where he could have been shown thinking about his ambition, perhaps in a flashback? It would have reiterated Naruto's childhood ambition and resultant triumph that the inauguration day would have brought. Not one single panel. Instead we have Naruto sleeping on a couch, and then we have Boruto saying this.
Translation - Dad, isn't today a special day and shouldn't you be more excited?
He would rather talk about the embroidery on his cloak, another inane thing.
Isn't this reminiscent of something else? This.
Rote. Job. No. Personal. Motivation. Just. Duty.
Now the question is why would Kishi build Naruto's ambition of becoming hokage throughout part one and part two, only to first of all, not show him becoming one at the end of Shippuden. And then doing this. No? Not fishy?
Now Kishimoto is quite aware, or was quite aware of how his characters were being received by his audience. A lot of fans were pissed when the story didn't end up with Naruto becoming hokage, as that was the protagonist's lifelong dream. To readers of a certain age, that was the takeaway, fulfilling one's dream. But to more mature audiences, the story was really about love. And it was. It is.
So is it any wonder that Sasuke doesn't feature in this chapter at all? He isn't there on Naruto's biggest day.
And the funny thing is, one of the most important lessons that Naruto learnt in Shippuden, was this.
You can't fight battles alone, and Itachi illustrates it with the example of Naruto's parents. Minato was able to achieve his dream of becoming hokage with the help of his friends and more importantly, Kushina, his wife, his life partner.
And who acts as Naruto's life partner? Who was his motivation of becoming strong and able, deserving of a position like hokage?
Hinata doesn't really figure here, does she? Naruto does have a few panels of interaction with Hinata in this chapter where she abides by her housewife's duty of getting his cloak. That could have been a good point for Kishi to draw a panel for Naruto where he talks about his dream, his excitement over finally fulfilling it, his happiness of finally achieving his dream with the help of his wife. Does he though?
Hehehe. Nope. Not that she contributed anything to his dream or ambition, but there's a whole ass blank period here where Kishi could have shown Hinata assisting him or supporting his dream. This would have established the importance of his dream and his wife's contribution to it. But...nope.
And what's even more incriminating is the fact that Naruto doesn't get late because of Himawari's Byakugan attack. He is late BEFORE that even happens.
What does this tell you? That he is not enthused for his big day. He doesn't even look remotely happy.
Does this look like someone who is about to achieve his biggest dream?
The object of his true dream is roaming in the forests somewhere, why would Naruto care about whatever else life is dishing out? He was never a person to keep appearances. Throughout Gaiden and Boruto, he looks perfunctory at best and depressed at worst, abiding by his duty. Just the way he is looking here. Well except when Sasuke is around, then his face glows like a thousand lamps, sigh...
It really says a lot that Naruto was not even present on the day he became hokage, his lifelong ambition. As long as we are reading between the lines and racking our brains over symbolism and important themes about all the other things in this manga given Kishi's ulterior motives and smokescreens about his gay love story, why draw a line here where Kishi is consistently telling us through visuals and subtext that Naruto is NOT happy?
I really do think Naruto isn't suited to this job, like @zykamiliah put it so well. I am attaching their text here since the thread is too long.
"First, Naruto only wanted the position to be acknowledged and loved. That evolves into wanting to protect the people that acknowledged him, and to achieve what Jiraiya and Nagato couldn't, but the fact remains that it was born out of his deep-seated loneliness and craving for love and attention. The second reason is that the Hokage title is stained with the sins and the mistakes of the past: Hashirama put Konoha and power over his friendship with Madara, which unleashed all the conflict that came later; Tobirama perpetuated the discrimination against the Uchiha clan; Sarutobi allowed the massacre, Danzo’s actions, and the way Naruto and Sasuke, etc. grew up; Minato sealed a demon in his own newborn child (I love both Minato and Kurama but that was fucked up). I think Tsunade and Kakashi are the only decent Hokages, but neither of them want to change the system the way it needs to.
Third: From the Hashirama and Madara flashback, I gather that the big mistake was to have only one ruler, that the cooperation of two different but complementary parts wasn't achieved. So the Hokage title, at least in Konoha, should have been abolished. The system should have changed. The past mistakes should have been revealed. Sasuke should have gotten the retribution he deserves for what was done to the Uchiha clan. And none of that happened because the prospective Hokage, the savior of the world, Naruto, made no moves on achieving it. In fact in 700 the part Sasuke played in winning the war is not public knowledge. Hiding the truth, that’s the way of Hokage and Shinobi. But is that Naruto’s way of doing things? Should it be?
Naruto should have been a Sage. "Hokage" means Fire's shadow. Is Naruto someone who should live in the shadows? The symbolism of the manga has always positioned him as the sun, that who casts light upon others. So I don't think him being Hokage was very fitting to his character. You'd have to change his personality... which is what apparently happened."
And it is exactly what has happened. And so we are left with the eerie image of Konohamaru in his henge, smiling as Naruto, trying his best to look how Naruto would look on his big day.
Instead he comes off as creepy, smiling a forced smile, speaking forced words, acting his part as plan B, something Shikamaru had already planned if such a scenario presented itself. Hmm. Like foreshadowing Naruto's own act.
What was Kishi's intent here? To show Naruto as unhappy even on his big day? Check. To show Naruto in such low spirits even when he was with his family? Check. Sasuke, his ride or die life partner, away from Konoha and not even there on his big day? Check. How much would happiness mean to Naruto if Sasuke isn't there to share it with him? Well, he couldn't even crack a smile here, let alone look ecstatic as one would have thought.
The rest is upto readers. The reason why I even feel compelled to speculate here is because this portrayal is so, so unlike Naruto that we have come to know and love, that all this seems like a big fucking joke. A nightmare that just keeps going on. And if Kishi didn't want to emphasize it, he would not have written or drawn this chapter and so many others this way. No chance. So would he use humor to hide the darker themes and emotions that he always tries to convey through red herrings and distractions, with Himawari's Byakugan in this case? He did. Just like he always does.
Kishi was really onto something. The ending makes sense if you interpret it a certain away, of course with all the threads still being kept in mind. It's definitely dissatisfying, but it's not meaningless. Will expand on it in another post.
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