Rant: Naruto was lied to, ALL HIS LIFE, yet no one seems to care.
Honestly, I need to know... ...did Kakashi, or anyone else that was even remotely familiar with Minato and his family, ever tell Naruto, who his parents really were? Or even so much as HINTING at who his parents were, without even directly stating their names, or their origins? And I don't mean the audience getting the hints, I mean, Naruto himself, in person.
Because, so far, going off of pure memory here, having seen a bit of the manga as well, I just couldn't recall ever seeing one singular moment where either Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, or even Jiraiya ever let word slip of who Naruto's parents were, and I don't mean just saying "4th Hokage", because that piece of information feels like gaslighting in the grand scheme of things, and for another, Naruto is an idiot. He is one of those people who can't tell the difference between poop and apple sauce. You HAVE to spell it out to him. Not like it matters now, because he already got the chance to meet both Minato and Kushina, while being in his subconscious with Kurama. But what irks me about all this, hear me out:
First of all, let me get you up to speed. As Kushina and Minato meet their maker, in their early 20s, knocking at god's gates and going "yo, wuzzup", remember this entire shot here. Where Hiruzen promises, to Kushina's face, as she is slowly passing on, that he will be taking "full responsibility of their baby...
...and did he ever keep that promise?
At this point, if you even paid attention to the story, no, you are not expecting me to say Yes, are you? Because he freaking didn't. Let's stop lying to ourselves, and if you are defending him, then you are actively making excuses for the abuser, just like how Naruto would do it, because he is "too pure of heart" to hate anyone.
Because, frankly, this is possibly, the absolute worst thing you can do to an orphan, who had parents, who were both war heroes, and who we, as the audience, witnessed them throwing their lives away to save his life. Lying to them is one thing, but the problem is:
Naruto never got any straight answers. NO ONE even gave him any concise hints as to who Minato or Kushina were.
So when I see panels like this, I instantly get pissed off, because, what Naruto is doing here, is no different from how Stockholm Syndrome works, I am not a psychologist, but given how the series never touched upon how, at the end of the day, Naruto is still just a normal guy, not a legend, not a Hokage, not "Ninja Jesus who gave the murderer of his parents a thumbs up, calling him cool", leaving all the memes aside, this is just freaking messed up. It's not "mature" to repress all your resentment towards an individual, who fucking LIED to you, all your life. Much less when all your life, all these lies have caused you to suffer, day in, day out. No sane individual would NOT break after all this, Naruto is still human at the end of the day, and NO ONE should lose respect for him, should he snap, after all. Because this right here, this is not being mature, that's being a potential danger to yourself. Why else do you think, Sakura was confirmed to have opened up mental clinics for both children, and orphans?
And before anyone gets smart on me, "this is the point of Naruto's character, he is too pure of heart to hate, we are supposed to follow along on his journey, as he wrestles these demons", come on, stop bullshitting yourself. This is not why people love Naruto at heart. We all loved him, because, even with all these hidden strengths given to him by his parents, these strengths had always been a sore spot, as it had given him nothing but problems. But the satisfaction came from him confronting those problems, and capitalizing on them. The point of him "being too pure" is nonsense, birthed from Kishimoto's nonsensical writing decisions, let us all leave the bullshit on the floor. Because, if you reduce Naruto to all this, that he would "never be villain material", that he is "loyal to the village", yeah, just shut up, man. It's one thing idolizing him, but being straight up delulu like this, there is a reason, why so many fans find the idea of Naruto himself going rogue so appealing and interesting, because, now that we know, through Itachi Shinden, that it had been Danzo to leak the information about Naruto's status as a jinchuriki, which, according to the novel, went along the lines of (not directly, but summarized in a nutshell):
"Hoping to unite the village in times of crisis, needing a scapegoat for all their issues."
I mean, sure, you can mature and grow more seasoned about this, and not allow this hatred to affect you, however, people really seem to underestimate how soul-crushing that can be to learn that, all your life, you have been fed nothing but lies, and if not, then at the very least, being left to rot in a deafening silence, that never went away, even with age.
You know who this reminds me of? Ah yes.
Plus, in the grand scheme of things, the way it's constructed and written, comes off like, the Senju / Uzumaki will always be the good guys, no matter what, and the Uchiha are doomed to be evil and self-destructive, especially when you consider, near the end of Shippuden, once the Sage of the Six Paths dropped by, and claimed that Naruto and Sasuke are reincarnations of his off-spring...
...which not only ruins the story for me, as it robs each and every single character of their individual agency, with this fate angle pretty much ruining any ounce of credibility the story ever had, it also cheapens all of Naruto's and Sasuke's experiences, which now, bearing all this in mind, can be visually boiled down to: Senju/Uzumaki? Good. Uchiha? Bad. It's just so LAME. Because by that point, we are no longer talking about individuals who came this far of their own volition, no, it was always DESTINED to happen. So, no, anyone excusing this, you should be ashamed of yourself, you do not DESERVE to call yourself a fan to me. You came for the humans behind the "legends", but you only stayed for the legends, not the people behind them.
And back to the topic at hand:
With Jiraiya, it makes even less sense to me, because... Again. Everyone in the story keeps saying "The 4th Hokage". For us. The audience. This is clear. The hint is visible that, this guy might possibly be Naruto's father / relative / uncle, whatever. That much is clear.
But Naruto is the one who is repeatedly being kept in the dark on this. Jiraiya and Kakashi know. They KNOW. Who Minato and Kushina are. But Naruto doesn't. And yet, you mean to tell me that, in all these years that Naruto had spent time training with Jiraiya, never once, not even ONE time, did he think to ask him, "Oh, by the way, you keep comparing me to the 4th Hokage, why is this guy so special to you?"? Never once did he grow suspicious of him?
I mean, don't get me wrong, Minato, in spite of his debonair gentleman appearance, and the soft demeanor he bears around Kushina, has...
And I am putting this charitably...
...A FEW skeletons in the closet, considering how CONCERNINGLY HIGH his kill count is. The story kept presenting him like some form of "saint", like, he can never do wrong, and his face is "all you need to see" to verify, "This guy can't be THAT cold-blooded a monster in secret, right?", even though we all know how dirty war is, as a business, no less. So maybe Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade or even Iruka would have hesitated to tell Naruto, because he might then start holding Minato to an unreasonably clean and prestine standard, that he doesn't deserve, all because he used to be the Hokage, and Minato knows it himself. If this was explicitly implied and said anywhere, I wouldn't flung two shits at it, but because of how blurry and murky this entire plot point is presented, I am honestly concerned a little about the overarching, narrative cohesion of it.
And all memes aside, I legit have to ask the question, this is something that really needs answering...
...WHERE DID ALL THE INHERITENCE MONEY GO TO?
Seriously, you honestly mean to tell me, Minato and Kushina were pinching pennies in their lifetime? Even when Minato was assigned to be Hokage? And hell, Kushina was a Jonin before her death, meaning her salary also couldn't have been THAT low. Like, what the hell happened? Where is all the money that Naruto needed, when he was a kid? Like, if you are going to keep secrets from a little kid, because you fear for the future, that's one thing, but if he was already going to be a risk factor either way, you could have tampered with the misery, by at least giving him some stronger financial support, instead of always giving him the bare minimum.
It's honestly a miracle to me that Naruto, the moment he became an orphan, has even made it past the age of 3, when we know practically NOTHING over who took on the job of raising him, or even giving him the breast, because Hiruzen wasn't doing shit to help here. And again, if Pt. 1's story still counts, it means, EVERYONE evaded him. He bore the Nine Tailed Fox, yet the villagers were doing the equivalent to repeatedly trampling with their feet over a nuclear warhead, knowingly waiting for it to go off at any minute.
WHO WAS TAKING CARE OF THIS KID?!?!?!
Naruto couldn't change diapers on his own, or sustain himself, or even so much as clean himself, he was a freaking BABY. How did he even survive all this neglect? Children. Need. Doting attention. They NEED it. It's medically IMPERATIVE. To have a motherly presence. Taking care of them, and holding them. Yet, we never got a clear answer on who was raising him, when he was still a diaper-crapper.
Headcanon time: I personally think, the people who have raised Naruto, when he was still a baby, were three people. For a while, it was Kakashi and Anko (both were still teenagers around that time, making this incredibly sad, too), mostly due to how Kakashi, out of sheer guilt and grief for his sensei, decides to raise his son, as a way to make up for his "failure", and Anko gladly helps him out, because she wants to prove to Hiruzen that she is nothing like Orochimaru, because like Naruto, she also blindly trusted and loved the old man, just for giving her a proper place to stay. Again, Kakashi and Anko shippers, go to town on this one. And the third person: Sasuke's mom, Mikoto.
We saw how close Kushina and Mikoto were, when both were still alive, so imagine how much it must have broken Mikoto's heart to see her best friend's baby boy, all alone, with no motherly presence to keep him warm and secure. So, against Hiruzen's or Danzo's orders, not even caring what the village thinks of her anymore, because the Uchiha clan's reputation was already lying in the garbage dumpster by then, she treated Naruto, as though she had adopted him into the family. Your hearts melting yet?
In conclusion, to give you the TL;DR version:
But honestly, even with all this, in the end, Hiruzen remains just that: Human. And I cannot demonize him too hard, because at the end of the day, Danzo was being a way bigger piece of garbage than he could ever hope to be, and when you are old as him, at a certain point, the world just keeps moving on without you, you are no longer part of the times you live in. Hiruzen should be harshly judged for never taking enough action, but picking him as the villain also doesn't feel right, since, most of the shit that happened, mostly took place, because of his elderly naivité. He is a product of the era he was born into...
...but believe me, I still crave for Naruto, Anko or Kushina to approach Hiruzen, may it be in the world of the living, or the afterlife, exactly like this, to pour their hearts out to him to remind him:
"You threw me away like trash. Right when I needed you most! You have no idea, what those years were like! I TRUSTED NO ONE! LEAST OF ALL MYSELF! ...All because of YOU!"
Based on this scene from the final season of Cobra Kai. The words all match the characters to a tee, man. Every. Single. Word. Naruto really needs this level of emotional closure, let us stop bullshitting ourselves, he is repressing so much internalized frustration with this old man, and he needs this, more than either of us realizes.
Enough ranting, because this topic genuinely makes me sad. The poor lad is a master at wearing masks to keep everyone from worrying about him, the same way he did to Sakura about his goal to bring Sasuke back, man... Some things will never change. Especially when you spend all your life serving a village, that forces you to live in a cage, and not even having the courtesy to tell you the truth when it counts.
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