#no they should’ve just ended this at the chapter 699 of naruto

[kokonutcat]

Help lmaoo 😭

#i hope i don’t need to explain why i don’t like the idea of shikamaru being hokage #we still don’t have any news of sasuke too :( #no they should’ve just ended this at the chapter 699 of naruto #sorry i’m such a boruto hater lol #anti boruto #my posts and my shitposts

[kishimotomasashi]

A symptom of having been in the online Naruto fandom for a few years now and having Sasuke as my favourite character means that I’ve been incessantly exposed (at the very least, on Tumblr) to arguments about Sasuke not receiving his due justice, being condemned by the narrative for expressing anger at the crimes committed against him and his family, and how the ending of the Naruto manga completely dropped the ball regarding any and all of its political plot threads, leaving the status quo intact, and the only change regarding Sasuke in particular is that he is now complacent with it.

These are arguments that I entirely agree with! And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with their frequent discussion, seeing as Naruto is a very popular manga and new fans will take the place of the old ones. It doesn’t surprise me that the discourse hasn’t slowed down, because new people are discovering it and will want to chime in. This is fine and natural.

But for me, from the perspective of someone who’s been here a while and has seen talk of this happen over, and over and over and over and over again, it understandably gets a little... exhausting. Especially since, as far as I’ve seen, the discourse rarely goes outside of “here is how Sasuke was wronged, here is how the shinobi military industrial complex is fucked up”, and so it feels like I’m seeing less interesting conversations regarding it and more parroting the same universally agreed upon ideas over and over.

It’s just... boring. Because even when the discussion goes outside of “this is why it’s wrong” and enters “here’s how it should have gone” territory, I rarely see it go anywhere beyond “Sasuke should’ve remained angry” “Sasuke should’ve never gone back” “Sasuke should have rejected—“ etc, etc. Sasuke and the Revolution discourse rarely goes beyond Sasuke’s personal vindication regarding Konoha. And to me, it’s just... is that really as far as our imagination extends? Is Sasuke’s anger really the most important thing to focus on? Should anger be the main driving force behind changing a world that is undoubtedly unjust?

My answer to all of those questions is, obviously, no. And I’m writing this to explain why, to propose an alternative to the vindication tunnel vision there happens to be regarding Sasuke vs Konoha/Shinobi System discourse, that I believe even the ending of Naruto (barring chapter 700 and onward to Boruto) provides a solid basis for.

First let’s talk about chapter 699, and Sasuke’s decision not to stay in Konoha but to journey around the world instead.

Now when people talk about Sasuke’s journey, they mostly focus on the part where he calls it a “journey of redemption” and so a lot of discussions concerning whether or not he should have stayed in Konoha revolve around that line and its reasoning. It’s all “he doesn’t NEED redemption” or “oh please journey of redemption is bullshit, stay in Konoha to heal with your friends”.

Which is a damn shame because what he says in the panels above? Before the “you have nothing to do with my sins” thing? Is significantly more interesting. In fact, I consider it a monumental statement for him to make, indicative of his development; it’s the culmination of all he’s been through to get him to this point.

This line is Sasuke recognizing his own limitations related to the volatile emotional state he was nearly constantly in beforehand; Sasuke’s view of the world was incredibly selfish. It was selfish in the sense that his own goals mattered before anything else, that anything slowing him down in his hurry to reach them was an obstacle; it was an incredibly unhealthy view of the world, one that ended up making him hurt himself and others. That his goals are sympathetic and understandable doesn’t really change the reality that he did put himself in danger and was a danger to those closest to him. When we meet him for the first time in Shippuden, at Orochimaru’s hideout, he says word-for-word:

“I don’t care what happens to me or to the rest of the world, so long as I can get my revenge. Nothing else matters.”

And even when the truth about Itachi is revealed to him, this doesn’t exactly change. It’s only his range of targets that expand, and what he did to get to those targets in the 5 Kage Summit arc are unarguably his lowest points in the entire series. While there is a double-standard regarding how Sasuke’s anger and hatred are treated in the narrative, it’s not incorrect to say that his laser focus on them were ultimately harmful in the end, and that to grow he could not continue to rely on them indefinitely.

In fact, Sasuke is always shown to be at his best when he’s not so angry his view of the world is only concentrated on what he alone can see. Sasuke when observant of others is kind, has compassion and understanding and a willingness to prioritize others’ safety: we see this when he protects Team 7 all throughout part 1, and when he protects Team Taka in the Killer B fight. When he’s not clouded by his own rage, Sasuke also has a better willingness to learn: when Itachi left him after their fight against Kabuto, he went out of his way to learn more about the village he’d come to justifiably despise, to understand Itachi’s own point of view, and to learn the point of view of those that had built it. Sasuke in general is someone who doesn’t accept things so readily and is constantly questioning things even when he’s set his mind to them, and he is also someone who does have a clear idea of justice: needless human suffering on a large scale is something he’s disgusted by (see how he reacts to Itachi before he learned the truth and to Orochimaru). When he’s truly of the mind to sit down and listen, that potential is increased tenfold. He came out from under the Nakano Shrine after speaking with Hashirama and the other Hokage seeing the shinobi system as something that causes needless human suffering on a large scale, and though he’s not quite at the ideal point yet, the idea to do something about it (to dismantle that system) is there.

And now here we are, chapter 699: Sasuke’s anger is no longer his main driving force, and he is learning to accept love back in his life, and what does he say? That he’s going to look at the world, now, with new eyes. That he’s going to take advantage of this new healing state of his, to properly observe the world because his perception of it isn’t obstructed by his unhealthy vengeance fixation anymore. Sasuke, who already has the capacity for compassion, who already has a sense of justice, who knows how to listen and observe, is now going to take the time to use these foundations to build himself a more expansive perception of the world. He’s showing willingness to look outside of himself!

Now before I talk about the point I really want to get to, I want to talk about anger. I know anger is often portrayed as something awful in many stories (including this one), as something that is a personal failing next to those who can just endure what is thrown at them with little complaint, and that it’s a narrow view of it. Anger is a very useful emotion, and sometimes a necessary one: anger helps you perceive injustice done to yourself or others, anger can help you prevent people walking all over you and help you to recognize that you’re not getting something that you deserve. I’ll never condemn anger.

And I don’t condemn Sasuke’s anger! I am very firmly in the “Sasuke was right” camp; I don’t think he has to kiss up to a government so cowardly it wiped his people from the face of the Earth in the dead of night, I think a system that can justify a crime that outrageous while it continues to perpetuate itself needs to be entirely dismantled. And I believe that though there are limits to how seriously you should take this shounen animanga, the fact that these plotlines were introduced in the first place as well as every other time shinobi militaristic violence was clearly shown as being evil but were given shitty resolutions means that it is both normal and in fact encouraged to point out that these introduced plotlines were given really, really shitty resolutions.

Though while anger and pointing out how wrong things are are incredibly useful, when you really want to start talking about revolutionary action, incentive to change the world, I think that anger alone is insufficient.

Specifically in Sasuke’s case, as I’ve said above, Sasuke’s anger is ultimately selfish. He sees how he himself was wronged, and that’s great, but like... he’s also not the only one who suffers under the shinobi system. He’s not the only one it’s brought incredible wrong toward. Even when he demonstrated growth during the 4th War and was willing to expand his own knowledge to better understand why Konoha exists as it is, he wasn’t sharing what he’d learned with others, he wasn’t reaching out to build connections, to build solidarity— he was working on his plan entirely alone.

(And yes, we can talk about how the narrative purposefully makes the villain characters seem more unreasonable though they have justified feelings on why the system cannot continue as is, but again, as I’ve said at the start, we’ve had those conversations at length already.)

I believe genuine change, the desire to see a better world, has to fundamentally come from the desire to see people in a better place, not from vengeance. I think to get there, you need to see how other people live aside from yourself, you need to work at helping them see their lives becoming better as well. “No one’s free until we’re all free”, etc. I think your outrage at injustice has to extend to everyone outside of yourself, and your fight against the injustice be also a fight for them.

As I’ve demonstrated, Sasuke in chapter 699 in the space where he can actually work at doing that, to work at doing direct, radical action. Travelling as he wants to do will introduce him to more people, to more perspectives, to more ideas on how to meaningfully combat the injustices of the shinobi system and to directly help people to escape suffering the worst of it.

Recently I watched the Sasuke Shinden anime, and though it was still incredibly imperfect in its politics, it introduced the idea of Sasuke doing the closest thing to everything I am saying right now: it introduces shinobi being forced to fight in a human trafficking coliseum, and Sasuke being told by one of the characters, Chino, that being an inactive third party to injustice makes you just as guilty to it, which leads Sasuke in the end to free all shinobi forced to fight in the coliseum.

It also introduced the idea (and I was genuinely surprised that anything Naruto-related was actually willing to go there) of the Uchiha Clan, and by extension Sasuke, being victims but also being perpetrators of the same system that got them killed. In Shinden, they were hired by a feudal lord to deport another oppressed kekkei genkai clan called the Chinoike (that Chino is apart of) to a land unsuitable for any human to live in, and rather than help the Chinoike escape this fate, they simply carried out the mission order, which caused suffering for the clan. While I don’t think that that plotline was handled as well as it could’ve been, it really hammers in the point of it being important to learn about the position and suffering of others and to do something about it, because despite your own suffering, your participation in the system that perpetuates it still makes you complicit. And Sasuke accepts this! When he learns about the Uchiha and the Chinoike, he relates it to when Chino told him about being an audience to injustice making you just as bad if you don’t do anything about it. I think Sasuke Shinden is a good, if imperfect, snapshot into the very potential I’m talking about.

In fact, all of this is why I really believe it to be important that Sasuke travels and works outside of Konoha rather than within it; because as we’ve seen with Nagato and Amegakure, being apart of the Hidden Villages themselves, fighting in their wars and participating in their ranks, makes you complicit in the crimes they commit against the other smaller nations. Everyone we’ve seen fight in the wars, the Sannin, Kakashi, everyone in allegiance with Konoha and yes, including the Uchiha Clan, share responsibility in the crimes the village commits, even if they’ve personally suffered at its hands as well. Nagato, Konan and Yahiko are certainly justified if they don’t care that your war buddy died in front of you since you both had a hand in the destruction of their village for your military village’s interests.

This is also why on my blog, I am constantly advocating for the potential Team Taka represented. They were all shinobi working outside of the framework of the Hidden Villages, with little allegiance to them, and given that Sasuke in the ending is open to apologizing for his behaviour and accepting bonds again, they could’ve easily travelled together again in the ending and done just exactly everything that I’ve been talking about in this post. And they could’ve become closer than ever!

I think it’s telling, in a way, that what finally got to Sasuke in the end was genuine empathy; acceptance to realize there are other people around like him, that might share what he feels, and this is done through Naruto, someone who saw his own loneliness in him but that Sasuke rejected because he felt (understandably) defensive that anyone should get how he felt at all. Sasuke healing in learning that he can understand people other than himself, safely, is a big step into learning to properly observe and accept others, and then that’s another step that could lead into genuine revolutionary consciousness.

My conclusion here isn’t that any of this was something Kishimoto was actually going for. It’s that despite everything, there are already interesting building blocks in Sasuke’s canon characterization in place where you could create a meaningful story about resisting oppression and fighting for change, one that doesn’t surround a myopic, vengeful idea of it. I dont think of that as an interesting path for Sasuke’s character, especially since he already spends most of the series with nothing but vengeance in mind. I think he has the potential to do better, and we have the potential to write fix-it stories in which he does better than that.

#send post #the ground is soft and I'm ready to dig #really wrote 2k words of Sasuke in 2023... well. #I genuinely think this is the only proper Naruto ''essay'' I've ever written lol #edit: no I am not calling Sasuke Shinden canon #no I am not calling Sasuke Shinden canon #I am calling it an EXAMPLE for POTENTIAL that the anime+novelists provided #that I actually kind of like

[captnjacksparrow]

Please explain why does Sasuke thank Sakura? I wanna know sns perspective so please reply :)

I assume you are an SS Shipper....

That 'Thank You' in Chapter 699 carries the very similar meaning to the 'Thank You' Sasuke said in Chapter 181.

Sakura proposed Sasuke that she wanted to accompany him in 181.. Same thing in 699 too.

Sasuke rejected her 1st proposal by saying "You're Annoying" in a deriding manner and left her with the word "Thank You" and knocked her out.... The entire scene was very harsh from Sasuke's side. After that he never had any sense of Bond with her throughout Part 2.

Similarly Sasuke rejected her proposal to accompany him in Chapter 699 by poking her Forehead "Maybe next time" and left her with the word, "Thank You".... Unlike Chapter 181, this time Sasuke did it in an extremely polite manner. After that, he never had any sense of Bond with her even in Gaiden and Boruto, even though they were married.

I've already written the meaning of that Forehead Poke in here... To put it in simple words, that Forehead poke is an extremely polite symbol of Distancing, Lies, Rejecting, Not wanting to pay attention, Running away………… Just like how Itachi distanced, lied, rejected, never paid any attention to Sasuke by poking his Forehead....

[[I find it very hypocritical of you guys.... Sasuke literally did a Forehead Poke... A Brotherly Gesture to Sakura... Somehow you all take it as a Romantic Gesture rather than A Brother-Sister Gesture... Whereas N & S never shared a womb and claimed that they are 'Friends' ... even in Chapter 699... But somehow you invalidate our ship as Incest... Pity Us!!!]]

You can claim 'Thank You' means 'I love You'... Forehead Poke means 'Eternal proof of Love' because Sasuke changed after Chapter 698.... If that is the case,

Sasuke shouldn't have abandoned her and Sarada for a decade...

Sasuke should've sent letters to Sakura to ask about her and his kid's well-being... Whereas he had no problem playing Rivalry contests with Naruto by sending him Letters...

Sasuke should've used his Transportation Jutsu to visit his family...

Sasuke should've made an attempt to visit Sarada when he visited Konoha to announce the findings of Otsutsuki Trace... At that time Sarada was already 6 or 7.

Sasuke shouldn't have let Sakura to give birth to her baby in Orochimaru Hideout...

Sasuke should've taken a Marriage Photo with Sakura...

Sasuke should've made an attempt to visit Sarada in Gaiden even though he was somewhere near Konoha... It was Sarada who made an attempt to meet him otherwise he wouldn't have visited his family again...

Sasuke should've recognized his Daughter rather than trying to stab her...

Sasuke should've smiled and welcomed Sakura after not seeing her for 10+ years... instead he asked "Why are you here?" in a dead serious reaction... Whereas he had no problem in bickering with Naruto.

Sasuke should've said... "Because we love each other" rather than saying, "Because we have you"

Sasuke should've smiled in his Family dinner rather than putting on that pathetic expression...

Sasuke shouldn't have done that Forehead Poke on his Daughter...

And Finally....

Sasuke should've Kissed Sakura in her Forehead rather than rejecting her...

Am Sorry.... All of these gesture screams Sasuke never had a change of heart towards Sakura's Love and he remained just the same as he was at the end of Part 1... The only change from Sasuke towards Sakura is his Attitude.

So, The word 'Thank You' in both the Chapters means the same thing... That is

Thank you for willing to accompany me...

Thank you for caring about me...

Thank you for loving me...

But I can't let you in my life and reciprocate your love, the way you want it to be...

#anti sakura #antisakura

[chalabrun]

why i ship the thing: jiramada, 2/2

While I did make a passing mention about it in the previous chapter, something that sets Jiraiya and Madara's deaths apart as protagonists and antagonists (even if you might not consider Jiraiya to be one, in the scope of the Prophecy, he absolutely is) is the fact that both of them died as failures in the grand scheme of things to try to bring peace to the shinobi world. Yet, even with these failures following their last thoughts into the Pure Lands, the fact remains the same: Jiraiya and Madara were the beginning and end of the Prophecy, and the ones who have an undeniable narrative parallelism between them.

Moving forward, I feel like it's important to state that because Jiraiya's death spans between just chapters between 382-383, while Madara's is solely in chapter 691, I won't be putting chapter numbers to the captions beneath manga scans. 

Jiraiya's death: To die a splendid shinobi

When Jiraiya first realizes he's dying, the first, clearest thought in his mind is simple: did he fail? Did he lose in the Prophecy that had been given him as a much younger man, that had been his life's purpose for decades?

The way Jiraiya has seen in, his life was full of failures. Ones that stacked higher and higher until it became a wall he felt he couldn't surmount. In fact, his own regard to his deeds only culminate to a final good if he could die gloriously, instead the sum of many parts. While he doesn't have a gloomy, melancholy view, he still sees his life as full of failure. 

Throughout the course of that life, like in the previous chapter, Jiraiya had many significant events happen that closely mirror Naruto's, probably more than anyone; events that tie him to Naruto as much as Madara is to Sasuke, as was discussed more heavily in chapter 1. But, unlike Jiraiya, Naruto had differing degree of success in these realms. As I state in the last chapter, each signifier that defined Jiraiya as some of his greatest failures mirror Naruto completely. Failures that Naruto was able to ultimately surmount and excel past, which include:

"Tsunade turned me down every time." = Naruto was able to be with a girl he came to love.

"I couldn't save my friend." = Naruto was able to, and even brought him back to the village.

"I failed to protect my student... and my teacher." = After Pein's Assault, Naruto was able to save Kakashi, while in Boruto, he saved Kawaki, his adopted son and student.

Considering how Jiraiya's (and Madara's) deaths play into the idea of the previous generation excelling past the former, this fits Jiraiya and Naruto's parallelism exactly. 

And yet, despite all the good Jiraiya was able to do, he still thought of himself as but a minor player despite being the entire reason the Prophecy was fulfilled at all.

Despite everything illuminated upon, Jiraiya thought himself as a failure until the bitter end. Yet, despite that, he didn't die without someone like family to him; a man he would consider like his own son, or a little brother.

In a way, Jiraiya didn't die alone. Though it was more of a memory than being there personally, Minato was able to uplift Jiraiya in his final moments with the remembrance that his life wasn't a failure, that he was able to leave something specific behind in form of Naruto, as both his godfather and greatest teacher.

Naruto, as the next generation, was his reason for the Prophecy beginning at all. The catalyst that would realize everything he couldn't; the fired arrow that would hit its mark like nothing before. 

And, with this, Jiraiya is able to pass away peacefully, with a smile on his face, knowing he can entrust his heir, Naruto, with the future and the conclusion to the Prophecy.

Madara's death: The end of a dream

While Madara's death scene is far shorter, the same parallel to Jiraiya's exists: of his dreams ending in failure and the necessity to entrust it to the next generation.

With the happenstance of Madara's death, and the emphasis I placed in the previous chapter of Sasuke being Madara's parallel over Orochimaru, I find it extremely fitting that it's Hagoromo himself who stops Sasuke from dealing what would've been a heavy, symbolic blow to Madara; like he had with Orochimaru before, there is heavy significance in him choosing to end the lives of those who came before him directly, especially when he'd done it before. But, in Hagoromo stopping him, another importance is placed on Sasuke's connection to Madara, and that's as his predecessor. While Hashirama was merely Naruto's predecessor in the transmigrant cycle of Asura's reincarnations, and wasn't personally halted or interceded by Hagoromo, it spells the fact that Madara was Sasuke's truest predecessor all along, not Orochimaru. And how does this death pan out?

Like Jiraiya, Madara dies at the side of an emblem of his past, of another sun there to guide him into the light, of acknowledging what he brought (or failed to) into the world. While Minato served as a reminder of the profound good Jiraiya enacted on the world through himself and his students, Hashirama served to remind Madara of the good he should've done, and why he failed at all.

A realization that, like Jiraiya's of Naruto's significance, brings a smile to his face.

As a foil to Jiraiya - who realized the significance of another person in his life (Naruto) was the key to the world of peace he dreamed of - Madara forced peace to happen without others to share in the burden, instead using and manipulating where Jiraiya sought to bring peace himself. What both absolutely have in common, however, is the fact that both sought to bring a world of peace by themselves. And even if others did take part (in Jiraiya's "Children of Prophecy" and Madara's pawns), they still attempted to shoulder the greatest burden in bringing that dream to life by themselves.

With Sasuke gazing wistfully afar at the man who came before him, at the truest parallel he was meant to excel past in the generations to come, Madara passed on his will to Sasuke in these panels that directly tie in their succession in a matter of subsequent events, which in itself is incredible poignant and telling. With Hashirama there to guide his soul into the Pure Lands, the man he saw as his brother in the way Minato was Jiraiya's son/brother to guide him towards a happier afterlife, so too does it draw the Prophecy to a final, inexorable close. 

Conclusion: The Sun & Moon

  Ch. 699, when Naruto and Sasuke collaborate together to release the Infinite Tsukiyomi and bring a true end to the Prophecy.

And, with that, together they bring an end to the Prophecy that began in Madara and ended in Jiraiya. Whether pawns or students, or disciples, this is the utter truth to what wound up resolving Part II's plot and ushering in a peaceful world. 

It was their successors that would wind up doing, as even outside of Asura and Indra, they alone are the reason the world would know an era of peace in the times to follow. And why the world would be saved. 

#jiramada #jiraiya #madara uchiha #orochimaru #sasuke uchiha #naruto uzumaki #my meta

[lunaneko14]

When u think about it ss stans who shamelessly complain about lack of team 7 in the ending kind of ignore that chapter 699 before the epilogue ended on a brotp narusasu note. That was the real end team 7 got which is fitting cause it was always about naruto and sasuke anyway. sakura is shoehorned into their dynamic by her fans to make her relevant. Their zabusa fight, obito fight, valley of the end fights, momoshinki fight. where was she if she was equally important ?? Psh

Exactly. And we all know why they want more Team 7 because they're transparent as fuck. They want it because they think they'll get more SS interaction out of it because that's literally all Sakura does when she's with the team. She's chasing after Sasuke while ignoring Naruto which is what these SS stans crave because to them, Naruto is the third wheel. Like I always said SS stans see T7 as "SasuSaku + Naruto" and have no problem trying to use Naruto as either the annoying bff or a cupid for their ship.

Which is why I'm glad the dynamics never changed. We still got epic fights with Naruto and Sasuke (like in the Boruto Movie/anime) and even Naruto and Hinata in The Last (and it was shown in the rasengan scene in Boruto) but never Sakura and this proves again just how much their kween means to the series compared to the fucking title character. She's NEVER going to be equal to Naruto or Sasuke, hell she's not even on par with Hinata since at least Hinata got a whole combo move with her husband. At least Hinata was able to fight by Naruto's side without being a fucking liability.

You wanna know what a SasuSaku "team up" would be like?

Sasuke: *Uses his Sharingan and Rinnegan to fight*

Sakura: (in her head) "I wonder if I get hit or into trouble of Sasuke-kun would come and rescue me and let me me suck his dick?"

Sasuke: "Sakura there's an opening!"

Sakura: "Oh! Ow! Sasuke-kun help I sprained my ankle! Please carry me!"

Sasuke: "Goddamnit I should've called Naruto!"

#anti sasusaku fandom #anti sasusaku #anti sakura uchiha #anti sakura haruno #anti sakura #sasuke uchiha #sasuke #naruto uzumaki #naruto #boruto next generations #boruto next generation #boruto uzumaki #boruto #naruhina #hinata uzumaki #hinata hyuga #hinata #the last naruto the movie #the last

[naruot]

How do you really feel about naruhina

I don’t like naruhina at all

The reason I don’t like NH is because they had no real development the whole series she was just stalking him

And I hate how they keep changing things in the series to make her fit into naruto’s story like the whole her being there for naruto since the beginning isn’t true and naruto getting trapped in a genjutsu to realize he loves her?!?! he’s an jinchuriki he should be immune to genjutsu!

Naruto and hinata never had enough development together for me to believe they were going to be end game

People like to bring up the chunin exams and how he cheered for her during her fight against neji but naruto literally cheers for EVERYONE so that doesn’t count and him getting mad because pein hit her doesn’t count either if any of his friends got hurt he would’ve done the same thing!

And any so call ‘development’ they got during the war arc doesn’t count because once minato asked naruto if sakura was his girlfriend he straight up says YES!!! So your gonna tell me chapter 1-699 there was a time where naruto loved hinata? Nope

And the last movie was just so insulting! the first half of the movie naruto couldn’t care less for hinata he didn’t even want to walk her home… he literally needed the genjutsu (that he should’ve been immune to) to show him that he ‘loves’ hinata the whole movie felt filler-y even the action to me was bleh (but that’s my opinion) also the whole shinobi on the moon thing was just to much

One thing I will give hinata credit for is that she never pushed her feelings and try to make naruto submit to her I feel like if naruto got with someone else she would be sad but she would try to be happy for him and I believe that hinata wants naruto to be happy but right now with his family he doesn’t even seems that way

And I know the anime is ‘canon’ but don’t you see how different naruto is with his family when it comes to manga and the anime?

In the manga he looks tired, fed up, and just over his family and the the anime comes around and tries to do damage control adding scenes where he’s taking care of his family and being a loving husband

And she’s not even that great of a mom in the boruto movie she made boruto go after naruto what did she think boruto was going to do? He’s extremely weaker then naruto and sasuke so I just don’t understand!

The relationship just looks so shitty it’s not the worst one in the series (sasusaku) but it’s still pretty bad

Thanks for the ask 🚼

#naruto #naruto shippuden #naruto uzumaki #naruto the last #naruto gaiden #naruto fandom #naruto ending #anti naruto #anti naruto fandom #anti naruto shippuden #anti naruto uzumaki #anti naruto the last #anti naruto gaiden #naruhina #anti naruhina #anti sasusaku #anti sakura #anti kishimoto #masashi kishimoto #anti kishimoney #anti konoha #anti shinobi system #boruto #boruto uzumaki #anti boruto #anti boruto uzumaki #anti naruto next generations #naruto next generations #hinata #anti hinata

[ugamyrain]

Rain Rants again with her shitty unpopular opinion. (I might be burnt at the stake) This is long.

This is a piece about SasuSaku and NaruHina. Before I start, I should clarify: I have been a fan of both since the chuunin exams and I became an semi active-lurk member on the NF since Naruto Shippuden was released. This is my point of view about the whole ordeal since the fateful 5th of november of 2014 and how I see both fandoms in general now. If you are easily offended or nitpicky, please keep in mind this is only MY opinion and perspective.

Being in the SasuSaku fandom for a really long time has been bittersweet the same way as being in the NaruHina fandom at the same time, due to all the bickering between them when they have no basis to be mad at each other. Like, both of the fandoms became a competition about who is a better woman. In other words: they fight for the stupidest shit. Back then I would’ve sighed and felt conflicted and unable to voice an opinion because both pairing fandoms took it as a personal offense. Okay I am exagerating but most of the time it felt that way. Nowadays I laugh. And I know that I will get some fans offended by what I am about to say because SasuSaku fans are still very sensitive, and NaruHina fans, well I should say some are insufferable.

Both pairings had a lot to prove back then, I understood being defensive against people who slammed the pairings, mostly the hate directed towards the girls. Calling them names, insulting them with the overused insult of all: “useless”.

I could write a 1,500 character essay about my opinion of how Hinata became the untouchable overpowered goddess of the NaruHina fandom -considering the humble begginings of the couple- and why Sakura’s opinion about her character never changed - even though she was one of the most developed secondary characters.

I will not deny that Kishimoto’s writing of Sakura was never the best. As well as the writing for Hinata - it wasn’t the most gracious. The anime didn’t help either.  But what he could not make up for explicit development he tried to compensate it by writing their personality. And I would write another 2,500 essay explaining how this was good and bad for him.

However I can say this: I will not deny that Kishimoto’s cryptic writing, specially of Sasuke’s character, did not help Sakura’s case at all for people who were just watching without analyzing the scenes and panel by panel. Hinata’s case was more direct that’s why the popularity of Naruhina rose as the hate for the pairing did as well.

I understand Kishimoto’s need to retain all the shippers to keep reading and that’s why the red herrings were placed. And believe me, every time a red herring appeared it was hell for both of the pairings. Once the red herrings dissappeared it was clear that both pairings were meant to be. Period.

For fans it didn’t stop there. Both of the fandoms wanted to prove something, what that something was? Stupidity. Sorry but that’s how I felt that whole thing was.  (Imagine being a shipper for both of the pairings at the time. Not only fighting with the antis but also fighting between the pairings because... well they were fighting to see which girl had the bigger pussy- I couldn’t say dick because duh, but it was pretty much the whole fight).

My first bump with both of the fandoms  was with Naruto the Last. For some reason -well, instigated by the antis from both couples and the greatest shipping war there was at the time. And so a grueling 6 months battle began-, no one was satisfied. Criticism of the movie started to appear, but the shipping war got the best of both fandoms. It became infected by the antis with the valid questions: Why would Naruto wait 2 years? Why isn’t  there any Sasuke in the movie if Sasuke was spammed like junk mail in the trailers? Those questions were fair and we should’ve had a conversation as to why they would do it and move on, however at this point both of the fandoms were intoxicated. I tried to voice my opinions but I was one of the few who was seeing things in a different perspective... even the ones who were rooting for both pairings became toxic.

NaruHina fans had 4 reactions:

a- Inside the fanbase people were mad because 2 years it’s a long time, not realistic at all - and well, the development was really natural in the manga and the movie made the characters seem like they never spoke to each other at all after the war.

b- The image from the outsiders made them feel that Hinata was treated like a damsel in distress and the overall cliched plot- so, basically the fandom agreed and  they started to whine a lot.

c- The movie made Naruhina rejoice about the fan service the movie provided, but this also had negative consequences.- The most recurrent essay from the ones who liked both pairings began: “I love both pairings and I am happy for Hinata but...” forcing many of them to pick sides.

d- It all worsened by the attitude NaruHina fans took: “WE have only the best. WE have the movie. WE have the fanservice. WE are the best. Hinata was the queen all along. Hinata is stronger than... Naruhina is better than... Hinata, oh, Heil Hinata.”

I didn’t like it. I had to unfollow people I have followed since the NF days and I kept people who only liked both pairings... but even then...  there was one thing that I liked less.

Because of all of the glory Naruhina was sharing the SasuSaku fandom didn’t get much fanservice. After all the fight, we deserved something, right? Because Sakura went trhough hell to get the guy, right? After all the bickering with other fandoms, right? SasuSaku deserved have more scenes in the movie because of the trailers and moreover because SasuSaku was the main couple, right? Wrong.  

I understood where people came from when they said SasuSaku is the main couple, because well, they share a lot in part 1, it was the most developed from the 2 - well, 3 couples if we count ShikaTema-, at the time, but the truth is, since both couples did not depend one from the other, a plot involving the two would’ve been too convoluted. I guess one could say that it’s not impossible since other movies do this, but it was not a movie, it was a Naruto movie. A plot with Sasuke and Sakura’s involvement would’ve overshadowed the dynamic between Naruto and Hinata like maaaany times before. Kishimoto was forced time and time again to take Sasuke out of the picture for Naruto develop his bonds outside Team 7 not only with Hinata, but she was the most obvious of this technique.

Yes, I do understand the criticism Kishimoto had for overcomplicating things and that an arc in the manga would’ve been more fitting if he wanted to complicate it but it’s obvious that his plan was to leave it open for interpretation like he did at the end of 699. That was the end he wanted and it shows.

Most of the SasuSaku fans didn’t like it and the few that remained neutral regarding the movie were being infected little by little with each negative post. Because a double date movie was more fitting for Naruto: The Last, considering how much Sasuke there was in the trailers. The attitude of NaruHina fans did not help, it only fueled them. SasuSaku fans became extremely pessimistic. This was my second bump.

4 months passed, things were still tense I distanced myself from the fandom. SasuSaku was fighting with everybody. NaruHina was fighting with everybody. Naruto Gaiden came and for some reason... it got scary.

I loved each chapter of Gaiden because of the whole context that may have pushed Kishimoto to write it the way he did. I loved Sarada, I loved SasuSaku moments and I returned to see what SasuSaku shippers were saying, what I found was my third bump.

Whining. Cursing. Dissapointed fans. Negativism. People hating on Gaiden. Unnecesary drama, some fans pointed out.  And I thought “Wait a minute, every single story is unnecesary drama. WTH are they talking about?” “Sarada is an ungreateful child. Unlikable” they chimed. And still I was thinking: “Team 7 was not likable at the beggining either”. “Sasuke was not there? Inconceivable! I hate Kishimoto because it’s impossible for Sasuke to never have seen Sarada.”

They started to pick apart every single panel, every single interaction. The whole thing was an essay by the author of the precious couple to show the ridiculousness he had to endure for 6 months after he ended his manga. With the Thank you pages flooded with nasty messages from other antis. With the online comunity trying to boicott him, disrespecting him, harrassing him, harrassing his editors through twitter, his helpers and even some calls to Shounen Jump. Gaiden was meant to be read as a mocking piece. I saw through it and I was dissapointed that some fans were not able to see that.

At the end people tried to make peace with Gaiden and Boruto the movie came. And everyone was happy with the little interactions here and there. Just kidding. SasuSaku fans started to complain about how Sakura’s body was drawn. “Too skinny, too flat, face it’s too round. She looks like a little girl.” No, nevermind her badassery and cuteness, her body was her problem. “Kishimoto draws her like a woman. SP I hate you.”

Suddenly the problem became Studio Pierrot. Yes, I understood that they fucked up a lot of things but there was one problem the Naruto anime had as a whole especially in the transition to Naruto Shippuden and Shippuuden itself: Naruto became disjointed. The Anime of Naruto is no masterpiece and part of that was not the fillers by themselves, but the fillers in which the directors didn’t give a fuck about the story and fluidity. Little by little Naruto became less a cohesive story and more a gag anime. By the time Shippuuden had its turn to be animated, many of the boring and enraging tropes they commited in part 1 filler hell, was transitioned to Shippuuden.

If comunication is key, in Naruto anime’s case, that key was lost somewhere in the parking lot. Red herrings were glorified, Sakura’s awful personality was enhanced even though we know that in the manga, Sakura had become very fond of Naruto as a friend and was acting like a real friend to him. Sakura anime was a completely different person from Sakura in the manga.

Either way, SP tried to mend something that was completely broken by that point: Sakura’s sweet girl act did not work anymore and it made her look bad and not sincere. But it’s fine, I know directors were just following orders and animators as well. I got mad but tha’s fine, at least they didn’t change anything crucial. Yes, animation was always shitty when it came to animate SasuSaku scenes, but hey, I already knew their bias. But the fandom did not let it be.

Now, with the whole Boruto generations I have found a fourth bump. Until now, Gaiden has been well animated, things that were critized in the manga are being spelled out letter by letter. We are having more explanation, more exposition, better animation, better character designs and more personality from Sakura, and still SasuSaku shippers are negative and point their finger at SP critizing every single error it has. There are a lot of moments in general in the anime that were not shown properly or at all, but in general, the fandom seemed to accept that fact because... well, it’s SP, it’s an adaptation of a manga and has always been a bad one at that. Why is the SasuSaku fandom still negative and pessimistic? I get that we have to be critical of what we consume but.. why are they so defensive all the freaking time.

Sasuke and Sakura are canon and there is no thing an anti can say or do to change that fact. Insulting Sakura’s character or whatever it’s laughable, because despite what people might say, the manga proves them wrong. Kishimoto proves them wrong. We know that. What's the point?

To me, everytime I see a complaint without a strong case like: "this panel was cut, this scene was changed, this was not in that room. Sakura is not flat.", it shows to me what a big inferiority complex the SasuSaku shippers have. Like what the hell? I get that making fun of SP is fun, but there are shippers who are actually mad at it... like, have you not seen what a mess the Naruto anime is and you are complaining about size of Sakura’s boobs or the make up she wears or lack there of? LOL.

I finally understand: The SasuSaku fans are never going to be pleased.

NaruHina shippers: I love you guys but sometimes... ugh.

Sorry for this massive ranting. If you read it all, congratulations. You win cookies.

Have a great day everybody. I was hoping mom and dad would forgive each other already... Not happening any day soon, it seems.

PS. I still love you too SasuSaku shippers but I think you need a reality check.

#pro sasusaku #pro naruhina #pro sasusaku an naruhina #naruhina #sasusaku #long post #rain rants #i still love you guys #but I laugh at you not in a good way

[slashers-hell]

akatsukigadaisuki submitted:

*traveling through ocean, spots a siren*

me: oh hell no, away with you!

siren: oh, but we have anything you could ever want!

me: ..i don’t want anything! There is nothing you could offer me!

siren: the naruto ending was just a lie. i can erase everything after chapter 699 and SasuNaruSasu will be canon like it should’ve been

me: *epically canonballs into the water without another word*

Same, lol 

#sasunaru #narusasu #sasunarusasu #anti naruto ending #akatsukigadaisuki #submission

[21tailsofwoe]

the other naruto ending

I know we have chapters 699 and 700 and Naruto Gaiden and Boruto and everything related to it that tells us about the story after the war and the final Naruto v. Sasuke. I am enjoying the Boruto anime and I liked the movie. I also like where the Boruto manga is headed right now.

However, there are still things I would’ve liked to see being resolved in Naruto itself, so that story could’ve come full circle. And I have this alternate ending in my head, which I like to believe is what should’ve happened. The alternate ending provides justice to the story as whole, where:

                                         ▪ Naruto being an amazing Hokage and being involved with the village, especially the children.

▪ Naruto continues to be the happy, cheerful guy we know.

▪ Sasuke does not leave the village, at least for a few years, and works alongside Kakashi and Naruto as one of their advisers, since he’s a victim of the ugly side of Konoha’s politics and can bring about reforms to the village system, like he wanted. This way, they can make sure that tragedies such as the Uchiha tragedy never happen.

▪ Sakura helps Naruto with his studies. She continues to be a brilliant medical ninja, while also helping in the village duties. She works along with Ino to operate the (canon) children’s hospital for mental health.

▪ Sakura works on her ‘genjutsu’ (not essential to the plot or anything but I really wanna know what she could do with genjutsu. Plus, Sasuke could help her.)

▪ After the war, there would be numerous orphans, so Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, (being orphans themselves) and Sakura, work for the well-being of these orphans.

▪ A memorial is built to commemorate the Uchiha. Itachi’s and the Uchiha’s name is cleared.

▪ Orochimaru is not left free, and is never allowed to continue with his experiments. NEVER.

▪ Sasuke testifies on behalf of Team Taka, and they are finally free from the one who conducted numerous inhumane experiments on them.

▪ Yamato is treated as a human. Not made to watch over the one who tortured and experimented on him and is given a better life in general.

▪ Kabuto is made answerable for the casualties he caused in the war, no matter how ‘good’ he has become now.

▪ Hinata studies more into politics and works hard to reform the Hyuga along with Naruto, who did not forget his promise to reform the Hyuga. She becomes the Hyuga leader who changed the clan for good.

▪ The ‘Rookie 9′ and Team Guy do not get married and have children at such a young age, because they realise that they have important duties in the functioning of the village and they would not be able to balance family and work. So they give it some time to adjust to their work. *side eyes the Boruto Naruto*

▪ Team 7 finally finds out what’s under Kakashi’s mask.

        I’m sure there’s a lot more, but this is the least I wanted to get from the ending.

But now we have Boruto. It’s not that I don’t like the Boruto series, it’s just that it’s not giving me that complete satisfaction. Nevertheless, I am going to watch this show because I can’t ever give up on this shitty series lol

#anti naruto ending #naruto #naruto shippuden #anime #manga #metalks

[sasusakufestival]

The Girl Who Waited

Summary:Somewhere along the line while she was on his team, learning to become a shinobi alongside him, Sasuke stopped being just a good-looking, smart boy to her. Sakura got to know him – the darkness he wore like armour, and the light he only revealed in his rarest, most unguarded moments. [SasuSaku Festival 2017 – Day 1 – Prompt: “Valentine’s Day”]

Disclaimer: This story utilizes characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz Media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelizations, comics or short stories is intended by the author in any way, shape or form. This fan oriented story is written solely for the author’s own amusement and the entertainment of the readers. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organizations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All fiction, plot and Original Characters with the exception of those introduced in the books, manga, video games, novelizations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn and using them without permission is considered rude, in bad-taste and will reflect seriously on your credibility as a writer. A gaggle of pre-teen girls will taunt you a second time should you be found plagiarizing.

Warning: Spoilers for pretty much everything up to Chapter 699.

Canon-Compliance: As close to canon as fanfiction can possibly be. With a few personal additions :P Takes place during Part I, Part II and the Blank Period.

Fanon-Compliance: Takes place several years before An Inch of Gold and Unplanned.

AN: OC alert! There is an OC in this story! Ohmygosh!

Beta Reader: Sakura’s Unicorn

_____________________________________________________________________

一

Nine-year-old Sakura Haruno hides behind the shoji door of the classroom, clutching an immaculately wrapped package to her chest. Her heart beats a frantic rhythm against her ribs so loud that she thinks even he can hear it inside the room.

After all, Sasuke Uchiha is a prodigy who can already do so much more than the other students at the Academy. Super-hearing would not be that unbelievable.

Her stomach flip-flops a little, and she would tighten her fingers around the large box if she didn’t fear tearing the paper; the lady at the sweets stall did such a nice job wrapping it. Sakura didn’t even consider doing it herself because she’s all thumbs these days, and this gift has to be perfect. After all, she saved her pocket money from a year’s worth of chores so she could afford the finest box of chocolates they had.

It’s still not as nice as the one she saw last year in the fancy gourmet chocolate shop. Her mother wouldn’t let her buy it; Mama said it was a waste, and they don’t have a lot of money to begin with. That’s why Sakura had to save up this year.  She wanted it to be extra special because she knows Sasuke’s all alone now.

About nine months ago, he lost his entire family.

She doesn’t know what actually happened to the Uchiha clan, just what Iruka-sensei has mentioned and the whispers she hears from her parents when they think she’s not listening. And, of course, the rumours the other kids spread – some benign, others ridiculous, still others far too terrible to contemplate.

Sakura doesn’t care how it happened. All she knows is that Sasuke is on his own – he has no mother or father anymore, or even his big brother – and he must be lonely. And so, she has decided that even though she isn’t brave enough to tell him she likes him, if she gives him a nice enough gift for Valentine’s Day, he’ll understand that he’s not alone and that people are thinking about him all the time.

And by people, she means herself.  

If only she could muster the nerve to walk over there and hand him the package.

Just do it! There’s no one around, so no one will see if I mess up – shannaro!

“What’ve you got there, Sa-ku-ra,” someone drawls behind her, making her wince with every syllable of her name.

Oh, no! Too slow!

She turns around and finds herself facing Ino and at least three other girls from their class, all of whom are holding their own closely guarded packages.

“You’re not actually thinking of giving that to Sasuke, are you?” her former-friend derides, the curl of her lip suggesting Sakura has something decayed in her hands.

She squares her shoulder and juts her chin out defiantly. “So what if I am? I don’t think it’s any of your business.”

“It is our business if you’re going to dishonour him with something as flashy as that,” another girl interjects.

Someone else sniggers, “I saw that same package being sold at market.”

“You got him store-bought chocolate?” Ino mocks. “And here I thought you said you liked him.”

“I-I do!” Sakura protests.

Ino smirks, crossing her arms and looking utterly superior. “You’re such a dummy, Forehead. Everyone knows you only give store-bought chocolate to people you feel bad for.” The other girls titter and Ino continues, “I mean, if you can’t scrape together enough money to buy the best quality, like I did, you should’ve at least made it yourself.”

Ino produces a beautifully wrapped, gilded package – it’s the one that Sakura saw in the fancy chocolate shop! Her heart sinks as she takes a closer look at what the other girls are offering – clear, neat bento boxes containing painstakingly shaped bars of chocolate. Some are decorated with icing designs and swirls of ganache and, though they are clearly homemade, Sakura can just imagine the effort that went into creating them. Two of the girls even have bags under their eyes.

Sakura’s cheeks burn with embarrassment and she looks down at her feet; her fingers around the package tighten.

“But if you really think you can buy someone’s affections with second-rate candy, then go on,” Ino continues loftily. “You can give him your gift first. We’ll all wait, won’t we, girls?”

There’s some giggling at this, two of the girls elbowing each other conspiratorially, Ino’s mocking smile never wavering. Sakura desperately wants to square her shoulders and march defiantly into the classroom, to be the first person to give Sasuke a gift.

But the seeds of doubt have been sewn.

What if he thinks that she isn’t serious? That her feelings for him can only be expressed in a second-rate box of chocolates? It’s bad enough she couldn’t afford to buy him the ones she wanted, but if even girls who have no chance with Sasuke have slaved over homemade chocolate for him, he’ll think she’s joking around.

Immediately, she conjures the mental image of him opening the chocolates and tipping them over her head in front of the whole class.

No way! That can’t happen!

She hesitates long enough for the group of girls to shuffle past her, crowding into the classroom. Immediately, they become a gaggle of cooing and giggling idiots around Sasuke, each one vying to give him their chocolate first. Ino, of course, leads the bunch.

Sakura doesn’t bother to see if he accepts the gilded package. Instead, she lets the shoji slide closed and trudges back down the hallway. As she passes a waste bin, she throws the chocolates away and doesn’t look back.

二

The next year, Sakura spends the weeks before Valentine’s Day slaving over homemade chocolate.

She’s been learning to cook from her mother, but isn’t really good at it. She’s passably better with sweets and, by the end of several burnt batches, she has a half-dozen edible and not so horrible-looking pieces of chocolate. She even stays up late to decorate them and, the next morning, arrives to class exhausted but proud.

Once again, she lingers on the sidelines, watching nervously as several girls (fewer than last year, but still a considerable amount) offer Sasuke their brightly coloured boxes and succulent-looking sweets. Ino is back with her expensive, golden package again, and it’s possibly more impressive than the one last year.

And yet, without fail, Sasuke ignores all of them.

Somehow, he’s more interested in staring out the window, leaving each girl standing awkwardly in front of his desk until another contender elbows her out of the way to try her luck.

If the other girls weren’t her competition, Sakura might feel a little sorry for them all. As it is, she’s nervous enough – half-tempted to prove that she’s the one he’ll accept a gift from, half-dreading being on the receiving end of that same treatment.

She spends most of the morning trying to decide whether she should even attempt it. She barely notices the drama in the background; the chocolates meant for Sasuke are sneakily divided amongst the rest of the boys in the class while the girls who brought them squabble with each other. Kiba actually gets into a fistfight with Naruto, and that’s when Iruka gets involved.  It all ends with the class having to write an essay on the necessity of discipline in a shinobi’s life.  At least that’s what she thinks the essay’s about. She may or may not have gotten distracted watching Sasuke instead of paying attention.

By lunch break, she finally decides to risk it.

After all, love isn’t supposed to be easy! And this will show him and everyone that I’m going to fight for him, no matter what!

And, of course, wouldn’t it be great if he did accept her gift instead of Ino’s?

Those thoughts are what make her straighten up and follow Sasuke out of class when Iruka-sensei dismisses everyone. He shuffles down the hall, alone as usual, most of the other students giving him a wide berth.

“S-Sasuke, wait up!” she cries, cringing at how her words come out as more of a whisper. It’s no wonder he keeps walking, disappearing around a corner and forcing her to actually run after him.

She races around the corner and quickly overtakes him, coming to a halting stop a few feet in front of him.

“Please wait,” she says, breathless, face flushing warmly. Staring down at the floor, she holds out her offering to him. “It’s Valentine’s Day and I-I would… I mean, I worked really hard on these and it would… I was hoping you could accept my…my gift. For you.”

She means to say feelings, but at the last second, her courage fails her. She thinks maybe that will make it hurt less if he doesn’t feel the same.

When nothing happens right away, she lifts her head and opens one eye.

Sasuke is staring at her blankly which she thinks is a good sign. He could’ve just kept walking, after all.

Then he sighs – her heart begins to lift in hope – and scowls at her.

“You wasted your time,” he tells her neutrally. “I don’t like sweets.”

And then he does finally walk away, hands in his pockets. Once again, Sakura stands by herself, clutching a box of chocolates to her chest.

Her eyes begin to water and her chest twinges painfully, her instinctual reaction to see this as rejection. Except…

Except, unlike with all the other girls, he actually spoke to her, instead of pretending she didn’t exist. She’s always wanted Sasuke to recognise her in some way, and today – well, today, he did just that.

It’s a step. Just one small step, but it’s a start!

She beams at his retreating back, and decides that she’ll get it right next time.

三

Sakura arrives a half-hour before any of the other students, determinedly carrying yet another plain, unfashionable bento box. Inside, she has arranged six perfectly-formed dark chocolate and chilli-spiced truffles.

This year, she’s sure she got it right.

Peering into the classroom, she is unsurprised to see that Sasuke is already there. He always arrives early, although she gets the sense that it’s not because he likes mornings. It must be so lonely at home for him without his family; being here is probably just less painful.

It’s that thought that keeps her from hesitating.

She marches over to Sasuke and plants herself in front of him, back straight, trying to radiate the kind of confidence the heroines in her storybooks always have.

He is in his habitual position – hunched forward, chin perched on interlocked fingers, and eyes closed as if in meditation. Maybe he’s contemplating the universe – Sasuke is so deep like that. Sakura almost doesn’t want to bother him.

Should I clear my throat or something? I don’t want to startle him…

Not that she could because Sasuke expects everything – he probably even knows she’s there. But if he does, why doesn’t he just say something?

As if her thoughts triggered it, a furrow forms on his forehead and his eyes shoot open, narrowing into his default expression of annoyance.

“Is there something you need?” he asks flatly, tone conveying exasperation – like she’s tiring him out by just existing.

Sakura takes a half-step back, torn between hurt and frustration because would it kill him to be nice for once in his life?!

But then his gaze falls on the box in her hands and his face smooths into blankness. His eyes close again and his shoulders slump. She thinks she hears him mutter under his breath, “This again…”

Which makes her a little defensive because she did it differently this year, damn it!

“I know you said that you don’t like sweet things,” she tells him quickly. “I guess that’s why you never accept Valentine’s Day chocolate, huh? I wouldn’t either if people kept giving me stuff I didn’t like. And…and not a lot of stores sell chocolate that isn’t sweet, so I made this. I tried a few different recipes to make sure they didn’t turn out sweet and I-I tasted them. And, well…I didn’t really like them – but not because they weren’t good, I just don’t like spicy stuff, but my mother said that’s how they’re supposed to be and –”

She clamps her mouth shut as she realises that she’s babbling. The whole time, Sasuke regards her stiffly, but for once, his expression isn’t one of aloofness. She thinks she sees confusion there, like he’s trying to decide on something to say.

“You remembered that I don’t like sweets,” he states, as if he hasn’t heard the rest of it. She can’t tell if he’s puzzled or impressed.

She decides to lean on the latter and puffs her chest out importantly.

“Well, I have a really good memory,” she boasts, fighting every natural inclination she has to look down at her feet. She’s got his attention for once and she intends to revel in every moment of it.

That moment turns out to be fleeting as his expression reverts to familiar annoyance and he stands up.

“I don’t like chocolate at all,” he tells her, heading up the stairs. “Give them to someone who does.”

Sakura panics, staring at his back and conscious that she’s about to lose her moment with him.

“Can I…can I ask why?” she blurts out. “I mean, it’s such a strange thing, not liking sweets. Are you allergic?” As she says it, an entirely-possible scenario occurs to her. “Oh. Is that why you always say no? Because it makes you sick? If-if that’s the case, you should tell everyone. I don’t think anyone would want you to get sick. D-definitely not me.”

She notices his fists clenching, his shoulders tensing, and when he bites out, “I just don’t like them,” she can’t help but shudder at the coldness.

Sasuke skips the rest of their lessons that day.

Sakura carefully doesn’t mention to the other girls that he was there, or that she’s the reason he left before they could shower him with more unwanted sweets. She spends the rest of Valentine’s Day trying to figure out exactly where she went wrong.

四

Sakura has never been to the Uchiha district.

It’s far away, on the outskirts of Konoha, and much older and creeper than most of the other neighbourhoods. Also, she’s never needed to leave the village proper, so coming out this way has never been necessary. Most of the older kids say it’s haunted by the ghosts of the dead Uchiha which Sakura knows is nonsense; most parents complain how the village really should resettle the area but no one ever does.

She wouldn’t be here today, except…well, it could be her last chance to get this right.

In two months, she and the rest of their class will be taking their graduation exam. Once everyone becomes genin, they will be split into teams, and she probably won’t get the chance to see Sasuke so often. He’s at the top of the class, and if teams are made based on class rank, she suspects she won’t be in the running.

Shikamaru’s a genius – she heard Iruka-sensei once say that he could be the first of them to become a jōnin if he tried. And, despite Sakura’s best efforts, all the other girls say that Ino is the top female student in the class.

If this is my last chance, I’m going to make it count this year!

She leaves her house at dawn, ignoring her bleary-eyed parents’ queries as she grabs the container she procured from the market the evening before. Dad makes a bad joke about early birds and worms, Mom shakes her head knowingly, and Sakura is on her way.

Upon reaching the abandoned quarter, it doesn’t take Sakura long to find Sasuke’s house. It’s the only place that looks like someone lives there, with the walkway swept of debris and the paint around the eaves renewed. She wonders if he did that himself, or if the Hokage sends someone every now and then.

She raps on the door a few times and then waits, rocking nervously back and forth on her heels. It’s early enough that he should still be here, and she doubts she’s waking him up. However, after a full ten minutes with no answer, her hopes begin to fade.

Maybe I missed him after all?

She considers the merits of bringing her gift with her to the Academy, but immediately decides against it. She came here to avoid the drama and attention that inevitably comes from giving Valentine’s Day gifts in a classroom surrounded by the other contenders for Sasuke’s heart.  She could always leave it here with a card – but there are plenty of stray animals in Konoha that would make quick work of her offering.

I could always come back after school. Or would that be weird? He might think I’m following him around, and then –

“Sakura.”

She shrieks in surprise, fumbling with the carton in her hands, miraculously managing not to drop it. Turning toward the road, she is faced with a tired-looking, sweaty Sasuke Uchiha. His clothes are scuffed with dirt, but his demeanour doesn’t suggest someone who was just attacked.

I bet he was out training. Wow. He gets up early to train and he’s always first to class? That is dedication. Sasuke is soooo cool.

It’s also not fair that he looks so good after a workout.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, not exactly unkindly, but not in a particularly welcoming way either.

“I just… I wanted to give you something,” she says quickly.

Sasuke exhales in annoyance at this. “I told you already. I don’t like chocolate –”

“I know. I remember,” she interrupts because he’s already heading for his door! “I decided to get you something that you do like, so you can accept my gift.”

“You’re wasting your time,” Sasuke says, reaching for his front door.

“N-no! Wait, Sasuke! Hold on. Don’t shut the door on me yet, please?” she beseeches. “I just want to… Here, look.”

By some small miracle, he doesn’t just ignore her, but his imperious over-the-shoulder glance isn’t exactly comforting. Not to be deterred, Sakura flounders a little with the box, but pries open the thin wooden lid to reveal its contents.

Two dozen shiny red cherry tomatoes gleam up at Sasuke in the morning sun.

“These are for you,” she tells him needlessly. “I saw you a few weeks ago, shopping. I mean – not like I was following you or anything, I was just with my m – we were getting groceries. And it’s weird to see someone our age shopping alone at the market that early in the morning, but then I realised it was you because…well. Anyway, I thought I should get you something you’d actually like this year, and these ones aren’t sweet at all! I tried a few to make sure. Oh, and I read that tomatoes have a lot of health benefits – there’s vitamins and potassium, and they help bone growth which, I mean, if you’re training as hard as I know you do, would be really great, right?”  She pauses, reviews everything she just said to make sure it’s not too lame, and then quickly adds, “And…and don’t worry about giving me anything back, okay? I just wanted to give you something. This doesn’t have to be a…a Valentine’s Day gift.”  

Throughout her entire speech, Sasuke has slowly turned around to face her, staring down at the tomatoes like he’s never seen any before. His eyes inch toward her face, calculation there, as if she is something inexplicable – a bacterium that’s decided to get chatty, perhaps.

He opens his mouth to say something – probably to reject her, so she braces herself for it. Then he closes his mouth, frowns thoughtfully, and exhales again. Except this time, it isn’t in annoyance, but more like…resignation? Acceptance?

“…thank you,” he tells her in a stiff tone, the words sounding awkward and unfamiliar to her ears. Maybe they feel even weirder for him to say, but she can’t really think about the implications of that since her brain is stalled – Sasuke has reached out to take the carton from her outstretched hands.

She shakes herself out of her stunned joy and, bolstered by her success, boldly suggests, “If you want, I can wait for you to get cleaned up. Maybe…maybe we can walk to class together?”

She knows she’s pushing it, but why waste the opportunity?

“No,” he replies as he unlocks the door to his house.

The interior is too dark to get much of a clue to what is hidden within, but it smells heavily of a combination of cedarwood, incense, and tatami. It strikes her as an odd smell for someone’s home – more suited to a temple interior. It possesses none of the comforting scents she is used to at house.

Sasuke turns to face her, the tomato carton loosely cradled in the crook of his arm. “I’m not going in today,” he says. He considers her a further half-second then adds, “You should go or you’ll be late.”  

And then the door is closed, an impenetrable barrier once more between them.

Surprisingly, Sakura doesn’t mind this rebuff. In fact, it does nothing to destroy her bewildered giddiness. All the way out of the Uchiha district, she feels a strange disconnect, as if she is floating. Once across the ward’s threshold, the giddiness turns into fully-formed joy and she laughs out loud.

“Shannaro!” she shouts at no one in particular, punching the air in triumph.

It’s the first time he’s ever accepted anything from her – maybe even from anyone. The magnitude of this moment is not lost on her, and she’s sure she’ll be coasting through the rest of the day on that.

As much as she wants to track down Ino and loudly rub it in her face, some inner part of Sakura cautions her to keep this quiet.

This will be mine and Sasuke’s secret.

And that makes it a hundred times better.

五

“Hey Sakura! Whatcha got in the bag? Huh? Huh? Huhh?!”

“Naruto, if you don’t get out of my face, I’m going to slug you!” she snaps, making a threatening fist at him. The orange-clad boy pre-emptively ducks, sticking out his tongue. Several feet away, she can practically hear Sasuke rolling his eyes.

“But I wanna know,” Naruto complains. “Did you bring games? You should’ve brought something fun to do. Kakashi-sensei’s taking forever.”

“No, I didn’t bring games,” she tells him, although she wonders why that idea hasn’t occurred to her before now. Their instructor is always late, if he even shows up at all. Maybe some cards or dice…

“Then what’s in there?”

“You’ll see when Kakashi-sensei gets here,” Sakura retorts.

“But why not now?”

“Because I said so! We’re waiting until –”

“I heard my name?”

There’s a puff of smoke and suddenly Kakashi is leaning over them, disgustingly unbothered by his tardiness, as usual.

“You’re late!” Sakura and Naruto chorus.

“Well, my horoscope said something unfortunate would happen to me if I took my usual route today, so –”

“Liar!”

“Can we get started?” Sasuke interrupts, as usual unimpressed with Kakashi’s excuses.

“In a minute,” Naruto shoots back. “Sakura said she would open the bag and I wanna see what’s in it!”

“If you keep annoying me, you won’t,” she grumbles, but she’s already undoing the ties and unfolding the cloth.

Two red-wrapped packages shine in the sunlight, and she passes them to Kakashi and Naruto. Not waiting to see their reactions, she reaches back into the bag and draws out a plain carton of tomatoes for Sasuke. She has, after all, learned her lesson.

Sasuke leans away from the tomatoes, as if he’s expecting them to attack, but at her expectant look, he relents and reaches for them.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” she declares, beaming at them all and relishing in their varied expressions.

Kakashi looks as if he has no idea what to say – she supposes it’s been a long time since he got chocolate from anyone – while Naruto is frozen. It occurs to her too late that this is probably the first year anyone has given him anything. This suspicion is confirmed when he looks up at her, his eyes suspiciously glassy.

“Sakura…”

“It’s not a big deal,” she hurries to say. “Ino gave all the guys on her team gifts, so I figured I would do the same. I’m not going to let her out-do me.”

That’s not entirely true.

Things have been so tense on their team lately. Sasuke’s been cold and sulky, while Naruto has been more reckless than usual, hell-bent on surpassing his friend and rival. The chūnin exam, the mark on Sasuke’s neck, and the events in the months afterward has kept everyone stressed. Maybe this tiny gesture will make the temperamental men in her life feel a little better.

“Hah! Sakura must hate you, Sasuke. She gave you vegetables!”

“Or she wants me to live longer than you.”

She winces.

Or not.

“This is very thoughtful of you, Sakura,” Kakashi tells her quietly, and even though she can’t see his face beneath that damned mask, she thinks he might be smiling at her. “Hopefully, you’ll receive some equally thoughtful gifts on White Day.”

In her imagination, he is looking pointedly at Sasuke, who scoffs lightly and says, “If we’re not going on a mission today, I’m going home.”

This predictably leads into Naruto calling Sasuke names, Sakura trying to keep the peace, and Kakashi finally letting them know about whatever lame mission they’ve been assigned.

The fleeting moment of peace is broken, to be forgotten over the course of their day. Still, Sasuke brings the tomatoes home with him, and Sakura counts that as a victory – one of a meagre few.

More and more lately, Sakura realises that there is something very wrong with her team, something that needs to be fixed before it completely breaks, but she doesn’t know what it is or even if she could help. Some days are very unpleasant – sometimes Sasuke and Naruto do nothing but fight. Other days – the worse days – are when they don’t even acknowledge each other’s existence.

Sakura can see that Sasuke is struggling with something, but whenever she asks – something she would never have tried to do when they were younger – he tells her he’s fine. If she gets brave enough to bring up the curse mark, he doesn’t speak to her for days.

The only thing that keeps his attention is his ridiculous competition with Naruto.

Despite keeping her worries to herself, Sakura’s performance on the team begins to lag. Sasuke snaps at her a lot more, Naruto cuts down on his annoying requests for dates, and Kakashi eyes her with concern.

Maybe that’s why one day in mid-March, Kakashi arrives at their usual meeting place with a large box of marshmallow animals and a casual “Happy White Day” greeting.

“Someone gave me these, but I don’t like marshmallows,” he tells her with a shrug. “So here.”

She would be willing to brush it off as coincidence if Naruto didn’t hand her a package as well. It’s clumsily wrapped with magazine covers and he sheepishly admits, “I forgot what day it was until yesterday.”

Upon opening the package, she finds a much too large, much too frilly white lingerie set.  

Kakashi chokes back either a laugh or a groan of dismay, and Sakura is – of course – forced to beat her friend into a human-shaped bruise for the inappropriateness of his gift…even if she might be laughing a little on the inside because it’s been so long since Naruto did anything lighthearted.

Sasuke offers her nothing which isn’t a surprise. Another girl might be upset that he’s the only one who doesn’t bother with a gift, but she’s used to this. Sasuke isn’t the type to give gifts to anyone, and after all these years, she’s finally started to understand that. But when Sakura glances up, his right eye twitches at the white material and she thinks that if she didn’t punch Naruto first, Sasuke might have. The idea makes her feel a little giddy because it suggests he cares about her honour.

A bit.

Ish.

Who cares? I’ll take it!

The fact that all of them agreed to make such a silly day as White Day special for her has her beaming the entire day. Training is even pleasant – a rarity of late – and her teammates don’t bicker with each other. Everything is going well, even though the only mission Lady Tsunade has for them is scrubbing graffiti off the back of the movie theatre – which goes by quickly because Naruto is apparently an expert at cleaning spray paint off walls.  

The three of them are just heading to Hokage Tower to check in when they encounter Rock Li on his crutches heading back to the hospital. The sight isn’t exactly unexpected, although the large bouquet he is holding in his mouth is somewhat of a surprise.

“For you, Sakura!” he declares when he stops in front of them, dropping his crutches to the floor and holding out the extravagant bunch of flowers. Sakura suspects Ino helped him pick the flowers out – camellias of red, yellow, and white are flourished beneath her nose. “Happy White Day!”

“Thanks, Li,” she tells him sincerely – even if she doesn’t return his feelings, it would be rude not to accept the offering. Besides, no one ever buys her flowers. “These are beautiful.”

“Only the most radiant blossoms for the most radiant blossom of them all!”

“Huh. She didn’t punch him,” Naruto remarks to Sasuke in an aside. “Should I have gotten her flowers instead?”

Sasuke crosses his arms. “Who cares? They’d just die, too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sakura asks before she can stop herself, clutching the flowers to herself.

Sasuke shrugs and continues walking. “You’re impressed by useless things. If people are going to observe ridiculous holidays, the least they could do is give you something useful.”

“Hey, it’s not ridiculous!” Naruto protests. “At least we got her something, asshole.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s okay, guys,” Sakura says quietly, trying to diffuse the situation.

“No, Sakura, he is being most rude,” Li tells her. He frowns at Sasuke’s back and balls his bandaged hand into a fist. “Would it not set back my recovery time, I would challenge him to a duel!”

“No, no! Don’t do that,” she says quickly. “You can’t right now. Lady Tsunade said you can’t exert yourself. And really, I love the flowers. I’m going to put them in water the minute I get home, okay?”

Although Li is placated, when she looks up, Sasuke is already down the street with Naruto glowering at his retreating back.

“He seriously needs to unpucker,” Naruto grumbles.

Sakura sighs and mourns yet another day ruined by whatever’s going on with Sasuke.

When she gets home, her mother admires the bouquet and suggests inviting Li over to dinner; her father makes jokes about having to beat away the boys with a stick. Sakura grumbles at them both, reminds them that she and Li are only ever going to be friends, and heads upstairs to fall face-first on her bed.

For several long, blissful moments, she exists in perfect peace, nothing but the light breeze teasing at her hair. She is utterly exhausted, drained, and if she’s being honest, a little hurt as well. It’s sometimes hard to care about someone who is unwilling to open up. She figures that having your entire family murdered by your brother as well as having a psychotic shinobi brand you with a curse mark aren’t exactly things that are easy to talk about, but…

She still wishes he would talk to her. One day he will, she knows, but in the meantime, pretending that his constant rebuffs and caustic remarks don’t bother her is becoming a chore.

A shiver creeps up her spine and Sakura frowns.

Her room is drafty from the open window, a fact that’s confusing – she never leaves her windows open when she leaves the house. With a muffled groan, she pushes herself up and crosses the room to close it, only to pause at the sight of something sitting on the window sill – a plain, flat, white box. It’s not very large and she doesn’t see any ink or seals on it to suggest it might be dangerous, but there’s no note attached to explain its presence.

Half-suspicious, half-curious, she lifts the thin lid on the box.

Her breath catches in her throat.

A pair of black gloves are neatly nestled inside the container. They are thick, of high quality leather, and clearly well-made. Upon trying one on, she discovers that they are bigger than her hand – obviously made for a woman. She’ll grow into them eventually.

She can’t figure out who left these for her or why. They’ll be useful, though, to protect her hands from any stray blades or even during sparring sessions.

As she pulls the glove off, she is hit by an oddly familiar scent – cedar, incense, and tatami.

It takes a second to place where she’s smelled that, and when she does, her cheeks flush with warmth.

“Next time,” she promises herself out loud, holding the gloves close to her heart. Her birthday is in two weeks, and maybe if she plays her cards right, she can talk him into going on a date with her.

Only I’ll call it training instead of a date because maybe that word makes him nervous. But if we happen to stop by somewhere to eat on the way home, that wouldn’t be horrible, would it?

She spends the rest of the night planning it out in her head, never dreaming of the possibility that Sasuke won’t be anywhere near Konoha by the time her birthday comes around.

六

It’s been almost a year since Sasuke left.

A year since Sakura’s entire life was upended and thrown onto a path she never would have imagined. For herself or her friends.

She hasn’t seen Naruto is almost as long, not since he started travelling and training with Lord Jiraiya. He still sends letters when he can, but they’re few and far between. She barely sees Kakashi anymore, either – he’s always off on some mission or other. And, of course, Sakura herself is busy training with Tsunade and interning at the hospital.

Most days, she can push away the hurt and worry, but other days, it feels like the glaring absences in her life are even more obvious.

She supposes that’s why she finds herself making the rounds on Valentine’s Day, passing out chocolate to her male friends. Anything for a little bit of normalcy, anything to pretend like she’s still just a kid and not training until she bleeds almost every day to be strong enough to save the boy she loves.

Because she does love him.

Sakura knew she cared for Sasuke growing up, but his complete absence in her life has created a gnawing, hollow void that is too painful for her feelings to have been just a crush.

Somewhere along the line while she was on his team, learning to become a shinobi alongside him, Sasuke stopped being just a good-looking, smart boy to her. Sakura got to know him – the darkness he wore like armour, and the light he only revealed in his rarest, most unguarded moments.

The boy who thanked her for loving him, instead of outright rejecting her even when he was leaving her behind – that boy needs to be saved, even if it is from himself. It’s why she let Naruto make a promise to bring him back. And, no matter what, she’s going to be right beside him when they do.

Until then, she’s taking every day one at a time, trying to enjoy the little things that used to make her happy.

This year, there’s no way to send anything to Naruto – even if there was, she suspects Lord Jiraiya would eat it before her friend got a look in. The guy’s a complete lout, legendary Sannin or not. As for Kakashi, with his frequent absences, he’s hard to pin down. Sakura considers giving her small gift to Gai-sensei to pass on, but she honestly can’t take his overwhelming exuberance today.

Instead, she heads downtown to Manako’s shop. If Kakashi was to check in with anyone when he gets back from a mission, it’s either his rival or his…

Well, whatever Manako is to him. In any case, the Inuzuka woman is the more perceptive and relaxed of the two options.

Upon entering the little shop, the familiar scent of parchment, ink, and gunpowder wash over Sakura. Shelves with different scrolls and tags line the walls, each one able to create explosive blasts of varying degrees of severity and with different effects. Manako is a genius when it comes to demolitions – probably due to her keen senses – and for a civilian, understands the shinobi world better than most.

The woman herself is hunched over the counter, frowning at several complex equations on a scroll from beneath a fringe of dark hair. As Sakura ventures closer, Manako sniffs and glances up, smirking in recognition.

“Well, well, well. Look who it is,” she drawls, sliding her work away then straightening up, arms crossed. “It’s funny. You kind of remind me of this kid who used to come in here to buy explosive tags. Skinny little thing, about so high?” She makes a motion toward her hip with one hand. “Usually with a loud, blond brat who smells like ramen?”

“Knock it off. You know I was here last month.”

“I’m just saying you used to be in here more often,” Manako sighs dramatically. “I still keep your usual order in stock, too. But then again, as I hear it, you don’t really have much use for that Sakura Blizzard technique of yours anymore. Is it true that old Tsunade’s teaching you to break mountains?”

Sakura goes red. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Well, Scarecrow talks a lot, doesn’t he?” she shrugs and then leers suggestively. “Or at least he does when you know what he likes.”

Sakura’s flattered modesty turns into embarrassed disgust just as quickly. “Please stop talking now.”

It’s like thinking about parent-sex! Ugh, I should have gone with Gai-sensei after all!

But Manako laughs good-naturedly and mimes zipping her lips.

“What can I do for you, kiddo?”

“Actually, I’m just here to drop something off for Kakashi. I never know when he’s going to be around, so leaving it outside his apartment seems silly,” Sakura explains, handing over the small box of chocolates. “I mean, I doubt he’ll really care either way, but you know…it’s Valentine’s Day.” She shrugs. “If you want them, go ahead.”

“Nah, never touch the stuff. Me and most of my family are allergic to it.”

“That makes sense.” Sakura blinks in surprise. “Hey, wait – Kiba always used to accept chocolate when we were in the Academy. He used to fight Naruto over it almost every year.”

“That’s because my brother’s a stubborn little bastard who would eat himself sick just to prove a point,” Manako replies dryly, reaching out to take the box. “But I can keep these in my fridge for Kakashi. He’ll wander by eventually.” She eyes the small sack Sakura is carrying with her, and raises an eyebrow. “More stops today?”

“Mm-hm,” Sakura acknowledges, readjusting her gloves; they are still too large for her, but she wears them everywhere. “I’ve got a bunch to give out to my other friends before my shift starts at the hospital.”

Li should’ve just gotten back from a mission. Shikamaru and Choji probably talked Ino into getting them barbecue. Sakura even caved and picked up something for Neji, even though he’s never been what she might call friendly to her. She doubts he’ll eat any of it, but he was one of the guys who went after Sasuke to bring him back and she will be eternally grateful for that.

Sakura’s throat begins to ache at the reminder, a sure sign that if she keeps thinking on the subject, she’ll start crying again. She clears her throat and suggests, “Although…maybe I’ll get something different for Kiba?”

“Eh, why bother? By now, it’s almost tradition. Baby brother pukes his guts up, Mom yells at him, and Hana fusses over the little runt until he’s feeling better – a vicious, unending cycle.“

“That’s ridiculous. If it’s something he knows hurts him, why does he keep doing it?”

Manako shrugs. “People don’t always like what’s good for them.”

Isn’t that the truth?

The words hit a little too close to home which is why Sakura decides to cut the visit short. She pastes a smile on her face. “Anyway, that’s all I came in here for.”

Manako nods, her face taking on a more thoughtful cast than Sakura is used to.

“How’re you holding up?” she asks.

The question is unexpected, considering she and Manako don’t exactly have a close friendship, but there’s no doubt what she’s referring to. Everyone in the village knows of Sakura’s one-sided feelings for the youngest Uchiha traitor. She knows that people say stuff when they think she can’t hear, but she’s never taken Manako to be the type to listen to or care much for gossip.

Hoping to side-step the issue, Sakura continues to smile, although it’s a little more strained now. “What do you mean? I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not,” Manako replies pointedly. “But I won’t push it if you’re set on faking it. Sometimes, it’s the only way to make it through the day.”

“What…what do you mean by that?”

She shrugs, piling her parchment and ink on top of the chocolates for Kakashi. “Nothing.”

But now Sakura is annoyed. “Then why’d you say anything?”

The bomb-maker is silent for a long moment, but at the last second, pauses in her journey to the back of the shop.

“Look, you’re not the first woman to get her heart broken by an Uchiha,” she tells her bluntly, although not altogether unkindly. “It hurts. It will probably hurt forever. But at least you know yours is still alive, right? So, just hold on to that. And go out there and kick ass.”

She disappears into the back of the shop, leaving Sakura puzzling over that. The implications are strange and yet not as surprising as she would expect. Sakura tends to forget sometimes that Sasuke wasn’t always the last Uchiha – in fact, if the reports she’s glimpsed on Lady Tsunade’s desk are any indication, he still isn’t.

Once, there was a whole clan, people who were part of this village. There are probably people still alive today who knew them, and now…now everyone just pretends they didn’t exist.

The notion bothers her, and it’s still in her thoughts as she wanders alone through the Uchiha district at the end of her day. In her hands, she carries a small, potted cherry tomato plant which she bought at the market on her way home. She plants it behind his apartment, in a spot she knows from her last visit here gets a lot of sun.

Looking down at the lonely little plant, she thinks on Manako’s words and clenches her fists.

He’s alive. Somewhere, he’s alive. He’s going to come back. And he’ll want to know that no one forgot him.

七

It’s been almost two years and Sakura has almost given up on ever hearing from Sasuke again.

She’s only able to sleep at night because she knows that while Orochimaru covets his body, Sasuke gets to live. Still, the more time passes, the more nightmares she has – horrible, detailed visions of Sasuke returning the village, only it’s not him. In these dreams, the village burns while Orochimaru, his face a shredded amalgamation of his and Sasuke’s features, laughs.  

She wishes she had someone to confide in about these dreams, but that would mean uttering Sasuke’s name. Besides the fact that her entire body hurts when she does that, she can’t stand the pitying looks she gets from people when she does.

Naruto would understand, but he’s still travelling. She hasn’t heard from him in a while beyond the occasional note to tell her he’s alive. Kakashi’s reconnaissance missions have increased, and the last communication she had with him was four months ago; he sent her a congratulatory note after she became a chūnin, a milestone that should mean something to her.

All she can think of is that she should’ve experienced it with Naruto and Sasuke by her side.

Now she’ll never get the chance.

“You look tired, dear,” her mother tells her one morning. “You should ask for the day off.”

“I can’t. Lady Tsunade is going to be testing out those antidotes I made yesterday.”

“And she needs you there for that?” Mebuki harrumphs. “She can just tell you how they turned out tomorrow. You need a break. Go out and have some fun. Especially today.”

Sakura blinks in confusion for a moment, then glances back at the calendar.

Valentine’s Day.

Oh.

“I really am busy, Mom. Besides, it’s not a good time.”

“Pah! There’s always time for romance! What? Are you worried no one would ask you out?”

“That’s not – I really don’t care about that sort of thing.”

The irony of that statement is not lost on her.

“What about your friend? The nice boy with the eyebrows. He’s always so polite when he comes by here.”

“I don’t like Li that way.”

“Why not? He clearly cares about you.”

“Mom, stop.”

“Sweetheart, I’m just worried about you,” her mother beseeches, her lighthearted and teasing tone vanishing. “You can’t put your entire life on hold for one boy –”

“Mom!”

“ – who isn’t coming back.”

CRASH!

The kitchen table is suddenly in two pieces – jagged planks on the kitchen floor and her fist throbbing. She didn’t properly channel her chakra, and if it weren’t for her still too-large gloves, her knuckles would be bleeding right now.

“Sakura!”

“He’s coming back!” Sakura cries, ignoring her mother’s shocked expression.

Mebuki recovers herself, hands on her hips. “There’s no need to break our furniture, young lady.”

“Naruto promised! We’re going to find him together! He said!”

“It doesn’t matter if you find him, if he doesn’t want to be here! If he doesn’t want…”

Her mother trails off and Sakura tenses.

“Doesn’t want?” she prompts.

“Never mind.”

“Doesn’t want me, right?” Sakura suggests, and now she’s shouting. “Who cares if he comes back if he doesn’t want me, is that it? Well, I don’t care! I don’t care if he comes back and doesn’t want me, because at least he’d be here. Alive. And maybe, even if it’s not me, he’ll find someone who makes him happy and he won’t want to be away from all of the people who do care about him, and that is all that matters!”

She’s crying now and, damn it, she promised herself she wouldn’t do that anymore!

“Sakura –”

“I have to go,” she sobs, hurtling blindly out the door and away from the house.

In circumstances like these, she usually heads for the training grounds, desperately needing to punch something that isn’t furniture. She knows she’ll be dealing with the fallout from that loss of temper for a while, but right now, she just needs to cool down.

As she nears the outskirts of the village, she unconsciously finds herself changing directions and in no time, is standing in front of Sasuke’s house.

The place is empty. No one wants anything to do with the remaining hints of the Uchiha clan, in much the same way that no one ever goes to Naruto’s apartment, except for her – as if being in the same place as either one might spread some sort of disease.

Sakura clenches her fists, stalking around the back of the apartment, frowning down at the tomato plant she put there last year. She has been tending to it every few days and, as a result, it is flourishing. Tiny greenish orbs are already forming.

It’s the only living, growing thing in this entire damned neighbourhood that someone actually cares about.

White-hot rage overwhelms her and Sakura snaps forward, ripping the little plant from the ground roots and all. She hurls it across the street before finally giving in and allowing herself to burst into gut-wrenching sobs.

She is late for her shift at the hospital.

Tsunade takes one look at her and sends her home; it’s clear she’s completely unfocussed today. Ino lets her stay at her place that night and, thankfully, doesn’t say anything about Sasuke.

The next morning before returning home to apologise to her mother, Sakura goes back to the Uchiha district.

The heap of branches and vines is, by some miracle, still lying forlornly in the road.

Sakura carefully gets rid of the mutilated parts, and checks that the roots and stalk haven’t been too badly damaged. As she arranges splints to hold it up, Sakura tries not to feel like the tomato plant is some sort of analogy for her life.

八

The world is gearing up for war. No one marks Valentine’s Day this year.

Every morning, Sakura holds her picture of Team Seven close to her heart, and wonders what the future holds for her former teammates – and herself.

Every night, she dreams of a boy with black eyes and an injured soul, and fervently wishes she knew he was all right.

The gloves finally fit.

九

The war is over and life as she knows it has not ended.

In the last four months, every able-bodied man, woman, and child has been helping in the recovery process. Although there have been losses, the small circle of people who Sakura holds closest to her heart are all safe. She just wishes she could see them more often.

Naruto, in spite of his healing abilities, spends most of his time in and out of the hospital for physical therapy – when he isn’t busy training to eventually become Hokage.

“I saved the damn world, I shouldn’t have to study anymore, believe it!” he complains constantly, much to the amusement – and quickly, annoyance – of anyone who will listen.

Kakashi is busy actually being the next Hokage which Sakura finds hilarious. She thinks he’s spending most of his free-time teaching Naruto so that he can get out of the job as quickly as possible.

And Sasuke…

He’s in prison.

He’s been there since the end of the war. As soon as the Infinite Tsukuyomi was dispelled and the disoriented shinobi from all the different nations were cared for, he surrendered himself willingly to Konoha’s justice without even knowing if they would execute him or not.

The Raikage is still bombarding Kakashi with extradition demands, but they’ve become weekly instead of daily, so that’s something.

As overjoyed as Sakura was with Sasuke’s return home, it was nothing like she pictured the event would be when she was young. Instead of strolling through the gates supported by herself and Naruto, Sasuke was led through in chains, a binding seal on his eyes. Instead of the village welcoming him home with open arms, suspicion and judgement fell on him from all corners.

Even worse, he deserves it and she knows it.

It feels like such a betrayal – worse than that day when she made up her mind to kill him. She can’t blindly support what he did the way she might’ve when she was twelve. Hell, she couldn’t even bring herself to visit him for that first month.

Seeing Sasuke again after everything was hard. From the first night after defeating Kaguya, Sakura was plagued by nightmares. Not of the battle itself, but of the genjutsu that Sasuke placed her under. It was stronger than anything she’d ever encountered, multilayered and complex, and the trial she went through just to break herself out of it – she still feels a little sick at the memory.

It took her a full month and many one-on-one sessions with Tsunade to completely separate her real memories from what happened to her while under the illusion. In the process of unravelling the mental trauma, she even discovered an unexpected side effect: a sudden understanding about what Sasuke underwent as a child.

He was subjected to his brother’s Tsukuyomi not once, but twice. Without knowing what was happening or having anyone to help him through it afterward, he coped with the trauma in the only ways he knew how – by shutting everyone out and seeking out someone powerful enough to ensure he’d never become a victim again.  

It’s no wonder he was never able to care for her with all that taking up space in his head.

Growing up, Sakura always thought Sasuke’s relationship with Naruto was just some immature childhood rivalry – boys fight about the same stupid stuff that girls do. She resented it, too, because he cared more about measuring his abilities against Naruto than acknowledging her. Now, though, she understands that it’s the only kind of relationship he had the capacity for. Whatever Itachi did to him, it stamped out any understanding he has ever had of the way normal friendships and relationships are supposed to work. Everything had to be framed as a struggle, and to him, a rival made more of an impact than a friend, or even a lover.

And yet, even knowing that he may never be able to see her as anything but his former teammate, Sakura can’t stop loving him.

And that’s fine, really.

Lady Tsunade never married after she lost her lover, but it didn’t stop her from becoming the most powerful kunoichi in the world. Sakura still hopes Sasuke will return her feelings, but unlike when she was twelve, it isn’t her only dream. She might not be destined to become Hokage, but there’s so much she can do for the world on her own.

And to start, she intends to make sure that what happened to her precious comrades – Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, and anyone else left orphaned by circumstance – will never happen again.

So, if Sasuke never left, she never would’ve discovered her ultimate purpose. Once she realised that, it made it easier to finally visit him.

Not that he’s technically allowed visitors, but Sakura’s status as Tsunade’s apprentice opens doors. And if it didn’t, the fact that she’s one of the new generation of Sannin who helped to save the planet would.

It doesn’t happen very often – there’s so much work to do at the hospital, and so many relief missions being outsourced these days. She’s never allowed in without an escort because, she suspects, the Elders worry that perhaps one of Sasuke’s old teammates might try to break him out of prison or something.

And, of course, the visits themselves are hardly typical.

Sasuke remains bound completely, blinded by a seal, and tightly secured in a way that makes her sick to see, even if she understands the necessity.

(Even if that small, still-healing part of her is glad for it.)

He never speaks, but he does listen when she talks. She knows he does because she spent her childhood talking at him, and she recognises the signs when he’s listening or when he’s ignoring her. Sometimes, she closes her eyes and imagines they aren’t surrounded by bars in a cold, dank basement. It’s not quite like the old days, but it’s something.

Which is why, on Valentine’s Day, Sakura thinks nothing of heading to the prison with a bag of goodies, feeling a whimsical sense of nostalgia.

She’s a frequent enough visitor nowadays that, even if she wasn’t the Hokage’s apprentice, they’d let her in. Ibiki just rolls his eyes while the guards tease her good-naturedly. Many of them are also still recovering from wartime injuries, and she’ll usually stop to chat with them or offer treatment suggestions when she has the time.

Today, she offers them each small boxes of chocolate because, working down here, it’s not like they’re accessible to the people who care about them.

“Just make sure you pay it forward and treat your sweethearts well next time you see them,” she chides good-naturedly. “They have to put up with you, after all.”

Pleasant laughs and light-hearted protest follow, and then Sakura submits to the usual protocol. They check her belongings for contraband or (ridiculously enough) poison, and then she’s wandering through the dank basement to the cell where Sasuke is being kept.

She thinks that Sasuke perks up when he hears her gait, but it’s dark down here and she doesn’t possess a Sharingan…just an overactive imagination.

“Hello, Sasuke,” she greets softly, waving even though he can’t see it. “How are you?” As if he would answer her honestly or at all. “Is there anything you want me to check for you?”

She’s the only person he’ll allow to see to his health, whether it’s to examine the remnants of his arm, or ensure that he isn’t getting sick from the damp cell conditions. The stubborn fool actually refused medical care the entire month she didn’t come see him which she promptly yelled at him for.

She thinks he was a little surprised at that, a fact which fills her with no small amount of satisfaction.

“Well, all right. But the minute you notice something doesn’t feel right, you tell me, okay? I don’t want to see another infection in your arm.”

Silence.

“I can’t actually stay very long today,” she tells him apologetically. “There’s a backlog of patients. Mostly stomach trouble. I think there’re too many guys eating sweets.” She chuckles lightly, noting him cock his head in question. “Valentine’s Day, you know?” His mouth makes a familiar, reflexive downturn and her eyes soften. “I guess that’s one upside to being in here, right? No one to bother you with unwanted chocolate.”

There’s no point in mentioning that, these days, she’s the only one who would consider getting Sasuke a gift.

“Speaking of,” she goes on, reaching for the contain of tomatoes she brought with her. “I actually did bring you something, for old times’ sake. I think you probably haven’t had any in a while.”

She holds one of the plump fruits out to him before she fully considers the situation. Then she freezes, fingers hovering inches from his lips, suddenly unsure of herself.

Idiot! He can’t see what you have – and even if he could, he hates being useless! Way to remind him that he’s basically dependant on everyone these days!

Not to mention that feeding another person is kind of intimate. She’s immediately conscious of her increasing heart-rate and has to take a stabilising breath.

Stop it. There’s no ulterior motive here. It’s very simple. Sasuke can’t use his hands, so I have to help him – just like that time when Naruto couldn’t feed himself. It doesn’t have to mean anything.

“Open your mouth,” she tells him, and even with her brain giving her logical arguments, Sakura can’t help the flood of warmth to her cheeks. She can just imagine the expression he would be giving her – confused and suspicious – if not for the blindfold.

Just when she thinks he’s going to keep ignoring her and she’ll have to convince him, he does as she’s asked.

Before she loses her nerve, she presses the fruit to his lips and he carefully bites down. A lone rivulet of juice runs down the corner of his mouth as Sasuke emits a definite noise of surprise – possibly even pleasure – and Sakura feels a giddy sense of accomplishment.

“Not too sweet, right?” she asks him nervously as he slowly continues chewing. “They shouldn’t be. This type isn’t supposed to be sweet and all, and I picked them early enough, so they’re only just ripe. I was just surprised there were any. I mean, so much of the Uchiha district is just rubble now, but this little plant managed to survive it. Against all odds!” She smiles even though he can’t see it. “Want another one?”

“Hm.”

In anyone else, that would just be a vocalisation, but Sasuke might as well have just waxed poetic. Sakura’s smile becomes a beam of joy, and the reaches for another tomato.

She doesn’t let him eat all of them – he’s on a restricted diet, and she doesn’t want to make him sick – but she promises to give them to his jailor to include with his dinner rations.

“I’ll bring some more next time,” she tells him, standing up. “I’ve got to go now though, so…”

She trails off, and as expected, he has nothing to say.

Her happiness ebbs a little at this, but she shrugs it off. It’s Sasuke, and she’s already gotten more from him today than she would expect.

As she slips back through the iron door, though, the silence of the cell is broken.

“Sakura…” His voice is gravelly from disuse, making her stomach do a queer little flip and a chill climb up her spine. “Thank you.”

The way he says it, she knows it’s not just the tomatoes he’s grateful for. And unlike the first two times he’s said these words to her, she isn’t crying.

She smiles into the darkness and tells him, “You’re welcome.”

Maybe there’s hope for the future after all.

十

Sakura is busier than she has ever been in her life.

Setting up a children’s mental health clinic is a lot more difficult in practice than on paper, and considering the lack of resources, tasks which should take weeks end up taking months. She can’t remember the last time she fell asleep without planning out what problems she has to fix the next day.

Kakashi is as helpful as he can be, considering how much paperwork he gets buried in every day. And Naruto is usually busy shadowing him, learning protocols and proper Hokage etiquette. Besides, organisational skills are not his strong suit.

Sasuke has been gone for almost a year.

Even though he’s no longer out in the world seeking revenge, his absences is still keenly felt. Sakura tries to comfort herself with the fact that at least this time, they are communicating. They exchange letters, but they aren’t the kind she secretly still hopes for. They’re sporadic at best, and only to check in; there are no lyrical descriptions of the places he visits or heartfelt declarations of love. Sometimes, he asks her for advice about local herbs that can be used as remedies, and he always ends the note with an assurance that he is fine.

She never really expected Sasuke to be the love-letter type, but sometimes, she wishes that he might give her some indication of whether they’ll ever have more than this odd, holding-pattern friendship. The closest indication of affection she’s gotten from him since his release from prison is a puzzling tap on the forehead.

It’s a little frustrating, to say the least.

Valentine’s Day comes around once more, and Sakura makes her rounds to all the men in her life, out of habit more than anything else.

It’s the first year she gives anything to Sai, who asks if he’s supposed to pay her back in sexual favours. Ino is not happy with that, and yet for some reason, it’s Sakura who gets yelled at. It’s even more unfair because by now, Sakura’s a pretty good judge of when Sai is really confused or just fucking with people. She has a suspicion about her two friends, but until she gets more confirmation, she just lets it go.

Later during the day, she goes shopping with Hinata to help her pick out the right gift for Naruto.  The Hyūga heiress is even more blatantly obvious about her romantic feelings than Sakura ever remembers being, but she’s also painfully shy. And Naruto is painfully clueless.

In the end, Sakura ends up giving him both her and Hinata’s gifts together, as if they’re both just gifts for a friend. Hinata is obviously upset with herself, but she thanks Sakura for her help all the same, and Sakura tells her not to worry about it.

“By next year, we’ll work up that confidence and you can give him chocolate all by yourself,” she teases, but it’s all in fun.

She’s not sure which is worse – being in love with someone who knows about your feelings and doesn’t return them, or being in love with someone who doesn’t even see you as a woman. Either way, she and Hinata are in the same boat.

Maybe we should start a support group…

She doesn’t send anything to Sasuke.

There would be no point. She doesn’t want to expose his location if he’s on a reconnaissance mission, and she doesn’t think he would appreciate the gesture these days anyhow. Gifts from a hopeless romantic probably don’t really fit into his mission of redemption.

Tomatoes don’t ship too easily by air, after all. Especially by the ornery little hawk Sasuke always sends. The thing has a mouth like a bullhorn and the same imperious attitude as Ebisu.

Still, Sasuke or not, it’s part of her routine to check on the now substantial tomato plant in the Uchiha compound. The rest of the compound is still in ruins – Kakashi and Naruto are unwilling to do anything to the place until Sasuke gives some indication of his future plans – but her little addition is somehow still going strong.

Sakura only intends to check for weeds today and then head home, but upon kneeling down to get started, she finds something unexpected. Sitting within the vines of the plant itself, and clearly not there by accident, is an unwrapped white box. It’s identical to the one she found on her windowsill so many years ago.

Fingers trembling, Sakura looks around, wondering if perhaps someone is playing a cruel joke on her. When she senses no one nearby, she picks up the box and very slowly opens it.

Her breath catches in her throat at the sight.

Nestled in the centre is a tiny, white gold pendant, moulded into the familiar shape of an uchiwa.

There is no card, nothing besides the charm, and yet it’s clear – just as it was with the gloves – who is responsible for this and who it is meant for. Sakura tears up a little because the idea of Sasuke doing something like this is foreign, but so very much welcome.

It doesn’t exactly clear up their relationship – in fact, it makes it more complicated and confusing – but for the first time in a long time, it’s hope.

And she’ll take that over anything else, any day.

終わり

_____________________________________________________________________

I hope you enjoyed the story! As part of the SasuSakuFestival, please vote, like and/or reblog, it would be majorly appreciated!

クリ

#sasusaku #ssfest17 #ssfanfiction #ssfestday1 #submission #ssfestentry

[inukagome15]

it's because since naru and sasu were jumping so many dimensions to fight the rabbit god that they jumped into a parallel one (that's the reason the ending of naruto is so shitty)

lolol That is as good an explanation as any because lordy was that ending a downer! And I’m not just talking Chapter 700. I’m also talking Chapter 699, which should’ve been over something else than what we got. Also, for that matter, the last so many chapters as well.

The Fourth Shinobi War started out really good. But it kind of went off the rails around the time of the physical introduction of the Sage of Six Paths. I’m not sure why, but the tone of the manga completely changed around that time. And let’s not even get into Kaguya’s whole shtick.

There’s just...a lot to be said about how half of the last arc was handled. Some of it’s good, but most of it...isn’t.

#naruto #but hey #I ACTUALLY FINISHED THE THING #mostly #Anonymous

[captnjacksparrow]

i dont like sasusaku and not even slightest naruhina, but its weird that you hate sakura as a character and not the creator himself. as much as i hate sakura, i used to love her development but all that went to trash right around the ending. honestly they should've just made narusasu a canon because that made more sense and even sakuino made more sense that some of the hetero pairings 🚮

Apart from the first line of your ask, I somehow disagree with everything, Anon.

Let me tell you why.

First off,

SNS becoming canon by holding hands or kissing or walking towards Sunset.... was never going to happen. So expecting that is kind of extremely childish. I was only unhappy because they wanted to go for this Next Gen shit. That made Kishi to marry off every other characters without any development until Chapter 699.

Second off,

I am immensely happy with what I got. That is NaruSasu became Soulmates. One can't exist without the Other, One complement the Other. Even though they have married those girls and have children, I don't think they will die for their families. And they still love each other more than their own families. Point me one popular Shounen with this kind of Development between 2 male Characters???!!! So, Kishimoto made something extra-ordinary, unusual and I must appreciate him for this from the bottom of my heart. From the way he has written their bond, he really wanted to end with an Open Ending... Like no pairs and trash.

Third off,

What even SakuIno means???? I mean, Sakura was totally going horny over Sasuke's dick and kiss. She was always touching his Body whenever she gets the chance. How can she be paired with a girl??? Same case with Ino. I am not Anti-SakuIno or anything. Probably you ship them for their aesthetics. But both the girls are filtered Heterosexual. They don't have any Lesbian Subtexts like SNS has. Sorry, that is just a crack ship just like SasuHina. They both are friends. That's all.

Fourth off,

Since when did Sakura's character had better development, Anon?? You mean that Sasori fight??? You are calling it as a development, and I am still calling it as a Selfish Obsession on her Sasuke-Kun. Sakura took that fight very seriously only after Sasori mentioned the name of Orochimaru. Sakura thought, if she manage to defeat Sasori, she could get information about Orochimaru which inturn will make it easier for her to retrieve Sasuke. She never fought for Gaara or Naruto, which is what she should've done in the first place. Tell me, how is this called as Development??? Just because she repeatedly punch stuffs???

In part 1, she was a total annoying Asshole and in the end she was even more of an Asshole.

It's not like the Author developed her as some Badass Girl and then dumped her for no reason. She was always written to be hated. At no point, I felt the Author made any conscious effort to make her likeable.

Fifth off,

You are asking me to blame the creator.... And why should I??? If Kishimoto can write amazing women characters like Tsunade, Konan, Kushina.... Why can't he do that for Sakura as well???

Let's take Tsunade

Her body was splitted into Two Halves. It's really gory to look. I think even Danzo had a pretty nice death... I think she is the only character in Narutoverse to have her Torso separated from her Lower Body....

Even then

She still wants to save other people with whom she had no proper connection with!! She was still thinking about saving other Kages rather than saving herself.

Tell me atleast one moment when Sakura thought about putting her life on the line to save other people??? Or tell me at what point point of the story, Sakura remotely displayed her selflessness???

You can't.

If Kishimoto can write someone like Tsunade, why can't he make Sakura, a strong person??

Let me tell you... If I am an Author and if I want to make a character likeable, the very first thing I would do is, to make that character be nicer to the Titular Character. This is an inherent and unwritten rule. That's exactly why Hinata was liked by many people.... It's funny, people really liked her a lot in Part 1 (not realizing her inherent shittiness)... But he decided to potray her in a wrong way starting from Part 2. If only Sakura was nicer towards Naruto, I repeat nicer... not to love him... people would have liked Sakura more. But all she did was behaving extremely horny towards Sasuke but showing Drainage-level care towards Naruto. And do you really think Kishimoto don't know this logic?? At no point, I've seen her being completely genuine towards Naruto. Even when she wanted to feed him Ramen, she only did it because of Naruto's devotion towards Sasuke.

Throughout part 1, she was an asshole... Towards the end of part 1, she was nice because she needs Sasuke's dick.... And in the beginning of Part 2, She totally was using him to retrieve Sasuke... She cared him here and there.. In the middle of Part 2, she shamelessly fake confessed him.... In the end of Part 2, she was begging Sasuke to like her... She didn't care about Naruto or Tsunade, who were about to be killed by Sasuke...

Where is this development you speak of, Anon???

I am Sorry, I still feel like you are a big Sakura fan and want to make an excuse by pushing the blame on the Creator. Because Hinata fans also always do this same thing... Like pushing the blame on Kishimoto for writing her that way. They never once realise that the character they like was piss poor because the author wanted it that way.

By that logic, I must criticize him for making Sasuke take certain decision which I am not OK with, too... Right???

If your favourite character don't behave in certain way like you expected, then there's only one thing to do. Blame the Author.

Sorry, I won't be doing it for any other characters in Naruto series. I accept every characters with the way the author has written.

Sakura is a pathetic character and she was meant to be. It was intentional and deliberate from Kishimoto's side. He wants this character to be hated and that's why he wrote her that way... And I know The reason for why he did it... Which is not the point of this post.

Just ask yourself, this question Anon...

If a secondary character like Ino who was very similar to Sakura, got a good development towards the end... There are so many good woman characters inside the Narutoverse. But still, in the end, why Sakura and Hinata alone was shown to have a negative and ugly development??? What makes Sakura and Hinata different from the other women??? Why particularly these two women???

Just give this question a deep thought and you will find the Answer.

People taking the wrong cue about a Character and blaming the author for the Character's shittiness... I am Sorry, I don't support this logic.

I would really appreciate those Sakura fans who completely accept her shittiness, mistakes, flaws and still able to love her... Without blaming the author. Because I've seen such fans but they are very rare to come across.

#antisakura #anti sakura

[captnjacksparrow]

I heard there were rumors about Naruto being developed into seinen after Shippuden. Wouldn't that have been wonderful? I think it was such a wasted opportunity for another amazing experience. We wouldn't have any child marriages, or that recycled bs Boruto. And a challenge for Kishimoto. Although I am not sure about that last one, he kind of lost the plot towards the end there.

But even so, what a wasted opportunity.

What's your take? What could have been the implications of that?

Am just going to take this ask as an heartful rant!!!!!! 😊😊😊😊

Just because of this ask, I decided to dig deeper into his past interviews and found things that even confirmed my opinions even stronger. 

Damn you!!!! Kishimoto!!!!

Thanks to you @sneezemonster15 🤩🤩🤩. LOL. Because When your speculation becomes true, you will experience some satisfaction which is immeasurable.

[[Anything I am going to cite from an old interview, after this line of the post is something I got to knew only today. Which means I never knew about these interviews before. Probably SNS shippers knew about these long back but to me it’s a new thing.]]

I heard there were rumors about Naruto being developed into seinen after Shippuden. Wouldn't that have been wonderful?

I never heard of such development and even if they do, they already did a lot of damage in the name of Boruto. And I don't think they can tell anymore story after Shippuden in a convincing way.

For me, Shippuden is in and of itself looks like a big seinen based Manga because I believe there were certain themes which were told in part 2 that are simply not suitable for a 12 year old to comprehend. Even I was overwhelmed by such plots because it really questioned my world view.

I mean, what can a 12 year old understand about Hatred or World peace which Nagato planned to implement or Itachi's pain? Yeah, there may be very few who could understand but majority don’t and hence we could see some part of fandom who still thinks ‘Sasuke should have left alone and made to start a new Village as a Revolution, or he should’ve destroyed Konoha to dust’. Any mature audience who consumed various media and have a broad world view would never spout such nonsense. Because the real world wouldn't work that way.

he kind of lost the plot towards the end there.

He didn’t actually. I believe he was made to create that Kaguya plot as a thread to continue Borutoverse. It may not be his idea. I am just speculating. Because Kishi is a damn genius in dropping threads much earlier in the story.

Example, Uchiha Madara.

When Sasuke and Naruto battled in VoTE1, I was wondering about the statues as to who might they be?. Then Kakashi slightly hinted us that the statues represents the men who created Konoha, but they were fighting until the very end for some reason. Similar to how Naruto and Sasuke fought there. And when Madara’s name was dropped for the first time when Sasuke suppressed Kurama, it just got only better.

So, I think Kaguya was a plot which was created right when Naruto was decided to pair up with Hinata and have a baby who will lead the Next Generation. When the series was going on and on about Sharingan, all of a sudden it took a U-Turn towards Byakugan. I was like, ‘Who the fuck cares about Byakugan anyway?’

Then it all made sense after looking at the abomination called ‘Boruto’, where all the Aliens were seen having Byakugan. So, It feels like he lost the plot. But I really think he was forced to. 

So far, whatever I wrote till now was my observation. 

That Damn Kishimoto gave an interview long back which proved my hunch right.

So, You see, he was never interested in a sequel series to happen. He was just forced to. 

Do you know what was the real ending he aimed for?

In many of my posts, I wrote about how SNS was a carefully constructed bond which Kishimoto paid a lot of attention to. I mean, there’s no way we can call the chapter 698 as a Retconned one. Every clues and hints were already there.

It seems that the bastard confessed about this 15 years ago, in 2006 Shonen Jump Interview and again in 2015 NYCC comic con.

He didn’t talk about Ships and shits in any of these interviews. He already planned the ending long back when he finished Part 1. The ending with Naruto and Sasuke doing Reconciliation Seal with Hashirama and Madara statues by visualizing everything into details and that too in freaking 2006. 

[[Click the picture to see the full view]]

Reconciliation of Naruto and Sasuke was something Kishi planned long back after finishing part 1. He even visualized all the panels in detail and that's the ending he was striving towards.

It seems, he never planned about pairings and stuffs ahead as many shippers would like to claim. I am not saying he planned SNS as the endgame couple either. But I honestly think, Kishi wished for an ending similar to Chapter 699. Like without any pairing trash, finishing off with Naruto and Sasuke sharing their dreams and hopes together. 

And this is what I’ve been screaming in all my posts... That I speculate, I guess, I believe and so many similar words... that Kishi always wanted to finish with Chapter 699 and Chapter 700 feels like an afterthought.

But anyways, with Studio persuaded him into pair up his Main Characters, he was asked to write Boruto Script for one last time and it seems, that’s the only movie where he wrote the entire screenplay from A to Z. He said that Boruto movie is the ‘Pinnacle of his career’. Does it mean, ‘The Last’ movie was not his pinnacle, eh??? 

And what do I always scream about Boruto series in every posts?

That I feel like Naruto and Sasuke seems to Babysit Boruto like a parent. 

And that’s what he wanted to finish as the last chapter of Naruto.

I mean throughout the movie, there were no trace of Hinata and Sakura playing any major role in their Child’s life, instead Sasuke is seen talking fondly about Naruto to his Son, I mean Naruto’s Son. So, If he envision drawing 2 guys taking care of a child as the last chapter, then what was he trying to say?

This Kishimoto is just too sinister!!! 

And it seems, he dissed ‘The Last’ movie subtly in his own words. Like almost he claims he had no part in that movie. Well, I always had my doubt regarding that movie. Never expected Kishi would say this.

Couple of days ago, I made a post about, how Kishi never gave 2 fucks about Sakura from the beginning. I analyzed that post based on my observation by carefully reading through panels in the initial chapters and his motivations to draw the panel in a certain way. That gave me an idea of what Kishi’s style of designing a character. I never knew about this Interview thing, when I wrote that post.

It seems, in an Interview, he pretty much confirmed my view about him.

Kishi’s assistant was posed with a question, ‘How every character, no matter how bad they are, gets redeemed in some way?’

To which he answered, ‘Before even making a first appearance, Kishi will lay out how he wants the character to be, what it’s personality traits are, what was it about to do.’

So, Kishi really never planned to make Sakura redeemable. Her fate was sealed when she unveiled her grand dream in chapter 4 before her teammates.

What I would like to conclude is,

Kishi developing anything after Shippuden will not have his full heart. So, that development based on Seinen may not be true. 

Kishi planned Chapter 698 long back when he completed Part 1. He even visualized every panels about how it is going to be. So, probably Chapter 699 is where Kishi intended to end the series. Hence, the abomination you were made to see in Boruto is not his idea.

He never planned about pairings unless he was asked to. Hinata was the popular one and he just went with it. It’s not like he always intended for Naruto to end up with Hinata.

When he was asked to write a story about Boruto, he envisioned Boruto movie as the final chapter of Naruto series, if only he had the opportunity to draw this as a manga. In this movie, Naruto became an Hokage, Sasuke is a Shadow Hokage, Naruto’s son was adopted by Sasuke. Hinata and Sakura were the bench warmers. 

It seems to me that Kishi somehow wants to place Naruto and Sasuke as the face of this series towards the end. He knew that he can't make them as an official couple and when things didn't go as he planned he made them into an unofficial couple who takes cares of a boy with all the care.

Geez!!! I wish I were wrong😏😏😏😏. But all these interviews proves that I was right about many things without even realizing it was there.

#ask #naruto analysis #naruto #sasuke #anti sakura #anti hinata #antisakura #antihinata #anti boruto #sns #sasunaru #sasunarusasu