Fannish Analysis: Naruto

by Yemi Hikari - NF-OF (Yemi_Hikari)

Summary:

A collection of essays of mine analyzing the Naruto series.

Notes:

Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto. I do own a fannish love for analyzing fandom, though, which results in me writing meta based on that analysis. Initially, this series wasn't supposed to be marked as Mature, but having written my analysis for the first two chapters/episodes before posting, I realized that discussion of topics such as the Sexy Jutsu may delve into a territory that's more suitable for an M rating.

Enjoy reading the essays, and feel free to use them or the prompts I brainstormed at the end of each analysis of a given chapter or episode for writing inspiration.

Also, as I mentioned in the introduction, I'm open to healthy debate, but logical fallacies don't count as such.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Imagine a story.

This story is about a friendless individual with the power to make friends with anybody. It ’s a story about a perceived underdog who is destined for saintly feats. They are, after all, the child of light, pure in intention and thought to the point they can talk anybody down, including the children of darkness, bringing them into the light. Towards the end, everybody is stuck depending on them instead of themselves because they are simply that dependable, that amazing.

That story—

That story is the story of Naruto in a nutshell, minus all the descriptors regarding shinobi and such.

To which some disgruntled Naruto fans will gripe that what I ’m describing is a Gary Stu, that I’m obviously missing the point, and off base, as Naruto does in fact have his flaws.

To which—

Start by erasing from your mind the idea that this type of character is flawless, that they are perfect in nature. Not only is that a misconception, but it is also one of the most annoying defenses against a character being labeled a Gary Stu. Erase as well the idea that calling a Gary Stu out for being such is some kind of insult, some kind of a bad thing.

Yes, the term is used, when used correctly, to denote an issue with the writing.

Of course, there are Naruto fans who are convinced the story doesn ’t have any significant problems worth discussing, that those of us who criticize the work are lacking in reading comprehension, and/or that we ’re not getting the point, which are both ad hominem attacks that refuse to address the points made.

To which—

While I ’m fine with healthy debate regarding my interpretations of the canon material, healthy discussion doesn’t include fallacies of logic, which does, in fact, include arguing authorial intentionalism when one of the series' criticisms is the failure of the author’s intent to be properly conveyed; this doesn’t mean, of course, that those of us who critique the series are unable to see what.

More importantly, authorial intent is more than what the writer wishes to convey; it is also whether they properly convey it. For example, Naruto being friendless in the village is directly contradicted by his extraordinary power to make friends with everybody. One could argue he simply has the same power as Killer B, yet at the end of the day, Naruto lacked Killer B ’s charisma, and Killer B’s annoying rapping is a different kind of annoyance from what Naruto’s problematic behavior brings on.

What Are Some of the Major Problems With the Series?

• Naruto — Naruto’s character is full of contradictions, such as being friendless and having the power to make friends with anybody.

• Talk-no-Jutsu—Naruto is known for waxing philosophical, which in itself isn’t a problem; it becomes a problem when the wisdom he waxes is somehow flawed. He’s not the only character with the Talk-no-Jutsu problem; Danzo is the example that comes to mind. The only difference is that while Naruto sways people to the good side of things, Danzo sways them to the bad side of things.

  • Naruto’s can be summarized as, “I fart. You fart. We all fart so we should all get along,” and then everybody does.

  • Danzo’s can be summarized in comparison as, “I refuse to stoop to farting, but they farted on us, so we’ll go ahead and do something far, far worse than farting because I say so,” and then everybody does.

• Timeline — It’s pretty bad when everyone struggles to make a concrete timeline for the series. Still, it got to the point I just ended up making my fannish attempt at a Naruto Timeline so that I could continue my Naruto projects with ease. I tried making the timeline fluid in nature. Still, I didn’t rely on the databooks like others have because there are contradictions, such as the fourth databook claiming Naruto’s seventeenth birthday occurred during the Fourth Shinobi War when it was his sixteenth — Kushina says as much. To be exact, the timeline started going off the rails in the Manga around the Sasuke retrieval arc.

• Child of Destiny — Typically, people bring up Neji. This undermines Naruto’s Talk-no-Jutsu, as Neji ultimately proved to be right all along. However, I think a better explanation for the problem is that this is how the so-called prophecies work. In the series, Naruto is summoned to Gamamaru to receive a prophecy. He tells Naruto and Gerotora that he foresees Gerotora entering Naruto and Gerotora’s like, “If you say so,” so it ends up happening, not to mention Jiraiya said it would likely occur.

• Adding Sci-Fi to Fantasy — Kishimoto decided to add sci-fi elements to his fantasy series, which in of itself isn’t a problem. It’s the execution. For example, according to Tsunade, healing is limited by the frequency at which cells can replicate, which in turn shortens one’s lifespan. In contrast, other characters aren’t limited by this, ripping out their own spine as a weapon. Why did I bring these up? The latter is scientifically impossible, but the limit Tsunade talks about is based on cell coding that limits the number of times a cell can replicate, a coding mechanism known to be capable of being turned off.

• Misunderstanding Mythological Concepts — For example, Naruto and Sasuke at the end of the series are effectively presented as the yin and yang of each other, with Naruto surrounded by light (i.e., goodness) and Sasuke surrounded by darkness (i.e., evil). However, while it can represent light/dark, such as in light and shadows, it is a misconception that means good and evil. One I might add is a common misconception.

• Naruto and Sasuke’s Rivalry — This involves the contradictions in Naruto’s character as well as a misunderstanding of yin and yang, but one issue that comes to mind is this. Naruto is allowed to power up quickly by saying he’s using two hundred clones because he’s doing it for the right reasons, but Sasuke’s character is shamed for wanting to power up quickly because it is for the wrong reasons.

• Evil is Easily Forgiven—Characters like Orichimaru and Kabuto, who killed many for the sake of their experiments, are allowed to get away with it, with Konoha not punishing them for their crimes. Contrary to popular belief, this issue does not include Sasuke. While he did defect, he maintained a largely pacifist stance, showing mercy to those he fought. He did come close to crossing the line, but never truly did.

• Uchiha Massacure — A prime example of Danzo’s Talk-no-Jutsu, Itachi’s actions don’t make sense.

Those are most of the significant issues, though there may be more.

What does it not include?

• Anime Filler — I know some complain about how much filler there is, but I also have to wonder how many who complain about this have actually read the manga. One of the issues with the timeline is pacing, where the amount of time passing is difficult to gauge in the manga after Tsunade gets back, though it did start going downhill in her retrieval arc. I’ve also seen people attempt to discredit people’s arguments by claiming something as Anime filler when it wasn’t — it was very clearly in the Manga. I have also wondered how many Naruto fans know that Naruto’s behavior in the first episode is heavily censored.

• End Game Ships — Oddly enough, for all of Kishimoto’s faults, he did present adequate moments that lean towards Naruto ending up with Hinata and Sasuke ending up with Sakura. This isn’t to say there aren’t shipping moments for other ships in the canon material, but to say that these ships came out of nowhere would be disingenuous. Meaning? A lot of the discourse regarding endgame shipping has to do with shipping preference, not whether the endgame ships make sense or not. Though I do agree. Neji shouldn’t have died just so Naruto and Hinata could end up with each other, but given his uncle likely planned on marrying him to one of his cousins, Neji living and letting Hinata have her happiness would be the proper way of going against the clan than what Kishimoto did.

Why is everything summarized?

Because I ’ve got a lot to say, which means a lot of meta to write. Though, in saying this, timeline-specific meta is going to be added as chapters to the Naruto Timeline I created.

Yet, I plan on having some fun with this, such as the explanation for Talk-no-Jutsu I gave and prompt ideas for those who want them. Which—

Prompt 0.01 — Naruto ’s Talk-no-Jutsu can be summarized as, “I fart. You fart. We all fart so we should all get along,” and then everybody does. Danzo’s can be summarized in comparison as, “I refuse to stoop to farting, but they farted on us, so we’ll go ahead and do something far, far worse than farting because I say so,” and then everybody does. Use this as inspiration for a fanfic. It can be as serious or as crack as one wants.

Anything Else of Note

I use the Japanese school system to figure out the timeline and the characters ’ ages. Yes, I’m aware that the fourth databook says the ages should be calculated from January to December, but this is also the databook that claims Naruto turned seventeen during the war, despite Kushina clearly saying only sixteen years have passed when she talked to Naruto. I assume the Japanese school system is being used because this is a series made in Japan and based on Japanese culture, just as I would assume the USA school system is being used in a series produced in the USA and based on USA culture.

Also, I ’ve a theory that Kishimoto is neurodiverse in some manner, and this is the reason behind the issues in the series, which in turn only makes me more interested in the series, particularly since I feel Kishimoto unintentionally created quite a few characters who fall into the neurodiverse category such as Gaara being on the autism spectrum potentially.

Chapter 2: Chapter Index

Chapter 1/Episode 1

001. The Village Never Bullied Naruto

Main conclusion: Despite what is said in the first chapter/episode, Naruto was never bullied by the village. This is something that we're told is true in the Manga, while supplementary material (aka anything that isn't the Manga) is what shows us this to be true. There are also later things in the Manga that contradict this idea of Naruto being alone.

Minor conclusions:

• First, someone had to have raised Naruto, as infants can't raise themselves.
• Second, the real reason Naruto is ostracized appears to be the result of his obnoxious behavior.
• Third, this idea of Naruto being an underdog is false from the start, as the village never ostracized him, as we've seen other characters shown to be within the Manga rather than just the supplemental material. When he puts his mind to something rather than playing hooky, he can accomplish the task.
• Fourth, Kurama is often used as a convenient scapegoat for Naruto's problems, rather than Naruto facing his behavioral issues, such as pulling pranks that go too far, or poor study habits.
• Fifth, Naruto failing the test and not being older than the other students at the end of the day doesn't make sense.
• Sixth, Naruto is likely ADHD.
• Seventh, respect is earned, something Naruto obviously doesn't understand regarding the role of Hokage, nor is the Hokage the strongest - he is instead one of the strongest.

Chapter 2/Episode 2

002. Naruto is a Little Perve

Main conclusion: For a character so apt at calling others out for being a pervert, Naruto is one to talk, having come up with Sexy Jutsu.

Minot conclusions:

• First, the use of the Bloody Nose trope is used differently depending on the material. The Manga uses it in a non-traditional manner to signify which characters are perverts. The Anime, though (which is supplemental material), uses it in the traditional manner, which is a way of inserting adult humor into the show as it is a euphemism for being sexually aroused.
• Second, regardless of which manner it is being used, Iruka's reaction can be attributed to unresolved teenage hormones that were negatively impacted by having Naruto as a student since he turned sixteen.
• Third, Naruto is mocking in the context of the Manga the perverted nature of certain men, which includes raging teenage hormones (Iruka) that Naruto doesn't yet understand. But in the context of the Anime, he's making fun of men for public arousal, which, depending on the person, is already an embarrassing situation to be in without a little kid pointing it out as Naruto does.
• Forth, Naruto is again, likely ADHD.
• Fifth, Naruto is likely spoiled rotten because he's the son of the fourth Hokage.

Chapter 3/Episode 3

003. Naruto is an Unintentional Bully

Main Conclusion: Naruto is the actual bully.

Minor Conclusions:

• Some of this behavior is unintentional, such as how Naruto treats Sakura.
• Some of this behavior is intentional, such as how Naruto thinks of purposefully making Sasuke look bad.
• Sasuke is possibly on the autism spectrum.
• Sasuke also 

Shipping:

• Naruto/Sakura - 0 to 1 - The way he treats Sakura in this chapter is abusive and screams they shouldn't end up together at the end, as he has absolutely no respect for her boundaries, going so far as to be willing to take her first kiss based on deception.

Chapters 4-8/Episodes 4-5

004. 90% Failure Rate is Illogical

Main Conclusion: The failure rate doesn't make sense.

Minor Conclusions:

• If 70% of Naruto's year failed by the time this occurs, why is it such a big deal that Naruto failed as well? This is proof that Naruto isn't actually an underdog; it's the narrative trying to present him as such.
• With a total of 90% failure rate, what's with the ninja registration IDs?  Why even give someone you're going to send back to the academy an ID number?
• What if more than three teams succeed? Who gets sent back? Isn't this just a convenient way to make the rest of Naruto's year non-existent outside of the nine, even though they should logically exist later on in the series? This is lazy writing.

005. Icha Icha Isn't Porn

Major Conclusions: The idea that the Icha Icha series is porn is an incorrect assumption on the part of Naruto's fan base, as canon never actually states this. Aka, Anime filler doesn't count, and the word of Naruto, who falls into the age restricted from reading it, who eventually goes on to edit the manuscript despite it being age restricted, should be taken with a major grain of salt.

Minor Conclusions:

• The shaming of Icha Icha by Naruto's fanbase equates to shaming women for their adult romance novels.
• The assumption by Naruto's fanbase also stems from looking at the series through a Western cultural lens, completely ignoring the Japanese cultural context here.
• Icha Icha is most likely, at the end of the day, very descriptive PDA, which would of course make a yamato nadeshiko like Hinata blush at reading and not want to let her son read the material.
• Everybody likes to forget, regarding Icha Icha, that Jiraiya let Naruto edit his third book, which becomes pivotal during the Pain Arc.

006. Kakashi's Whacked Out Humor

Main conclusion: Kakashi has a sense of humor and/or amusement that isn't normal.

Minor conclusions:

• Kakashi's sense of humor has a morbid nature to it, as evidenced by how he brushes off his use of gengetsu on Sakura.
• Kakashi is very likely on the spectrum, thus to him his morbid sense of humor seeming normal to him.
• Kakashi has an obsession with the Icha Icha series that could be described as otaku in nature. This may be simply an obsession with the series, an obsession with adult romance novels, and/or even an obsession with Jiraiya himself, being that he is Minato's sensei and/or (personal headcanon) may be Sakumo's brother (or some other Hatake relation)

007. Sakura and the Avenger

Major conclusion: Sasuke is treated as being in the wrong for wanting to seek justice for his clan, while Naruto is treated as being in the right for wanting to seek justice, often for wrongs he perceives.

Minor conclusions:

• There is actually nothing wrong with Sasuke choosing the path of an Avenger, though the narrative wants us to believe this is true.
• Sasuke freely shares with Sakura that he cried, but in cultural context, he's being very open with her about a personal matter when culturally this is not the norm in Japan.
• Part of the reason for overlooking the above may be the English dub, which effectively translates what equates to "WTF is up with her" to deriding her as a teammate option.

Shipping:

• Naruto/Sakura - 0 to 1
• Sasuke/Sakura - 1 to 0 - (see above)

008. Three Spoiled Brats

Major conclusion: All three of the team are spoiled in some shape or form, with Kakashi being able to recognize this.

Minor conclusion: Sasuke shows kindness to Naruto for the second time, as he's the one to instigate feeding Naruto.

Chapters 9-11/Episodes 6-7

009: The Mission That Should Never Have Happened

Major conclusion: The Land of Waves mission should never have happened in the first place, but it does because the narrative favors Naruto in a way it shouldn't, thus further undermining his underdog status as being a false reality.

Minor conclusions:

• Naruto is the worst employee ever, rather than Tazuna being the worst client ever.
• Naruto still doesn't understand that respect is earned.
• Tazuna isn't a drunk.

010: Team Seven's Genin Team Dynamics

Major conclusion: Naruto is the weak link in the team, with even Sakura doing better than him.

Minor conclusions:

• Naruto is underprepared, freezing up as he does, while Sakura doesn't hesitate in freezing.
• Sasuke again attempts to be Naruto's friend, though this goes over Naruto's head.
• Sasuke isn't pleased Kakashi interfered with him protecting Sakura.

Shipping:

• Naruto/Sakura - 0 to 1
• Sasuke/Sakura - 2 to 0 - (see above)

011: ???

Major conclusion: Kakashi finds the antics of his students adorable, aka kawaii. (Skipping writing the essay until I write a later essay for now.)

012: The Conversation Never Had

Major conclusion: Kakashi and Sasuke should have logically had a conversation about the Sharigan, but logically didn't, as that would change the narrative when it comes to Sasuke leaving Konoha.

Minor conclusion: Obito wasn't the black sheep of the Uchiha clan for his lack of Sharingan, because Sasuke makes very clear in this chapter that Sharingan is rare even among the Uchiha, meaning Obito is a black sheep for different reasons.

Chapters 13-14/Episode 8

013: The Character Growth That Didn't Stick

Major conclusion: Naruto shows character growth, only for said character growth to be temporary in nature.

014: Years Ago - The Difference Between Formal and Informal Language (Or the Timeline isn't Broken Regarding Zabuza)

Major conclusion:  Some of the timeline confusion stems from fans not understanding the difference between formal and informal use of words such as "years ago".

Chapters 15-16/Episode 9

015: ???

Major conclusion: Hunter-nin are meant to prevent village secrets from leaking, yet they never went after the bodies of characters like Obito.

016: Kakashi Was Right About Running

Major conclusion: Whether Naruto and Sasuke actually helped Kakashi out is questionable. By this I mean, yes, at the end of the day, they did end up rescuing him, but their hesitation is part of a pattern of Naruto making things worse first and then resolving problems he made, though in this case Sasuke started the trouble while Naruto helped him finish it, with this also being one of the few times they got along.

Chapters 17-18/Episode 10

017: ???

Major conclusion: The Anime actively made changes to help Naruto's character as well as the narrative.

018: ???

Major conclusion: Kishimoto makes characters praise Naruto when they logically shouldn't be praising him to help bolster just how amazing Naruto is.

Chapters 19-20/Episode 11

019: ???

Major conclusion: Sasuke is uncomfortable asking Sakura for help with tree climbing.

020: ???

Major conclusion: Inari, unlike Naruto, was bullied as a child, but this is actually shown in the narrative.

Chapters 21-22/Episode 12

021: ???

Major conclusion: Kakashi is the reason for the mission continuing despite the client lying to them, not Naruto.

022: ???

Major conclusion: Naruto is a bully.

Chapters 23-24/Episode 13

023: ???

Major conclusion: Kakashi is the actual cause behind Inari's change in attitude, not Naruto.

024: ???

Major conclusion: Naruto gets things done through dumb luck.

Chapters 25-27/Episodes 14-16

025: ???

Major conclusion: Zabuza isn't anywhere near as cruel as he lets on, even before revealing it on the bridge.

026: ???

Major conclusion: Kakashi dislikes bragging.

027: ???

Major conclusion: Sasuke never hated Naruto and only says he does because the narrative keeps trying to tell us everybody hates Naruto.

Chapters 28-30/Episode 17

028: ???

Major conclusion: Naruto takes shortcuts to powering up, something he's lectured Konohamaru for already.

029: ???

Major conclusion: Kakashi is an otaku for kawaii things, though his definition of what is or isn't kawaii isn't exactly what most would consider kawaii.

030: ???

Major conclusion: Haku shouldn't have died, or at least not how his death is shown.

Chapters 31-33/Episodes 18-19

031: ???

Major conclusion: There's good reason to challenge the rules, but Naruto's ninja way takes things too far off that track compared to others who are far more realistic in their approach.

032: ???

Major conclusion: Naruto appears to use talk-no-jutsu for the first time, basically melting the cold heart of Zabuza, but in reality Zabuza's heart was never cold in the first place 

033: ???

Major conclusion: The bridge shouldn't have been named after Naruto.

Notes:

Not all the essays have been written yet, and I'm proceeding in order by what I felt was central point for the given chapter. However, some I'm skipping until I write later essays, and I'm fine with writing up an essay sooner if someone asks, so long as it doesn't depend on earlier essays.

Chapter 3: 001. The Village Never Bullied Naruto

The village never bullied Naruto.

Wait, but we’re told Naruto was bullied by the village and ostracized, right?

To which—

I am well aware of the Talk-no-Jutsu Kishimoto pulled on us, Naruto fans, telling us that Naruto was always alone, never had any friends, and the whole village was out to get him, their hatred of him being so great that it was unfounded, but we were honestly never shown this. It’s always Talk-no-Jutsu about how abused and neglected Naruto was growing up — which, honestly? That begs the question of how he survived at all, as newborn infants can’t take care of themselves.

And if it’s not Ta;k-no-Jutsu, the way Naruto is treated has to do with his behavioral issues.

Naruto’s behavior problems—

On one side, Naruto is definitely a character I believe ADHD kids can relate to; someone I know with ADHD did relate to Naruto, and at the time saw a character that encouraged them to improve themselves and their behavior so they could connect better with the people around them, because he is after all Konoha ’s number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja, and the idea of seeing Naruto grow up, overcoming his flaws and becoming a better person was one of the major draws of the series.

Unfortunately, it never happened. The way he treats others? It never changed, because Naruto was always right while the other person was always wrong, because Naruto should never have to go back on his word, right? There are some places it leans towards character growth, only to smash to pieces, but his rivalry with Sasuke and the fake friendship/fake familial bond he formed with Sasuke majorly didn’t help matters.

One of the essential lessons, at the end of the day, that Naruto needed to learn was that he can’t always keep his promises, yet he never did.

But back to his behavior, as that is the important topic that comes up in “Naruto Uzumaki” or “Enter: Naruto Uzumaki!”

At the end of the day, Naruto is a horrible child, the kind of child parents wouldn’t want their kids to hang out with, particularly as he didn’t grow out of his behavioral issues.

And it’s all blamed on Kurama being sealed in him, rather than Naruto ever truly owning that his shitty behavior is the problem. Well, sort of. Naruto does claim that he came to realize he wasn’t alone, and that finding friends led to him becoming stronger because he had something to protect, but that’s honestly not the same as owning one’s behavior.

To which, not counting the girls here for a reason, none of the boys bullied him.

No, seriously.

We later find out that he’s friends with Choji, Shikamaru, and Kiba, and that they hung out with each other and played hooky together, at least until the other three grew out of it . And no, before anyone claims that this is just Anime filler, it’s actually not! Iruka telling them about the leaf on their foreheads and focusing is actually in the Manga, which in turn—

—Well, just how many people have actually read the manga, given they thing that is Anime filler?

At the end of the day, I can’t think of a single individual who bullied him. No, Anime filler doesn’t count. Databooks don’t count. And the light novels don’t count. Only the manga. Name me an actual instance when Naruto was treated poorly, and it wasn’t instigated by how he treated others in the first place, or wasn’t a result of some misunderstanding.

His sparring match with Sasuke at the academy? Naruto instigated it.

Kiba and his classmates laugh at his failed attempt to copy the Hokage. His classmates thought he was the class clown and thought they were laughing with him, not at him.

Of course, a few people will say, but it doesn’t matter what the kids thought, it matters what Naruto felt, and—

I say no to this.

This isn’t to say here that Naruto’s feelings weren’t hurt.

Bullying is when someone intentionally tries to hurt other people.

And at the end of the day, Naruto is the one doing the bullying, the one intentionally trying to hurt others.

Okay. So, Sasauke does retaliate,

Most of the time, though? Naruto is the instigator at some point . Other times, Sasuke is—

Well, it involves this whole Uchiha curse that was thrown in there to poorly justify some super OoC and illogical behavior on Sasuke’s part. Rarely, if ever, is Sasuke the instigator.

And, uh—

Well, Naruto is a shitty friend who’s multiple times crossed a line he shouldn’t be.

No getting around that, but—

At this particular point, we don’t have interactions with his friend group — and yes, they are his friend group to go off of, but we do have how he treats the adults in his life, right?

Well, that is, we do have how he treats the adults in his village if one happens to read the Manga. Still, one of the reasons I ’ve come to wonder whether or not someone has or hasn’t read the Manga is the lack of discussion regarding the fact that the Anime actually censored Naruto’s delinquent behavior.

Short story? I love the character we meet in the Anime, but hate the character we meet in the Manga.

Longer story?

The Anime takes Naruto’s delinquent behavior from the Manga and turns it playful in nature, more in line with what Iruka describes his own behavior as a child being like, that of a child craving some form of attention from the adults? The Manga, though? Naruto, like Konohamaru, is a spoiled brat with absolutely no respect for authority figures who gets miffed whenever he doesn’t get his way.

To describe the scene for those who haven’t seen the Manga, there is no running around chasing Naruto, no hiding against a wall trying not to get caught. Instead, Naruto is brazen, willingly painting the faces in front of a large group of adults down below on the roof of the Hokage building, with them telling him to stop what he is doing, that he’s being disrespectful, and—

His response is to basically call the adults out for not being as brazen as him, to call them names, and continue misbehaving because, in his mind, nobody can stop him, at least, not until Iruka shows up and yells at him and effectively tells him he’s acting like a fool. To which we hear from his classmates in both the Manga and anime why they dislike Naruto — his misbehavior gets the whole class into trouble, forcing them to repeat lessons.

Of course, what about what Mitsuki says?

Well—

That in itself has been contradicted, with Hiruzen saying very clearly in the next chapter/episode that only those who fought the nine-tails know — and I suspect those who are in need to know, like Naruto ’s teachers. Thus, this idea that all the adults in the village know doesn’t make sense, as not all of them would have been fighting that night — some were civilians.

And as for those who fought that night, logically, they’d be the least likely to have spread word to other adults, let alone hate an infant child.

But, he’s a Jinchuriki! All Jinchuriki are hated by their villages, right?

Isn’t that, though, more Talk-no-Jutsu?

There is, of course, Gaara that fits the mold, and Killer B.

Yagura, though?

Dislike for him can be explained by other means.

And as for all the rest?

Well, we never get to know them, do we?

At least not in the Manga, and despite what the Manga said, the Anime still went in the direction it did with Fu, with her being protected and cared for.

Because at the end of the day, all the villages hating the jinchuriki doesn ’t make sense. Instead, it makes more sense that each village would have its own cultural approach to the jinchuriki, with characters like Killer B changing the cultural approach in his village.

Of course—

I’ve seen some argue Naruto’s Talk-no-Jutsu friendship power is no different than Killer B’s fist bumps, to which I say—

Actually, there is a significant difference.

Killer B — we actually see a former friend turn on him despite not having done anything other than have the tailed beast sealed inside of him. In contrast, nobody is ever seen turning against Naruto, and he does have behavioral issues that deter people.

Which, yes. I get that Killer B’s rapping is awful and annoying, but it’s not behavior that turns everyone away. Still, one of the things Mitsuki says is key — that Naruto is like him, before bringing up the fact the scroll could allow them to do anything they want which is how Mitsuki sees Naruto, as someone who likes getting away with doing whatever he wants, and that’s pretty much true in the Manga. We’re talking someone who thought of killing Naruto and letting everyone think he’d run off and become a missing nin.

However, there is another important way Killer B and Naruto’s power differs.

With Killer B, he connects by feeling what others feel with his fist bumps. In contrast, Naruto claims to know what other people are feeling because of supposed similar events in their lives, with his being alone in his village being a major one when Naruto wasn ’t alone.

Let me repeat.

Naruto wasn ’t alone.

There was of course, Iruka. There was Teuchi and his daughter Ayame at their ramen stand. Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba were willing to hang out with him at one point—

Which, I know some argue, “But they weren’t friends! After all, Naruto didn’t consider them friends!”

And isn’t that part of the problem?

Particularly when we learn of how Shikamaru and Choji became friends, it honestly doesn ’t make sense for them not to try to be friends with Naruto.

Did they drift apart? Well, they’d still be friends and on point despite that. Is it that Naruto didn’t realize they were friends? That still doesn’t mean they weren’t friends.

A few, I’ve seen, argued that none of the kids they hung out with as kids were people they ever considered friends, and thus it must be that way for Naruto as well, but—

Well, doesn’t this mean the problem is with Naruto, not everyone else, if he’s not forming proper connections?

And even then, it’s still not refuting the main point , that Naruto wasn’t actually alone the way he is being painted as being at the beginning, and it’s more of like the loneliness that Iruka was feeling growing up, the loneliness of not having one’s parents, but—

Egads. That’s not precisely an unusual thing in the Naruto series, and at one point Naruto claims he wanted to make friends with Sasuke when he learned he was alone like him, that he didn’t even know about Sasuke until then, but—

That doesn’t make sense as Naruto doesn’t come across as knowing about Sasuke’s family situation until later on in the series, once he finds out about Sasuke’s problem with his brother, Itachi.

Of course, I did mention him not having troubles with the boys—

The girls are a different situation, though I’d call it more of a cooties type thing and them being repulsed by his repulsive behavior.

Which—

Yeah. His behavior is enough for parents to tell their kids not to play with him.

Even the parents who ever overheard gossiping about him.

Sorry to say this, but the way it’s framed — that they’re gossiping about him being the nine-tails doesn ’t make sense.

For starters, Hiruzen made it clear that only the adults who fought that night should know about Naruto’s situation. Notably, we learn later that the younger shinobi, such as Kakashi, were kept back because they were the hope of the village for the next generation.

Not that any of them went bout having kids as the adults had hoped, except Asuma and Kurenai, who came super late to the game.

This is important because—

Well—

The names of the parents are Ibara and Tsubaki, and at the time of the first chapter/episode, they’re supposed to be twenty-eight.

Which means—

—takes deep breath—

They would have had their kids at age fifteen/sixteen, being as young as fourteen when they conceived, but certainly would have been with the young shinobi who weren’t allowed to fight.

If that weren’t bad enough?

Why does it serve him right? Because his behavior is unbecoming of a shinobi.

What would happen if he became a shinobi? Trouble, such as his inability to understand the need for stealth.

And what are they not supposed to talk about? How about the fact that it’s bloody obvious he’s the son of the Fourth Hokage, with the fact that there aren’t many yellow-haired shinobi in Konoha?

Which—

The fact that the fourth son turned out the way Naruto did? I mean, he is painting graffiti on the fourth’s face for crying out loud.

Or it has to do with how obvious it is who his mother should be, and the fact that he, as the Manga indicates, ended up very much like her. She was known for her temper, having earned a nickname based on it.

Because we know there is also a rule about telling Naruto who his parents are, which is supposedly to protect him from his parents' enemies, yet if that’s the case, why let him even keep the Uzumaki name in the first place? This is honestly right up there, plot hole-wise, with the fact that a newborn infant can’t take care of itself.

His parents are simply to well known, what with both parents having looks that stand out like a sore thumb in their village, but speaking of his mother’s temper—

Returning to the girls’ dislike for him, it honestly makes sense. He’s uncouth, loud, and a troublemaker who doesn’t hesitate to pick his earwax before giving the Seal of Confrontation to someone in class. He’s got a lot of bravado that he never backs up, and he’s a bloody pervert with that Sexy Jutsu of his.

Yes, I know there are people who will jump all over the fact Naruto is often excluded, but it can ’t be ignored that he DOES NOT GET ALONG with the other kids in the first place. He does things that upsets others, doesn ’t care that he’s upset them and even enjoys them, but let’s frame this another way.

There is a kid in a class who is a bully to others. They ’re actively mean to them, calling them losers, telling them they’re so much better than them, refusing not to do things like cursing around them? They then get mad when the people they mistreat don ’t want to hang out with them, turns around and calls those kids who don’t want to hang out with them mean, even possibly stopping to calling them bullies?

That is what ’s being advocated here, the actual reality of Naruto’s situation. It’s asking that there be no consequences for his negative actions towards others, that everyone else should just have to put up and shut up with his behavior, which is exactly how things are with the adults in the village; Naruto insists that they put up and shut up with his behavior, so is it any wonder he is disliked in his village?

And this?

That comes straight back to the difference between him and Killer B. Killer B, despite how he was treated, treated them with kindness, which is in fact how Gaara used to treat people, before the incident with Yashimaru, in a village that sees kindness as a weakness that needs to be stomped out.

What happened to Naruto? It pales in comparison to what others have gone through, is something others in his village have felt and dealt with, and not turned out like him, with some facing far worse. Even Iruka, to be honest, didn ’t act out to the extreme that Naruto does, but there has to be some level from those who know he is the child of the fourth Hokage in not properly dealing with his antics, which probably doesn’t help the frustration of those who don’t know.

Which—

A thought crossed my mind asa I was writing this, that Konoha as a village is rather lucky, despite all of the political corruption on Danzo’s part, that there isn’t any form of gang running around the village, though this makes sense because of how hard it is to get in and out, which is why everything shady is done within the shadows and not out in the open like other places.

The reason I say it’s lucky?

Naruto — not the Anime version of the character, but the Manga version of the character — is the type of character who would be at risk of picking up with the gangs. After all, this is why Mitsuki says Naruto is like him. It’s not so much that he’s right and that Naruto wants to get away with whatever he can, but that he doesn’t realize Naruto actually does have some form of standards, despite always trying to get away with whatever he can.

But had there been a gang? That would mean people like Mitzuki would have gotten to Naruto sooner, manipulating the fact Naruto is unable to see he is the problem in their favor.

Of course!

Some people will point to Danzo and say, hey! He leaked the information.

That’s, uh—

Not in the Manga?

No. Seriously. It’s not even a mistake that Kishimoto himself fixed, but I believe this is something revealed in the light novels involving Itachi, but the fix? I heard the logic behind it was to have something the village could throw it’s anger at despite the fact tailed-beasts are a known ticking time bomb.

It does, though, make sense with how Kishimoto wrote Danzo, who was more than willing to become the Hokage of a completely destroyed village with nobody in it alive at the end of the day had Naruto miraculously stepped in and convinced Pain to bring everyone back. A Hokage of nothing is not a Hokage at all at the end of the day.

Speaking of which—

Naruto’s reason for becoming Hokage is also a major problem with the series.

As he says to Iruka, the reason he wants to become Hokage is because the Hokage is the strongest shinobi in the village and thus respected, which—

—sigh—

That’s not accurate.

Yes, a Kage is one of the strongest in their village if not the strongest, but they’re first and foremost not guaranteed to be the strongest.

More importantly, what Naruto is talking about is a simplification of the role of Hokage for academy students that academy students can easily understand without going into how hard the job of being Hokage is, that there is more to the job than physical strength. They’re also someone who should have good leadership skills and good morals, otherwise the village ends up suffering.

Naruto is completely lacking in leadership skills and his morals—

Well, he does have a moral compass, one that doesn’t stand for others harming those he cares about, but on the other side we’re talking about someone who came up with something as perverted as Sexy Jutsu and who doesn’t hesitate in calling anyone who falls for it a pervert.

He also has a habit of Talk-no-Jutsu his morals onto other people, with there never being a question of whether he is right or wrong in the given situation.

As for leadership skills, I’m guessing some will turn to the Pain incident and the forth war, but—

Well, that’s not leadership.

True, hands down there’s no getting around the fact he’s the strongest person in the village now, but there’s something wrong when characters from the village are noting they’re depending too much on Naruto’s strength and can’t do anything on their own which is the direct result of escalating the conflict on purpose so Naruto is the only one capable of resolving things, but him resolving the situation because of his strength does not at all make him a leader.

At the end of the day, with the development Naruto ’s character got, it makes more sense for him to not become Hokage.

To which—

I know there are some who argue that Naruto deserves to become Hokage because he did become the strongest and because it’s his story and just compensation for being the hero.

That—

That’s bad writing.

It’s honestly as bad as the supposed Nice Guy getting the girl because he ’s Entitled to Have Her . Which—

This is also one of the arguments for why Naruto and Sakura should get together, one that is very disingenuous to both characters.

To which giving Naruto the Hokage position without him earning it is disingenuous to his character. He either needed to grow and actually earn the position because he’s matured as a person, or he needs to give up and take a different path through life.

And no, being the strongest in the village isn ’t earning the position. In fact, becoming Hokage so then people will respect you is respect out of fear, whereas anyone whose honestly earned a position like one of the Kage positions is already respected before they become Kage.

Yes, Naruto does get to a point he’s respected, but there is still more qualifications to being a Kage than just respect and strength, all of which are skills that Naruto is lacking in.

There are those who say, “But he’ll grow out of it,” in an attempt to justify him getting the position eventually, but that’s relying on the reader/viewer of the series believing that did happen, and Boruto — that certainly didn’t change anybodies minds on this idea of him growing out of it and becoming a leader what with how he struggles to do what every Hokage before him managed to do without Shadow Clones.

More importantly, people pointing out that Naruto didn’t earn the position isn ’t them hating on the character. As I said, someone I know with ADHD super looked up to Naruto and looked forward to him earning the position, to him becoming an actual leader only for that to never happen. People point it out because Naruto ’s character had the potential to actually earn the position, to actually grow, or to realize that ones dreams change.

Some may argue Naruto is a series made for children, hensce why Kishimoto never got into the sementics of the contents of a certain novel by a certain pervy sage.

But that? That honestly trivilizes the intelligence of children who are intelligent enough to know Naruto never became a leader and thus never earned the position, though they can understand dreaming of being something great and working towards such a lofty goal And while it’s true they want to see that pay off of him becoming Hokage at the end, it’s empty if not earned.

As for anything else of note from the first chapter — aka first episode, there is Naruto failing twice and yet being the same age as the other characters with some arguing those were just tests done during the same year. Which, that may make sense given the fact none of the other twelve were shown to be in Narauto’s class in the Manga and we’re later introduced to the fact there are actually ninety children in Naruto’s class, but then—

That also means only twenty-seven graduated from his year, which begs to question why is Naruto not graduating right away such a big deal? And if it’s because they could graduate early — something refuted earlier, why didn’t Sasuke graduate early? He is supposed to be the top of his class in all his subjects which Sakura matching him in the wisdom compartment.

Then there’s Naruto, for whom clumsiness is—

I’d love to finish that sentence with “a flaw”, but there is a certain saying in fandom that “clumsiness is not a flaw.” This isn’t to say that clumsiness can’t be a flaw. Still, for those who aren’t aware of where the phrase comes from, it’s a phrase coined from Twilight where the main character’s flaw is that she is supposedly clumsy. Yet, her clumsiness only ever really shows it’s face for plot convenience purposes and goes away when it’s not convenient for moving the plot in the direction the creator wanted.

Which—

Yes, growing out of being clumsy is a narrative option, but the point here is that Bella wasn’t clumsy in the first place and—

Well, to be honest, I’ve yet to see within the first chapter/episode how Naruto is clumsy. One could potentially argue his jutsu is clumsy, yet—

Is that really the case?

True, Naruto isn’t able to do the E-rank Clone Jutsu that his classmates can, but he is able to learn within a short time the B-rank version of it. Which, to be clear, these are two separate jutsu despite being variations of cloning techniques. This isn’t important right now, but it will be important later on when I get to later chapters/episodes.

Going through my notes, Naruto is definitely under the impression of, “why me” with the impression given that Iruka singles Naruto out, but in a flashback we see Iruka gives the same treatment to all students who misbehave, yet—

Egads.

This is what I’ve been talking about for much of this essay: this chapter/episode never really addresses the fact that the way Naruto gets treated for misbehaving is bloody justified. It’s all pushed off onto the nine-tails, but is it any wonder Kurama keeps hating Naruto if Kurama sees Naruto blaming them for his behavior issues? Kurama doesn’t make Naruto misbehave; Naruto chooses to misbehave.

Nor do I like the way the series tries to play home this idea that “everyone hates Naruto,” as Mitsuki says, because there are obviously adults in his life who do care, who don’t hate him.

Of course, in saying this. Naruto is a kid. It’s obvious he’s not processing the fact that those around him hate the way he behaves, so it’s not surprising that he takes their hating the way he behaves as them actually hating him. It’s one of the things he, as a character, should have grown into understanding, but the " everybody hated me continues way into when we meet Killer B, who everybody honestly hated.

The only thing left to cover for this chapter is—

Well, it’s a minor thing, but how the hell did Iruka not end up paralyzed from having a fuma shuriken sticking into his back?

Ninja magic I guess could be an explanation, but if that’s the case—

Well, here’s where I remind people that Tsunade’s healing ability despite being ninja magic is limited by the rules of reality, albeit a misunderstanding of the actual reality.

Oh!

And a bit of a side note?

Reading stories which spin off the idea that Naruto truely was hated and bullied by the village when he wasn’t can be awkward reads, though in saying there are certainly gems that attempt to show rather than Talk-no-Jutsu the issue.

I also almost forgot to mention Naruto can be interpreted as an unreliable narrator, particularly if one considers his actions as say a character with ADHD who doesn’t understand the pranks he loves aren’t universally loved while not understanding that making himself the class clown will result in people not realizing when he’s trying to be serious — aka Kiba laughing at his attempt to make himself look like the Hokage.

Oh!

Almost forgot.

Naruto at the end of the day was always intended to be a little shit head, but for those who’ve not read the Manga, there is a one-shot that was eventually reworked into the Naruto series where Naruto was actually far worse than he is in the Manga.

Basically, he’s the actual child of the nine-tailed fox in that series that enjoys digging holes for people to fall into so he can pee on them simply because he is, as the child of the nine-tails, evil incarnate, and gets lulz out of being “evil” towards others.

I wish I was joking.

So now for the prompts.

Prompt 1.01 — What if the village had bullied Naruto? What would his life have really looked like?

Prompt 1.02 — Who took care of Naruto? Write a story about someone c aring about Naruto, and him never noticing, similar to how he never noticed Iruka’s sternness as a form of caring.

Prompt 1.03 — Who raised Naruto? Someone had to take the infant in, at least until he could care for himself, possibly until the age of entering the academy.

Prompt 1.04 — What if ANBU raised Naruto? What if he didn’t realize he was being cared for because the ANBU need to operate from the shadows in regards to the ones they care for?

Prompt 1.05 — What if someone were to outright tell Naruto that nobody likes him because he’s mean? How would that change things?

Prompt 1.06 — What if Naruto’s behavior issues are caused by being ADD? How would the narrative change if he were to actually learn over time to control his ADHD behaviors, both in holding himself back when it’s appropriate to do so and finding ways of putting his ADHD to good use?

Prompt 1.07 — What if Naruto were actually to own his behavior rather than blaming Kurama for his misbehavior growing up? Keep in mind that owning one's behavior here means understanding that one's actions directly impact whether or not others want to be associated with you.

Prompt 1.08 — What if Anime Naruto were to meet Manga Naruto? Aka, how would a playful prankster react to a vindictive, spoiled brat prankster?

Prompt 1.09 — What if another canon character around Naruto’s age were to move from their village to Naruto’s? How would they react to the fact that Naruto’s always doing things that result in their entire class getting punished?

Prompt 1.10 — How do the other villages treat their Jinchuriki of those we never saw in the Manga? Note that this prompt is not asking for the same-old-same old that Gaara and Killer B went through, or what Naruto supposedly went through, but instead an exploration of how culturally the reaction may vary.

Prompt 1.11 — Write a story explaining how knowledge of Naruto being the jinchuriki got out that actually makes sense.

Prompt 1.12 — The loneliness from being an orphan and being truly alone is different. Write a story where Naruto was truly alone.

Prompt 1.13 — The loneliness of being an orphan and being truly alone is different. Write a story where Naruto comes to understand this after he officially graduates.

Prompt 1.14 — What if the thing Ibara and Tsubaki weren’t supposed to talk about was the fact that Naruto was the son of the previous Hokage?

Prompt 1.15 — What if the thing Ibara and Tsubaki weren’t supposed to talk about was the fact that Naruto was the son of Kushina?

Prompt 1.16 — “ Isn ’t that the boy who is actually… ” Finish the sentence with something other than “ …the child who the nine-tails was sealed into? ” or anything that means the same thing, but make that what Naruto overhears.

Prompt 1.17 — D-rank missions include babysitting. An infant Naruto would qualify. Write a story about such a D-rank mission and what it would entail.

Prompt 1.18 — Namikaze Minato lived. How would he deal with a child with behavior issues like Naruto?

Prompt 1.17 — Uzumaki Kushina lived. How would she deal with a child with behavioral issues like Naruto?

Prompt 1.18 — Naruto runs away long before it comes time to graduate, perhaps as early as the first failed test. Outside of Konoha, he runs into one of the more unsavory groups who see him as someone to take advantage of.

Prompt 1.19 — Write a story where Naruto learns there is more to being Hokage than being the strongest.

Prompt 1.20 — Write a story where Naruto actually develops the skills he needs to become Hokage.

Prompt 1.21 — Write a story where Naruto decides becoming Hokage isn’t actually for him after all.

Prompt 1.22 — What if Naruto was actually two years older than the other children? How would that change the story?

Prompt 1.23 — Naruto, ADD, and Jutsu, a child who will only focus on learning Jutsu that actually interests him. Write a story based on that concept.

Prompt 1.24 — Write a story where Mitsuki’s real aim is to steal the Jinchuriki rather than the scroll. How would the story change?

Prompt 1.25 — Mitsuki speaks of revenge, at least in the English version of the Anime, but what if, to take his revenge, he takes it out on a child, Naruto, by manipulating said child who craves affection into believing the abusive way Mitsuki treats him is a form of love.

Prompt 1.26 — Iruka does end up paralyzed from the fuma shuriken. Write a story based on this premise.

Prompt 1.29 — What if Naruto was the child of the nine-tails? How would that change the story?

Prompt 1.30 — What if Naruto ’s behavior was as bad as it was in one-shot, where the idea for Naruto originated from?

Chapter 4: 002. Naruto is a Little Perve

At the end of the day, Narauto is a little perv who ends up growing up into a bigger perv three years later.

As for why this came up?

Well, the chapter “Konohamaru!!”/episode “My Name is Konohamaru” is all about Sexy Jutsu.

More specifically, it is about Naruto teaching a little kid a jutsu that allows him to transform into a naked woman in public, and eventually becoming the rival of this little kid, who is three years his junior.

And Naruto wonders why nobody in the village likes him, right?

To give Kishimoto some credit here, he manages to do what he struggles to do in the rest of the series, and that is to convey the passing of time in a way that makes sense to the reader/viewer.

Yet?

Why?

Why has Naruto shown such cheek?

Well, he ’s always showing cheek, and Sexy Jutsu is undoubtedly something that can get a reaction from people, which Naruto craves attention, even if it is negative attention at the end of the day.

But why this ?

Well, it has to do with Kishimoto ’s sense of humor, or perhaps lack thereof.

More importantly, regarding the Nosebleed trope, it ’s supposed to be “ a visual shorthand/euphemism for sexual arousal. ”

It ’s not shorthand for any character being an actual pervert, or at least it ’s not supposed to be within the traditional sense of the usage.

Yet, in the Manga, this is the actual case, or at least it’s framed that way, what with three of us seeing three characters already succumbing to the Nosebleed trope: Iruka, the Hokage, and Ebisu. With the Hokage, we later on see him joining Jiraiya, the series’ biggest pervert, to observe his attempt at research, so nothing much to go with there. With Ebisu, he’s the type of pervert who feigns being a proper gentleman only to be overcome by the harem version.

Iruka though?

Iruka is a young man who ended up raising himself and has only recently become an adult, still trying to figure things out. Having a student like Naruto is not helping matters. I mean, if he became Naruto ’s teacher after becoming Chunin, he would have only been sixteen years old, and he’s had this kid torturing his teenage hormones for the past.

Of course, somebody who never gets a nosebleed in the Manga?

Kakashi.

He’s able to shrug off even the harem version, and no, it’s not because of the books he reads, which I’ll discuss later. He really isn’t a pervert. And no, in this context, the Nosebleed content in the Anime doesn’t count as the context is different, and as a canon source, it is secondary to Manga content.

Light novels and databooks don ’t count as either; they are not a reliable source, which I go into in my meta for my timeline. The only time we see him ever blush in the Manga is when he is forced to read the books out loud, but again, not a nosebleed and nosebleeds in the Anime have a different context.

More on the books in a later chapter, as well as the different context the Anime filler scenes hold compared to the Manga, regarding the Manga—

Effectively, Naruto is laughing at people for being a pervert, despite the fact that his Sexy Jutsu indeed makes him a little pervert within the same context. To say he doesn ’t understand—

One might argue that because the bathhouse scene is Anime filler that Naruto from the Manga isn ’t aware of, that he doesn’t do that kind of stuff. In fact, a good chunk of this episode is filler, with everything between Konohamaru deciding he ’ll be Naruto’s follower and when they’re in the woods being filler. This includes Konohamaru filling Naruto in on the concept of chakra, which, if I remember correctly, was something I noted during one of my recent read-through of the manga for creating my timeline to work from: it was Sakura who explained chakra to Naruto.

However, the problem with this is that in the manga, Naruto later on says that Jiraiya effectively doesn ’t have his excuse for doing research, that at his age it would simply come across as mischief on his part, and—

Yeah, no.

Naruto is twelve, actually twelve-and-a-half at this point, as it is springtime. Which, I know there are going to be sure people who, when they see this, will try and argue that the Konoha nine graduated in winter, because the birthdays are calculated from winter; see the fourth data book that lists all of them but Hinata as seventeen and her as sixteen.

You mean the same data book that mistakenly lists Naruto ’s seventeenth birthday happening during the war instead of the sixteenth, despite the fact that Kushina very clearly says in the Manga around the same time that it ’s been sixteen years, not seventeen? This is one of the reasons I ’ve said not to bring up the databooks and light novels as an argument, but bringing up the Anime? Even though one has to be careful, as the filler wasn ’t written by Kishimoto either.

But getting back to Naruto?

Yeah. He ’s twelve. He should know better, and it’s moved beyond childish mischief but his statement outright ignores the fact when a child becomes a shinobi they are in the eyes of the village an adult which in turn has an implication I don ’t think Kishimoto realizes was built into his work — it’s kind of yet another one of those things that goes over his head. This goes back to my suspicions that Kishimoto is neurodiverse in some manner, though the next chapter is where I ’ll touch upon that some more, as I feel that’s the best time to really discuss my suspicions that could very well be wrong.

To which—

Honestly, the way it is portrayed in the Manga honestly makes Naruto seem yet again like a bit of shit head. At the same time, the filler in the Anime adds a more childish appeal to Naruto ’s antics, as if it’s the antics of a child trying to enter the adult world too early without understanding what he gets into.

However, at this point, I ’d also argue that this is not one, but two episodes where the Anime handled things better. The episode last time changed the opening scene so that Naruto is a more likable character, while this episode adds filler that yet again makes Naruto more likable. And I think this is part of why people didn’t realize there was a problem with the writing until the very end, because the Anime did a good job of effectively taking Kishimoto’s neurodiverse (potentially) ramblings and turning them into something coherent for the normie. (See end note.)

Oddly, this is one of the reasons I love the series and love analyzing it. I think it becomes easier to enjoy once you ’ve an idea where Kishimoto is coming from, why his writing issues are potentially cropping up as they do.

Returning to the filler, there is undoubtedly a child-like charm to what is happening in the Anime, particularly when one is familiar with Japanese culture and knows that children are allowed to accompany an adult of the opposite sex into a non-mixed bathhouse. That age cut-off has recently been changed to seven, but when Naruto was created, that age cut-off was actually age ten.

But why is this important, and why does it add a child-like charm to what is going on here in the Anime?

Well, Naruto is twelve, while Konohamaru is at most nine. At the youngest, eight at the time, depending on the part with the time skip in the Manga, making it so he graduated from the academy at the time Naruto returns, which is three years after this particular event.

And the charm is this — Naruto honestly doesn ’t understand why he’s getting into so much trouble for going into the woman’s bathhouse while Konohamaru isn’t. It’s because there isn’t an adult in his life who has explained to him what bathhouse etiquette is, but he’s also getting into trouble for teaching the honored grandson bad habits.

That, and sneaking peeks at adult content in that bookstore, which is what results in him getting a black eye, which I think is a bit extreme, and was likely more for comedic purposes than a reflection of how severe the beating was.

The Manga lacks this childish appeal, but there ’s another thing. Already, we see a significant divergence from the Manga and Anime, where those working on the Anime realize just how unrealistic, particularly compared to characters like Gaara, this entire idea that the village hates Naruto is. So we’re shown three adults willing to stand up to him.

The Manga, though? It doubles down in this chapter on the idea that everybody hates him despite the edict of sharing the secret and knowing the fourth wanted his child to be seen as a hero to the point I was left with the impression that Iruka was lumped in there, that Naruto was lucky to have won him over, where is in the Anime it ’s more along the lines of Naruto being lucky that he was able to protect someone he finally realized cared about him, that he was lucky not to have lost hi,

And, honestly?

The Manga does a real good job of contradicting this idea that even Iruka hated Naruto later on; then this is also the series where Iruka is asked to be a stand-in as Naruto ’s father at his wedding, which, yes, is an adaptation of a light novel, but something Kishimoto approved. It might have honestly gone right over his head how cringeworthy it is to be having someone only ten years older than you standing in as your father at your wedding, rather than standing in as someone representative of your family.

It ’s even more cringeworthy when you consider the actual implications of the whole Nosebleed trope, but I ’ll get into that in a bit.

As the Anime portrays it, Hiruzen has similar words. Still, instead of lumping everyone who knows the secret into the same category, he makes it clear it ’s not all of them, that it is the ones who act out of fear toward Naruto that are the problem, and that there has been some passage of this down to their children.

This makes more sense, as everybody would in fact included Naru Shikaku, the father of Shikamaru for whom fearing a mere child and not respecting the wishes of the fallen Hokage wouldn ’t make sense, to which he wouldn’t have passed down any fear to Shikamaru to which it makes sense that later on it is revealed Shikamaru was at some point willing to hang out with Naruto.

But, there was indeed a point that this changed, something I ’ll talk about more when the nine were officially revealed in the Manga rather than right now as they’re shown in the Anime. One part of the problem with the storyline is that characters like Shikamaru weren’t conceptually created at the start, but were introduced at a later point in time.

So, the Anime?

It does portray the whole thing context-wise far better than the Manga did, but in this, it ’s time to discuss the fact that the Anime, unlike the Manga, doesn’t use the Nosebleed trope to signify which characters are or aren ’t perverts, which, yes, Sakura is a pervert. I guess, despite how horrible Kishimoto is at female characters, something he’s admitted to, he did understand that Sakura’s fangirling over Sasuke does fall into this, and that she is that type.

The thing is, as I said, the Nosebleed trope isn ’t intended to convey who is or isn’t in some form a pervert.

It ’s meant to convey, in effect, this; in males, it conveys an erection, often involuntary, and in females, it conveys an orgasm, often involuntary, but in Japan, it’s a way of communicating what amounts to very adult humor in a way that goes over the heads of children.

And I think it ’s something that’s gone over the head of Kishimoto as well.

The fact that this is an adult form of humor, though, doesn ’t mean it doesn’t show up in other children’s series. It is, after all, meant as a euphemism, one adults are intended to get, but not the kiss, but if we had something like this over here? Egads. Some couldn’t resist making the joke merely because they could, and they thought having hidden adult humor in their stories made their stories more mature.

While in Japan?

Well, Kishimoto uses it as a euphemism in his Manga to signify who is or isn ’t a pervert — not Kakashi, but definitely Sakura and definitely Iruka, who—

That brings me to the Anime usage, as the Anime does add a lot of scenes where it ’s used in the traditional sense, including scenes involving Kakashi, and—

Well, effectively Naruto is making fun of his teacher for having a boner in front of the class, so I can ’t help but feel bad for Iruka, who is at this time only twenty-two, but the implications only get worse if one coniders Iruka likely started teaching at the academy once he made Chunnin, for which he was a sixteen year old. And it’s likely Naruto’s had this Jutsu for some time now.

That means six-year-old Naruto is making fun of a poor sixteen-year-old who is trying to teach a bunch of other six-year-olds for having a boner because of a prank he pulled on him without understanding the implications, so is it ’s no wonder Iruka gets frustrated like he does with Naruto? And yet, he’s still in the kid’s corner despite Naruto putting him constantly through what has got to be a super embarrassing moment for him in front of his class.

To which—

It definitely makes Ebisu even more of a creep, to be honest, that he held off getting a boner until the harem showed up.

As for poor Hiruzen—

His situation is what I just said, plus the shock of it, which effectively gave the poor man a heart attack.

And here we have to go into just how realistic Sexy Jutsu is?

In regard to the Manga interpretation, it ’s a gag joke. But as for the Anime?

Well, it ’s certainly a successful attack when it comes to teenage teachers trying to control the typical teenage hormones in front of a class of six to eventually twelve-year-old children, for the simple fact that such a thing would be utterly mortifying.

Ebisu? It ’s effective because he’s a true pervert when it comes to women, and I don’t see that guy ever getting a girlfriend, but I wonder how well-liked he is in the series by Naruto ’s fanbase; he ’s not really meant to be liked beyond his use for humor purposes and the logical choice to be the teacher for Konohamaru’s team.

Hiruzen?

Well, suppose the Anime left the first episode as is in the Manga regarding when the Nosebleed moment occurred. In that case, Naruto is guilty of nearly giving or actually giving his Hokage a heart attack, to which Naruto and Konohamaru don ’t understand the implication of this, provided that they’re children.

The Anime moves it, first and foremost, to a more innocent point in the timeline, and second, to a point where it makes more sense for Konohamaru to catch onto the effect Sexy Jutsu has on his grandfather and thus latch onto Naruto as a role model, something Naruto is not, in fact.

To that effect, Konohamaru—

Poor kid just simply wants to defeat his grandfather, not understanding the implication that inducing a heart attack might actually kill his grandfather.

Which brings me to another difference between the Anime and the manga: how they treat the situation.

In the Anime? Well, Hiruzen notes Konohamaru ’s sneak attacks are a headache. It is, after all, the twentieth time that day that Konohamaru tried sneak attacking him, which is honestly too much even for a mere child’s game, and the look on Naruto’s face says that is not what he intended to happen.

In the Manga? The implication I got was that Konohamaru was being shamed for being a child, for doing the childish thing of play acting out a sneak attack on his grandfather, that it was mere indulgence that things got that far, and—

This honestly bothers me, as to me this actually sounds like a way of improving a child ’s skills at a ninja, but then if you think about it, Sakura later on calls Naruto out for “playing ninja” with the little kids as if doing so isn’t an essential thing for the next generation to help teach them new skills.

And at the end of the day, this doesn ’t sit comfortably with me, even though I know that by the time they’re Naruto’s age, they’re considered to be adults because they graduated.

A notable aspect is that the Anime makes no mention of them being adults once they ’ve graduated, which becomes important later on as the contrast between how things were and weren’t is highlighted. I'll discuss this more when I talk about Zabuza, I think.

Because the other thing the Manga establishes is that Konohamaru was indulged because he was the grandchild of the Hokage, but given everyone should realize he ’s Minato’s kid from his looks alone, Naruto being indulged in the same way Konohamaru is, to be allowed to get away with the pranks because he is the son of a Hokage makes far more sense given the way the Manga opens and the fact far less people know than is implied in the first chapter.

Actually, the Manga does worse than the Anime at portraying the way Naruto was treated, with the Manga effectively making it out to be just an issue of poor Naruto being ignored by his classmates' parents instead of paying attention to him, which makes Naruto come across as jealous and petty. In contrast, the Anime actually shows one of the adverse reactions he got from someone who knows, on top of making it clear it ’s not everybody .

The Manga also comes across as if the act of the parent ignoring Naruto was a denial of his right to exist. In contrast, the Anime presents it more philosophically, suggesting that Naruto can tell from the way confident adults look at him that they hate him and wish he didn ’t exist.

Speaking of characters who don ’t like Naruto, Ebisu falls into that category. In the Manga, it comes across as if it’s because of the nine-tailed. In contrast, in the Anime, it comes across more as Ebisu dislikes Naruto as a corrupting influence over the honorable grandson. Because at the end of the day, we know he was one of the younger shinobi prevented from fighting back then.

More importantly, Naruto teaching Sexy Jutsu—

There are implications with either portrayal.

In the Manga, Konohmaru is effectively replacing a child ’s act of play acting with the act of transforming into a naked woman in public. Still, Naruto also fully understands what he’s doing and what he’s teaching Konohamaru, making Naruto, at the end of the day, a horrible teacher, and given Konohamaru is his only student, it’s actual proof Naruto isn’t Hokage material.

And then there ’s the fact that Naruto is becoming a rival to someone three years younger than him, whom he can easily beat every time, and getting a kick out of it. It’s more of Naruto being his usual shit head self and getting off on it.

True, he does Talk-no-Jutsu Konohamaru about not taking shortcuts—

But this is great coming from someone who utilizes shortcuts all the time, such as using two-hundred clones to create a new jutsu in what appears to be, in the Manga, a very short amount of time, like only a few days. When I tell you the Anime fixed the pacing issues of the Manga, I ’m not joking around.

However, the Anime?

The Anime ’s take is far more innocent, with a cute moment thrown in of Naruto and Konohamaru discussing Chakra and Naruto messing up on the pronunciation and Konohamaru falling for it when Naruto says that’s how real ninja say it.

He ’s not motivated by pride or ego, unlike in the Manga. Still, he's genuinely thrilled to have a small protégé, and the rivalry is more along the lines of him being the one who motivates Konohamaru to become stronger, rather than being able to beat up on a little kid to make himself feel superior. In contrast, he’s motivated to become stronger to keep Konohamaru motivated.

And there ’s the whole part about how Naruto and Konohamaru in the Anime are so naive about the real implications of what they’re doing with Sexy Jutsu, whereas the Manga version of Naruto—

Ugh. As I said. He ’s a little pervert, but it’s very understandable why the girls don’t like him.

But how did he end up that way?

And I know this wasn ’t Kishimoto’s intent, it feels like what is portrayed as Naruto’s first encounter with Jiraiya in the Manga wasn’t actually his first encounter, as his paint job screams, “I was influenced by Jiraiya, obviously!”

This adds another layer of things, but this implication—

Obviously, Naruto doesn ’t, for some reason, remember meeting Jiraiya.

That adds, I think, unfortunate implications to the Manga, that of grooming a child into becoming a pervert, and Naruto is effectively just repeating Jiraiya ’s behavior at the end of the day. It’s cringeworthy, but effectively, he is encouraging someone who is already a mini-Naruto to become even more like him, turning the honorable grandson into the dishonorable grandson.

That ’s honestly not how Konohamaru should be getting out of his grandfather’s shadow.

The Anime, as I said, takes on a more innocent take on Naruto ’s actions, that he honestly doesn’t understand what Jiraiya taught him. It’s also logical, given that not everyone in the village hates him, that some of the women would act as his adult chaperone at the bathhouse, but only to a certain age, the age when he’d be allowed to go in there on his own.

It adds a layer of complexity to Naruto ’s character that’s not there in the Manga, as the Manga sticks to the black and white everybody hates him while Anime Naruto is coming to terms and learning to understand that this isn’t the truth, that there are people who care, and the three encounters are part of showing there are people who care about Naruto even though he doesn’t understand their intentions.

This also changes how one perceives Naruto slugging Konohamaru, as in the Manga Naruto feels more like a bully to the little kid and that he is getting away with bullying a little kid, whereas in the Anime Naruto is, without realizing it, giving Konohamaru the tough love everyone else has been trying to give him.

Not to say that the tough love is unhealthy, mind you, but it ’s still different from the whole 'everybody hates him' vibe the Manga has going on.

Speaking of the photo ID, there ’s an element in both the Anime and manga that Naruto says he doesn’t know all of that, yet we know very well that Iruka gave him a stern talking-to the night before.

So why would Naruto say that?

It ’s because he’s ADD, and when he’s eating ramen, he is hyper-focused on eating ramen, so what Iruka says may go in one ear and out the other unless it’s something Naruto is interested in.

To which—

I think the charm of Naruto ’s character is that he is, albeit this is unintentional on Kishimoto’s part, an ADD character.

More importantly, how Manga and Anime represent those with ADD definitely differs, with the Manga coming across as ADD individuals should just be allowed their ADD behavior, even if said behavior is intrusive and causes problems for others. In contrast, the Anime presents Naruto as an ADD character who is honestly trying to learn and grow.

Oh!

I should also mention the Rock Lee spin-off series, as I ’ve seen some points made about Rock Lee’s chart, suggesting that certain characters are perverts.

As I ’ve already said, Manga is the primary source of canon. Anime is next, though it needs to be taken with a grain of salt; in this case, the Manga and Anime used the Nosebleed trope differently: the former in a less traditional sense, and the Latter in a more conventional sense. And bringing up the light novels and databooks doesn ’t work when they are known to contradict the Manga canon at various points.

The Rock Lee spin-off series is a whole different kind of worms, but basically? That series is a series created to poke fun at the Naruto series, but I bring it up now because that whole pervert chart? It ’s honestly making fun of the way the Nosebleed trope is used both within the Manga and the Anime, so people taking the pervert chart as canon fact rather than the gag humor it was meant to be — I just want to head that one up.

Now for the Prompts

Prompt 2.01 — Poor Iruka. He ’s recently become a Chunnin and is excited about becoming a teacher, only for on his very first day to encounter Uzumaki Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu. How doss a sixteen-year-old cope with such trauma, or even the parents of the students whose children may have brought his reaction to the Sexy Jutsu to their attention? Is he considered a bad teacher at that point? Or are they forgiving?

Prompt 2.02 — Naruto is an adult now and should know better. Someone outright tells him he ’s a shinobi and an adult now, thus what he does isn’t childish mischief anymore, and he should be more responsible. Write a story regarding his actions.

Prompt 2.03 — Naruto ’s confusion stems from the fact that prior to turning ten, some of the females in town took pity on him and brought him into the bathhouse. Write about that experience.

Prompt 2.04 — Write a story between Naruto and the unknown bookstore owner introduced in episode two.

Prompt 2.05 — The Manga shows that the so-called trauma Naruto faced from the village was his parents ignoring him in favor of their own kids. Write a story about Naruto ’s feelings of jealousy and frustration that they’re not paying attention to him, too, and why he doesn’t understand that there is a difference at such a young age.

Prompt 2.06 — Naruto wakes up. It ’s a Naruto from any time of the writer’s choice, but he wakes up in a world where he wasn’t able to save Iruka sensei. How does he cope?

Prompt 2.07 — Write a story about Naruto dealing with the loss of not being able to save Iruka and losing him because in this universe he wasn ’t lucky .

Prompt 2.08 — When Naruto goes to steal the scroll, Hiruzen has a heart attack. Instead of continuing to steal the scroll, Naruto runs because he thinks he ’s killed the Hokage. What happens?

Prompt 2.09 — Ebisu is a pervert trying to pretend to be a perfect gentleman and all the girls know it. Write a story about him trying to romance one or more of the female canon characters and failing miserably.

Prompt 2.10 — Naruto does kill the Hokage with Sexy Jutsu. What are the implications of this in the Manga?

Prompt 2.11 — Naruto does kill the Hokage with Sexy Jutsu. What are the implications of this in the Anime?

Prompt 2.12 — There ’s nothing wrong with Konohamaru playing stealth, but how will his ANBU parents feel when they learn his behavior has changed?

Prompt 2.13 — There is the implication that Kishimoto didn ’t intend for Naruto to groom Konohamaru. Write a story dealing with this topic.

Prompt 2.14 — What are the results of a world where one becomes an adult the moment they become a Shinobi? Play with the Manga version of this, where things haven ’t changed.

Prompt 2.15 — What are the results of a world where one becomes an adult the moment they become a Shinobi? Play with the idea that the Anime version sets things up so that children are now seen as children, that times have changed. However, not everyone sees it this way.

Prompt 2.16 — Naruto is spoiled rotten like Konohamaru because many adults, the ones who don ’t fear him, know he’s the son of the former Hokage.

Prompt 2.17 — There is an unhealthy element to Naruto and Konohamaru ’s relationship in the Manga. Explore this.

Prompt 2.18 — Real ninka call it “chatora”, or so Naruto says. Write a story about other characters reacting to Konohamaru calling Chakra “orange tabby”.

Prompt 2.19 — What was Naruto ’s real first encounter with Jiraiya?

Prompt 2.20 — Others find out about Naruto ’s original photo taken. How would they react?

Notes:

Filler. I hear a lot of complaints about the Anime filler. Still, I wonder if it's actually truly understood by Naruto fans just how much filler is in the Anime, what with the fact that I'm three episodes in (I'm working on writing the next one), and two of them are actually heavy with filler material. (Episodes 2 and 3.)

The next few episodes - the filler will be less, but the thing is--

I started thinking about it recently because I saw something that is actually not Anime filler, and in the Manga it is claimed as Anime filler. Thus it can be ignored, and then it clicked as I watched the first episode again that a significant change that tones down Naruto's behavior isn't being discussed as being an actual change to the source material.

Nor is the actual filler material for episodes two and three being discussed as filler material.

Which --

This makes me wonder if fans know what is or isn't filler material, that perhaps a good chunk of fans are fans of the series because of the Anime? It makes me wonder if this has anything to do with why some didn't see or even still think there isn't a problem with the narrative, because the Anime staff did a good job fixing things, such as pacing issues, toning Naruto's behavioral issues down. Hence, they're more palpable, things like that.

Chapter 5: 003. Naruto is an Unintentional Bully

Is Naruto the right character to contrast against Sasuke when it comes to hate?

More specifically, on of the themes of Naruto is Sasuke and the Uchiha clan being bashed to pieces for their “hate” and said hate is painted with the broad stroke of being “evil” and coming from a place of darkness.

Yet, Naruto hates Sasuke In both “Sasuke Uchiha!!” and “Sasukee and Sakura” Friends or Foes?”

This hate is far more uncalled for than Sasuke ’s supposed hatred for his brother stemming from — in the Manga — Sasuke getting all of the girls, because at the end of the day Naruto is jealous of Sasuke, particularly since Sakura, his first crush, has the hots for Sasuke. It’s to the point he at first beats up Sasuke so he could interact with Sakura and later on after running to the bathroom he gets the idea of making Sakura hate Sasuke by pretending to be Sasuke and doing something cruel while making her think that it is Sasuke who is doing this.

And yet?

Sasuke, desspite finding Naruto to be an annoyance comes to his fellow team members defense when Sakura starts bad mouthing him, putting forth the fact she thinks Naruto is lucky to not have parents to nag him. Sure, the correction comes from Sasuke ’s own experience, yet he’s more than willing to say something to correct Sakura’s behavior towards Naruto and this is after the crap Naruto pulled and is planning on pulling, with some of it Sasuke not even knowing about.

And as much as Kishimoto wants us to believe Sasuke is being cruel to Naruto, he ’s not. Asking Naruto to not drag him down after Iruka explains they were placed on the same team because Sasuke got the highest grades and Naruto got the lowest isn’t being mean, but Naruto is the one instigating much of the conflict between the two and Sasuke is reacting in retort which includes throwing names back at him, asking him if he wants to fight.

In contrast—

Well, Sakura spells it out quite clearly to Naruto when he, pretending to be Sasuke, asks her what she thinks of Naruto. She outright calls him out for being a bully to her; not only does this go right over Naruto ’s head that he’s hurt Sakura in the past with some of his past actions, but he spouts that he understands better why he loves her—

—as she’s leaning in to kiss him, thinking he is Sasuke.

What Naruto did was sexual assault by deception. It doesn’t matter that Sakura is the one who initiated the kiss, because at the end of the day, she believes she is kissing Sasuke, not Naruto. Of course, I’ve come across individuals attempting to turn it around on Sakura, pointing out she sexually assaulted Naruto — sort of.

In the Manga, yes.

She does beat up Naruto.

After his stupidity resulted in him and Sasuke ending up in a mutually non-consensual kiss, which is in part because Naruto stole Sasuke ’s first kiss—

Oh. Wait. That ’s the Anime. While she does hope for getting a first kiss from Sasuke, she doesn’t say anything about the kiss being stolen, as she does in the Anime. Of course, I could be remembering this correctly.

It more of has to do with the fact Naruto breached Sasuke ’s personal boundaries, which in turn resulted in the incident that both boys did not enjoy happening.

( Sorry, Sasuke/Naruto fans. It ’s obvious the two hate each other’s guts and found the experience upsetting.)

And then he turns around and doesn ’t respect her boundaries, attempting to steal her first kiss, only for her to be saved by his mistake of drinking spoiled milk that morning, but he then decides to push things further by pretending to be Sasuke and doing things to make him hate Sasuke. This is after she tells Naruto, who she thinks is Sasuke, why she doesn ’t like him, that he has hurt her .

Hate?

Sasuke, as I said, gets a lot of flak for the “hate” aimed at his older brother for killing his family. At the same time, the entire series preaches against his actions as it will just spread more “hate,” yet Naruto in this chapter is willing to not only hate Sasuke for being popular with the girls, but also to manipulate things so that Sakura will hate Sasuke.

Hate is apparently fine and dandy when it ’s Naruto hating people and spreading it, but the village isn’t allowed to hate him for his shitty behavior and Sasuke, in effect, isn’t allowed to seek justice for his clan.

Yes. I know the word revenge is thrown around, but one of the main problems is that the series doesn ’t—

Well, it does have a distinction between “justice” and “revenge” with Naruto, of all people, representing “justice” and Sasuke representing “revenge.” Still, it never truly dives into what the distinction between the two is beyond the fact that Naruto’s words are true and always correct, and Sasuke is wrong for, well, being a Uchiha. He’s not allowed to shift his view on the matter when it is logical for him to do so.

And no, Naruto calling Sasuke a jerk or anything else he does in this chapter is a form of justice — it ’s a form of revenge, one stemming from hatred formulated through his jealousy of Sasuke, which is somewhat ironic given Madara’s plans came from the place of hatred formulated through the exact same reasons, jealousy and ego.

This is one of the reasons the entire attempt to parallel the two with other characters ultimately fails — they ’re not real parallels. Still, it also feels like a hand wave to justify Illogical behavior from at least Sasuke, if not also Naruto.

Nor am I left believing this idea Naruto puts forth during Shippuden era, that he only ever wanted to be friends with Sasuke, wanted Sasuke to accept him, because he found out Sasuke was like him, aka, also alone, despite the truth of him not actually being alone as seen in later chapters during flashbacks.

Speaking of hate—

The girls definitely hate Naruto, and they hate Sakura. In the Manga, they ’re telling Sasuke to beat up Naruto — which probably doesn’t help Naruto’s behavioral problems, though in saying this, Sasuke doesn’t give in. They also voice the fact that they think Sakura is full of herself, which, when it comes to bullying—

I don ’t exactly get the girls in their class egging Sasuke on to beat Naruto, though I guess, because this is a shinobi society, there may be some encouragement to spar things out, which in turn would mean Sakura beating Naruto up for the things he does actually wouldn’t be frowned upon.

Yet, I still see those who argue that Sakura beating Naruto up takes things to far, particularly when we see him looking like one of his melted clones from the start of the series very often, but—

So, one of the things in Anime and Manga being shown as being beaten up pretty bad for humor purposes. It’s similar to the Nosebleed trope I talked about in the last chapter. One way this is done is the Megaton Punch trope where “the usual treatment is to make it so over the top that it’s not mistaken for rel violence.” In fact, it’s sort of a sub trope, the Pervert Revenge Mode.

And for the most part, it should be taken this way if the guy is fine a few seconds later, though there are times in Naruto when it ’s not the usual treatment, such as after Sakura’s gained Tsunade level strength and the threat of being on the receiving end of Sakura’s punches is now and actual threat.

Which—

Some will say, “Violence solves nothing.”

This is based off the idea that violence only begets more violence which in turn is why Naruto is treated as being right within the series and Sasuke is treated as being wrong, because the series attempts to present Naruto being on the pacifist side of things and Sasuke on the violence side of things as well as those they ’re supposed to parallel.

Except—

Madara peaches something along the lines of open communication between two people is the way to solve conflict which, despite his decent into jealousy and ego that leads to him taking on violence as a solution does in fact lean into the idea of violence solving nothing.

The real problem though is the series shows the problem with the phase, as to say one side is not violent within the conflict of Naruto would honestly be a lie, but the idea of violence solves nothing means not even defending oneself from the violent acts of other people, or in the case of Naruto, sexual harassment where the only thing that ever stopped Naruto from peeking into the girls baths was the threat of being on the wrong end of one of Sakura ’s punches.

More importantly, those with violent natures and tendencies aren ’t going to be stopped with pacifist words alone. There’s reasons for self-defense.

This doesn ’t mean attempting to solve things through peaceful, non-violent means isn’t a good thing, but to say violence solves nothing and litterally mean it onee is also implying that non-violence solves everything which would in fact be a lie, but this kind of stance is a black and white view on the matterr, when the matter of violence versus pacifism is in fact not a black and white matter.

And this is one of the problems with the Naruto series, the fact the series attempts to have Naruto represent the “white” side of the stance and Sasuke the “black” side of the stance while not only being consistent to these stances, there’s the fact the matter isn’t a black and white one at the end of the day, nor did either truly represent either side.

What, though, does this mean in relation to Sakura beating up Naruto?

At the end of the day, Sakura is beating him up because of his behavioral issues. The Anime in the previous episode also shows Naruto getting whacked a few times and the first chapter shows just how horrible he can be behavior wise.

So, is Sakura really supposed to put up and shut up with how she ’s being treated? Is anybody?

It certainly is how we tell kids to deal with bullying, to effectively turn the other cheek rather than lashing out in retaliation, that ignoring the bully is the best solution.

However, what this teaches bullies is that their victims are expected to put up and shut up with what they do to them, that their victims, should they retaliate, be the ones labeled the bully and the ones getting into trouble instead of the actual bully and often special needs children are prime targets, as they ’re the ones more likely to blow their fuse because of the way they’re treated.

The other thing is, zero-tolerance policies for fighting have turned into a no self-defense policy precisely because of the mantra “violence solves nothing” and those who bully often have powerful parents who will argue that the child defending themselves should also be punished.

To say this is a broken system is an understatement, but this has, I think, resulted in some who ’ve learned that even self-defense is violence not meant to be tolerated aren’t able to look at fights going on in series based on context and with critical thinking.

At the end of the day, while the girls shouting for Sasuke to beat Naruto up in the Manga can be seen as a simple matter of the girls fangirling over Sasuke and hating on Naruto — Naruto ’s the character known for his Sexy Jutsu. He ’s crossed personal boundaries. He crossed Sakura’s in this episode as well as Sasuke’s, so whose to say he didn’t do this to the other girls in the series?

Sasuke is also handling himself far better then Naruto, never being the one to instigate things, though he did seeK Naruto out to give him a piece of his mind for tying him up in this part of the series and pretending to do him, but he ’s likely also wondering what kind of trouble Naruto caused for him by pretending to be him .

And , Sasuke corrected Sakura when she said Naruto was lucky to not have parents.

Of course, the girls cheering Sasuke to beat Naruto up is gone from the Anime. Gone is the implication the girls are hating on her, thinking she ’s some kind of upstart showing as soon as Sakura is introduced that she’s been the victim of bullying replacing it instead with her rivalry with Ino. And she does also beat him up in the Anime, but in the Anime it’s shown in a way one may be left wondering if all the girls gave him a good thump.

Though, in the Anime version of events, Sasuke does ask Naruto if he wants to fight him or not.

Which—

That ’s still not Sasuke being a bully here, not with how Naruto’s acting because Naruto is acting like he wants to fight, and as I said, sparring to duke things out is likely part of their society. Naruto ’s known for bragging about being better than everyone and wanting to prove it, only to fail at doing so, meaning he’s often the instigator.

Another important difference is that Sakura ’s mother is shown nagging her in the morning, and after she decides to try and be nice to Naruto, Naruto comes back and makes her think twice about being nice to him.

Shipping wise — well, if Sakura has to beat someone up to get them to respect her boundaries, it ’s not a good relationship, but Naruto nding up with Sakura at the end would have been the whole supposed nice guy getting the girl as a trophy despite the fact the series shows reasons why she’s turned off of him.

Naruto and Sasuke? It ’s obvious they don’t like each other and weren’t happy with the kiss. It’s not a canon moment for the ship, but—

Well, wait until the prompts please.

As for Sasuke and Sakura, I don ’t think Sasuke is interested in any of the girls at this point. It’s not just a matter of being focused on revenge as the Manga puts it though, or him being interested in guys (sorry M/M fans), but more of he’s seen the behavior of the girls and finds it off putting. He’s also aware of Naruto being alone and if anybody being the one to want to be friends because they understand the feeling of loneliness, it ’s Sasuke.

Not Naruto.

Oh, and Sakura refusing to eat with Naruto in the Anime isn ’t bullying. His behavior is such that others aren’t going to want to spend time with him, and you’ve got to justify the put-up and shut-up idea.

That said, while this is reality, the way it appears to Naruto is—

Well, he does in his mind think he ’s being bullied.

This brings me to Naruto being an unreliable narrator. He ’s first and foremost a kid. He’s also likely ADHD. He doesn’t understand how his behavior hurts others and he doesn’t understand how to be a friend, which is one of the charms. He is a bully, but he doesn't intend to be a bully.

This—

This bring me to—

I heard a rumor.

Now, I ’ll start by saying I don’t know where the rumor came from. But from what I’ve heard, Naruto and Sasuke are supposed to represent Kishimoto and his twin brother.

To which—

Yes, I ’ve already seen some, when discussing the rumors bring up the whole kissing scene and that places a creepy spin on this rumor—

Except—

They were twins and twins tend to be close, so it might not be off base to interpret this as having been an outlet for frustrations at having been bullied about being too close as children without Kishimoto realizing it, but I think Kishimoto has parts he ’s aware of—

—like the fact he knows Naruto and Sasuke is a self-insert of sorts for himself and his brother—

—to things he doesn’t realize.

To which—

Honestly?

I ’ve always wondered if on some level Naruto and Gaara were on some level a form of self-insert for him and his brother, which Kishimoto potentially being ADHD and his brother being on the autism spectrum.

To which if you apply this to the intentional self-inserts of Naruto and Sasuke, it does add a whole new level to things.

Effectively, I ’m planning on going into why I suspect Gaara of being on the spectrum once I get to the part where his character shows up and the parts which make me suspect him to be on the spectrum, but effectively Autistic children are often sensory sensitive and his sand over reacts to outside stimulus.

But from here, if Naruto is ADHD like Kishimoto and Sasuke is like wise autistic—

It honestly explains a lot, if one things of how an ADHD child would try and get the attention of their Autistic sibling and how that sibling would in turn react to the stimulus from their ADHD sibling. The ADHD child would be confused regarding their autistic siblings reactions to them just as their autistic sibling would find their ADHD siblings behavior even more confusing than that of a normal persons.

Which—

This isn ’t an avocation to say Kishimoto is definitely ADHD and his brother is on the spectrum. It’s a theory , but looking at Kishimoto ’s work under the theory he (and his brother) are neurodiverse in some manner is interesting and in some ways makes sense in regards to why he did certain things with the narrative.

For example, Sasuke has a lot of reactions that don ’t make sense and the Uchiha curse of hatred honestly makes them worse. However, if one were to look at it from the view point of being based on how an autistic sibling would react to their ADHD sibling in various moments, it would make sense in that they would have some extreme reactions to said siblings behavior like Sasuke has some extreme reactions to Naruto’s behvior.

I don ’t think, though, it would add up to the direction Sasuke would end up going, that this is perhaps the case of the writer letting themselves be too much influenced by their own life experiences.

However, there are other things, such as Naruto ’s jealousy over all the girls liking Sasuke instead of him, I imagine during elementary school the girls would have not liked Kishimoto’s ADHD behavior and preferred his brother in comparison. Part of the rumor I heard is that his brother got beat up, meaning things switched up when it came to the guys in their class.

But again? Theory here, not actual reality.

I can ’t think of much else in regards to this particular episode beyond noting this is yet another episode that is comprised of quite a bit of filler, yet the differences aren’t really discussed by fandom. Even Konohamaru switching to sneak attacking Naruto twenty times a day is an Anime thing.

Oh!

Wait.

Almost forgot.

Chapter one uses Naruto ’s name. Last one uses Konohamaru. This one uses Sasuke. The next one Kakashi’s. Sakura’s is not to be seen until the Anime episode which I think gives a good idea of how Kishimoto thinks of female characters.

To which, the bullied one?

It ’s Sakura. We see signs of her being bullied even before Kishimoto wrote it into the Manga. She was bullied in part because she was pretty, but if one thinks about the way she doesn’t hesitate in dealing with Naruto, that might be another thing she was made fun of given the fact she isn ’t afraid of throwing punches with the boys.

And as for the girls not liking Naruto — he doesn ’t bring it up in the Anime. Instead, the Anime presents things more as Naruto not knowing who Sasuke is, which is for all appearances how things are; Naruto knows at most he is popular, but he doesn’t know Sasuke is the number one student even above Sakura being that at this point she fails at the physical, and Sasuke being alone is something he learned later on.

Now for the Prompts.

Prompt 3.01 — Explain to Naruto why the girls don ’t like him through any character of your choice including OCs.

Prompt 3.02 — Naruto came up with the idea of making Sasuke look bad to the village first and foremost? How would this work out given he drunk spoiled milk that day?

Prompt 3.03 — Naruto came up with the idea of making Sasuke look bad to the village first and foremost? How would this work out if he hadn ’t drunk milk that day?

Prompt 3.04 — Sasuke talks about being alone being far worse than ones parents nagging them. How does this change Sakura ’s behavior to her parents?

Prompt 3.05 — Sasuke knows what it likes to be alone, but what if he ’s the one who wanted to be friend with Naruto once he found out what it was like to be alone only for Naruto to act the way he does. Would this help drive him down the path he goes down?

Prompt 3.06 — What if Naruto was successful at kissing Sakura? How would she react finding out what he did?

Prompt 3.07 — What if Naruto was successful at kissing Sakura? How would Sasuke react to finding out?

Prompt 3.08 — What if Naruto was successful at kissing Sakura? What if Ino followed and thinks Sakura got a kiss from Sasuke?

Prompt 3.09 — The M/M kiss is a Het/Het reaction. What if Naruto ’s reaction was a non-Het reaction instead? How would things change?

( Note — non-Het is being used here as short hand for same-sex attraction and bisexual. )

Prompt 3.10 — The M/M kiss is a Het/Het reaction. What if Sasuke ’s reaction was a non-Het reaction instead? How would things change?

Prompt 3.11 — The M/M kiss is a Het/Het reaction. What if both reactions were actually non-Het? How would things change?

Prompt 3.12 — What if a female character is secretly a yaoi fan and misinterprets the kiss? What will happen?

Prompt 3.13 — What if a male character isn ’t heterosexual? (Can either be same sex attracted, or bisexual.) How would he react to the kiss?

Prompt 3.14 — Naruto is actually a girl pretending to be a boy because she was told to hide the fact she was a girl, but the kiss undoes the jutsu? How does the story change?

Prompt 3.15 — Karma. Naruto ’s Sexy Jutsu fails as he releases the jutsu and everything is flipped. He is now a she and instead of being interested in girls he is interested in boys.

Prompt 3.16 — Karma. Naruto ’s Sexy Jutsu fails as he releases the jutsu he is now a she and instead but still very much interested in girls.

Prompt 3.17 — Sasuke was alone. What ws being alone like for him?

Prompt 3.18 — Write a story about Naruto and Sasuke from the view point of Naruto being ADHD and Sasuke being on the spectrum.

Prompt 3.19 — Sakura isn ’t just made fun of for her wide forehead, but because she is willing to stand up to the guys and even throw some punches if need be. Write a story involving this.

Chapter 6: 004. 90% Failure Rate is Illogical

Is 90% of Naruto’s year failing actually believable?

“Wait,” a few may say, “But didn’t Kakashi say it was 33%?”

Well, yes. When it came to whether or not the teams get sent back to the academy for further training or not. But in reality, it is 90% as there is the implication that out of 90 students — we know this because of a flashback to Sasuke’s report card later on — only 9 get to move on.

In other words, what’s really going on is 70% ends up cut during the first rounds of testing and then another 20% gets cut during the second round.

Unless—

Unless the three attempts at graduating was to break them up into groups, but in this case Sasuke and Sakura would have graduated within the first set of tests and Naruto the third, which would make sense given the Manga doesn’t show Naruto as being in the same class in the Manga meaning he was given a third attempt to graduate, which would also explain the short amount of time between his graduation ceremony (the receiving of ones headband) and being able to register for the orientation ceremony.

Except—

Well, at the end of the day we only ever see those nine characters, meaning that yes, it is only the top 10% of Naruto’s class that goes on to pass and become Genin which in turn came about because it meant less characters for Kishimoto to come up with despite the fact we should still see the other 90% of Naruto’s year running around in the background.

But this idea that Naruto is in the top 10% of his class honestly feels like some kind of bad joke.

I mean, what is the big deal of him not graduating if 70% ended up failing in the first place. Naruto — he acts like he’s the only one who didn’t get to graduate. We’re even told Naruto is the only one who failed in the very first chapter and episode! That he’d somehow been singled out, but in reality it would have been sixty-three — not including Naruto — who failed.

And we’re only four chapters in, and the series has already gone from poor, poor Naruto being singled out at the academy by the village tht hates him, to this fool of a student now being in the top 10% because he’s simply that amazing of a student.

Welcome to one of the messages that the series flip flops on constantly — the message of Naruto being some kind of underdog who works hard to achieve great things without the use of short cuts, you know — those short cuts he told Konohamaru there were none when one the road to becoming Hokage — to someone who doesn’t need short cuts at all because he’s so amazing and just needs to create 200 clones because his special abilities allow him this cheat code compared to everyone else and thus he can learn abilities others could only dream of.

To say the forth chapter seriously undermines Naruto’s story would be an understatement, but it is also this chapter in which some have drawn the conclusion of Naruto having some kind of learning disability because he notes something about too much kanji in the episode.

To which—

Well, there are context clues Naruto is learning disabled in some manner, though I’d personally argue against jumping straight into Naruto being dyslexic when simply being ADHD would be enough of a learning disability to have a negative impact on whether or not he is able to read on grade level or not, as is having no parents at home to read to him and the fact he liks playing hooky from school.

More importantly, I think the reason some instantly jump to the conclusion of dyslexia comes from not understanding the differences between Japanese and English, but they’re effectively taking “too many kanji” as meaning the same thing as “too many letters” when it’s not actually the same thing.

I think the best way to explain it is, no matter how many letters there are in what we’re reading in English, there are still only 26 letters in the alphabet, whereas with kanji there’s anywhere from 50-100k with about 3k needing to be memorized for basic communication. As such, when Naruto says something has too much kanji, it’s because the work has too many kanji he doesn’t yet recognize.

As such, Naruto being ADHD, not having a parent at home to read to him, him playing hooky from school and not wanting to even bother memorizing 3k kanji, particularly since the books he’d be interested in reading would likely have a limit on the kanji used. We’re also talking someone who helps Jiraiya edit his books, which I think was Jiraiya’s way of teaching Naruto various kanji he didn’t yet know in a way that interested him — it involved helping Jiraiya out, or being given a reward for completion.

Getting back to the whole 10% of his year passing—

Honestly, it doesn’t make sense at the end of the day because it feels too much like something the students should have known yet didn’t.

I mean, they would have seen previous years being failed in numbers and returned to the academy, as well as previous years still having to take lessons at the academy.

It also feels quite cruel to give the children their headbands that indicate they are shinobi only to turn around and say, “Nope! You’re not!”

There’s also the issue of the teams comprised of three graduating students and how if Naruto hadn ’t passed there would in fact be a team without the third student. And if the criteria for the test is teamwork, why isn’t that being tested for prior to receiving headbands? Why isn’t that a requirement?

Oh. Wait.

If it was a requirement, then Naruto would never be able to pass in the first place as he’s not naturally a team player. Even in regards to passing Kakashi’s test, he’s not the one who initiated teamwork — he’s not exactly a team player, but the plot of Naruto leads into a series where the bad guys get so strong, Naruto is the only one allowed to get strong enough to deal with them and another character outright admits they’re now forced to depend on Naruto too much.

What makes far more sense?

First, it’s not actually a 33% failure rate every single time, but more of an average, for if Kakashi ended up failing his team there would logically only be two teams that passed that year.

Unless of course only the best of the best get through and a team that their Jonen deemed capable may not muster up, to which—

Which team did Naruto’s end up bumping out of that slot? Well, that doesn’t make sense?

Neither does sending them back to the academy.

What makes far more sense is dividing teams up into three groups.

The first group is the group Naruto’s team fell into, which are the ones recognized as Gennin on the rosters to be hired by those outside of the village based on the registration book. They’re allowed to take on D-rank and when their Jonen feels they’re ready C-rank missions, but they’re also able to be specifically commissioned.

The second group are still Gennin ranked, but aren’t in the registration books to be hired on by those outside of the village. They’re only allowed to take on D-rank missions, but priority on taking on D-rank missions is given to those outside of their group. They’re expected to as Kakashi said take further instruction at the academy to cover their weak points.

They are also periodically retested to see if they’re ready to advance to being registered in the village’s books and this is determined by their Jonen regarding whether they are ready or not. There’s none of this only 33% pass — that’s just about on average the amount determined to be ready.

The third group — well, Naruto’s group almost ended completely in this group, but if the test is teamwork, this is a test to work out which ones aren’t team players and these are the ones completely sent back to the academy, though Kakashi is known for completely kicking them out of the academy and I suspect some others are this way as well.

This is important, because they won’t always have numbers divisible by three and allows one of the students who didn’t get sorted into a group a chance to get into a group. Else they have to wait a full year, but even among the second group there may be a focus on rearranging the teams so they’re better matched.

In this, Shikamaru’s team dynamic always passes because they have a special dynamic based on each clan’s abilities and have from childhood worked on working as a team together. Which is ultra important due to Ino’s personality being towards the more narcissistic side of things, with Shikamaru mellowing her out, or more of being a foil to her.

Baking this up?

Well, the shinobi ID indicate some of the other twenty-seven within the gaps of the Rookie 9’s IDs.

And at the end of the day?

This whole mess honestly came about because Kishimoto didn’t want to deal with mere background characters and fleshing them out, but that just resulted in nobody in Naruto’s year outside of the Rookie 9 and Sakura’s bullies being fleshed out, the latter of which only happened because of a flashback yet we still never see that group after the flashback in the Manga.

Also worth noting, I don’t think every team does the bell test. To me, one of the most annoying things to see crop up in fanfic is the bell test for everybody. Yes. We do see it used a lot , but in this it’s at the end of the day a test that has been handed down. Shikmaru’s team? No test needed even because it would already be known whether they could work together or not, having been something they were trained for since they were very young children.

Aka, Asuma would be able to tell them from the moment they met up whether they would be of the first group I mentioned or not.

And here are the prompts …

Prompt 4.01 — Naruto was supposed to be the only one who failed, yet over sixty-students failed. How would one of these students feel finding out Naruto passed after all?

Prompt 4.02 — Kakashi obviously lied. Team nine finds out. How do they react?

Prompt 4.03 — A forth team succeeds. What is this team’s story?

Prompt 4.04 — It’s in Naruto’s nature to rub things in. He finds out a team was “failed” and does just that. What happens?

Prompt 4.05 — How does the students Kakashi failed feel about Naruto being one of the three who are the first to pass?

Prompt 4.06 — How does the students Kakashi failed feel about Sakura being one of the three who are the first to pass?

Prompt 4.07 — How does the students Kakashi failed feel about Sasuke being one of the three who are the first to pass?

Prompt 4.08 — Naruto claimed in the first chapter he was the only one who didn't graduate, but Kakashi's own words point to this not being the case. Write a story where Naruto doesn't graduate, with him being a part of the lower 70% for that year instead of ending up in the top 10%.

Chapter 7: 005. Icha Icha Isn't Porn

The Icha-Icha series isn ’t porn.

I ’ve been looking forward to writing this one because it’s one feels like a major misconception among fans regarding the content of the series.

But before I get into this, I ’d like to first discuss Sakura skipping not one, but two meals because she was dieting and how much this pisses me off.

Now, I get the whole making Sakura be that type of girl who is interested in guys and has guys on the brain and Kakashi noticing this as he ’s asking the kids to answer certain questions about themselves.

Having the whole dieting thing in there, though, takes things to far in my opinion, particulaly in a society where girls being in top form as shinobi would be important and as such having a proper diet when not out on the field should have been taught along side survival classes and with the fact we later learn the girls take special classes — I ’m guessing the boys have their own — this would be a logical topic to cover.

More importantly?

It ’s that annoying Weight Woe trope that people like adding in simply because there ’s a female character and the stereotype is to have them have a Weight Woe often tied in with guys. It tends to be one-off, which can include one-off episode dealing with the subject mater and then it ’s hand waved as if it never happened.

Rarely is it done right , and it just ends up becoming a ghimick.

By what I men by done right? Well, often the girl that suddenly diets is the last one you ’d expect randomly doing it for a guy she likes. To which I do admit Sakura and Ino are both likely to fall into this trap, but here’s the other problem. Eating disorders among girls aren’t just simply a matter of wanting to look nice for the guy — it’s far more complex, often involving complex self-esteeme issues as well as peer pressure that handling it in such a short time frame often never ends well, or it—

Well, it ’s presented in Naruto as simply a matter of girls having boys on the brain and how foolish they look for this.

It ’s something that presents a girls romantic interests and love lives as being mere foolishness, and that’s not okay.

Which?

Honestly, that’s how Icha Icha is handled by fandom.

Ah. So there was a reason I brought that up first, and I ’m now discussing the book series, isn’t there?

To which—

I came across someone in one of the forums discussing the contents of the book who actually claimed they coulddn ’t translate what Icha Icha actually means because according to them it didn’t translate to anything they’d use in polite conversation, and—

Uh, no.

It ’s nothing actually indecent and what the series is translated to in English (the Make-Out series) is the literal translation.

Or, it means flirting.

However, I think the important element here is that the two individuals are doing it publicly.

Doeesn ’t sound like a porn novel, does it?

Which brings us to the next clue people use to surmise that it must be porn, the 18+ raiting.

Well, again. No.

I think the primary confusion comes from trying to understand the Japanese rating system through the lens of thee English raiting system, but I think the best way to explain the problem with the assumption being made is that when people see Kishimoto mention th 18+ raiting, their minds jump straight to thinking it ’s the same as the NC-17 raiting when in reality Japan doesn ’t have an equivilent to said raiting. They ’ve instead two R raitings, one for 15+ and one for 18+, so definitely not the same thing.

In fact, Anime that are rated 18+ over there may end up with either the R or MA raiting over here .

So that ’s the next failure in logic that Jiraiya’s books are porn.

The series being written by Jiraiya is of course the next arguement, because everyone knows that Jiraiya is a perve and—

Well, according to Naruto he is.

And the fact he peeks into the bath houses for his reseach says he ’s a perve.

Does this though translate into the actual work? According to canon, Jiraiya started his research long before he started writing books, with him dragging Saratobi into his research, but more importantly, his first book didn ’t involve said research, was definitely free of said research.

There ’s also the implication the only reasson his work sells like it does is because the work is porn, but—

I doubt he ’d be making that kind of money, the kind where Naruto notices a ton of zeroes if what he wrote was actually porn.

But then—

I ’ve been wondering if the people claiming the books are porn think all adult content is pornographic in nature. Even a sex scene doesn ’t make something porn.

In fact, I ’m later going to make a case that there aren’t any sex scenes in this series, but let ’s focus on the idea—

—Jiraiya wrote it, thus it must be porn.

This is a fallacy of logic. And it doesn ’t add up with the fact Jiraiya had enough taste to make it so that his first book was child friendsly, meaning adult content was added to make his books sell but would this need to be porn? As I ’ve said, that doesn’t make sense either, as going too much into the adult content would have the exact opposite effect.

So no.

Jiraya writing the books doesn ’t mean they’re porn.

Which brings us to Kakashi, that he ’s somehow proof that they’re porn.

Why?

Because we see him blushing, right?

Well, uh—

Yes. When he reads them out loud, we do, and that ’s not proof simply because reading any adult content out loud would be embarrassing.

To which they point to the scene where he blushes, the one where Naruto is telling Jiraiyah off for how perverted his books are.

Well—

That ’s not canon.

By this I mean that is an Anime only scene. Making matters worse, it ’s Naruto remembering Kakashi reacting in a way he didn’t while assigning Kakashi the title of pervert because of what Naruto assumses the content of the books are and yet Kakashi never in the Manga has a nosebleed reaction to Sexy Jutsu.

It ’s rather funny, though, because Naruto’s reaction is a wonderful childlike reaction to adult content, that it ’s all porn when it ’s not all porn , but this is one of those places Naruto has to be take as an unreliable narrator.

Thus, no. Not proof.

So then we turn to the next proof, Hinata.

Which—

That ’s again Anime only, but—

Even if it wasn ’t, this is Hinata. She’s a yamato nadeshiko , which is the personification of the ideal Japanese woman so reading any adult content would get this reaction from her. And she would say no-go simply because it was adult content.

But in this—

It ’s a book that’s on the shelf where the children can easily obtain it, but you’d think if it was truely porn it wouldn ’t be that accessible, right?

More importantly, I doubt there ’s any sex-scenes, that Icha Icha is true to it ’s wordd and is about the make out/flirting in public described in a manner considered to be adult content.

Which—

Here ’s where people are going to say what I just claimed is laughable because making out publically isn ’t adult content, right?

Well, in Western culture that may be true, but in Japan? PDA is culturally different over there than over here, so to have a book series involving PDA? Particularly in a ninja society based on older Japanese standards?

Yeah. That would be considered adult content, but there ’s also the way it’s described and the frequency of it that’s important as well.

Which—

I ’d honestly always assumed Icha Icha was simply an adult romance novel written to Japanese standards, but I also was under the impression that Kakashi ’s not the actual target audience, that the target audience is women, which—

I mentioned that Jiraiya ’s reseaarch may not imply that his books are porn, that he’s been doing that type of research since he was a little kid. However, the way Jiraiya so publically says that he ’s just doing research for his books — it’s in part pretext to peek in places he shouldn’t, but I also think there’s an element of trying to listen in on female gossip.

After all, the romance novel is going to appeal to women, and as such one needs to know their target audience.

Though, he ’s not just listening to the gossip for the purposes of writing his books either — he’s using it as a source of information gathering.

Does it make what he does right?

No, but it ’s not black and white either.

Speaking of which, having gotten back to Jiraiya ’s research, let’s get back to Kakashi.

As I said, Kakashi ’s not proof the books are porn, but in Kakashi’s own words he is interested in the plot of the books to the point he doesn’t want the plot spoiled for him. That in itself is a hint that the series isn’t porn.

However, more importantly, belittling Icha Icha is yet another way of painting a woman ’s sexual interests as being wrong, perhaps to the point of being immoral, given Ichia Icha at the end of the day isn ’t born, but just an adult romance series, and adult by Japanese standards.

Time for the prompts.

Prompt 5.01 — Kakashi is fine with reading PDA, but actual PDA? That ’s as likely to get a blush from him as actually reading the PDA, particularly the adult content kind, out loudd. Rin on the other hand is perfectly fine with PDA. Write a story based on this.

Prompt 5.02 — Kakashi is fine with reading PDA, but actual PDA? That ’s as likely to get a blush from him as actually reading the PDA, particularly the adult content kind, out loud. But on a dare, he’s made to do so.

Prompt 5.03 — Guys aren ’t normally into romance. It’s something Kakashi’s friends both male and female tease him about, which may not help the way his student see Jirraiya’s series.

Prompt 5.04 — Icha Icha is a romance series for girls, so it wouldn ’t be surprising if one of the female characteers got into th series.

Prompt 5.05 — Naruto makes a scene about his teacher reading porn in public. Except, Icha Icha isn ’t porn. How does it go down?

Chapter 8: 006. Kakashi's Whacked Out Humor

Kakashi’s sense of humor is something else, to be honest.

Of course, I didn ’t really stop to think about Kakashi’s sense of humor before, though I had noticed how he’d weirdly twist things around, or be avaisive in his speach such as his non-challant comment about rivals during the Chunnin exams which in turn earned him a glare from guy—

And then it hit with the scene with Sakura, where he uses Genjutsu on her and contemplates having overdone it only to shrug the whole thing off as no big deal.

To which—

I ’d already been pondering Kakashi being on the spectrum, what with the way he struggled with socialization and his anal retentive attraction to the rules and not breaking them as the direct result of what happened to his father despite the way he idolized his father.

Not to mention he ’s obsessed with his Icha Icha books as an autistic individual would be as well as his ninken which is in reference to how he refers to them when they ’re introduced.

But then thinking of him taking amusement at Sakura falling for his Genjutsu—

That ’s rather morbid humor, to be honest, but then—

We ’re also talking someone who didn’t hesitate in reading his book while they attempted to snatch the bells. He seemed amused at Naruto coming at him with killing intent—

Speaking of which, why is it okay for Naruto to go after Kakashi with killing intent, but not Sasuke? Because Kakashi clearly declared Naruto came at him with killing intent, only for Naruto to call Sasuke out for doing just this?

Some may point to the expression on Sasuke ’s face which is his revenge face, but—

The thing is, the revenge slant was honestly pushed to the point it lost believability particularly with how many times the narrative effectively painted Sasuke as not being allowed to do something because “Revenge is bad!” only for Naruto to be allowed to o the exact same thing later on, but this one has Naruto doing it first and Sasuke getting blasted for it moments later.

Getting back to Kakashi ’s sense of humor, leaving Sasuke the way he did so his head was sticking out also falls into that kind of humor.

But is it an autistic kind of humor?

I ’m going to admit here that while autistic individuals can have a very unique sense of humor that may not always be understood, it isn’t always morbid like this.

However, in this case we would be talking about an autistic child who became a child soldier.

There ’s no way Kakashi’s humor would come out normal, but then there’s also the One Thousand Years of Death technique which according to the Rock Lee spin-off—

So, Rock Lee is a gag humor comic so what ’s said in it shouldn’t be taken seriously, yet in it is the only source of information regarding how Kakashi came up with the technique though it is also based off the real life children ’s game of Kancho .

The thing is, the explanation Rock Lee gives makes more sense given Kakashi wasn ’t the type of child for such games growing up.

Unless—

Well, I guess one could argue that it is an Obito type thing to do that Kakashi mistook as an actual taijutsu given his actual personality now that I think about it and I ’ve thought about Obito’s issues recently. Which in turn the trick wouldn’t, I think, go over well with Kakashi’s classmates or the others at the academy.

To which it might be credited in Rock Lee to his father as his father made it clear why it ’s not fun for the other kids to have the ninja genius playing Kancho with them.

My original train of thought, though, before writing this essay was based on a fan theory, that the flame pattern on Sakumo ’s sleeve that can also be found on Minato and Jiraiya’s coats that perhaps those two individuals are of the Hatake clan — which makes sense in Kakashi and his father being the only known clan members is a bit odd.

To which—

Exactly how would Jiraiya be related to Kakashi and his father? Kakashi ’s father—

Well, he had Kakashi late and happens to be of the Sannin ’s generation, someone who was older then them, though by how much is unknown. Kagashi’s father would also likely be family head, while Jiraiya would be the black sheep of the family, at least until Kakashi’s father was disparaged as he was.

Meaning Jiraiya would be that younger brother.

Which would be rather ironic given Kakashi ’s obsession with Jiraiya’s books and add an added layer to said obsession, but adding onto the layers is Jiraiya’s name meaning young thunder and how he wore frog suits with the Ame orphans—

Kakashi’s humor might very well be shaped by that uncle, an uncle who got pulled away from the Ame orphans becausee he learned about Sakumo’s death.

Seriously, the timing is right.

No, Sakumo didn ’t necessarily die after Kakashi became Chunnin — the source it points to says nothing of the sort, but we do know it was five years before Obito turned eleven or thirteen placing Kakashi at six to seven age wise when his father died, which would be around YBY 9 to YBY 7, with the added note that five tends to be a number rounded towards rather than say other yearss such as six or four when one is speaking in a casual estimation sense meaning Kakashi might not have even graduated.

Jiraiya in turn knew the orphans betwen YBY 13 to YBY 7 with Jiraiyah definitely bieng around them at year YBY 10, with Kakashi joining the academy and turning six in YBY 8. The situation with Sakumo and Kakashi? It does explain Jiraiya leaving the orphans over him deciding they ’d learned to defend themselves and could go their own seperate ways.

And also makes it rather ironic regarding on of the deaths during the Pain ’s assualt ended up being, doesn’t it?

But—

At the end of the day we know Kishimoto didn ’t think this far ahead, right? It’s something that adds on a layer of depth to the characters and the tragedy involved, but we know he didn’t because from my understanding is this. He decided the Sannin didn’t need last names because he took their last names from a mythological tale which is honestly not a good reason to give someone a last name.

And yet the context clues are there that this is a possibility, one that seems to have gone over Kishimoto ’s head.

Oh well.

I ’d started rambling a bit on this essay, but to get back on point — what better way to deal with Jiraiya growing up then the One Thousand Years of Death technique, hence the reasons why Sakumo would ever come up with such a thing, the only other reason is to teach his young son that he ’s a bit to strong to be playing Kancho with the other kids.

Or it could be both from a narrative stand point.

More importantly, Kakashi does have a humor to him that ’s unusual and he does come across as being on the spectrum. It has to come from somewhere, the morbid side from the war, which is a good enough explanation.

But not as fun as thinking up ideas and creating a complex reason, right?

It ’s also possible that Kakashi’s father is between Jiraiya and Minato’s age — that he is the generation between, which would mean Jiaiya would likely be his uncle and then one loses a layer.

Samurai and Tobirama?

Why does everyone jump all over the idea of Kakashi ’s father committing Seppuku when there is no obvious second? This isn’t to say Kakashi’s father didn’t commit suicide for the sake of honor, but there is so much more to Seppuku than that. And Sasuke’s also had a blade and isn’t a Samuri.

And the white fur on Tobirama ’s coat? Wolves aren’t the only possible source of white fur.

But at the endd, I ’m not sure either really adds anything and feel more like a personal addition to the narrative. It doesn’t add drama without any level of world building to it.

Prompts for this one?

Prompt 6.01 — Kakashi tells one of his peers how certain things during the bell test amused him greatly. His peer finds themselves a bit concerned, even possibly feeling the need to explain things to Kakashi as certain things are known to go over a certain geniuses head.

Prompt 6.02 — Killing intent is okay for Naruto, but not for Sasuke? Naruto tries reiterating this, trying to say Sasuke went overboard another time, only for him to get called out.

Prompt 6.03 — Where did Kakashi come up with the One Thousand Years of Deth technique?

Prompt 6.04 — How can a children ’s game of Kancho go so horrible wrong? It did for Kakashi as a child.

Chapter 9: 007. Sakura and the Avenger

“Nan’nandai.”

Those are the words used by Sasuke in the Japanese version of the Anime when he speaks to Sakura about killing his brother in “You Failed! Kakashi’s Final Decision”.

More specifically, these are the words Sasuke speaks as a disembodied head having just watched Sakura faint on him, which the English dub effectively turns into, “ And that ’s my partner. ”

Those watching the scene in English are likely to pick up a scathing tone on Sasuke ’s part when telling Sakura about being an Avenger. It ’s those words, those condescending words, “ And that ’s my partner, ” as well as the sound of irritation sent her way in the English version, that likely sells it, that Sasuke dislikes Sakura just as much as he does Naruto.

Which kind of adds up, given he voiced his dislike for her the day before, when she mouthed off about those without parents being lucky, and he explains one ’s parents nagging you is very different from being an orphan and alone, that the latter isn’t a form of luck because one is alone.

The thing is?

Sasuke never said, “And that’s my partner. ” He says, “ Nan ’nandai , ” which means, effectively, this condensation towards Sakura doesn ’t exist, but the line chosen for the dub doesn ’t make sense given Sasuke is later lectured about not thinking about being a team at all, that they would hold him back.

Now, how to explain, “ Nan ’nandai ? ”

The subtitles for the Japanese version of the Anime are pretty much, “ What ’s up with her? ” and I honestly can’t blame anybody for having such a reaction to Sakura fainting like that if they were unaware of Kakashi’s little trick with Genjutsu as it is an over reaction to the given situation without proper context.

Welcome to the first Sasuke/Sakura moment in the series from Sasuke ’s point of view, where Sasuke literally opens up to Sakura about crying the night his family died, despite him calling her out the day before for what she said about nagging parents, where he first calls himself an avenger.

To which—

Some argue that the ship came out of nowhere on Sasuke ’s part, that there are absolutely no moments on his part towards Sakura that would lean towards him being interested in her, and that it is all one-sided.

Yet this is it —the first moment where he starts building a relationship with Sakura, which in turn could lead to him developing romantic feelings for her.

He ’s there, opening up to her despite being a girl, despite what she said yesterday, despite her WTF moment of fainting in front of him, despite her glomping him after coming too and seeing her oka, despite her words of saying they should perhaps try again the next time.

Sure, he ’s obviously irritated she even brought up the idea of trying again next year, letting out a definite sound in the manga chapter “Kakashi’s Conclusion”, but there’s nothing in the Manga indicating the level of disdain towards Sakura that is shown in the English version of the Anime.

The Manga uses a softer tone, with there being no tone of voice to hold a condescending tone, to the irritation being limited to her WTF fainting moment as well as that quick look of irritation at her suggestion of trying next year.

The Japanese Anime continues with this tone, by making the sound heard not a growl, but a sound effect, making it clear he ’s not happy with her, to which he turns around, unable to look her in the eye because he knows he overstepped, that he should explain himself.

And yet—

In that moment, he allowed himself to be vulnerable with her, telling her about how he cried that night and—

Well, that ’s not normal .

I ’m not talking here simply about this Western notion that men don’t cry, because that ’s not going on, though Kishimoto later on does present the idea that real men don’t cry unless they’re happy. (I’ll get into that once we get to the Land of Waves.

No, I ’m talking about looking at this through the cultural lens from which this work was created, that the Japanese are very private about their personal lives, so for Sasuke to share something that personal with her in that particular culture isn ’t a minor thing — it’s actually a big deal .

As such, here is the first Sasuke/Sakura moment. It ’s true, as I’ve said, he doesn’t ever admit to admitting her like Sakura admits to liking him, but his sharing something as personal as him crying the night his clan died isn’t small and shouldn’t be brushed over.

To which—

Some argue the Sakura/Sasuke pairing came out of nowhere, that there were no such moments, to which I have to ask two simple questions. One — which version of Naruto are you familiar with? Two — are you looking at the series through a Western cultural lens, or looking at the series through the cultural lens of the Japanese?

“But I don’t like the ship!”

And what does that have to do with anything?

I ’m arguing here against the idea certain individuals have that the feelings of a certain male character for a certain ship that would eventually become canon came out of nowhere when there’s a moment I can point to at the very beginning of the series showing exactly where his feelings for Sakura came from.

In turn my arguing for the canon validity of one of the canon ships does not mean I ’m in any shape or form arguing that one has to only ship the canon ships — non-canon ships are just as valid as canon ships, but if someone is having to validate their ship by trying to insist it’s canon when it’s not — I’d argue that person isn’t actually very sure in what they ship, because if they were sure of their ship, it wouldn’t matter if it was canon or not. Unless of course they ’re one of those people who lik to hold the fact their OTP is canon over the heads of other people, to which—

As I said, non-canon ships are just as valid as canon ones at the end of the day, but focus should be on, if one is a writer, making one's choice of ship feel natural in the stories you write for both those who do OTP your ship and those who don ’t.

Of course, I ’m not stopping here to point out that, based on Japanese culture and the Japanese material, yes, Sasuke did have moments where he became close to Sakura in a way that the end game ship between the two didn’t come out of nowhere—

I want to discuss Sasuke being an Avenger, specifically the wording he used in the series with Sakura.

More importantly, what does it mean to be an avenger?

The series makes a big deal of trying to paint Sasuke as the wrong for wanting to kill his brother, but is he?

After all, didn ’t Sasuke seek revenge against his brother because he hated his older brother?

Well no.

I mean, that is what Kishimoto wanted the readers to get from the series, that. The Uchiha clan is somehow driven by extreme forms of hatred and love towards others, according to canon, which doesn ’t make sense at all and feels like a narrative excuse — until one stops and thinks about how Kishimoto’s brother, theoretically, may be on the autism spectrum that this does represent how an autistic may emote.

To me, that actually makes things worse , because it paints the frustrated, angry, upset autistic individual as the one being in the wrong for the way they feel and doesn ’t consider there may be outside forces at play, while also putting an autistic individual’s extreme forms of love on a pedestal while also declaring autism is okay only if the person showcases the feelings one desires them to do so.

As for seeking revenge? Why is Naruto allowed to see “revenge” and Sasuke is not? The narrative definitely paints what Naruto does as “justice” while painting what Sasuke does as “revenge”, and yet is this true?

After all, Sasuke clearly says he is an avenger, but the fact that he calls himself an avenger is essential. There is an actual difference between avenging and revenge, albeit there are similarities, but the common consensus from my quick Google search is that the difference is. Revenge is about oneself, while avenging something or someone is not about oneself.

This isn ’t to say someone who seeks revenge can ’t be an avenger, but is Sasuke, at the end of the day, doing it to himself? Is he not seeking justice for his family? It makes, I think, seem extreme at first to want to kill one ’s brother and voice what Sasuke voiced, but—

When the audience first meets Sasuke, without any of the information gleaned later on, may find Sasuke saying what he does off-base.

However, on top of learning that Naruto and his teammates are child soldiers who are lucky to have not seen combat, there ’s the issue of nobody having sought justice for the Uchiha clan, that Konoha left his brother, a Missing-nin, to roam free it does actually make sense that Sasuke would want to seek justice out. It also makes sense his desire to be stronger, as he has no reason at this point to believe the reason for Konoha leaving his brother to his own devices has to do with anything but the village not having someone suited to deal with his brother.

That would, in his mind, leave him to deal with the matter.

It’s what he tells Sakura, that he’s the only one to kill his brother. This is also before he knows Kakashi has the Sharingan, before he understands the power of teamwork and working together.

Yet, what he is doing, according to the Manga, isn ’t justice, and what Naruto is doing, because Naruto isn’t spreading the seeds of hate despite the fact that, at the end of the day, only Sasuke to avenge the death of his own brother, which might explain why he shifted his attention to Konoha and Danzo, which doesn’t make sense in the case of Konoha, though it does make complete sense in the case of Danzo.

More importantly, by Naruto ’s logic, Danzo shouldn’t be killed off because that would only further the seeds of hatred. We’re talking a series that outright forgives a serial killer like Orochimaru purely because of Naruto’s belief that everything should be resolved most peacefully.

Unless, of course, he ’s the one inflicting the violence.

At the end of the day, Naruto ’s Nindo or Ninja Way is unrealistic. It shouldn’t be compared to characters whose Nindo actually makes sense. There ’s nothing that ever shatters his way of thinking, because his Nindo is meant within the narrative to remain unbreakable, and there are times he’s even a hypocrite.

For example, it ’s unrealistic for Naruto to always keep his promises, yet the main series — I can’t recollect a single time he broke a promise at the end of the day, and the narrative calls him out. (Anime filler content and Boruto don ’t count here! I’m talking moments in the Naruto Manga!_

Time for Prompts!

Prompt 7.01 — How would Sasuke react to actually finding out the reason behind Sakura ’s bizarre fainting spell?

Prompt 7.02 — Sasuke learns of the reason Sakura fainted. He also remembers the One Thousand Years of Death jutsu. Yet, he knows Kakashi is strong and finds Kakashi ’s strange behaviors contradictory. And then there is the prank Naruto pulled. What if Sasuke sought out answers for his sensei’s odd behavior? Would that change things?

Prompt 7.03 — Sasuke started opening up to Sakura during the bell test. What if he were to open up to her more?

Prompt 7.04 — or would Naruto get in the way?

Prompt 7.05 — While Sasuke is comfortable opening up to Sakura, who is a teammate, he wouldn ’t be comfortable opening up to Ino. However, Ino sees herself as Sakura’s rival and doesn’t want to fall behind Sakura, making Sasuke uncomfortable in a different way than a panicked Sakura hugging him, because she realizes he is alright, which makes him uneasy.

Prompt 7.06 — PDA isn ’t the social norm in Japan, yet Sakura hugging Sasuke after she found out he was okay was a form of PDA between two people who aren’t family. Kakashi, though, is aware, because he’s Kakashi, but what if one or both were to find out Kakashi knows about that moment?

Prompt 7.07 — Ino finds out about that moment between Sasuke and Sakura. How is up to you, but what is the fall out?

Chapter 10: 008. Three Spoiled Brats

Are Naruto and his team spoiled brats?

I’m not sure what the exact Japanese is on this one, as I don’t have the original Japanese for the chapter “And That’s Why You’re Disqualified!!,” nor was I able to catch the Japanese line in the episode “You Failed! Kakashi’s Final Decision”.

One translation is squirts, another is called them punks. The English say, “Because you don’t think like a ninja. You think like little kids. Like brats. ”

Which—

One translation does have Kakashi call them spoiled brats, but the reason I bring this up is that when I looked at that translation, my thought was — but wait, do those words apply to the three of them?

And at the end of the day, yes, after thinking about it — they are all three spoiled brats in some manner.

Now, I don’t know if this is the exact translation, or anything close to it, but as I said, all three are spoiled brats in their way.

Naruto — in previous essays I discussed the idea that because he is known to be the son of the forth Hokage that he’s spoiled just like Konohamaru, but we see at the beginning of the manga that Naruto shows absolutely no signs of slowing down with his delinquent behavior, that he honestly thinks nobody will ever stop him.

Sakura, on the other hand, has led an obviously sheltered life, which in turn leads to her fainting at the sight of a teammate—

Okay. So here’s where I admit yet again that Kakashi went overboard with that genjetsu.

She’s still sheltered, but we know very well she thought having no parents was better than having nagging parents, something Sasuke corrected her on.

Sasuke thought—

That one is a bit harder to pinpoint as him being a spoiled brat, because at face value, he’s not. He’s an orphan like Naruto, but doesn’t get into the same kind of trouble as Naruto does. He’s got a major attitude going on, but then he is a genius, that nail that is in want of being hammered down, as Kakashi said earlier.

And yet, it is here that he is a spoiled brat, but Kakashi of all people, being even more of a spoiled brat if one thinks about it, can quickly identify it in another. Kakashi, out of all people, knows that geniuses can often take their genius for granted, take those around them for granted, and take the fact that they’re able to train and hone their skills for granted easily.

So yes, all three are spoiled brats.

Do we see them grow out of it?

Well, no.

We don’t see Sakura’s parents in the Manga, which is rather interesting given the way she talks about them nagging her in the chapter where she is introduced in the Manga. As such, we never get to see her grow and understand her parents better, although we do see her attempt to be nicer to Naruto, which Naruto often interrupts.

Naruto is still a cause of trouble in the village, with an ego to match his loud voice, although the trouble he causes is portrayed by the narrative as a good thing, rather than as the source of many of the problems others face.

Sasuke—

Well, he never became a team player, through no fault of his own, and instead the fault of a narrative that wouldn’t let him progress in the direction that felt natural for his character.

After all, Sasuke is the reason they passed the bell test, being the one to decide to work as a team by offering Naruto some food, and Sakura going along with it. Neither of the other two would have figured out the test.

One could say it was a matter of Sasuke figuring out what he needed to do in order to pass, that he didn’t really care about his team mates, but there’s nothing that really says he doesn’t care about his team — not caring about them really isn’t the same as not seeing them as equals, because at the end of the day his skill level is by particular above their skill level, but—

Don’t judge others based on your intelligence is a nice mantra to have, but is it realistic?

It feels like a mantra based on being the kind thing to say, rather than what is realistic. It also outright ignores the problems geniuses go through; that part of the problem isn’t so much that they find others below them, but that they’re having to rethink the way they think in order to engage with someone who isn’t a genius like they are.

And by this, I don’t mean here they need to rethink how they treat others who don’t have the genius level they do, though for some geniuses, being a narcissist seems like something that goes hand in hand.

No — it’s like, for example, having to dumb down their conversation, or rethink how they word things so they can be understood, which is why very often a genius does best when there is someone between, someone who understands both levels, someone who can reword things, rethink things, put them on a lower level without the genius having to do so, while also explaining things like social constructs that those who aren’t geniuses get easily. In contrast, the genius struggles to get them.

And—

Kakashi tried to be this for Sasuke in the same way Minato was this for him. Yet, he struggled because his intelligence level is honestly beyond Sasuke's and Itachi's; Minato was one of the few people who spoke on Kakashi’s wavelength, to which he was having issues conveying certain things to Sasuke.

Or—

Well, that’s one way to interpret the narrative, that Kakashi tries and fails, but that—

Kakashi should have logically grown enough that he could explain some things, and he does, so some of it is because Kishimoto wanted the narrative to go a certain way, only for it to be forced into going that way, resulting in an explanation Kakashi gave that was logical to go over the character's head.

Considering these characters as spoiled, they are also spoiled in comparison to previous generations, which were often forced to graduate early. In contrast, Boruto’s generation is spoiled beyond his father’s generation, with him being a mini-me of Naruto without Naruto’s excuses for acting out, as he at least has a father and comes across more as being similar to Sakura, disliking her parents' nagging.

And prompts …

Prompt 8.01 — What if Naruto’s team failed? How and what would happen afterward?

Prompt 8.02 — Kakashi’s team finds out that their sensei was also troublesome when his own team was formed. They don’t let him live it down.

Prompt 8.03 — Role reversal — Kakashi is aged and confused as the memories passed that age are missing, not to mention the changes around the village. His team discovers that he’s also a nightmare of a child shinobi, who puts their best antics to shame.

Prompt 8.04 — Sometimes Kakashi forgets that his team of Gennin aren’t on the same wavelength, and he needs to put his thoughts on their level. Write a story involving such an event.

Chapter 11: 009. The Mission That Should Never Have Happened

Is Tazuna the worst client ever?

I found myself asking this question as I looked at the titles of the five chapters I ’ll be covering in my following five analyses of the series, but in the actual chapter titled The Worst Client I found myself doubting this; after all, they don ’t actually learn Tazuna lied about the mission until the very end of the chapter.

Which is honestly a bad way to end the chapter, particularly since, as Kakashi later points out, we don ’t really know Tazuna lied until the following chapter, that he actually knew that ninja were after him, because at the end of the day us the reader have no reason to conclude anything more than what Kakashi said, that the ninja attacking might not even be after the bridge builder.

Titling the chapter the way Kishimoto did is a way of telling us that Tazuna is a horrible client, rather than showing.

“But Yemi!” I can hear some argue. “We do see him be a horrible client with the fact that he shows up drunk in that chapter, and the way he treats Naruto?”

Well, no, actually.

For starters, the whole drinking thing is another breaking of the rule of show, don ’t tell, but the way he treats Naruto isn’t wrong, even though I’m sure Kishimoto wants the audience to believe this.

As for why the whole drinking breaks the rule of show, don ’t tell? At the end of the day, it’s a poorly executed narrative device, because — first question? When have we ever seen Tazuna drunk like that before? Second question? How can he even afford the alcohol in the first place?

Or, making matters worse, he ’s able to afford the alcohol over actual food while in the village because it ’s cheap compared to actually buying food for himself. That, or it’s something offered to the clients that he’s willing to indulge in because it’s, you know, free?

This? The idea he ’s actually a drunk?

The only time we see him drinking is when he is introduced as a client, nor does his love of sake indicate he is in fact a drunk, particularly given that sake isn ’t just alcohol in Japan; culturally, it is one of the cultural arts in how it is made as well as a source of many essential traditions surrounding the drink.

Not that I see Kishimoto thinking about that when sake was listed as one of Tazuma ’s favorite foods, but it’s still there that his liking sake wouldn ’t necessarily be taken as him being a drunk, compared to, say, if they said his favorite food was beer. The connotations between the two would be considered significantly different.

Which leaves how he treats Naruto and—

At the end of the day, he did nothing wrong. His saying he ’d never respect Naruto simply because he became Hokage isn’t him bullying Naruto, but him stating a cold, hard fact — that respect is something earned and Naruto hasn ’t done anything to earn it, isn’t doing anything to show that, if he did become Hokage, that he’d have earned the respect of others.

Even if we were to take into consideration the fact he lied regarding the mission, that he eventually manipulated them with thoughts of his eight-year-old grandson and daughter hating the villge for his death, context matters. His homeland is in dire straights and he is the one responsible at the end of the day ending those dire straights meaning he had to do some things he wasn ’t so proud of.

But this?

This is also all before he ’s already declared the worst client ever, so what is really going on?

Well, Naruto is the worst employee ever, wanting to do things such as attack the client, mouthing off to them about being Hokage despite having already show behavior that would lead Tazuna to not respect him such as wanting to attack him and getting overly excited about his first time leaving the village, acting like a little kid rather than a shinobi on a serious mission.

But that —

One of the things I realized was they shouldn ’t have been on that mission in the first place!

No. Serioussly.

The only reason they ended up with that mission?

• Naruto threw a tantrum about the kinds of missions they were getting.

• Hiruzen is like, “Oh? You saying you’re a big boy now?” despite his not listening proving otherwise and decides to go ahead and give them a mission despite the fact Naruto hadn’t grown up.

Which, a lot of the trouble with them getting the mission in the first place would have been resolved if it were framed as Hiruzen giving them the mission as a way of teaching Naruto he wasn ’t ready, only for Naruto’s dumb luck to kick in and backfire as his dumb luck leads to the mission succeeding and Naruto learning nothing .

But no. It ’s framed as, “Naruto is a big boy now, so he gets a big boy mission.”

This is after Naruto openly ignores Hiruzen, explaining missions to him in favor of talking about what ramen he ’s had to eat recently. Like, WTF! Talk about rewarding bad behavior!

Which—

It definitely doesn ’t make sense for Hiruzen to spoil Naruto in that manner, if one is going off the theory of Naruto being spoiled simply because he was the son of the fourth Hokage. Even if he were to spoil Naruto slightly as he does his grandson, this crosses a line where the danger he may put someone in should outweigh the desire to spoil.

But given his actual personality? It makes more sense for him to be like, “Okay? You think you ’re a big boy? Let’s send you on your way with a jonen sensei I know is capable of pulling your children out of a mess if things go wrong, but if things don’t? You’ll learn even C-ranks aren’t much more exciting than your D-rank.”

Except, things seriously didn ’t go to plan.

This entire chapter also reeks of how Naruto is no real underdog, with the narrative favoring him in ways an actual underdog wouldn ’t be favored. No way in hell, for example, could a real underdog throw a tantrum like a mere child and expect to be handed over a higher-ranked mission like Naruto was.

To which you ’ve also—

His team mates are for the most part not agreeing with him, Sasuke ironically being an exception to the rule, being that he also wants to take on higher ranked missions, but has far more respect for the Hokage than Naruto does while Sakura is miffed and Kakashi feels he ’s going to get chewed out later on for letting Naruto act that way, which—

If your jonin feels that way? Honestly, you shouldn ’t be getting a higher-ranked mission handed to you.

Prompts

Prompt 9.01 — Hiruzen did mean it as a lesson, only it backfired and Naruto didn ’t learn the potential lessons Hiruzen hoped for. Write a story based on this.

Prompt 9.02 — Tazuna is not drunk, but Naruto thinks he is. What if Naruto thinks any adult who drinks is an adult? What trouble would this cause?

Prompt 9.03 — Kakashi feared getting chewed out for Naruto ’s behavior rather than getting a mission. Write a story involving this as the outcome.

Prompt 9.04 — Instead of Team 7, it was Rock Lee ’s team that went. How would things have changed?

Prompt 9.05 — Instead, it was Team 8 that went. (Kiba, Hinata, Shino). How would things have changed?

Prompt 9.06 — Instead, it was Team 10 that went. (Ino-Shika-Cho). How would things have changed?

Note — I know it is tempting to have these teams fail the mission to try and prove a point — that it would only have succeeded had it been Team 7, but that at the end of the day places Team 7 ’s skills on a pedestal while also underestimating everyone else in the series.

Prompt 9.07 — The mission failed because the team wasn ’t one comprised of younger students easily swayed by Tazuna’s sweet words of hating the village, and his lies outweighed staying, as it wouldn’t matter at the end of the day.

Prompt 9.08 — What if, though, that weren ’t the case, that, as Minato said to Kakashi, bending the rules was needed at times, with, in this case, there being an understanding that the Land of Waves would owe Konoha a debt in the future that would make up for the lowered cost?

Prompt 9.09 — What other missions did they take on, and what struggles did Kakashi go through?

Chapter 12: 010. Team Seven's Genin Team Dynamics

The highlight of “The Second Critter” chapter, chapter ten, and the second third of “A Dangerous Mission! Journey to the Land of Waves” is to highlight how unprepared Naruto is.

Some argue this chapter showcases that, yes, Naruto is an underdog in comparison to Sasuke, but does it?

What, though, is an underdog?

According to Merriam Webster, an underdog is “ a loser or predicted loser in a struggle or contest ” or “ a victim of injustice or persecution , ” but note the or here. According to Cambridge Dictionary, “ a person or group of people with less power, money, etc. than the rest of society , ” or “ in a competition, the person or team considered to be the weakest and the least likely to win . ” Again, the or here. Similarly, according to Collins, “ a person or group that is losing, or is expected to lose, in a contest or struggle ” or “ a person who is handicapped or at a disadvantage because of injustice, discrimination, etc. ”

We’ve two very specific definitions of underdog, but the two shouldn’t be conflated to have the same meaning. By this I mean while both are definitions of what an underdog is, context matters.

And in this, Naruto has from the very beginning not been presented as the one kind of under dog, the one expected to lose, at least not at this point in time, beyond the fact he can’t perform a regular shadow clone which is conveniently blamed on Kurama rather than Naruto’s own failings.

He is, though, a societal outcast — based on behavior, not the fox being sealedd in him, but what does that have to do with whether he would win in a fight? And isn’t that undermined by other parts of the narrative?

He is, after all, in the top 10% of his year, with his graduation having been dampened the moment we learned the actual size of his year. Ramen guy was actually nice to him. Iruka was as well. Which, yes, there is an Anime episode that covers the idea of there being few people in Shippuden, but—

Uh, that’s Anime only material?

It’s, aka, filler.

Excellent filler, mind you, filler that I know people like, but—

Well, how many people think that episode (Episode 480) isn ’t filler, for the simple fact it did what the manga failed to do? Aka, show us rather than tell us, Naruto was poor, abused, Naruto?

Getting back on track, in this context, it is the other definition, and while Naruto does end up losing, he’s not the person we’d have expected to be the loser, aka not the incoming underdog. We, the readers, don’t expect him to freeze up as he does until that happens, because we know that Naruto was able to take down Mizuki.

Which—

On one side, his reaction makes sense. He’s not experienced a real battle until this point.

On the other side, this isn’t the type of reaction one wants on the battlefield.

To which, instead of making Naruto seem like an underdog, it begs to question whether him graduating was a good thing, prarticularly when, Sakura, who is also afraid, reacts and jumps into protecting Tazuna, but we later learn compared to the other two she is physically weak and should be the weak link in the group rather than Naruto. She’s prepared for this, while Naruto is not.

True, it pales in comparison to Sasuke, who, without hesitation, jumps in to save Naruto, clobbering both of the Hidden Mist missing-nin, forcing them to detach from their chain while they hurry to separate and attack, to which Sasuke goes to help Sakura, which—

That’s actually the second moment for Sasuke regarding how he feels about Sakura, but what’s essential here is how he treats Naruto and Sakura differently. Still, we shouldn’t assume that within the narrative, Sakura is a girl who is weak in comparison to her male counterparts, because Sasuke would know about individuals like Tsunade.

True, he does as Kakashi says during the bell test, sees his teammates as hindrances towards his end goals, thinking it would be, at the end of the day, to go lone wolf. However, he was also the first to understand what Kakashi was saying, that working as a team has merits, and that they should care for their teammates.

Of course, here is a point in the series where some will point to Sasuke’s behavior and say him calling Naruto a scaredy-cat is him being a bully to Naruto, except—

It’s not?

Not when the words Sasuke uses is “ bibiri-kun ” rather than “ yowamushi ” with the latter having the connotation of effectively calling Naruto a coward and weak, while the former is meant in a more teasing manner, aka, it is meant to be friendly.

Not that Naruto took it to be this way, and I don ’t think certain people viewing the English version sees it this way. There is a point in time when Sasuke calls Naruto a loser by this point, but that was back when Naruto was doing things like giving SAsuke the death stare that resulted in a very awkward moment for them both and also the same day Naruto tried posing as him to cause trouble, so—

Yeah.

To say Sasuke was this mean bully based on that just doesn’t work, but it’s from the interpretation of his behavior as being such.

Okay.

So, there is something lost in translation here. Why? Well, for starters, in English, a big deal is made regarding name-calling, that you don’t do it at all, that it’s never done in a playful teasing manner, though there was a time when there was a differentiation between the two and socially we did understand the context when two people are friends ands and playfully calling each other loser, or scardy cats, or dummies.

Now?

People often jump to the conclusion that bullying is a result of ingrained behavior, as they have been taught to never use name-calling, believing such words are always hurtful and that context doesn’t matter, assuming they are always meant to harm, even though this isn’t always true.

This isn’t to say there aren’t individuals who like Naruto who internalize both contexts as both being meant to harm, but at the end of the day, most people, most neurotypical people, aren’t going to overreact to what is intended as playful teasing among friends, people they know to be friends.

In fact, it could be argued that part of the problem is that Naruto doesn ’t see Sasuke as a friend at this point, as Sasuke does. For Sasuke to treat Naruto as a friend, he can friendly tease after the fact to help lighten the mood. This solidifies the fact that he never wanted to be friends with Sasuke, to have Sasuke acknowledge him as a friend, something he claims to be true during the Shippuden era, but is, in truth, a big fat lie.

Sakura, on the other hand—

Well, he doesn’t call her a scardy cat because she didn’t freeze up, but despite her not freezing up, he still dove in to protect her.

Why?

As I said, it’s not because she is, by her very nature, weaker than he, though she is definitely physically weaker than he.

My first thought — he realized Sakura was out of her depth, which plays into his realization that team matters. He’s already internalized Kakashi’s message about teamwork in a way that matters at this point, which makes his throwing it away at the end not make sense.

And no, I don’t want to hear about the Uchiha curse as a reason for him to throw logic out the window. Not when the Uchiha curse is an actual narrative issue, this clan that feels far more than anybody else, and that is their so-called power. It’s a plot device, one used to explain illogical behavior with a hand wave, a way of letting characters get away with doing things they wouldn’t normally do.

It’s also a scene that shows Sasuke cares about Sakura as a person, albeit at this point it could be argued he cares about her as a teammate, though that goes against what is established later, that he doesn’t care about teammates.

That in itself points to this being another moment for Sasuke regarding Sakura, as it shows he cares. However, he also reacts differently when he rescues Naruto and when he rescues Sakura, although this is something noticeable only within the Manga, not the Anime. Whereas Naruto gets no “!” from Sasuke when Naruto is attacked, Sakura gets a definite “!” from Sasuke when she is attacked.

This signifies a stronger emotional response for Sasuke to seeing her in danger than seeing Naruto in danger. Is it a matter of him seeing her as a weak link at the end of the day?

Well, no. He does by this time have some level of respect for Sakuraa developed, to the point he recognizes that whatever advice she gives Naruto for tree climbing is worth it at the end, though this doesn’t mean he doesn’t see her as being in over her head compared to him in regards to the Water missing-nin as he would know her physical strength is different than his and Naruto’s.

She also, unlike Naruto, didn’t freeze up, though she did actually call out their sensei’s name when she thought he bit the bullet, and she showed some level of relief upon seeing him alive, to which—

Well, Sasuke thinks Kakashi is being a show-off, hinting at some level of jealousy on his part, that Kakashi is actively taking advantage of the situation to look amazing in front of both Sakura and Naruto.

Which—

That isn’t actually the case, as I’ll go into in the following essay, hopefully. It’s actually something else going on.

From Sasuke’s point of view, he does find Kakashi’s behavior irritating, and not in the way their sensei always being late is in fact a problem. It hints at him wanting to be the one to show off, something Sasuke shouldn’t want, given he’s sure of himself in his abilities, unless there is something else going on there.

He wants to impress someone.

Not Naruto, as he’s already handled that by rescuing him, and it’s not Kakashi. He already did that during the bell test. Nor is it the client, so that leaves—

Well, Sakura.

This isn’t to say Sasuke is aware of what he’s doing — he likely isn’t, in the same way he likely doesn’t understand why he’s so freely opening up to her in a previous chapter about crying the night his family died. It’s one of those things that goes over the heads ot geniuses, one might say, and if they’re on the spectrum? Even more so.

And he definitely didn’t want anything to happen to her, but even rescuing Naruto shows he does see his team as being valuable on some level.

Except, as Sasuke notes, Naruto is “ bibiri-kun ” at this point, whereas Sakura isn’t called out in the same way. Naruto is the only one to freeze in this situation, highlighting his unpreparedness compared to the other two, which raises questions about why he even graduated.

Which?

Underdog? No, as 90% ended up failing, rather than him being, as the series presents, in the bottom 1%. Or 3.7% if one goes based on just 27 individuals being in their class.

Yet he's still the weak link, simply because he froze up. Does he grow from this?

Prompt

Prompt 10.01 — Sasuke doesn ’t like the fact that Kakashi showed off, as he put it. Sakura, after all, gushes all over Kakashi being alive. With that as his focus, he starts misinterpreting Kakashi ’s actions as trying to get Sakura to gush praise at him, but what kind of chaos would result from this?

Prompt 10.02 — Sasuke tries being friends with Naruto, but things like his use of “ bibiri-kun ” just get misinterpreted. Write about this kind of chaos.

Prompt 10.03 — Sasuke’s jumping between Sakura and the Water missing-nin hints he may have feelings for her that he is personally oblivious to, potentially because he’s on the specrtum, but what other ways does he show how he feels while still being oblivious to his feelings.

Chapter 13: Prompts - Chapter 1-10; Episodes 1-6

And for anybody looking for just the prompts, here are the prompts I brainstormed up from my analysis of the first ten chapters of the Manga.

Prompt 0.01 — Naruto’s Talk-no-Jutsu can be sumerized as, “I fart. You fart. We all fart so we should all get along,” and then everybody does. Danzo’s can be summarized in comparison as, “I refuse to stoop to farting, but they farted on us, so we’ll go ahead and do something far, far worse than farting because I say so,” and then everybody does. Use this as inspiration for a fanfic. It can be as serious or as crack as one wants.

…

Prompt 1.01 — What if the village had bullied Naruto? What would his life have really looked like?

Prompt 1.02 — Who took care of Naruto? Write a story about someone c aring about Naruto, and him never noticing, similar to how he never noticed Iruka’s sternness as a form of caring.

Prompt 1.03 — Who raised Naruto? Someone had to take the infant in, at least until he could care for himself, possibly until the age of entering the academy.

Prompt 1.04 — What if ANBU raised Naruto? What if he didn’t realize he was being cared for because the ANBU need to operate from the shadows in regards to the ones they care for?

Prompt 1.05 — What if someone were to outright tell Naruto that nobody likes him because he’s mean? How would that change things?

Prompt 1.06 — What if Naruto’s behavior issues are caused by being ADD? How would the narrative change if he were to actually learn over time to control his ADD behaviors, both in holding himself back when it’s appropriate to do so and finding ways of putting his ADD to good use?

Prompt 1.07 — What if Naruto were actually to own his behavior rather than blaming Kurama for his misbehavior growing up? Keep in mind that owning one's behavior here means understanding that one's actions directly impact whether or not others want to be associated with you.

Prompt 1.08 — What if Anime Naruto were to meet Manga Naruto? Aka, how would a playful prankster react to a vindictive, spoiled brat prankster?

Prompt 1.09 — What if another canon character around Naruto’s age were to move from their village to Naruto’s? How would they react to the fact that Naruto’s always doing things that result in their entire class getting punished?

Prompt 1.10 — How do the other villages treat their Jinchuriki of those we never saw in the Manga? Note that this prompt is not asking for the same-old-same old that Gaara and Killer B went through, or what Naruto supposedly went through, but instead an exploration of how culturally the reaction may vary.

Prompt 1.11 — Write a story explaining how knowledge of Naruto being the jinchuriki got out that actually makes sense.

Prompt 1.12 — The loneliness from being an orphan and being truly alone is different. Write a story where Naruto was truly alone.

Prompt 1.13 — The loneliness of being an orphan and being truly alone is different. Write a story where Naruto comes to understand this after he officially graduates.

Prompt 1.14 — What if the thing Ibara and Tsubaki weren’t supposed to talk about was the fact that Naruto was the son of the previous Hokage?

Prompt 1.15 — What if the thing Ibara and Tsubaki weren’t supposed to talk about was the fact that Naruto was the son of Kushina?

Prompt 1.16 — “ Isn ’t that the boy who is actually… ” Finish the sentence with something other than “ …the child who the nine-tails was sealed into? ” or anything that means the same thing, but make that what Naruto overhears.

Prompt 1.17 — D-rank missions include babysitting. An infant Naruto would qualify. Write a story about such a D-rank mission and what it would entail.

Prompt 1.18 — Namikaze Minato lived. How would he deal with a child with behavior issues like Naruto?

Prompt 1.17 — Uzumaki Kushina lived. How would she deal with a child with behavioral issues like Naruto?

Prompt 1.18 — Naruto runs away long before it comes time to graduate, perhaps as early as the first failed test. Outside of Konoha, he runs into one of the more unsavory groups who see him as someone to take advantage of.

Prompt 1.19 — Write a story where Naruto learns there is more to being Hokage than being the strongest.

Prompt 1.20 — Write a story where Naruto actually develops the skills he needs to become Hokage.

Prompt 1.21 — Write a story where Naruto decides becoming Hokage isn’t actually for him after all.

Prompt 1.22 — What if Naruto was actually two years older than the other children? How would that change the story?

Prompt 1.23 — Naruto, ADD, and Jutsu, a child who will only focus on learning Jutsu that actually interests him. Write a story based on that concept.

Prompt 1.24 — Write a story where Mitsuki’s real aim is to steal the Jinchuriki rather than the scroll. How would the story change?

Prompt 1.25 — Mitsuki speaks of revenge, at least in the English version of the Anime, but what if, to take his revenge, he takes it out on a child, Naruto by manipulating said child who craves affection into believing the abusive way Mitsuki treats him is a form of love.

Prompt 1.26 — Iruka does end up paralyzed from the fuma shuriken. Write a story based on this premise.

Prompt 1.29 — What if Naruto was the child of the nine-tails? How would that change the story?

Prompt 1.30 — What if Naruto ’s behavior was as bad as it was in one-shot, where the idea for Naruto originated from?

…

Prompt 2.01 — Poor Iruka. He’s recently become a Chunnin and is excited about becoming a teacher, only for on his very first day to encounter Uzumaki Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu. How doss a sixteen-year-old cope with such trauma, or even the parents of the students whose children may have brought his reaction to the Sexy Jutsu to their attention? Is he considered a bad teacher at that point? Or are they forgiving?

Prompt 2.02 — Naruto is an adult now and should know better. Someone outright tells him he’s a shinobi and an adult now, thus what he does isn’t childish mischief anymore, and he should be more responsible. Write a story regarding his actions.

Prompt 2.03 — Naruto’s confusion stems from the fact that prior to turning ten, some of the females in town took pity on him and brought him into the bathhouse. Write about that experience.

Prompt 2.04 — Write a story between Naruto and the unknown bookstore owner introduced in episode two.

Prompt 2.05 — The Manga shows that the so-called trauma Naruto faced from the village was his parents ignoring him in favor of their own kids. Write a story about Naruto’s feelings of jealousy and frustration that they’re not paying attention to him, too, and why he doesn’t understand that there is a difference at such a young age.

Prompt 2.06 — Naruto wakes up. It’s a Naruto from any time of the writer’s choice, but he wakes up in a world where he wasn’t able to save Iruka sensei. How does he cope?

Prompt 2.07 — Write a story about Naruto dealing with the loss of not being able to save Iruka and losing him because in this universe he wasn ’t lucky .

Prompt 2.08 — When Naruto goes to steal the scroll, Hiruzen has a heart attack. Instead of continuing to steal the scroll, Naruto runs because he thinks he’s killed the Hokage. What happens?

Prompt 2.09 — Ebisu is a pervert trying to pretend to be a perfect gentleman and all the girls know it. Write a story about him trying to romance one or more of the female canon characters and failing miserably.

Prompt 2.10 — Naruto does kill the Hokage with Sexy Jutsu. What is the implications of this in the Manga?

Prompt 2.11 — Naruto does kill the Hokage with Sexy Jutsu. What is the implications of this in the Anime?

Prompt 2.12 — There’s nothing wrong with Konohamaru playing stealth, but how will his ANBU parents feel when they learn his behavior has changed?

Prompt 2.13 — There is the implication that Kishimoto didn’t intend for Naruto to groom Konohamaru. Write a story dealing with this topic.

Prompt 2.14 — What are the results of a world where one becomes an adult the moment they become a Shinobi? Play with the Manga version of this, where things haven’t changed.

Prompt 2.15 — What are the results of a world where one becomes an adult the moment they become a Shinobi? Play with the idea that the Anime version sets things up so that children are now seen as children, that times have changed. However, not everyone sees it this way.

Prompt 2.16 — Narauto is spoiled rotten like Konohamaru because many adults, the ones who don’t fear him, know he’s the son of the former Hokage.

Prompt 2.17 — There is an unhealthy element to Naruto and Konohamaru’s relationship in the Manga. Explore this.

Prompt 2.18 — Real ninka call it “chatora”, or so Naruto says. Write a story about other characters reacting to Konohamaru calling Chakra “orange tabby”.

Prompt 2.19 — What was Naruto ’s real first encounter with Jiraiya.

Prompt 2.20 — Others find out about Naruto’s original photo take. How would they react?

…

Prompt 3.01 — Explain to Naruto why the girls don’t like him through any character of your choice including OCs.

Prompt 3.02 — Naruto came up with the idea of making Sasuke look bad to the village first and foremost? How would this work out given he drunk spoiled milk that day?

Prompt 3.03 — Naruto came up with the idea of making Sasuke look bad to the village first and foremost? How would this work out if he hadn’t drunk milk that day?

Prompt 3.04 — Sasuke talks about being alone being far worse than ones parents nagging them. How does this change Sakura’s behavior to her parents?

Prompt 3.05 — Sasuke knows what it likes to be alone, but what if he’s the one who wanted to be friend with Naruto once he found out what it was like to be alone only for Naruto to act the way he does. Would this help drive him down the path he goes down?

Prompt 3.06 — What if Naruto was successful at kissing Sakura? How would she react finding out what he did?

Prompt 3.07 — What if Naruto was successful at kissing Sakura? How would Sasuke react to finding out?

Prompt 3.08 — What if Naruto was successful at kissing Sakura? What if Ino followed and thinks Sakura got a kiss from Sasuke?

Prompt 3.09 — The M/M kiss is a Het/Het reaction. What if Naruto’s reaction was a non-Het reaction instead? How would things change?

( Note — non-Het is being used here as short hand for same-sex attraction and bisexual. )

Prompt 3.10 — The M/M kiss is a Het/Het reaction. What if Sasuke’s reaction was a non-Het reaction instead? How would things change?

Prompt 3.11 — The M/M kiss is a Het/Het reaction. What if both reactions were actually non-Het? How would things change?

Prompt 3.12 — What if a female character is secretly a yaoi fan and misinterprets the kiss? What will happen?

Prompt 3.13 — What if a male character isn’t heteosexual? (Can either be same sex attracted, or bisexual.) How would he react to the kiss?

Prompt 3.14 — Naruto is actually a girl pretending to be a boy because she was told to hide the fact she was a girl, but the kiss undoes the jutsu? How does the story change?

Prompt 3.15 — Karma. Naruto ’s Sexy Jutsu fails as he releases the jutsu and everything is flipped. He is now a she and instead of being interested in girls he is interested in boys.

Prompt 3.16 — Karma. Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu fails as he releases the jutsu he is now a she and instead but still very much interested in girls.

Prompt 3.17 — Sasuke was alone. What ws being alone like for him?

Prompt 3.18 — Write a story about Naruto and Sasuke from the view point of Naruto being ADHD and Sasuke being on the spectum.

Prompt 3.19 — Sakura isn’t just made fun of for her wideforehead, but because she is willing to stand up to the guys and even throw some punches if need be. Write a story involving this.

…

Prompt 4.01 — Naruto was suppossed to be the only one who failed, yet over sixty-students failed. How would one of these students feel findding out Naruto passed after all?

Prompt 4.02 — Kakashi obviously lied. Team nine finds out. How do they react?

Prompt 4.03 — A forth team succeeds. What is this team’s story?

Prompt 4.04 — It’s in Naruto’s nature to rub things in. He finds out a team was “failed” and does just that. What happens?

Prompt 4.05 — How does the students Kakashi failed feel about Naruto being one of the three who are the first to pass?

Prompt 4.06 — How does the students Kakashi failed feel about Sakura being one of the three who are the first to pass?

Prompt 4.07 — How does the students Kakashi failed feel about Sasuke being one of the three who are the first to pass?

Prompt 4.08 — Naruto claimed in the first chapter he was the only one who didn't graduate, but Kakashi's own words point to this not being the case. Write a story where Naruto doesn't graduate, with him being a part of the lower 70% for that year instead of ending up in the top 10%.

…

Prompt 5.01 — Kakashi is fine with reading PDA, but actual PDA? That’s as likely to get a blush from him as actually reading the PDA, particularly the adult content kind, out loudd. Rin on the other hand is perfectly fine with PDA. Write a story based on this.

Prompt 5.02 — Kakashi is fine with reading PDA, but actual PDA? That’s as likely to get a blush from him as actually reading the PDA, particularly the adult content kind, out loud. But on a dare, he’s made to do so.

Prompt 5.03 — Guys aren’t normally into romance. It’s something Kakashi’s friends both male and female tease him about, which may not help the way his student see Jirraiya’s series.

Prompt 5.04 — Icha Icha is a romance series for girls, so it wouldn’t be surprising if one of the female characteers got into th series.

Prompt 5.05 — Naruto makes a scene about his teacher reading porn in public. Except, Icha Icha isn’t porn. How does it go down?

…

Prompt 6.01 — Kakashi tells one of his peers how certain things during the bell test amused him greatly. His peer finds themselves a bit concerned, even possibly feeling the need to explain things to Kakashi as certain things are known to go over a certain geniuses head.

Prompt 6.02 — Killing intent is okay for Naruto, but not for Sasuke? Naruto tries reiterating this, trying to say Sasuke went overboard another time, only for him to get called out.

Prompt 6.03 — Where did Kakashi come up with the One Thousand Years of Deth technique?

Prompt 6.04 — How can a children ’s game of Kancho go so horribly wrong? It did for Kakashi as a child.

…

Prompt 7.01 — How would Sasuke react to actually finding out the reason behind Sakura’s bizarre fainting spell?

Prompt 7.02 — Sasuke learns of the reason Sakura fainted. He also remembers the One Thousand Years of Death jutsu. Yet, he knows Kakashi is strong and finds Kakashi’s strange behaviors contradictory. And then there is the prank Naruto pulled. What if Sasuke sought out answers for his sensei’s odd behavior? Would that change things?

Prompt 7.03 — Sasuke started opening up to Sakura during the bell test. What if he were to open up to her more?

Prompt 7.04 — or would Naruto get in the way?

Prompt 7.05 — While Sasuke is comfortable opening up to Sakura, who is a teammate, he wouldn’t be comfortable opening up to Ino. However, Ino sees herself as Sakura’s rival and doesn’t want to fall behind Sakura, making Sasuke uncomfortable in a different way than a panicked Sakura hugging him, because she realizes he is alright, which makes him uneasy.

Prompt 7.06 — PDA isn ’t the social norm in Japan, yet Sakura hugging Sasuke after she found out he was okay was a form of PDA between two people who aren’t family. Kakashi, though, is aware, because he’s Kakashi, but what if one or both were to find out Kakashi knows about that moment?

Prompt 7.07 — Ino finds out about that moment between Sasuke and Sakura. How is up to you, but what is the fall out?

…

Prompt 8.01 — What if Naruto’s team failed? How and what would happen afterwords.

Prompt 8.02 — Kakashi’s team find out that their sensei was also troublesome when his own team was formed. They don’t let him live it down.

Prompt 8.03 — Role reversal — Kakashi is deaged and confused as the memories passed that age are missing, not to mention the changes around the village. His team discovers he’s also a nightmare of a child shinobi that puts their bell test antics to shame.

Prompt 8.04 — Sometimes Kakashi forgets his team of Gennin aren’t on the same wave length and he needs to put his thoughts on their level. Write a story involvin such an event.

…

Prompt 9.01 — Hiruzen did mean it as a lesson, only it backfired and Naruto didn’t learn the potential lessons Hiruzen hoped for. Write a story based on this.

Prompt 9.02 — Tazuna is not drunk, but Naruto thinks he is. What if Naruto thinks any adult who drinks is an adult? What trouble would this cause?

Prompt 9.03 — Kakashi feared getting chewed out for Naruto’s behavior rather than getting a mission. Write a story involving this as the outcome.

Prompt 9.04 — Instead of Team 7, it was Rock Lee’s team that went. How would things have changed?

Prompt 9.05 — Instead, it was Team 8 that went. (Kiba, Hinata, Shino). How would things have changed?

Prompt 9.06 — Instead, it was Team 10 that went. (Ino-Shika-Cho). How would things have changed?

Note — I know it is tempting to have these teams fail the mission to try and prove a point — that it would only have succeeded had it been Team 7, but that at the end of the day places Team 7 ’s skills on a pedestal while also underestimating everyone else in the series.

Prompt 9.07 — The mission failed because the team wasn’t one comprised of younger students easily swayed by Tazuna’s sweet words of hating the village, and his lies outweighed staying, as it wouldn’t matter at the end of the day.

Prompt 9.08 — What if, though, that weren’t the case, that, as Minato said to Kakashi, bending the rules was needed at times, with, in this case, there being an understanding that the Land of Waves would owe Konoha a debt in the future that would make up for the lowered cost?

Prompt 9.09 — What other missions did they take on, and what struggles did Kakashi go through?

…

Prompt 10.01 — Sasuke doesn ’t like the fact that Kakashi showed off, as he put it. Sakura, after all, gushes all over Kakashi being alive. With that as his focus, he starts misinterpreting Kakashi ’s actions as trying to get Sakura to gush praise at him, but what kind of chaos would result from this?

Prompt 10.02 — Sasuke tries being friends with Naruto, but things like his use of “ bibiri-kun ” just get misinterpreted. Write about this kind of chaos.

Prompt 10.03 — Sasuke’s jumping between Sakura and the Water missing-nin hints he may have feelings for her that he is personally oblivious to, potentially because he’s on the specrtum, but what other ways does he show how he feels while still being oblivious to his feelings.

Chapter 14: 012. The Conversation Never Had

I’m temporarily skipping writing essay number eleven as it will be easier to write once I’ve written a later essay and am moving on to number twelve.

The focus on number twelve is this: why didn’t Sasuke ask Kakashi about the Sharingan?

Logically, Sasuke would ask about Kakashi having a Sharingan, simply because it relates to his family. However, logically, he doesn’t, as the narrative would not have unfolded the same way had Kakashi and Sasuke had a much-needed conversation regarding the eye, for the simple fact that Sasuke would logically be more trusting of Kakashi had they had the conversation.

Of course, one could argue that it’s a matter of Japanese culture that one doesn’t discuss one’s private matters with strangers.

The thing is, this isn’t a private matter as it does involve Sasuke’s family, and even if Kakashi were to note that the story is somewhat personal, because it is, it still involves Sasuke’s family. That again leaves us to wonder why the conversation didn’t happen.

Sure, the conversation happened off-screen, but the conversation did happen. Yet, the problem with this comes from the fact that such a conversation would actually lead to Sasuke trusting Kakashi, which only makes his leaving the village even more questionable.

No, I don’t want to hear about the Uchiha curse being a logical reason, or any of the other things we learn later on, because they honestly don’t explain away people forgoing basic logic at the end of the day, or them going off the deep end.

Well, one might claim the Uchiha clan has psychological issues that are at play. Still, the problem with this is when the curse is broken, that mental health issue gets whisked away as if never existed, as if one could fix with the wave of a hand all mental health issues like bipolar or schizophrenia, or if the Uchiha is based on an autistic individuals reaction to being over stimilied it’s again, a hand wave fix for something that can’t be fixed in that manner.

To which I know some will be like, “but it’s fiction.”

True, but fiction doesn’t mean not based on reality; it means didn’t really happen, and yes, there is a difference. And while some with these things for which there is no fix for would like an instant cure, most wouldn’t, because fixing means at the end of the day, erasing who one is, as while there are negatives to mental health and being autistic, they are thing that on a positive side help that person to be unique.

Mind you, the lackluster representation, I believe, is not intentional on Kishimoto’s part, but it is still present.

Getting back on track, if the conversation occurred, Sasuke would be far more likely to listen to what Kakashi said, and thus far more likely to have left the village, though the fact that Kakashi should have gotten through to Sasuke wasn’t the only issue going on. That’s an essay for when I get to that chapter, though, but because this is a conversation that should have happened, it’s going to come up again.

As for anything else of note?

Well—

And I quote, “ The Sharingan is a special trait that appears in only a select few, even among the Uchiha clan. ”

Which—

There is a significant misconception in fandom that Obito is somehow the black sheep of the Uchiha clan because he couldn’t awaken the Sharingan, but the reality is, as Sasuke says, “ select few ” which majorly changes how Obito’s character should be interpreted, as he’s not this black sheep he’s often made out to be in fanfiction as there is really nothing odd about him not awakening the Sharingan.

And no, I’m not looking for answers outside of the Manga here, but ones inside the source material, though some argue that Sasuke may have already known about it, so—

Except, nope.

Sasuke is surprised to see it exists, so that isn’t an answer.

How about Kakashi telling people it’s a gift from a friend?

Well, uh, no, because Kakashi never said that before revealing he had the eye. However, that would have been an answer Kakashi could have given. Still, Sasuke would also be aware that the friend was dead for the gift to have occurred, and he had a few more questions. Nor does it make sense for Kakashi to avoid saying something beyond perhaps saying it is a conversation best left for another day, about what his friend was like.

The whole thing also puts a very different spin on Kakashi’s conversation with Sasuke before he defects, because why would Sasuke have said those things, when he’s aware of Kakashi’s eye? He’s aware of the memorial stone?

Because at the end of the day, it simply doesn’t make sense for Sasuke to leave the village as he did.

Prompts

Prompt 12.01 — The conversation that never happened does happen. Write a story where Sasuke asks Kakashi about the Sharingan.

Prompt 12.02 — The conversation happened regarding why Kakashi has the Sharingan, but the conversation happening changes things plot-wise. How? That’s up to you for this story.

Chapter 15: 013. The Character Growth That Didn't Stick

For the first time, in “I’m a Ninja” and “The Oath of Pain,” we see Naruto grow as a character. He overcomes his fears so he doesn’t freeze up in battle, and he — gasp — works with Sasuke in a way that shows teamwork, ingenuity, and the ability to adapt.

However—

This awe-inspiring moment, this fantastic display of teamwork by Naruto, is short-lived. True, he does show ingenuity and the ability to adapt, but what is that without teamwork? What is that if half the time (at least) one is solving problems one created in the first place? What is that if it’s always a convenient plot device when the plot wants to give Naruto a power-up that he cheats to get rather than works for?

The truth is, Naruto struggles within the narrative to exhibit the same kind of growth he did in this moment, where he and Sasuke team up as they did.

The bridge? He made things worse and relied on the convenient cheat device of his fox powers.

The forest of death? Again, he made things worse to the point I’ll later be arguing that Naruto is very much at fault for the way things went down.

The fight with Gaara? Well, I’d argue this is the closest we get to a similar moment. Yet, in this situation, teamwork was only necessary in getting Naruto to the battle, while he then solves the problem through violence and telling Gaara he can relate, despite the fact he didn’t grow up in anywhere near the situation Gaara did; he wasn’t alone, and he did have friends, contrary to what Naruto claims. With how the series lectures about how Naruto does things through peaceful measures and Sasuke is all about revenge during the war arc, this is one of those amazing moments that gets trampled on with later reveals in the series.

Yes, I’ll be eventually getting around to writing an essay about the problems with Naruto’s fight with Gaara.

From there, we have Naruto going on a journey to find Tsunade and winning a bet just to make her acknowledge that one day he’ll become a great Hokage which shows him doing things on his own and how amazing all along he’s supposed to be while ignoring the fact what he did wasn’t enough for anybody to say, “Wow! You’ll be Hokage one day!” despite the fact the narrative wants the readers to believe this.

Next comes the Sasuke retrieval arc where—

So, Naruto does show teamwork there, but there’s the issue of him and Sasuke fighting as if this moment never happened, while he eventually waxes poetic with lies regarding his and Sasuke’s actual relationship.

Which, I can’t remember the exact words, but it’s either him simply wanting to be friends and/or wanting to be treatedd as an equal to Sasuke, when he made very clear in the earlier material he never wanted to be friends with Sasuke and acted like he was better than him. Kiba even notes at some point prior to this that Naruto has a habit of boasting and never backing up his boasts.

This mission fails.

The next time we see him in the Manga is when they’re rescuing Gaara, which is thankfully not his fault, and he does work as a team mate, but this is trampled upon by him waxing about knowing how Gaara felt growing up when that’s a lie - he was never alone and did have friends, unlike Gaara.

Second attempt at retrieving Sasuke not only ends in failure, but it plays upon this idea of Naruto being some kind of child of light with pure purposes while Sasuke was born as a child of darkness with impure purposes, because apparently Naruto and Sasuke have absolytely no agency of their own.

Pain arc turns Naruto into a saint everyone is now relying on because they can’t do anything for themselves because only Naruto is allowed to have powerups to properly deal with the evil that is coming, to which some Naruto fans will argue, “well, he is the titular character” as if Naruto being the titular character gives him some kind of special privlages narratively when in reality, it doesn’t.

He’s not exactly growing as a character, though, because who needs teamwork when you’re the only one capable of dealing with a given situation? And who cares if Naruto is lying to everyone about having a lonely childhood, at least according to the Manga, which is the primary source material.

Thus, when it comes time for Naruto to maturely reject Sakura’s fake confession to him there is absolutely no character growth getting him to this point beyond the fact he realizes Hinata’s always had a crush on him, so he doesn’t need Sakura to fill that role for him.

And of course, he claims he’ll take Sasuke down for the better of everyone, despite the fact that this never happens. He continues preaching about his ninja way despite how bloody hypocritical his ninja way is. In many ways, his ninja way is an overly idealistic view of the world that, at the end of the day, is unrealistic.

To which headaing into the war he’s set up as a character for whom the only way they’ll win is if he’s involved only for it to reveal Naruto and Sasuke have absolutly no agency, that they’re meant to be these parallels to other characters and destined to go down the path of light and the path of dark.

Only—

The problem with this is, I can’t side with the idea of Naruto’s way being the right way as declaring his way’s right and Sasuke’s is wrong pretty much paints Sasuke’s quest for justice with his family as being in the wrong, only for him to spiral out of control when he finds out there was no point in seeking justice which feels like a slap in the face to proove he is wrong and Naruto was right all along as well as a way for him to slip further into darkness despite Itachi clearly stating he loves the village.

Because, you know, the Uchiha curse means he goes down this route, ignores all logic because according to canon, what he was seeking wasn’t justice, but revenge. Justice is reserved instead for characters like Naruto who openly lie about having a lonely childhood and having no friends.

Well—

There’s a bit more to this than Naruto simply lying, that I plan on writing once we get to the Chunin exams. Basically, I’m going to go into what a crappy friend Naruto is, and that he’s a spoiled brat wanting very one-sided relationships that favor himself while looking down on everybody around him just because he can.

More importantly, here is a point in the narrative that I think is a favorite among many fans, which, I’m not saying is an absolute favorite, but rather something that fans simply like because it shows Naruto growing as a character. He’s thinking things through, he’s working as a team, treating Sasuke as an equal, and kicking butt.

Yet, it’s also not perfect; my essay for chapter sixteen is going to ask the question of whether Naruto’s actions really helped the situation at the end of the day. Or, perhaps we should examine the events that transpired even more critically.

And a Prompt

Prompt 13.01 — What if Naruto’s character growth of working with Sasuke stayed? How would the story have changed?

Prompt 13.02 — Kakashi is shown having gotten wet when he went in the water, but then he ’s completely dry, yet he’s not the only one who would logically be soaking wet given the dragon status. How would this change the story?

Prompt 13.03 — Sasuke thinks of killing himself upon feeling their killing intent, but is this indicative of suicidal ideation? Write a story based on this.

Prompt 13.04 — Does Kakashi know what Sasuke is going through when he feels the killing intent overwhelming him because he inherited suicidal ideation from his father?

Chapter 16: 014: Years Ago - The Difference Between Formal and Informal Language (Or the Timeline Isn't Broken Regarding Zabuza)

Ten years ago, the village in the Mist changed its graduation exams, which occurred because the previous year, Zabuza nuked the entire graduating class. However, Zabuza is the same age as Kakashi, who is twenty-six, which means ten years ago Zabuza would be sixteen, meaning he would have graduated at the time, right? And definitely not a boy.

Well, no.

Erase now from your head this idea that when a character uses the words “years ago”, that it means what you think it does; aka, at the end of the day, context matters and context is way too often left out of this discussion.

This “issue” is a little something I discovered while working on my Naruto Timeline.

Now, if you were to ask the question regarding what “years ago” actually means, the answer people give is what you think it is, that “years ago” implies something as precise and accurate as you think it does. That is, if you say ‘ten years ago,’ then the events happened exactly ten years ago. In this situation, they’d likely argue that for this not to be a canon contradiction, the words “sixteen years ago” would have needed to be used, as Zabuza graduated when he was nine, and thus it would be the year he turned ten that this change took place.

Except, this isn ’t actually accurate.

To which, let ’s say a different question was asked. Let’s say, instead of asking what the words “years ago mean, you post the following situation: whether something or not would count as sixteen years ago if, say, there are still a couple of weeks left, or a month or two left for it to be sixteen years exactly.

Well, then your English grammarists would pontificate. They ’d point out that this is technically grammatically wrong, though never citing any reliable source as to why it is bad before offering up alternatives. For example, saying “almost sixteen years ago”, or “fifteen years and eleven months ago”, or any wide range of clunky ways of saying what they’re trying to say because—

Well, they ’re overly stuck on this idea of exact word usage for a word that can only mean precisely what it means on a singular day of the year — aka, when it ’s the same bloody date, such as if it’s one’s birthday today. One is turning sixteen, one might say, “I was born sixteen years ago.”

Except, the actual words we would naturally use are “sixteen years ago today ” to help emphasize that it is exactly sixteen years ago, so why then are we demanding that we say “almost sixteen years ago”?

Well—

Some argue that because something is, say, a few weeks away, there needs to be that added emphasis. Technically , sixteen years haven ’t actually passed, so you’re not allowed to say “sixteen years ago.” One has to say, “almost sixteen years ago.”

And this is just being pedantic on their part.

True. When we ’re talking about academic writing, one does want to use that precision of language, but that is a formal setting with a very formal way of writing.

When characters are speaking, though, this isn ’t the case. No. Characters are going to talk informally, and when it comes to time? Well, technically, it doesn ’t have to be exact like that. The human brain is going to — gasp — go to the nearest estimate, keep the words simple to understand, and not worry about silly nonsensical technicalities that at the end of the day don’t matter as they’re honestly that trivial at the end of the day.

Well, unless perhaps one is Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory, whose brain will instantly process the math to figure out the “technical” logistics.

Fact — most people ’s brains don’t work that way. Not without preparing themselves, say, for an academic or political speech.

So, right here, phrasing such as sixteen years ago can mean a range that isn ’t exactly yet sixteen years because our minds are estimating the closest thing .

But—

Second lesson here.

In this particular case, we used the words' ten years ago,' which can mean sixteen years ago, because Kakashi is estimating off the top of his head in the middle of a battle, where there are more important things to worry about than being exact with one's phrasing. His mind knows it ’s been at least ten years, while not yet twenty, so without doing the math, it’s definitely “ten-years-ago.”

“But isn’t Kakashi a genius?”

Well, yes. The thing is, on top of using the Sharingan and focusing on not losing too much chakra on that, he ’s not Sheldon Cooper. He certainly has his quirks socially, but he’s not OCD to the point Sheldon Cooper would be when it comes to language.

Not to mention, Kakashi is speaking Japanese, not English, which adds another layer to things, but even then there ’s still this element of the mind estimating the amount of time rather than trying to be precise about the time.

Of course, then there ’s the whole other issue of the chances of a Naruto fan being a Sheldon Cooper, honestly, I think being higher than in other fandoms, which ties to the cast of characters being nerodiverse coded; aka, it ’s not that they are definitely nerodiverse, but more of a matter that they exhibit traits that are common in various forms of nerodiversity.

This is a good thing, as they can relate to the sorce material, but also not a good thing as OCD can be one of the issues those of us who are nerodiverse deal with and since we ’re taught in school to understand English through a formal context, rather than an informal, this can lead to certain OCD moments.

As for anything else to note—

Is it possible to interpret this in a formal manner?

Well, if you mean interpreting it so Zabuza is younger than Kakashi, maybe. But why do you need Zabuza to be younger? What is the end goal there? It ’s not as if one is fixing the timeline here, because the timeline doesn’t need to be fixed, for as I said, while it may be broken in other places, it is not broken here.

The reason is to go to AU. On top of my head, I can ’t think of a reason why someone might want to explore Zabuza being younger, because it wouldn’t alter the narrative as it currently stands, so in the end, it would be a superficial change. It’s certainly a solution if one is that OCD about it, but it ’s also a change that, potentially, particularly if not warned for, can draw the reader out of what they’re reading.

However, I much prefer—

What if it wasn ’t Zabuza, and the image of him sitting on a pile of corpses is in fact an image created based on an assumption that it was Zabuza who did the killing, that perhaps he is covering for someone.

To which, some people will argue this is out of character for Zabuza, to which I ’d say this is actually in character for him.

Well, fifteen years prior to Shippuden, there is one character in particular from the mist who would have been eleven at the time the change would have been made and ten the year before.

That character would be Utakata, for whom we know nothing of background-wise. Yes, the Anime comes up with a background story for him, but that doesn ’t count as we’re talking about what’s revealed in the Manga, that Tite Kubo himself came up with rather than what the staff came up with to fill out what he didn’t yet should have.

Going with Utakata being the student, of all the students dying because his tailed beast went out of control to protect him—

That would be an interesting AU, to be honest, and Zabuza — well, while he wears the mask of being a cold, heartless bastard, he really isn ’t one.

Prompts

Prompt 14.01 — What would happen if Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory met Kakashi?

Prompt 14.02 — A character is OCD about language, but gets on Kakashi ’s case regarding something they said, getting pissed because, according to them, he lied. Write this story.

Prompt 14.03 — A character is OCD about language and keeps getting upset with various characters for not using precise language.

Prompt 14.04 — What if Zabuza was indeed covering for Utakata and not letting the leaf village know it wasn ’t him? Write a story based on this.

Prompt 14.05 — What if it was any other boy other than Zabuza? Write a story about this character. No, it can ’t be a female character for this one.

Chapter 17: 16: Kakashi Was Right About Running

Kakashi told his Genin to run.

They did not.

According to Sasuke, running was useless because, from his standpoint, there was no getting away from Zabuza. Thus, at first glance, it appears that Kakashi ’s Genin — Sasuke and Naruto- came to Kakashi’s rescue, saving the day, therefore being one of the great things Naruto did to the point it helped secure himself an entire land, naming a bridge after him.

Except—

Who was right, Sasuke or Kakashi?

If Sasuke was right, then Kakashi ’s not that great of a sensei, which is actually something fans tend to believe regarding his character, as they thought he did nothing for any of them, with each moving onto better sensei. However, one has to question this when one of those said sensei is Orichimaru, who, while a genius isn’t at the end of the day an ideal sensei.

This also ignores a few things clearly stated in the canon material that make it very clear Kakashi was aware of his Gennin ’s needs, as well as ignores the fact that Kakashi is a certified genius, someone who graduated at age five and became a Chunin at age six.

Kakashi ’s orders were clear.

His students were to run and get far enough away that Zabuza couldn ’t use his clone, stipulating that getting far enough away should result in Zabuza no longer being able to control his clone.

So, let ’s ask ourselves why Kakashi, in fact, came to the conclusion he did and—

Well, it was a water clone. It needs to be near water for it to work correctly, and getting too far away from water is that particular clone ’s weakness. The problem would be if they were to find themselves running towards a body of water, rather than away.

Of course, Sasauke talks about the defense formation not working, stipulating that Zabuza can easily get inside this defense. Well, it makes sense that he would be able to, as nobody is watching Zabuza ’s backside in the formation. True, it allows their client to escape backwards if someone were to appear in the middle.

More importantly, with each minute of hesitation in moving away from the body of water, it means Kakashi is waiting for the clone to get far enough away that Zabuza has to move and go after them, thus releasing him from the Water Prison.

Getting away as soon as possible is important because, first, being away from the water limits the water jutsu that Zabuza can use, which is water-based. Second, the sooner this happens, the sooner Kakaashi can take Zabuza out, and the less time he has the Sharingan open.

Both of these things, at the end of the day, have an impact on Kakashi ’s chakra use. The longer he uses the Sharingan, the more of his chakra he uses. And, had they been away from the water, Zabuza would have needed to either have drawn from his chakra pools even more to create the dragon, or wouldn ’t have been able to perform the water dragon, though the same can be said for Kakashi, that he might have been in the same boat.

However, here ’s the thing. The way things went down, Kakashi was guaranteed chakra exhaustion because his gennin hesitated to follow his orders, whereas had they followed them, he had a chance of not exhausting his chakra.

Of course, in saying this, I ’m not saying the scenario should have gone down differently. The way it ends up working works narratively, because his Genin aren’t at a point where they understand to trust Kakashi on that kind of level.

And the scenario does show the two having great teamwork—

Which practically never happens again, at least not on the same level.

That ’s the first problem, as I’ve mentioned in the essay for chapter thirteen.

The second problem is one of the significant interpretations of the Land of Waves arc, that Naruto is a hero on a scale that the mission wouldn ’t have succeeded if he hadn’t done what he did, but in reality, Naruto’s achievements are overplayed. And often, he’s the cause of the trouble, which I’ll discuss more in a later chapter. Still, Kakashi openly admits in a later chapter/episode that when Naruto jumps in, he has a habit of making things worse , not better, meaning the problems Naruto solves are of his own making.

Of course, there ’s also the fact that had things gone the other way, Kakashi might have been able to use Chidori, ending the major threat they had to deal with from the start, cutting down on a lot of their problems, and forcing Gato to regroup, having lost a major player.

Prompts

Prompts 16.01 — Kakashi ’s Genin actually listened and did as he said, allowing him to do what he needed to do. In this case, he uses Chidori. How does this change things?

Prompts 16.02 — Kakashi ’s Genin actually listened and did as he said, allowing him to do what he needed to do. He doesn’t use Chidori, so how are things resolved?

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Fannish Analysis