"I Remain In Perpetual Awe When A Person Is Able To Remain Articulate And Express Their Exact Feelings

They look so sily 🫠

I'm going to *remembers suicide is often not a desire for death itself but rather an attempt to radically change one's life because the current state of being has become unbearable but the person can't think of any way to change it other than death* kill myself

I will never get over the fact that Minato had to have been fifteen when he became Kakashi's jonin sensei. Not only did these utter brainiacs let a five year old become a soldier, they then TRUSTED ANOTHER CHILD TO SHOW HIM THE ROPES.

Why aren't there more fics about what a batshit arrangement this was.

You know how in the Chunning Exams arc Naruto and Sakura deepened their existing bonds with certain people and even create new bonds with new characters? While Sasuke slowly but violently drifted away from their circle of influence, going towards what Orochimaru offered?

The Chunning Exams allowed Naruto to confront Neji and his ideals, allowed him to start or further the depth of his bond with Hinata, to create the connection Gaara and him shared, something that would last for life. We have those moments with Shikamaru and Rock Lee, stuff that cemented his place on Konoha, showed us Naruto acting not in a team of three but in a wider range. The first step to become Hokage, not doubt.

It also gave us important moments for Sakura. We got her relationship with Rock Lee, something that started as a joke and turned into to mutual respect and appreciation. We got a development and explanation of her rivalry and friendship with Ino, we got to see Team Asuma reacting to her fight against the Sound and the jounins reacting to her fight with Ino. We got to see moments that meant a lot for her in Team 7 and showed us how much she meant for Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi.

But Sasuke? Every possible rivalry or connection was given to Naruro or pushed aside. Sasuke was one of the first to challenge Rock Lee and Gaara, but the Rock Lee fight was taken by Gaara and the Gaara fight was taken by Naruto, later on the invasion. Since he was away from the other fights due the cursed mark or his training with Kakashi, he didn't get to see Neji or anyone else fighting. We never saw the Sound ninjas again, which left us with Sasuke only having bonding moments with his team— even those were negative if you think about how Sasuke must have seen most of them as failures. Exactly like Orochimaru had told him, he was not strong enough to either protect his team or defeat the enemy, but Naruto was.

Sakura and Naruto were really the only two who could have kept Sasuke from leaving or brought him back, because to Sasuke's eyes Kakashi had failed to offer Sasuke the power he craves for.

Sasuke didn't get the chance to develop any kind of relationship with anyone else, foreigner or from the Konoha 12. So inevitably when his relationship with Naruto decayed (for many reason like Itachi chasing Naruto and not Sasuke, or Naruto being the one who saved Sakura and defeated Gaara), and when he started seing Sakura as a weak point (in the sense that he realized that listening to her wouldn't give him any type of physical strength), it was obvious they'd fail to give Sasuke a reason to stay with them.

i love itachi but not in the way dudebros love him "he's sooooo badass he could beat madara actually 🤓☝️" and not in the way kishimoto wants you to love him "he was a hero who sacrificed everything for his military state 💔" but a secret third way "he was a kind and soft child who hated conflict and violence but was born with a gift for killing so he was exploited by his family and his village from a young age until his eldest daughter syndrome drove him insane"

I think the reason why Naruto fans get so passionate and upset about the series is because of how real it can be. Naruto isn’t about paragon heroes outdoing dastardly villains. It’s about human beings fighting tooth and nail to survive in a world surrounded by death. It’s about broken systems made and perpetuated by broken people.

The Hyuga clan isn’t just antagonistic or pretentious, they practice slavery.

The Uchiha clan weren’t just killed by some raging psychopath, they were systematically massacred.

Itachi isn’t just cruel to Sasuke because he’s a bad brother, he’s cruel because he’d been told time and time again that you can only survive by being cruel and he wants nothing more than for Sasuke to survive.

Nagato isn’t trying to take over the world just for the sake of power, he’s trying to take over the world because it beat him down to the point of believing that the only chance at peace there is is the world being forced into compliance through fear.

Iruka isn’t hard on Naruto just because he’s a strict teacher, he’s hard on Naruto because he knows from experience how unforgiving the world is towards orphans.

Kakashi isn’t just some silly and slightly lazy teacher, he’s a contract killer still grieving his loved ones and struggling to do better without knowing how he’s supposed to.

Sakura isn’t just a fangirl, she’s a normal girl in a very dangerous and abnormal world constantly being made to choose between what she’s supposed to do and what she feels.

Sasuke isn’t just some edgelord, he’s a survivor who lost everything then gets repeatedly told that he has to choose between keeping what he’s gained and doing better than his brother.

Naruto isn’t just trying to be the best Hokage there ever was, he’s trying to prove his worth to a society that abandoned him just for existing and, in a way, confirm his worth to himself.

The Naruto story is about humans trying to force themselves into the role of weapons because that’s what they were told they had to be. It’s a story where everyone is a perpetrator but no one is trying to do wrong. It’s a story where everyone is a victim but no one is a perfect victim.

The world and the characters aren’t simple and trying to simplify them only takes away from them. So of course we get passionate about showing off all the reasons why they shouldn’t be simplified and all of the ways they’re complicated. Of course we get upset when we see others simplifying them or selling certain aspects of their characters short. Of course we get upset when the series itself simplifies them. Of course we get upset when the series chooses to abandon them. Because it not only feels like the characters are giving up, it feels like the series is betraying anyone who chose to get invested in its complexities.