#arc: search for tsunade

[every-jiraiya]

[sannin-three]

In a fight, right?

In a fight, right??

[watermelonsloth]

Things the Naruto Fandom Don’t Talk About Nearly Enough Part 5: Itachi and Kisame’s Visit to Konoha

So, there are layers to this.

At first, this just seems like a simple mission to stop by Konoha and snatch Naruto off the streets, but we learn two things about this later on that makes this very funny to me: Itachi’s actual intention was to remind Danzo that he’s still alive so he wouldn’t use Hiruzen’s absence as an opening to use Sasuke and the Akatsuki wouldn’t be in a position to extract the nine tails for another two years.

Some of you may see where this is going.

Pein wouldn’t have ordered them to get Kurama two years early, it would’ve just brought unnecessary attention to them and reveal the Akatsuki’s motives (or at least methods). So, if they aren’t following orders, why is Kisame going along with this? Did Itachi say “early bird gets the worm” and Kisame was like “fuck it, I don’t have anything better to do”?

If Kisame is under the impression they’re capturing the nine tails, why did he offer they stop for tea? Itachi wanting to waste time and risk drawing attention would make sense, but not Kisame. Right? Does Kisame make them stop for tea and dessert on missions? Does Kisame make them stop so regularly that Itachi was counting on it for his plan?

Speaking of Itachi’s plan, did he actually account for the village response to two very known criminals being in the village? Like, nothing would’ve stopped Danzo from just sending all of anbu after them. Did Itachi think he and Kisame could take all of Konoha’s shinobi force? Or maybe he thought they could get away before that became a problem?

What would Itachi have done if they did capture Naruto? He, presumably, didn’t know that Jiraiya was in Konoha and it’s not like Naruto had any bodyguards. I can’t imagine he would’ve dropped the act. Would he have just pretended to have another spike in psychopathy and shanked Kisame? Would he have tried to talk Kisame into leaving Naruto? Would they have brought him back with them?

If they brought Naruto with them, what would that conversation look like? ‘Cause Pein probably wouldn’t have let them go to Konoha, so it’s not like he’d know they were going to get Naruto in the first place. “Hey boss, we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is we got that jinchuriki you wanted! We know it’s a little early, but we just couldn’t help ourselves. The bad news is all of the Land of Fire is after us.”

Last question, did the rest of the Akatsuki find out about this? If so, can we please have a novel about their reactions?

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[deadmegumi]

Itachi wasting his tsukuyomi on sasuke was so funny like bro he's twelve. You have to run away and recharge ur chakra bc you used the worst torture technique ever on. a twelve year old. a little 🤏 baby. Cmon man.

[roseangel19]

There’s one moment during the “Tsunade Search” arc that puzzled me the first time I saw it; when Orochimaru had stabbed Tsunade in the chest with his Kusanagi sword.

He pulls the sword out from her, jumps back and says that she’s the one person that he wouldn’t kill. Which makes me think, “Why? What makes her the exception to all of the other people you’ve killed?”

Except a few moments later when she’s defending Naruto, he says that if she’s willing to put her life on the line for someone like him then he’d be happy to accommodate her. Which adds even more confusion than previously, he’s technically killing her by slashing her with the sword. Idk 🤷🏼‍♀️.

[stealthydemocracy369]

“You're wrong, that's not what makes a shinobi. You never did get it. A real ninja is one who endures no matter what gets thrown at him… Let me explain something to you, there is only one thing that matters if you are a shinobi, and it isn't the number of techniques you possess. All you do need, is the guts to never give up.„~ Jiraiya to Orochimaru

[every-sasuke-uchiha]

[sporadic-shinobi-village28]

[confront-ation]

Naruto Live Spectacle (and Road of Naruto)

The first two parts of Naruto Live Spectacle run for two hours. The first one retells the first part of the manga, and the parts that do not directly relate to the main storyline (Naruto and Sasuke) are cut out. There are completely no Chunin exams arc and Tsunade search arc. But the Land of Waves arc is shown quite fully there, with all the necessary dialogues about the "most precious" and love and power. Clearly, the priority is on themes and content, rather than battles and events. Next comes the battle with Gaara (which also contains dialogues about love from Yashamaru) and VOTE1. This is probably the best option for adapting the first part in two hours.

The situation is similar with the second part, which adapts the first four arcs of Shippuden. There's nothing that doesn't include Sasuke. There is no Kazekage rescue arc and Team 8's battle against Akatsuki (but there is the creation of a Rasenshuriken). But all the quarrels between Naruto and Sai about Sasuke are included, lol. Priorities here...

This is a kind of Sasuke Shippuden tbh, his arc with Itachi is central here. It's obvious that the director is a Sasuke fan.

Some scenes legally look like a Romeo and Juliet production.

I immediately remembered the PV "Road of Naruto", which also briefly retells Naruto. Everything there consists of battles and there is almost nothing beyond them in general. And there is a very strange prioritization. Chunin exams take the most time (1:55 minutes out of 9:30) there. The Fourth Shinobi World War is mainly shown in a slide show. The battle against Madara at the end lasts 4 seconds, like???

But the funniest thing there is the Kage Summit arc. It SCREAMS that the director hates Sasuke because... Well, first there are intentionally several seconds about how Gokage kicks Sasuke's ass, and not the other way around, and then the emphasis is on all his "terrible crimes" in this arc. In particular, the attack on Sakura, who attacked him first, lol. This is the most disgusting summary you can think of.

I just like the comparison of these two summary. They have a different format, but that's not even the main difference. They focus on different things and it is obvious from them how their creators see "Naruto" as a whole.

[casgirl]

itachi heading back to the akatsuki lair after that confrontation w naruto and sasuke in the search for tsunade arc like hacking up a lung and bleeding from the eyes and someone is like whoa man did you get your ass kicked or something and itachi is like no i just overexerted myself putting my brother in the hell dimension. deidara is like to be clear this is your brother who is in like sixth grade right.

[evilkitten3]

Mutual, I'm lowkey obsessing over your tags about akatsuki Tsunade, can you elaborate more the basic timeline? Like how this would affect Tsunade's arc in classic and such

tbh i hadn't really thought about it lol

but.... let's say it happens during the search for tsunade arc? orochimaru and jiraiya are both gunning to get her on their side but you know what? the shark man said please. get your shit shizune we're going with these guys if you poison the little red-eyed shit on the way no judgement (kisame: maybe don't though?)

jiraiya is pissed, orochimaru is torn between being amused bc wow and being in agonizing pain bc his arms still don't work, naruto keeps trying to get her to come heal lee (and now sasuke) but she's having none of it so she just throws a file of miscellaneous notes at his head and tells him "find someone with good chakra control and pray" (sakura: omg i have good chakra control!!!!)

weirdly the member of team seven affected most by this is sasuke bc sakura has absolutely no fucking clue what she's doing at first and it takes her like an extra month to wake him up, so he needs to get back on his feet before he can decide if he wants to run off to orochimaru or not. lee is.... kinda sol, frankly. sakura works really really hard to help him out, and she's eventually able to get him to a place where he can do a few things, but by the time she's good enough to really be able to help him it's way too late. fortunately he's adapted somewhat, and being lee he's surpassed what anyone thought he'd be able to, but he's never going to be what he could've been. gaara feels terrible about this ofc but lee isn't the sort to really hold a grudge, even if pretty much everyone agrees he'd be perfectly justified in doing so. gai never forgives tsunade, though, not really.

concerning tsunade's role in the akatsuki.... the thing is, it's her own grandparents who started the whole jinchuuriki mess. and she's seen with her own two eyes what konoha did to places like amegakure; she was part of it. she doesn't like that the jinchuuriki die post extraction, so she starts looking into how to make that not happen, but if she does succeed, it isn't until after the gaara debacle, so chiyo still dies. her biggest motivation here is naruto - she doesn't agree with him, but he reminds her of nawaki, so she really doesn't want him to die if at all avoidable. she doesn't get too involved in the actual jinchuuriki capturing process tho; she's more useful patching people up after.

having said that, she doesn't fully agree with pain and konan's plan, she just can't really think of anything better. tobi tells sasuke about itachi while tsunade is patching him up, and since it's her family that led to this, she's pretty on-board with the whole "fuck this stupid baka village" thing (ofc she's been heading down that path since joining the akatsuki, so this isn't like canon!tsunade suddenly making this call; there's a couple years of character development first), so.... she's effectively on team sasuke at this point, and once he splits from the akatsuki she does as well.

iirc, post danzou, sasuke spent about eight and a half volumes just kinda adjusting mostly offscreen to his recent ert (eyeball replacement therapy), before skewering og white zetsu and fucking off to go accidentally reunite with zombitachi, but aside from decking itachi through a few trees on sight, idk how much about all that would change. immediately after, when sasuke brings back orochimaru, they have an awkward reunion, followed by yet another awkward reunion when orochimaru brings back the four dead hokage. she's both very happy to see her granddad again, but it's hard for her to tell him (and hiruzen, for that matter) that she deserted the village completely, even if she doesn't regret her decision.

now you may be wondering: weren't shizune and tonton also around? yes! but when sasuke went after danzou, they stayed behind, leading to shizune finding and managing to save konan after tobito killed her. there's a potential romance subplot there as well but i accidentally ruined it for myself by saying aloud "two girls one pig" and then regretting my whole life.

the other survival is jiraiya; he becomes hokage instead since it's either one of the sannin or one of the elders, and as much as he doesn't want the job, he really doesn't want them to have it. this in part means he can't go spying in ame himself, although he very nearly does after orochimaru's death gets reported, but instead he sends someone else. that person dies, but manages to get the information back to him (it has to be someone important to naruto, and it can't be kakashi, so maybe iruka? but idk how he'd be in espionage. maybe one of naruto's classmates did spy training offscreen? it's entirely possible with jiraiya as hokage instead of tsunade but idk). since jiraiya isn't a healer, he'd either need to be injured badly enough for danzou to be able to step in without him being able to object, or sasuke would just need to have his fight with danzou somewhere else (so the raikage's arm might survive also).

the final thing is that, unlike in canon, this version of tsunade never got naruto therapy'd, so while she does eventually get over the hemophilia somehow (maybe just existing in the relative vicinity of hidan did the trick), she never really dealt with the grief that caused her to leave konoha in the first place, so that's still very much there. however, i think maybe this could work to the story's advantage - instead of just naruto vs sasuke, it could be naruto and sakura vs sasuke and tsunade. tho in this instance sasuke really isn't alone, and isn't really trying to be by that point. it's more a battle of "do we try to fix the system from within, or do we really need to start from scratch for things to improve in any meaningful way", but ultimately the winner is the realization that four people from konoha not only shouldn't but honestly can't be the only ones making this call. if the world is going to move forward, it can't be dragged by a single person, or even two people. it's gotta be a group effort. idk if the story should go into the details of what they decide on, bc i'm definitely not politically savvy enough for something like that, or just have an open ending leaving whatever happens next up to interpretation.

(sorry this took so long lol i kept having to do things XD)

[every-jiraiya]

[h-worksrambles]

I wanna talk about Sasuke Uchiha

As someone who looks back on Naruto as one of their gateway anime and manga, I have a lot of very fond, but very complicated feelings about it. I remember so well the thrill of watching the highs of the Land of Waves or Chunin Exam arcs and even once we got into the highs and lows of Shippuden/Part 2, it still had plenty of moments that spoke to me. But there is one aspect of the series which I have incredibly mixed feelings about: one who unfortunately just so happens to me integral to the entire series. That being the character and arc of Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most famous parts of the series, and one of the most frustrating bits of missed potential.

Back in Part One, Sasuke begins with a great deal of promise. He, Naruto and Sakura are all immediately set up with distinct personalities. The tree climbing chapter is a great early moment that allows Sasuke to act beyond his stoic character trope and behave like the child he still is, in turn allowing for more natural chemistry with Naruto (remember that, it’s gonna be important for later). Moments like his sacrifice to protect Naruto from Haku or his panic during the fight against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death help to humanise and develop him further. As we learn more of his backstory and the traumatic loss of his clan, you come to better understand him and you can see the dynamic starting to form between him and his teammates. Their relationship is still very much early days but at this point it’s easy to get excited to see how they’ll develop together and grow a compelling bond….

And then the next arc seperates them. And here’s where the problems begin.

From where, Naruto is separated from his teammates during the search for Tsunade. Itachi returns to the narrative, and forces Sasuke to confront the sheer gulf in power between him and the brother he intends to kill, but this also leaves him bed ridden and out of commission for the rest of the arc. And Sakura…gets nothing for this whole arc because this manga has a Women Problem but I digress.

The result is that the very next arc is the fabled Break-Up TM, where Sasuke’s lingering trauma and jealousy of Naruto’s growth lead to his heel-turn to villainy on Orochimaru’s side. His motivations make sense and this arc is full of legendary moments. But when we get to Naruto and Sasuke’s showdown at the Valley of the End, the core issue emerges.

For being the core relationship that this series revolves around, and the focus of more Yaoi fanfiction than any one mind could comprehend…Naruto and Sasuke‘s bond is surprisingly underdeveloped. The manga made the…unique decision to split the core trio up for two arcs just when it had made the first breakthroughs to start to build a dynamic between them. The Chunin Exams should have been the start of the bond they’d build, one that would tragically fall apart due to Sasuke’s need for revenge. But their relationship development stops there, and the Sasuke Retrieval arc tries to cash in on a payoff it hasn’t earned. It’s hard to care when Sakura begs Sasuke not to leave because they barely have a relationship. And Naruto and Sasuke aren’t much better. Naruto barely understands Sasuke or his reasoning, so his appeals to bring him back ring hollow. Five arcs in and Naruto still barely really knows him. It’s telling that this is where Kishimoto starts inserting in more flashbacks to reveal the two did in fact interact more often as kids. Like the story knows this moment is happening to soon, and has to frantically back fill to convince us that these two are in fact best friends.

But, earned or not, the fight concludes, Sasuke elects to spare Naruto, wanting to remain a better person than his brother even as he takes revenge on him. A nice moment that tells us Sasuke has a moral compass even as he goes rogue, and even if I feel the manga hasn’t earned the idea that Naruto is his closest friend, the significance of Sasuke not wanting to kill him, despite all that bravado, isn’t lost on me.

And so, we move into Part Two, and at this stage, I’m mostly fine with Sasuke’s plotline. His post-timeskip reintroduction and subsequent heel-turn from Orochimaru, refusing to condone the latter’s actions any longer, sets him as a rogue element, unaligned but with his own ethics. And it builds to the genuinely excellent confrontation with Itachi. Unfortunately that problem of Team 7’s underdeveloped relationship really starts to become an issue here. So much of this part of the story is filled with Naruto and Sakura insisting that there’s still good in him, that they still love and accept him, defending him to ever other character. Despite the fact that they still barely know what he’s been through, why he’s doing what he’s doing, and only ever got scraps of affection under the only the direst of circumstances when he was around to begin with. But then we get the truth of Itachi’s motivations, the formation of Taka, and Sasuke joining the Akatsuki to take revenge on Konoha.

And the thing is, I actually really like this moment (sort of) and feel Taka Sasuke gets a lot of flack for the wrong reason. His downward spiral is honestly really compelling. Watching him break his ‘No kill’ policy and commit more extreme acts to root out the corruption in Konoha is a good watch. A lot of people focus on his motives ‘not making sense’. But considering the ideas at play in Sasuke’s story, that revenge is a dark path that will never satisfy you, or how loneliness and trauma from a young age could twist someone’s way of thinking, I honestly believe, from a motivations aspect, this is fine. Sasuke got his revenge, but it proved unsatisfying, and after chasing this for years, it feels hollow. So the second he has someone new to blame, something to fill the void, he’s off on the warpath. Sasuke has lived only for revenge, he needed it to give him purpose. It sets Sasuke up to learn that no amount of revenge will ever undo what he went through. Hell, I could even see a ballsier version of Naruto that, instead of going for a simple but effective ‘revenge bad’ plot, accepted that Sasuke kind of has a point, and that Konoha as an institution is kind of vile, like all the ninja villages. Even by the time we get to the Five Kage Summit, while his actions are deplorable, you can still see how his desire to punish the world for making his life hell, his need to find someone to blame and punish for his suffering, are all driving his actions. I like how he keeps looking for someone to blame and continues to finding that revenge unsatisfying, even when facing someone who pretty clearly deserves it. Yes, it avenges the horrific genocide of the Uchiha, but it doesn’t bring back everything Sasuke lost, or bring him peace. All it ends up doing is taking a greater toll on his psyche and I think it’s very well done.

Here’s my gripe with it though. Instead of doing anything interesting with those ideas of revenge, or questioning if maybe Konoha does deserve justice for the atrocities it’s complicit in, the discussion in the text around Sasuke’s journey becomes this very trite sentimental hand-wringing. A lot of Naruto and Sakura shouting ‘there’s still good in you! You’re our friend!’ Despite the fact that, as I brought up before, Sasuke’s never really had much of a believable relationship with them. They don’t really work as his moral compass because there was never enough of a connection there for that to work. You can’t hinge so much of Sasuke’s character around his relationships, when he’s so constantly stoic and never really forms much of a dynamic with anyone because he’s so utterly devoted to his mission. It’s empty. And it takes focus away from the things that actually do make Sasuke interesting. So much of the drama of Sasuke’s character comes from the fact that he’s alone. That his struggle with trauma and single minded fixation on his mission prevents him from making any connections, in stark contrasts to Naruto, who learns and grows alongside everyone he meets. The problem is that the manga still tries to extract drama from Sasuke’s relationships without putting the time in to earn them.

The story spends a lot of time telling, rather than showing us, that Sasuke is still redeemable, even as he remains coldly committed to increasingly extreme acts of violence. A lot of Naruto and Sakura telling us he still cares, rather than Sasuke showing he still does. By the end, the story is not about Sasuke understanding the pointless cycle of revenge, and making peace with his trauma. It’s about how Naruto and Sakura loved Sasuke hard enough to redeem him. With very little internal reflection or growth on Sasuke’s own part. It turns his arc into a weak ‘I can fix him’ that robs Sasuke of the chance to grow on his own terms.

To me, this is largely an issue of characteristion. Notice how so much of my discussion has been about Sasuke’s backstory, the theoretical beats of his arc, and the ideas around him. I’ve spoken much less about his personally and character traits and therein lies the issue. He doesn’t really have much of one. From Shippuden on, Sasuke largely has two modes, cold stoic focus or violent blood rage. He just doesn’t really have much personality, and that makes it incredibly hard for him to bounce off other characters and form a rapport. And this is especially bad during his interaction with team Hebi/Taka, who are not only incredibly flat and underused characters, but who have absolutely no chemistry with Sasuke at a point where he is carrying the story for large periods of screentime. I don’t really believe his relationships with other characters, and the moral event horizon of him betraying them. The Five Kage Summit arc frames what he does to Karin in particular as a shocking betrayal that shows how low he’s sunk. But…why? When did he ever give a shit about Karin? When did they have any kind of relationship that would make this betrayal particularly shocking or tragic? Before, the manga was willing to let Sasuke be scared, petulant, expressive, in a word, a child. Now, there is an expectation that Sasuke needs to be cool. So the story is utterly scared to let him emote beyond his character trope. And this unfortunately comes at a point where we really need to be able to empathise with Sasuke. We need to understand his conflict and inner turmoil over his actions to know that there’s still good in him. We need to know that he still cares for his old teammates beyond a token ‘I didn’t kill them that one time’.

It results in an emotional core that feels painfully one sided. Naruto’s love for Sasuke comes across far more like an expression of loneliness, and a desire to hold onto one of the first people he built any attachment to, rather than this bond being uniquely deep. All for a person who barely seems to even like Naruto, because they were wrenched apart before the story could organically develop their relationship. As a gay man who has a lot of Thoughts TM, about the underlying homoeroticism of Shounen rivalries (and how it intersects with the misogyny in the genre and lack of development of female characters, including love interests) it frustrates me that one of the most famous and most widely-shipped rivalries in the genre feels so flaccid. Because one side of this duo is so routinely given the bare minimum of stoic, flat characterisation, while the main protagonist spends far more time building organic, compelling friendships and relationships with other characters than his supposed ‘best friend’. Hell, if you view their relationship through a romantic lens, I actually think it becomes even worse. To prove that, I need only look at his ‘romance’ with Sakura, where you can basically take all my points about how one sided and forced Naruto and Sasuke’s bond is, and multiply it by 10. In some ways, it’s worse with Naruto because it’s so much more important to the story. Sakura’s fixation on Sasuke just amounts to a poorly written romance. It’s bad, but it doesn’t really have much narrative impact, frankly. But Naruto’s bond with Sasuke is the emotional core of the entire manga. If that doesn’t work, (and in my opinion, it doesn’t) then the entire story collapses.

There are those who argue that the series would have committed to making these two and item if they’d been different genders, and there’s a whole other discussion about how shitty it is that many Shounen manga still shy from making queer relationships their emotional core despite revolving so much around the bonds between male characters. But I still believe that if Sasuke or Sasuke had been written as female character, Naruto would either have been seen by fans as a simp to a creepy extent or there would have been even more criticism of how weird and abusive this dynamic comes off as, and how much it feels like Naruto is expected to ‘fix’ Sasuke, in a way that hurts both their character development.

This really comes to a head in the Five Kage Summit where the drama between these three feels more painfully forced than ever. On paper, I like the idea of watching Naruto and Sakura deal with difficult internal conflict over their feelings for Sasuke and what he’s done. I just wish their relationships with Sasuke weren’t so underdeveloped so that these scenes felt earned. We’re still not given enough time in Sasuke’s head for me to ever really buy that he grew to care for them, and still does. His interactions with every other character are so incredibly sterile. I think the reason people talk about Naruto over reacting or being irrational when it comes to Sasuke is because the story didn’t do a good enough job getting folks invested in their ‘bond’. Many readers/viewers walk away thinking Sasuke’s just not worth it and that Naruto and Sakura both deserve better.

While we saw enough to understand Sasuke core motivations , we needed more insight into his headspace and his conflicted feelings across the story. That moment in chapter 699 is one of the only times we really get to go behind the stoic exterior and see clearly what he’s really thinking. It injects some much needed humanity into him, and makes him feel more like a person, rather than an archetypal shorthand to build themes around. If more of that was spread across the story, I think his redemption would be more believable. As it stands, the moment where he reveals he cared about Naruto all along, feels like a last minute plot twist. Because his headspace was constantly kept at arm’s length from the reader, and it was barely reflected in the calculated stoicism or ultra crazy face that are Sasuke’s only two emotions at this point in the manga.

This storyline could have been a deeper insight into Sasuke’s inner world. Allowing us more into his perspective and headspace to watch him accept that, ultimately, he’s just trying to fill a void that’s been there ever since he lost everything. It could, alternatively, have been more of an ethical quandary that pointed out that Sasuke, who is the last survivor of a literal genocide, actually has every reason to demand justice. Exploring how to fix a broken, bloodstained system. What we got was a direct appeal to sentimentality, hinging Sasuke’s character and sympathy on his relationships, which were always ill defined at best.

Sasuke’s story was good on paper. I think he works really well as a commentary on the unhealthy effects of holding kids up as gifted, the dangers of isolating yourself, the effects trauma can have on a young mind and the unsatisfying and bloody cycle of revenge. The beats and ideas are all there, but was let down by flat characterisation and his redemption was yet another casualty of the messy ending. I have little interest in hand-wringing fan discourse about whether Sasuke is a war criminal, or how much his trauma excuses his actions. This is an idealistic story about forgiveness, brotherhood and breaking cycles of violence. It was inevitably going to end this way, and it would have been tonally bizarre if it hadn’t. The question is whether it builds believable relationships to tell that story, and I don’t think it does. Even as a case study in queer-coded rivalries, Sasuke feels underwhelming. Not only do I think there are more believably queer rivalries in Shounen manga, I think there are better ones in Naruto itself (shout out to Madara and Hashirama who, as intentional parallels to Naruto and Sasuke, end up exploring many of the same themes better AND with more convincing homoeroticism).

Maybe this would have worked if Part One was longer and Team Seven had more time together. Maybe it would have worked if Sasuke had more consistent opportunities for an internal monologue and more opportunities to express his internal conflict. Maybe if the manga was more willing to go further with the flaws of Konoha as a system, we could have taken Sasuke’s character in a more compelling, less trite direction. But what we got was ultimately a let down. One that leaves Naruto as a series with an unfortunately weak emotional core.

[watermelonsloth]

Ino Should’ve Been on the Sasuke Retrieval Mission, Not Neji

I realized something and if I don't say it, it’s gonna bother me.

In part 1, pretty much every member of the Konoha 12 can be split into two categories: those who take their jobs seriously and those who don’t. The first group are the characters with something to lose or, more often, prove who tend to be more skilled than their peers. It includes Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Rock Lee, Hinata, and seemingly Shino (although we don’t know enough about him or his motives for me to say this with full confidence). The second group either has superficial or no known reason to have become ninja and for a variety of reasons don’t really take their jobs, training, or (in some cases) even winning or losing seriously. It includes Sakura, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, and Kiba. The only one I didn’t place was TenTen because she doesn’t have enough of a presence for me to know which she falls under.

Along with the part 1 finale, the Sasuke Retrieval Arc also serves as a wake up call for the team of genin. The entire series was a slow burn of information about how unfair and dangerous the shinobi world is—bell test set up KIA’d shinobi and that everything was not as it seemed, land of waves set up shinobi being used as tools and team 7 realizing their personal priorities, chunin exams introduced that there were much bigger fish and how cruel the shinobi world is, and the search for Tsunade arc displayed what could become of the shinobi who grew up in this system—that built to the Sasuke retrieval mission being the wake up call that not only did they need to get serious, they needed to get serious now. I could write a whole essay on this arc and what it represents, but I’ll leave it at this: the Sasuke retrieval mission made Naruto realize that he didn’t understand Sasuke nearly as much as he thought he did and the rest of his team (-the backup) realize that if they didn’t start taking their job seriously, they’d get themselves or their friends killed.

Or… almost the rest of his team. Neji doesn’t actually fall into this category. As I already said, he already took his job seriously and he was already very aware about what happened to the powerless. I’d be more forgiving if it helped move his personal arc along more or at least did something else for his character, but it doesn’t. It’s just extra screen time. And as much as I like Neji, he really didn’t need to be a part of this arc (or at least not such a large part).

You know who did? Ino. She never actually got an “oh crap, my priorities out of whack” moment. She doesn’t take her job seriously during the chunin exams, she doesn’t really show up again until the very end of part 1 for a scene here and there, then we don’t see her ‘til shippuden where she’s suddenly taking her job seriously. Maybe you could argue that Choji nearly dying was her wake up call, but it would be a pretty flimsy one considering the only reaction she has is calm relief after finding out he’s okay. Everyone else got their wake up call—Sakura during her iconic forest of death scene and the boys during this arc—but she didn’t.

Now, as you might’ve guessed from the title, I think the most obvious solution to this problem is the best. By swapping them out, Neji isn’t acting as a noticeably unnecessary inclusion and Ino gets a proper moment of character growth (and badassery). As bonus points: I think Ino would have a more interesting dynamic with the rest of the team, Ino would have more emotional stakes in the mission through knowing Sasuke and Choji sacrificing himself prior to her fight, the audience could potentially get some actual insight into why Ino (and the other girls) like Sasuke so much, and both of Shikamaru’s teammates nearly dying on the first mission he led would be even more of a swift gut punch for him. Ino should’ve been on the Sasuke retrieval mission, not Neji.

[happypanda101]

Soooo Naruto AU idea!

I’m dubbing it the pink toad AU

An AU in which instead of training under Tsunade, Sakura alongside Naruto becomes a stundent of Jiraya!

It’s a little influenced by @hellcifrogs and @orangelemonart ‘s Sannin Swap AU’s so please go check them out! They’re absolutely amazing!

This AU is still a work in progress, ideas are noted under the cut :)

- Everything canonly stays the same until the Search For Tsunade arc

- Instead of staying behind, Sakura insists on coming along to help find the female sannin

- To no ones suprised, she thinks Jiraya is werid at first lol

- Her and Tsunade 100% get off on the wrong foot. Sakura see’s Tsuna as a bitter, heartless alcoholic while Tsunade see’s Sakura as a spineless naive little girl

- Insert scene where Sakura yells at Tsunade about dreams and how she’s never gonna give up, not matter how weak, dumb or useless say she is

- That all changes however in the fight against Orochimaru and Kabuto. Sakura is understandably reluctant to go help becasue she’s still traumatized by what happened during the chunin exams. However she does set some traps and causes distractions in an effort to help. Though, it’s not until she see’s Orochimaru going for Naruto that she jumps in the way, similar to how she got in front of Sasuke

- Reacting in anger instead of fear, she just manages to get a good hit on the sannin. Orochimaru is impressed, but nonetheless like the ass he is, he slashes her with the blade, getting her in the face and throws her out of the way. The swipe thankfully misses her eyes, but it leaves a nasty scar, and the way she’s thrown causes her to split her lip

- Everything else goes the same, with Tsunade feeling even more determined by the two kids who gave her hope again, Shizune is tasked with taking care of both Naruto and Sakura, and after the second fight with Tsuna and Naruto they return to the village

- Sakura feels really insecure about her new scars, and is reluctant to let anyone see her as she’s ashamed and embarrassed. However, Jiraya is there to encourage and comfort her by telling her “there’s nothing more beautiful than a person that protects the people they care for.” This helps their awkward to relationship turn more sweet and friendly.

- Sakura’s admittedly wary and a little scared of Sasuke becasue all she can see is darkness in his eyes, they remind her too much of the eyes of Orochimaru. Therefore, she isn’t there to try and stop him when he leaves the village

- She however feels guilty and is very insistent on coming along for the Sasuke retrieval mission (still deciding who she helps fight against)

- After everything fails, she walks in on Naruto and Jiraya’s conversation and begs to come with them

- Tenten becomes Tsuande’s student instead and becomes a badass weaponist healer

- Sakura might still be a healer in this AU? She learned a few things from Tsuande, but she possibly learned more abilities while training with the toads

- Possible SakuTen? I like that ship

And that’s everything for now! Let me know your thoughts :)

[roseangel19]

I hope my answer to your Orochimaru/Tsunade question suffices.

It did. It also made a lot of sense when you started listing off the chain reaction of events where Naruto is left alive and the Akatsuki try to capture him. My question came came from a line from the dub actually, not from any translation in the manga but I do appreciate the time and effort you put into this response as well as your analysis on Orochimaru and his motivations because they seemed to be all over the place. He’s my favorite antagonist of the series.

I’m sorry this post took away your Saturday evening, so here’s some head pats!

Here’s some head pats for @every-orochimaru too

Thank you both