#as much as Konoha may have otracized her she was still safer in that village than outside

[nothingtherefornow]

It was so heartbreaking to learn that Kushina's freedom was actually so restrained because of her statut as Kyubi's jinchuriki, and that at any point she could actually had been sent to the battlefield to fight the others villages jinchuriki during the third shinobi war.

For all I criticize a lot of Hiruzen Sarutobi's decisions as Hokage, at the very least he seems to have ensured that Naruto wouldn't suffer from the same lack of freedom that his mother went through, even though we could argue that Naruo suffered in a metaphoric cage of loneliness and otracization.

But I also beleive there's others reasons why Konoha restrained Kushina's moves but not her son's, other than Konoha's lack of faith in Kushina's allegiance to the village, while they beleived that Naruto's loyalty would be more easily manipulated into being loyal to the village.

First if we are to believe the few flashbacks of Kushina's days as a genin and at the academy, even though she most probably already became Kurama's jinchuriki when she entered the academy or when she became a genin, Kushina doesn't seem to have been as heavily monitored or as much restricted in her movements by Konoha as it is the case in the Minato manga when she is much older.

I believe this is because the events of Minato manga take place during the 3rd great Shinobi, in a context when it is even more crucial for Konoha to ensure that their only Jinchuriki is secure and within their reach so they can use her as their trump card if they end up owerwhelmed by the power of Kumo and Iwa's own jinchurikis. It doesn't help that Kushina almost got kidnapped by Kumo when she was younger, and had it not been for Minato who was the only one to have found Kushina's trail, Konoha would have lost their unique Uzumaki and Jinchuriki. I wouldn't be surprised if that kidnapping attempt had gotten Konoha paranoid enough to restrict Kushina to an area in the village in order to ensure that she wouldn't be kidnapped a second time as easilly as it happened the first time.

Between Naruto's childhood and Shippuden, despite the political tensions there was no war, and the face and name of Konoha's new jinchuriki wasn't known by the other nations yet, and the elders of Konoha thus may not have felt the need to watch over Naruto 24h/24h or restrict his movements for his safety.

But When the Akatsuki started their hunt for the jinchurikis, Konoha's elders wanted to keep Naruto's within the Village walls and not let him leave Konoha, thinking that this would lessen Akatsuki's chances to capture him. Tsunade only convinced them otherwise because staying in his own village certainly didn't save Gaara from being captured by the Akatsuki.

And during the 4th Shinobi war, the shinobi alliance tried to keep Naruto and Killer Bee in the Turtle Island with the intention of protecting them from capture, and immediately tried to stop Naruto from leaving at the first attempt.

Another reason that might explain why Kushina's freedom was heavily restricted but not Naruto's, is that had Konoha indeed been wary of Kushina because she was an outsider, they must also have feared Kushina's capacitie not just as a the jinchuriki of the most powerfull tailed beast, but also as a full-blooded Uzumaki. While Kushina admitted that she struggled in the academy, she was confirmed to have been prominent and great enough at Fujinjutsu that she even taught Minato, who was already a genius in this field in his own right. And their manga also showed us that Kushina had a full control over her adamantine chains, which are a very overpowered bloodline technique.

And we all know that the Uzumaki and their village were wiped out by Kumo, Iwa and Kiri out of fear, so Konoha would also have been aware of how dangerous an Uzumaki like Kushina can be.

It would make sense if Konoha may have started to see Kushina as a potential threat to be contained on top of her being their secret weapon once Kushina reached adulthood.

But Naruto ? Between his little childhood and the time he became a genin, he was always labelled as a failure and a deadlast by everyone. So his lack of any talent and proficiency that he could have inherited from his parents and from his Uzumaki lineage may have been what convinced Konoha to let him run free in the village. They just couldn't see him as the same potential threat that his mother may have once been to them .

Ironically, Naruto being considered a loser and a failure as a ninja before he proved himself in the chunin exams may have been what saved him from potentially being spotted and weaponized by the likes of Danzo. Even though I still feel upset that Naruto's potential was disreguarded for a long time and that he was immediately labelled as a failure just because the academy teachings couldn't bring out his potential (and I'm sure Naruto also suffered a lot from that), Naruto being so heavily underestimated may have spared him from what his mother went through.

Can you imagine Naruto having to live with the same restrictions that Kushina had before Minato became Hokage ? He would have lost his mind

Minato manga spoilers below cut

This raised a BUNCH of questions for me. It seems like Kushina couldn’t ever really leave this radius without permission from the third Hokage, was she confined to this space her entire life? Which means she never saw Konoha in its entirety.

She was taken from her home country as a little girl (which was destroyed later on), brought to a different one for reasons she was not told and then forced to stay in one area forever?? She wasn’t even able to fully see her new “home”. Konoha made her a prisoner in a sentence. It’s so fucked up

This all begs the question why wasn’t Naruto given the same treatment? Here’s what I think. I think they took these precautions with Kushina because she was an outsider, she had no real allegiance to Konoha which would have made to easier to just leave the village and never return had she wanted.

But bc Naruto was a Konoha citizen that incentive to leave was something to worry about as he would have been easier to control through propaganda and mold into Konoha’s weapon. I hate it here.

If you wanna read it here it is