#my ship is sakura/being loved and supported by his friends community AND enemies

[emilyliuwho]

go for it, sakura!

[tekka-dan]

Do you think Naruto and Sasuke would be a good couple if Naruto apologized to him for being selfish (not for the sake of ending the series with romance, but in general)? If Naruto stopped defending Konoha and went travelling with him? Because I would love them together if that happened. Also, do you think Naruto was redeemable (before Boruto)?

Honestly, this was one of my favorite questions. I have to answer all of these the long way, so I genuinely hope you don’t mind that, anonymous. 

Do I think Naruto and Sasuke would be a good couple if Naruto apologized to Sasuke for being selfish?

Yes. Absolutely. 

I want to make clear that I don’t ship them [romantically] but I fully support / acknowledge the development between them that could’ve been [seen as] romantic.

I think the result of this would make Naruto a two dimensional character.

So what exactly should he apologize for?

Naruto needs to apologize to Sasuke for being inconsiderate about bringing him back to the village. 

How should Naruto word his apology [that’ll make it genuine while still in character]?

 “[Sasuke..] I..see now that I never understood you at all. To think that all this time I thought of the village as [our] home, but to you it was a graveyard. You carried around this anger, this hatred, this agony..alone, you had to bear the weight of all that pain for this long. [Sasuke..] I may not understand what you went through, but I now understand why you deflected the village. I understand, Sasuke, that your pain couldn’t be resolved by simply returning to the village..and I’m so sorry..that you had to face all of this alone. I’m so sorry that I could do nothing..not even shoulder any of this pain for you..so you wouldn’t have to suffer alone..”

Notice that he doesn’t victimize or invalidate Sasuke either, he admits his faults and misunderstandings. 

How would [in character] Sasuke respond?

I highly doubt Sasuke would [verbally] respond, being as it’s not a side of Naruto he has ever seen before. He knows Naruto as a loud mouthed knuckle head that constantly boasts about himself. This would put Sasuke in a position to realize that Naruto is not the same person he once knew and in this context that is actually a good thing.

How would that [apology] affect their relationship / dynamic?

Relationship - In total honesty, I don’t see much changing about them as individuals being in a [romantic] relationship; Sasuke would still have the trauma of his childhood and the trust issues deeply embedded and Naruto although showing a genuine side outside of his own morals/perspective, I still see having a lot to learn and having unyielding patience would be key with Sasuke.

Dynamic - As a team, I think the most it would impact is their communication. Naruto understanding the trauma Sasuke faced as a child would entice him to likely want to learn about Sasuke’s past. It would be easier for Sasuke to speak about his family / clan without lingering animosity or misunderstandings. I say that because before the apology it’s clear that Sasuke keeps a thick line between sharing information regarding his family and others. We can widdle it down to [only] trust issues, but I’ve always assumed it’s because Naruto simply doesn’t understand familial bonds so Sasuke never brings them up. With the apology though, I see Sasuke slowly opening up about his family over time. It’s not much, but it’s something and that’s significant in their dynamic. 

How do you feel about Naruto traveling with Sasuke?

There’s no beating about the bush with this answer in all honesty; I wholeheartedly support these two going on adventures together. 

Why it would be a damn good idea:

Through Naruto / Naruto Shippuden, we only ever see Naruto as the “righteous” mighty character and everyone that was “against” Konoha / Their Shinobi System were seen as enemies. Naruto views the Konoha village in such high regards that we as the viewer have no other option but to view it that way as well. However, like the average intelligent viewers that we are, we see every single fault Konoha Village has. Naruto seeing this for himself, from an outside perspective, would be unintentionally hilarious and embarrassing. 

1.) Naruto that would learn the most about the world and other villages. Sasuke already understands, that’s why he vowed to change the system because he saw civilization outside of Konoha. 

2.) It would be an interesting character arc for both of them, because you’d see over time how it affects them mentally and emotionally.

3.) Seeing Naruto and Sasuke learning the ways of different villages would be crucial and critical for both world building and story progression.

*(off topic but I need to do some comparison here)*

In The Legend of Sinbad (the Magi series) Sinbad travels between various nations and islands. On those journeys he encounters many different people of many different backgrounds and beliefs. Sinbad adapts to all of these different characters backgrounds as well as respects them. In turn for learning the way THEY do things, he’s able to mold/build his own civilization by learning the customs of those he surrounds himself with.

That’s why I believe not only would this benefit the story, but it would benefit Naruto as a character. His entire moral code is based around helping others, he should start by gathering information on the outside villages and learning their shinobi systems.

Naruto’s core philosophy throughout the story is to achieve world peace once he becomes the Hokage. There’s nothing wrong with this unless you consider the fact that Naruto has only ever lived within his own village and knows only three of the five great nations, and they are only places he’s been to/heard about.

So although this would be enlightening for both characters, it would be the most beneficial for Naruto.

Do I think Naruto was redeemable [before Boruto]?

Short answer: Yes, I believe Naruto was redeemable. Only up to the beginning of the War Arc.

However, here’s why:

Naruto’s character suffered major, catastrophic writing flaws towards the middle of the War Arc. Things went south quick once the whole God powers were introduced and aliens who were ninjas and—you catch my drift, I hope.

So before all of that, I’d like to consider Naruto was a plausibly decent written character. Putting aside all the writing hiccups and disregarding his selfishness, he was definitely a character that could’ve had a more fitting end/better justification for what he became in Boruto. 

In defense of his characterization [throughout original and shippuden] his relationships with people is what carried the series for as long as it went on. 

He was able to turn serial killer Gaara into everyone’s friendly neighborhood goth. He was able to bring Shikamaru out of his own shadow and became unbelievable great friends with him seemingly out of nowhere to be honest (seriously, did anybody ever see them interact nearly at all until Boruto? Anyone?) He was able to understand Killer Bee even though practically no one else could.

 He was able to do so many things but it comes down to the bonds, ties and friendships that he made along his journey that makes up for some of the outright immature behavior he has. 

However in Boruto his character sinks so far into The Sunken Place that I don’t even consider them to be the same character anymore. He’s long gone and I know he represents the “adult” in all of us, I find it hard to believe the guy that nearly had a heart attack over learning Sasuke was sought after to be killed, cried over the carcass of Gaara, swam through the memories of Obito and was able to defeat Nagato Uzumaki with talk-no-jutsu, wouldn’t understand the importance of family or maintaining bonds.

He never interacts with Sakura and they established a well developed friendship long before Boruto.

For someone who cried over Gaara, we never see them interacting once Shippuden ends.

At one point or another he at least spoke to Lee and now they don’t talk at all.

He was able to help Sai understand bonds and the two of them are seen together once and that’s about it.

Is it possible to redeem Naruto after the Boruto series?

No. Naruto cannot be redeemed after Boruto is because he’s an entirely different character with different objectives. To redeem Naruto in the Boruto series it would only be a fair comparison to exclude him from the original series. There is no excuse for him, Hokage or not, he’s simply not the same.

[panjiku]

The OTP Game

Pick your 10 top OTPs without reading the questions: 1.  Mimato (Yamato Ishida × Mimi Tachikawa — Digimon Adventure) 2.  Clerith (Cloud Strife × Aerith Gainsborough — Final Fantasy VII) 3.  Zutara (Zuko × Katara — Avatar: The Last Airbender) 4.  VaniHopu (Hope Estheim × Oerba dia Vanille — Final Fantasy XIII) 5.  LuluShir (Lelouch Lamperouge × Shirley Fenette — Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch) 6.  KAIMiku (KAITO × Miku Hatsune — Vocaloid) 7.  MaouEmi (Sadao Maou × Emi Yusa — Hataraku Maou-sama!) 8.  MikoChiyo (Mikoto Mikoshiba × Chiyo Sakura — Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun) 9.  Lancaster (Jaune Arc × Ruby Rose — RWBY) 10. SasuSaku (Sasuke Uchiha × Sakura Haruno — Naruto)

Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6 (KAIMiku)? In 2011 I got curious about wtf Hatsune Miku was and watched World is Mine then Another: World is Mine and it all went downhill from there :’D

Have you ever read a FanFiction about 2 (Clerith)? Yeah, but I haven’t read any in a VERY long time. I think the last FF I read for them was somewhere between 2002 and 2005, ahaha.

Has a picture of 4 (VaniHopu) ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr? No, actually.

If 7 (MaouEmi) were to suddenly break-up today, what would your reaction be? *SOBS GROSSLY*

Why is 1 (Mimato) so important? Mimato was the first fandom I ever truly was a part of when I was a teenager and then got back into when I picked up drawing again in my 20s. I made an LJ community (yamatoxmimi) and was friends with a lot of FFN writers back in it’s heyday; I keep in touch with a few oldfarts of the fandom. And it’s amazing that such a crack ship has so many supporters even to this day :> In their respective world though they’re 1/4 of the Chosen Children. As a pairing, they’re not important towards the story at all considering they only interact once in the series, bahaha... *cries softly*

Is 9 (Lancaster) a funny ship or a serious ship? More of a funny ship though they have their serious moments.

Out of all of the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry? Ahhh, it’s so hard to choose?! I’m going to say Zutara. They went from bitter enemies to trusting each other, a betrayal and then earning that trust back to eventually becoming a power duo. They’ve both had similar life experiences that they’ve bonded over and the tension between them urrghh. And they just work so well together. I’ll be honest though, Clerith probably has the best chemistry, especially since they pretty much were attracted to each other on their first meeting. But instead of having this entire post be about Clerith, I figure I’d talk about another pair, hahaha.

Out of all of your ships listed, which ship has the strongest bond? CLERITH, fosho. Their love transcends death *cries* Aerith’s presence lives on in Cloud and helps him even in the Lifestream; they’re connected to each other spiritually. Though literally SasuSaku has the strongest bond. I mean Naruto as a whole is about bonds, especially within Team 7, hehe. Y’know maybe I should switch my answers for this with the last one, lmao.

How many times have you read/watched 10’s (SasuSaku) fandom? Hoo boy, going through all of Naruto is a job, but I think I’ve re-read part 1 of the manga like 2-3 times while it was still in syndication. I dropped it a little bit into part 2 then picked it back up near the end and I don’t follow Boruto at all, but I did read the Sarada side-story after the original manga ended. I’ve watched all of Naruto’s original anime once, but only about 5 episodes of Shippuden.

Which ship has lasted the longest? In real life? Clerith. In universe? SasuSaku.

How many times, if ever, has 6 (KAIMiku) broken up? Hard to say since I don’t know all of their songs. Also depends on which version of a certain song you consider your canon (i.e. From Y to Y). But that’s the beauty of Vocaloid: you can use the characters as you see fit :>

If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 (Clerith) or 8 (MikoChiyo)? LMAOO, Clerith, hands-down. I can’t even imagine Mikorin and Chiyo in a zombie situation unless it was one of Nozaki’s manga ideas xD

Did 7 (MaouEmi) ever have to hide their relationship for any reason? Yeah, as individuals they do. Emi as the Hero Emilia Justina and Maou as Demon Lord Satan. And it’s very strongly hinted that Emi harbors feelings for Maou which she denies/hides. I’d imagine if they got together they might try to hide their relationship for awhile if they were to ever return to Ente Isla but we’ll just have to wait and see since HataMaou isn’t over yet :)

Is 4 (VaniHopu) still together? QAQ noo… They’re doomeddestined to be star-crossed lovers till the end of time. In fact the last time they were together were in the original FFXIII ;^;

Is 10 (SasuSaku) canon? *flails and cheers* It’s the only pairing on my list that’s outright confirmed and shown being canon. And it still feels so good after 15+ years of shipping it.

If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win? HMMM. About half of my list is power couples so this is a toughy. BUT I think LuluShir would, if only because Lelouch would use his geass to come out on top, lmao. Though thinking about eye powers now, SasuSaku might because of Sasuke’s Rinnegan. Definitely a tough choice between those two pairs; depends on whose eye would trump the other :D

Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s (LuluShir) ship? Beeeeesiiiiides the other Lulu ships…? *shields* Not really sabotage, but C.C. said it was a bad idea for Lelouch to get involved with Shirley if he wanted to pursue his dream (please excuse is this is wrong, it’s been so long since I’ve watched Code Geass. Definitely need to do a rewatch soon esp with the upcoming third season). And… oh… well, I guess Rolo >_> *cough*

Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond? Alllllll of theeeeeem~ But my OTP of all OTPs will always be Clerith, so them first and foremost.

Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s (Zutara) tumblr page? Not at all until very recently (like since a week ago). It was always a ship I idly supported until I got back into ATLA again, and now I’m hopeless :’D

If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all forever, which ship would you sink? I… well, most of them are impossible or separated somehow anyway… but… M-Mi…mato…? Because it’s utter crack and they only interacted on-screen once (thanks to tri) so nothing would change anyway ;-; I was going to suggest MikoChiyo, but at least they have their canon friendship (which is BEAUTIFUL btw) so I gotsta pick the obv pair that has no chemistry except in fanon.