Naruto 437: Here is my wish for canon, yo. With up so floating many bells down.

[timepiececlock]

Some of my flist is talking about this chapter, as something pretty significant happened.

I've got a more explicit reaction to Hinata's death scene here in reply to mildmay, but I got into a tangent discussion about ships on redbrunja's journal, and I reposted it below. NaruHina's never really done it for me. It's always felt so unrequited. Plus, I didn't even *like* Hinata that much until the time-jump.

But now...lately I've been reassessing Hinata and while I'm still bored by her "type" of character, I did cheer for her this chapter.

And I'm kind of feeling...like I don't want Hinata to be with anyone. Or at least not anyone in canon, not until she's a hot 22 year old or something. I want her personal growth arc to go full circle: as part of loving and learning from her idol, she outgrows her infatuation with Naruto and eventually lets go of that pain as well.


After everything that happens, after Pein and the way it almost all ended, after the Great War and the four years of peace that followed, Hinata looks back fondly on her first love, and she knows she will always think of Naruto with affection. They fight in more battles together and at a crazy drunken birthday party she kisses him--then she laughs, and he laughs, and she hugs him and tells him, "You're my f-favorite, just w-wanted you to know."

When the village of Rain falls to civil war they fight side by side to maintain the security of Fire Country's borders. One bloody morning Hinata sees the sword before he does, and if she hadn't grabbed his utility belt to pull him into the mud Naruto would've been a head shorter and never lived to accept the Hokage robes from an eagerly abdicating Kakashi.

Years pass; they change bit by bit (and down they forgot as up they grew). She sends him holiday cards and invites his family to eat with hers in the home she built across the city from the Hyuuga complex, where she has a husband she loves not because he's perfect or because he's everything she wishes she could be-- instead he's good and he fits and they're happy because around him she already is what she wants to be, as effortlessly as breathing. Her children laugh while they bicker over who has the best aim, and who is Uncle Hokage's favorite, and none of them, none of them wear a mark.

Comments

[gojira007.livejournal.com]

So I checked your comment over at mildmay's journal. It gave me pause, mainly because while I totally understood what you meant about Hinata's character type, it's never been a bother to me at all, at least not with Hinata specifically. Not because I don't recognize your complaint, either, that's totally valid.

But I think one of the things about Hinata that's always registered so strongly with me is that I knew a girl in High School more or less just like her: she clearly had talent, but she was also very shy and scared because of what the world was telling her she was or had to be. I watched her really grow out of that shell over the course of my three years as her classmate.

So when I started really getting into "Naruto", Hinata's character just jumped out and grabbed me. I wanted to see for her what I saw for that classmate, that wonderful talented person clearly hiding under the surface coming out and kicking the asses of every jerk who ever tried to tell her she couldn't be better or wasn't worth anyone's time. It's really rare I encounter a character who so strongly reminds me of someone I actually knew and liked, right down to the last detail, but Hinata did, and that believability and likeability really helped put me in her corner.

I realize, of course, that Mr. Kishimoto may not necessarily have had the same experience as me, and so his choices for this character were likely informed by a very different mentality. I also won't deny the underlying sexism of a female character whose sense of self-worth seems pretty dependent on a male character. But for all that that's true, Hinata's character just registers with me in a way pretty much no one else in "Naruto" or in any other Manga does.

There is indeed an extent to which my inner NaruHina fan wants them to hook up because Hinata so clearly likes him, and while Naruto's one of my favorite characters too, her happiness within the story means a lot to me from the perspective of a Fan. But I think it's also that, at least for me, they're just good for each other. Naruto strengthens Hinata's confidence, makes her believe in herself, while she in turn has inspired and strengthened him (and no, I'm not talking about his latest Kyuubi freak-out). I know, of course, that Naruto acts a little creeped out by her in Part I, but when she tells him she really believes in him shortly before his fight with Neji, it's clear it means a lot to him.

Also, that canon-extrapolation you mention sounds like my ideal ending. :3