Naruto #98

[timepiececlock]

Oh my poor, poor, Naruto... you save Sakura from Gaara directly, you save the village from Gaara indirectly, you beat everyone else in the chunnin finals, you save future Hokage, you earn apprenticeship from one of the greatest teachers alive, you stand up to the traitor, and you bring back with you someone who will heal your friends and your teacher.

You bring her the world.

And Sakura still doesn't even see you in the room.

My poor, poor Naruto. ::hugs baby-ninja fiercly:: It will be okay. It will be okay.

Comments

Re: Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke 4-ev-a!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I had this great long reply but my comp restarted in the middle of it.

I'll try the bits that I remember:

I think Naruto *is* more mature than both of them at the moment... and definitely more stable than Sasuke. I love how much Naruto has matured since becoming a genin... and how fast and harsh it's been. His academy teacher taught him not to trust adults to behave like they should (even though he was ostracized and didn't *like* a lot of adults he still had the kid belief that the adults around him would do the right thing and he could trust in them.) Haku and Gaara taught him a lot about himself... but they reinforced the black hat vs. white hat rule, as did the Third's noble death. Now Tsunade has tempered Naruto's naive belief the sacredness of the Hokage title (he still believes in what it stands for, but he knows now that the Hokage is only human, not perfect or entirely noble). And it's Kabuto that's broken his naive beliefe in the sacredness of the village. Here is somebody who willfully, for no real reason Naruto can see, betrayed the community that Naruto believes in and wants so badly. By taking Naruto along, Jeraiya has introduced a lot of Grey Area Adults to Naruto's little verse.

I'm wary about them finding out about the fox demon because you can just bet that unlike Kakashi and Jeraiya, most of the kids will assume that Naruto is strong because of that reason, and they won't realize that Naruto has called on the demon only like 5 or 6 times in his LIFE, and that 98% of the time the power and endurance is his, not the fox demon's. Sasuke's probably shrewd enough to realize it, but I doubt Sakura has paid enough attention to how Naruto fights to know the difference, much less the other young teams.

And because while they have grown up so much, they are such a loooong way from being grown up that the series can obviously continue for a Very Long Time, and as a girl who Kills Her Fandoms, this makes me Very, Very Happy.

It makes me very very happy too. I would continue with this for a long, long time.

Has there been in the manga anything to describe when Naruto first started liking Sakura? We saw through the Ino flashbacks during the exams that Sakura was in elementry school when she met and started to like Sasuke.