Romance (and society) in Naruto

[NaruHina-X]

In the interview he stated, he will have at least one unrequited love resolve. He is also hoping along with the SJ interviewers that Hinata gets her chance. Its true Kishi is difficult with romance and he also said he needs to figure out how to go about it.

[nat]

which interview?

[Endros]

*sigh* He never said that Hinata would get her chance. The question was
something along the lines of "We love Hinata. We want to see her get her chance" to which Kishimoto cagily responded "Me too." The answer was there to deliberately confuse and frustrate readers, brilliant btw.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Naruto/Sakura because of the sheer amount of development the characters have had and the fact that they are almost perfect compliments of each other. They each fight for the other and neither will ever give up while the other is still breathing. How cool is that! Historical example: Sacred Band of Thebes (acknowledged these are gay men but it doesn't make the sentiment any less awesome)

Naruto/Hinata lacks any sort of development or change that would make it a satisfying pairing other than "Awww she got the guy she's been chasing".

Sasuke/Sakura doesn't make any sense for a whole slough of reasons. No development, Sasuke is a cold fish, Sakura is most likely remember the one good moment of them alone (actually Naruto in a henge)

Also a big fan of Shikamaru/Temari and Ino/Chouji. S/T simply because those are two are the only ones who can keep up with each other and enough hints have been dropped that as "troublesome" as she is, she like his mother pushes him to grow and be better (refer to the hospital scene). I/C makes sense because she's been harping on his weight since the beginning and this would represent major growth for her.

Don't forget the promise "I will protect (whomever)" is consider a romantic and heavily loaded in Japanese culture. As well as several other tropes that exist in the Naruto/Sakura relationship that are standard issue for Shonen manga. You know, the "abuse", social cluelessness, the food scenes and how they have represented Naruto/Sakura's changing relationship with each other.

As for Romance, in general, in Konoha it looks to be as if there aren't many stable/comitted relationships between shinobi as there don't seem to be many older shinobi. In fact, it seems to be only the most talented of the shinobi make it to their late twenties (Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, etc.) and almost none make it to the Sannin's age and beyond.

[Askia32]

I hate to say this, but this is the sense I'm getting...

I did some back reading to enjoy the good ol' days. I actually discovered some evidence that I've never noticed before supporting NarutoXSakura. But also, I found some more evidence that suppots SasukeXSakura that mainly comes from the childhood of Sakura and Ino.

Another thing that kind of left a bad taste in my mouth about Sakura, is shortly after Naruto found out about Jiraiya's death.

Naruto asked how much longer, and Sakura said "It's impossible to say" and had a really arrogant body posture. Than immediately Tsunade says "It will be a week at the earliest".

Sakura knew how important Jiraiya was to Naruto. And when Naruto is desperetly trying to figure out Jiraiya's dieing message to Naruto, and Peins secret to revenge his master, Sakura is kind of brushing it off like she dosent care.

The flip side is that Sakura might have been scared that Naruto would rush off for revenge as soon as he found out, and was afraid that Naruto would meet the same fate as Jiraiya.

I was also surprised to see that Sakura never even tried to cheer him up, or at least be there for him(unless there was other stuff behind the scenes that we didn't see).

I honestly think that Sakura will grow feelings for him, and she will finally realize it when Hinata expresses her true feelings for Naruto. If its love or admiration, I still don't know. But Sasuke will come back at that time, and Sakura will be really confused about her feelings. Naruto will be the guy that he is and step aside for SasuSaku, and he will tell her something along those lines when they have a moment alone.

This leaves the door open for two people(if no random female ninja's make an entrance from another village), Hinata and Ino. Yes, Ino.

For Hinata to be that one, she needs to realize for herself if she really truly loves him, and she also needs to come out of her shell to be in that position. Also, IMO, she needs to stop serving tea while others are training, and train herself...

With Ino. I also watched some old Naruo episodes along with some fillers(almost shot myself). There was a filler arc that included them two, as well as a couple others, and I really liked there chemistry. I do know anime has no relevance to the manga, but it gave me a glimpse of what can be. I also saw little delicate hints in the manga(but I might just be over thinking it). For a lot of the reasons that I saw NaruSaku would make such a great match, I saw the same, and couple others in a NaruIno relationship.

So for me, if NaruSaku does not pan out, I really am starting to like the NaruIno possibility.

[KnuckleheadedNinja]

^^@Askia32. Naruto=Ino?? I really don't see that happening. As much as i don't see Hinata ending up with Naruto, i think she have a 1000000x better chance of getting with Naruto than Ino does.

Also i agree with this part of your post:

"I honestly think that Sakura will grow feelings for him, and she will finally realize it when Hinata expresses her true feelings for Naruto. If its love or admiration, I still don't know. But Sasuke will come back at that time, and Sakura will be really confused about her feelings. Naruto will be the guy that he is and step aside for SasuSaku, and he will tell her something along those lines when they have a moment alone."

But i don't agree with you conclusion of what will happen after that:

"This leaves the door open for two people(if no random female ninja's make an entrance from another village), Hinata and Ino. Yes, Ino."

I think there will be a moment where Naruto will tell Sakura that he is stepping aside for her and Sasuke to be together. But i think Naruto saying this will make Sakura realize how much Naruto had given and done for her and with this she is going to realize how much she love Naruto. And then she and Naruto will get together and live happily ever after.

[Askia32]

I think there will be a moment where Naruto will tell Sakura that he is stepping aside for her and Sasuke to be together. But i think Naruto saying this will make Sakura realize how much Naruto had given and done for her and with this she is going to realize how much she love Naruto. And then she and Naruto will get together and live happily ever after.

That is actually what I'm hoping for. It would be the perfect ending

[KnuckleheadedNinja]

Maybe Kakashi can hook up with big boob from the cloud Team heading to Konoha. Just a maybe.

[nat]

I was hoping that as well...But then I remembered Anko, Kakashi should end up with her ^^

[nahkampfbiber]

I was hoping that as well...But then I remembered Anko, Kakashi should end up with her ^^

Well... She's more or less officially written out of the story... probably Kishi thought her existence might interfere with Juugo and his CS-Backstory.
The Anime adds her from time to time to the Background of some scenes, but she hasn't ever been seen in the Manga since... early 2002?

I think her last chance to make a reappearance was when the news of Oro's death reached Konoha.

It's too bad, though. She was one of the very few interesting female characters in this story.

[nat]

tis a shame...No Anko, No Genma, and other strong Jounins.....Sad thing indeed since they gave the story a bit of variation, you know, the thing that Jounin are *actually* strong and can defend Konoha to some extent. .

[Askia32]

What about Gai? He needs some love too.

Maybe the purple headed anbu girl(her name escapes me).

[patedecarne]

LOL, Guy??? Haha, he's nice, cool, etc, but he's too ugly

But let's suppose Guy finds his soulmate, then Lee will need a soulmate too, so we'll need one more woman... but who? Konan???

[nat]

Konan is taken, she has 6 BFs..or one BF in six bodies.....I'do vote some nameless Suna nin for Lee

[Askia32]

Haha, but if your ugly, and got game, you can get any woman you want.

Lee can get a random ninja from another village like e-nat said.

[THM Nindo]

Here's what I see in the end:

Sakura + Naruto

A most, seriously. Everyone that isn't wishing this, isn't wishing Naruto's happiness. From the beginning, he only had two things in mind : becoming Hokage and earning Sakura's love.

Ino + Chouji / Sai

Wait! Okay, so let me explain why I would see Chouji with her.
Since the beginning, she's always on diet, saying to Chouji that he should diet and that he should take care of him so that the girl find him good-looking.
But, on the opposite Chouji is telling her that she should eat a little because she's too skinny.
And she also tell him that she liked him when he was thin, so basically, the only thing in the way is his apparence.

Anyway, I think that it would be nice for them to be together at the end, since it's the kind of morale we always see in Naruto... "Don't judge a book by its cover" and the beautiful girl could fall in love for the not-so-beautiful boy.

As for Sai, well, we are seeing some developpement, but I don't think that would work. That's only a comic value. And she only likes him because he looks like Sasuke.


Temari + Shikamaru

Well, there's been a lot of hint for that one. They fought together, she save him later, she's with him when he waits for his friend to be healed after the mission failed, she tease him right when they are leaving, they are seen together when Naruto comes back of his training, Naruto even intending that they are together.

I'm pretty confident that this will happen.

Tenten + Lee/Neji

I think Lee deserve to have a girl in the end, and the only one he could have would be Tenten. And it's not that farfetch. If you look at it, she's always amazed by his determination. Look at this : http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/238/12/

I think that would be fine one.

As for Neji, well, she's always praising him and saying that he's super strong, but I don't know, I don't feel that would be a nice match at all.

Hinata + ... Kiba?

Well, in my opinion, that would be too bad to have Hinata alone in the end, so who could be with her? My choice is Kiba.
He's always been with her and he keep teasing her about her obsession about Naruto.
He even seem kind of jalous at some point, so that would be nice, I think.

In Resume:
Sakura + Naruto
Ino + Chouji (or Sai)
Temari + Shikamaru
Tenten + Lee (or Neji)
Hinata + Kiba (...maybe?)

What do you think?