believe it, bitch

where you go, I go

it was sm fun man thanks for indulging me! ;P

“Am I crushing you?”

“Not even a little.”

*

“Did you say hi to Ally and Jiji? The other plants got crushed, but… the desert ones are strong.”

“I did notice them. I am glad they are still here to keep you company.”

“I’m glad you gave them to me.”

The way this just thrown in there and everyone’s like “yeah that’s not manipulation at all” and it never not once had Naruto questioning his relationship with the third Hokage, or how Jiraiya took him on a trip to search for Tsunade who would become the next Hokage is wild.

I’ve said this before on another cursed app, but examining Gaara and Naruto is like peering into each of their souls. In Gaara, you have the small, child who is empathetic and desperately wants companionship that turns into selfishness bc of his upbringing. In Naruto, you have the angry, neglected child full of hatred. And at one point in the series, they are both actively rejecting those feelings before embracing them (Konoha Crush and Waterfall of Truth respectively).

Chuunin exams arc hits on that point especially, because Naruto is not afraid of a Gaara at first. Initially he wants to get the same attention Gaara gave Sasuke, but once he encounters him in the exams, he has nothing but disdain for him after what he did to Lee.

It’s when Gaara starts talking about his childhood and the sand village that Naruto becomes afraid bc he sounds just like him. The similarities between the two make him far more terrified than anything Gaara actually did. He sees himself in the boy that had no reason to live, and started killing others just to have a reason to stay alive. Their desires and goals are born from the same helplessness they experienced as children, but went in entirely different directions.

Kazekage rescue arc has some of the best writing in the series for a few characters (Naruto, Gaara, Sakura). He’s grieving Gaara’s personhood as well as his own.

Gaara in shippuden is both a representation of Naruto’s past as well as his future. He is both the traumatized child and the kage of his village. Even in this arc, Gaara is depicted as the lonely child and Naruto as the angry, out of control monster.

It’s Naruto who defends Gaara. He’s so angry and upset that Chiyo approaching his body ticks him off. He’s defensive of Gaara in a way he’s not towards himself. He knows Gaara’s pain so intimately, so the idea that he failed him when it mattered most tears him apart. It hurts him so much that he talks about jinchuuriki as if it is something separate from himself.

Even the metaphor of Naruto lined up with all the people he’s met and the four adults that influenced him has him pushing past them all in order to reach Gaara. (I’d also like to note that in that panel, everyone is wearing their classic outfits, while team 7 + Gaara are depicted as younger than them.)

Naruto brings Gaara out of the darkness while Gaara forces Naruto to acknowledge his own pain.

This arc alone acknowledges the differences between the two and how important they are to each other, how they’ve both grown so much but still have more growing to do along side the people that love them.

I could say so much about how they are after this arc. I could talk about how defensive and protective Gaara is of Naruto, how he cares about Naruto just as much as Naruto cares for him. I could go on about Gaara disagreeing with Naruto but supporting him because that’s his friend, or how he wants to see Naruto achieve his dream and live in it with him, or how their relationship is what unites the previously warring villages into one army. The two of them inspire the ninjas to fight together and be better to each other.