Do u think naruto was ever able to rebel against the village? Like if he truly understood what the state did, if sasuke made him see that things must CHANGE not just get burried. The idea of civil war in naruto and the justice for neji and sasuke...i love it but naruto doesnt know how to deal with things unless he blames himself for them... anyway, thots?
i do think naruto reached a place where he would have defied konoha but the problem is that kishi took the narrative in a more jingoistic direction after that which kinda blew any chances of that arc actually being resolved in any other way.
imo the key moment is during kage summit when obito confronts naruto and kakashi and tells them everything he told sasuke, about the truth of the uchiha massacre and itachiās role as the scapegoat. naruto hears this and he gets mad about it like heās ready to go tell everyone what happened, his blind faith in konoha is really shaken.Ā
i mean before that i think naruto already had a subconscious predisposition to wariness re: konoha because of how he grew up abused and alienated, but he never really wanted to address it beforeāinstead of being outright in his anger towards the village, he turned to attention-seeking and gunning for the hokage seat. then eventually he was accepted, with the village hero role foisted upon him after the pain attack, and despite it bringing him some discomfort he still powers through it because itās easier for him to chase that praise than stir up more conflict.
but when obito tells naruto about the uchihas it clearly makes something click in his mind, like, ok itās not just me somethingās wrong here. when he and the rest of team 7 meet with sasuke a few chapters later, naruto tells sasuke that he understands why heās doing what heās doing and doesnāt even blame him for it.Ā
then when sasuke says heās gonna kill everyone in the village including naruto, naruto is like, well, no, thatās just putting the onus on a lot of otherwise clueless people. naruto says that sasuke would have to kill him first, that when their battle inevitably happens they'll both kill each other in the intensityābut naruto doesnāt even mind, because he and sasuke will be free of the burdens thrust upon them both by konoha. to me this attitude makes it seem like naruto is still struggling between his upbringing as a konoha loyalist and his anger towards the village that he tried for so long to repress thatās finally surfacing because of what obito told him. heās really struggling because he Canāt reconcile these two lines of thinking and so he opts for the easier choice as he always has in the past (dying a martyr, because at least heāll be dead and wonāt have to make a hard choice).
kage summit sets that internal conflict up for narutoās character and itās SO interesting and i wouldāve loved for that to actually have been explored properly, to have had that arc carried through the climax of the story and more explicitly play a part in vote2. but i think around this time kishiās editors told him toĀ āmake naruto the main character againā aka Stop it with the sasuke sympathizing aka no more questioning the authority of konoha is to be done by the protagonist. which is so disappointing!Ā
so that brings us to waterfall of truth where naruto directly confronts his inner self, the one who is angry, who is empowered by his rage, who wants to run away from konoha and owe them nothing more. this is a really interesting scene to me because it had the potential to be that pivotal moment where naruto finally decides to stand up for himself and start acting completely of his own will (or at Least openly condemn the corruption in konoha). but then what actually happens is Happy Konoha Naruto shuts down Angry Naruto.Ā
his reasoning is what's really striking: naruto literally says to hisĀ ābadā inner self that he canāt harbor that negativity anymore, that he has to suck it up so he can be the person that the people of konoha believe him to be. again, heās deferring to the easier path of conformity to acceptance because from childhood, he was a pariah, he was hated by everyone and didnāt even know whyāthis conditioned him to seek approval and praise wherever he can get it. even after having his hurt dredged up by obitoās words, sasukeās actions, and his confrontation with his inner self, the effects on his psyche that his childhood created are a more powerful influence on his decision making. he represses his anger because rebellion isnāt whatās going to get people to care about him, and what he wants the most is to feel loved.
like bro thats so fucking upsetting..... naruto just spends his life being manipulated by the entity that caused all his problems, and every time he comes close to breaking out of that cycle, he chickens out at the last minute because he thinks heās already getting what he needs on a psychologically fundamental level from the village. but heās not.Ā
so with that having been said i intellectually understand why he acts the way he does from waterfall of truth on, but i donāt agree with it lol. like this poor child deserves better but with the direction kishi was forced to take with the series at that point in it, itās no surprise that the jingoism won over. i wonder how narutoās internal struggle would have played out if that hadnāt been the case? i certainly think he could have completely rebelled against konoha. the anger was there, and he was completely justified in it, but the problem is that he keeps repressing it and doesnāt let himself truly feel it.
i wasnāt planning on writing this much in response to this ask sdhfjfjsdg i just have a Lot Of Thoughts on this tl;dr i love naruto he deserved better and we need someone to rewrite the series and do it PROPERLY and also read all the bits above that i bolded
