Helloooo, I actually don't have much following you but you're views of nsn give me life 💞
This is actually the first time I come to your ask box (probably won't be the last lol) anyways. I was scrolling through Instagram and a reel popped up, it was the scene where Madara and Obito extend Naruto a hand for them to join them and then Hinata slaps Naruto, and the reel said "if it weren't for Hinata, Naruto would be joining Obito" which is crazy to me bc first Naruto would never, doesn't go with his character and all that he's been through at that point, and second, I don't think Hinata actually has any sort of influence on Naruto, much less stopping him from becoming a villain, but I actually like to hear your view on this 👀
Hope your doing good ✨
hi! hope u r doing well too, and thanks for the nice message!
now onto the ask... i went and re-read the chapter and u r absolutely right. the people that say the above are trying to overplay hinata’s importance to naruto. can you blame them? The manga gives their ship nothing but scraps so they’ll latch onto every scene and try to blow it out of proportion. in the actual manga there is no basis for those statements. firstly, there was never a point in the whole chapter that suggested naruto was ready to 'cave in’ and join obito. nothing at all. and secondly, it wasn’t just hinata’s words that made naruto snap out of it.Â
naruto was shocked and upset cuz neji just died in front of him, along with other comrades. and obito cut naruto where it hurt deepest - he referenced naruto's own personal nightmare, loneliness. so naruto's obviously upset and hangs his head down. then obito extends his hand out... but naruto never says anything/does anything that implies that he was gonna join them.
again, right after obito says that and asks naruto to join him, naruto gives no indication of wanting to go over to his side. none whatsoever... we don’t even see his face. but what does hinata do? she slaps him. i understand why she did it, to get naruto to snap out of his sadness. but the way Kishimoto portrayed this here is very important, because of a scene later on in the arc that I'll talk about later.Â
anyways, there's no way hinata could influence naruto on that scale. she couldn't even influence him to cheat on a test LOL. during the chuunin exams, in the war arc - whenever naruto did something because of hinata it was in relation to neji. naruto made the decision to not become a villain himself. at the beginning of the story with mizuki and iruka; to gaara, naruto said he could've evened up just like him; to sasuke he said they're roles could've been reversed. naruto was aware he could’ve become a villain, but he made the decision himself to not be a villain from the very first chapter, on his own, and a slap from hyuuga girl is not gonna change that. especially considering naruto's speech afterwards - he talks about comrades - not hinata singularly. he views her as a comrade. and it’s not just hinata’s words that cause him to pull himself together - it’s everyone else’s too. he thinks about neji. his other friends. he also has a conversation with Kurama, because Hinata’s words were not enough by themselves. Then naruto gets up.
Then we get this famous nh scene, which I'm going to mention here because it’s imp for later on. anw, I've always felt this moment was... weird, and that’s not cuz I don’t ship nh but because the whole scene is just awkward. first, naruto talks about comrades. he thinks of everyone. he has a full on conversation with Kurama. in the same panel below he thinks of comrades, but out loud he says ‘it’s all thanks to you standing by my side.’ there is such a dissonance between what he was thinking the few panels prior, and what he says then. I honestly feel Kishimoto was almost forced to write a nh scene. look at how awkward naruto looks... he’s looking at hinata yet he’s facing away from her. fr stand up and copy naruto’s position and expression, it’s just so awkward. Kishimoto’s use of body language and angles have always been purposeful and natural. Hinata herself is turned towards Naruto yet Naruto can’t face her... yet he’s looking at her with his eyes, and gripping at her hand awkwardly. in the whole story I can’t recall a panel where naruto’s body language was so awkward.Â
moving on, we all know why obito was so intent on knocking naruto down throughout the war, besides naruto being the mc and person everyone looks up to. madara commented on it, kakashi ended up saying it: obito wanted to push naruto to despair to see if ultimately he'd arrive and take the same actions as obito. but there was another scene, directly paralleling the nh scene, with naruto knocked down, absolutely distraught. he’s crying, furious, seeing people around him dying left and right, people on the verge of giving up. it’s actually a more dire situation here, considering the timepoint of this scene and everything that had led up to that point.
then sasuke comes, swings his sword once, and says 'giving up, naruto? I'm not.’ and that's enough to make naruto wipe his tears and pull himself together. sasuke didn’t need to slap naruto to pull him out of it. instead, he lead by example. in the nh chapter, naruto said to hinata ‘it was all thanks to you standing by my side.’ but when was hinata ever by his side? it's sasuke who is by naruto’s side fighting. lifting him up, being his driving light, pushing him forward, which is something Kakashi himself said during naruto’s shippuden training arc, I’m just quoting him here.
Sasuke, standing up and fighting by his side, says just a short question and statement (not a full blown speech like hinata), and then naruto pulls himself together. Naruto doesn’t hesitate. He thinks of the people before him and his regrets; doesn’t need to have another conversation with Kurama to hype him up. Sasuke’s words are enough. Over and over, the only person that’s managed to have such an influence on naruto is sasuke. So naruto gets up and fights with Sasuke by his side. Also interesting how Kishimoto gives Hinata a panel here - again all she can do is say his name, not stand by his side, and surely not influence him to not become a villain.
