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Friday, May 2, 2008

Which Girl Would Naruto End up With? by Henry Hsieh

It’s always amazing to see how much people can get riled up over Naruto’s love life. Indeed, Naruto’s love life is the subject of many debates and flame wars in the internet. Either way, we can’t deny the fact that the whole ‘romance’ aspect of the anime makes it more interesting. And, since Naruto’s the main character he has to end up with someone, right?

There are two girls in the series who posses the possibility of ending up with Naruto. Unless, the author Kishimoto throws in a new female character onto the mix.

Haruno Sakura

Sakura is and has always been Naruto’s crush, even from the beginning of the series. Although she is Naruto’s teammate but she wasn’t not necessarily his friend at the beginning of team Kakashi. In fact, Sakura displayed a lot of hostility towards Naruto in the beginning of the series, owing perhaps to Naruto’s reputation as the academy’s ‘deadlast’. However, she warms up to him as the series progresses and starts to care for him as a friend. Sure, if you look at it this way, these two seem like they’re headed for the holy matrimony. Naruto’s the main male character and Sakura’s the main female character and they would probably end up together, right? Wrong. Things aren’t that simple.

Ir’a given fact that Naruto has a crush on Sakura, but Sakura is in love with Sasuke instead; Naruto’s direct rival. He is everything he is not since start. As a genius, Sasuke is also good looking, and powerful without even trying. Sasuke does not blatantly return her affections but there are little clues in the series where you’ll see that these two; Sakura and Sasuke definitely have something together. In fact, Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship is one of the most romantically developed in the anime what with the hug in the forest of death where it is only through Sakura’s hug that Sasuke, possessed by the cursed seal, comes to his senses. There’s also Sasuke’s acknowledgement that Sakura is one of his ‘precious persons’. And then there’s this huge matter of Sakura’s confession of love, true ‘I’ll-sacrifice-everything-for-you’ love. And though Sasuke knocked her out, he does leave her with a thank you which is enigmatic and poignant.

Until now, even with Sasuke’s defection, he is still the biggest hindrance to any possibility of Naruto and Sakura getting together since Sakura obviously still loves Sasuke and there are always these tiny clues that he might love her back. All it takes for them to get together is for Sasuke to finish with his goals and have time to ‘restore his clan’.

And though Sakura is warming up to Naruto, it mostly seems like friendship and not ‘romance’. Sakura loves Naruto but only as a friend it seems like moving forth even at Naruto Shippuden. All of Naruto’s advances seems to fail as Sakura rejected him softly without much emotion.

Hyuuga Hinata

Then there’s Hinata. Hinata is a shy girl who, unlike all the other academy girls, had a crush on Naruto since the very beginning. She never looked down on Naruto although she is way smarter then Naruto. On the contrary, the crush she has on Naruto is so huge that she faints whenever she’s on a close proximity to Naruto.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, she is one of the first people who have ever acknowledged him besides Sasuke. Hinata admires him for his courage, strength, determination, and confidence. These are qualities completely opposite of her that she lacks greatly of. Naruto inspires her to be more than she is and it always pushes Hinata to be a better person

Naruto and Hinata have their moments. The most important one is probably the ‘blood oath’. And all throughout the anime, Kishimoto inserts fluffy Naruhina scenes, especially in Shippuden. In my opinion, all it takes for them to get together is a confession of some sort such as Hinata finally gathering enough courage (which fits well with her theme) to walk up to Naruto and tell him she loves him.

My verdict: Naruto will probably end up with Hinata and Sasuke will end up with Sakura.

About the Author

Henry Hsieh has multiple interests and he enjoys talking about them. As a fan of anime, he likes to watch Naruto, discuss them in Naruto Forums, and listen to Naruto Mp3 at tailedfox.com the best Naruto site with the newest Naruto Shippuden Episodes out first.

Who is the father of Naruto? by Henry Hsieh

The identity of the father of Naruto has been the subject of speculation for Naruto fans for a long time. There have been heated debates and even full-blown internet flaming wars about the mystery that is Naruto's father.

The Fourth Hokage Theory

Most people believed that the father of Naruto was the Yondaime or the Fourth Hokage. The resemblance between the Yondaime and Naruto is strikingly similar. They both have blue eyes and yellow hair and they even have the same smile. And since Naruto is an orphan and the fourth died fighting with the Kyuubi which it all made sense.

Some people even went so far as to believe that the Yondaime, though it was clearly stated that he died fighting the Kyuubi, somehow survived and lived on to become the Akatsuki leader. They believed that everything from the sealing of the Kyuubi inside Naruto until the hunting of the Jinchuuruki by the Akatsuki was all part of an elaborate plot concocted by the genius mind of the Fourth Hokage. They believed that what was shown about the Yondaime was just a hoax, he was actually evil despite the fact that all the people of Konoha loved him and that he was willing to die for them.

However, there were many people who disagreed with these believers that Yondaime is indeed the father of Naruto theory simply because they could not understand why a father would seal something like the Kyuubi inside his own son. Some believed that it would just be way too obvious and that Kishimoto cannot possibly write something so obvious and that there has to be a twist. Some believed that the Yondaime was an uncle to Naruto, or brother, or some other distant relative relative just not his father.

There were even people who believed that the Akatsuki leader (who they believed was not Yondaime) was actually the father of Naruto. And, for some reason, he was hunting his own son. This theory was reinforced by the fact that the shadow from the Akatsuki Leader and it looked somewhat like he had the same hair as Naruto. And when the Akatsuki leaders face was revealed to have a striking resemblance to Naruto too, this theory gathered more supporters. And they believed that a Star Wars scene with the Akatsuki Leader saying Naruto, I am your father was not such a far off possibility.

There were other theories and some so farfetched and random that you would have to wonder what the fans smoked in order to come up with it. But all those theories were dispelled once Chapter 367 of the manga came.

The Revelation

Chapter 367 is a perfect example of how the simplest answers are almost always the right ones. It turned out that the blatant was actually true and the Fourth Hokage really is the father of Naruto. Jiraiya and Tsunade confirmed it all and even revealed the name of Yondaime turned out to be Namikaze Minato.

But if the fourth is the father of Naruto, then why is his name Uzumaki Naruto and not Namikaze Naruto? Where does the Uzumaki come from? It turns out that, for some reason, Naruto got his name after his mothe surname instead of his father. And it is not really heartless for Minato to seal Kyuubi inside Naruto since it was, after all, his dying wish that Naruto be treated as a hero for having to contend with having a monster inside him. He died believing that the villagers would love Naruto, he had no idea that they would do the opposite. This chapter has yet to be made into a Naruto Episodes, but it should be revealed in Naruto Shippuden pretty soon.

About the Author

Henry Hsieh has multiple interests and he enjoys talking about them. As a fan of anime, he likes to watch Naruto & Sasuke battle, discuss them in Tailedfox Forums, and listen to Naruto MP3 at tailedfox.com the best Naruto Shippuden site with the newest Naruto Episodes out first.
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