Naruto Manga Chapter 459

[phoenixxxphreak.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a bit late, but I just read the chapter and a lil' summin' is bothering me, I don't quite get it. I'm not sure if it was as blurry and discrete for you guys as it was for me.

Why was Ino crying? I had a feeling that she got over Sasuke, is she still "in love" with him, or is she just worried about Naruto and/or Sakura?

Is Shikamaru's want for permission to get rid of Sasuke, or come to some type of negotiation with him? (I don't see how that would work).

I've established that Naruto's anger is all towards Sasuke for hurting Sakura, and I can see that because he loves her he won't stand in her way and let her choose who she wants to be with. Hm, I call that true love. BUT what is Sakura deciding for herself? To beat some sense into Sasuke? To finally choose Naruto over Sasuke? (Even though that doesn't make real sense at the moment, just a possibility).

This was by far the most confusing chapter, I think. Any ideas for answers? Much appreciated.
 
I may not be quick to answer comments because I'm on hiatus. But I felt the need to clarify these points.

Thanks!

Comments

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

1. Ino is still in love with Sasuke. I can imagine an open invitation for anyone to kill him would be the reason why she's sobbing.

2. I think that Shikamaru wants to capture Sasuke with the attempt to put him face to face with Sakura and Naruto, so that they can beat the crap out of him and make him see he needs to stfd.

3. Sakura is probably putting aside the crush on Sasuke and seeing the true love from Naruto. Naruto has been by her side from the beginning, often swaying, but never abandoning her. Sakura's lust for what might have been can no longer be fueled as Sasuke is still acting by revenge post-Itachi's death. She's crossing over from the high school/naive state of mind to that of an adult woman; rationalizing the situation around her with the facts that are present.

Translation: She'd be a fool/idiot not to fall in love with Naruto, someone who cares so selflessly about her.

[laurelsblue.livejournal.com]

Sakura doesn't have to fall in love with Naruto any more than Naruto has to with Hinata.
Just because someone loves you doesn't mean you have to return it or that you are somehow a bad person for not doing so.

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

I didn't say she's obligated to, I just feel like all this shit Naruto does selflessly to show he loves her, only to still be rejected because Sakura can't come to terms with herself loving Naruto because she holds him to Sasuke's shadow is complete bullshit. Naruto is Naruto and Sasuke is Sasuke. She needs to realize that.

Hinata JUST admitted verbally to a very naive/emotional unstable Naruto that she loved him. We've yet to see a reaction. Naruto has been trying to court Sakura the WHOLE series (asking to hang out, saving Sasuke, getting beat up by the Kumo-nin, etc.) and what does she say? She resorts to 2nd grade reactions like EWWW! and WTF are you thinking?

Ever heard of the saying that goes something like 'why continue searching for love when it could be staring you in the face'? Sakura needs to take a hint.

[omizu.livejournal.com]

I thought Naruto going into 9 tales in about 2 seconds flat was a reaction...

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

lol He's not always gonna be in 9 tails mode (unless she doesn't cook him dinner on time)

[omizu.livejournal.com]

Hinata stood in the cold, dark kitchen, looking at the body in the doorway, "Na..Naruto."

"Hinata what's wrong?"

Fingers pointed together in front of her face, poking them in fear, "Dinner will be late, there's no more ramen."

"No more RAMEN!" Naruto erupted in the Kyuubi, with all 9 tails.

"RAAAWWWWRRRRRMMMEENNNN!!!!"

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

Without hesistation, Naruto shoots a beam of pure blackness at Hinata.

"Na-Naruto-danna!" she yelps, then quickly spins into Kaiten, thrusting herself into the other room.

Outside, passerby Kiba stares in shock and utter amazement. Having heard the conversation with his enhanced canine hearing, Kiba watches the beam pierce the couples apartment wall and fade into the atmosphere. At first, he fears for his fellow teammate's safety, but soon turns his reaction into a slowly nodding head, remembering that women should have no excuses when pertaining to their husband's meals.

[omizu.livejournal.com]

<3!

[askerian]

I love that Hinata being ready and willing to lose her life to give Naruto two more minutes of life gets a "just" and an implication that she sneakily used his moment of weakness in order to make an impression, and Naruto's three instances of "Is it a date?" "No!" "Oh okay lol *forgets about it*" are super serious. It reads as if you mean like "oh Hinata just almost-died for him, that's nothing, she was just trying to emotionally blackmail him into loving her back, it's not like she expected to really DIE there -- I mean, Naruto asked Sakura for ramen twice and lied that he'd been planning to a third time in order to cover up his real worries, that's totally more romantic!"

Fact is, the only serious moments Naruto gets that are openly about his romantic feelings for Sakura (the hospital scene and the promise of a lifetime pre-timeskip, and the most recent Sai moment...) are all about how he'll give up on hoping for her to love him back; the positive is all humor where he asks in unplanned, silly ways, gets rejected and doesn't angst about that, or platonic and all about Sasuke and team seven as a whole. That's not exactly a masterpiece of showing he loves her -- I thought the point was that he was HIDING how serious his feelings were in order not to burden her unfairly?

I don't know about you but for me that's a LOT more romantic than going around being pointedly helpful and all "look at me! I'm doing all that for you! You owe me love now!". That's a Nice Guy (tm) attitude if I ever saw one.

I'm saying that as someone who ships SasuNaruSaku and who really isn't pinged by NaruHina. But the double standards in your post bother me a bit. :/ Loving isn't a matter of deserving. Otherwise Hinata deserves Naruto just as much as Naruto deserves Sakura. Hell, Sai deserves Naruto too, he protected him from Karui and is actively trying to help with Naruto's emotional wellbeing! I might be misreading you, but I don't like that impression I get from your post that Sakura should just drop her panties for Naruto because he's been such a good boy, without even bothering to sort her own feelings first. That would be bad writing to me.

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

I understand where you're coming from. Perhaps I see it differently in the sense that Sakura and Naruto are used to each other enough to where, at this point, I am expecting the walls to be broken down and the secrets unveiled. The unorthodox 'thrill of the chase' is cute, but I guess there are two things I have to remember:

1. This show isn't real life; it's shounen. It's meant to kinda make the reader feel all giggity-goo inside sometimes, while not trying to enforce any abstract ideas forcefully.

2. The characters in the show are not adults, so I guess I can't expect them to have a more complex relationship or to do what most kids around their age would do - take risks and get messy.

As for Hinata, again, we have not seen any chapters yet where Naruto is directly addressing Hinata about her confession. He kinda has Sasuke on the brain. I expect Kishimoto to address it on the downtime that will come after they finish the Iron Country Summit Arc. Her confession was unexpected, but if it goes unaddressed, I'll pitch a bitch about that too lol

But I will say, Sakura and Naruto have had plenty of time to address each other about the words not being said: Naruto training for elemental fusion, Naruto in the hospital after VotE, and also Naruto returning to the village after training with Jiraiya (beginning of Shippuden). The tension with those two has built since the very beginning and I think that Naruto deserves to hear Sakura in her own words address her disposition towards Naruto, instead of him just one-sidedly calling it a quits because he's lost all hope in her loving him.

[pervert-bitch.livejournal.com]

THIS! OMG FUCKING THIS!
Not that I hate NaruSaku or whatever.
It just pisses me off that people think Sakura must fall in love with Naruto because he was so good to her.
Yes, he is nice, GOOD! I like nice!Naruto. Sakura still does not need to return his feelings even she falls out of love with Sasuke. She can in the end love them both like brothers and fall for a third person, whether is Lee, Kakashi or Ino.

[debatemotion.livejournal.com]

You don't choose who you fall in love with. ]:

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

Indeed, but Sakura has still not voiced how she feels. All the reader can really tell is that she's conflicted. With the situation at hand, I'm taking that as she's remorseful. I speak in the future tense, hoping that Sakura will reveal that she too is in love with Naruto and that she'll only hidden it because she herself was in denial.

[debatemotion.livejournal.com]

While I agree that she is conflicted, and rightfully so, I don't think she has anything to be remorseful about.

While it would certainly be more satisfactory for her and Naruto both if she returned his feelings (and I'm not suggesting that she doesn't; as you said, we still don't know), she shouldn't be remorseful for the way she feels/felt about Sasuke. Even if it's just her hormones talking, and lust rather than love as you mentioned above... she isn't an idiot for not falling in love with Naruto. There is no obligation for her to do so - indeed, that is partly why Naruto's love for her is so true. [: Just because Naruto's love for her is true and selfless, however, isn't a reason for her to have to love him. One should never have to love anybody.

[nazonatte69.livejournal.com]

I just speak how I'd like the story to go.

[debatemotion.livejournal.com]

Lol lol, sorry if I sounded like I was attacking you. ^^; If pairings actually happen in Naruto and the SasuNaru ship doesn't sail, I actually want NaruSaku to happen as well. XD XD

[voldy06.livejournal.com]

To me it was clearly implied that Shikamaru and Co. have decided to kill Sasuke themselves in order to prevent a war - like Shikamaru explains. Of course, he's aware that Team 7 would interfere thus he seeks their permission in order to prevent them getting in the way. This is also why Ino is crying, IMO. Not because she's necessarily in love with Sasuke but because she might see him still as a friend and doesn't want his death. To me they all seemed pretty depressed, anyway.

And I hope Sakura decides to simply stand by Naruto's side, like Kakashi and Yamato.

[voldy06.livejournal.com]

Even if they just want to capture him and put him into jail it's still a death sentence for him because he's been declared a missing-nin. Check chapter 452 where Kakashi explains that it's only thanks to Tsunade Sasuke hasn't been killed yet. And Shikamaru and Co. know that.

The only one who can end Naruto's "suffering" is Sasuke. It doesn't matter whether Sakura tells him to forget the promise or not, it's not going to stop him from trying to save his friend. Which is also why I think that Sakura's recent guilt trip is BS.

[senior-witch.livejournal.com]

Check the translation by Nagumo at Mangahelpers.com. There Shikamaru uses the expression "dispose of Sasuke" which to me means clearly "kill him" - but I am not a native speaker of English either.

My interpretation is that Kishimoto wants it to appear as if Ino is still in love with Sasuke, which would be a bit childish, but well, it's a story for young children who don't know yet that you can overcome a crush and fall in love with someone else. If she were worried about Sakura or Naruto, it would make more sense for Hinata to cry.

The rage that Sai is feeling comes from Naruto's guts - well, the Sasunaru-fangirls are making fun of it, saying that it is not rage and does not come from his body. It has not yet been explained what this rage means - it is not necessarily about Sasuke hurting Sakura. We have no idea yet how Kishimoto is going to resolve the love quadrangle (don't forget Hinata) or rather polygon (there are also Lee and Ino, and Karin, and possibly Karui, and Sai too may discover one day that he is not completely asexual.)

[acediance.livejournal.com]

1. It's probably a bit of both? I never got the impression that Ino was "over" Sasuke; in fact, when Sai first appears, Ino points out that Sai is "good looking" and makes a remark (http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/312/07/) about how he looks like Sasuke. So she still has a bit of a crush going. And even if she didn't, Sasuke is still an old classmate who means something to her, and I don't think she'd like to see him fighting against her Konoha friends. That page was incredibly bizarre and I wish Kishimoto had been a bit more specific. Although, I like this crackish explanation (http://community.livejournal.com/chuunin/5535712.html?thread=65734624#t65734624) about Ino's feelings the best.

2. It's hard to tell, isn't it? We'll see what Shikamaru says in future chapters. I'd imagine that Shikamaru & co. will try to negotiate with Sasuke, but if it doesn't work, they'll have to rely on killing Sasuke as plan B. Not to worry about Sasuke's life, though. Chances are, Naruto will end up reading Sasuke bad fanfic, and Sasuke will convert to Uzumakianity (hey, it worked for Nagato!) and suddenly the world will be covered in sunshine and bromance.

3. It would be wonderful if Sakura chose to beat some sense into Sasuke. However, since Kishimoto does not have the best track record with female characters, and they are usually cockblocked in favor of A Guy challenging Another Guy, the chances that she will ever have to face Sasuke in any kind of serious battle and/or confrontation is close to zip. What Sakura's probably going to chose for herself is to support Naruto in his battle to rescue Sasuke, because Naruto is the hero and that would make for a happy ending for Naruto's target audience. It has little to do with Sakura's feelings, and everything to do with the fact that Naruto "deserves" her more than Sasuke does, I guess.