[FFML] Re: [Naruto] "Genin"

From: "David McMillan" <SkyeFire@aol.com>
Date: 2004/03/01 Mon PM 12:47:09 GMT
To: thermopyle@tds.net
CC: "Fan Fiction Mailing List" <ffml@anifics.com>
Subject: [FFML] Re: [Naruto] "Genin"

thermopyle@tds.net wrote on 3/1/2004, 2:47 AM:

 >
 > Okay, so far the premise is that Naruto enjoys fighting too much, and
 > so would be incapable of leading a team without getting them killed.
 > That's fine.  It's wonderful, even!  Perfectly believable and in
 > character, although the amount of time this goes on for is stretching
 > it a bit.  Still, it's good.
 >
 > Now, in this scene, Naruto throws away the fight he knows he doesn't
 > need to win in order to advance his friend (teammate) Konohamaru.
 > Again, perfectly fine!
 >
 > Now...the question is...how does this NOT fit what Naruto was missing
 > in this story before?  Naruto goes into the fight with an objective
 > and keeps it in mind even through the heat of battle.  He does not
 > seem, at all, as a hothead who can't control himself.  I can't read
 > past this point without Naruto getting his Chuunin promotion for what
 > he did.  It just doesn't work.

    Well, just speaking from my seat in the gallery, I think that's the 
*point.*  This reads, to me, like a setup for a major revelation further 
down the line -- something that's painfully obvious to we-the-readers, 
but that the main character and his friends can't see because they're 
too close to the problem.  Many growth experiences don't come as 
epiphanies -- rather, you're caught by surprise when someone eventually 
tells you how much you've changed/grown/matured, because it happened 
gradually enough that, from the inside, you couldn't *see* it happening. 
  You still feel like *you.*
    Having zero experience with Naruto, I can't comment much further, but 
I've got a hunch that the people in charge of these ninja *have* noticed 
Naruto's change, and more importantly, noticed that he's not even aware 
of it, which lends credence to the idea that this is a *deep* change, 
not a superficial one.  Of course, if they go ahead and award Naruto 
chuujin status *now,* it makes for a very short story.  I suspect that 
Naruto will be allowed to join Sakura and Sasuke for their test, and 
none of the three will have any idea that there's more than one agenda 
going on.
    Unless, of course, Sasuke and Sakura are *in* on the whole caper....

Well, if the story is going to be a oneshot, now would be the time for that surprise--that would be the whole point, as you say. Naruto isn't aware that he has changed, though he obviously has.

This story is written more in a way to support the oneshot idea than the series, really. With a oneshot there isn't a need to produce as much support for the premise, since the problem is being solved so quickly. As this story is, Naruto's hotheadedness is hard to accept; it's told, rather than shown. There are no scenes of Naruto losing it while fighting. Instead, we just see the aftermath, when Naruto is always in control, and so the idea that he can't lead a team as Chuunin isn't really backed up.

In the manga/anime, Naruto's behavior does show this tendency to some degree, but it also shows a very strong tendency to remain IN control. There have been numerous times when Naruto looked at the situation, analyzed what was going on, and came up with a fitting solution even when others wouldn't. The time he stabbed his hand to make the poison in it bleed out, then declared that they should continue on with their mission, is an example of this. Another example is when Sasuke was too terrified of Orochimaru to realize that giving over their scroll did not guarantee the team's safety--yet Naruto picked up on that right away.

This idea that Naruto loses himself in a fight does have some support in the manga, but not enough to justify an actual series. It works as a oneshot, but anything further NEEDS to have scenes showing Naruto behaving this way. It's enough of a departure from Naruto's canon behavior that it can't rely on what the manga demonstrates and the story says is true; it needs to be shown.

For a series...your statements do reflect that you don't have knowledge of Naruto. Naruto is hated in general by the villagers because a monster that killed many of them, including the village leader, the fourth hokage (who a lot of fanfics suppose is Naruto's father...hopefully his background will come out at some point. -_-;), was sealed within him. He grows up as an orphan with everybody ignoring him, even though they hate him. He has no idea why, since the third Hokage has forbidden anybody from speaking of it. It's not until a traitor to the village tells him at the beginning of the series (when Naruto is thirteen) that he finds out. The people of the village have quite a bit of hate going on.

In the manga, Tsunade is the fourth hokage because of Naruto. She wanted nothing to do with it, since the people she loved had died for the sake of the village. That's why she left, and why she eventually has to be tracked down by Naruto and another ninja. She decides to become Hokage simply because Naruto convinces her that HE will be Hokage someday--she gives him her precious necklace and looks forward to it. She views him as kind of a replacement for her little brother, yet also mixed with Dan, the man she loved. Tsunade would be very, very likely to do whatever she can to help Naruto become Hokage, and some elaborate plan to let him skip being a Chuunin is not it; that would simply show favoritism and undermine what respect Naruto has gained within the village.

So no, this whole plan thing doesn't really work if the goal is to make him Hokage; on the other hand, he's definitely shown the attributes necessary for a good leader in this story (and in the manga, too, to some extent--certainly more than Sasuke, who runs off to join the enemy because he's jealous of Naruto becoming stronger than he is, instead of focusing on the goal of becoming stronger than his brother, Itachi, so that he can kill the guy).

Now, yes, the story would have to end, as it is, with Naruto gaining his Chuunin status. That works for a oneshot. If the story DOES go on, the focus doesn't have to be on becoming a Chuunin; he can become a Chuunin and then go on to learn some other lesson, with a different premise being the focus of the story...or this could be a oneshot, and another story, a series, could follow. Whatever. But as the story is now, it is definitely written in a way that making it a oneshot works better.