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....




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