Talent and Hard Work Can't Beat Friendship: Understanding Naruto

    

    I think that it’s safe to say that the success and cultural position that the series, Naruto, has earned is undisputed. As the third highest-selling manga ever and with an incredibly popular anime, Naruto is well cemented within popular culture even outside of anime fandoms. References can be found all over the place. Despite the clear popularity and cultural importance, Naruto is often thought of as a long-winded series that abandoned its original themes and devolved into magic eyes, nonsensical power-ups, and overly sentimental speeches about friendship. 

    

    My goal in this essay is not to convince you that Naruto is the greatest anime or manga. Or that it’s a perfect story without flaws. My goal is to convince you that the series stuck to and fulfilled the themes that it laid out at the very beginning of its fifteen-year run. Naruto isn’t about an underdog kid using pure work ethic and dedication to overcome his disadvantages. It's not about using your natural born skills and abilities to become the best. In the world of Naruto, true strength comes from the bonds that one forms with others. Not just friendship or love but true understanding and compromise that can only be achieved when two people acknowledge one another. The strength that comes from that kind of relationship is enough to turn a world consumed by war into a peaceful near utopia. The themes of Naruto and its true message is that strength is gained through understanding which creates room for compromise, and with compromise comes peace.

        

  

    Before showing how Naruto has stayed consistent with its themes I’d like to address what I believe to be the source of the misunderstanding of the series’s message. Rock Lee. Rock Lee is a standout character from the series and he is many fans' favorite character. The reasons why are clear to see. He provides comedic relief, has a charismatic personality, and has one of the best fight scenes of the series. Gaara vs Rock Lee cemented that character’s place in many people’s hearts. But that love, I believe, also blinded them. Rock Lee’s philosophy was that with absolutely nothing but pure hard work that anyone could achieve their dreams. And as the favorite character of many people they took everything he said as the law of the world. But he was wrong and when he was proven wrong those fans felt betrayed. Rock Lee isn’t the main character or moral compass of Naruto. Naruto is. This is why Lee loses most of his canonical fights. No matter how hard you work or train you can’t reach your dreams alone. Even if you're born with great power and skill you can’t reach your goals by yourself. In the world of Naruto, those that rely on others succeed while those that go it alone fail.

    This lesson is taught very early on in the series by Kakashi to the rest of Team 7 during the iconic bell test. When tasked to steal the bells neither Naruto’s hard work, Sasuke’s natural talent, or Sakura tactical genius alone was enough to pass the test. Only when they decided to cooperate and see each other as equals did they pass. Now, this was just a test exercise but when applied to a real combat situation the rule still proves true. Even as two inexperienced genin when Naruto and Sasuke trust one another and used each other's strengths they were able to get the drop on one of the legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. This shows that when a shinobi puts faith in the bonds they form they can overcome the odds and achieve great change. This philosophy even applies to enemy shinobi as well.

    Earlier I said that understanding and compromise create the opportunity for peace. But how do you compromise with someone who won’t listen? How do you understand a person that because of unfortunate circumstances feels that they must defeat you or even kill you? The answer lies in a quote from Sasuke during the first fight at the Valley of the End. 

When two shinobi are of a high enough level they can read each other's thoughts, through no more than a trade of blows.

    Through combat two enemies can come to understand each other. But it takes more than fighting to change a person.They must also be willing to listen to each other. Only when a person is understood are you able to show them the flaws in their way of thinking. The first person to ever effectively do this in the series was Haku to Naruto. Before the Land of Waves mission, Naruto wanted to become stronger only for himself. He saw his own strength as merely a tool for achieving his own dreams. While fighting with Haku and listening to his story he was able to see that Haku’s strength came from his bond with Zabuza. This arc set a pattern for the series that every other major fight would follow. After battling an opponent and seeking to understand them Naruto would be able to expose the fallacies within any antagonist’s philosophy. After Haku’s death Naruto was able to deliver his own speech to Zabuza and force the man to admit how much he cared for Haku. He convinced the cold-blooded killer who believed that ninja were nothing more than unfeeling weapons of war to admit to his own humanity and commit an act of good in his last moments. At the conclusion of this arc, Naruto swore to fight for the people important to him. Zabuza and Haku’s importance is captured when Kakashi re-encounters them once they are revived with Edo Tensei during the Fourth Shinobi War.

I’m glad you two were Naruto’s first opponents.

    This method to gaining understanding through conflict would be tested once again during the Chunin Exams where Naruto would turn two of his enemies into some of his most important allies for the future. Neji Hyuga, because of the unfortunate circumstances of his branch of the Hyuga clan and the death of his father, Neji believed that one's station in life could not be changed. Those born weak would stay weak and those born strong would stay strong. The difference between people is set by fate and cannot be overcome. Despite the confidence with which Neji states his philosophy he actively fights against his “fate”, contradicting himself. He defeats Hinata who is supposed to his superior and who he is supposed to live in service of. He also masters a technique that is supposed to be outside his branch’s reach. Even with all the contradictions to his world-view Neji is blind to them until they are pointed out by Naruto, someone who attempted to understand him. Naruto clashed with Neji and listened to his story allowing him to understand Neji and then directly counter his world-view. Naruto, the village failure was able to beat an “elite” proving that one’s fate is not set in stone and that people can change.

    Gaara of the Sand like Naruto was born into loneliness and scorn. As the jinchuriki of the Shukaku, he was met with fear and hate from those in his village. But unlike Naruto who eventually found people to care for him like Iruka and Team 7, Gaara only traveled deeper into his solitude. He believed that only through loneliness and living solely for oneself could an individual gain real power. Every fight for him was a challenge of wills and philosophy and with every victory, he became more convinced that his world-view was the correct one. But as established before the bonds that connect people are what really gives a person strength. During Gaara’s fight with Sasuke, Sasuke lost because his deserve for revenge interfered with his deserve to protect his friends. When it was Naruto’s turn to face Gaara he came away victorious because his commitment to his allies was unwavering. And just like with Zabuza and Neji, Naruto fought Gaara, sought to understand Gaara, and exposed the fallacies of his argument to him. In spite of his claims that loneliness equaled power, Gaara craved the love of others more than anything and Naruto showed him that he could have that love and still remain strong.

    Naruto chose to understand these enemies and established a compromise with each of them resulting in them becoming dedicated allies to him. Had he simply defeated or killed them without creating peace then the next arc would have ended much worse than it already did. In the previous section, I mentioned that Sasuke’s obsession with revenge got in the way of his drive to protect his friends which led to his defeat by Gaara. Sasuke’s inner turmoil would continue to prevent him from growing stronger and falling further behind Naruto. As shown in his fight with Itachi and his fight with Naruto on the roof. If Sasuke wanted to become stronger he would have to make a decision, hate, or love. Sasuke chose hate and left the village. And when Naruto came to bring him back he failed. The talk no-jutsu didn’t work on Sasuke. Why? Because he did not attempt to understand Sasuke. Just like in all the other arcs Naruto fought his opponent but unlike the others, he didn’t listen to Sasuke. Naruto from the beginning decides that Sasuke was coming back regardless of his reason for leaving, even if it meant force. Because he didn’t seek to understand first he couldn’t be understood and was unable to show Sasuke that hate was not the path to power.

    

    Even after losing to Sasuke, Naruto refused to give up on his friend or his dream of becoming Hokage. He failed to see that his defeat came at his lack of understanding and not his lack of strength. So he went off to train with Jiraiya in the hope of becoming stronger but during that time he ended up inheriting Jiraiya’s dream for peace as well without even knowing it. For the first few arcs of Shippuden Naruto proved rather ineffective despite his growth in physical power during the time skip. This is because Naruto lost confidence in both himself and his convictions. His motivations for those fights had changed. While fighting Itachi’s clone, Deidara, and Orochimaru he was motivated by hate. During his confrontation with Sasuke, Naruto felt that he wasn’t worthy of being the Hokage because of his inability to bring back his friend. Hate and self-pity motivated his interactions with his opponents which led to his continuous defeats. Even when he finally came out of his funk he still didn’t return to his original convictions. For the first time when fighting Kakuzu, Naruto decided to simply defeat his opponent without seeking to understand and developed a jutsu that damaged his own body and had the risk of permanently harming himself. Naruto would not return to his original convictions and his path of understanding until the death of Jiraiya and his confrontation with Pain.

    Nagato, similar to other antagonists was molded by the death and destruction of the ninja world. He became trapped in the cycle of hatred like so many others but unlike Neji, Gaara, and Zabuza who accepted the nature of the world. Nagato decided that he would change the world. If the ninja world was motivated by suffering and vengeance then he would use that pain to force the population into peace. Everyone would experience the same loss and pain. Understanding would be achieved through mutual pain. In Nagato’s philosophy, their shared empathy would create true peace. Nagato forced Naruto to truly consider Jiraiya’s dream of peace. This fight against Nagato turned out differently than the others in Shippuden. Naruto controlled his anger and chose to understand Nagato instead of submitting to his desire for revenge. By listening to Nagato he was able to comprehend his argument and point out how he had become what he had originally opposed. By becoming Pain he had not stopped the cycle of vengeance. He only created new ones. Nagato and Konan decided to put their faith in Naruto and that he would be able to find the real path to peace. Nagato gave his life in order to bring back all the villagers he had killed and Naruto's goal of bringing peace to the ninja world was solidified.

    With Naruto’s newfound determination for peace he was able to accomplish things that previously seemed impossible. He was able to eliminate the hate within the Nine-tails and forge a lasting friendship with the creature partially responsible for his parents’ deaths. His bonds with Gaara and Tsunade helped to establish the Allied Shinobi Force. The first time that all five ninja villages worked together. Naruto sparked hope in the ninja world that peace could become a reality. This was a hope that characters like Obito and Madara had lost. Obito bared first-hand witness to all the pain in the world and came to the conclusion that understanding between individuals was impossible. As long as humans had differing wants then there would always be losers. The only way to end the suffering and cycle of hate was to abandon the real world and remain forever in a dream of peace. But after battling and talking with Obito Naruto was able to show him that his dream could exist in the real world. Naruto had united the entire world in understanding. This world didn’t have to be made up of winners and losers. By working together a real-world of winners could be forged. And so Obito gave up everything in order to make that dream a reality. 

After Obito was confronted with the fallacies of his world view this left Madara as the last hold out. Before, Naruto wasn’t able to defeat Madara, even with the help of Sasuke who both receive incredible power from the Sage of Six Paths. The reason for this is not because Madara was overpowered or because Kishimoto wrote himself into a corner. It is because Naruto had temporarily abandoned the lesson he learned from Itachi.

No matter how strong you become, don’t try to bear the weight by yourself. You will fail. Don’t forget about your friends.

    After the Infinite Tsukuyomi was activated all of the Allied Shinobi Forces were taken out except Sakura and Kakashi. Despite the fact that they were there and able to fight, Naruto and Sasuke did their best to move the fight away from them. Naruto wanted to be the sole one to end the war and save everyone while Sasuke thought that they were nuisances that got in the way. Even with all the power-ups, magic eyes, and tailed beasts they were unable to defeat Madara because they didn’t acknowledge their allies and treat them as equals. This continued into the Kaguya fight as well until Naruto and Sasuke did recognize their friends. Team 7 reformed. They acknowledged one another, trusted one another, and found victory together.

This brings us to the last fight of the series. Naruto vs Sasuke. After years of giving in to his hate and need for revenge, Sasuke was left hollow and unsatisfied. So he went on his own search for understanding. What was so special about a village, its people, and the dream for peace that so many people were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect it. He spoke with the Hokages and learned that villages and the people in them were things worth protecting. The Allied Shinobi Forces had created temporary peace but there was no guarantee that it would last. In his eyes, the previous generations had only succeeded in causing more pain and fostering more hate in the world. They had only joined forces to defeat their common enemy but the threat was gone now. Sasuke decided that he would be the world’s enemy and take all of the world’s hate and loneliness onto himself. He would wipe away the history of hate by killing the current Kages and unite the world through their shared hate of him. In order to fulfill this goal, he chose to model himself after the ninja he admired most, Itachi. His brother had done everything by himself and allowed the world to think of him as a villain. Just like Itachi, Sasuke would be alone and lose but the rest of the world would be safe and win. 

The flaw in his plan was that Itachi himself admitted that his way of doing things ultimately failed. He lied to and manipulated Sasuke without ever truly trusting him and agrees that he only made things worse. Sasuke was blind to this and wouldn’t be able to change his ways until he was shown that another path could work. Naruto’s path. Unlike in their first fight, Naruto wasn’t concerned with just bringing back Sasuke. He was there to change his heart. Naruto learned about Sasuke from Itachi and others. He listened to Sasuke and had real counterpoints this time. They clashed and read each other's hearts. They understood each other. Sasuke entered that fight with the intention of serving the last of his bonds and being truly alone. Naruto came with all of his bonds and the intention of reestablishing the one he made with Sasuke. At the end of the fight, Sasuke can see where their two paths lead. Sasuke’s ends with him alone in the dark. Naruto’s ends with him standing in the light with the entire world together and eventually Sasuke joins too.

Naruto accomplished something that had never been done before. The world was finally at peace. Real, lasting peace. And it was because he sought understanding and compromise. During his greatest victories, he never saw his opponents as heartless monsters incapable of change. To him, they were each human beings corrupted by the unfair circumstances of the world but still contained so much capacity for good. Naruto the series has a much more realistic depiction of how good triumphs over evil. Crushing the villain, locking them up, or killing them doesn’t remove evil from the world, In most cases and in most instances of the show it only creates more of it. Naruto found strength in the bonds he forged. He believed in himself and his comrades and relied on their support to reach his goals. If this had been the story of pure hard work Naruto would have failed early on. The story of Naruto is about no matter how impossible or daunting the task may seem, the struggle for peace is always worth fighting for. If you stick to your ninja way and never give up you can find that peace.