Naruto is like an abusive boyfriend.
In the beginning, it seems fun and you're excited and there's so many different paths you can take together and the opportunities seem endless.
But then things start to go downhill. It might hurt you once, and you'll forgive it because you know the promise of a happy life is still there. It'll hurt you again, and you might question once or twice where this is going, but you have those fond memories of the beginning of the adventure, and all the hopes and dreams you once had, and you hold onto them. No one said the path to happiness was going to be without a few bumps.
So time passes, and it doesn't seem to get better. But you know, based on what you've seen and experienced, that it could get better, so you remain optimistic. But slowly, one by one, each path you once sought out is being destroyed and removed. You try to hope and pray that new paths will appear for your relationship, but alas, nothing does sprout up. You're forced on a single path that doesn't look bright. But you remain hopeful because you know, somewhere deep down, you once felt happiness for it, and you can do it again.
More time passes, and you start to tell yourself that despite the constant disappointment, the pain, and the hurt, that making it this far is an accomplishment in it of itself. The path ahead is barely a path, it's just a bunch of crap and you want to believe that any kind of hope for a better adventure is simply out of your viewpoint for the moment. But you know you're lying to yourself.
You stick with it, despite all the pain and hurt, because...well, you don't quite know anymore. You've invested years into this relationship and you start to wonder how you ever believed you could be happy with this considering where it's gotten you. You want to feel that familiar essence of hopefulness before an adventure begins, but you can't. You know you were happy once, but you don't know how you did it, and replicating it only seems impossible. Not even your memories can offer any solace to this never-ending spiral of pain.
And then it does end. The last hope at having something fun and exciting is finally snuffed out, but there is no solace or relief. It's over, and you're still standing, but you feel so cheated. So deprived, and empty and hollow. You want to believe that lasting this long is a testament to your strength, but you realize you could've left at any time, but chose not to. You don't know why, and not being able to come up with an answer as to why you didn't just walk away tears you up inside.
So you try to continue on living. You know you can be happy again, but there will always be that cancerous gap in your past you'll never be able to get rid of, no matter how exciting your future might be.
That is what it's like to watch/read Naruto: Shippuden.
