+Themes Part 1: Sakura and Naruto’s Dedication+ Now we move on to one of the themes of the Naruto manga itself—there are two I want to focus on specifically. The first one is going to be the overall resounding theme of Part Two. There are multiple themes in part 2, but the main theme is bringing Sasuke back to Konoha. Naruto left to train for two years for the sole purpose of retrieving Sasuke. Sakura went into tutelage under Tsunade in order to retrieve Sasuke. Naruto has made a promise of a lifetime to Sakura. Sakura has made a promise to Naruto, and both promises revolve around bringing Sasuke back.
After the bell training and in the subsequent chapters afterward, we were given multiple pieces of evidence that the overall goal of both Sakura and Naruto was to bring Sasuke back. This goal hasn’t changed at all for either one of them. Since there is a picture limit, I can only focus on some of this with scan correspondence. The first one I want to mention is Sakura’s dedication to retrieving Sasuke; most of her proof came before anything of Naruto’s dedication came into canon..
Sakura went into training under Tsunade in order to become stronger so she can Naruto could bring Sasuke back together; the failure of both of them to make Sasuke stay in Konoha when they went about it on their own (which corresponds much with the Sannin story and legend—no one person is strong enough to overpower the other two) showed them both, I believe, that if they were going to get Sasuke back, they had to do it together—use the teamwork Kakashi had taught them, and focus their lives to bringing him back. If you’re not dedicated, you can’t do it.
Post-timeskip Sakura is equipped with tons of skills she learned through some pretty laborious training—she has medical ninjutsu and inhumane strength rivaling Tsunade, an increasingly smart mind capable of controlling her outward emotions, and still has natural genjutsu skill. It has already been mentioned that she may/may have already surpassed Tsunade. The Sakura we knew pre-timeskip was nothing special; she was just breaking out of her self-set barriers and gaining the courage and mental stability needed to become a successful kunoichi. Out of all the original members of Team 7, she had grown the most.
During the travel toward Sunagakure in order to help Kankuro and save Gaara, Sakura’s thoughts are solely on Akatsuki, and the way they are a link to Sasuke. We’re shown that she hasn’t just been training in those two years—she has been dedicated enough to getting Sasuke back that she’s been reading Tsunade’s notes and researching outside of her training as much as she possibly could.
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Besides just being centered around Sasuke, she did say she was going to save both Naruto and Sasuke—but for the point of this essay, I’m focusing on the fact that she did so much research. Sakura didn’t need to do this if all she wanted to do was become strong to find Sasuke—she went out of her way not only to train herself to find him, but to make sure she was prepared for what they could face when they did find him, and where they could start looking. That’s dedication.
Her battle with Sasori also brought up clues. Sakura’s true strength during her battle with Sasori did not appear until she found out Sasori had connections to Orochimaru—just like she had predicted earlier (Akatsuki having connections to Orochimaru, who would have connections to Sasuke). She was, for lack of a better word, worried that she wasn’t skilled enough to fight him, and allowed Chiyo to take control of the battle and direct her.
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After she realized what Sasori had the potentiality to know, Sakura was ready to fight. She had made a promise to Naruto, to help bring Sasuke back, and she had promised herself at the same time that she would be the one to save him (and Naruto). This was what gave her the power and will to fight Sasori—she wanted information, and quite obviously, she had been willing to give her life for it.
Now lets skip ahead to the formation of Team Kakashi. It is here that we see the beginning of Naruto’s dedication to Sasuke, and Sakura’s ability to not only mask her emotions, but fool others. The moment itself is a testament of Naruto and Sakura’s joint dedication to Sasuke, but also shows us all just how important he was to Naruto—to the point that, even before Sai begins to badmouth him, Naruto wants no part of someone trying to take Sasuke’s place. In his heart, the only true fourth member of Team 7 is Sasuke—Team Kakashi is not going to be an exception, either. In Naruto’s mind, Sasuke should be there.
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Also in this scene we get another taste of Sakura’s violently strong dedication to Sasuke. It’s obvious, by this scene alone, that she’s been hiding a lot of feelings herself and is fiercely dedicated to Sasuke still. She’s willing to protect Naruto, and instead of allowing him to deal with the situation that’s aggravating her as well, she steps in and deals with it for him. The scene, if nothing else, proved to me that both Naruto and Sakura hadn’t given up on Sasuke, and wouldn’t deal with anyone who was willing to bad mouth him.
If they hadn’t give up on him yet, then no one else should give up on him either. Naruto and Sakura both haven’t given up Sasuke’s position in their lives to anyone else.
From this point on, I’m shifting over to Naruto’s dedication—with a few sparse moments of Sakura. Naruto showed us through his interactions with Sai that he had yet to give up on Sasuke, or to cut Sasuke out of his life. He and Sakura both, to begin with, are only willing to work with Sai for the sole purpose of bringing Sasuke back. They don’t like him, but they’re willing to deal with him if it means bringing Sasuke back to Konoha.
When they meet with Orochimaru on the bridge, Naruto loses his self control. Using Sasuke’s name to taunt him, both Kabuto and Orochimaru manage to push Naruto over the edge. Just Sasuke’s name, and speaking of him as if he belongs to Orochimaru, is enough to erupt a rage in Naruto so strong he lets Kyuubi take control of him. This shows just how fiercely dedicated to Sasuke Naruto is—he may not have understood the possible outcome of himself pulling so much power from Kyuubi, but Naruto wanted to get Sasuke back, and he was going to do it by any way he could—even if it meant pulling power from the creature within him that made the village hate him in the first place.
He had, effectively, become the monster they feared him to be—but he didn’t care, because this was for Sasuke. And I apologize for poor, poor quality of the scans associated with this.
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It isn’t until after he finds out about what he does in this form that Naruto decides not to draw on Kyuubi’s power—he’s hurting the people he cares about, and has the potential to kill them. He doesn’t want to hurt Sakura again—and if he was to go into 4-tailed Kyuubi form, what’s to say he won’t accidentally kill Sasuke when he’s trying to save him?
Now I’m skipping far ahead to Naruto’s training with Kakashi. While Sakura submerses herself in books trying to find a reason for Sasuke’s impossible amount of strength, Naruto is off training so he has the power to stop him. We see the sadness in his eyes when he realizes that his strength with wind could be used to help Sasuke fight, and make them a great team—where as now he has to use it against Sasuke if he ever wants to get him back.
The training Naruto subjects himself to here is tiring and exhausting, but he does it all with the goal in mind that he will develop something that will allow him to surpass or stop Sasuke, no matter what the costs. The level he’s at now isn’t enough. It’s this drive that keeps Naruto awake at night, and brings him to setting near impossible goals and performing beyond his body’s actual limit—to the point he’s almost incapable of movement before he stops to eat with Kakashi and Yamato.
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We also get a short shot of Sakura crying over the Team 7 photograph. Take this as you will, it still involves dedication to Sasuke. She misses the old days of Team 7 when Sasuke was still around; she wants those days back. She misses him. And she cries because, although they got close enough to touch him, they weren’t capable of bringing him back. After Team 10’s arc, and Naruto creating a new jutsu for their battle to find Sasuke, we get a short moment of Naruto and Sakura at the hospital which showed that they were far from giving up on Sasuke—Naruto reminded Sakura that the fact he’d created this jutsu made him feel that they were getting closer to bringing Sasuke back.
+Themes Part 2: Naruto and Becoming Hokage+ I left this point for last because I’m going to use it to tie in everything else. The overall theme and goal of Naruto is “being accepted”, and Naruto wants to do that by becoming Hokage. It’s been his goal, and he’s been stating it on and off throughout the series from the very beginning. However, in Part 2, it hasn’t been mentioned nearly as much as it was in Part 1. Naruto mentioned it when he found out Gaara had become Kazekage. The next time his goal was mentioned was during the reunion with Sasuke.
After Sasuke had come down from his perch above Team Kakashi, he continued to state that he would kill Naruto on a whim—and then mentioned that his goal was to become Hokage, telling him that instead of searching for him he should have been training to reach his goal—which, in a way, almost sounds like he was asking Naruto to stop so they could both go after their personal goals. Naruto’s response is what makes this so poignant.
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“As if someone who can’t even save a friend could become Hokage.”
Naruto’s ultimate goal is to become Hokage, and he’s weighing this on if he can save Sasuke or not. The friend he needs to save is Sasuke—no one else is in trouble, and no one else has been his driving force all this time. It’s always been Sasuke. In Naruto’s mind, if he can’t save Sasuke, then he can’t become Hokage.
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