 Shinobi are all merely tools in the hands of destiny. Love, empathy, kindness are simply not enough to change the Shinobi world. There are too many institutions across too many nations for Naruto's sole action to cause real change in the Shinobi world. Naruto has always been a story about the institutions that govern and rule over their lives, and even after he has saved the world, children still continue to exist as soldiers for their nations. The Land of Waves arc is a masterful intro as it sets the tone for this series. It's an introduction to the injustices that plague the Naruto world, beginning with Tazuna, the bridge builder. Their very first mission already examines how Gato has taken control of the Land of Waves economy and has hired Zabuza to kill the man trying to revitalize it. We then meet the demon of the hidden mist, we learn about his upbringing, about having to kill over a hundred classmates to become a fully fledged ninja. We learn about Haku being born with a keke genkai and being hunted down by his own father and family, until he is left abandoned and homeless. Zabuza then goes on to recruit Haku, and the two become hired tools forced to repress their humanity to fulfill their duties. Haku, who was too gentle, too kind for the shinobi world, would do anything for the person most precious to him, even if it broke his heart. Haku sacrifices himself for Zabuza, and Gato then kicks Haku's dead body. Zabuza's only response to this is that he used Haku just like he was used, as this is the life of a ninja. They are but tools to be used and discarded. Naruto, when he comes across Haku's reaction to Haku's death, or his lack of reaction, he is appalled. Appalled that shinobi become emotionless when they attain a certain level of strength. Appalled that there was truly no love for the boy who sacrificed his own life for the only person who made him feel precious in that world. Naruto is moved to tears, eventually sobbing because Haku died while living under such circumstances. In this arc they learn that this is the life of a shinobi, being an emotionless tool. Kakashi says that a ninja shouldn't be concerned with the reason of their own existence, no matter the nation. It is more important that they live only as tools to be used for their villages, regardless of the circumstances. Even the rough and hardened Sasuke has a hard time believing that this is the system he has subscribed to. Any questions his teacher about it? Kakashi responds that all ninja live their lives with that ideal bubbling beneath the surface of their minds, disturbing them, like it did Zabuza. All shinobi, all people beneath the surface, yearn to be valued beyond their abilities. They desire to survive and live meaningful, fulfilling lives because they are humans at the end of the day. Shinobi exist in a system that profits off war and violence. Their means of survival are by taking on missions where they have to kill or protect. Powerful shinobi demand a high price because their profits can possibly bolster a nation's economy, so a shinobi's value is measured by their strength. So if their worth is only determined by what they can bring to their nation, if a shinobi exists purely to fight, what are they when there are no wars left to fight? Who are they and how can they live during times of peace? The land of waves arc was only the introduction to the cruelty of this system. The very next arc is the revered Chunian exams. We learn that the Chunian exams' real purpose is to gain a chance to supplement a village's economy. The third Hokage says the exams are a miniature war between the allied lands. The real winners of the Chunian exams are not the Gening being promoted, instead it's once again the institutions. Because of its significant viewership among the distinguished guests of these nations, the villages with the best showings, whoever has the strongest shinobi, become more alluring to the noblemen of these lands. These powerful shinobi and the shinobi from these nations will be quick to get commissioned, showing off to all the other nations that not only are they the most powerful, but they are also quite wealthy in coin and political power. The lands that lose or have a weak showing expose themselves to their neighboring nations, revealing their susceptibility in combat and potentially in war. All of this is to be gained over children fighting. Why is it necessary to stake our lives? Kiba asks. That is the life of a shinobi. They are nothing but tools to a village, means of a country. Hirizen goes on to say that preserving the balance of power at the risk of lives is the essence of friendship in the world of shinobi. Power, money and influence are paramount. Their individual lives mean nothing. Their friendship means nothing. Their bonds mean nothing. Look at Sakumo Hatake. He was shunned so badly for choosing his comrades over the mission that he took his own life. The village repeatedly demands its shinobi to choose their nation over any individual bonds that they have fostered. It's why they have no problem ostracizing someone like Naruto or Sasuke, because they don't provide any sort of monetary contribution to their village. So they don't matter. Anyone who doesn't help in bolstering their economy does not matter. Naruto is the first to understand that, and he learns that he isn't the only one in their village who's been dealt a poor hand by the institutions that oversee their lives. During the exams, Neji recounts to the Jinsureki the story of the Hukuklan, how the side branch of the family had essentially become slaves to the main branch, threatening them with curse marks that can cause intense pain, and even death when commanded. A curse mark that is branded upon their third birthday. Three years old, and they have to give up their autonomy. All weather third hokage stood idly by allowing this to happen within clans. Naruto's teacher was Kakashi, and I'm sure he knows about his teacher's troubled past. He goes on to meet Obito, another victim of the cruel system, and he watched his two best friends suffer at the hands of the world right before his eyes. What becomes apparent is that the Leaf is amongst this world's greatest offenders, despite its pleas for loyalty. Further, they are some of the greatest oppressors when it comes to harming other shinobi, and because they always have the most powerful shinobi, the most powerful tailed beast, no one can truly stand against them. The will of fire began as an ideal that Ashura followed, seeking strength through love and preaching the importance of bonds, as opposed to viewing only strength as a way to gain peace. Pain is the one who mentions that the will of fire is now used to justify senseless murder and war, and we see how it's used to justify the extermination of Kono's own shinobi clans. Anyone who is against the will of fire, or doesn't immediately adhere to it, essentially becomes an enemy of the village. The way the former Hokage speak about Uchiha and shinobi in general is telling. Tobirama says that the Uchiha are a clan possessed by evil, calling Sasuke a scoundrel without even ever having spoken to him. And the quote, good ones, are the ones who choose the village over their families. To him, people who are comfortable accepting the blatant segregation and disrespect of their own clans were acceptable. They were the good ones. The third Hokage says that Itachi was never bound by the quote trappings of the clan. He was just another willing to blindly accept the will of fire over his own flesh and blood, but Itachi's case is particular. At 7 years old, because of the bloodshed he saw, said that Itachi thought like a Hokage. The third found the perfect candidate to mold and to manipulate, to become a weapon against even his own people. That's glossing over the massive role that Donzo played in manipulating the then 13 year old. Hashirama praises Itachi who slaughtered his clan at 13 years old for the village. Hashirama, the same man who created the village so that children may retain their innocence and not become fully fledged shinobi before they can even drink. The same man who had to bury his siblings, some as young as 7 years old. This is the village he has become so proud of. After Naruto is disgusted with the true purpose of shinobi, he vows to become his own kind of shinobi. He prides himself on being a radically different ninja. After the land of waves is revelation and after the chewing exams is real purpose, the true darkness of this world would continue to expose itself to him everywhere. Naruto comes across Gaara. Much like his own story, the fourth kaze kage sealed a tailed beast into his own son so he could one day serve as a weapon for the village. As the sand village's budget was cut, they needed a source of strength. The same kaze kage then tried six times to kill Gaara because he was a quote failed experiment, his own son. Much like Naruto's, Gaara's manufactured loneliness led Gaara to a place of hatred, anger, and violence. It's not only in the leaf that these organizations disregard their own. It's every single shinobi village. The very idea of Agen Shuriki is outrageous. Placing their country's military power into a child and raising them to become weapons. Some even die trying to tame the beasts inside of them. And aside from B and Naruto, the rest of them are hunted and killed. This world values military might over the lives of the children they implant these beasts in. After Gaara, he meets pain. He learns about how the great nations' battles destroyed the village hidden in the rain. How Konoha and others left them orphaned. Their lands pillaged, their people impoverished. It was Donzo of the Leaf who orchestrated the plot to destroy the peace that Yahiko and their Akatsuki sought. The plot that had Yahiko killed. All so that power could be held by Hanzo and so that Donzo could try and usurp the Hokage seat. Nagato tells Naruto that the peace large nations enjoy only exists due to the smaller nations' sacrifices. And these sacrifices are their very lives. They manufacture these wars so they can profit and grow their economy. The commissions that these citizens pay to Konoha become war funds. Here Naruto learns that Shinobi have always been deceitful and power hungry. Always. Because that is the nature of their existence. Greedy people who live to fight will always find a way to create another war to profit from. Naruto learns on a macro level the politics of the Shinobi world. A world plagued by darkness. A genuinely selfish world and Konoha stands at the forefront. When he returns to the Leaf after defeating pain, he's praised as a hero. He's acknowledged and applauded for the first time in his life. This is everything he's wanted, right? But he's only praised because now he has value to the Leaf. All those people who shunned him and disrespected him, they don't ever apologize. They never recognize that no child should be allowed to be punished by their own people in that way. That no child should feel superfluous and question their own existence. The third time he reunites with Sasuke, he learns about how the Uchiha has been wronged by their village. He now sees his best friend as a true victim of the Shinobi world. He learns about the false dilemma Itachi was placed in. Yet he doesn't once think about the integrity of their village. He never reflects on the actions of the second or third Hokage. And that very same man turned out to be the one who approved the order for Itachi to exterminate his own people. He isn't incensed and outraged by the fact that Sasuke's clan was killed and yet he was the one who got shunned for it. All of this, all of it isn't enough for Naruto to seek radical change. To me, this isn't the same kid who wanted to write his own path. Naruto was empathetic and loving enough to listen and pull so many individuals out of the self-harming darkness. Still, he wasn't at all angry at any of the systems that created all of their situations. At the institution that created his own. How Naruto can still call Konoha home and remain loyal to it after so many transgressions against not only him, but so many of the people he had encountered is beyond me. Right before the war, Naruto confronted this dark Naruto. The reflection at the waterfall that was supposed to represent his inner desires. Naruto overcomes him, but the mere existence of this side of him only proved that there was so much rage and hatred towards the villagers and the village that he had suppressed. And never once did he desire to change the world that made him this way. I think Naruto should have hated the leaf more. He should have despised these people. The village that shunned him and let him live in that place that loneliness he calls hell. They left him there to rot and waste away. And maybe if he didn't have Iruka and Sasuke, he would have died because of the beast inside. Or maybe he would have turned out like Gaara or Sasuke. To me, he should have despised this world and their system and their elders because they took his father and mother away from him. Don't get me wrong. Naruto saved the world. He brought peace to the shinobi world and united the great nations. This was an incredible feat in the face of mortal danger. He lived up to being the child of prophecy. More than that, he was a great, loving friend. When Sasuke was trying to sever his bonds and hold the weight of the world's darkness on his own shoulders, Naruto wouldn't allow his best friend to take on such hardships and risk his own sanity and joy and livelihood returning to that hell. That's the kind of friend he is. Love is enough to save the world, but it isn't enough to change it. This series constantly preaches about aiding the next generation. Change helps the next generation more than anything. This peace that Naruto brought was temporary. These nations were only united because they had enemies in common. Sasuke was right on that front. After saving the world, mankind's nature has not just magically become peaceful, no longer seeking power or wealth. These are problems that will always arise. To quote Kwame Turei, you can have peace and have injustice. Peace isn't the answer. Again, Sasuke was absolutely correct in his idea to dismantle the Shinobi world as well. Nagato was correct in his idea to dismantle the Shinobi world. Love is not enough to end the cycle of hatred. It requires action, revolution. What would have truly changed the world would have been to pummel these very systems that have defined every aspect of his life and the lives he was so empathetic towards? The one common link between every single person he's listened to, Haku, Neji, Gaara, Nagato, Sasuke, his own life, etc. is that the Shinobi and their creed and their lust for power, money, war have destroyed their lives. Whether it's the very existence of child soldiers, the killing of classmates, the Janchiriki or whatever, we can even look at Sasuri of the Akatsuki who was left incredibly lonely by the Shinobi world or Kakazu whose failure in his village's appointed mission led to his imprisonment. Kisame who killed his own comrades to ensure a successful mission. There's one common denominator. At the end of the war, Naruto and Sasuke stood at the top of the world. The two most powerful Shinobi in the world. They had the power to topple these institutions. Kato and Sasuke, united in their loneliness, united in their anger and their spite towards the system that has caused them to live through that hell that is loneliness, finally have the strength to make real meaningful change. They have the power to choke the war market, to control wars, power to truly change the world. And they did nothing. The same kid who wept after discovering that a lonely child soldier died being a tool to a system that never cared for him. A kid who vowed to take a different approach. Naruto, a victim himself of the Shinobi world and his best friend suffered greatly at the hands of this system. This darkness that he constantly talks about Sasuke having, he has the chance to destroy the reason for it. I think saving his best friend was a great act of friendship, a great act of love, but bringing down the very reason for his suffering, for his own suffering, would be the greatest act of love, I think. That would be truly understanding Sasuke at his core, his desires and his motivations. Naruto was supposed to be this radically different ninja, one who forced all those with and against him to be more than tools. And yet Naruto continues to exist and thrive in a system that would only destroy the next wave of children. A system he now encourages. Naruto and Sasuke don't get to topple the institutions that ruin their lives. There is no revolt, no revolution. Shinobi continue to exist as tools. For me in this aspect, Kishimoto failed Naruto and Sasuke.