Warning: This will contain a fair amount of ranting, even more than before.
Hinata regains consciousness in the hospital, with the medics tending to her. She’s consumed with despair and shame over her defeat in the match. She believes her father was right, and she’s nothing more than a stain on the main family, a weakling who denied Neji his place. She even wishes she had died, so that she could stop being such a failure and die with some honor.
This is completely and utterly the opposite of the canon match, in which Hinata’s persistence and Naruto’s cheering her on inspires her to start to like herself; having stood up for as long as she did against Neji, she realizes that not everything is hopeless, and that she has value in Naruto’s eyes, if not her father’s. This alone is quite depressing.
Naruto is sent home after three days of waiting for Hinata to wake up. Naruto, missing Hinata and feeling it’s wrong to train without her, is in no mood to do so, but Guy insists that he do so, to repay him for warning him about Gaara.
Naruto notices that neither of them mentioned Neji, and is pleased for that. He also notices that he’s being worked so hard he can’t think about Hinata.
Shino trains with his kamas, pondering what had happened. He wants a shot at Neji, but realizes that Naruto would have to lose to him first, and does not want that to happen.
The Third Hokage reviews many missives that discuss complaints about the outcome of the Chunin Exam preliminaries, specifically Sasuke Uchiha failing to make it through. The narrative mocks them, saying that they should realize that a rookie taking the Chunin Exam is all but unheard of, and that all of Team 7 being eliminated is a good reality check for the three of them and Kakashi, again making the unsubstantiated allegation that he slacks off on his team, albeit while not doing the related and equally idiotic claim that he favors Sasuke.
On the one hand, none of the villagers saw anything, as the preliminaries don't have outside spectators, so they are making their claims without evidence. On the other hand, without seeing anything, it’s possible they can assume that something suspicious happened. In any case, all this comes off as gratuitous bashing of Team 7 and justifying how the Naruto vs. Sasuke fight turned out.
Hinata wakes up with Kurenai in her hospital room, and apologizes to Kurenai. Kurenai, however, wastes little time laying into Hinata, calling her out on her recklessness in trying to fight against Neji when she was on the brink of death and accusing her of wanting to die. While Hinata’s lack of self-worth needs to be addressed, this comes off as an inappropriately harsh tone to take when Hinata just barely survived, and is deeply ashamed over what had happened.
Kurenai then tells Hinata that she will likely not ever return to active duty, not because of her injuries, but because of her state of mind, and accuses her of not caring about what her teammates think about her, noting that Naruto nearly forfeited his match because of her (and this is after telling Naruto to spare Hinata this distress), and that Shino made a death threat against Neji (I have to wonder if the author having her bring this up is proof that we're not supposed to approve), adding that she should have considered they would react this way.
Kurenai has a decent point, since people who commit suicide often leave behind loved ones, and it seems somewhat unfair for them to do that to those who cherish them, even if the suicidal people believe their lives have degenerated to the point in which they’re no longer worth living.
Of course, this doesn’t justify her harshly dressing down Hinata when Hinata’s at such a low point, or Hinata’s belief that no one would care if a failure like her die (especially having seen how much Naruto cares for her), and that because she can’t defeat her cousin or little sister, is worthless and should never have been born.
Kurenai gets to the heart of the matter and asks who told Hinata she was worthless, and Hinata silently confirms that Kurenai’s correct- it was her father. Hinata, however, seems to believe that her father’s opinion matters more, even though Naruto has spent time with her every day. Kurenai leaves Hinata to think about that.
Kurenai ponders that Hinata would have been happier if her father had died instead of her mother, and, upset by what she had to do, vomits into a toilet and cries.
Kurenai came off as overly harsh, and it doesn’t sit well with me that again, she has to be the one to preach to Hinata about where she’s gone wrong, and tell her things Hinata should be able to realize herself. A more compassionate tone would probably have worked better, rather than accusing Hinata of causing problems for her friends.
The scene shifts to Neji, who took a leave of absence to spar with Hiashi. Paradoxically, while Hiashi is far crueler than in canon, he’s taking the time to train Neji, something he doesn’t do until just before the timeskip, after undergoing Character Development he'll never experience here. Guy is apparently not happy with what Neji did to Hinata, which is a nice touch.
Neji is disdainful of Hinata, for failing to graduate at the top of her class, and for giving in to emotions and struggling to defeat him; apparently, even the villains are disapproving of Hinata’s persistence. He believes that while the matchups rather than one’s ability determined the winner, her defeat was fate, and she deserved to lose. He is also contemptuous of his teammates for not sharing his views, and considers getting a transfer away from them.
Kurenai visits Naruto, approving of his progress and suggesting that closer to the matches, they will have to decide their strategies against their opponents. Naruto is pleased to hear that Hinata is well enough to see visitors, and sends a clone to get ramen, knowing from personal experience that hospital food is bad.
Naruto reaches the hospital room and finds Hinata. The state she is in upsets him, and he wants to make Neji pay, but he suppresses that so as not to upset her. Unfortunately, Hinata soon starts to cry, and Naruto is left at a loss for how to deal with her. He learns that one of her lungs was ruptured, but that’s not all.
Hinata apologizes to Naruto for her selfishness, and says Kurenai is disappointed in her. She apologizes for not caring if Neji kills her, and decides to tell Naruto now in case Kurenai has her removed from the team. Naruto is determined to not allow that to happen, and goes to talk with Kurenai. Kurenai’s approach, lambasting someone who already has a severe case of self-loathing, clearly does not seem to be helping.
Kurenai anticipates Naruto’s response, and readily shoots down all his arguments. Unable to fight back, Naruto infers that this has to do with her family, and while he is correct, he doesn’t know what to do next.
Naruto is completely unsuited for training with Guy and Lee, and they let him go early. Naruto meets with Shino, who spoke with Hinata. Shino suggests that professionals can help her, but Naruto suggests that being separated from the team would, in and of itself, kill her. Naruto decides to fix the problem, and is slightly surprised that he’s the one to do it, saying Shino is smarter. Shino tells him intelligence isn’t everything, and Naruto needs only to listen to Hinata.
Hinata recalls speaking with Shino, who's fairly understanding, and wonders if he’s trying to be nice, but doubts it. She ponders what her future would be like if she were no longer able to be a ninja.
Naruto then arrives, and tells her that he knows something is wrong, and that it is not necessarily her. He says he doesn’t have a family, but he’s wanted one, and wants her to tell him about the Hyuugas.
Two hours later, Naruto gets the entire answer. He gets some of the history of the clan, but no stories about Hinata’s family. When Hinata gets a coughing fit, Naruto vows to kill Neji at the finals, but Hinata begs him not to, telling him Neji’s backstory in the process. This answers many of Naruto’s questions, but he still can’t understand why Hinata is viewed as a failure.
Visiting hours end, and Naruto meets with Iruka, who is still recovering, and who bet a lot of money on Naruto on the preliminaries.
Naruto and Iruka reach Ichiraku, and discuss Hinata, and Iruka points out that all his students have problems with their home lives, and he tries to make school a haven for them. He adds that sometimes, you can only let people know what help is available.
After breaking a bone while practicing with Lee and Guy,Naruto gets some clones to bring Hinata flowers from the Yamanaka shop, a book on Strong Fist katas. He then gives her some ramen.
This chapter infuriated me for several reasons. Initially, it was Kurenai’s haughty attitude toward laying into Hinata, with so few people able to challenge her on her points, but on further reflection, Hinata’s attitude is worse. One defeat knocked her back to a self-destructive and self-loathing state, when in canon, she had started to gain confidence and live up to her potential as a result of being able to try hard here. This reeks of characters being derailed for an author tract, especially with the note he makes to justify all this.
Some say that Hinata gets to do more in this fic than in canon, having a more active role in combat and more success. But this fic also takes away a great deal of Hinata’s drive to improve herself, and portrays what remains as a flaw indicative of a suicidal desire for the approval of her demonized and abusive father, or a noble death if nothing else. And Hinata’s improved combat skills did little good against Neji, who still defeated her handily and walked away, unimpressed, leaving Naruto to handle Neji in her place.
So Hinata has grown more powerful as a ninja, at the cost of becoming a far weaker individual, devoid of most of the strength she acquired, and most of the drive she had from the beginning. It’s honestly not worth the trade, and this is not the same Hinata who impressed me with her resolve, kindness and understanding of Naruto.
The author then justifies his having Naruto defeat Sasuke, mentioning several factors. As I said before, while they’re all valid, and Naruto would probably have won, it wouldn’t have gone down to one punch. Sasuke is yet another casualty of the author's favoritism and desire to make a point- this time, against Team 7.
Sorry for the rant; I had to get this out of my system. It’s somewhat amazing that I hated this chapter even more than the first time I read it.
Now that I’ve calmed down, I can picture Kurenai asking me "Would you rather hear me tear into Hinata for what she’s done or see her Stuffed into the Fridge to motivate Naruto to kill Neji?" To that, I say, neither one. I want to see Hinata’s dedication respected and ultimately rewarded. I want to see her believe in herself as much as I believe in her. I want to see her become a strong ninja and prove her naysayers wrong. I want her to stand alongside the canon Hinata without existing to overshadow the character who inspired this portrayal of her, but as a heroine who does justice to the original and who serves well in a larger story. I don’t want to see her killed off , become an extension of Naruto, or used as a means of proving a point.
Some may wonder why I’m still doing this. There are many reasons; I enjoy writing my thoughts about this fic and some people may enjoy reading them. But the most relevant reason is that I decided to see this project through to the end. I may risk and sacrifice little, but I take this promise seriously, and will continue onward; you could call that my ninja way.
What I liked
- Neji facing more disapproval for his actions than in canon.
- Hinata getting support from Naruto
What I didn’t like
- Hinata regressing into self-loathing.
- Kurenai tearing into Hinata and being treated as entirely right.
- Some bashing of Sasuke and Team 7.
- Really, I said it all the first time.
Comments
- slow clap*
I agree with that rant so much. I was so pissed at Kurenai for making that speech. And Hinata's complete lack of a spine is ridiculous. She's not learning from Naruto and getting stronger, she's just using him as an emotional crutch now.