Die For Our Ship / Naruto

There are very few people in Naruto who do not get bashed for one reason or another in terms of shipping. This is often exacerbated by the main characters often having unrequited love for others, who in turn are in love with a third person, thus resulting in many Love Triangles and characters ending up as potential obstacles for pairings, on top of the debates over who is right for whom.

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• Sakura:
  • Sakura Haruno gets it the worst, having the dual misfortune of being a girl that hangs around boys shipped together (Naruto/Sasuke) and standing in the way of the massively popular Naruto/Hinata. It did not help that for the first half of Naruto, she was a Clingy Jealous Girl to Sasuke.
  • Sasuke himself gets in on the bashing in Chapter 693, when he KO's Sakura with a genjutsu of him stabbing her, then asks Kakashi and Naruto if they really believe he should indulge himself in romance with her after all that has happened, stating he sees no reason for Sakura to love him or he her (Kakashi arguing back that love doesn't need a reason, only hatred does).
• Hinata:
  • Hinata Hyūga is bashed a lot for liking Naruto or her cousin Neji. There are several fics where Hinata finds out that Naruto has the Kyūbi trapped inside him and proceeds to hate or fear him, only to be slapped into shape by Sakura. (The idea was Jossed in Ch. 355-356, when she does not react when it is mentioned around her.) There is also the hate she receives for her characterization as a Shrinking Violet with such fans saying that "she is too weak and shy and does not deserve Naruto". Naruto/Hinata and Naruto/Sakura pairing wars get ugly; it is always assumed that Naruto/Hinata fans bash Sakura (a majority of them do not), and Naruto/Sakura fans bash Hinata (again, a majority of them do not).
  • Has become specially ugly since Naruto saved Hinata's life in the middle of the Shinobi War and proudly acknowledged her as a strong person. The Sasuke/Naruto shippers on several places (specially tumblr) have gone berserk at that, pouring tons of shit on poor Hinata and the NaruHina shippers, never mind that Hinata was actively fighting and the only reason Naruto saved her was because she was overwhelmed with the surprise attack that almost got her killed. Said fans are also often unhappy that Hinata was the one who got Naruto out of his Heroic BSoD caused by Neji's death.
  • Hinata bashing has increased ever since the manga came to an end and the last chapter was a Babies Ever After Distant Finale that depicts Naruto married to Hinata with two children.
  • Many yaoi fangirls tend to to pair Kiba with Hinata at first only for him to realize in the end that she is a manipulative bitch and have him fall in love with Shino or another male character in the end.
• Karin:
  • An even more extreme case than Sakura's is Karin, Sasuke's new teammate, who gets bashed from both SasuSaku and SasuNaru fans, although the former are more virulent about it. Fans often make Karin into an oversexed nympho with constantly opened legs (when she is almost the exact opposite) who tries so hard to "steal Sasuke from his rightful lover Sakura and/or Naruto", especially if the fic's setting is High School. True, Karin's infatuation with Sasuke was unhealthy and obsessive — However, the shippers' attitude towards her still carries a whiff of this trope, since they ignore that most of her antics are Played for Laughs and as more of a character flaw than a marker of being "a bad person", that Sasuke knew about all this when he recruited her for his team, and that beyond this she does genuinely care for him.
  • When Boruto franchise kicked, the hatred for Karin increased. Why? See below for more but there was a canon discrepancy about who is Sasuke's daughter's actual mother, until it turned out to be a Red Herring misunderstanding. And when we though Karin might be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, she was thrown right back into it, with fans wishing to see her crucified and burnt alive despite giving up on Sasuke years ago and becoming Sakura's friend.
• There is a fair amount regarding the Ino/Shikamaru/Temari triangle. Shika/Tema fans often turn Ino into a shallow and shrill bimbo who only thinks of her looks and is way too stupid for Shikamaru. Shika/Ino fans often bash Temari by making her a domineering and cruel Yandere-bitch who stops at nothing to make Shikamaru hers. Things got worse when another girl named Shiho took a romantic interest in Shikamaru, becoming the triangle's Third-Option Love Interest; both Shikamaru/Temari and Shikamaru/Ino fans want her to die in a fire.
• Shino is badly treated in the few fics about Kiba/Hinata. This is odd, because Shino does not seem to have romantic designs on anyone, much less Hinata. It is bad enough that so many characters are treated to Die for Our Ship in favor of the very troubled Sasuke, but Shino is treated to this for a ship on a much more minor scale… seriously. If there was something called shipping dissonance, the Naruto fandom would have it covered.
• Kiba often gets characterized as easily jealous and overprotective of Hinata. Kiba may just be the most bashed male in the series after Sasuke.
• Neji:
  • Neji is sometimes treated poorly in fanfics that pair Hinata with someone else (especially if that someone else is not Naruto), and he is sometimes portrayed as hating Hinata even after his Heel–Face Turn. Oddly, Neji rarely suffers in Tenten/Lee ships.
  • If she is paired with Naruto chances are he wants to kill Naruto for looking at her the wrong way.
• Even minor characters get it. Matsuri appeared as one of two Gaara fangirls in the manga. In a Filler arc of the anime, she had the misfortune of being introduced as the only one willing to accept Gaara as her teacher during a training session. Raging fangirls hate her guts because of the possible Hot for Student-like Ship Tease moments she had with Gaara, something NO other girl on the show ever had. This page shows just how far Fan Dumb can go... Then there are the unfortunate implications that these Gaara "fans" want the only person (besides his siblings, Naruto, and maybe his mentor) that would give him a chance to die. Apparently, they want Gaara to have more reasons to morbidly depressed, lonely, and suicidal. Let the guy have a companion, people. He really needs it. Even more Unfortunate Implications has many often taking the other fangirl, the one with even less characterization (and no potential personal connection to Gaara), and using her as a mouthpiece for bashing Matsuri or even outright as a possession sue to ship with Gaara. Apparently one filler arc of character development is just too much for a girl to have but being almost identically characterized outside of one is okay.
• Sai not only gets criticism from ShikaIno shippers, but also gets lots of flak from NaruHina shippers for telling Sakura how Naruto has feelings for her, even though it is shown later on that he is actually not a Shipper on Deck for them, since he was actually being brutally honest with everything that he said to her. It does not help that he was emotionally repressed and he feel into total stoic mode because the only person he cared for like a brother died. He reads books on relationships and love because he cannot understand it by himself. In the real world, he would have to undergo intense therapy (actually a lot of characters need to). Then there are the fan fics that depict him reading porn that makes him decide to capture a female cast member and try it out on top of the fact he does not know sexual assault is wrong, effectively calling him an ignorant rapist. This is despite the fact that he must already know what sex is because we see him insult Naruto by stating that his "package" must be small. That just indicates that he probably knows what "packages" are for and why it is an insult in the first place.
• Asuma, who along with Kurenai was part of a rare Official Couple in Naruto, gets treated poorly in some fics that pair that her with Kakashi or someone else.
• Sasuke:
  • Sasuke gets this sometimes, too, which is only natural given what a Base-Breaking Character he is - it is not too hard to find people that do not want him anywhere near their preferred girl/couple. This is mostly NaruSaku shippers - which gives them an opportunity to have Sakura realise how much better Naruto would be as a partner (at least when they do not exaggerate it)—which actually makes what happened with Naruto and Sakura in Chapter 469 Hilarious in Hindsight—but some others who are protective of their favourite characters take extra care Sasuke will not dare interfere. Fact is, though, in Fan Fiction it is actually not that hard to emphasize Sasuke's negative traits with a little work, making him a villain handily enough without making him unrecognizable. Sasuke gets turned into a far more horrid individual in so many fanfictions that its rare to find one where he is not a complete monster.
  • The Sasuke/Sakura pairing actually comes under fire quite often even from people with no shipping agenda of their own for either character, simply on the grounds that the pair of them have absolutely no chemistry together whatsoever and Kishimoto writes Sasuke as a completely unlikable douche, making Sakura look genuinely stupid and immature for remaining so hung up on him. The aforementioned Chapter 693 scene and the fact that in the post-series story he at first seems to be a horrifically neglectful and uncaring husband and father almost seems like an in-universe acknowledgement of this line of thinking, which runs roughly "we do not care who Sakura ends up with, but we simply refuse to believe Sasuke is capable of forming a meaningful relationship with anyone."
  • Boruto and Naruto Gaiden made the Sasuke bashing even popular amongst former Sasuke/Sakura fans, who ditched the ship after it was revealed that they have not seen each other in at least 7 years (due to Sasuke being on a special mission only he could do) and Sakura acted as if she didn't even know basic facts about Sasuke. There are numerous stories where his wife splits up with him, usually for Naruto or Kakashi, because she "deserves better" than him.
• Rin, the Combat Medic in training that was in a Power Trio with Kakashi and Obito in the past, got quite a bit of snorts and bashing from fans because of the Love Triangle: Obito liked her, Rin liked Kakashi instead, and Kakashi felt that he could not return her feelings after Obito's death. The heat, however, has started to take quite a bit of sexist-based force after a recent chapter revealed that Obito grew into the very shady and evil Tobi from the Akatsuki as a result of a chain of events that started with his apparent demise, and included Rin's death, which the Fan Dumb interpreted as her being at fault for Obito's Face–Heel Turn and then "translated" into "Fucking bitch, she did not give Obito vagina, now he is evil. IT IS HER FAULT" When in actuality if the two were in anything resembling a serious romantic relationship her death probably would have driven him even MORE nuts, making the hate even more illogical.
• For a time, Minato was officially public enemy #1 in many Naruto/Hinata fans' eyes for asking Sakura if she was Naruto's girlfriend in Chapter 631, comparing her to his wife Kushina and asking her to not hurt his son when she hits him. Most wished he had not said anything at all when they are not calling him an idiot who "does not know anything about Naruto or Sakura". Apparently not knowing anything means he cannot ask questions and take the answers he gets at face value. Not to mention, having been dead for the last 17 years makes it rather difficult for Minato to have already known what was going on.
• Naruto:
  • Naruto gets it almost as bad as Sakura and worse than Sasuke. Sasuke/Sakura fans or Sakura/anyone else fans already see him as an obstacle, but what is really surprising is now Naruto/Hinata fans are giving him this treatment. In Chapter 631 he told his father he considers Sakura his girlfriend ("more or less"), which is blatantly false and egregious because he outright rejected her infamous fake love confession in Chapter 469 and then confirmed that he always knew she only ever loved Sasuke in Chapter 474. He has been called every name in the insult book because of this and now a good chunk of the Naruto/Hinata fanbase wish for his head on a platter (or at least for Hinata to slap him or something.) Of course, this got spectacularly slapped in the face several times over in the following chapters. First, in the very next chapter, when Sakura shows the power of her Yin Seal by demolishing a bunch of Ten-Tail clones, Naruto looks absolutely terrified of her while Sasuke gives her a rather flirty and proud smirk, as shown here◊. Then, in Chapter 677, Naruto and Hinata are revealed to have a deep connection, when she mentally calls out his name in despair as she is caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and he hears her and immediately tries to rush to her aid. Then, in Chapter 691, when Minato's fading away once and for all, and Naruto's telling him how he is following Kushina's advice, when Naruto gets to the part about finding a girl like her, he trails off without thinking about any girl, not even Sakura, whose personality closely resembles Kushina's, and he even concedes that not everything is going as Kushina had hoped. Not only that, but Minato smiles and accepts that Naruto has not found the right girl yet as he promises to tell Kushina everything anyways. In hindsight, Naruto admitting that he has not found a girl like Kushina actually connects to a moment that occurred in Chapter 681, when Naruto told Kaguya that "A mother should be happy when her sons become independent." Finally, in Chapter 699, Naruto is shown sporting a genuinely warm smile as he watches Sasuke apologize to Sakura for everything that he did to her, and then he stands by Hinata's side during Neji's funeral. Given all of this, in retrospect, back in Chapter 631, Naruto was actually not sure of his answer and said what he did because he was put on the spot, which is emphasized by his hesitance and bland facial expression.
  • Fics that pair Hinata with someone other than Naruto tend to have to explain at some point why she is not pursuing or with him. Some may indicate that Hinata decided that she was not actually in love with Naruto, but others kill Naruto off or have him reject her in favor of Sakura without any regard for her feelings.
  • Boruto revealing that Naruto has trouble juggling his home life with his work life only makes things worse for Naruto. He is seen as a terrible father and husband. Cue multiple works having Hinata split up with him for Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba, her own son, etc.
• Chapter 700 revealed the Official Couples to be Naruto and Hinata with a son (Boruto) and a daughter (Himawari), Sasuke and Sakura with a daughter (Sarada), Shikamaru and Temari with a son (Shikadai), Sai and Ino with a son (Inojin), and Chōji and Karui with a daughter (Chōchō). You can imagine how certain fans took THAT. Apparently those same fans actually wanted the manga banned in the U.S. because their pairing was not made Canon and demanded that Kishimoto make an alternate ending with their favorite ship canon. See here. Note the grammatical and spelling errors in the demands made with the petition; it may even be a troll one... one hopes. There is this website aptly named Hall of Anal Devastation. As you might have guessed, it contains all the rage from the NaruSaku shippers.
• Naruto Gaiden kicks off by implying that Sarada might be Karin's daughter with Sasuke, not Sakura's. Tumblr quickly exploded. Sarada underwent a maternity test, and its results state that she is Karin's biological daughter rather than Sakura's. Predictably, Tumblr exploded a-g-a-i-n. At the end of Gaiden it is revealed that the umbilical cord was from Sarada and that Sakura is her biological mother. Karin helped Sakura when she gave birth to Sarada and kept the umbilical cord, so the above "result" was a mistake. Apparently Suigetsu (who performed the test at Sarada's insistence) does not actually understand how DNA works and failed to realize a parent and child will have a 50% match, not 100%. This lead to Tumblr exploding for A THIRD TIME.
• There is a small but vicious contingent of Kakashi/Might Guy fans out there who absolutely loathe Iruka. Kakashi/Iruka fans, meanwhile, usually love Guy. Go figure.
• With next generation pairings we have Sumire, a Hinata-like girl who gets hate from Boruto/Sarada fans due to her romantic feelings for Boruto; It also turns out that while still looking somewhat similar to Hinata, Sumire was only pretending to have a shy personality like Hinata did in her youth.
• Boruto/Sumire and Boruto/Mitsuki fans sometimes hate Sarada for similar reasons to Sakura. Her arguing with Boruto gives shippers bad impressions of her, though at least in Sarada's case Boruto fights with her as well (making their dynamic closer to Naruto and Sasuke).
• Izumi Uchiha, despite only appearing a few times, raised the ire of Itachi/Shisui, Itachi/Sasuke and, more or less, Itachi/Anyone shippers because she had the audacity to be in love with Itachi and he is implied to have felt the same way.

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