EXTENDED INFO; PERSONALITY + HISTORY + PREVIOUS GAME (constantly being editted)
CANON HISTORY
(extremely abridged; if you don't know the canon and don't want to trudge through volumes of convolution and need to ask something for plot purposes, don't hesitate to ask!)
Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage of Konoha; when he was born, Naruto was used as a vessel for sealing away the Kyuubi, an enormous and terrifyingly powerful fox demon with nine tails. As a result he was shunned as a monster by most of the village growing up, but didn't learn the truth of why until he was 12 and trying to become a ninja. He dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village and the greatest ninja in the country, so that people will acknowledge him and his worthwhile existence, and also to protect the village he loves.
After graduating Ninja Academy at 12, he gets put onto a 3 man team with his crush Sakura Haruno, his rival Sasuke Uchiha, and an eccentric but powerful jounin Kakashi. Though teamwork is extremely poor at first, bonds form between the kids as they go through missions together. Sakura learns to appreciate Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke fight, Kakashi rolls his eyes and life goes on. They enter the Chuunin Exams and experience many triumphs and horrors. The Sand Country ninja stage a coup and try to take over Konoha under orders from the Kazekage, who was actually the ~*evil*~ Orochimaru in disguise. Naruto fights Gaara, another jinchuuriki, who was on the rampage and had let his monster loose, reaching out to someone who shared the same pain. Naruto succeeded in calming Gaara, saving them both and the village.
Then Itachi Uchiha shows his face again in Konoha. Sasuke was actually starting to improve as a person in his time with Team 7, but once the brother he wants to kill showed up, all bets were off. He was furious that Itachi only wanted Naruto (not knowing it was the Kyuubi he was after), and Sasuke spiralled out of control at frightening speed. He didn't seem to care about the mark given to him by Orochimaru until Itachi showed up, but now Sasuke decides to leave Konoha to pursue Orochimaru and the power offered. Naruto gathered a team of his friends to chase after Sasuke, and one by one they fell by one to take down one of the ninja guarding and carrying Sasuke.
Sasuke and Naruto have an epic, soul-baring, heart-breaking conversation/fight that lasts for what one can assume to be HOURS, due to the boys' equaled power. Naruto does everything he can to convince Sasuke not to leave; fighting him, admitting that he sees Sasuke as a brother. But while Sasuke does seem surprised, he doesn't change his resolve. So they continue to fight...but are unable to kill one another. They change the paths of their ultimate attacks at the last moment. Naruto is knocked out, but Sasuke leaves the village, possibly for good.
Naruto also leaves the village, but for training. He goes on a journey with Jiraiya for almost three years to become stronger, so he can eventually bring Sasuke back. Sasuke's betrayal has left Naruto slightly obsessed. After reuniting with Sakura and Kakashi, they set off for Sunagakure because of a plea for help, as Gaara had been attacked and kidnapped by Akatsuki. They join with Chiyo, a retired matriarch, and with her help Sakura is able to defeat Sasori. Naruto and Kakashi try to "defeat" Deidara, but unfortunately without their knowing it was only a kagebunshin that self-detonated. Gaara was saved thanks to Chiyo's forbidden life exchange jutsu. Team 7 returned home.
Because he strained his Sharingan too much, Kakashi stayed in the village to recover, and was replaced by an ANBU shinobi, codenamed Yamato. Sasuke's place in Team 7 was also filled by a boy named Sai, from a secret ANBU sub-organization known as ROOT. Sasori, in his last moments, had divulged that he was meeting a spy of his regarding Orochimaru in a few days. The reformed team set out to capture and extract information from this spy, who turns out to be Kabuto. It quickly goes downhill, as Orochimaru quickly joins Kabuto, who had never been loyal to Sasori. It doesn't take Naruto long to completely lose control and draw out four tails of Kyuubi chakra. He goes on an absolute destructive rampage, and after a struggle he's knocked out and returned to normal. The team takes very little time to recover before speeding to the hidden base location that Kabuto revealed.
They find Sasuke. But he isn't happy about it. They beg him to come back, and he brushes them off with no remorse. It leaves Naruto depressed; that he's weak, and he can't save Sasuke. So when he got back to Konoha, he and Kakashi started work on extensive training, mainly through the use of kagebunshin, so Naruto could develop his own ultimate jutsu. During this time, Asuma gets killed by Hidan and Kakuzu of Akatsuki. Team 10 forms a plan to avenge their sensei and kill Hidan and Kakuzu, with Team Kakashi coming along as backup. Shikamaru takes care of Hidan with ~*brilliance and flair*~, while Naruto manages to kill Kakuzu with his more developed Fuuton Rasengan Shuriken (with some difficulty but no less badassery).
A large team tries searching for Sasuke again, but they keep losing him (when he isn't plowing through clones of the search party, namely Naruto) and return to Konoha defeated. During this time, Jiraiya went to Amegakure on reconnaissance and dies by Pain's hand. Naruto is devastated by the news, though through the encouragement of friends, finds new resolve to live up to Jiraiya's hopes. After deciphering the code that Jiraiya left, Naruto decides to follow in his footsteps and learn how to become a Toad Sage at Myobokuzan. After extensive and excruciating training, he's ready to return to Konoha--
neo_rpg HISTORY
--when he lands in NeoGenesis.
Naruto spent two years in the city known as NeoGenesis. The moment he arrived, like all other new arrivals, he was grabbed by the corrupt, twisted government and brainwashed, before being supplied a new set of memories that overrode his real life, making him believe that NG was all he'd ever known and ninjas were creatures of fantasy. (hello run-on)
The NG government loves experimenting on its citizens. One such top secret project was the Bijuu, humans turned into berserkers as weapons. As these things always do, it got out of control; the scientists were forced to subdue the berserker impulse in their test subjects or face getting destroyed with half the city. Through doing this, they discovered the berserker impulse could be transferred once the host was starting to lose control more and more, but oops! the last subject dies in the process. For the subject known as "Kyuubi", the last victims were both Naruto's parents, his mother being the last carrier, who died when she nearly went berserk and the scientists (including Naruto's father) were forced to transfer it out...into their own son, in desperation.
One who was part of the scientists who dreamed up and realized this horrible plan was called Sakuma, and he was one of the few who realized the horrors of what they'd done and resolved to find a way to amend their folly. At the very least, they were determined to keep the city from using these berserkers. So they finally devised a seal that would keep the impulse at bay for at least a good ten years, used it on the infant Naruto and smuggled him out.
Naruto never learned any of this. It didn't change how he thought he grew up; Sakuma took up the cover of ramen stand owner and raised Naruto under the pretense that he was his grandson. As an added precaution, they never stayed on one place long, moving every two or three months. Sakuma wasn't warm; he was strict and abrasive, and increasingly alcoholic as the years wore on. He had a habit of beating Naruto (usually with a soup ladle, pfft) when he was disobedient (which, of course, was often) or when he asked too many questions about the seal on his stomach. ...Well, until Naruto got too big and strong.
Naruto enjoyed working the stand every day, as much as he complained; he got to meet lots of people and hear lots of stories. It bothered him more and more as he got older to see how miserable everyone was and to hear their stories of oppression and fear, so he started dreaming of clawing his way to the top of the city and becoming President to make life better for everyone. As this goal took shape, he'd often sneak down to Abyss, the extremely dangerous lowest level of Neo to "train" in the illegal fighting rings.
Generally though, Naruto's life was quiet and relatively easy, if lonely; he had a hard time making friends due to his constant moving and obnoxious personality and job.
That was until he met Shikamaru and Yosuke at school.
It was after the Battle Royale incident. When they met, the other two boys merely wrote Naruto off as an annoyance, yet they somehow got along anyway and slowly began hanging out. They would often stop by the stand for free ramen to feed their little family consisting of them, Nill, and Itachi. He started getting caught up in their shenanigans; trying to save Shikamaru when he was being held hostage/as leverage when his "brother" Hidan owed money, for starters.
Things go even more to shit than they usually are in the dystopia when something in the world SHATTERS and there are visitors from other worlds, some with the same faces as citizens already there - like Shikamaru. They tell the residents of Neo of the worlds where they come from, worlds that flash and flicker in the back of the subconscious of each citizen, not truly forgotten. Naruto doesn't believe any of the talk that he's "special" and carries a very powerful but dangerous burden, but nonetheless vows to help the city of Neo and make his way "home" to Konoha with Shikamaru.
Too bad their aim was a bit off.
[ Information on the NG Family ]
PERSONALITY (ORIGINAL + DEVELOPMENTS + SUM OF BOTH PARTS)
extremely discombobulated, just deal with it
⇒ Enneagram Type 8 (Type Three Secondary) with Seven Wing and Social Variant
⇒ Violent Aura (Yellow Secondary)
⇒ Animated Idealist
⇒ Laid-back Doer (Social Realist Secondary)
⇒ TV Tropes page
(also see When All You Have Is A Hammer, Magnetic Hero, Warrior Therapist, Cosmic Plaything, Even The Guys Want Him, Boisterous Bruiser)
For one thing, Naruto's loud. Not as much as he was when he was younger, but he still manages to grab everyone's attention. He's extremely energetic, stubborn, and unapologetically in everyone's faces. Not to mention he's painfully naive at times, simple-minded, and optimistic. He's easily labelled as an idiot, which is true in most of the ways one determines intelligence. But he is smart in the only way that really matters in the end: he knows what he wants, and he knows what's important to him. For everything else, he trusts his instincts.
He is, however, smarter than most people give him credit for; he can be very shrewd and perceptive at times (usually when most inconvenient to the other person in question) and yet also PAINFULLY gullible at trusting others. He knows himself enough to know that trying to explain theory or making him read a book is completely lost on him, but he isn't completely and doesn't think of himself as STUPID. As far as he's concerned, he never does anything he doesn't want to and always tries to help everyone in his own special way, which are the smartest ways to live in the world. ...In his humble opinion.
Naruto is very confident; though he thrives from praise (while brushing it off in the same breath, usually), he believes in himself more than enough to be his own motivator. Naruto does, however, want assurance and praise; part of why he brushes it off is to hear the praise be insisted upon. His childhood of being shunned makes him crave the approval of others, but he's very careful about not letting it show very often or very obviously. Naruto's probably most confident his fighting ability. He's not ARROGANT about it; he does boast, but he's not an obnoxious ass and more often than not, everyone around him is praising and/or admiring him anyway. He doesn't really see himself as some ~*extraordinarily*~ gifted shinobi outside of being the Kyuubi's container. He just works himself to his limits (which, admittedly are a lot farther than most people) and doesn't stop until he's completed his goal, which in his mind is how everyone should be. Least confident area would be studying, reading, theory... He's canonly atrocious at reading his own damn language. He's not as stupid as most would believe; he has his own way of learning and understanding (that seems pretty fucking childish at times; one time, he only understood how two types of energy merge when the conventional definition was tossed out and it was described to him as a vanilla/chocolate swirl ice cream cone), and because of that, normal theory and study is lost on him and bores him to death. He learns by DOING or watching, but mainly doing. Once he finally gets how to do or learn something his own way or it's taught to him on his level, he'll learn it and at a dizzying speed; probably faster than a normal person could manage.
Naruto's greatest strength is possibly his determination. He never wavers from anything he decides upon, whether a promise, a dream, or devotion of friendship to a person. And he goes at it with everything he has, no excuses. He believes in all the typical good guy stuff... You can reach any goal you want, if you wish and work hard enough. Everyone is strong and can do anything. You gain strength from loving and being loved. That kind of thing. He stands up for everyone and anyone, whether that means defending them from enemy attacks, or giving them a proverbial kick in the ass. Despite the fact that he suffered so much animosity from others as a child, Naruto is a deeply caring person who loves just about everyone he meets and who will go to any length for those he cares about.
Naruto is characterized as being hyperactive; he is typically exuberant, easily excitable, impulsive, and suffers from a short attention span. According to Kakashi, Naruto is someone who learns through his body. Naruto is relatively naive, being slow to understand a jutsu's principles, and often requiring a dumbing-down of an already dumbed-down analogy in order to grasp what is being explained to him. This assumes he is able to keep his attention long enough, as he commonly seeks to change the subject in light of his ignorance, outwardly insisting that he already gets the concept. Though he retains this confidence in himself to great degrees, loudly proclaiming that he will master whatever technique he is learning in a fraction of the usual time, Naruto will not hesitate to ask for help if he needs it. He is also very brash and rarely pays heed to formality or social standings. Though he's usually the "charge in with all guns blazing" type, he can from time to time slow himself down and think up an effective strategy. He just has an extremely straightforward way of thinking in almost everything he does. His way of thinking is black and white and often fueled by gut instinct; he defines the concept of thinking with your heart, not your head. As far as Naruto's concerned, there's always an easy answer to every complicated problem and that answer is usually the most obvious one.
Naruto is a Hero in the truest sense of the word, with a capital 'H' and all. The influence he has on other people is epiphany inducing and comes to him effortlessly. He's a veritable force of nature. Technically he's not much of a ninja, but what he lacks in finesse and technique he makes up for in heart and pure willpower. He is highly empathetic and has a habit of taking on other's burdens and setting out to fix their problems for them, usually in a fit of well meaning moral outrage. He's a doer and a dreamer; there is nothing that can extinguish the fire in his spirit; nothing that can force him into crippling depressions. As a result, most people he comes in contact with are naturally drawn to him; Kakashi once noted that Naruto's "special power" is making people love and believe in him almost effortlessly, simply by being himself.
If Naruto has a defense mechanism and a vice, it's anger. He's extremely quick to anger and he can escalate even faster. For the most part, he just yells and gives speeches, declaring that he's going to fix whatever is pissing him off, whether a person or situation. Despite his rigid morals, Naruto isn't beyond going overboard; this is most obvious when his rage causes him to succumb to the Kyuubi on several occasions, but also when he beat the shit out of Deidara when there was no reason to do so, just because he was overflowing with hate and anger. In a way, Naruto protects himself with anger. He's not beyond feeling sad and is so when appropriate, but rather than feeling that, and ESPECIALLY in favor of feeling or displaying fear, Naruto will first get angry.
For being such a ragingly emotional person, Naruto doesn't cry much. He was more prone to getting teary-eyed and snotty when he was younger, though trying to restrain himself to be manri. We see him legitimately crying, if not weeping in the series several times, but most of these are incidents that touch sensitive subjects for him. Iruka acknowledged him, Valley of the End fight with Sasuke, Gaara dying, meeting his parents... He cries out of grief. He has also cried out of happiness or being touched as well, but most of those times were grief as well (reading Jiraiya's book, meeting his parents).
Naruto doesn't let himself truly stop and grieve often. Depression is not in his vocabulary. However, it can and DOES happen at least twice in canon. When he's depressed, it's like he goes stagnant. He withdraws from others, speaks little, and often gets lost in thought. He's difficult to draw out, but should someone come over to check on him, he will answer the door. He wouldn't realize or admit that he does wish for comfort.
He's a bit wrapped up in this image he has of himself and wants others to have of him - that he's tough, invincible, fearless, and always positive. So he's pretty embarrassed when that slips against his will, or he doesn't know how to compromise what he wants to do and what he wants people to think of him, or surrender to one or the other.
When Naruto decides to do something, there's very little chance of reasoning with him. He's probably going to do it, however he has to and whether you like it or not. It's not a question of him being selfish (well, sorta); he trusts others to act as he does, and do what they want. This means either stand with him or get the fuck out of the way. He won't begrudge a friend who won't join him, but we will get pissed at one who tries to stop him.
How Naruto feels about the Kyuubi - as lightly as they're touched, he definitely has hang ups about the issue, considering he's used to other people knowing but NEVER tells others. It took him three years just to tell his teammate Sakura (who is, as far as we know, the only one of his generation of Konoha shinobi who knows at his point in canon). After all, consider that he was ostracized his whole childhood because of it.
His insecurities about people stem from this even if his behavior about them are subtle; he's just incredibly good at both hiding and acting against/despite them. Naruto has a lot of difficulty believing that people care about him. He knows, but believing is something else. Sometimes he seems to more or less indirectly accept praise or declarations of affection, but he's more likely to brush it off or redirect the conversation. ("you're going to be a great ninja!" "where'd this come from?!" /happily embarrassed though)
Naruto would be surprised if anyone pointed it out to him, but Naruto doesn't think himself unlucky or misfortunate, having had a difficult life or having major, major trust issues.
Despite the Kyuubi and all its negative effects, Naruto would never choose to be rid of it. It would be tempting in the way that he wouldn't have to worry about hurting anyone anymore, but he knows getting rid of it wouldn't change how he was treated as a kid, and he wouldn't wish that life on ANYONE, and he knows he's (mostly) strong enough to keep it contained.
On a random note, Naruto actually notices how attractive others are, but seems to have little idea of his own body image (and also no understanding of genetics).
Naruto and Interpersonal Connections
(a tl;dr in itself)
Naruto and relationships is like everything about him; at once absurdly simple and stupidly complicated. By relationships, I mean in the general sense, though I'll talk about the possibility (or lack?!) of a partner too.
There's this thing about Naruto - he has a HUGE impact on everyone around him, mostly blindingly positive, sometimes epiphany-inducing, paradigm-shifting, life-changing wham-to-the-face positive. And while he's candid about his emotions when he's feeling strongly about something (which...is fairly often), there's actually a lot he doesn't say to others, and he doesn't actually let many people into his thoughts, if anyone. He's pretty closed that way. Anyone who's dealt with him long enough can read him well enough anyway since the kid doesn't know how to lie and emotes like a Victorian actor, but sometimes it's what someone doesn't say or do that's more telling.
Naruto has trust issues. They are huge. This fact is not easily apparent, because the audience is so blinded by what a ~*huge impact*~ he has on the people around him, and also because a Japan-based martial culture is not exactly big on talking about feelings in general. But Naruto is especially closed off; he invades the lives of others, but doesn't actually let many others into his thoughts, and when he does, he compartmentalizes; that is to say, he only lets certain people see certain sides, and usually not the same. A few defense mechanisms for him to keep going are suppression, denial, distraction, and disassociation.
He doesn't even realize he IS that way, his childhood just hardwired it into him. If someone pointed it out to him, he'd probably get defensive and deny it, and then go completely overboard in ridiculous attempts to prove them wrong. But ultimately, Naruto is very closed off from others emotionally and he doesn't even realize it; he invades others' lives but lets only the barest glimpses of his furthest layers show to a very small few. Subconsciously, when negative feelings arise in him it's both "I'm a man and a ninja, I should just get over this and push on" and "who would listen to me?" He was pushed away time and time again by the villagers and it's shut him off in ways he doesn't recognize, and would have difficulty reversing. There are a select few with whom he feels LESS discomfort and fear, but even with someone he trusts utterly, that unease will never quite go away and for the most part would rather keep most of his thoughts and emotions to himself (if they somehow manage to get past his extremely dense denial). Someone close to him will still have to wrestle those kinds of things out of him to greater or lesser degrees.
Romantic relationships are the absolute last thing on his mind. I don't think he knows how, anyway. I don't think he could ever easily believe anyone loves him like that, because he's still not sure if he's really allowed to be cared for like that. Romance is different than friendship, and different than family; and it's someplace Naruto's never gone, and has only seen from the outside (and I get the feeling that in Narutoverse where death is ever present even NOT during times of war, cultural views of romantic love are pretty skewed). What would it mean to him if he liked someone and things were reciprocal? He'd feel awkward and happy and uncertain, but it comes down to if he'd even want to take time and realize that there's something beyond the crush.
AND AS FAR AS him actually DEVELOPING feelings for someone, that's pretty hard to say how it would occur, and for whom. The only canon context we get is Sakura, and that's confusing to analyze at best. He may or may not still feel for her that way, but much deeper because of time and shared pain and experience. This is also hard to pinpoint since he's given up on her and knows and supports her feelings for Sasuke. In any case, it would probably take some huge emotional revelation or something hugely emotional shared with someone for him to even BEGIN feeling for someone like that, let alone realize it. HE IS SO COMPLICATED ABOUT THIS SHIT MY GOD anyway
As for sex (which is admittedly my own headcanon, but YMMV):
Naruto spent his whole childhood isolated and ostracized, desperate for attention from ANYBODY and regardless of whether it was positive or negative. Even now that he's past that, he doesn't make a distinction between the genders at all when dealing with them on a regular basis (the only exception being Sakura, but she's the exception for a lot of things), by that I mean he doesn't treat girls much different from guys.
There's a common fandom perception of Naruto that he's this massive pervert, and I'll be honest...I hate it. The "evidence" of his perversion is so rare as to be considered negligible proof that sex crosses his mind on a frequent basis. The Sexy no Jutsu is also no evidence in my mind; he uses it against others to exploit their weakness to naked women, not to get himself off. I honestly don't think he really considers sex much...because it's simply not a priority. For Naruto, everything ELSE is infinitely more important...being a ninja, getting stronger, his friends, his dreams, his morals, getting Sasuke back... There is no time to consider something as remote and oddly insubstantial in his mind as a sexual relationship. And due to his insecurities about people, he's not the type for a friends-with-benefits scenario.
I think it's pretty obvious that Naruto has SOME education about sex, considering at twelve he knew about (and where to find) dirty magazines, and invented the Oiroke no Jutsu in a brilliant ploy for distraction. Not to mention he spent two years with Jiraiya, and read his books...oh, and this is the important part...AND FOUND THEM BORING.
Not that sex isn't impossible for him; he IS a teenage boy who's very physically active, so it's naive to say he doesn't have a sex drive. Though Naruto-verse never really expounds on the cultural views of sex and romance (oh god, my headcanon on that; those are probably pretty skewed), Naruto probably ties sex closely in his mind with a legitimate relationship due to his general issues about being close to someone (this is reinforced by the fact that the first question he ever asks his mother that he "always wanted to ask" if he met her was "how did you and dad fall in love?"). Physical affection, even in platonic terms, is not something he's used to and is uncomfortable with because of it, and that will carry to sex as well; a lot of his shyness about something as innocent as shaking hands with someone is a sort of fear that the other person involved doesn't want to reciprocate. So if/when he ever gets a partner, he's going to be extremely nervous about even just petting and such at first. "Am I doing this right?! Is this okay?! crapcrap what if they don't like it... I hope they tell me jskhdjfgsd"
With patience and assurance from his partner, he'll grow confident and well I don't want to go further along that because whatevs AHAHA
If you're wondering "yeah yeah, so which team does he play for?", the answer is "wow, you weren't paying attention."
(also if you read all that and ask 'so does he top or bottom??? lol' then there is no hope for you)
Naruto and Team 7
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
neo_rpg/sirenspull Personality Developments
(placeholder, needs a lot more lmfao)
If you want a short version: a kid who grew up in rough neighborhoods all his life and moved around more times than he could count, with a grumpy old alcoholic man as a guardian and no friends. A kid with a bleak but more or less normal existence.
...Who suddenly remembered a whole life in which he was some badass hero.
Long version:
Naruto is only half as confident as his canon self, and completely overwhelmed. He wants so much to be the guy in his (and everyone else's) memories, but he feels that though he remembers how he got to be that way, that something is blocking is path. When he wanted to become President of Neo, it shared less with the surface reason of wanting to become Hokage (to prove himself) than the actual reason; to help others. Naruto never felt much of a need to prove himself because he didn't think there was much to prove. Now he has to prove that he IS the Naruto he wants to be, but he tries too hard and overstresses and overworks himself without making what he would consider "real" progress.
At least he's a lot more laidback in other ways, though whether that's good or bad is up to the beholder and all that. He enjoys drinking socially on occasion (even though it has almost zero effect whatsoever) and has no problem with smoking pot, either. The boy who was a homophobe in canon cares very little about the matter now, and he's a lot wiser and has a lot more understanding for people in general.
Due to "growing up" in a more "normal" setting and now LIVING in a more normal setting, Naruto is more articulate and forthcoming about his feelings than his original self (though, that's not really saying too much). Granted, he's only that much more open with only a select few, but one could contribute this vulnerability to his feelings of inferiority, and the opportunity to actually be more self-exploring than the frantic pace and action of canon allowed. The upside is that this is a healthy change in that it's loosening his tight-fisted trust issues and allowing him to understand himself more, and by extension other people and their feelings. The downside is that there's a lot to catch up on, so if he's not careful, he could get lost in all the backed up mental mess.
Thanks to his time in a dystopia as horrible as NG, Naruto is a lot more practical and realistic in general. He tries to be more like the idealistic optimist he was, and it shines through genuinely, but more often than not these days he recognizes the world isn't made of sunshine and rainbows and not everything turns out okay. He has a very skewed perspective of his old self; he aspires to be how he was, but at the same time he has re-evaluated many of his past behaviors and viewpoints on things and finds he disagrees a bit with how he used to see or handle things.
He's learning, mostly the hard way, that his canon way of dealing with things (yelling, getting angry, busting through the problem head-on) isn't...nearly as successful here. He's struggling to find gentler, more compassionate ways of seeing and relating with people, especially in times of stress when that approach is more needed. His initial reaction is still anger (especially when trying to cover up other feelings), so he struggles with this.
An extreme negative downside to this is that it also makes him consider options of dealing with problems that his canon self would abhor. Naruto is more aware of this than he lets on, but repressed, denies, and rationalizes to himself in order to get through and do what he feels needs to be done.
QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? ANYTHING YOU WANT ME TO EXPAND ON? COMMENT AWAY!
NOTE: THIS IS NOT THE PLACE FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. THAT IS TO BE DIRECTED HERE.