next generation

I honestly was not expecting kids from the ending, I wanted Naruto to keep his promises, to end the way of the shinobi, change the Hyuuga clan, bring justice to those wronged by the village, I was even expecting him to adopt a child instead of having one, I was kind of hoping for a "team-7" threesome-kind of relationship but even if it was not done, I did not mind, it was never about the pairings. It was about Naruto reaching his dreams and learning truths about his village in the way, then, as a Hokage, making everything right.

But the worst happened: The creator grew up, grew tired, gave up. He even admitted that Boruto's appearances is how he sees his own son and Grownup!Naruto's reaction is himself, so, at the end we're not seeing Naruto, we're seeing Kishimoto telling the world that he has no time for his son. And, in a way, he's telling us that we have to learn to accept things as they are and where, to accept that those who rule before us have never made any mistake and that we must accept modernity, sure, but always follow a traditional-kind of family.

Really, who cares about the random pairings? I'm more upset about the women not being something more than house wives, having a boring life because they decided to (gasp) work, or having changed in body and essence in such dramatic way that they are simply unrecognizable. I wanted to see Hinata as a clan leader, training the new Hyugas, or at least confronting her father, telling him how he made a mistake, how that mistake can't be unmade, but how she will make sure that the Hyuga never has a "second branch" again. I wanted to see Sakura as the leader of the medical nin, I wanted to see Anko older, but managing to let go of her own bitter past, I wanted to see Ten-Ten training others in her weapon techniques, I wanted to see Kurenai as either a teacher or a researcher, or training with her kid.

The ending does not make sense without making Naruto an asshole: He breaks his promises, badmouths Tsunade (Jiraya would have killed him for that), does not honor the Uchiha clan and its destruction, does not change the Hyuga. Even when leaving everything as it is and just putting that he did what he had to do offscreen (BS), we still see him saying he has no time for his son... The guy, with infinite chakra, who has 100000 clones, has no time... for... his... son... WTH, just WTH. Heck, even in the movie he spends his time doing D-rank missions with his clones and ends up so tired that he faints, he knows nothing about being a leader. He's the Hokage, he should be making sure the new generation is stronger than him and since he did not remove the shinobi-system, he should be training his darn son in every possible technique known to man, to make sure that if he dies, there'll be someone to protect the village.

But, no, paperwork is much more important, even when NO OTHER Hokage has had to do that much paperwork, ever...

Naruto ended up being a self insert of Kishimoto to criticize the younger generation and how he has no time for said new generation and how that generation must "endure" just because. While the political message of "righting the wrongs" became "accept them, embrace them and don't let them be known."