Sigh… this series keeps disappointing me the longer it runs…
How I wanted Naruto to end:
[attachment=0]hinataending.jpg[/attachment]
How Naruto will probably end:
[attachment=1]naruto.jpg[/attachment]
Pretty much explains everything. 
I abandoned the series when Pain released the souls of all the people he had killed after listening to Naruto’s ramblings (no, seriously, “I’m gonna bring people together by teaching everyone pain”, “no, that’s wrong”, “well, do you have any other idea?”, “no, but I’ll surely find something”, “ah, ok, you’re right, I’m sorry” …). That was only the last drop, but basically the major problem with the series is that it’s not a ninja story anymore. It’s not a case that the manga was at its best in its more ninja-ish moments, like the exam right at the beginning. I also liked the story arc with the puppet masters. Apart from that, I don’t think it’s exaggerate to say it’s all been crap.
I think you hit the nail dead on: Naruto has stopped being what Naruto was, and evolved into some horrifically different beast.
For me, the train derailed after the love confessions of Hinata and Sakura.
Naruto knows Hinata likes him, but has practically blown the whole thing off.
Sakura knows Naruto likes her, but is still being a whinny emo for Satsuke.
Whee… all that romantic tension, totally thrown to the side and resolved like that. 
Well… at least when Naruto confessed to Satsuke, that he’d die for him, Satsuke showed a response.
uh… correct name is Sasuke.
.> Sakura gave up for crush to Sasuke. I am not sure about Ino. She cried too much that she found out about Sasuke became traitor.
EDIT and ADD: Sakura wanted to kill Sasuke because Sasuke wanted to crash Leaf village.
Wow, I take a break from Naruto for over a year, get my hopes up for a bit (especially the Hinata confession(which apparently went nowehere), and the plot still has the same thing with Naruto obsessing over Sasuke… This video (the first of the five reactions at least) pretty much sums up my reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M9aWnKDt4Q
I am so glad I stuck with One Piece, now I’m never looking back 
She hasn’t. She still has feelings for him. It’s pretty obvious that she does. She just “hyped” herself into the moment, to finish what she started… although that wasn’t enough because…
…she hesitated BIG TIME with the attempt as well. Remember that flashback montage, before Satsuke - I’ll spell his name right when he deserves to have it spelled right - being all hyped up on haxxx-level chakra, chicken choked her for Naruto to show up like we all knew he would four or five chapters ago? Naruto saved Sakura from getting killed and preventing her mind to slip into a catatonic state from trying to kill her obession. If Godmode Danzo couldn’t do it, Miss Pink Haired Failure surely didn’t stand a spit’s chance in Hell.
For me, this series has gone from “hey cool” to “eh whatever” to “omg lame”, and on a fast track to “pure fail”. It’s almost to the point where I’d rather read another 6 month story arc about Belldandy crying over forgetting to put a slice of cheese in Keiichi’s lunch, than read more Naruto. At least Belldandy is still doing what makes Belldandy cute (although I’ve moved on from that kind of moe).
Love will indeed save Satsuke alright… some hawt 9-tail yaoi lovin’ that is. 
I don’t know if anyone remembers, but a couple years ago Kishimoto announced he’d written out how Naruto would end. My theory is that the guy’s putting as much bullshit as he can into the story so it will last longer so he can make more money off the fans. Now I’ve got no problem with making money, alot of authors of stories (from anime/manga to books)turn their series into cash cows that go on forever and they can still be enjoyable to an extent, the problem is that Naruto has lost the quality those kinds of series are able to maintain some sort of grip on.
You could actually compare Naruto to the Michael Bay Transformers movies. Pre time skip Naruto would be the first movie, and post time skip is Revenge of the Fallen.
Edit: I can’t believe I’m asking this, but are the filler arcs in Shippuden any good?
“Another”? There was one of these in the Ah My Goddess manga? Seems like I made a good decision to bail early on 
As for me, I thought Naruto was actually cool for awhile, but then it lost my interest fairly quickly. It was just too much, it lost me even before the time skip with multiple tournament arcs in a row.
I read manga. I liked Pain vs Naruto, and Raikage vs Sasuke.
Killer Bee vs Sasuke and Team Hawk. Killer Bee was cool and funny.
Say Narg, which would you prefer to read through, Naruto or another Iijite Princess game :twisted: ?
:shock:
You’re evil.
Now that you mention it, Vitamin has been rather quiet as of late. I think they’re going under… so that nightmare truly ends now.
[url=http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=673706]The original Ijitte Princess saga wasn’t so bad[/url] I suppose: had twincest and Final Road tried to use an SLG engine. It was cash cowed to Hell… but at least it ended.
When they resurrected the entire thing for a second go with that NEXT series, that really drove me insane.
To make matters worst, the overall quality went down. The only good thing it had going, was the art… the new artist sucked.
On the other hand, that [url=http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=673619]Prince series[/url] was slightly better… although it just lasted one title. Not complaining, mind you.
There may be some hope for that yet Naruto does flashback to Hinata when he decides he needs the Kyuubi’s chakra to fight Sasuke
Not trying to bash it but I’ve mostly given up hope on SJ titles. -_-;; They just keep going on and on and on… 
I think I dropped it about 2 to 3 years ago… when they showed Sasuke joining that secret organization. Some time after that, I completely lost my patience when they kept on fighting even more, with less plot progression than I’d hoped for.
However, the first few volumes of that series were kinda readable(at that time).
I did the same for Bleach, Hunter x Hunter(though maybe I’ll give it a shot again).