Monday, February 06, 2006
Comparing father figures
Iruka was the first person to acknowledge him and is the guy he comes home to after each mission ... much like a father. They enjoy each others company. The relationship is one of pride for Iruka and almost universal acceptance for Naruto, who willingly boasts about his mission to the one guy he knows will just gain joy from the boasting. He inspires Naruto to be a ninja in the first place so Naruto's accomplishments are in an odd way also Iruka's. They have less in common than Naruto has with the other two but are close cuz they genuinely appreciate each other. He's Naruto's cheerleader.
Kakashi was the person who showed the true way of the ninja to Naruto and was the first person to accept and impliment Naruto's goals. He inspires Naruto to be a competant, dutiful and hardworking ninja. For Kakashi, being a mentor and comrade to Team 7 is his ninja way. Kakashi is the first person to show Naruto that he trusts him and is confident Naruto will succeed even in the worst situations. Naruto might not feel as close to him (because of his fatherly bond with Sasuke) but he's always been able to interpret Naruto's feelings better than anyone else. They are close because they have shared experiences and activate each other's ninja way. He's become Naruto's comrade and companion as much as his captain and mentor. He's Naruto's accomplice.
Jiraiya is Naruto's Guru. Naruto looks up to him (minus the pervert thing) more than anyone else. He is the first person Naruto projects to be like (other than the 4th - but this combines with that). Jiraiya is also the first person who motivates Naruto to be something greater than your average ninja. He inspires Naruto to be a powerful and influencial ninja. Jiraiya is able to read Naruto well because they are so similar but they never cross the line between companionship and mentorship. Naruto will yell and bicker up the wazoo with Jiraiya but he'll never tease Jiraiya (like he would with Kakashi), disrespect him or distrust him (like with Iruka before he took the shruiken for Naruto). They are close because they are of the same mold .... and thus, can fully see each other's potentials. Therefore, Naruto follows Jiraiya almost blindly.
Jiraiya is the medium between Iruka's acknowledgement, appreciation, and emotional support and Kakashi's dedication, direction, and motivational support. A good father needs to have both the sensitivity to relate with his son and the strictness to push him toward success. The combination of these two necessities for Naruto's further growth and future happiness is what makes Jiraiya the most effective father figure from now on.
Naruto no longer needs to be simply babied (now that he's no longer ignored and rejected) or guided (now that he has purpose and altruism) ... the fathering techniques of Iruka and Kakashi are no longer enough. Naruto now NEEDS to have the opportunities to safely FOCUS his passion (encouraged by Iruka) into achievements (exemplified by Kakashi) ..... And the guy who can provide the challanging atmosphere (Iruka's too indulgent) without demoralizing (Kakashi's too aloof) the emotionally vunerable Naruto (especially since he lost Sasuke) is Jiraiya.
None of them would allow Naruto to save them instead of another valued shinobi. They would all be self-sacrificing and not want to put Naruto thru any danger or emotional distress. But if say it was a situation where none of them could communicate with him and he just had to save one ... I'd say he'd pick Iruka because Iruka is the only one who has physically and clearly put his life on the line for Naruto as far as we've seen. Iruka took that Shurikan for him. And even though Kakashi has saved his life on numerous occasions by just being there and Jiraiya saved his life by intervening with Itachi and teaching Naruto how to protect himself from Akatsuki, only Iruka has put himself in obvious physical danger solely for the sake of saving Naruto's life ... and in a very dramatic, visual way.
Origionally posted by WRATH:
It is a hard question.Kakashi is essentially out of the running. He's kind of a like a much older brother. There's affection there, but it's not paternal, and Kakashi is too distant from Naruto for it to be anything closer.You can't argue with the fact that he's spent more time with Jiraiya. They were essentially alone for three years, and we've seen bits of a father-son relationship there, with the ice cream awwwww moment and the implication that Jiraiya has been watching over Naruto his whole life, and the master-apprentice relationship has often been compared to father-son, not specifically in Naruto, but in general culture. As for Iruka, well, Naruto said that he wondered if Iruka was like a father to him, but he doesn't really seem that way to me. It's a more complex relationship to define, because the reason Iruka began to like Naruto was because he saw himself in him, which is not what you'd typically see in a father-son relationship. And their interaction almost seems to be limited to
Iruka treating Naruto to ramen, which again isn't really a fatherly thing. It's what people might wish their fathers did, but that's not really realistic of them.
In many ways, I would say that Naruto's father was the Fourth, regardless of whether or not they're biologically connected. The Fourth is the one who shaped Naruto's life and to whom Naruto looks up to and aspires to. He's sort of the ideal father figure of Naruto's childhood, the father you idolize as a kid.
If I had to, I would have Naruto's family tree like this:
Grandfather: Sarotobi
Father-Mother: Jiraiya-Tsunade
Uncle: Iruka
Brothers: Kakashi (adult), Sasuke, Gaara
Cousin: Konohamaru
