I guess today should be a good day to talk about Naruto :)) My most favorite manga.
What I learn from the battle between Naruto and Nagato :
Nagato was a product of war. His parents were killed in self-defend to protect him. His best friend were killed in the war also. He always thought the only way to bring peace to the Ninja world would be through fear. He assaulted the whole Leaf village to complete his purpose. During his battle with Naruto, and until his last moment, he learnt what the real meaning of peace, of friendship. There were several lessons I learn from that battle:
- Naruto was a second generation after the war, it is not easy to him to understand Nagato pains. He could only understands and feels the pain of Nagato after his body acquiring Nagato chakra. It means that to understand the pain of other, you need to put yourself into that person circumstances or even become them. Should you never blame one when you still not fully understand his circumstances. It is not easy to feel other pain and suffering. But that is the only way to fully understand other people.
- By the Einstein’s special relativity theory, everything is not absolute. For many of hidden leaf village citizens, Nagato is a bad person who killed a lot of people, for the point of view of an observer in Nagato side, it is the other way around. Different point of view would bring different perspective.
- The hidden leaf village is what so called “the winner” after the war. And yet, if look deep inside the village, we could see a lot of wounded things left from the war. For example, Kakashi lost his dad during the war, and his left eyes. But bigger than that, he lost his best friend Tobi and his lover, Rin. Shikamaru would never understand why his dad has a big scar on the left face, or why his teacher went to bed with a knife because of the nightmare about the war, about his dying family and friends, haunted him every night. Perhaps, there would be no winner. War means people dying and suffering. Remember that pain may subside, but it never ends.
- War never decided what is right, what is wrong, just what is left. The hidden rain village, Nagato’s hometown, was a really small country which stuck in the big game of other countries. The war in the hidden rain village was basically a proxy war between other nations, leaving behind a torn apart nations with a deep resentment between people that stayed and the people who left.
- Who killed Nagato best friend, Yahiko? Yahiko was killed by Danzo, the leader of hidden rain village. So basically there was a war between the war where the people of the hidden rain village against each other. What left after that? Nagato killed Danzo and his family, but he lost his best friend. Who is to blame for the war?
- After knowing what Naruto could do to bring peace to the ninja world, Nagato becomes Naruto friends and using his Ninjusu to bring back all the lives he has just killed. So from the guy who wanted to kill off all humanity and thinks that as long as humanity exits, hate will also exits, he changed, agree with Naruto way of peace and help him. It means that despite a great hatred, people still can be friends.
So after all, I hope that everyone could realize that they are all ninja, Naruto or Nagato, hidden rain or hidden leaf, they all suffered from the war. Different type of pains, different type of suffering. We bear the pains of our family, but should we look at other with multi dimensional perspective. Reconciliation is a touchy and complex topic, but one that deserves attention and resolution. Nagato may still not agree with leaders of other village, on their policies, on their way of managing their village, but he believe in Naruto, the post-war second generation could bring a new way of peace to people in the Ninja world. I desperately hope that people could understand each other and together help their country going forward. As Gara said, there is no Leaf, no Sand, no Stone, no Mist, no Cloud. There are only Shinobi!
April 30, 2016.