Heh. Never noticed. You're right again, girlie! ^^ Man, you're very perceptive, too. SO MUCH LOVE!!!! -more tears of joy- :mrgreen:

Uh... your welcome? :| You don't get much love, do you? lol

**After long period of thinking** Got nothing to say... -__-;; I washed out all the Naruto theories in my head. I feel exhausted.

xD Well, for that matter, your prediction for what's to come sounds very very plausible and I think I wish that it will happen now. D: I sorely want to see how Hinata has developed... As much as I love Naruto and Sakura, I need to see the one side-character that I've rooted for throughout the whole series! And if Kishimoto doesn't follow up on that... :evil: . What I do want to see is her Divine Protection jutsu, even though it may be a filler episode jutsu. Looks like a signature technique on her own- and a potentially powerful one at that. It would be shocking to see it on the panels and it would be much <3!!!!! But as for the Sasuke and Hinata interaction... I'm leaving it to your theory... but I'm really not sure about it.

Well... we have roughly two more years... or at least, what I gather from rumors. You have heard of the interview right? Where Kishimoto supposedly says that it's the Uchihas' time to shine... then Kakashi and Sakura (IMO, Sakura seems grown up enough. Sakura already shows her strength and her confident spirit to take up important matters. I guess it may concern her feelings on Naruto and Sasuke?) Hm, maybe since Hinata is present during this time, she may do something important in relation to Sasuke. At least, I dearly hope. :) Apart from the need for tracking, Kishimoto must have included team eight for the third try for a certain reason. :hinata Ah... so much anticipation. I'm really excited for Sasuke at the moment due to recent chapters. And of course I'm excited for Hinata. <3 I really wonder how many various uses her jutsu could do, and not just for protection. :)

In the topic of Kishimoto interviews... :conf1 I read a small one where Kishi said he has the ending clearly planned out, but because he introduced so many conflicts in the manga, he will patiently close them into resolves one by one until the ending is the last. Hmm, but two years... :conf5 how many volumes can one manga artist finish? I think 3-4 per year (1 per three months) so eight more volumes...? Hmm... so maybe this series will end at fifty. Who knows? :doh1 But before I forget what I wanted to make clear, let's distinguish the eight man team that is pursuing Sasuke right now. Characters-- Naruto Sakura Kakashi Yamato Sai Hinata Shino Kiba (plus Akamaru) Sooner or later, the team will have to decide to split. There's no reason to keep a group so big in one spot to fight Tobi. And Kakashi had mentioned before the Sasuke retrieval mission started that they are going to act as a group of two small teams. Here's my guess on how they will divide and why. Hinata and Sakura (obviously) are both the healing teammates. So one of them has to go. Sakura's reasons: She could fight on equal and hostile terms with Karin who is also a Sasuke fangirl (disturbing, I know). And as the heroine, can reach her beloved 'Sasuke-kun' (I'm getting sick and tired of her calling him that). Naruto's bound to be in the team to get Sasuke because Naruto's like that. And if he's going then both girls would want to accompany him, but one of them (begrudgingly) has to stay behind for the other team. Hinata's reasons: Simple, if Sasuke's going to get the spotlight, Hinata will most likely be there because she's supposedly his beacon of light. And she can heal too and he'll be mostly likely be severely injured and yeah... The list is endless. However, if Sakura doesn't go, then Kiba will be joining Hinata. Both have superb tracking abilities: Byakugan and Kiba's tracking with scent. We all know he still has Sasuke's smell in reach and Hinata can go onwards with her Byakugan through sight. Both good choices to track Sasuke. The fourth member who will be joining them will have to be either Kakashi-sensei or Yamato. I think Kakashi because he has the sharingan which can be of help when versing Juugo (you know, because Sasuke quells his murderous intent with his hypnosis). And I think Yamato because he's the only one who could control Naruto's demon fox from taking over his body. No doubt with the intensity of the situation, he's gonna get emotional again. Just to keep him in check. Debrief. Group after Sasuke-- Naruto Hinata or Sakura Yamato or Kakashi Kiba Next, let me list reasons for the other characters and their positions. Shino and Sai are less important, yet they have purpose, too. Shino, the third member of tracking skills, can follow after the first group after if or when they defeat or retreat from Tobi. And Sai is an ANBU ROOT so he can fight pretty good. His presence wouldn't matter if he went with the team to Sasuke. Shino the same. Shino's ability can use his bugs to feed off chakra to slow Tobi down, and with the other two unknown members who will have to stay behind needs to be powerful (especially if it's Sakura) because then the four will be formidable against the Akatsuki member. They can't afford to take risks. Debrief. Second Group stays behind-- Sai Shino Maybe Sakura and Kakashi Note- I just realized, the scenes revolving Sasuke will be too complicated and chaotic if we had the original team (team 7) and Hinata bunched up in the same place, so it would be sensible if Kishi divided the important characters in half. So most likely, the second group will be Sai, Shino, Sakura, and Kakashi. And the first group will be Hinata, Naruto, Yamato, and Kiba. If Kiba is on the team, he will be able to face off Karin or something. Maybe Juugo because his ability is to communicate with animals. I can't assume any farther if Hinata and Naruto will go to Sasuke together, or Naruto has to stay with Yamato. 2-3 people have to stay together to fight Sasuke's teammates. Otherwise, it would be too dangerous to leave one person with the enemy. It's called being outnumbered. Suigetsu will be too preoccupied versing Kisame and vice versa. If I know their battle spirits well enough, the two wouldn't intefere with outside battles from their own because they're hot-blooded to the point to fight in an equal match. Possibilites-- Kiba versus Karin Yamato (maybe Naruto) versus Juugo together Hinata (possibly) is left to retrieve Sasuke. Abilities for the case: she can block tenkutsu(sp?) points and use her byakugan to counter genjutsu and hypnosis of the sharingan. Is that enough narrowing it down for you? All of these are purely my guesses. :doh1

Thanks. ^^ *smiles*

Did Kishimoto really say that? If so...what interview? I would like to see! I hope I don't seem mean for this...but does anyone else see the possibility of (like Tsunade) Sakura going single? And if that's the case, since Naruto's like Jiraiya... (thinking of the person who's had a simular past to Sakura) ...Does that mean that Sakura could fall for Rock Lee, Sai (we don't know his past, but maybe he was picked on too), or Chouji...and they die just like Dan did about Tsunade? Well, here it is (SOMEWHAT OF A SPOILER): 1. Is Jiraiya dead? Kishi : He lives..............................in your heart. Naruto has to be grown up. Shikamaru also needed to be grown up. And Sakura will have to be grown up, too. Lee? Lee doesn't need to be grown up anymore. 2. What's gonna happen next year? Kishi : Started with Sasuke vs Itachi battle. I'm gonna write about mainly Sasuke next year. And Kakashi and Sakura, after that. Especially Kakashi. I can't tell yet but a huge event will happen to him. 3. What kind of way of ending do you do with Sasuke vs Itachi battle? Kishi : I can't tell. But I have kept this waiting to manga readers for a long time. So I'll have to make everyone gets content with it. 4. Describe the color of Sasuke vs Itachi battle. Kishi : Glossy-Black 5. Describe the color of Kakashi story which you just mentioned about. Kishi : Dark Blue 6. You said you're gonna write about Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura. What about Naruto? Kishi : Naruto has to wait. 7. Are you gonna write the battle of each member of Hebi? Kishi : Actually I didn't want to. But Shueisha ordered me to do with something about them. This was said in Jump Festa and reported by somone on Naruto Forums. And I like your point about Sakura going single. When the series first started and even to today, I was hoping that Kishimoto doesn't pair her off with anyone. Because oddly enough, back then, I was a Sakura-hater, a Sasuke-basher, a Naruto fanatic, and a NaruHina advocate. And more or less, I'm now completely the opposite. Except for one constant: no SasuSaku please! Haha, but that's completely besides the point. So it's not because that I hate her, it's because that her character can uphold to be something wonderful even without being paired off with someone. But yea... there are a lot of parallels being thrown about here and there. Past repeating itself... and so on. However, I don't know what to expect really. I was thinking that this generation will be a defining one. As if they will be correcting past errors in similar situations. Nice point on the Pein/Nagato situation though. :) I really hope these aren't merely coincidences. Once again, nice points, Danko Kaji. 8) I like how you broke it down. For the females, Sakura and Hinata, everything is only left to speculation. However, Sakura has one major advantage over Hinata: she is a main character. For her to be the one with Naruto to reach Sasuke would be more of an impact than the rest of the assembled team. After all, much of their purpose in part two is dedicated to one objective: the retrieval of their dear team-mate. So, if indeed Kishimoto plans to surprise us with the suggestion of a SasuHina pairing, then Hinata will be brought forth to shine. But if she were to be a beacon of light, Hinata would be more like a flicker compared to Naruto, however. ):< Kishi is going to have to show a lot more Hinata! I try to think on what the creator seems to move on, but we all know that is quite a stretch. He may be one slick guy after all; and I'm working on very limited knowledge. So what's happening at the major points: Sasuke vs. Itachi Naruto and co. vs. Tobi I'm guessing each will be quite along fight. (384 is... quite troubling though... with genjutsu being the standard form of surprise... which isn't surprising at all :roll:) I can't really form any other guess because the Sasuke vs. Itachi thing can really be much of a toss-up. At the moment, I don't know what to believe: the plot of Sasuke coming full-circle or another twisting scheme that causes changes his character again. (Why did Itachi kill the clan again? It really slipped my brain.) :( Aw man... I'm getting tied up in all of this. I should probably just wait patiently for everything to unfold. And as you said, it's purely speculation. :oops: