Hello all,

I know it has been a long time since I have updated either of my Naruto stories, well there is a good reason for that. I have been dealing with a major lose of interest in the series, mainly because of the terrible way the ending of the series was handled by the series creator Kishimoto and Studio Pierrot.

Now of course some of you might claim that I am just being a salty Naruto/Sakura fan, who is mad that my pairing didn't become canon. And I suppose you have a small point with that claim. But the issues that have made me shy away from Naruto are much more than just pairings. I didn't like the rushed way that Kishimoto ended the series, tacking on a hastily created supervillain to take care of Madara because he had made Madara too powerful, and then giving both Naruto and Sasuke superpowers, and making the series more about destiny and prophecy instead of staying true to the series' earlier beliefs of destiny is what you make of it, and fighting against fate.

But now that the anime has also ended, I can hopefully begin to put those issues behind me and get back to writing Naruto stories. Though it will be very difficult since Studio Pierrot has shown its true colors. If you haven't heard about or seen the Naruto finale, you are probably the lucky ones. The final arc of the series is all about Naruto and Hinata's wedding, the gang trying to find the perfect present for the wedding and such. To me, Studio Pierrot has shown that all they cared about was Hinata achieving her dream (marrying Naruto) and not the titular character (Naruto) achieving his (becoming Hokage).

Now some of you might say, well they did show that Naruto become Hokage. But did they really? In that one-shot Kishimoto 'wrote' about the inauguration, we see Naruto miss it because he was knocked out by his daughter, and Kakashi had to have Konohamaru stand in for Naruto. So, Naruto really wasn't crowned as Hokage, unless they did a second inauguration, which if they did, then what was the point of having that one-shot created?

Why not have the final arc of the Naruto animated series be all about Naruto becoming Hokage, having flashbacks to earlier parts of the series, showing his growth and learning what it meant to be Hokage? The show is/was called Naruto for a reason, but now, Studio Pierrot only cared about the pairings that would generate them money. Why not then the finale be Naruto being crowned as Hokage, achieving his dream, with his family there in the background. They could have easily done this, and then had a filler arc about the wedding as an off-shoot of the series, or even do it before the finale.

But no, Kishimoto and Studio Pierrot went with the pairings route, and completely ignored the lessons and themes that Naruto had in at the beginning.

So for the time being, I will be taking a hiatus from writing Naruto. Hopefully one day I will be able to go back to Naruto.

But until then, both of my Naruto stories: Hidden Potential and Destiny's Worst Nightmare will not be updated for the near future. I am truly sorry but I would rather not write something that I take no joy in than force a substandard story on you the readers.

SlyNinjaKnight