Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-26090730-20160429140452/@comment-945885-20160429162836

I don't get why people are so opposed to the idea of Naruto being killed, if he's dead at all -- which I doubt. Why would you want characters to be off-limits for deaths? If anything the original series should have had more deaths. Everything was extremely low-stakes because nobody ever died or stayed dead.

Anyway, I personally love flash forward cold opens. Easily one of my favorite narrative devices. Obviously it's going to jump back in time to his childhood after that, and we're going to have to wait months if not years to find out how things get to this battle, but to me it shows that they have a clear endpoint in mind, which is a rare treat for a shonen manga. Most of the time they just drag on indefinitely until the creator gets bored or the ratings drop and then they rush towards an ending.

I also don't get why people are acting like this is anything other than a flash forward. "Naruto's already dead!" Yeah, no.