Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4008620-20190902190023/@comment-9782468-20190904123540

@The Shark SageI agree, Neji and Naruto never explored any sort of friendship that would have made the death hit harder. That's why I think Gaara would've been good to kill.

Iruka is a Chunin. He's strong enough in terms of regular Shinobi; as in, he's strong enough to be leader of a small team.

Also, you keep saying Kakashi had a soft spot for Sasuke. Kakashi literally was ready to kill Sasuke. With no interference, Kakashi would have killed Sasuke after his fight with Danzo. Kakashi was even going to strike a death blow against Obito due to his crimes as well, and we know how much Obito meant to Kakashi. He was only stopped by Minato. Kakashi isn't the one that's affected by soft spots, it's the people around him. And again, the Third Hokage was a good Hokage but he couldn't kill Orochimaru when he had the chance.

@Flatzone, Hiashi would be good to impact Hinata and Neji, but Hiashi dying doesn't solve the issue of that death having a closer impact to Naruto. Hiashi would have less impact on Naruto than Neji did, and thematically that death is supposed to be very hard hitting for Naruto