Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-4008620-20190902190023/@comment-2043993-20190905184239

the death had to be impactful, so Neji being the one to bite the dust makes perfect sense to me, despite being less active in part 2, he had a duality with Naruto in part one, where their respective ideologies clashed.

but yes, Neji had potential that went unexplored in part 2.

Personally, I'd have liked it if Sasuke died, as not only would it be impactful, it would be a joy to see him choke. It'd be devastating for Naruto (Sakura and Ino to) to see him go, and the series would lose a major plotpoint, but it'd be better than Sasuke saying that'd he'd become the Hokage.

Iruka is another good candidate because of impact on Naruto. The same would be the case if Killer B bit the dust.

Gaara literally died in the beginning of part 2, having him die again later on would be far less emotional affair. Same with Kakashi as he almost perished during Pains' invasion.

Lesser characters that could've died and it having an impact on the supporting cast is: Kiba sister or mother, Hiashi is a good strong death (for both Hinata and Neji), while Ebizu checking out might finally make Konohamaru interesting (all we saw from him at loosing his grandpa was a few panels of crying, nothing afterwards). The death of both of those old buggers in the Konoha council wouldn't affect most of the cast in the least, except for Tsunade, but it'd be quite satisfying to see them die by Sasuke's hand, who'd be beyond happy at the deed.

And just for the heck of it: the death of the whole of Team Taka! Sasuke wouldn't care in the least, and that would be all the justification that they died, to show just how cruel he truly had become at that point. It could've hammered it home to even Sakura and sparked a better emotional conflict than Kaguya-and-the-aliens plotline.