Problem is that we're a girl. Probably a cute looking one too with those Uchiha genes and their perfect hair. He will likely reach out to us like he did Sakura.
And yes, I still view going after him right now as manipulation on our end. There is no two ways ands or buts about it. Any interaction with naruto would have a degree of manipulation, but at least not going after him and not rebuffing any attempts he might make would allow him to come to us on his own terms.
I suppose we should avoid interacting with Sasuke as well when he wakes up according to that logic. Wouldn't want to manipulate him by simply talking to him when we have previous knowledge about him.
Besides frankly, I don't like the fact that we have a "We must fix everything" SI and I would love if we end up on a different team than Naruto and Sasuke anyway. Though this has nothing to do with my decision here.
To put it bluntly, I don't give two shits about naruto right now. I want our character to be more stable minded before she reaches out to anyone and that her perceptions of this being anything like the fictional universe she knew completely shattered. As it is she may see naruto as a two dimensional character or have a habit of imposing her interpretations of his character on him which will hurt Naruto.
That's a potential pitfall, not a guaranteed outlook. But the best way to see someone as more than a caricature or two-dimensional character is to actually introduce yourself and at least try to get to know them.
I don't think choosing to take the initiative and reaching out to the kid is "we must fix everything" either. It's seeing one thing in front of us, that we may be able to help with right now...and choosing to do so. Or not, because you're worried about manipulating someone unduly.
I think you actually give Hisana/us too much credit on their level of influence.
Hell, our character had her entire family murdered, her distant cousin is stuck in a fucking coma because his brother is frankly a god damn idiot, and she just became the head of the family. And what does she do instead of collecting herself?
"I must fix this and that and that can't happen in the future so better fix that too"
.
Hisana taking some time to get her shit together I can understand. Maybe I just didn't realize she needed it because she's leaning more towards Mary. On the other hand, she's not freaking out from the crazy ninja world around her so both sets of memories are keeping her from losing her shit in different ways. *shrug*
But the arguments against befriending Naruto that focus on 'don't talk to to the main character just because he's the protagonist/you'll manipulate him/don't try to fix everything' ring hollow to me.
I really don't see it as such. We're not trying to fix everything. Not all at once, anyway. Yes, the possible end of the world is kind of hard to banish from thoughts completely, but this is about what's in front of us and the actions we choose to take now (or not).
Besides, it's not like this will fix everything for Naruto. He'll still not have parents, and a lot of the village won't like him. We can't really do much about that, unfortunately. But Naruto's one kid in our class who we know has it rough. It doesn't matter how we know, we do. We can choose to either act and reach out to him, or not (at least until Sasuke wakes up).
I never said that. What I said is that Hisana only has a special vote in her head (so to speak) regarding what to do about him because of who he is, not because of his circumstances.
There are lots of lonely children all about Konoha. Is it Hisana's business to fix their lives? Only if she makes it her business, as QM proposed here. I'm not opposed to accepting someone else's attempts to befriend Hisana, but I don't see why she should go about this dishonest line of approach on purpose unless she's clear to herself, at least, that she's doing so on less than upstanding reasons.
Reaching out to him to make him less sad is not the real reason, or else there'd be thought about improving the situation of orphans in general or something. Instead it's all focused on Naruto. In the entire thread no one's said that they'd like to help anyone other than Naruto. The 'help his loneliness' argument just goes down easier. Sugar to hide something else. The real argument is to pursue being friends with Naruto specifically, because of becoming Ninja Jesus in one iteration of things.
Every argument made in favor of helping him so far is only an attempt to mitigate that fact: 'it's actually not suspicious at all!' and 'does it matter if it's dishonest?' being the main lines of thought, I believe. Neither of these are actually in favor of making friends with him specifically, they're just warding off objections.
No. My primary reason is because he's a lonely orphan we know about and can actually reach out to. He's right in front of us, after all, and he'll be our classmate for the next several years.
And we can do so without taking a lot of time out of our busy schedule. We are busy, after all...leading a clan and getting strong enough to survive in this world is hard work. But Naruto is a classmate, so we've been presented with an actual chance to reach out to this person.
I can guess, but don't really know how it will affect saving the world, or not. Hisana's mere existence makes stations of canon unreliable at best. Trying to befriend Naruto now may doom us all later. Who knows.
But when presented with the chance to reach out to this kid in front of us, to at least try and offer a hand of friendship to someone who very likely wants one? I want Hisana to choose to offer that hand rather than wait just because she happens to know about a different version of him.
Basically, the future is uncertain at this point. Let's forget any set future and simply try to make the best of our present and hope that leads to something better down the road. To do that I think it's a good idea to reach out to a lonely classmate when we can.
That said, helping out orphans in general is a good idea. We can reach out to Naruto personally because he's in our class (I think he was the only one in his class that didn't have someone show up for them when everyone first got their headbands, implying he's the only orphan in that particular class), but that wouldn't really be practical on a large scale with kids outside of our class. But we don't necessarily need to know them personally or be in their class to help.
Maybe some orphans could use better housing? Or perhaps some of those civilian merchants/tradesmen living on the clan property want kids? That's certainly something we could talk to Hiruzen about, though I hope we have someone to help us coordinate that on the Uchiha side of things (finances, planning, etc.).
The third reason you've brought up, that 'He'd be happier!', is not a reason to manipulate people. It's still creepy as hell to maneuver people like that, even if you believe the end justifies the means here. It's self-deluding as well as extremely deceitful to think that it's not.
And that is the best case scenario, that he actually does become happier. 'You think Naruto wants a pity-friend?'...is one way that I can see it going wrong. He's a prideful guy. I mean, it's a Tekomandor quest, and these have shown a distinct tendency towards utopic interpretations, but really, the QM shouldn't be so slanted that that has to be taken into account...
I didn't actually guarantee he'd be happier. I hope it works out that way, but he may turn us down. He may turn us down but making the offer might help him in other ways I can't guess at.
But the fact is he's a lonely kid who we know about and have the chance to reach out to. Introducing ourselves is better than doing nothing. That's how I see it, anyway. Call me delusional if you like but it seems that simple to me.
But the vote's over....and before I actually got around to voting. Heh.