In celebration of Naruto's 25th anniversary, Shonen Jump's YouTube channel posted a video with a quote that fundamentally reframed the franchise's ending for me. The video generally captures some of Naruto's best and most enduring lines. As a reminder of the franchise's charm and indomitable spirit, the video is a potent celebration of Naruto's legacy, but it also hints at some of the problems under the surface.

The quote in question is Jiraiya's: "The shinobi world is not a way of life, but a manner of death." It's supposed to be an inspiring recitation of the shinobi mentality, but the original context is a lot darker. The context of Naruto's 25th Anniversary video also reveals something very interesting in its structure and choice of quotes for different characters.

Jiraiya's Quote Shows The Dream Behind Konoha

Jiraiya's Famous Words Come Shortly Before His Death To Pain

The quote can be traced to Naruto's 382nd chapter, "My Real Decision!". The official English translation of the manga rendered it slightly differently, but the Japanese remains the same across both quotations ("忍は生き様ではなく 死に様の世界"). With some additional context, the quote is as so:

The true measure of a shinobi is not how he lives but how he dies.

It's not what they did in life, but what they did before dying that proves their worth.

These famous lines from Jiraiya come up after Pain infiltrates his hideout and the two have an all-out brawl that actually kills Jiraiya twice. Before his first death, Jiraiya describes his dissatisfaction with his life up until then, saying that it wasn't befitting of a true shinobi:

Compared with the great Hokages who came before me, my accomplishments have all been petty and insignificant. I wanted to die like them. I had come to a conclusion about how my life would be a long time ago. I lived believing my shortcomings were just amusing distractions! That my failures would build character! After all those losses and mistakes, I would be granted one great, final adventure... and die a death befitting a true shinobi! I was really ionate about it... Heheh... But this... isn't how I wanted it to turn out...

After he dies the first time, he restarts his heart with sheer willpower. Writing a note at the last second to warn Konoha about Pain, Jiraiya afterwards dies once more—this time drifting into the ocean. He commends himself for writing the note as he es, claiming it to be a little more honorable.

Shinobi Ideals And Jiraiya's "Manner Of Death"

Shinobi Ideals Are Not Neutral—They Are Chosen, And Jiraiya's Death Scene Makes That Clear

It goes without saying that seeing Jiraiya berate himself for not meeting up to the ideal expectations of a shinobi that he'd established for himself is absolutely devastating. There's also an established irony that Akatsuki originated from the rubble of Amegakure as a proxy for Konoha's interests. It's unfortunate that as he es, Jiraiya doesn't seem to reflect on the nature of his ideals at all as something personal and subjective, nor does he think ill of Konoha at all.

It makes sense, to be sure. In Kishimoto's interview with Kana, he said that the idealism to which Naruto and Konoha's other inhabitants aspire is unrealistic. However, he says that shōnen anime has a responsibility to show that kind of idealism, even if it's unattainable:

This manga talks a lot about not repeating the errors of the past. And to be completely honest, overcoming traumatic experiences like Naruto does seems a bit idealist and naive to me. Even though, this kind of utopic idealism has to be written and defended in Shōnen mangas. Shōnen mangas must carry hope, above all. - Masashi Kishimoto

At the same time, it's important to ask what the shōnen demographic is supposed to be taught if the fallouts of Konoha are unilaterally considered villains, even when groups like Akatsuki have a point about the overarching shinobi system. Other characters from around the period of the Pain arc in Shippuden show that a "good Hokage" doesn't necessarily fix the flaws in the shinobi system, because it just takes a leader worse than Hashirama or Naruto to undermine the idealism altogether.

In fact, during Naruto's tenure as Hokage, Amegakure isn't shown to be in much better shape. It's still ravaged from the Fourth Great Ninja War, and the village pleads with Konoha to give it the resources to rebuild. Naruto offers them, but the village is never revisited afterward.

Sasuke And Jiraiya Represent Two Dreams

Sasuke Also Appears In The 25th Anniversary Video, And A Close Reading Raises A Question

In the 25th anniversary special, another character has an interesting quote: Sasuke. Sasuke is characterized by a quote conveying that his dream is rooted entirely in the past. The exact line comes from the Sasuke Recovery Mission arc during Naruto and Sasuke's climactic battle. During this confrontation in Naruto chapter #219 ("Future and Past"), Sasuke says the following:

Yeah... I've been awake all this time... from a dream by my foolish self... who dreamed of a future with comrades drunken with the assurance of peace. That's why I left the village. That's why I desired power!! The future is not where my dream is. It's in the past... that's where it'll always be.

What's interesting is that Sasuke is the only character who is presented in of his dream. But it's also evident that Jiraiya has a certain dream based on the past, too: the ideal of being a shinobi who lives up to the mythological legacy and ideals of the Hokage and renowned shinobi. What's more, Sasuke presents this specific dream as being "drunk on the assurance of peace".

When Sasuke eventually turns toward the idea of an all-out revolution after the Five Kage Summit arc, he stands steadfast against the shinobi system's ideal of a peace predicated on systemic violence against peoples like the Uchiha and villages like Amegakure. Jiraiya refused, even as he died at the hands of its consequences, to stir from this shinobi dream. The ideals founding the shinobi system serve to bring totalizing contentment and assurance of peace, even when the present situation seems to give every indication that it, itself, is as far from peaceful as one can get.

In other words, the shinobi ideal is a waking dream contrasting the slumbering ignorance of the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Jiraiya, in a sense, died happily in his sleep. Putting it like this, the ending of Naruto seems to be totally recontextualized. Naruto and Sasuke get a famous rematch at the Valley of the End where, eventually, Naruto wins over Sasuke to his side. However, just like Jiraiya, Sasuke is only put under a different kind of Infinite Tsukiyomi: the permanent promise of peace, but one that seems totally intangible.

The question is further raised throughout the course of Boruto. It's clear that, despite the shinobi order and Kage systems remaining in place, the peace they promise is no closer than it's ever been. Konoha functions effectively as a surveillance state, and is eager to execute even teenagers without due process or strong evidence. The only reason that Boruto is able to escape torture, for instance, is because he's shown to be helping Shikamaru.

In political science, there's a foundational concept of negative peace versus positive peace. Negative peace is simply a state of affairs where outright violence is avoided altogether. Positive peace, on the other hand, implies cooperation and harmony between individuals within a society, or between societies on a larger geopolitical scale: a lack of structural violence.

Hashirama's goals in founding Konoha were amicable, without a doubt. It's also not impossible for the shinobi system to ensure a limited and localized negative peace. At the same time, Konoha remains the prime example, after the Fourth Great Ninja War, of the potential problems with the shinobi system.

For me, I don't know if Sasuke's revolutionary ideals were any better, but it does make me wonder whether something other than the shinobi system might have been a better long-term solution. I can't shake the feeling that the shinobi system is Naruto's dream that won't end, and Jiraiya's quote made me see that the total devotion and internal judgment it demands are part and parcel of that dream.