He's definitely got learning disabilities, and you're absolutely right that he's the poster child for undiagnosed neurodivergence. I've seen theories that being made a junchuuriki (sp?) caused it, but I'm...honestly kind of uncomfortable with those theories? Especially because 1) none of the other junchuuriki, afaik, seem to have the same kind of neuroweird going on - especially none of the ones who were raised in an environment where people actually gave a single fuck about whether they were getting their basic needs met - and if it were a thing inherent to being a demon container, you'd see Gaara having similar issues, and 2) it feels ableist af to go "oh, he'd be Perfectly Normal if not for this". Being a junchuuriki definitely didn't help any of Naruto's neuroweird and probably exacerbated some of it (I doubt any of his teachers ever really stopped to wonder if he was legitimately struggling with a lesson, or if he'd have an easier time learning some other way, and it's pretty hard to focus to begin with if you're hungry and you're pretty sure everyone in the room would be happier you vanished), but I don't like the idea that it caused his neuroweird. I suspect that he'd still have the same issues with learning if he hadn't become a junchuuriki or if either of his parents had survived, but he'd have had more support with figuring out what a good style of learning for him was. (I am also incredibly wtf at the idea that Naruto being the son of one of the Leaf's heroes and previous leaders is something that was kept from every single member of the village. Like, I can see the reasons to keep some aspects of it classified, as a matter of security, but the whole village pretty obviously knows that he's a junchuuriki even before he does. It's why he has so much trouble! So there doesn't seem to be any point in trying to keep it a matter of deep security that he's Minato's son, especially when it might result in people treating him less like crap all the time.)
Rumor has it that it wasn't the plan at the beginning of the series. Dunno if it's true, but it'd explain how (despite the hinting) no one took care of him in any way at all.
Yeah, and I'd argue that if bijuu caused autism, then Gaara would be even worse off in the first series - instead of just straight up sociopathic, he'd be incoherent and animalistic because of sensory issues D: And also, while we don't really know enough about Killer B to judge, he definitely seems pretty normal except for his Special Interest in rap. There are also other non-jinchurriki characters that are hella neurodivergent as well. Rock Lee, for one.
(double post, sorry) The impression that I always got was that the main population didn't understand that jinchurrikis that young retain their own personality? So while some of them might have known (or realised, he's exactly Minato's colouration on Kushina's bone structure, after all) that the meatsuit was the child of the Fourth, they assumed that the person inside WAS Kyuubi no Youko, which supposedly murderated a lot of people including said Hokage, and treated it accordingly. :/ (After all, a lot of characters early on say things like 'okay so that kid really IS the demon fox' rather than 'that kid has the demon fox inside him'. Important distinction right there, and if they thought the kid they were ostracising was the thing that had both killed many of their friends and family, their leader and his wife, AND destroyed their leader's child from the inside before he ever really had a chance...) In fact, that seems to be a common stereotype for jinchurriki? See: How messed up bby Gaara was after being treated as a biological warhead at best and a kaijuu-monster at worst.
Considering how badly Naruto was ostracized growing up, I suspect that he only survived to be old enough to try and graduate ninja school because of an edict from the Third Hokage stating that no one was to physically harm the kid in case it causes damage to the seal. So I don't think they'd have killed him - it's not like they've got another seal master around who can stuff the demon fox back into another container if Naruto's seal breaks - but you're right that things definitely would have been worse than they already were. Yep. I mean, you'd assume that they'd want for these kids to really, really like their village and want to protect it, instead of having to hope that the kid's going to be big-hearted enough to want to do that in spite of how the village has treated them their whole lives. Instead, we've got at least two villages where the kids were horribly abused and, in Naruto's case, probably only didn't get killed because of his status as the container for the thing that murdered half the village the last time it was loose. And prior to Gaara getting befriended by Naruto, he pretty solidly doesn't give a fuck about anyone because he doesn't trust they won't be waiting to use his affection against him.
I finished writing my first story in my completely AU without canon characters version of Naruto! I'm going to have to find someone to review it before I put it on AO3 but I'm really excited to having actually done a short story. The series will be called "The World Was Not Made For Us"!
Of course I realize now that I have a ton of unnamed OCs and have to research Japanese surnames and first names that fit and the kanji because I'm a sucker for foreshadowing through meaning that no one will see because they won't see the kanji I'm using... Thank goodness my friend is helping, she actually studied Japanese for a while
*replaces Sandaime Sarutobi Hokage with a woman hokage* Take that you old mess, you ain't in my story
Working on more OCs to fill out the story... adapted one of my DnD characters into the jinchuruki. She is, as expected, grumpy about it, but she's good looking as she grumps. Spoiler: Lorge
I have... been drawing so many Naruto OCs... the document where I keep their profiles keeps growing as I add more, I realized I needed more infrastructure people to fill the background of the universe... Spoiler: So many designs Feedback on designs appreciated. Although the first boy is meant to look a bit like he just threw something on and that's it. That's his style. That's what he does. He's my friend's gremlin. [Edit] Also have melodramatic sketchings of things that happen in the story Spoiler: Traumatized kiddies
I mean to be fair anyone who's ever been near a colony of pinnepeds would see agree that they HONK like donkeys do, so...
Made a Naruto Meta post, hoping it makes sense to people as I babble about Shimura Danzo. Tumblr post Pillowfort post
theory, 15 years late with starbucks: they didnt actually escape the infinite tsukuyomi, they just thought they did, inception-style. it masquerades as a happy ending but nothing changes because the person who set it up has trouble conceiving the actual changes nscessary to facilitate peace.
Man Orochimaru Now he's just some haha funnie background character its pretty wild Tho idk if he's gotten more important or something but he'd definitely just There
