He should have done something about the entire “child soldier” thing.
Spoilers ahead!
Summary:
- Naruto brought peace to the shinobi world, but that is not enough.
- He should have changed the entire system which allows children to become soldiers.
- The era of peace will be over at some point.
Did Naruto have a good ending? To many people, the answer is definitely “yes.” Despite many characters ending up dead, most of the main cast survived, all the enemies were defeated, and Naruto became Hokage (which was shown in a special episode). There’s nothing to worry about — or so it seems.
Naruto, despite all his good intentions and heroic actions, didn’t do much by becoming Hokage. It’s a big achievement for him, but he is often praised by the fans for solving the issues with the shinobi system — something that he definitely didn’t do.
New Era Is Peaceful, but There Are Still Many Underlying Problems
Yes, in the New era (which we see in Boruto: Naruto New Generations), relations between villages are relatively peaceful and are done through diplomacy. In that sense, Naruto brought on the era of peace and stability; however, he should have done much more.
For how flawed Sasuke’s motivation and approach were, he was actually right about one thing. His desire to destroy Konoha (which he later abandoned) didn’t just come from the hatred for the village: it was fueled by the hatred towards the system itself.
Essentially, the world of Naruto has child soldiers with superpowers killing each other. This hardly paints a pretty picture if you think about it. In Boruto, we briefly see that there’s less pressure on kids, and less people become ninja because they don’t know what else to do with their lives; however, the problem actually persists.
Peace Is Temporary — Wars Will Break Out Again at Some Point
Naruto’s rule hardly changed anything about the system itself. He seems comfortable with just living in a peaceful era, ruling the village: however, there’s no guarantee that this peace will be upheld forever.
Even if he’s strong enough that no one will dare to wage an all-out war, there’s nothing that’ll prevent the world from regressing into what it was before the Fourth Great Ninja War after his death.
At some point in the future, a major war is likely to break out if nothing about the system is changed. Naruto didn’t change it enough: he should have taken some advice from Sasuke and dismantled the system — or, at least, heavily changed it.
It doesn’t matter now, as there are still common threats to the ninja villages of the world, but it’s unlikely that this kind of situation will last forever.