YMMV / Naruto Gaiden

• Anti-Climax Boss: Shin Uchiha is easily defeated in two chapters and his clones are easily convinced by Naruto to do a Heel–Face Turn. Calling it an anticlimax can even be a euphemism.
• Broken Base: The Gaiden itself is seen this way. Some fans consider it a money grabbing waste of time, from lack of focus on new generation to Uzumaki family and the resumed focus on Uchihas even after the happy ending. Sasu/Saku fans are also divided on gaiden; some fans accept any bone that's thrown to them while a great deal of shippers like to pretend it never happened.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Shin and his clones are this as well. While the former's body makeup is a cool concept (which explains why Danzo is able to have that many Sharingan at one time) and his powers are neat and convenient (telekinesis, teleportation and actual cloning), Shin overall comes across as some Akatsuki ripoff who's way out of his league trying to challenge the original Team 7 members and is taken out by his own "sons". The Shin clones themselves are pardoned and go to live with a reformed Kabuto as part of a Konoha orphanage.
  • Chocho and her journey to find her "real" dad. Some people find her hilarious, with her constant insensitive comments towards any given situation, particularly when she wonders and confronts a guy she finds handsome with the question, "Are you my dad?" All this culminates with Chocho meeting Chouji in his slim form during the final chapter and proclaiming that she "finally did it", with Naruto stating to Chouji "She's been looking all over for you." On the other hand, some people find her REALLY annoying, the joke has long worn out its welcome and that its final payoff was "weak". Also she appeared in almost every chapter while characters like Mitsuki, Shikadai, Inojin, Himawari, Metal Lee, Mirai, and even Boruto himself received little to no development.
• Character Rerailment: Naruto's adulthood is seen this way by many fans. From his design to personality, even fans who stopped liking him during Part 2 accepted Hokage Naruto as one of the better characters of Gaiden.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Shikadai has both Shikamaru's lazy approach to everything and Temari's habit of not sugarcoating things. Naturally, this has earned him a lot of fans.
  • Mitsuki has a sharp mind, an even sharper tongue and a keen understanding of the situation; this is best shown when he dragged Chocho away so that Boruto and Sarada could talk privately. That, combined with the mystery surrounding him, has made him surprisingly popular for a newly introduced character.
• Fanon Discontinuity: For large portion of Sasuke/Sakura fans, they were better without this Gaiden. The ending of the Gaiden seems to have won back many Sasuke/Sakura shippers, but the way it portrays their family as a happy one despite how the Gaiden started is still not appreciated by a fair amount of the fans that see it as a really messed up family beneath the apparent happiness.
• Genius Bonus: During the DNA test if you look closely at the results, they show a 100% match, this was the first clue some people pointed out for questioning the validity of the test. Why? Positive paternity/maternity tests never show more than a 50% match (half from the mother and half from the father), this also fits with the fact that the umbilical cord was from Sarada, so Suigetsu was comparing 2 DNA samples from the same source.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Sarada's glasses look so much like Karin's because they are a gift from Karin! She probably had Sakura give them to the girl. And, after scolding Suigetsu, Karin tells him they should give Sarada a new pair of glasses, since the old ones are too small for her now.
  • Sasuke praising and commending Sakura's abilities, this is a very big change from his attitude towards her in the original series.
  • Karin is shown to have finally gotten over her Sasuke-crazy phase. Few people expected to see her not only genuinely happy for Sasuke and Sakura, but to have also struck a friendship with the latter.
• I Knew It!:
  • There were several people who correctly predicted that the DNA test made by Suigetsu was flawed, as well as the explanation of it that Karin was actually Sakura's midwife and that the umbilical cord used for the test actually belonged to Sarada.
  • Also, more than a few fans who remembered previous instances of it, quickly called the Trolling Creator theory on the whole affair.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: If anything, Gaiden has kept the flames going. The biggest contendors are the Sasuke/Karin and the Sasuke/Sakura shippers, due to when Karin is (supposedly) revealed as Sarada's biological mother rather than Sakura. It's then revealed that Karin is not actually Sarada's mother, but the one who helped Sakura give birth to her when they were traveling together. The reason the DNA test was positive was because the sample Suigetsu used was from Sarada's umbilical cord that Karin kept as a memento. Meaning that Sakura is her biological mother and that Karin was just meant to be a red herring. The two even say they are friends. Did this revelation quell the flames? No.
• The Un-Twist: Thanks to Kishimoto's repeated offenses of Trolling Creator, it came as no surprise to the cynical part of the fanbase that Sakura was Sarada's mother all along.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Sarada, The entire plot of Gaiden is her weird quest to find out if Sakura is her mother, It comes across as a very overblown case of teen angst, esepcially as most of it is unfounded and also, pointless in the end anyway.

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