I guess I was thinking about the possible out come and weighing the differences between them. Since you only provided us with two; Yugito stays or Yugito defects. If she stays the worst that can happen is she's miserable until they come up with something else.... alive and sexually satisfied, but miserable nonetheless. Which I can agree is a problem that needs a solution but Naruto immediately supported defection(more on that). So the worst that could possibly happen if she leaves is the Alliance breaking down which could've lead to war and possibly innocent lives lost on all fronts, not just Suna people. I know your point of view is that even if the worst case scenario is possible, that shouldn't justify Yugito's unhappiness. It's ballsy which is what I think you were going for but even if it is, it's also callous and a slap in the face to people who DO think about the whole rather than just the individual. You may not subscribe to that philosophy but it still matters to those that do, like Tsunade, Konan, Iruka, Gaara. It's fortunate that Tsunade is doing all in her power to avoid major conflict but she still has the same job as Gaara, Konan and the Raikage. She's lucky she even has Naruto and the Family because how bad/similar could her choices have been to other kages without that support network.
Defect, or Not to Defect... Was that the only question?? I guess I just wished you/Naruto took more time to consider a third way out. After all, I'm already used to Naruto taking time to solve problems, like Ino's, Anko's, Gaara's. But for Naruto to just immediately agree to Yugito defecting not even minutes after she brings it up is surprising. You as the writer could've made the fall out a lot worse than simply having Naruto being targeted. But you didn't so I guess it turned out okay since I know Naruto won't die.
Wow, LemonSage. You've responded more times than all my other responses from other authors combined. Thank you for taking the time. I must be pretty annoying at this point. Hope all is well and keep up the good work.
--Abby.
Author's response
Hi, ultimately I don't feel it breaks down to being ballsy outside of doing the right thing is more often harder than not. To me, it comes down to principles. Naruto's principles have shifted that building a better world can't come at the expense of his lovers. So, while I can understand the idea of waiting for an opportune moment, to me the people arguing for that simply don't want to disrupt their lives, and so will allow bad things to persist. For example, if someone had stood up to the nut jobs running North Korea, would we be living in a world where another tyrant has a nuke. If during the time of the Continental Congress, those against slavery had argued more passionately to end the practice, would we have needed a Civil War. If a single country had stood up to Hitler as he took Poland, would WW2 have happened. But in these cases, and many more, people decided not to act because it would be disruptive to people's lives, which for politicians is more often a bad thing which is why they act in their own self interests when deciding not to do anything, and as a result ignored doing what they felt was right.
To me, those were the only two questions that mattered. Either you leave Yugito where she is hoping Karui becomes Raikage, which is an uphill battle and can take years. Or, you solve the problem which is Yugito is unhappy being used as Kumo's weapon, and wishes to use her abilities to help in the manner Akatsuki plans to. To me, a good leader makes the bold and principled choice, not making excuses that doing the right thing now isn't the opportune time to do it. To me, the masses are never bold, thus never do the right thing until they are dragged kicking and screaming into doing it. They would gladly allow Yugito to remain where she is as the injustice done to her doesn't trump their potential suffering to fix it. To use your own argument, not everyone floats to the top which is why you need leaders willing to motivate their people in the right direction or to act boldly believing they are right in their actions, not allowing the masses inherent cowardice and collective self-interest define the proper courses of action.