Fate In Naruto ; Is Neji Right ?

first of we need to go over what Neji actually said and the actual point he was making

he is pretty sure" talent and ability is determined at birth"and that " your entire destiny is set from the time you're born"

what people become is predetermined , what people do is part of the current of fate , and people share the fate of death

Neji feels cursed by fate and Naruto understands this because he feels cursed by the nine tails for Neji to be right all that is needed is for things in Naruto to be ultimately predetermined , for Neji to be wrong what would need to be the case is things are not ultimately predetermined , that actions can be taken that goes against and achieve a different out come to what as been truly fated to be the case

has things been foretold to happen in Naruto ? yes

part of the prophecy is to change the world which requires things to change so merely taking action to change things or arriving at a different outcome then what happen in the past does not show that fate has been over come

something that is also brought up about "fate" is the reincarnation but there is nothing stating that the reincarnations are predetermined or that the incarnates are predetermined to fight each other but as it is reincarnation it feels like it is the case

the prophecy the sage of six paths was referring to is ether one that is just not seen in the manga or the one shown only in the anime

and the anime makes this very clear on its opinion on fate

even if they are not fated the reincarnations are direct parallels to Naruto and Sasuke and can work as a commentary on their achievements to what the story its self thinks of them in regards to the "talent and ability is determined at birth" and if taken as fated directly indicates this and that " your entire destiny is set from the time you're born"

Sasuke / Indra : Ocular abilities , call Genius , self reliant , believes Power can achieve everything

Naruto / Ashura : fuck up , needed cooperation to achieve anything , struggled with training , got a bodily Chakra awakening that gave him more power that then reviled Sasuke / Indra , believes in love and friendship and that love can achieve everything

the reason we are say this works as a commentary towards Naruto's fated abilities is that with the 9 tails being sealed in Naruto at birth him awakening that power is contingent to being "determined at birth"

and now for the actual reason behind the reincarnation

they reincarnated not necessarily because of a disagreement in regards to fate but because one was selected to lead and the other was not , if we take the reincarnation stuff as fate when it in more then one way it can be said that Ashura was God ordained to be the leader

the principle here being " Indra did not accept ashura as his superior " , which caused them to reincarnate endlessly which is also the case of their conflict ( they are literally fighting with a Biju avatar and a Susanoo) which this is directly supported by Sasuke statement at the valley of the end fight

which is completely explain why his fight with Naruto is also about acknowledgment in Sasuke's inner monologue

the summation of which is that Sasuke refused to admit to him self that Naruto is superior to him , which this whole fight also involved a fight over a positions of leadership , a literal and figurative superiority which is also reflective of the Indra and Ashura conflict

the end of the conflict was not an ideological one ,  Power can achieve anything vs love can achieve anything which would be central to another concept touched on in the fight being "how to stop the cycle of conflict / hatred" which is a stopping all conflict, but a self reflection by Sasuke on their and hence the reincarnations specific conflict

and it was not a changing of what was ordained but the confirmation of it

Naruto did not change destiny

Sasuke surrendered to fate

... and so Neji was right

the only thing Neji was wrong about was that was going to win that fight , by all rights and the information he had he should have out matched his opponent by a uncrossable chasm but he was unaware of one crucial fact ... he was fighting the fated one , Naruto almost said it the best

and yes Neji was also right , he was ill fated

choose , be a slave well living or dying for us, or die from our salve mark, or by your own accord and the series has the gall to try and tell us his chose was the last option well doing the first and acting like it was a meaningful choose

"we all have one shared fate.. death"- Neji hyuga