I think that Kakashi's 'death' is still pretty much up in the air. There's a chance that he's just undergoing one of those dream sequences while he is hovering between life and death.

I'm in denial, frankly speaking :D;;

I can understand the whole "new generation takes over the place of the old" theme that he has going, but frankly, I can't see the editors of Shonen Jump letting him kill off essentially one of the top 3 most popular characters in the series. It'll be a disaster for the series, from the editors' POV.

In Japan I believe, the editors continue to wield a lot of power. They can pretty much dictate the direction of the whole story, and the artist is allowed to voice his opinion on it. But once the editors make a decision, it's pretty much set. I mean, look at Yoko Matsushita of 'Yami no Matsuei'. Rumour has it that she had a major head-butting session with her editors, and as a result, she never got to be published professionally ever again.

My interest in Kakashi is slightly less professional, but I'm looking at it as that he's perhaps Naruto's final link to his father, and if he takes the dive as well, Naruto is going to lose a very important part of his own history. Plus, we never got to see his unmasked face. When the time comes for Kakashi, I think that's one visual that all readers practically expect.

The whole Naruto/Sasuke thing is getting me down. They're really turning more and more into their mentors, and I think an epic smackdown is a given. It's just a matter of when. But Sakura should be given a chance to shine as well - she's currently my favourite female manga character.

If nothing else, Sasuke will return to Konoha to wipe out the village. It's kinda stupid, though. In a "my brother so loved this village that he killed his entire bloodline except for me, so I'm going to honour his memory by destroying the village that he practically gave his life for".

Like, WTF.

Thing is, unless Naruto defies the common expectations of a shonen manga, the most likely case is that Sasuke will eventually return to his birthplace (with much.... 'persuasion' on Naruto's part). Starting up his own village, and by that same line of thought, his own clan, seems like a pretty spiffy idea, though. We can definitely entertain this as a possibility, given how much the current anime/manga industry seems to embrace the uncommon (FMA, anyone?).

Randomly, Kishimoto-sensei mentioned in an interview this year that after his focus on Kakashi, Sakura is next on his to-do list. If she's going to get the kind of 'attention' that Kakashi got, let's just say I'm a little nervous about it!