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I just felt I had to open up and write down my feelings about the chapter. I originally meant this to go into the discussion thread, but since this became so long I decided to put it here in the review section. At this moment I have no intention of doing regular reviews.
Mifune's talk
Mifune's and Raikage's arguments about why people should be chosen or should not be chosen were almost exacly what I said previously. Mifune's arguments themselves are very, very convincing. If Ao (or whatever his name was) had not interrupted the meeting, Mifune's proposal very well could have resulted in Danzo leading the alliance. If one didn't know about Danzo's shadowy activities and connections, one would think Danzo was the best person to lead the alliance. Though the alliance could have been just 4-village instead of 5-village: Raikage didn't seem to be very satisfied with the arrangements. I myself am not a fan of a peaceful solution, so I salute you Ao for being observant!
Konoha 12
The Konoha 9's decision to kill Sasuke is very interesting. First of all, Ino crying feels very out-of-place. While we have seen her now and then, we haven't had a focus on her feelings since..chuunin examns? Ino's crush on Sasuke hasn't been mentioned in so long that at least I just assumed it had passed. Apparently not.
The decision to get off their asses and do something is the right one. This far it has been pretty much Naruto doing all the spotlight action with the other 9 randomly taking turns to tag along. Also I'm glad Kishi decided to give the Konoha 9 some more screen-time: they were in dire need of some. It's also good that they have accepted Naruto's ideology of preventing wars and violence, but are not following it blindly in a daze. Instead they decide to make the hard choise that Naruto is unable to do: to kill Sasuke.
Now I don't mean Naruto should decide to kill Sasuke: Naruto is the messiah, the saviour, future world leader, revolutionary and the peacemaker of this manga. He must remain pure, so Naruto's buddies will take the responsibility of dirty work instead.
Then comes the issue of Sakura. Since Sleepy Fan's translations are notorious, and the original translator I saw said so, I believe Sakura returns Naruto's feelings. Hopefully Sakura has realized to what lengths Naruto has gone for her and Sasuke's sake. I'm glad Sakura decided to do something, what I'm wondering is: what can Sakura do? Is she going to talk Naruto out of the promise? Naruto has pretty much dedicated his whole life for this one mission (for world peace, though Naruto may not realize yet he's on that path), can Naruto really be talked out of it? I don't think so. I don't think the talk with Naruto will lead anywhere (Except further down the road on naruXsaku), what this Sakura's mission WILL accomplish, is re-uniting whole team 7 once again in same place. Kakashi is in the iron country. Naruto is in the iron country. Sasuke is in the iron country, and soon Sakura will be also. Them meeting is almost destined. I would totally love seeing Kakashi + Sakura + Naruto vs Sasuke + Karin + Juugo + Suigetsu (did I remember all names right?). But the manga has been quite hard to predict lately, so I won't get my hopes too high. We have to see if team Sasuke will even survive the kage-meeting. Sasuke will surely, but other 3 team members of his may not. And even if (when) Sasuke survives, after Kages had their way with Sasuke, he may not be in any fighting condition anymore, enough to give Sage Mode Naruto any kind of resistance anyway.
And while I don't like Naruto groveling on his stomach, thinking about Sasuke, I believe it's part of his the process he must go trough. Naruto's attempts to negociate mercy for Sasuke have failed. What Naruto must do is to come to understand Sasuke's psyche. This won't happen in a day, but I believe some day Naruto will understand. What he does with that information, I don't know, but I believe in the end it comes down to beating Sasuke into a pulp & dragging him back to Konoha. But I won't hold my breath: Sasuke just seems to go deeper and deeper into madness of his.
Danzo & the eyes
Danzo is screwed big time. It all starts to make sense now, especially how Danzo was so easily accepted to be the hokage. But Danzo having Shisui's eye brings some interesting questions. First of all, Danzo must have had Itachi's help with gaining the eye of Shisui. I still assume Itachi killed Shisui, but I also suspect now that Itachi delivered the eye to Danzo. After all, Itachi was a double-agent.
The really curious part is Danzo's need to assassinate Anko. Danzo said Anko might know about him and Orochimaru. Danzo also said he needed to find Kabuto, since he might have some research left on his eye (and arm). This brings me to the question: did Danzo know about Itachi/Orochimaru being in the Akatsuki? And how long did Danzo know, if he did? All along? This could mean that not only did Danzo know about Akatsuki, he may have worked for them, or made some deals with them in past. This brings other nasty questions, but before some more evidence is uncovered, I'll leave the speculation at that.
Back to meeting. The Sharingan power is perfect for an underground shadow leader like Danzo. It's almost scary what he could accomplish with his wits, whole (?) ninja underworld at his disposal, and the sharingan eye. But then Ao came and blew him into the open, at worst time possible. Danzo really, REALLY fucked up now. The arguments for Konoha leading the alliance are now turned upside-down: suddenly Konoha may seem even bigger threat than Akatsuki. I may go as far as saying that other 4 countries (at least Cloud & Rock) may think that Konoha has been working with Akatsuki all along, and they may start thinking that Konoha has control of ALL bijuu. That would in worst case scenario lead to a 4-village alliance against Konoha. But I don't think that is very likely. But whatever happens, Konoha's reputation has been completely shattered by what Danzo did. No-one will trust Konoha anymore. Thanks Danzo, nice job!
Madara, Zetsu & "Where to now?"
Madara that crafty old man, looks like he's messing things up again. He orders Zetsu to beging doing whatever Madara had planned, and..
a completely naked half of a white plant -man appears right in middle of the Kage meeting. Zetsu's entrance has to be one of the best entrances in the manga, up there with Gai's Dynamic Entry.
Zetsu is as confident as ever, having no worries about the dangers of appearing in front of the 5 kages and their bodyguards. In addition, Zetsu starts taunting them! Priceless! Thumbs up, buddy!
Zetsu appearing serves 2 functions as far as I can see. First of all, it completely fucks up Sasuke in the a**. Sasuke's pretty much only chance of winning the fight he was about to start was to ambush the kages, but now Sasuke's element of surprise is gone. He will have to work his ass off to even escape alive from that situation.
Second function was to interrupt the kage meeting. In this Zetsu & Madara succeeded very well. They chose the perfect moment to interrupt too: if Zetsu had popped up 1 minute earlier, before Danzo was exposed, the 5 kage may have worked together to take Akatuski down. Now however the disturbance is at it's highest, the rage has just flared up in the Kages, and all trust for Konoha has been shattered. The meeting has been interrupted, and the 5 kages will not any time soon trust each other enough to return back to the negociating table. All chances for co-operation against akatsuki are gone, and worst-cases scenario is the next great ninja war. I don't know if it goes that far, maybe Madara's goal was just to prevent an alliance against Akatsuki.
This may also work for Sasuke: with the 5 kages not trusting each other, they may not work with each other to take down Sasuke. In best case scenario the Kages will scatter to do whatever each one wants, making Sasuke able to pick them off one by one. But this is the best case scenario.
I already made some predictions there, but manga has really come to a complex phase. With so insanely many variables, it's very hard to predict what happens, which makes it all so much more fun. A great chapter, and in agony I wait for the next one!
Mifune's talk
Mifune's and Raikage's arguments about why people should be chosen or should not be chosen were almost exacly what I said previously. Mifune's arguments themselves are very, very convincing. If Ao (or whatever his name was) had not interrupted the meeting, Mifune's proposal very well could have resulted in Danzo leading the alliance. If one didn't know about Danzo's shadowy activities and connections, one would think Danzo was the best person to lead the alliance. Though the alliance could have been just 4-village instead of 5-village: Raikage didn't seem to be very satisfied with the arrangements. I myself am not a fan of a peaceful solution, so I salute you Ao for being observant!
Konoha 12
The Konoha 9's decision to kill Sasuke is very interesting. First of all, Ino crying feels very out-of-place. While we have seen her now and then, we haven't had a focus on her feelings since..chuunin examns? Ino's crush on Sasuke hasn't been mentioned in so long that at least I just assumed it had passed. Apparently not.
The decision to get off their asses and do something is the right one. This far it has been pretty much Naruto doing all the spotlight action with the other 9 randomly taking turns to tag along. Also I'm glad Kishi decided to give the Konoha 9 some more screen-time: they were in dire need of some. It's also good that they have accepted Naruto's ideology of preventing wars and violence, but are not following it blindly in a daze. Instead they decide to make the hard choise that Naruto is unable to do: to kill Sasuke.
Now I don't mean Naruto should decide to kill Sasuke: Naruto is the messiah, the saviour, future world leader, revolutionary and the peacemaker of this manga. He must remain pure, so Naruto's buddies will take the responsibility of dirty work instead.
Then comes the issue of Sakura. Since Sleepy Fan's translations are notorious, and the original translator I saw said so, I believe Sakura returns Naruto's feelings. Hopefully Sakura has realized to what lengths Naruto has gone for her and Sasuke's sake. I'm glad Sakura decided to do something, what I'm wondering is: what can Sakura do? Is she going to talk Naruto out of the promise? Naruto has pretty much dedicated his whole life for this one mission (for world peace, though Naruto may not realize yet he's on that path), can Naruto really be talked out of it? I don't think so. I don't think the talk with Naruto will lead anywhere (Except further down the road on naruXsaku), what this Sakura's mission WILL accomplish, is re-uniting whole team 7 once again in same place. Kakashi is in the iron country. Naruto is in the iron country. Sasuke is in the iron country, and soon Sakura will be also. Them meeting is almost destined. I would totally love seeing Kakashi + Sakura + Naruto vs Sasuke + Karin + Juugo + Suigetsu (did I remember all names right?). But the manga has been quite hard to predict lately, so I won't get my hopes too high. We have to see if team Sasuke will even survive the kage-meeting. Sasuke will surely, but other 3 team members of his may not. And even if (when) Sasuke survives, after Kages had their way with Sasuke, he may not be in any fighting condition anymore, enough to give Sage Mode Naruto any kind of resistance anyway.
And while I don't like Naruto groveling on his stomach, thinking about Sasuke, I believe it's part of his the process he must go trough. Naruto's attempts to negociate mercy for Sasuke have failed. What Naruto must do is to come to understand Sasuke's psyche. This won't happen in a day, but I believe some day Naruto will understand. What he does with that information, I don't know, but I believe in the end it comes down to beating Sasuke into a pulp & dragging him back to Konoha. But I won't hold my breath: Sasuke just seems to go deeper and deeper into madness of his.
Danzo & the eyes
Danzo is screwed big time. It all starts to make sense now, especially how Danzo was so easily accepted to be the hokage. But Danzo having Shisui's eye brings some interesting questions. First of all, Danzo must have had Itachi's help with gaining the eye of Shisui. I still assume Itachi killed Shisui, but I also suspect now that Itachi delivered the eye to Danzo. After all, Itachi was a double-agent.
The really curious part is Danzo's need to assassinate Anko. Danzo said Anko might know about him and Orochimaru. Danzo also said he needed to find Kabuto, since he might have some research left on his eye (and arm). This brings me to the question: did Danzo know about Itachi/Orochimaru being in the Akatsuki? And how long did Danzo know, if he did? All along? This could mean that not only did Danzo know about Akatsuki, he may have worked for them, or made some deals with them in past. This brings other nasty questions, but before some more evidence is uncovered, I'll leave the speculation at that.
Back to meeting. The Sharingan power is perfect for an underground shadow leader like Danzo. It's almost scary what he could accomplish with his wits, whole (?) ninja underworld at his disposal, and the sharingan eye. But then Ao came and blew him into the open, at worst time possible. Danzo really, REALLY fucked up now. The arguments for Konoha leading the alliance are now turned upside-down: suddenly Konoha may seem even bigger threat than Akatsuki. I may go as far as saying that other 4 countries (at least Cloud & Rock) may think that Konoha has been working with Akatsuki all along, and they may start thinking that Konoha has control of ALL bijuu. That would in worst case scenario lead to a 4-village alliance against Konoha. But I don't think that is very likely. But whatever happens, Konoha's reputation has been completely shattered by what Danzo did. No-one will trust Konoha anymore. Thanks Danzo, nice job!
Madara, Zetsu & "Where to now?"
Madara that crafty old man, looks like he's messing things up again. He orders Zetsu to beging doing whatever Madara had planned, and..
a completely naked half of a white plant -man appears right in middle of the Kage meeting. Zetsu's entrance has to be one of the best entrances in the manga, up there with Gai's Dynamic Entry.
Zetsu is as confident as ever, having no worries about the dangers of appearing in front of the 5 kages and their bodyguards. In addition, Zetsu starts taunting them! Priceless! Thumbs up, buddy!
Zetsu appearing serves 2 functions as far as I can see. First of all, it completely fucks up Sasuke in the a**. Sasuke's pretty much only chance of winning the fight he was about to start was to ambush the kages, but now Sasuke's element of surprise is gone. He will have to work his ass off to even escape alive from that situation.
Second function was to interrupt the kage meeting. In this Zetsu & Madara succeeded very well. They chose the perfect moment to interrupt too: if Zetsu had popped up 1 minute earlier, before Danzo was exposed, the 5 kage may have worked together to take Akatuski down. Now however the disturbance is at it's highest, the rage has just flared up in the Kages, and all trust for Konoha has been shattered. The meeting has been interrupted, and the 5 kages will not any time soon trust each other enough to return back to the negociating table. All chances for co-operation against akatsuki are gone, and worst-cases scenario is the next great ninja war. I don't know if it goes that far, maybe Madara's goal was just to prevent an alliance against Akatsuki.
This may also work for Sasuke: with the 5 kages not trusting each other, they may not work with each other to take down Sasuke. In best case scenario the Kages will scatter to do whatever each one wants, making Sasuke able to pick them off one by one. But this is the best case scenario.
I already made some predictions there, but manga has really come to a complex phase. With so insanely many variables, it's very hard to predict what happens, which makes it all so much more fun. A great chapter, and in agony I wait for the next one!
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