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Are you ready for 'em, Kakuzu?!
Geez, RAWs on Wednesday? Well, that also means my Comments will be out that much quicker this week! Let's see if I can get 'em all written before the weekend this time...
As I promised last week, I'll be doing the Naruto ones on RAW Days from now on, at least. (Yes, even when RAW Day arrives this early...!) And to start off, I'll be using Yume's Edited Manga for the initial pics. But expect more higher quality images to come later on. Incidentally, if you want to clean any for my Comments, just send a PM my way.
Many thanks to NJT, Hisshou, and Yoshitsune for their translations. And most of all, to Touch for finding the chapter on the 'net - he's got mad RAW-hunting skills.
Well, the chapter's mostly action this time around, so not too much to say, but here goes. Have fun and feel free to comment on whatever grabs your interest.
* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 326: Desired Pain...! * * *
Probably not...
1. Sore Loser. Oh, yeah, like I'm going to sympathize with "poor" Hidan here. Yeah, so Asuma cut his freaking head off. But the guy himself was also just about to relish in causing some serious pain, too... except he was stopped short due to Shikamaru's quick thinking. So who is he to be complaining about being on the receiving end for a change? Tsk, tsk...
All of Hidan's bellyaching is starting to remind me of a little wimpy kid that I used to know in the third grade - and not especially good memories, either.
One more thing. Did anybody notice that Hidan asked Asuma flat-out, "Do you have any idea how much it stings?" - typically, I'd think being decapitated would have resulted into, gee, maybe PURE agony, instead of just some tingling pain as Hidan seemed to imply that it felt like to him!
Sure, Hidan's reacting a lot more violently this time than when Izumo and Kotetsu stuck their swords inside him, but he actually seems to be the one here with no real idea of what REAL pain is... and I think there's a reason for that. Somehow, I believe his body has been designed to save him from experiencing extreme pain.
Almost as if he's running on anaesthetics or something similar... although, he clearly still feels pain to some degree.
Edit: I think I may have been misled a bit by njt's translation. Some of the other translations did seem to say that Hidan was in tremendous pain. So, yeah.
Maybe Shikamaru just needs to go to the bathroom?
2. Gettin' Tight...! Okay, now we know that forcing Hidan out of the pentagram, while being a very impressive feat, still took all Shikamaru had.
I'm not too surprised, because otherwise he would have seemed like a stamina freak not unlike Naruto. Still, that's bad. This really doesn't bode too well for Asuma's team at all if the kid can't support them with his Kagemane anymore.
No wonder Asuma was finally contemplating retreat, even though they seemingly only had one Akatsuki left to tackle. If they fought on, without Shikamaru being there to save their behinds, they really did have to make all their next moves count.
Kung fu time, beeyotch!
3. Unfinished Business...! Well, of course Kakuzu wasn't just going to let his bounty get away just like that! Makes Hidan look like a slowpoke here, doesn't he? Though, all right, Asuma did just have his leg stabbed by Hidan's voodoo jutsu, so that limited his dodging ability here. Much easier to knock away here than Shikamaru was for Kakuzu.
Still, Kakuzu still seems pretty fast...! He moved around that area as though as he was teleporting for a while there.
I wonder why Kakuzu didn't just take care of Asuma right there and then, though... after all, Izumo and Kotetsu couldn't have been able to do anything about it at that instant, since they were both too far away. Hmm.
Kakuzu must have been preoccupied more with getting Hidan's head back to his body than anything else. And it almost seemed like he held back his punch, too (after all, wasn't too long ago that we saw him crush a rooftop). Maybe he's just trying to keep Asuma in one piece so it'd be easier to carry his body back downstars. Heh.
You won't feel any pain... err, forget it.
4. Dr. Kakuzu to the Rescue! Man, these two really are the perfect pair. I didn't expect Kakuzu to have a hand in actually re-attaching Hidan's head to his body aside from just stacking the two together again.
I don't think Hidan would have needed Kakuzu's stitches if he had more time to recuperate, but they didn't have any time to waste and Kakuzu was making sure that his head wouldn't fall off again if it was hit by, say, a kunai.
I've gotta say, though, Izumo and Kotetsu made a major mistake here. They should have taken Shikamaru in arm and carried him TO Asuma, so that they could at the very least protect both of their exhausted teammates at the same time. And in doing so, they ALSO would have daunted Kakuzu from getting to Hidan's body, just in case. Now, they're all in deep trouble...
Blunt and to the point, eh?
5. Akatsuki Teamwork...!? Well, finally. I've always been kind of annoyed that we'd get all these solo Akatsuki battles despite these guys usually running around in pairs. The last time we've seen the Akatsuki team up in an actual battle with other shinobi was with Itachi and Kisame against Kurenai and Asuma, but they admittedly held back out of fear of attracting more attention to themselves from the rest of the village.
After that, we've only seen Itachi and Kisame return separately as fakes against Kakashi's team and Gai's team, then Deidara against Gaara, then Sasori and Deidara (again) in battles of their own, and then Hidan foolishly believing that he could take on Asuma's team all by himself. And yeah, I know that we also got to see Tobi and Deidara against the Sanbi, but I don't really count that one as it was against a bijuu - you'd think that would definitely call for teamwork, after all.
Anyway, I don't believe that if Sasori and Deidara would have lost if they had just fought together against Kakashi's team. I mean, just imagine Deidara distracting them all with his explosions just enough that Sasori would be able to poison them with his metallic shards. Game over...!
Similarly, I also think that Asuma's team would have been finished from the start if Kakuzu and Hidan had both attacked simulateously in the first place. Shikamaru wouldn't have been able to save Asuma from Hidan's "Pentagram of Doom," at least, not while worrying about Kakuzu punching him every moment.
It's just scary to think of what the Akatsuki can do when they're working together in a battle. And now we're probably about to get a glimpse of it here...
Okay, so how does he manage to hold it up?
6. Like Master, Like Weapon...? Okay, I'm calling Kotetsu's spiny weapon a massive club, because I have absolutely no idea what it would be called otherwise. Fitting that it'd reflect his spiky hairstyle in its shape, though.
Though it seems an awkward weapon, I suppose it'd be effective in breaking somebody's head. Hey, if cutting the heads off doesn't work, let's smash 'em to pieces, huh? Also seems like the top could be disengaged from the hilt, as well... perhaps a hidden trick?
Well, all in all, I'm just glad that we're finally seeing some new jutsus and weapons from some of the other jounins in the village. Looks like Kishimoto has been on a more creative roll lately.
Yummy...!
7. The... Candyman...?! Okay, that's one jutsu nobody could have expected. "Field of the Syrup Candy?" Whoa.... Izumo must've been so popular when he was a kid! Now we know what he'll be doing after he retires - start a candy shop. (Sidenote: Looks like he's the water type, huh?)
But anyway, actually, I like it. Very good example of what some good teamwork can usually accomplish and Izumo and Kotetsu have obviously been through a lot of battles together...!
Kotetsu already knew even as they started their attack what his partner was going to do. When he summoned his weapon, he was able to quickly prepare his feet with chakra in rapid succession so that he would be able to skid along the same sticky liquid that would hold the enemy in place.
And the combination usually would have happened so fast that the other guy wouldn't even have a chance to defend himself against the falling blow. But of course, Kakuzu wasn't just any opponent...!
Say "Uncle," folks...!
8. In the Cold Clutches of Kakuzu...! Well, now we know what the clips on Kakuzu's arms were all about. Creepy. Must've operated on his own body at some point.
Looks as though as Kakuzu's a little bit like Shino in some respects - but whereas Shino controlled bugs inside his body, Kakuzu instead has moving cords of some kind inside his own so that he can control them in order to stretch his forearms and probably other parts to far distances. Did he replace his tendons with these...?
Considering his name comes from "Bishop," and he has the ability to be able to take out an enemy several squares away, though, the technique is fitting. I don't know about bishop pieces in shogi, but if it's like chess, definitely appropriate.
A little too similar to Sasori, though, in some respects. Kakuzu seemingly treats his own body like a puppet, too, but I suppose in this case, he's alive instead of being a wooden imitation. Or is he a zombie...? Heh, a zombie and a skeleton together, that'd be all we need.
Sidenote: I hate to say it, but I saw two things here that kind of peeved me. First, Kotetsu was about to smash his weapon on Kakuzu's head. Even though he was suddenly choked, he that still wouldn't have stopped the momentum of his weapon from falling down on his head. Heck, Kotetsu could have even let it go and that would have caused a headache for Kakuzu for sure.
Second, why didn't Kakuzu just punch them both down? Granted he probably wanted to keep them from moving around, but yeesh... although, Kakuzu probably could move his cords in order to strike at their necks in much the same matter as Shikamaru might use his Kage Nui. Uh-oh!
Oh noes...!
9. Back to Square Circle One! Aw, man. I was thinking that Shikamaru's team would be somehow at least remove the "voodoo curse" Hidan has on Asuma before he was able to get back to the pentagram. Looks like that's not the case, though. Oh, nuts.
Actually, I think that three-bladed scythe would probably have done Asuma in all by itself, that struck right into the stomach. Hope either Izumo or Kotetsu is a healer. Asuma sure looks like he's going to need one, now.
I'm very surprised by this turn of events. I didn't expect Kishimoto to come back to the pentagram being a major factor again in the battle, especially so soon.
This guy likes seppuku way too much...!
10. The End of Asuma...?! Of course, having a healer in the vicinity is the least of Asuma's worries right now. Oh boy. Is he going to survive this one? Doesn't look likely, does it?
That would be far too anticlimatic for Hidan to just kill Asuma like that, though, so I've got to think there's still something Kishimoto has in store for Asuma. Might be that Hidan will miss his vital spot, or something? Doesn't look like he exactly hit his own heart there. Still, ouch!
And I suppose Shikamaru running instead of doing the Kagemane again means that he's totally out of gas now. Yikes.
I've gotta admit I'm kinda getting sick of Hidan now. Initially he was fun, but now he's starting to annoy me a bit. I don't think Naruto and Kiba qualifies anymore as the loudest mouths in the world right now - Hidan definitely takes the cake there.
No Crackhead Theory this week. Just don't have one in mind, sorry.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars. Yep... even though I was startled a lot, this chapter only gets a '3' despite all the action. I wasn't too impressed to tell the truth. There were too many scenarios in this battle where I saw that I think Kishimoto clearly let himself get carried away just to provide a little more extra drama. But all that doesn't matter if the storytelling was sloppy. However, nice to see Izumo and Kotetsu in action and finally to find out what Kakuzu can do, though.
Predictions: Heck if I really know what'll happen next. Shikamaru isn't going to be able to solve this one - he's the only man standing right now capable of doing anything, and I'm not sure what he could do. And, unfortunately, I don't think he'll still have the time to do any kind of meditation at all!
Credits: Thanks to Yume for her Edited Manga, and also to the Touch for the early RAW! Good job to NJT, Hisshou, and Yoshi for their respective translations, and finally to my mod staff for taking care of everything so that I could concentrate on my Comments.
Hope you enjoyed, and looking forward to seeing what you think!
Comment... or it's Choke no Jutsu time! XD
