Gold Knight's Ten Comments (Naruto 329)

Gold Knight · Nov 1, 2006

Fear teh AL...!!!

Sorry for taking so long to post my Naruto Comments this time around. I'm still wanting to usually do them on RAW Day, but honestly I needed the break (hence why I stopped doing Bleach and OP Comments), and I also knew that there wasn't a chapter this upcoming week, so... and it didn't help matters that my PC didn't want to cooperate with me the last couple of days, either! Felt for awhile that the Akatsuki was trying to delay my Comments or something!

Just a big FYI here for any Bleach fans, good news though, Djudge, known for his great translations of Bleach chapters, has come to the rescue and voluntarily decided to pick up doing Bleach reviews on a weekly basis and will be posting them in the Scrapbooks main section! So, be sure to check them out and give the man some love - he sure deserves it for all that he's contributed to the Bleach community the past year!

Now for the credits - many thanks to the Touch and Eagle for providing us the RAWs (which I used for some of the images), to all our moderators for doing the work last week (especially Ayah), all our translators for their usual great work, and to Fnuckale for cleaning a few of the images that you'll see here. The majority of the grey images are from NarutoBuzz's MQ Edited Manga.

Anyway, enjoy and feel free to comment and discuss!

* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 329: That Goal...!!! * * *

NARUTO SMASH!

1. Kyuubified Clones!?? Hn... no wonder Yamato had his work cut out for him in making sure that the Kyuubi didn't get loose! If the nine-tailed fox could take over not only the genuine article but ANY of the bunshins - that's a massive headache right there!

At least the ANBU agent seems more than capable of handling the situation. Now the question that REALLY pops to mind about this scene though... what must Naruto be feeling as he's staring at one of his clones quickly becoming berserked and Kyuubified? What a strange sensation that must be!

We know already that he definitely showed obvious fear, as he didn't take too long to start calling for help from Yamato. And I don't blame him - he's worked so hard throughout his childhood to prove himself to others as a dependable and trustworthy shinobi of the Leaf, and that could all be ruined in an instant if the Kyuubi had his way and gleefully created another scene of massive destruction in the heart of the village. Can you imagine Naruto being an outcast AGAIN?

Hey, remember the very first time we all saw Naruto access the red chakra of the Kyuubi and use it against a completely off-guard Haku? Cool scene, wasn't it?

One of my favorite scenes ever - but that was then, when we all felt that the Kyuubi was going to be a powerful weapon in Naruto's hands. Now it's becoming more and more apparent that Kishimoto is trying to make it more of a dangerous curse meant to be feared, even by Naruto himself, and I think this scene is meant to try to persuade the readers to feel the same way as well.

Looks like Naruto really will have to learn how to deal with his enemies without relying on the Kyuubi so much, or else...! In a way, it also means Naruto will have to be more in control of his temper, as well. Are we going to see him struggle with his emotions more often now, especially when news of Asuma's death comes around...?

Oh well, I'll grade you C+ for effort...

2. One Day of Fruitless Labor. 200 Kage Bunshins training over a day leading to about 4,800 hours of training according to Kakashi's math, and what do we have so far? Nothing!

Good thing Naruto wasn't already pressured to use this jutsu against the Akatsuki after all, I suppose...

I thought that he would have already mastered it by now but simply didn't have the time or energy to head over to save Asuma's team, as some people had guessed. Turns out he hadn't even finished his training.

Who needs Byakugan?

3. Doing the Impossible...! You know what, if the implications of this scene means what I think it does, then I'll be very disappointed. I had predicted a few chapters ago that all it would require for Naruto to do in order to master the merging of the wind element with his Rasengan would be to use a third bunshin as support. Looks like that may be the case, as Kakashi did demonstrate to Naruto just how "looking right and left" simulateously CAN be possible...! But so, so predictable...

If so, I can understand Naruto taking so long to come to realizing that was the key, since it's pretty well-established that he's not the brightest bulb around. But for Kakashi to actually be clueless about how exactly Naruto could do the merge until he heard Naruto complain about that being the problem... ouch.

Well, sometimes I suppose a genius can miss things that are right under their nose, too... at least Kakashi immediately realized the solution right away, eh?

I pity the kids who go trick and treating to these guys...!

4. Sealing the Sanbi...! I still haven't really gotten over that scene of the Akatsuki's "summoned beast" sucking the life out of another bijuu! And this time, it's not even a jinchuuriki - it's the beast itself! Now that's showing some serious power and guts right there - although I guess most of them ARE holograms and wouldn't be affected if the monster suddenly woke up and went on a rampage. Still, I wonder how the heck Deidara and Tobi managed to keep the Sanbi unconscious the entire time they carried it to whatever lair they're all at right now.

Crackhead Theory: I'm not sure if somebody has already guessed this or not, but I now believe that the Akatuski rings are exactly how they conjure their own holograms in order to all appear in the same place so that they can do the sealing together. That's why they're so important.

That would mean the loss of Orochimaru's ring keeps them from having a possible tenth member appear with them at these rituals. If this is the case, then one way to stop the Akatsuki would be to get possession of all these rings. That way, even if they aren't killed to the last, they would still have even more difficulty carrying out their plans.

These naughty Akatsuki, sedating an innocent girl like that...

5. A Role Still to Play? I really do believe that Kishimoto purposely had the Akatsuki capture BOTH the Sanbi and Yugito at the same time exactly so that would give Konohagakure (who else?) plenty of time to actually save the latter from their clutches.

Gaara, when the Akatsuki captured him and worked on extracting the Shukaku from him, struggled for, I would guess, about two days and nights at least before he finally gave up the ghost - er, bijuu. That means even when the Akatsuki DO get to Yugito, which won't be for another three days, she'd probably still be alive for at least two more days even while they're extracting the Nibi out of her. That's five days and I do think somebody will come to interrupt the ceremony by then.

Another thing we learned too here - apparently Hidan and Kakuzu didn't have to go very far after capturing Yugito to drop her off at the new lair, and were quickly on their way to the Fire Temple afterwards. That tells me right there that the lair is probably between the Lightning Country (where Yugito was captured) and the Fire Country.

There are two countries in-between if you look at the map of Naruto's world, so that'll be something new if we'red headed to either one.

EDIT: Ibra87 reminded me that Zetsu actually came and took Yugito for Hidan and Kakuzu, my bad. But still should probably be close by... but I guess it's not quite as certain still.

Who wouldn't?

6. Justifications of Battle. Not too surprised at all that the Akatsuki Leader would seemingly have the most trouble dealing with Hidan, who definitely seems the most volatile member of the bunch!

Although I can understand why Hidan would be irrirated - he obviously believed that Leaf shinobi were heretics for not directly worshipping Jashinism, and the leader for a moment made it seem irrelevant since everybody for the most part, even Konohagakure, worshipped battle anyway!

An interesting sidenote is that we learned that the Akatsuki Leader seems to know quite a bit about the ways and teachings of Konohagakure, judging by his words here about their religious beliefs. That would seem to strongly imply that he may have ties to the Fire Country after all. No - I don't believe that he's Yondaime at all, but could he possibly be a relative? Naruto's uncle? Heh. That might be a nice way to shed some light on his origins. They certainly have the same spiky hair style it seems...!

Fu fu fu...

7. Hidan's a Young Padawan...! Well, one thing we learned for sure here - Hidan, before Tobi, was the latest member of the Akatsuki. And I now firmly believe that he joined the organization AFTER Part One, to replace somebody who was probably killed trying to capture a bijuu or jinchuuriki (which would explain why the first Akatsuki double-spread looks a bit outdated now).

Like I've said in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if casualties were something of a frequent occurence for these guys.

And finally, just have to say, I love the Akatsuki Leader's personality so far. We already suspected that he had something of a twisted sense of humor when he chuckled at Sasori's complaints back in chapter 260. I think it's pretty much confirmed now that he does tend to have a little fun every now and then at the expense of even other Akatsuki members. Which makes me wonder - just how powerful IS he, to be the ringleader of THIS merry bunch, and not to be too afraid to slightly push their buttons every now and then?

And he's probably trying his best to hold back too, because he doesn't want to jeopardize their plans, after all, by having more people rebel on them like Orochimaru did. Although I bet ol' Oro got along with this particular guy just fine...

...uh, oh, bitter ninjas, that can't be good.

8. Living Only to Fight. Gotta admit, the Akatsuki leader's plan is pretty clever all things considered. But we'll get to that in a minute.

If the Leader is correct and the smaller countries are cutting expenses because they can't afford to have shinobi in times of peacetime as well, no wonder we're seeing a majority of rogue members from the smaller countries and villages in the organization as well. You know, I was somewhat skeptical on why exactly an organization such as the Akatsuki wouldn't try to recruit more shinobi from just the Five Lands, since these countries would obviously have even more powerful people, and these ones would also be the most difficult to defeat and would require even more reconnaissance than the smaller countries.

I had initially thought that maybe they needed representatives from each country to make the ritual work, but now we know they're just getting more people to work for them from the countries that are about to, or already have, entirely given up the "shinobi business." Makes a world of sense, if you ask me...

Sounds like fun...!

9. The Plan...! Well, I said I'd give my opinions of AL's plans, so here it is. I think it's a solid, good plan, especially considering that they seemingly have an abundance of "abandoned shinobi" who would be willing to work for them. Let's do a quick rundown of it.

First step, which Kakuzu no doubt is having fun with, is of course earning the money in order to make the economical takeover possible. I'm somewhat surprised Kakuzu didn't bother to explain the whole plan to Hidan in order to make him understand why they were going on these little side expeditions. That would have probably helped...

Second step, is to take advantage of all the displaced shinobi willing to work for them and create a true mercenary organization that wouldn't hold any allegiance to any of the countries, but rather work for everybody. That would make the smaller countries happy as they wouldn't have to fund them at all, and take business away from the larger villages.

Third step, when they're ready to do so, they would secretly create world wars with the use of the bijuus they've stolen, and create total chaos. Since they would be in control of all the pieces - they'd be able to manipulate events to the point where they would work on demolishing and collapsing all the larger countries.

The only problem with all this, though, is it's going to take a pretty long while to put the real plan in action. I wonder if they'll be stopped before even getting to the second step. Still, it's a pretty logical plan for a villain organization, and diabolical enough to suit my tastes, so I have no problems with it.

And even though it may seem as if the Akatsuki are still years away from really getting down to business on their plan, things will still get pretty desperate for our heroes if they manage to capture all the bijuus. If they ever got Kyuubi in addition to the others, the chances of stopping them will probably be pretty low. Naruto and company better move, and fast...!

World, watch out! AL is coming!

10. Global Domination...! And of course, the true goal of Akatsuki - conquering the world. Somewhat cliche, but I like it. They've sure got all the cards, so why not?

Additionally, I sort of like finally having a villain in the Naruto series who's crazy enough to have big dreams of grandeur as well as the total confidence to attempt to take over the world.

Compare that to the other villains we've had in the series: we've had Orochimaru who doesn't really care about being a leader anymore, but just pursuing his own personal quest of collecting all the jutsus for himself, and becoming immortal. Although he has fun whenever there's chaos involved, he really could care less about getting too involved, I think.

We've had Itachi, who seems to only care about improving himself. Actually, ALL the Akatsuki seem like natural born soldiers, except for the leader himself. But a world with AL as the President... brrr! XD

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars. I liked the chapter quite a bit when I first read it, but while doing Comments on it, I have to admit it was kind of underwhelming as Naruto chapters usually go. We didn't really have any HUGE revelations here, although finding out the Akatsuki did plan to conquer the world was fun. But aside from that, it's mostly just teases without much story development, so I'd have to give this one an average rating.

Predictions: Most likely we will see Naruto finish his training, and news of Asuma's death hitting town, and Kurenai's reactions. I thought we'd get the latter with this chapter, but I suppose it's taking them a while to get back to the village. I had hoped that we wouldn't see Naruto achieve his ultimate jutsu until he was in actual battle, though...

Credits: Thanks to Winterlion, Fnuckale, NarutoBuzz, Touch, Eagle, and Ayah, once again.

Have fun discussing the chapter - we still won't have another Naruto chapter for one more week. I'll be sure to get my next Comments out on RAW Day, though.

Is this AL's future queen? Comment! <3

weixiaobao · Nov 1, 2006