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Long no see, sonny!
Phew, guys! I know this one was running pretty late. That was partly due to the RAW being originally camshots, and not really all that useful for reviewing purposes, and Sunday morning I was trying to install a different virus protection program when all of a sudden I couldn't log in to my account, I couldn't get online, and do anything for two days! Fortunately, I fixed the darn machine just this morning. Hopefully that will be the end of my PC troubles for a while, though!
Thanks to Touch for finding the RAW (especially the MQ one!), yoniekai for his awesome Edited Manga, and Winterlion and Hisshouburakien for their terrific translations. Interestingly enough we seem to have had fewer Naruto translations here lately, so it would probably be a pretty good time for any aspiring translators to submit their own versions of the Naruto chapter if they want. Naruto's one of the easier mangas out there to translate, guys, so go ahead and give it a try.
Also a shout out to dimska for doing a 338 review as well. Also, many thanks to Japflap again for all their great HQ Edited Mangas. They've been doing a fantastic job, and their work always makes me want to reread Naruto again, and helps me see the chapters in an entirely new light, too. Thanks!
That's all the credits. Let's go ahead with the review, shall we? Comment away if you wish, too.
* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 338: If You Curse Someone......! * * *
Yeah, like, even your mask's ripped up, Kakashi! DAMN!
Yeah, like, even your mask's ripped up, Kakashi! DAMN!
1. A Rare Situation...! When Yamato mentioned that he had never seen Kakashi so sorely beaten up before, I was reminded of when Jiraiya casually said that he had only been on the brink of death two times, once to Tsunade, and then recently, in a battle with Kyuubified Naruto. Imagine Jiraiya being in all sorts of battles - especially with Orochimaru - and never having to face death in the eye more than twice? Tough guy, right?
Now imagine Yamato and Kakashi working together on all sorts of dangerous ANBU missions, and this is the first time Yamato's ever seen Kakashi beaten up that much before? Whoa!
So, I wasn't surprised at all to see everybody approaching Kakuzu so cautiously.
Kakuzu wants to fight more "hearty" fellows, I'm guessing...
2. Does Kakuzu Know...? First thing I immediately wondered when Naruto came up front to challenge Kakuzu, was that whether the dangerous Akatsuki knew that it was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before him or not. My guess is no. Well, not yet. Kakuzu seemed to be taking too much enjoyment out of the first impression the boy gave him - that of a worn-out Konoha youth - to even consider that it was possibly somebody with a bijuu trapped inside him.
But he'll probably realize who it is eventually - probably in the heat of the battle. Most likely, by detecting the Kyuubi essence within Naruto's eyes.
Remember Deidara once before warned Hidan to be careful of Uzumaki Naruto (who could forget that humorous page?), and although Kakuzu turned out to be his opponent instead of Hidan, I'm sure he will remember Deidara's words in an upcoming chapter when he comes to finally realize that this particular kid is NOT somebody to be taken lightly at all. Ahh, though, Naruto's being underestimated again, what else is new? Heh.
Look! It's the return of... SCOOBY-DOO! Whoops, wrong cartoon!
3. Evening Up the Odds... A Bit? I don't blame Kakashi for wanting to send reinforcements to Shikamaru's aid, considering Hidan isn't the type of the opponent one would want to face alone (usually!) So with that in mind, I did like that Kishimoto made the battle between all the Leaf nins and Kakuzu a bit less lopsided by sending Sai and Sakura off with Pakkun (who would know Shikamaru's scent, having worked with him before).
Not to say that I thought Kakuzu didn't stand a chance against two jounin, four chuunin and Naruto, but I think I would felt more respect for him for going against them all than having any for the Konoha guys for ganging up on him.
Makes sense, also, that Kakashi would choose a long-range fighter and a medical nin to go after Shikamaru and Hidan. No need to think too much on Sakura, the reason is obvious - though if Hidan managed to get Shikamaru's blood and cursed him, I doubt healing would do much to help to save the shadow man's life.
Sai, on the other hand, would probably be far more useful. By being able to fight Hidan from afar with his drawing creations, Sai would avoid being hurt at all.
A completely new Naruto, eh - he's doing the bunshin sign! How is that different? >.>
4. New Naruto? O RLY?! Well, Yamato better make good on his promise here, because we HAVE seen far too much of the same old same from Konoha's No. 1 Surprising Ninja.
I can already tell that Naruto is going to start off with his usual trademark move - the bunshin, perhaps even Mass Shadow Clones. Naruto's eyes turning Kyuubified here would seem to indicate that he's also drawing on a relatively large amount of chakra right now. Though it's been a long time since we've seen Naruto conjure up 1,000 clones for the purpose of a battle, so that'll probably be fun to see anyway.
But I do hope that we'll be seeing something new in conjunction with that move, something definitely other than a Rasengan.
One thing we did learn here is that Naruto hasn't completed his 'Ultimate Jutsu,' he's only halfway to the finish line. But apparently, Tsunade believed that he was already ready to help, regardless. Yamato's confidence probably helped her come to that decision.
Sidenote: Incidentally, this is a good time for me to point out that One Eyed Sharingan gave a nice answer to the time continuity discrepancy concerning Tsunade's deadline for Naruto's jutsu NOT being met and Team 7 being the reinforcements anyway, of which you might have heard me complain about about last week.
"About the 24 hours time limit Tsunade gave, well Tsunade said that she would send another team to back up team 10, but she never said anything about not allowing team 7 to back up team 10 even when the 24 hour has passed. But then why team 7 was the first to arrive?? The only thing i can think up is Yamato's ability, remember when he made Naruto, Sakura and Sai eat some wood-thingy (was it wood??) so that Yamato can track them down whenever they concentrate their chakra??"
Hey, makes perfect sense to me. Yamato could have given Kakashi a "wood tracker" - giving Team 7 an advantage in being able to catch up quickly, and which would also explain why Sakura said Team 7 had such a connection with Team 10 with Kakashi (besides the obvious). The first back-up team that was sent out might have never found Shikamaru's team at all, prompting Tsunade to finally send Team 7 out as well later on. If that's the case, I would have no more complaints and probably would go back and rate Chapter 337 a little higher. I would definitely want Kishimoto to explain either way, though.
Looks like Hidan will just have to ask for forgiveness himself!
5. Gotcha! First off, let me just congratulate Glasskatana for noticing what I didn't last week - that Shikamaru had a shadow firmly wrapped around Hidan's upraised arm. And being absolutely right in that Shikamaru would use it at the last minute to halt Hidan from striking with his wicked scythe.
And hey, is it just me, or has Shikamaru been getting all the "cool lines" lately? I loved it when he said matter-of-factly that he didn't need Hidan's messed-up god's forgiveness here. That's just like him, though. Sometimes I think Shikamaru has been his worst critic lately, always trying to improve himself so that he could be a better leader to others.
So he sure didn't need any crap from a hokey voodoo god.
Hidan, get prepared to be...
6. Aha, so that's WHY... Alright, that was an awesome strategy, I have to say, now that I've finally seen why Shikamaru prepared all these explosive tags beforehand.
I think that Shikamaru was also quite clearly faking that he was running out of chakra, too, because I doubt he would have been able to pull off such a myriad of shadow-stretching at the same time in order to pull all the hanging ropes towards Hidan, too.
...PWNED!
Only thing that bothers me is WHY didn't Shikamaru just do this to start with?
Sure, I see that Shikamaru wanted to do some indirect damage to Kakuzu as well, but if he was going to risk that, he could have trapped Hidan again with his shadow while Hidan was about to pierce his heart, tested the jutsu to see if it had been indeed been Kakuzu that was affected by the curse jutsu and not him, THEN did the explosive tag deal right away.
Of course, if Shikamaru had done that, Kakashi may very well have been history by now.
But still, ya know. Shikamaru couldn't have known what was going on in the other battle, and this way he could have possibly done even more damage to Kakuzu. Too bad Hidan already broke the voodoo spell a while ago.
Watch that first step, Hidan - it's a doozy!
7. Don't Screw With the Nara! Heh, so we've been in the Nara's ancestral forest home all along, huh? I don't know how Shikamaru knew that Hidan and Kakuzu would decide to head that way, but I guess it sure helped his plan, didn't it. Guess that was why Shikamaru was faking being helpless - he wanted to bait Hidan into walking over to the exact spot that Shikamaru wanted him to stand on in order for the trap to be effective.
Note that the "Censor" sign on the ground that he threw the kunai at is the Nara symbol that we used to see on Shikamaru's arm all the time, too.
Yeah, the deer here are pretty mean and violent. Sorry, but Hidan's doomed!
Although Hidan's rant about coming back to haunt Shikamaru despite whatever fate his body would suffer was expected, I don't think Shikamaru would actually even need his clan to keep an eye on Hidan here. I mean, for starters, that hole looks pretty deep to me, and it's probably going to take Hidan an eternity just to gnaw his way back to the surface (assuming his head survives the explosion) - Shikamaru's grandchildren will probably have grandchildren by then! I sure would like to know where Hidan gets his immortality from, though...
Anyway, I liked that Kishimoto chose to let us see the Nara forest. It does give a little more substance to what his family normally does aside from shadow manipulation (that is, herding deer, hence Shika meaning "deer.")
So these were cigarettes and lighters after all...
8. What Goes Around Comes Around! Loved that Shikamaru basically blamed Hidan's impending doom on Hidan's own curses. And I don't think Shikamaru meant the voodoo jutsu either - I think he meant Hidan's blatant disrespect for his own victims. That was the one thing that really irked me about Hidan - he didn't treat Asuma with any respect, and even cursed him as he killed him.
Let's look at what Winterlion commented about that phrase:
Hence, the title of the chapter itself, "If You Curse Somebody..." seeks to prove a point, I think in that you're pretty much digging yourself a grave if you continue to show disrespect to others. That is, if you're NOT doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, don't be sorry when you get a similar treatment.Winterlion's Translation said:
Maybe I'm looking into this too deeply, but I do feel like Hidan's getting what was coming to him and I'm glad about that.
Great Caesar's Asuma's Ghost!
9. Hey There, Asuma! What's Up? Guess getting revenge wasn't too bad for Shikamaru, if Asuma's ghost appeared to congratulate him for his victory, heh. Of course, he was more avenging Asuma than seeking revenge, I think - maybe there's a slight difference in that Shikamaru wasn't really doing it for himself. Now Asuma's spirit can truly rest in peace, especially knowing he's got a worthy successor.
I'm a bit surprised though, that Kishimoto allowed a "ghost" to appear in the Naruto manga, even if Shikamaru might just be imagining things. Naruto had always seemed to me to be a fairly down-to-earth story... yes, despite the demons and all the powerful jutsus.
But in this case, though, I'll forgive him. It was a nice and touching scene, and a satisfying end to that particular battle.
Lookat the pretty fireworks!
10. Going Out With a Boom...! I never did really approve of Shikamaru's newly-developed smoking habit, but I have to admit that was a damn cool scene and a fitting end for Hidan to be done in by Asuma's student in such a flamboyant manner!
I'm sure all Asuma fans cheered at that and Shikamaru probably earned himself a few more fans just for doing that. Though I know it was a bit of a bittersweet ending for them knowing that Asuma probably won't come back now. Sorry, guys.
So is this the end of Hidan? I do think so. Time to move on to Kakuzu.
RATING: 5 of 5 - Yeah, about time. After a few sub-par chapters the last month, I'm happy to say this chapter delivered. For me, at least - I saw no flaws in this chapter and it was entertaining all the way through, though I still have some questions that I'd still like to see answered. But this chapter didn't throw at us any confusing questions, so we could just sit back and enjoy the fun. And the chapter definitely had one of the more memorable scenes in the series so far in Shikamaru getting the best of Hidan.
Predictions: I'm glad that we'll be focusing entirely on Naruto and Kakuzu now, that's the only thing the next chapter could be. I definitely don't want to see Hidan come back. Shikamaru had worked too hard to trap him like that and it would just be total BS to see Hidan come back again.
Credits: Thanks to Yoniekai, Hisshouburakien, Winterlion, and last but not least, Touch ^^ And all of the patient people on the community who not only had to put up with the long wait for the chapter but also a few days' wait for my own Comments as well ^^; I'll try to do the next one much faster.
Maybe you did, fatty, but Shikamaru sure didn't...!
Comment Away! XD
