Gold Knight's Ten Comments (Naruto 418)

Gold Knight · Sep 28, 2008

Ossu!

Many, many thanks go to [user]Fnuckale[/user] for all the cleaned images in this review! He also helped with some of the captions - which saved me a bit of my brainpower this weekend! xD (Btw, if you think the typesetting is crappy, I'm the guilty party, so don't blame ol' Fnook for that.)

Thanks to [Ju-Ni]Vicissitude~ for the RAW as well, and Hitsugaara for my first read Edited Manga of the chapter. Geez, what happened to Sleepy Fans this week? I guess they were asleep... hope they're doing alright.

And once again, I gotta express some gratitude to the great French group Japflap for continuing to do a great job with Naruto HQ Edited Mangas, and HisshouBuraiKen as well for his amazing streak of Naruto translations that goes back... I don't know how long, but it's sure been a while! He's been translating Naruto since before I became a mod at NF, that's how long it's been. And he's always seeming to get better all the time. Don't forget to thank him at his thread, he'd appreciate the company.

One more thing, I know I promised something extra last week, but I didn't have the time this week unfortunately to work on it. I'll try to get it out next week. Anyway, you'll know when you see it.

Alright, guess you guys have waited enough. Don't forget to throw out your thoughts if you've any, I'd be interested in reading them as always. Hope you enjoy!

* * * Gold Knight's Ten Comments on Naruto Chapter 418: Naruto the Sage! * * *

Wish my butt would stop itching...

1. Behold the Sage! Wait Wha, Naruto...!? Well, that didn't take long at all, did it?

Naruto successfully completed his training and entered Sennin Mode - or Sage Mode as it's apparently now being more called - without the use of the nature-drawing toad oil. Mission accomplished! ~

There's no signs of Naruto becoming a toad boy, either, to Fukasaku's surprise - except for these dark, small amphibian pupils, of course. Apparently Naruto won't be imitating Gaara any longer, though. Instead of having "raccoon eyes" as he did only a couple of chapters before, he now looks more like Jareth the Goblin King with even more eyeshadow, heh. (Cosplayers should have fun with that.) Well, as much as I liked the Gaara look on Naruto, I definitely don't mind the change for its distinctiveness, though, so it's all good.

Also, notice that there couldn't have been any bunshins present to accelerate Naruto's progress this time, since there was only one tile and one Naruto (and I'd think Kishimoto would show us if Naruto actually did use Kage Bunshin to help himself out here.) I suppose in order to best balance the conflicting energies within his body, he needed to learn to do that himself anyway.

Regardless, in my opinion, that made Naruto look even more impressive that he actually surpassed Jiraiya in this respect without even using that trick. Nicely done, Number One Surprising Ninja.

A little bird told me you were gonna fall!

Of course, Naruto's great success is still a bit short-lived... as usual. Immediately following that, we see him being distracted from his reverie and knocked off his tile by a little birdie that evidently thought he was some bizarre piece of rock he could use as a landing point. Watch out below!

I almost had to laugh. So quickly, from one feeling of accomplishment to instant defeat by a small animal! Guess entering Sage Mode doesn't mean that Naruto can't be moved, or thrown off balance, by some other force.

Of course, Kishimoto intended the incident as a means to show us what exactly else Naruto could do while in Sage Mode besides being able to sit perfectly still, though, which we'll get to in just a moment - but the sudden fall was just so unexpected, I still thought it looked absurd!

Ah well. Bird 1, Naruto 0.

Ever wondered what it DOESN'T feel like when you hit the ground at 200mph?
Go Sage mode and you too can find out!

2. There He Goes Again! Hmm, Wile E. Coyote could have used a little bit of this senjutsu training, too!

Who knew becoming one with nature was so advantageous? Naruto can now be the world's greatest sky diver - he doesn't even need a parachute anymore!

So it would seem that while in Sage Mode, Naruto doesn't have to concentrate on "balancing himself out" to remain so for a while, at least. Fukasaku wasn't even in the least worried when Naruto fell, and even looked like a proud papa. So at least, that explains how being 'hardened' by senjutsu differs from the doton (earth) jutsu that the greedy Akatsuki, Kakuzu, used to reinforce his body. Naruto can still move around. That's definitely more useful, especially if he doesn't want to get stabbed by Sasuke's own Chidori.

One thing I was kind of remembering while seeing Naruto falling, though - do you recall this scene?

Yeah... there, little Naruto called on the powers of the demon inside him to survive that fall. Here, Naruto might have not even had the time to think about having a nice little chat with the Kyuubi in his mind, but yeah, I wonder if he had the time to, would he have? :XD

Would he been like, "I'm sorry, Nine-Tails-sama, take me back, I don't wanna die!" And the Kyuubi would have been like, "NO WAY! YOU HURT MY FEELINGS! GO AWAY! *pouts*"

...Yeah. Let's move on, heh.

What, so no wax on, wax off?

3. Fists of Fury, Baby! I could and should make so many lame Bruce Lee-related jokes here, but I'll refrain and leave that to your imagination.

Instead I'll just say that it's awesome to see Naruto learning a form of taijutsu at long last. I don't think that was ever really part of his repertoire (even though he seemed to understand a few basic karate moves) and that would tend to make him highly vulnerable to somebody as skilled as Rock Lee. I also didn't like his chances against Kimimaro back then so much, either - so it was a good thing that Lee intervened. Now, we're seeing that Naruto might finally stand a better chance against Lee and certainly Sasuke, if he excels at this "Frog Fu" thing.

But I keep seeing parallels between Naruto and a certain sci-fi movie trilogy sometimes, as I'm sure my long-time readers have no doubt noticed, and this certainly doesn't help. A small, old, wrinkled mentor that talks funny, teaching a young padawan an art? What does that remind you of, guys?

I TOLD them not to send the blind guy after Akatsuki...

4. Too Slow, Too Late. Just pointing the obvious out here. Brave, young Jay, who courageously tracked Taka all the way back to their Akatsuki hideout, is now but a has-been. RIP.

Did Sasuke and Juugo kill him in cold blood? Probably. They had to render him mute to keep themselves from being tailed. Which would seem to indicate that... yeah, when the need arises, Sasuke isn't afraid to kill. (Unless, they brought him back to Suigetsu who promptly went on to do the dirty deed for them, ha. Still, an accomplice is an accomplice...)

Does this surprise any of you? In some disorienting way, I think it's a bit startling. I had started to assume Sasuke was finally becoming a little less "corrupted" what with his remembrance of Team 7, but then all of a sudden he turns around and says he's gonna destroy every life in Konohagakure out of sheer hatred, and now he kills a vulnerable Cloud nin right away. Well, I guess next to that proclamation, that shouldn't be too surprising...

No one was surprised, though, that Taka's flown the coop, knowing possible reinforcements might have been coming. But Jay's death isn't going to help matters for Sasuke with Kumogakure at all. Ya know how relentlessly and ruthlessly policemen can hunt down somebody for the death of a fellow cop? I think we may be getting that kind of emotion soon from Cloud shinobi. As if angering the Raikage wasn't enough...!

Either this is the quietest ultimate jutsu ever...
or these sleeping toads are stone-deaf.

5. All Work, Work, Work, and No Play! Well, one fundamental truth about Naruto: he's willing to work his ass off. Day out, night in... if he was an athlete, he'd obviously be a gym rat.

But geez. This jutsu that Naruto's working on obviously has to be something that higher-ups would strongly disapprove of - if he's afraid of revealing what he's doing to anybody, even Fukasaku-sensei, who doesn't seem exactly afraid to put his student's health at risk. So, would that mean that it's some kind of kinjutsu? A forbidden jutsu?

You know, it's always been hinted since the beginning of Part 2 that Naruto had a "that" jutsu that Jiraiya strictly told him not to use ever again. People have always made a big case out of it, and I think Kishimoto has noticed to the point where he's willing to make something quite special out of it as well - Naruto's trump card, perhaps?

It reminds me of when Kakashi developed the Raikiri, only to be nearly stopped by Yondaime before using it for the first time. Of course, there was a flaw in his jutsu that put his life at risk - his inability to "avoid" a counterattack. The Sharingan helped get rid of that drawback. Does Naruto's jutsu, then, have a similar weakness to that that he was able to fix with his senjutsu training?

Perhaps Sage Mode gave him a temporary defense to any counterattack that he'd be otherwise vulnerable to if he missed with his jutsu? That seems the most likely probability to me...

Okay, I'll just throw a far-fetched idea out and you will shoot it down, Sakura,
so it looks like we're actually working here.

6. Getting Nowhere. I suppose Konan's ability to create paper dolls would create a little uncertainty for Shikamaru. I mean, if that's actually all she does - it wouldn't seem TOO intimidating to me, either. Heh.

All jokes aside, like any good Akatsuki member, Konan probably has a hidden power - so perhaps she was the one puppetting the Pains from the shadows, right? That's what Shikamaru is thinkin' here. But nah. We've seen enough of Pain to know he moves independently of whatever weird puppet manipulation skills Konan might possess - and anyway, we've already seen all that before with Sasori, yeah?

Sometimes I wish Kishimoto wouldn't stick so much to the plot for these little cutscenes. I mean, we've already seen Shikamaru and Shiho together trying to figure out what's going on, with Naruto and Kakashi. I'm not sure they will actually come up with anything concrete. So Kishimoto is just showing us that they're all stumped as to what's going on - and naturally Shiho would suggest that they all wait for more information.

I'd have enjoyed a little randomness better here. Maybe a shot of Ino, Neji, Hinata, anybody not really part of the current storyline. Of course, I know it'd seem like a cruel tease to some - especially if it's a little spotlight on their favorite characters - but I'd still appreciate that kind of scene better than just seeing a pointless discussion going on.

Still, I know what Kishimoto's doing here, though. Just building up the suspense for an eventual answer through a series of disappointments. I'll get more to that in Comment 9.

Though they aren't so immortal these days anymore, are they-ZING! Ha!

7. Watch Out for the Scary People! While I think Shikamaru is right to remind Sakura of the frightening powers that the Akatsuki have demonstrated in the past, I think he's actually being a little too kind to them here...

I mean... look at what's happened to the Akatsuki lately. Kishimoto couldn't have used worse examples here. Hidan was called an one-trick pony, and he was exactly just that. Yes, with a dangerous talent that if you didn't know what was coming, you were doomed, but once understood, Shikamaru was able to neutralize it. All you had to watch out was sputter and spit from Hidan's foul mouth.

And KAKUZU - yes, he had five hearts, but hey, all it would have taken was a blow to the head - preferably through the cranium - and he was done for. Yet they decided to take out the hearts one by one instead - and THAT took a while. And of course, Kakuzu went down to Naruto "I should've seen that coming from a mile away, but I didn't" no jutsu.

The other Akatsuki seemed MUCH more dangerous. Deidara. Itachi. In fact, Sakura herself fought one of the more (in my opinion) frightening ones, Sasori of the Red Sand.

Yet SHE had to be the one being told not to underestimate the Akatsuki's penchant for the ridiculously insane cheap attacks? Doesn't she remember that Sasori could control 1,000 puppets at once! (Well, okay... they sucked compared to Chiyo's own puppets, but still.) And lest we forget, Sasori didn't even have a human body - evidence right there that the Akatsuki was mostly something else other than normal human beings.

So, here I think the roles should have most definitely been reversed - Sakura telling Shikamaru NOT to underestimate the Akatsuki. 'Cause the only thing Hidan and Kakuzu impressed me with during battle was their ineptitude. Shikamaru's daddy probably posed more of a challenge to him in their shogi games.

Sorry if I sound harsh. No offense to Hidan and Kakuzu fanboys. I loved them as characters, though - they were hilarious. And they deserved more than that. ^^;

Don't worry lad, we got our top men lookin' for the rest of your body.

8. Where's All The Torture Tools? Whoa, didn't expect to see Ino's father being one of Ibiki's interrogation team. I guess maybe he got a promotion.

If that indeed is Yamanaka Inoichi. He looks a bit different - he got a haircut, at least, and cut off his sideburns. (Or maybe he just got older.) I think there's no doubt, though, that it's him - Shintenshin no Jutsu, Ino's specialty, definitely requires some sort of telepathy, and it wouldn't be too surprising to me that would give Inoichi the ability to be able to intrude within somebody else's mind.

Besides, genjutsu can do the same thing to an extent, as we saw with Rin's interrogation back in the Kakashi Gaiden - I'm assuming Inochi's technique is even more effective.

I'm not sure what the machine is for, exactly - I know the victim was formerly a transformed toad via Jiraiya's own interrogation techniques, so perhaps it was just a means to bring his body back? Or maybe it's to make him more comfortable (steam bath, indeed) so that his mind will be more open. Either way, seems like Pain's covered all his tracks, much like Sasori did with his spies.

I wonder what he did to each one of his subordinate to make it so difficult for them to reveal anything from their minds, though? Wouldn't that have been effective enough to stop Jiraiya from learning anything from the other guy? Hnh... bah, seems kind of rushed writing to me, I'll be honest...

Anyway, I'd like to thank everybody for their input on the chosen caption here, y'all were very helpful. Some funny suggestions, too!

What the hell? I thought this device showed the moon and stars. What's this red stuff?

9. CSI: Konoha!? Once again we see a little more futility in Konohagakure's attempts to find answers on Pain's identity. Shikamaru, Shiho, and Sakura doesn't know anything. Ibiki's team is having no luck. And now we get a peek in Shizune's laboratory, and guess what... nothing so far.

Or... maybe, she's about to find out something?

After all, that's what you'd typically expect. The previous two scenes had a lot of talking going on, but no solutions. But unlike these cutscenes, Shizune didn't acknowledge defeat. She even looked a little uneasy about what she's looking at through her periscope. She seems on the brink of discovering something useful. Hmmm. Could it be, she's actually (gasp) making herself useful!?

I'll admit, I wasn't fond of Shizune for a very long time, ever since she betrayed Tsunade by going to talk to the elders. Maybe she's finally going to redeem herself by finding some crucial information that could save all their lives.

And if she does, it's just in the nick of time, because...! *Cue Jaws music* ...do do do do dodododododo...

Bring on the pain!

10. Danger Alert...! The big, bad wolf (or wolves) are coming to blow the village down!

So we see here that Pain definitely isn't holding back - he's bringing every single one of his body, along with Konan accompanying them all, to bring certain doom on a certain little blonde boy.

Nothing much to say here, though. We knew Pain was going to kick ass on his way. I just didn't really expect him to actually be on Konohagakure's village border (which I assume is what these outposts are there to show.) Will they have any meaningful confrontations on the way, though? Naruto isn't even at home right now. So I've got to think, perhaps, somebody else will face Pain.

Tsunade? Could definitely be, though I definitely don't wish for her to die. But all the signs point to it so far. She's the protector of Konohagakure, so she's gotta do her job against this real threat.

And she's old. Probably get to see her (real) wrinkly face before it's all over, as she manages to drive off the intruders, and gasps her last breath...

But, uh, if that means Kakashi becomes the next Hokage, as one of Kishimoto's recent interviews seemed to imply might happen... you won't find me being too sad! :XD

RATING: 4 of 5 - I found this to be another good chapter, but not outstanding. The search for answers to Pain's mystery seems kind of drawn out to me, though I know it'll be crucial in the end to defeating Pain. Everything else was groovy, though.

PREDICTIONS: Well, I was right in that we saw more of Naruto's training, and that Pain arrived at Konohagakure's gates. I was wrong in that we would see Raikage's orders to Samui's team, though... didn't expect to see Cloud nins finding Jay's dead body instead. Oh well, 2 of 3 ain't bad. Next week, I think we'll get to see Raikage again, though, definitely.

Booyah, 418's in the books. Lemme know what you think!

Time for me to rest -
and for you young 'uns to comment!