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It feels a bit late and a bit rushed for Chouji to be having his coming of age character struggle here and now after several hundred chapters since his first “inner” battle, but the war arc in general seems to be having a lot of these lately, and it feels like a convenient apology to viewers for leaving a large amount of supporting characters in the dust since the timeskip began. However, a fan of the series should be quite happy with Naruto as of late, and while I haven’t considered myself a huge fan for a long time now, I admire the new direction.
That said, “Butterfly Chouji” wasn’t anything special against Azuma. He was simply the brute strength required to take him down, since neither Ino nor Shikamaru can provide it. Azuma’s farewell was rather typical, though I guess that’s really all he could say, which pretty much wraps up the story of “Team Ino-Shika-Chou.” Although the team or any of its members can still be developed, I don’t really expect anything more from Kishimoto’s way of storytelling. Chouji suddenly taking the lead feels a little cocky, but at least he’ll lose some more weight.
It’s a little weird that Bee suddenly lets Naruto escape so easily after this long, though having to distract Naruto like a child wasn’t really a good plan in the first place. I chuckled at Iruka-sensei’s appearance, since it seems like that’s really his only purpose for the entire series, to calm down Naruto and reason with him. The funny thing is that now other people know it works, so he’s used like a trump card. Honestly, I think a good ol’ argument of “you’re not strong enough to participate in the war with your large amount of untapped potential Naruto” would do some good, but let’s see what Iruka’s gonna pull.
Note: Taking over for Divine until this season ends, or his break ends, whichever comes first, because doing Naruto would destroy the illusion of a “true break.” As a bro, I couldn’t let that slide.
either bee actually fell for that or he wanted naruto to learn whats actually happening. of course, naruto might have really needed to pee and bee could sense that.
Well, i have always been a fan of Shikamaru. He was the only one who always won with strategy. I remember how he outwitted the immortal Akatsuki alone.
Shikamaru’s probably one of the best characters in Naruto for me. You know his battles are always going to be entertaining. I bet Kishimoto hates him though 😛
kishimoto don’t hate him, it just that he don’t really get much idea that use strategy the best he came up often is brute force
Well, it seems Naruto may get a chance to shine, or not. IT’s obvious really. Iruka would convince NAruto to continue his training. Even Naruto knows that, even at his current state, he stands little chance against Sasuke.
You really think so? I mean Naruto completely beat Pain before he even took control of Kyuubi’s chakura after his encounter with his mom. The entire Leaf village couldn’t even beat one of the Pains. I’ve always been under the impression Naruto is currently at least as powerful, if not greater than Sasuke. All Sasuke has going for him is his overpowered defense Susanoo.
I would guess the reason Kishimoto continues to power Naruto up is so that he can fight Madara on even terms. I think he has already left Sasuke in the dust. I would love to see Kakashi be the one who has to take out Sasuke so Naruto can deal with Madara.
I’m guessing Naruto is going to kick Sasuke’s ass and then Sasuke come back to the leaf so him and Naruto can team up to beat Madara. Perhaps Sasuke will sacrifice himself to save Naruto.
I like Divine’s writing better.
Sorry but I disagree, I think he did just as good a job as Divine.
at least be a appreciated of Kiiragi, since he is writing in Divine absent. It’s a great article and still entertaining to be read.
I like Kiiragi handling the Naruto blog, it’s always nice to get a new perspective on the manga. You’re entitled to your opinion, but there’s no need to be rude and all.
Something tells me Ino and Chouji are going to get paired. From the previous chapter it seemed suspicious with him confiding to his dad that he won’t get married then him powering up and Ino being “so impressed” by it.
Then again they pretty much threw Hinata under the bus after that confession after saving Naruto’s life then going nowhere with it afterwards.
Kishi is just going all over the place and using typical anime themes like there is no tomorrow. The student teacher fight here should have been way more entertaining and epic, but chojis whining ruins it for me. Then he gets way too cocky, but all i see him do is use a mega punch!! Choji was way over blown as wanna be cool in this chapter, and he was below average at best to me. And now we go to naruto after all this time, and he still aint complete his training?! Plus hasnt figured out whats going on with his new special powers. This is becoming a joke, too bad i aint laughing.
you’re a true bro, kiiragi
As happy as I was with finally we can see Naruto, as sad as I am with probably we won’t see the ending of his training for a long time.
I think he is as strong as Sasuke if not stronger than him at the moment.
Thanks for the post, Kiiragi…
You’re the bro!
It was stated in the manga that Sasuke is stronger than Naruto at the moment.
That is the reason of his training.
I really doubt so…
The training was set up to help Naruto control his Bijuu form and importantly, keep him at bay from the war
Agree that this pretty much wraps up the story of “Team Ino-Shika-Chou”, at least that’s what I am hoping. They have been receiving much more screen time than any other supporting characters… remind me when was the last time we saw Shino, Neji or Shizune in a meaningful fight?
The hell it was, there was nothing that ever said that in the manga.
Well, Bee is quite the rebellious type. So that might be pary of why he let Naruto run off like that. Not that it helped much, with the appearance of Dr. Phill aka Iruka & co.
Anyone else enjoy 8-tail’s discomfort when he found out that it was up to him to stop Naruto if he decided to forcibly leave his little play-pin. Dont usually get in to Naruto since its become a sort of obligatory read but that was the first real excitement builder towards the protagonist in several months.
Now I am kinda hoping Naruto decides to bust out.
Eight tails forever.
yeah im.. disappointed with the way that the side characters where basically ignored for so long.. and then now they get a chance to shine and it feels rushed. :/
like for some reason while Naruto is constantly getting stronger and gaining new techs everyone else has just been sitting on their ass.. ever so conveniently.. (you cant outshine the main characters right?)
I was so excited when the time skip happened because (remembering the Rescue Sasuke Arc) I thought that ninjas like Chouji and Neji were gonna be on a whole different level.. but even now in Ninja War 4 they havent shown me much. I AM DISAPPOINT
Naruto after he encounters with Sasuke the last time (Danzou fight) say that he is not as strong as him, hence the training.
He meant that if BOTH were to fight in their current state, they both die. However, Madara even said and believed that Naruto was the superior one due to beating Pain. Though Sasuke was in disbelief.
They were EQUALS at the Kage Summit arc.
NOW, both are likely getting their final power-ups so when they finally face-off in the current arc, Kishi can move on to the showdown with Madara.
“Chouji suddenly taking the lead feels a little cocky, but at least he’ll lose some more weight.”
Oh~ho~ho~ I see what you did there.
Eight Tails is officially my favourite tailed beast!
Where the heck is that girl with the scorching attribute… Pakkun.
nicely done bro