Anddddd the flashback tour continues. Nothing much to see here. End of post. See you guys next week.

I kid. But yeah, for the most part, this week’s chapter continues a string of flashbacks into Konoha’s past — most of which we know or have predicted at this point. Of course, it’s still nice to see the details being filled in like a puzzle slowly coming together, but gosh darn — it’s not exactly conducive to writing about or discussing.

In the end, the only real thing that really hit me this week was just how unlikely of a friendship they formed together. Their respective personalities are rather different from another, but even so, they’ve managed to overcome that — among many factors working against them — by well, sheer youthful “exuberance”. I mean, the only reason they’ve even gotten this far and came together in at all to consider the potential of a village where everyone can coexist is purely because they have that youth on that side, that kind of hope only kids could have at this point — a hope that the adults have long since abandoned as an impossibility not worth considering. Again, there’s just this whole thing here about perspective and how sometimes, all it takes is a newer, fresher perspective to provide and hammer in a solution. And when you think about how these two kids would end up creating the basis of what would become the Leaf Village as a result, it really hits you just how much a new perspective — and how much just two people — can accomplish.

Interestingly enough, we get to see some appearances by some notable names this week — people we’ve only seen cursory glances or mentions of up until now — in the form of Tobirama and Izuna Uchiha to name a few. But alas, that’s pretty much it for this chapter, and perhaps the beginning of the end of the flashbacks as well, as we’re fast approaching the actual founding of the village now at this point. Guess we’ll see.

Author’s Note: Seems like Naruto’s on break for a week, so no chapter 624 till 3/20.

37 Comments

  1. Erm, how can Tobirama and Izuna seem to know each other well when their older brothers just became friend recently? For sure this isn’t their FIRST meeting. 😛

    Lone Wanderer
    1. Considering the times (the Clan Wars after all) and the fact that younger kids are being trained and sent out on the front with the adults, it wouldn’t be surprising if Tobirama and Izuna have fought eachother several times already, possibly building up their own rivalry like their older brothers eventually would, and probably will do so more in the future as they get older.

      It wouldn’t surprise me if, after Izuna loses his eyes (it was said that, despite not having them, Izuna continued to fight with the Clan and died in battle), that Hashirama or Tobirama is the one to kill him; Tobirama due to that possible rivalry, or Hashirama if only to build up Madara’s hatred of him.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
  2. So Tobirama and Izuna already knew each other. They are both similar in that they both seem to follow their dads’ word without exception.

    I also liked how both fathers caught on the fact the boys were meeting each other and both thought to spy or ambush the other. It’s nice what Kishimoto has done here. You can see the contrast between Hashirama & Madara and their zealot fathers.

    It will be interesting to witness the process that polarizes adult Madara and Hashirama to their final fight. They both believe in peace. Although, that wouldn’t be the first time they fight against each other. When each becomes the head of their respective clans they still continue to war until they finally found Konoha.

    EamonX
  3. I’m guessing that the river that Madara and Hashirama threw stones on, eventually became “The Valley of the End”, symbolic of their first encounter/friendship and their inevitable battle/separation of goals and ideals.

  4. It’s still refreshing for me to see someone like Madara be so sociable as a kid, compared to what he is currently as a very old adult. He’s kinda like if Obito was a loud jerk instead of a nice guy, so I guess Madara continues the theme that once upon a flashback Uchiha kids like Itachi and Obito behaved like pretty fun people.

    The Truth is in the Axe
    1. I like how he tried to warn Hashirama too. Given how the Uchiha have been portrayed, I wouldn’t be suprised if he was actually acting as a cold spy. But no, at that time, he was a young boy that didn’t want his friend to get hurt. I mean, he wasn’t always the insensitive guy who summons meteors on the battlefield killing hundreds.

      Somnium
      1. I like that too! There’s always been this “us vs. them” thing going on with the Uchiha plotlines, so it’s nice to see that this time around Madara was being considerate and cared about someone from an enemy family. Being how the story eventually goes, it’s like when you put into consideration how Sasuke and Obito’s stories are compared with Madara, it’s this expansion of their social spheres and the eventual conflicts arising within them: Sasuke and his family, Obito and his teammates/hometown comrades, and now Madara and friendships beyond his home tribe.

        Feuding within family -> Feuding with friends -> feuding with rival clans/political ideologies.

        I dunno, I thought this was interesting.

        The Truth is in the Axe
  5. as we all see, when they reach back both their parents gonna bitch slap madara/hashirama to their senses. and thats how things turn out bad for the future, BAD PARENTING !! *teehee*

    Destiny-
  6. oh…
    so this is why they call it the will of fire and why it should be the next generations job to carry it onto the next. so this is how it starts out, this is konoha. and thats why they didn’t want the children to die but let the adults handle everything. i think that Hashirama and Madara’s parents r a total…well just bad parenting is all, i mean for the sake of their own clan they would let their own children into the war aand fight and die for that clan. then wat happens to the next generation? some survive but some don’t. its sad though.

    well can’t wait for the next chapter to find out wat happens.^^

    kurai-okami
  7. I get the feeling that Hashirama and Madara will end up interfering in the ensuing battle, resulting in the others’ father getting killed by the younger brothers or something, and possibly be the start of their parting ways to growing to be their respective clan’s leaders. Next thing you know, all the many times they fight in the Clan Wars will be them “testing” eachother until Madara ends up going down darker paths like taking Izuna’s eyes for his Eternal Mangekyo and such, leading to the “hatred” that apparently spawns from the “love”.

    And given how loyal Tobirama seems to be to their father, that’s probably where he also got his innate Uchiha hatred from that we see from him in the present.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    1. And just a small note, but am I the only one who feels like the whole sudden “more love = more hate” stuff feels like some sort of roundabout way to somehow make more “evil” Uchiha “not responsible” for their sins or something?

      And Sasuke suddenly seeming as cool-headed as he’s been feels strange considering ever since he first got the Eternal Mangekyo, he seemed far more crazed than ever.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
    2. I think Madara was hinting at what they’d do when he said that they had to first become very strong because “nobody would follow a weakling” Unless Kishimoto intends to retconn them fighting each other as adults before founding Konoha (and Madara saying that they had been in an earlier fight to the death just a few chapters ago), the kids will probably sit down for a nice cup of tea and discuss their plans to take over their clans and end the war while their fathers kill each other. Tobirama’s confusing right now… edo-Tobirama seemed to really dislike the Uchihas, but kid Tobirama last chapter was idealistic and secretly rebellious (that one line of his, “adults are idiots”). But now he’s helping his dad tail Hashirama (admittedly he’s between a rock and a hard place in this situation), but in the last panel he seems to know and possibly even be rivals with Izuna. Perhaps it was Izuna’s death that made Tobirama hate the Uchiha? We’ll see.

      Completely agree with you on the Sasuke/Love to Hate idea, that’s why I disliked it from the moment Tobirama brought it up. Sasuke’s character made perfect sense to me right up to the point he went nuts in the kage summit arc. His current actions are in character, but feel wrong right after his insanity.

      Hochmeister
  8. Theory on why Tobirama created the edo tensei:

    1. It might be him trying to resurrect his other brother.
    2. As a peace treaty with Madara by resurrecting Izuna.

    Reality might just come and screw my idealism over by saying that Tobirama did edo tensei cause it is an efficient way of dealing with enemies.

  9. “by the age of seven, Itachi’s wisdom was par with a Hokage.” was the Third’s words.

    To be frank, I can see why the 1st Hokage, who was revered as the God of Shinobi, had admired Itachi’s sacrifice. It is pretty obvious. When the 1st was young, he had a hard time to even talk some sense into his hard-headed father; he barely had a plan to save is family as his younger brothers had died one by one. Itachi, on the other hand, was truly something that was worth praise, from childhood to death. Had Itachi live, and possibly gain the Rinnegan, he would have surpassed the 1st Hokage. Sad, though; though he should, but it looks like he didn’t, the 2nd Hokage doesn’t seem to flinch once that the Uchiha was killed by one of their own, an he notably still badmouths about the Uchiha despite how Itachi, an Uchiha, did such a grand scale deed. I am more interested in how the 4th hokage is taking in this conversation, he watched everything with Sasuke and Naruto.

    L002
      1. really? which chapter was that, I long ago forgot. But yeah, Itachi would have become the second coming of Madara, yet with the ideals of the First Hokage, had he lived in a similar manner in Naruto Shippuden movie 5.

        L002

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