*Click for bigger size image.

They’re bringing out the big guns now, and the spotlight’s all but ceded to the members of Team 7 now. This week on Naruto, we have epic summonings galore… and the opening of a can of whoop ass on the Ten-Tails. At the end of the day, there just ain’t nothing like a chapter devoted to over the top demolition—like say, the combination of a Rasen-Shruiken and Susanoo Katon—and it was a pretty darn fun chapter to read, even though some bits did end up slightly hard to follow.

Admittedly, I even got a bit of the chills at some point as well, because when you consider how the previous Hokage are able to witness all of this, it’s some powerful stuff. For them to be here—at this moment where their descendants take the reigns from them and the friends they grew up with… one can only imagine the sense of pride, joy, and exhilaration they’re feeling—especially considering how theoretically, none of them should be here to witness it at all. Combine that with the fact that virtually all of the people Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura know from the current generation are also here looking on, and it’s like:

“Wow, this is it. This is the moment that’s been brewing for over 600 chapters now. They’re no longer the powerless kids they once were before. It’s been a long time coming, but they’re finally the pinnacle of their generation.”

And really, to say this is an emotional thrill—as one of the many viewers that followed this series since its debut—is an understatement. Sure, the path to this point hasn’t been the most ideal and the manga’s been through its share of ups and downs, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a series that many of us have followed through many years now—and one whose end is gradually nearing with each coming chapter.

Indeed, as the end of this chapter seems to allude to, it looks like we’ll likely be shifting on to the next chapter of this battle soon enough. And on the docket seems to be quite a few million dollar questions: What’s Sasuke’s true aim? What will happen assuming they do dispatch of the Ten-Tails? How will the general populace respond to Sasuke’s supposed return? In addition, it seems like Tsunade’s alive as well (barely), and it looks like we’ll get a glimpse back at how the current generation of Kage are doing as well. Granted, it remains to be seen if the Ten-Tails is truly eliminated at the moment, but it sure looks like that’s pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point, and the Madara x Hashirama fight’ll be the thing that carries us into the next part of the story. There are some interesting times ahead to say the least.

58 Comments

  1. Now for my second blog. I just have this feeling that this war won’t be over soon. I mean Madara Uchiha has not brought out his version of the Six Paths like Nagato and Obito has and we haven’t seen him ressurected which I’m hoping He will to create mor chaos and I haven’t seen the edo tensei used to revive the Uchiha Clan and something tells me that if Obito doesn’t revive them for the war then Orochimaru will use the edo tensei to revive a lot of Uchiha Clan members to fight for Him in order for Him to achieve His own twisted messed up desire to have all ninjutsus in the world.

    K C M
    1. It’s like I said last chapter; Madara has hardly used that many Rinnegan capabilities besides the pair of giant meteors and “stabilizing” Susano’o. Otherwise, most of the things we’ve seen were more or less higher level Sharingan abilities and stolen Mokuton abilities, yet the Rinnegan was constantly boasted as being the most powerful doujutsu, the legendary eyes of the Rikudo Sennin, and so on.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
    2. Heck, I’m half expecting him to use the one path that removes souls to instantly dispel the edo-tensai on the Hokages… It’d be a great way to troll them and pretty reasonable use of its power too.

      Hochmeister
    1. Kakashi might get killed soon. He had plenty of chances to kill Obito, but failed to do so, but Obito won’t be as nice.

      I am wondering how will the 4th react to see his Uchiha student alive. Obito, the one behind Kurama’s attack on Konoha, how will it turn out?

      L002
  2. No matter how many times… that slug is gross. Having one of those giant slugs attach itself to you, covering your wounds in slime… “ugh”. I mean ya it heals but… gross…

    Will
  3. Now for my third, I just have this feeling that Sasuke might fall in love with Hinata, now I know what you guys are thinking, you’re all thinking “as if” but think about it, Sasuke has never returned the feelings of all the girls that worship the ground He walks so naturally He might fall for the girl that doesn’t and Hinata fits the profile. So Naruto needs to wake up forget Sakura and go straight to Hinata or else the title of Hokage isn’t the only thing He risks losing to His dear friend Sasuke. You know what they say “you never know what you got till it’s gone”.

    K C M
    1. The main problem with Sasuke going for Hinata is that Sasuke would want a “strong” girl.

      I’d guess that means not that just strong in a fighting sense, but also personality-wise. Hinata has definitely improved in the fighting area compared to before, but there are still more than likely much stronger females out there that would draw Sasuke’s attention. There’s also how Hinata is still pretty meek, despite her slightly more openness (which only showed itself to Naruto really). At the same time, though, Sasuke seems like the type of guy who would also want the girl to be someone he can easily control and keep under his thumb. Someone who would truly be loyal only to him, regardless of what he says or does.

      While Hinata may work in the “control” sense with her meek personality, that very meekness, to Sasuke, would most likely be a sign of “weakness”. Karin definitely seems to (stupidly) fit that side of the profile, but from what we’ve seen, she has no real (strong) fighting abilities herself, meaning she would need to be looked after and protected, which I doubt Sasuke would want to bother really doing, hence the “strong” fighting ability too. I mean, the only reason he kept her around as long as he did and “protected” her (like extinguishing Amaterasu when she was caught in it) was because she was useful to him, much like how ones like Orochimaru and Madara view their pawns. Once she wasn’t required for his plans anymore, he didn’t hesitate to skewer her to get to Danzo.

      Basically, he wants that “perfect” puppet/slave/etc. Basically, he’d want a female version of Haku for himself, lol.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
      1. If Sasuke really wanted a girl that He can control and someone who will be loyal to Him despite what He says or does then Karin that bimbo is that kind of girl for Him, but what I’m trying to say is that Sasuke never had any interest in fangirls like Sakura, Ino and Karin, He never did ever since He was a kid and if He is to fall for someone I suspect MK(the author) might hook up Sasuke and Hinata or maybe some girl that we don’t know or haven’t seen, my point is that it doesn’t make sense that He begins to open up to all these girls like it’s love at first sight or what is He going to tell them “I’ve always been in love with you too but my brother’s hatred made me forget my love for you and now that He’s dead I’ve realised how much I wanted to be with you”. Who is He going to tell that to? Sakura, Ino or Karin.

        Anyway, we don’t know how this love story of NARUTO will go and as far as I’m concerned MK’s really lame at love plots in this series instead of torturing the characters with all these question marks of will they or won’t they He should at least let us know what they characters think of their alternatives instead of just ignoring them, what I mean is that Naruto heard from Hinata’s lips that She loves Him so He should have at least thought about what She said and realise that there’s more to life than chasing after a girl that doesn’t love Him and keeping a promise He made since they were kids, Sakura heard from Sai that Naruto’s love for Her is part of His pain and She has to do better than that fake confession and tell Him to find someone else or She drops Sasuke and goes to Naruto because I would so hate MK if He makes it look like Sakura finally settled for Naruto because Sasuke brushed her off.

        K C M
      2. Yeah, if you’re not going to be able to make a meaningful, developed romance(s), it’s better not to have one at all because, no matter who “wins” in the end, no one (besides the fanboy/girl shippers) will really be happy with the results because said “development” was lame and/or non-existent.

        Like if Naruto ends up with Sakura (as it seems like it would), I could still easily why people wouldn’t be satisfied (beyond simple haters), as the way it was “developed” to this point, while visible, hasn’t exactly been done very well, making it a bit confusing at best given it seems like Sakura just keeps going both ways; at one moment, going down the Naruto path, then suddenly down the Sasuke path again.

        At the same time, if Naruto were to somehow end up with Hinata in the end, I could see why others wouldn’t be satisfied too. I certainly make it no secret that if it did happen in the canon story as it is (I have read and enjoyed several fanfics though), I wouldn’t be satisfied. Again, it’s not because I’m a Naru/Saku fanboy nor hate Naru/Hina, but it’s because there’s no logical way that they could end up together in any meaningful way with how things have gone up to now unless we suddenly start getting A LOT more interaction between them followed by A LOT more development shown to us.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
    2. Haha no.

      Oh wait, you’re serious. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. It’d be completely out of character for Sasuke to show interest in a girl, let alone one he’s never even spoken to, who is clearly in love with another guy, and all in the (presumably) short amount of time before the Manga ends. If this were another genre given time it would be a plausible development, but I really doubt Kishi will turn Naruto into a soap opera. Plus, coming right after Hinata said she wanted to “walk with Naruto forever” I just can’t see her giving up on him; we all know what her ninja way is. Finally, as HDI said their personalities would mesh very poorly, can you imagine what a relationship between them would look like? Nope, not happening. The only girls I could see Sasuke falling for by the end of the manga are Sakura or maybe Karin. Not saying that he will, only that they’re the most plausible.

      Hochmeister
      1. Given how he didn’t seem SO put off by Karin’s (stupid) 180 back to being a fangirl, I really wouldn’t be surprised if it were her. Not to mention it would be the much more ironic relationship (besides Sasuke having TRIED TO KILL HER LIKE A USELESS PAWN) given Karin is of the Uzumaki Clan, making her nearly “related” to Naruto.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
      2. I kinda doubt it’d be Karin, that expression he made when she glomped him a few chapters ago is almost identical to the one I make when my roommates girlfriend is drunk and starts molesting me… right in front of him. “This is very uncomfortable, please get off”

        Hochmeister
    3. Haha,no way man.Even if the series focused more on romance,I still wouldn’t see any girl to match Sasuke.I haven’t seen a female in the whole series that would fit the “collected partner in crime” type that MIGHT draw his attention.Maybe there were characters like that in filler chapters but hell if I remember any.I can’t blame the guy to be honest,I don’t really like ANY of the women in Naruto either(and believe me,I’m still myself surprised that I haven’t found a single one to like in such a long series) – most,if not all of the noticeable ones usually like to fangirl over some guy and others barely get any development for one to care about them.

      MgMaster
  4. No way could something like the Jubi, even if not at full power, be defeated so easily. Maybe one of the lower-tailed individual Biju would end up knocked out, but the Jubi with twenty eight full tails worth of power (Bijus one through seven) plus a chunk of Gyuki and Kurama’s chakra? Not a chance. If the Jubi does somehow end up defeated by that combo, it will be one of the biggest Naruto copouts ever.

    But yeah, Sasuke definitely seems up to something with the way Jugo was gazing, Orochimaru showing up, and we still have yet to see what exactly that scroll Suigetsu had found and gave to him contained.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
  5. No way in hell is the Juubi out of the game so fast, I’m still waiting for the ball to drop and everything to go straight to hell. The Jyuubi still has one more transformation in it and I just can’t see it getting destroyed so easily. Still an overall good chapter even though Kishi was teasing us a lot. When I heard that Gamabunta was “busy” I couldn’t help but wonder if a certain super-pervert is going to return… More people were wondering what Sasuke is thinking. I can’t help but wonder if it’s a sign that Sasuke’s still psycho, or just a red herring. I really hope Sasuke doesn’t pull another heel-face turn, his current incarnation feels a lot more like his usual self than the psycho-Sauce. Looks like next week we’ll finally get to see what condition the Kage are in, and possibly what Orochimaru’s planning… or will we?

    Hochmeister
    1. I would say that the Juubi is temporarily out mainly because it hasn’t received all the tailed beasts Gyuuki and Kurama but only part of their powers otherwise I’ll have to agree that MK(the author) made it so simple, it would at least take a person or persons at the Six Path Sage’s level to defeat it.
      As for Sasuke like I mentioned before He’s intentions are still not clear and we have not gotten the answer that Orochimaru gave Him when He asked His ex-master sannin His true reason for attacking the leaf village(chapter 620), until we get that answer I believe that Sasuke will very much make Sakura and Ino cry again in the nearby future.

      K C M
  6. It’s weird but ever since the reinforcements arrived the battle doesn’t look serious anymore. They’re supposedly fighting the most powerful being that has ever been in their world, yet all the nukes are coming out left and right and giant summons are all over the place and it just doesn’t feel like anyone’s in any real danger.

    I understand that Kishimoto was trying to emphasize the old Team 7 being the new Sannin and the young generation taking over the old but I don’t know man…it feels like he dropped the ball. This all out war loses its impact when people are having quirky remarks, have time to complement each other and be impressed looking at each other. Not to mention the fact that Madara isn’t doing anything to stop them from destroying the Ten Tails, as if he doesn’t care about the fact that he spent over 20 years planning for all of this. The only truly emotional battle left on this battlefield is Kakashi vs Obito and that’s been pushed to the back by a plethora of big techniques that could have been skipped anyway.

    Personal Note: No matter how much Kishimoto tries to make Sakura big, to me she’ll never compare to Hinata.

    gawrshness
  7. DON’T TRUST SASUKE DON’T TRUST SASUKE DON’T TRUST SASUKE
    oh did and i make it clear that
    I DONT TRUST SASUKE? 😛

    On a serious note is kishi trying to say that Sakura is on the kage level..
    also WHERE THE HELL IS MADARA???? is he just gonna sit there and let them kill/seal his juubi.

    Naske
    1. I don’t trust Sasuke one bit. Here’s my theory: his aim is still to destroy the Leaf Village, he lied to the Hokages to get their assistance in taking out Madara because Madara’s plan is incompatible with his revenge. Also, Orochimaru has arrived on the scene and I trust him even less despite (or perhaps, because of) his unconvincing line of supposedly having pure, good intentions after all this while. He’s probably still after Sasuke’s body.

      vjott
      1. It’s no secret actually. One of the very first things Orochimaru said after his return was saying he wanted Sasuke’s body. He’s only going along to see what he does.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
    2. “On a serious note is kishi trying to say that Sakura is on the kage level..”
      I feel like Team 17 entirely has gone far past that, which I find rather nonsensical seeing as they’ve had only a few years, in comparison to the numerous years of experience. Kages had.

      Crook
      1. And therein lies a problem I’ve had with the story for a while now.

        After a mere 3 years (or a few months more like, with Naruto himself), since Kakuzu and Hidan, at least Naruto and Sasuke have been getting more and more power so “easily” and already, either demonstrating or being talked about by others, seem to have “far surpassed” previous generations that have had to work their ass off, fight in wars, experience many different kinds of hardships, and so on to get to where they are/were. The shinobi of Akatsuki, even with some of them having gone and done unnatural/immoral things to get more power (Sasori, Kakuzu, etc) were also known to have been quite powerful, talented, well-trained and such well before they joined Akatsuki. Even the “once a generation geniuses” like Orochimaru and Itachi didn’t just become as strong as they were THAT quickly, despite their obvious potential talents.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
      2. Well the kages had to learn from trail and error when it came to their training. Team 7 on the other hand already had the answers from what the kages and other powerful shinobi left behind on the proper way to train in order to create powerful jutus. Also this kind of follows the path of the three sannin since they were in their twenties when they got that title. So it kind of follows the whole the new generation surpassing the old in my opinion.

        But that said I do not see sasuke being able to beat any of the four hokages right now(the second hokage’s chakra going off is enough to scare him). Sasuke, naruto and sakura are as the first hokage said hokage candidates as in they have the potential to become a hokage. This is how I see it.

        Tasa
      3. “Surpassing the previous generation” does not necessarily mean the younger generation MUST do stuff in a(n insanely) short period of time compared to the previous generation. “Surpassing” them can mean different things, whether it be power, mentality, even something as little as what decisions they make at certain points.

        Like when Kakashi thought about how Naruto “surpassed” Minato before (a few hundred chapters back somewhere), I highly doubt he meant that he surpassed him completely, whether it be power or anything like that, but solely due to the fact that Naruto was able to do something Minato couldn’t (“completing” the Rasengan). (But even then, it could be argued that it was simply due to Minato not having such time on his hands to do so, having been involved in the previous war before becoming the Hokage, and then having to seal away Kurama and himself not long after.)

        One could say Sakura had already “surpassed” Tsunade before due to, besides how she uses the seal for more than just healing, in that, unlike Tsunade, she never completely gave up hope and ran away from everything when things went really wrong like Tsunade did when Dan and Nawaki died, leading to her to think of the whole “cursed necklace” bit, all but abandoning Konoha, and wandering the country while wallowing in self-pity, drinking, etc.

        It just feels like it’s come down to power, power, and more power.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
    3. @vjott
      I’m almost 100% certain you are right! i seriously agree that Sasuke still wants to destroy the village…

      @Crook/HalfDemonInuyasha
      yea… it’s pretty ridiculous actually.. but i mean at least with the other members of team 7 we see that they had some OP inherent power i/e (Kurama for Naruto, Sharigan for Sasuke)making the source of their power ups just a tad bit more believable. But with Sakura’s new “power” tho I can’t just buy into the fact that 3 years of storing chakara all of a sudden makes you kage level.. AND supposedly better than ur master who’s been storing chakara FROM MUCH MUCH LONGER..

      @Tasa
      you have a point about the kages having to learn on there own, but still it’s no different than in DragonBall when Son Goku learns the Kamehameha in seconds when it took Roushi YEARS! LOL XP

      Naske
      1. Actually, as I said last chapter, I find Sakura’s improvement to be far more believable. There’s also the fact that it was known since the very beginning that Sakura had superb chakra control due to her smaller stores. There’s also the fact that, so far, all it does is what Tsunade’s does while also augmenting her strength and doesn’t turn her into some invincible power house that Tsunade could only dream of being while potentially having just as bad, if not worse downsides in using it (like Tsunade’s shortens her lifespan due to the increased cellular reproduction for the healing and such).

        There’s also the fact that Sakura has really had nothing that major to this point besides showing healing potential on par with Tsunade early on in Part 2 when coming up with an antidote for Sasori’s poison, whereas Naruto has had Sage Mode and TWO Kurama cloaks (the initial one where he forcefully took Kurama’s chakra and the current one) while Sasuke got the Mangekyo Sharingan and its abilities from Itachi, and now the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

        Kurama is essentially a cheat device for Naruto most of the time; conveniently popping up and letting Naruto take down/stalemate opponents he would’ve otherwise lost to; Haku, Neji, Gaara, Sasuke, Orochimaru (and he was in failing health due to his body reaching its limits) Nagato, even now it’s pretty much a crutch that, without it, there’s not really much he’d be able to do (and none of the other shinobis’ attacks would’ve done anywhere near as much damage as they did) as we already saw it takes pretty much everything he has in Sage Mode to do barely anything by this point. I mean, whatever happened to Naruto relying on “his own” power like he did against Gaara at that one point during the invasion?

        The Sharingan is something that Sasuke can at least say is “his” and not some completely separate power source. However, it really doesn’t help that there keeps being new convenient powers uncovered for it. The Mangekyo Sharingan with Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi were big enough and at least came with the eventual blindness as a downside. Then we get knowledge of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and Susano’o appearing, then Izanagi (at least that actually had a severe downside in actually sacrificing use of the eye casting it), then Izanami (same). Next thing you know, we suddenly learn that the Eternal Mangekyo can evolve into the Rinnegan, the very doujutst of the Rikudo Sennin. Now, granted, it requires Uchiha and Senju DNA along with it and all to evolve it, but still…anyway, like Kurama with Naruto, the Sharingan, with Sasuke anyway, comes off more as a crutch that he ended up relying upon more than anything (and it cost him with the normal Mangekyo in going blind in less than a month as opposed to Itachi over years).

        HalfDemonInuyasha
      2. @HalfDemonInuyasha

        After reading that,I’m recalling all the moments in the series when they throw in the “hardwork vs talent” card,especially with Naruto,then comes a sudden power up and I can’t help but get the power of laughing alone like a weirdo 😛

        MgMaster
  8. I hope this will be a turning point for all,Kishi this is chamce to fix the situation -_-
    it is seriously ridiculous that Juubi has defeated,just what the hell to overhyped Rikkudo sennin save the world and etc stuff lol everyone could become rikkudo sennin

    Goblin Fire
  9. that juugo’s face making is a hint that sasuke is up to something. admit guys, deep down, you want sasuke to be redeemed completely but it seems that is not possible anymore.

    ryuuzaki
    1. I wouldn’t mind if he was, BUT I also want some actual DEVELOPMENT in order for me to really believe he is redeemed if it happened. If it did happen at this point, it would be a horrid way to do so given the flip-flopping, lack of real development, and extremely little lack of reaction considering all that he’s done before.

      At this point, I still want him to live, but end up permanently blinded; would be a deserving fate worse than death for someone like him (or Madara) who pride their eyes more than anything.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
      1. I think I understand what MK(the author) is trying to do with Sasuke declaring His candidacy for Hokage, He’s trying to create more conflict and rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, it’s like two equal but opposite forces colliding and clashing, and He has done it between the two Sons of the Six Paths Sage, Hashirama and Madara, and at some levels Jiraiya and Orochimaru, along with Kakashi and Obito.

        Their views also seem to differ and become the cause of their rivalry and intensify their feuds for instance the Younger Son was chosen by the Sage of the Six Paths to succeed Him over the Elder Son because their father agreed with the Former who sought Love over Power unlike the Elder Son who valued Power over Love, the same conflicting ideals which can be seen between Hashirama and Madara, Jiraya and Orochimaru, Kakashi and Obito and now it is about to affect Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto was reminded by Itachi in Chapter 552 that “It is not when one becomes Hokage that He is acknowledged but He that is acknowledged that becomes acknowledged” and Itachi advised Naruto not to forget his Friends or He’ll be like Tobi/Obito. It seems that Sasuke is yet to learn that lesson and since it looks like He got off easily from His past transgressions He might think that He’ll win the Hogake race easily but I believe that Naruto will win the Hogake race and that will piss the hell out of Sasuke.

        K C M
      1. @MgMaster

        Well, Kakashi did die from overusing his Mangekyo Sharingan (using all his chakra), but that was completely negated by the hax Rinne Tensei mass-revival by Nagato…though Nagato DID die from also using all his chakra for that, but he was a bad-guy-turned-good-guy, so that also feels like it doesn’t count much…

        Chiyo also died from reviving Gaara after the seal with her technique…but she was a minor side character at best, so not many people really care about that…

        HalfDemonInuyasha
  10. One problem for me: we’ve waited all of the series to see Minato fight a serious battle with all his strength (excluding the exchange with Tobi in the past)and what does he do when the time finally comes? Hold up the barrier. Seriously?

    Celecia01
  11. Orochimaru back trolling Tsunade at the last panel. I have a weird hunch that he’ll actually help her and the other Kages instead of…doing whatever evil diabolical thing we assumed he’d do.

    YanDaMan
  12. Wow…I want to see this in color with Naruto OST in the background and be all overwhelmed with the thrill this chapter is giving me. I just can’t wait for this to be animated.

    random viewer

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