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It’s not every day that all the things that caught my attention in a previous chapter become the focus of the very next one, but it looks like that happened this very week. I was sort of expecting Sai to be pretty emotional after spending so much time around Naruto, and he took it to extremes when Deidara didn’t hesitate to use Shin as a bomb. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting him to be as pissed off as he was, but boy did it have a lot of impact to see that much emotion coming from Sai. That was nicely followed up by a successful surprise attack on both Deidara and Sasori too. What I really liked about this chapter was extra bit of story surrounding Sai’s drawing of him and Shin though. It was fairly brief yet surprisingly effective in invoking some sort of emotional response in readers (at least for me anyway). For something that was quickly brought up and concluded in the span of a chapter, I really wasn’t expecting to be feel as sympathetic as I did towards Shin’s last words to Sai. That type of response is likely attributed to mention of Sai’s drawings in previous chapters; however, I still have to give most of the credit to the how things played out in this one because I had almost completely forgotten about them after all this time.
Other than that, Kankurou squared off against Sasori for the most part as expected, while Omoi kept Deidara preoccupied for a bit like I was anticipating as well. What I didn’t foresee though was the fight remaining a group effort for the entire duration, with Kankurou leading the way in terms of both offense and defense. Incidentally, I really like the prospect that a lot of the upcoming fights might be similar, as it not only keeps the fights relatively brief without feeling unsubstantial, but also emphasizes the teamwork of ninjas from various different villages. The strategy and surprises are present as usual, except they forgo the lengthy explanations that we can probably do without at this point. There are going to be a lot more encounters to come after all, and this first one managed to provide both entertaining action and a sentimental match-up in only two chapters because of that. I’m not the least bit opposed to the idea that some fights will drag out for longer and having more exposition, but I like the idea of this type of pacing carrying over to most encounters and maintaining the frantic feeling of war. With this one over, I’m already looking forward to seeing what group will clash with the enemy next and what sort of team effort they’ll be able to pull off.
I agree, the pacing and structure of this first fight sets a nice standard for whats to come. I’m most interested by the way Shin faded away, stating his soul was at rest. Is this how the ninjas will beat all of their resurrected foes? By saying/doing something that gives them closure?
I can already see this happening with Sasori, who Kankuro is currently appealing to in a similar way, but it might be tough (and interesting) to bring peace to the more villainous zombies’ souls.
If that were to be the case, then Itachi would have a VERY hard time after he sees how Sasuke turned out and how much stronger Madara is now that he has a Rinnegan and all that x_x
The only problem is that some of them were ALREADY at peace when they died, like Chiyo for example.
Sai finally shows some real emotion. Hopefully he won’t need the books on how to react to people anymore, lol.
At this point, the most villainous, powerful beings have been brought back as cannon fodder. I mean, it hasn’t been THAT long since the fight between Sasori and Kankarou, and he has already surpassed him? Gimmie a break.
That said, seeing Sai in action was pretty awesome. His techniques haven’t never gotten much spotlight so it was good to see him get in on the action.
did I say haven’t never ugh… haven’t ever is what I meant.
Eh, you can’t really compare this fight to Hiruzen during the Chuunin Exams.
In that case, we can’t forget that, despite his age, Hiruzen was simply THAT powerful as well. It’s one of the reasons why Tobirama named him the Sandaime Hokage when he was still so young and why he has remained Hokage for so long up to that point (and even took the mantle again after Minato’s death). And he wasn’t called “The Professor” or “The God of Shinobi” for nothing either, having said to have MASTERED (not merely KNEW, but MASTERED) every Konoha jutsu (forget if it was in general or just the Forbidden Scroll) minus Kekkei Genkai-related ones.
And even if they are weaker to varying degrees than they were when they were alive, the fact that they’re pretty much immortal kind of makes up for it, lol.
I can’t see the resurected zombie of a side character being exactly as powerful as the original. It should be powerful but not as powerful as when they were alive. That way Kankarou > Sasori makes sense.
Not to mention most of his power came from his puppet army, which obviously wouldn’t get resurrected with him (and even got pawned by Kankuro).
Deidara on the other hand I always saw as a one trick pony, he only won his fight against Gaara and did well in his fight against Sasuke because he was able to plan ahead how to leverage his trick as best as possible, here we see the opposite where the good guys have planned ahead how to counter his trick and they predictably do well against him. Also, like Sasori had to build up his puppet army, he had to mass huge amounts of clay (by eating people or something) to be able to use his big techniques like the clay Deidarazilla he used against Sasuke. Zombie Deidara just didn’t have the time to prepare like that.
I still agree though that the zombies should be/seem to be inherently weaker than their former selves, remember how the past his prime third Hokage held off two zombie kages AND Orochimaru.
Dead serious Sai is awesome！
The fast pace is good but I am a bit disappointed because I wanted to see more of Sai.
He’s part of the Hokage-line team 7 but gets so little showtime. Even Shin went to peace too easily before they got to fight.
i hardly ever say this but im dying to see this ninja war get animated, and as for the fast pace i won’t mind it as long as when it gets to certain characters like asuma and nagato it lasts a little longer
Sai on rampage mode was totally awesome that pick made the chapther for me
I am hoping that all the war play out like this
Lesson learnt here, NEVER EVER PISS OFF SAI!
As everyone else said this pacing is good. We can leave it to the anime to expand upon them if they want to. I’m disappointed though with how quickly Sasori and Deidara got beaten. To be fair to Sasori he doesn’t have the puppet body that allows him to use his 100 puppet technique.
Well like Gekokujou said, people like Sasori don’t have their special weapons that made them so powerful when alive. So granny Chiyo wouldn’t have her puppets. Though the only advantage they might have is to cause something emotional, such as Dan with Tsunade and Chiyo with Sakura.
Sai is really pissed. It surprises me that he makes such an angry face since he’s always seen smiling. I would imagine others would also be pissed.
This was a surprisingly good chapter – without any deus ex machina nonesense.!
btw am loving the amagami SS sidechops!
Deidara should have the advantage too, but he screwed up.
It should be mentioned that Akatsuki, despite having immortal bodies, are going to be at something of a disadvantage here. Kakuzu doesn’t have his masks. Who knows if Itachi and Pein have their eyes? Chiyo and Sasori don’t have their puppets, the Jinchuuriki don’t have their tailed beasts.
This is an Alliance of all the ninja villages – and Akatsuki is composed of missing-nin from those villages. The Alliance knowing about how get around Deidara’s bombs or how to deal with Sasori’s puppeteering should be a given – you can BET that Iwa, and Suna, and all the villages all got together and revealed those techniques weaknesses, in the interests of disclosure.
You won’t see something stupid like an entire group get taken out for not knowing the weaknesses of the Sharingan. This group isn’t Naruto running blind into battle – if it’s a technique we, the reader, have seen, you can be sure that this Alliance will be prepared for it… and it’ll be interesting to see!
The Pain body he’s using didn’t have his eyes taken. Madara took the eyes from Nagato. The body Kabuto had was one of the Six Paths if I’m not mistaken
…No, it’s Nagato. This guy: http://tiny.cc/gai7a and this guy: http://tiny.cc/zorh9 and this guy: http://tiny.cc/booq3 are clearly the same dude. Same hairstyle and color, both emaciated.
That wasn’t the point anyway.
A person resurrected comes back as they were at their strongest (before they died anyway) along with all of their abilities they possessed during that time, including Kekkei Genkai, so I’m willing to bet Itachi will still have the (Mangekyo) Sharingan and Nagato the Rinnegan unless they make up some BS excuse otherwise, especially when you consider Hashirama was resurrected complete with Mokuton abilities.
Akatsuki is now at level lame…
I wonder if Orchimaru planned this and made kabuto animate the dead so that every ninja would conquer their fear. And Madara doesnt know the plan.
I was kind of upset how fast the fight ended. I was looking forward to more of Sai and Shin’s fight/relationship. But oh wells..
hmm no unknown voice complaining about the chapter he must like it
good chapter but i won’t call it finished yet Chuukichi may change the game if really does have one of the kekki genki’s from the 3rd movie
Wait, so even though they’ve been beaten Deidara and Sasori are still alive right?
yeah well they allready are dead but they are stuck for now Chuukichi may save them however
I was hoping Kishimoto wouldn’t drag out the fight for too long, but this seemed almost too quick! This was an exciting chapter, though.
This is what Tite Kubo not accomplish, shortening the battles in 1~2 chapters.
Kanukuro is suprisingly much stronger since a few hundred chapters ago.
Gotta say i’m wishing for the other match ups to follow this format.
Small amount of talking and full octane action.
I wouldn’t be surprised anymore if Jiraiya would end up as one of the resurrected undead, he’ll probably make an appearance when Naruto evidently joins the war (and IMO, would be one of Kabuto’s trump cards)
kankuro is pretty awesome on how he managely command his team on what to do next. though i never expect that this ambush episode will going to end this fast.
What is Kabuto going to do with Anko~!!!! From previous chapter!
This chapter was awesome. I like how much Kankuro has leveled up since the previous encounter with Sasori. Even using Sasori puppet against him, that was pretty neat.
If SAI of all people was able to get distracted as he did, then I can’t begin to imagine how bad off Naruto will be when he sees the resurrected people he knows. =\
any news on the next chapter?