Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yup, that's right. All we see is Naruto missing with the Rasen''shuriken'',
I mean, why'd he gave it the shape of a shuriken if you have to hit it in close range?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO THROW THE FRIGGIN' SHURIKEN! DX

Well, at least they showed Sasuke...for like, a panel...

as awesome and cool and powerful as Sasuke is now, he still needs to pull his head out of his a** and get over himself. At least he's over the 'woe is me, am I whiny b***h' routine and moved onto the far less annoying, 'sullen, heartless and calculating stage.

But he still needs to pull his head out of his a**.

And I'm not retarded, I'm a genius, obviously. People who croon over Sasuke are idiots ;p

Id like to consider this chapter worthless. Because it added nothing. Except for showing the flaw in Narto's new jutsu.

Also, he might be able to throw it later. It is still incomplete.

xD

Kakuzu actually said it!

"Your heart is mine now!"

XDD Naru/Kaku YAOI!

I can say with an honest face that that was not what came to my mind when i saw that part.

I am totaly not surprised that Naruto messed up. I mean, we were about due for it, weren't we?

On the one hand, I'm getting the distinct feeling of "FILLER!" from this.

On the other, I have to admit that I'm desperatly hoping that this is the forshadowing to something I've been waiting for a long, long time: Naruto actually killing someone!

Also, I think Kishimoto is doing this to buy time highlight the change that's about to come with the Naruto manga. If (when?) Naruto succeeds, it means that he's changed as a character, and as such, his peers and the story line itself are gonna have to change around him. We've had the "coming of age" bit, the "first real failure" bit and the "he's different than he was before" bit to the manga. Hopefully, this is going to be the start of the "he's become a skilled fighter".

It's also very interesting that Naruto has spent the entire chapter in Kyuubi mode without wigging out. More mysteries!

So, predictions for next chapter:

Naruto purees Kakuzu with his technique which he manages to finish in a stroke of brilliance, Shikamaru kills Sakura and Sai in an impromptu sacrifice to his stantler bretheren, and Ino and Chouji to run away and become supermodles, because they've been doing such a bang up job of hanging about and being eye-candy that a passing talent agent snaps them up and carries them off. Also, Kakashi gets a little personal with Yamato in an effort to find out wtf was going on with that tree-tentacle attack Yamato used on Kakuzu.

It's true! I have it from an inside source that Kakashi takes Yamato out for a nice dinner and pumps him for . . . information.

And yeah. As much as I make an effort to "explain" stuff in context of the manga and enjoy the story no matter how lame, Kishimoto is showing his roots: one -on-one fighting is a staple of the shounen genre. Looks like he's decided to indulge for this fight. I do hope it doesn't become a serious trend, but after the complete uselessness of Chouji and Ino for thet past how-many-chapters? I don't feel particularly hopeful. Especialy not with the obvious banishing of Sakura and Sai to the Plot Dungeon.

And, dude. Very out of character for Naruto to suddenyl be all "I, and I alone, shall fight the Evil One!" If this is New!Naruto . . . confused

D: I know!

I guess all the crack Kishimoto's been smoking has finally caught up with him? The deer should have been our first clue.

Honestly, his story telling is starting to unravel in places. I don't mind so much . . . Naruto is candy, and I read with the express intent on enjoying it, despite (or perhaps because) of it's many flaws. But it is sad to see things start to fall appart. Not surprising, since stuff with poor foundations is bound to collapse, but sad non the less.

There's always been big holes in Kishimoto's world and storytelling. The teams he set up at the very begining were problematic because not only were they poorly thought out, they didn't even match his storytelling style. Kishimoto has a tendancy to write duets - any character who tries to be added into the mix tends to hang on the outside. Perhaps it's because the "third wheel" is almost always a girl, and he has mixed success with those. Whatever the reason, it means that it's very hard for him to take into acount character interation involving more than two people - Naruto & Sasuke, Shikamaru & Hidan, etc. Inteaction and fights involving more than just two people very, very rarely happen in Kishimoto's writing.

And we're seeing the effects of that now. That, combined with the fact that Kishimoto hasn't really set any sort of limitations on characters, means we're wandering into DBZ territory. He almost has to keep the fights one on one. Otherwise, they'll spiral out of control into the realm of the rediculously extravagant - or the rediculously short.

This means that he's going counter to all the character development we've seen since the begining. Especialy on Naruto's side. Naruto himself has always been about teamwork. Rejecting it to make a point. . . well. Kishimoto had better have a darn good reason for it.