Paptala

So between Sasuke’s expression and Juugo and Sai’s explanation, I’m pretty sure that this chapter confirmed that Sasuke hasn’t really turned good.

 

Tsunade definitely still seems to be alive, given from what Katsuyu and Orochimaru said, though she certainly sounds to be on the brink.  Whatever it is they’re planning with her, I highly doubt it’s to force her to name Sasuke her successor.  First off, I think Tsunade would rather die than name Sasuke her successor, especially when she already seemed resigned to dying before, and she has a whole slew of people she trusts to take over where she left off.  Secondly, the Jounins also have to approve before a new Hokage becomes official – it’s not just on the previous Hokage’s say alone.  So even if they did manage to somehow force her to name Sasuke her successor, it wouldn’t really be worth much.  Sasuke would end up having to take the title by force in the end regardless.

 

The fact that Karin accompanied that group could suggest that Orochimaru is planning to have Karin heal her, but as another poster previously pointed out, Tsunade screwed him over and caused him an enormous amount of pain before by not healing his arms.  What benefit could he possibly get from healing her?    It will be really interesting to see what happens with that.

 

Sakura’s initial tears are definitely related to Naruto and Sasuke, seemingly out of finally seeing them being a team again given the context and preceding panels.  Her final expression on the last page seems to suggest that Sakura will be facing down Sasuke once again, and this time, hopefully with Naruto. 

 

And yes, Kishi yes, I want a neo-Sannin battle!  It’s funny, the prelude to that battle already sort of happened.   That fight began with Tsunade getting Jiraiya out of the way and facing Orochimaru on her own initially.  That failed, since he took advantage of her emotional weakness.  Recall that at the summit, Sakura likewise tried to ensure that Naruto wouldn’t be involved in her battle against Sasuke.  She went to face Sasuke alone initially, and failed because of her emotional weakness.  Now Sakura seems to have overcome that emotional weakness, just as Tsunade was able to overcome hers.

 

I would love to see a Sakura and Naruto versus Sasuke, especially given what Kakashi implied about their teamwork early on in the second bell test.  We’ve seen Naruto and Sasuke work together, now I want to see Naruto and Sakura bring down Sasuke together as well!

 

As for Sakura’s role in this chapter, I wasn’t all that disappointed.  Sure, I would have loved for her action to continue, but the soldiers really needed to be healed.   It put Sakura’s abilities in the spotlight again in her being able to do something like that so young.  It may not have been offensive, but given the fact that she healed pretty much the entire alliance in one move, it’s damn impressive nonetheless.  Note also that Naruto wouldn’t be “killing the Juubi and saving the world,” with Sasuke if it weren’t for Sakura healing him – she is an essential component for her healing ability.  The fact that she has such impressive offensive feats as well (and they are impressive, considering her one punch killed more Juubi clones than the rookies combined) just makes her that much more amazing.

 

Plus, I’m pretty certain she’s going to get some more action later on, whether it be against an Edo-Tsunade or against Sasuke himself, so I’m okay with waiting for that, especially since Kishi seems to have really ramped up the speed that events are occurring.

 

As for the Juubi, no way is it defeated already.  We haven’t even gotten to see its final state (which I’m pretty sure we’ll see after all the hype its been given).

Hey guys, no long time on see.

 

I happened to have some free time, and I thought I 'd pop back in over here.

 

In regards to the current conversation regarding resolving Hinata's feelings, I completely agree with KnS's and Slextrem's excellent posts above.  Hinata has already achieved everything that she set out to do, and she simply isn't important enough to the story to merit such a significant scene, imo, much less one that essentially copies such an important scene from the main character himself.

 

Consider also that out of all four players in the romance sub-plot, Hinata's are the only ones that don't need to change in order to make a pairing canon:

• In order for NaruSaku to become canon, Sakura's feelings need to change
• In order for NaruHina to become canon, Naruto's feelings need to change
• In order for SasuSaku to become canon, Sasuke's feelings need to change

I think that the best thing for her character at this point is simply to realize that Naruto doesn't feel the same way towards her (if she hasn't already), and to find her own nindo to follow, thus being able to start drawing strength from herself rather than always relying on Naruto as a crutch.

 

I do think its a bit of a shame though that Kishimoto didn't take the opportunity to make Hinata's motivation this past chapter at least equally about Neji - from what I understood, Hinata was much closer with him than with Naruto, and he died to protect her.  I felt like it would have established more growth for her character as someone who is more than just her feelings for Naruto, to tie her character back into the clan, and have this be the motivating factor that pushes her to become a strong leader.

 

At first I thought for certain that these thoughts of hers were romantic in nature, but given the official translation, and that she had to have heard MInato's question and Naruto's response, it would seem pretty bad for her to still have such hopes, not to mention selflish for completely ignoring Naruto's feelings to focus on her own.

 

As for confessions, since Sasuke never had romantic feelings to confess, I never saw a confession from him ever being necessary.  Naruto, on the other hand, definitely needs to confess to Sakura by story's end, and if this major heart to heart speech follows his other major ones, it should be amazing to see!

Indeed - I think the lack of NaruSaku moments in the manga recently has got a lot of fans react even more than they normally would otherwise.

You're welcome That's a good point - it could still be there, just not shown up at this point yet. But this truly makes me want to see this scene even more now! >_<





The night sky is behind them - Menma-Madara kicked Sakura high up in the air and Naruto caught her.

Yes, this appears to be legit.

The source was from a Russian NS(?) forum.

Oh, I definitely think they gave Naruto a softer look - so many feels just looking at it!

And I'm pretty sure that Kishi and Pierrot know exactly what they are doing to the shippers, which is exactly why there was so much shipping teasing in the advertisements for the film (imo). But the end message here is pretty clear to me -- NaruSaku is the focused on pairing here, the one that is paralleled to the main canon pairing. I really don't think that Kishi would have done as much as he did with the Naruto and Sakura bond if he weren't intending for them to eventually get together in the manga as well. There is teasing (see what's been done with SS and NH here), and then there is legitimately hyping a pairing - the MinaKushi parallels, Naruto asking Sakura out twice, Sakura calling it the longest date ever, Sakura dragging him by the hand, Naruto holding her, the teasing from both Minato and Kushina, Kiba and Hinata both thinking that Naruto and Sakura were on a date --> none of this was necessary if Kishi just wanted to depict their bond generally.

I don't think Kishimoto could have made his preference in terms of shipping any clearer.