Branden

Okay, now I understand what Sasuke wants to do. To explain I'm going to make reference to the Terminator series.

Sasuke wants to become Skynet. But first, what is Skynet? Well, Skynet is a super intelligent and all powerful AI whose sole purpose is to engage in warfare against humanity. Now one might ask why Skynet hasn't defeated humanity already. The answer is simple. Skynet would never eliminate humanity because then it would have no purpose. Therefor, the only logical thing for Skynet to do is engage in a perpetual warfare with humanity in which Skynet never lets the humans get strong enough to become anywhere close to a threat but also never weakens them so much that they can't recover. In doing so Skynet inadvertently creates a common enemy that forces humans to unite together to survive.

There is another interpretation though. To explain I'm going to make reference to Death Note.

Sasuke wants to become Kira. Kira from the Death Note series was the name people gave to the phenomena that was occurring. For some unknown reason criminals and corrupt individuals were dying in huge numbers from heart attacks. People assumed this must be the work of a God and named the God Kira when in actuality it was Light Yagami who was killing people with the death note. At first Kira only killed people who had gotten away with heinous crimes like murderer and rape, but as time progressed Kira started killing anyone who was acting bad whatsoever. This includes things like stealing someone's purse or even just criticizing Kira. As a result crime in the world completely halted and all wars ended.

The fundamental flaw in either of these situations is that there will only be peace as long as Sasuke is alive and nobody can contest him. If Sasuke can devise a way to make himself immortal (perhaps with the help of Orochimaru) then he can theoretically combine the ideas of Kira and Skynet to become an all powerful overruling entity that ensures peace will last forever. And that brings us to our second problem. People change over time. Sasuke being an all powerful overlord could eventually become corrupt and simply destroy humanity because he deems them irredeemable. Because of this, there will only be peace as long as Sasuke never changes his philosophies.

So in order for Sasuke's plan to work he must :

1. Achieve immortality.

2. Ensure humanity is never strong enough to oppose him.

3. Ensure his philosophies never change.

Here's the thing though. If Sasuke is killed while doing this then Humanity will remain at peace for a while longer until time brings about a new war.

Naruto's plan on the other hand is to start at that time of peace immediately. This means that Naruto's solution is only temporary as proven by history.

Throughout the course of the series we have seen a few other solutions that were wiser albeit very misguided.

Madara's Moon Eye Plan: This was full proof idea that made huge sacrifices. In essence Madara believe that there is no hope for humanity. People will never create lasting peace and therefor should not be allowed to live. Since it's not justifiable to simply blow up the planet and kill everyone, Madara decided to allow for the remaining people on Earth to live out the rest of their lives in an eternal dreamland that responded to their own desires. To sum things up Madara wished to end the cycle of war by exterminating the human race in a kinder way.

Nagato's Cycle of Peace and War: This plan is quite simple. Create superweapons and give them to each nation. A massive war occurs and almost everyone dies. In the aftermath of this war people learn how terrible war is and decide to unite together to ensure such a war never occurs again. This works for only a small period of time before the generations born into peace forget the lessons of their predecessors and start up war again. Then a massive war occurs and the cycle continues. Therefor Nagato's plan was to have temporary periods of peace a midst an endless cycle of war.

Madara's plan is an exchange. He kills everyone but allows them to go to a dreamworld as compensation.

Nagato's plan is an accelerated version of the already existing cycle. He makes wars bigger and the periods of peace longer but the endless cycle of war still occurs.

Naurot's plan is to achieve peace right now and hope that future generations will keep it.

Sasuke's plan is to become an all powerful peacekeeper that uses force to keep humanity at peace.

Conclusion:

All of these solutions are flawed. If Kishimoto wants to answer the question of "How do you achieve lasting peace?" then he needs to have Naruto and Sasuke work together to devise an entirely new method. I can think of a few ways that can be done but chances are that Kishimoto will take the easiest most shonen-like path which is to have Naruto win and instill a temporary time of peace so that he can end the series on a high note.

How can we know that he's not? I doubt Sasuke would ask Sakura on a date after all this; therefor there's no way to know if Sakura would refuse him or not.

That mood swing in the matter of a few hours...

Were the raws that much more favorable ?

Wait we're feeling good about things now? Hooray! I can finally stop worrying about everyone in the fandom being in a state of despair.

What kind of resolution are you guys expecting for Kishi to possibly give us after this chapter?

 

from the OVA i'm gonna guess that the context is gonna be "I love Sasuke but I'm gonna save Naruto"

 

which is completely stupid. 

I expect things to continue the way they've been going for a while now. That is to say I expect Kishi to make the ending disappointing and underwhelming. I highly doubt Sasuke or Naruto will establish lasting peace and chances are whatever romantic resolution we get will feel very rushed.

That's what he is suppose to do next chapter. He's going to explain his concept of what a Hokage should be in his eyes. My guess is just the opposite of what Itachi was saying. 

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Sasuke's version of hokage will basically be Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan ruler philosophy.

Just imagine him with sharingans and it works perfectly.

I still can't believe how Kishi treated Sakura in this chapter. I keep losing more and more respect for him.

Why? Logically speaking she did very well considering her limited planning time and options. I mean what else could she have done?

If she had done nothing then the chance of stopping the fight would be zero.

Any calm, level headed response she could have given would have simply echoed Naruto's words which is far less likely to work than if Naruto was saying it because as Sasuke stated he simply doesn't care for Sakura.

That leaves her best option being to pour her heart out bearing all truths in the open in an attempt to sway his decision even if only slightly.

Then again I doubt Kishi put this much thought into it. He's probably just being true to Sakura's character which is a highly disappointing one. People may get upset at that comment but I personally can't describe Sakura fully without mentioning her failure to meet her full potential. This is largely due to Kishimoto's insistence on delaying any romantic development until the end of the series so maybe in 10 chapters Sakura will finally be a good heroine but by that point it will be too late.

kitten is about to go down.

What will be Sakura's role in this battle? Do you guys also think Kakashi might die in this battle? I really think Kakashi might die, which will finally release Naruto's killing intent.

Ideally she and Kakashi will have no role in this battle whatsoever. That's the only way to make this fight satisfying.

Wow. That filler was so confusing. I guess I should expect nothing less from Japan.

The NaruSaku moments were enjoyable though. They're kind of like a preview for what's to come in the following weeks.

Did anyone else find Naruto and Kurama's little talk adorable? 

Kurama is a tsundere. I wouldn't be surprised if he(she?) blushes and calls Naruto an idiot next chapter.

I get the feeling Kishi is throwing a bone to the Kakashi x Sakura fans.

....

I did get a negative viber on girl part....Why Naruto was stalling about that? :/

because Sakura was standing right there when he said it.

okay, now this

 

 

Some of the main SS arguments lol.

can we all just agree to not post blatantly bashful "fanart"

Yes, you do get the occasional spiders, snakes and lizards in your house if you live near the outback, can't say for the big cities though, I've only seen cute fluffy (and possibly killer) wild rabbits around in the yard.

Not sure bout the huntsmen spiders hha

Have you ever met King Arthur by chance?

You live with jellyfish and killer crocodiles? Man Australia must be tough, everything is out to kill you.

I know it's not likely to happen. All I'm saying is that I would rather have her lead than Hinata.

 

As of now, I don't feel like she is. How can she lead a clan when her priorities are Naruto and nothing else? And she finally learned a technique that Neji learned 2-3 years ago. That's some very slow progress.

I don't think you're being fair here. Neji was a genius who was regarded as having the strongest Byakugan of his entire clan. Furthermore Hinata has shown that she has the resolve to lead her clan. Her having an interest in Naruto doesn't change that. I know she's from a rival pairing but we should still see her as a ninja.