I skimmed through that chapter so quickly that any of the panels looked like momentary blurs. Anything important that was intended to happen was hastily skimmed over and dealt with (the end of Tsukuyomi, Samui/Atsui's release, Spiral Zetsu inexplicably shriveling into nothingness). I can't recall if Tsunade's retirement from the Hokageship was acknowledge in this chapter.
What intrigue for the manga that #698 managed to revitalise for me was completely destroyed with this. It has to be the most disappointing chapter in the whole manga. No resolution for NaruSaku, a spark romantic reciprocation from Naruto to Hinata has spontaneously materialised from nothingness, and all of Sasuke's crimes were totally exempted with barely a sentence given.
Some of us had high hopes that #699 might help to salvage what was left of this story's logic, but it just worsened the problems by ten fold. I'm still loyal to NS and this website, but the insensitive and inconsistent manner in which Kishi wrote her character in this chapter is putting me off from ever recognising him as a competent writer or artist even.
^ so much this
The writing is just plain bad, it has seemed hurried for a while now....... In retrospect it seemed that 615 was indeed the beginning of Naruto's reciprocation/acknowledgement of Hinata's feelings. The fact that 631 happened after that, if it was what Kishimoto intended it to be from the beginning (a red herring) then that is just atrocious writing.
I could careless about the pairings at this point, and it is sad to see if not come to fruition, but the only rational conclusions I can come up with is that this storyline in general is either THAT bad or my interpretation of this story for the past 8 years is completely wrong.......
