1040 replies to this topic

[Saku-chan]

I know it's been an age since I've replied to a release thread, but holy cow this chapter was awesome. IIRC it was also a fairly long chapter? 

 

I can't decide whether Sasuke getting stabbed through the heart was genjutsu or not. I don't get how he could have been 'levitated' otherwise, but he is still injured in some serious way according to Karin and that panel of him on the ground.

 

Once Tsunade mentioned mokuton, I agreed that the spiral face is probably Yamato being controlled by a Zetsu or Yamato is part of the statue and somehow there is chakra magic going on which allows the Spiral Face to control it. The third was extremely badass, but I hope they expose a weakness in the opponent soon. I'm not sure how much longer Kishi can continue with this premise of "exhausted forces take on invincible enemy." It's beginning to get old. Maybe Orochimaru is figuring things out while hiding behind that rock. 

 

I honestly did not expect Karin to be featured as much as she is. I'm glad because I do like her abilities and her personality is amusing, but I still feel uneasy about her and Sasuke. Warning! An opinion. Please don't take this personally. I don't really see SasuKarin as a viable relationship or approaching canon. She's fangirled over him and worried about him when he's wounded and he's rescued her from dire situations, but I fail to see how it reaches beyond a platonic interaction on Sasuke's side. Let's not forget that he was ok with letting Danzou kill her. It's debatable whether or not he could have saved her anyway, but we see almost no reflection from Sasuke about anything other than the Uchiha or Naruto, so unless we can have Sasuke have a conversation about all of this, we'll have no idea what his motivations regarding Karin are. 

 

However, Karin has been shown in split panels with Sakura like this before and it kind of worries me. I don't think SasuKarin has anywhere near the depth of NaruSaku, but it seems like it's being used as a parallel. This could mean a few different things:

 

1) NaruSaku and SasuKarin are supposed to be seen as on the same level and these parallels are meant to make up for off panel development, lack of Sasuke's reciprocation

2) Kishi is trying to tack on parallels to hint that SasuKarin is going to approach NaruSaku significance as a pairing

3) Both are only meant to portray teammate feelings

 

#3 is kind of pessimistic and I don't really believe it (ba dum tss), but it's a point that makes me uneasy when I see debates using SasuKarin to bolster NaruSaku. I don't think it has any place to do this because there's been (in my opinion) almost no romantic development. With the right focus I think they could be a good couple and I'm not fundamentally opposed to them, but the insistence on paralleling SK with NS doesn't make sense to me right now.

 

Ok now with the good part. Oh happy day! Sakura is going to be addressing her fears from the beginning of the Gaara Rescue arc. I anticipate some talk about how she feels. This could range anywhere from Gaara pulling a Yamato to Sakura straight up confessing. I just hope that Kishi doesn't skip them next week in favor of an action filled chapter. I can see Sakura trying to pull a Chiyo, but even if she does, I do not think that she will die. Naruto the story is all about surpassing past generations and if Chiyo died, Sakura won't. She may come close though. Strap in for the angst everyone! Another bonus could be the 4th arriving to plant the other half of Kurama's chakra into Naruto to save him. If that happens, I hope there are more comments from him about NS's relationship! We have so many in-story allies! lol 

 

Finally, I'm glad that Hinata was featured. It was symbolic of her inability to reach him on the level that she wants. She can support him as a friend, but not in a more intimate way. She will need to come to terms with this. Before 615, I never thought that NH was plausible, but I guess Kishi brought her up to fill out her love and character development subplot before the end of the series. She was able to be by his side and help him before which gave her (and NH fans) hope, but now she isn't able to reach him. I don't think that she is the type to be a mean person when jealous, but she seems to be actively avoiding thinking about Sakura up until now. It's like she's been ignoring reality. (This impression could stem from insufficient information presented to us readers.) I have a feeling that her examining her feelings about Naruto and Sakura will be the true closure to her development.

 

tl;dr

cautiously optimistic for the next chapter!

[Inferno180]

In anything guess the ordeal is how will naruto and sasuke be healed.

 

Sasuke is easily addressed, just needs a medic to patch up his heart, karin or even orochimaru can do that.

 

Naruto on the other hand, will putting dark kurama in him work? Or will Obito use the rinne tensei on him?

[Ausakura]

I can't decide whether Sasuke getting stabbed through the heart was genjutsu or not. 

 

Sasuke can still forfeit one eye and active izanagi, just to remember us. And, yeah, He received some kind of jutsu from Hashirama... He have more chances of surviving than Naruto (without making anyone die for him), as its a "rule" to die when you lost an bijuu.

 

 

1) NaruSaku and SasuKarin are supposed to be seen as on the same level and these parallels are meant to make up for off panel development, lack of Sasuke's reciprocation

2) Kishi is trying to tack on parallels to hint that SasuKarin is going to approach NaruSaku significance as a pairing

3) Both are only meant to portray teammate feelings

I would go with the third. It's not pessimist, it's just simplistic.

[StriderC]

I know it's been an age since I've replied to a release thread, but holy cow this chapter was awesome. IIRC it was also a fairly long chapter? 
 
I can't decide whether Sasuke getting stabbed through the heart was genjutsu or not. I don't get how he could have been 'levitated' otherwise, but he is still injured in some serious way according to Karin and that panel of him on the ground.
 
Once Tsunade mentioned mokuton, I agreed that the spiral face is probably Yamato being controlled by a Zetsu or Yamato is part of the statue and somehow there is chakra magic going on which allows the Spiral Face to control it. The third was extremely badass, but I hope they expose a weakness in the opponent soon. I'm not sure how much longer Kishi can continue with this premise of "exhausted forces take on invincible enemy." It's beginning to get old. Maybe Orochimaru is figuring things out while hiding behind that rock. 
 
I honestly did not expect Karin to be featured as much as she is. I'm glad because I do like her abilities and her personality is amusing, but I still feel uneasy about her and Sasuke. Warning! An opinion. Please don't take this personally. I don't really see SasuKarin as a viable relationship or approaching canon. She's fangirled over him and worried about him when he's wounded and he's rescued her from dire situations, but I fail to see how it reaches beyond a platonic interaction on Sasuke's side. Let's not forget that he was ok with letting Danzou kill her. It's debatable whether or not he could have saved her anyway, but we see almost no reflection from Sasuke about anything other than the Uchiha or Naruto, so unless we can have Sasuke have a conversation about all of this, we'll have no idea what his motivations regarding Karin are. 
 
However, Karin has been shown in split panels with Sakura like this before and it kind of worries me. I don't think SasuKarin has anywhere near the depth of NaruSaku, but it seems like it's being used as a parallel. This could mean a few different things:
 
1) NaruSaku and SasuKarin are supposed to be seen as on the same level and these parallels are meant to make up for off panel development, lack of Sasuke's reciprocation
2) Kishi is trying to tack on parallels to hint that SasuKarin is going to approach NaruSaku significance as a pairing
3) Both are only meant to portray teammate feelings
 
#3 is kind of pessimistic and I don't really believe it (ba dum tss), but it's a point that makes me uneasy when I see debates using SasuKarin to bolster NaruSaku. I don't think it has any place to do this because there's been (in my opinion) almost no romantic development. With the right focus I think they could be a good couple and I'm not fundamentally opposed to them, but the insistence on paralleling SK with NS doesn't make sense to me right now.
 
Ok now with the good part. Oh happy day! Sakura is going to be addressing her fears from the beginning of the Gaara Rescue arc. I anticipate some talk about how she feels. This could range anywhere from Gaara pulling a Yamato to Sakura straight up confessing. I just hope that Kishi doesn't skip them next week in favor of an action filled chapter. I can see Sakura trying to pull a Chiyo, but even if she does, I do not think that she will die. Naruto the story is all about surpassing past generations and if Chiyo died, Sakura won't. She may come close though. Strap in for the angst everyone! Another bonus could be the 4th arriving to plant the other half of Kurama's chakra into Naruto to save him. If that happens, I hope there are more comments from him about NS's relationship! We have so many in-story allies! lol 
 
Finally, I'm glad that Hinata was featured. It was symbolic of her inability to reach him on the level that she wants. She can support him as a friend, but not in a more intimate way. She will need to come to terms with this. Before 615, I never thought that NH was plausible, but I guess Kishi brought her up to fill out her love and character development subplot before the end of the series. She was able to be by his side and help him before which gave her (and NH fans) hope, but now she isn't able to reach him. I don't think that she is the type to be a mean person when jealous, but she seems to be actively avoiding thinking about Sakura up until now. It's like she's been ignoring reality. (This impression could stem from insufficient information presented to us readers.) I have a feeling that her examining her feelings about Naruto and Sakura will be the true closure to her development.
 
tl;dr
cautiously optimistic for the next chapter!

Good point. Especially the end talking about Hinata. I don't understand how she doesn't acknowledge her when they're together or she seems to dismiss it entirely. It's like Kishi is avoiding this. She knows Sakura's a medic and she knows she's with him right now, and yet, she's not saying anything in regards to her possibly saving him. It's strange. Maybe Kishi is saving this particular realization from her til a bit later. We shall see regardless. She likely won't get featured for awhile so there'll be none of that ridiculous mirroring hopefully. THAT annoyed me.

[Ausakura]

In anything guess the ordeal is how will naruto and sasuke be healed.

 

Sasuke is easily addressed, just needs a medic to patch up his heart, karin or even orochimaru can do that.

 

Naruto on the other hand, will putting dark kurama in him work? Or will Obito use the rinne tensei on him?

Obito already used Rinne Tensei to revive Madara, I don't think it will be possible. Probably he's becoming a corpse right now too.

 

And how the heck could a dead half of Kyuubi go to Naruto? Moreover in this state?

Minato is already dead, I don't think a transfusion would be possible either. Who would do the seals? 

And besides, the Dark Half makes part of him now. 

 

Maybe power of love and friendship can save him.   Just kidding.

[Cherry-Bloss93]

I was just thinking, I think that one thing that people tend to forget is that the manga is different from the anime. With the anime, it is easy to add several minor details, while in the manga every screen panel is precious - everything you see in the manga is specifically placed there for a reason. And in any type of story, things don't just happen – they happen for reason. In the case with Sakura being the one to heal Naruto it was the author's intent for that to be the case. Sakura being the only one who had chakra to heal was used as a plot device by Kishimoto to bring Sakua into the picture with Naruto. If Kishimoto did not intend for this, he could have just as easily let Hinata tag along. However, I think what we are going to see is a wrapup of the events from the Save Gaara Arc, and with it, a realization from Sakura about how important Naruto is to her. I am actually expecting a flashback to Chiyo's words to Sakura – that she should next time try to save those who are most important to her. If a person does not see how Kishi has worked to bring this event together, then they obviously don't understand how a story is written. There are no coincidences in stories.

[Saku-chan]

 

 

Sasuke can still forfeit one eye and active izanagi, just to remember us. And, yeah, He received some kind of jutsu from Hashirama... He have more chances of surviving than Naruto (without making anyone die for him), as its a "rule" to die when you lost an bijuu.

 

 

I would go with the third. It's not pessimist, it's just simplistic.

I forgot about Izanagi. It would stink if he lost an eye, but maybe that's how he will overcome his Uchiha blood? :O Interesting...

 

For the third point I meant that the parallels meant that NS was only platonic. That's how I viewed it as pessimistic, but you are right. The parallel could just be highlighting the similarities between a shared teammate relationship. It doesn't have to negate a romantic one that NS has. 

 

 

Good point. Especially the end talking about Hinata. I don't understand how she doesn't acknowledge her when they're together or she seems to dismiss it entirely. It's like Kishi is avoiding this. She knows Sakura's a medic and she knows she's with him right now, and yet, she's not saying anything in regards to her possibly saving him. It's strange. Maybe Kishi is saving this particular realization from her til a bit later. We shall see regardless. She likely won't get featured for awhile so there'll be none of that ridiculous mirroring hopefully. THAT annoyed me.

Yeah I've always thought that it was weird that Hinata hadn't felt threatened by Sakura. Maybe it's because she's trying to be a nice person by putting those feelings aside, but she's going to have to address them at some point. Her Byakugan image was literally the two of them together and while it wasn't a lovey dovey moment, they were still together. =/

 

Obito already used Rinne Tensei to revive Madara, I don't think it will be possible. Probably he's becoming a corpse right now too.

 

And how the heck could a dead half of Kyuubi go to Naruto? Moreover in this state?

Minato is already dead, I don't think a transfusion would be possible either. Who would do the seals? 

And besides, the Dark Half makes part of him now. 

 

Maybe power of love and friendship can save him.   Just kidding.

I don't think Rinne Tensei is viable either, but there could be some plot shenanigans to make the 4th be able to transfer. Who knows. There have been lots of "rules" in the Narutoverse that have been broken by now. You can't take those statements at face value anymore. Gaara didn't die after all. (Chiyo did, but we have yet to see if a sacrifice has to happen again.)

 

I would not be surprized if her were saved by the power of friendship. lol This is a shonen.

[MoonStar]

Man, even when Sakura is doing something the girl's getting bashed. Effing NaruHina fans on Youtube man...

[Hanabi]

they're just jelly ^

[CloudMountainJuror]

Wow. So Sasuke did actually get impaled last chapter. Awesome.

 

Also, I know we were supposed to take that moment of Hinata tripping and faceplanting into the ground seriously, but I couldn't help laughing.

[BakeNeko-Chan]

Pretty good chapter. I'm surprised though that Sasuke was so seriously injured, he's come out of worse scrapes just fine. And Karin - once upon a time I actually liked her - her behavior definitely bothers me, why are you wasting your tears on Sasuke? But anyways, it's not unexpected from her and I'm not going to dwell on it, though my dislike for the pairing isn't so strong that I can't acknowledge that it's chances have gone up. Something for you SasuKarin fans here to celebrate I guess.

 

As for Hinata, I don't want to bash, but she acted quite recklessly here, letting her emotions get the better of her. She should focus on what she can do, which is stand by her teammates. What did she honestly expect to do for Naruto anyway? It's not like she could heal him. Her behavior is nothing new and actually reminded me of the Pein arc, in both cases she acted completely without thought. To be honest, I would like to see better for her than this, and I still don't think Kishi is done with her yet.

 

And last but not least, Sakura is finally back.  I don't know what she'll be able to do for Naruto with her chakra being so low, but it seems KIshi has something in mind, so I'm happy. I don't know if I'd consider this as a 'NaruSaku moment' as much as a Sakura > Naruto moment, with him being unconscious and all. So much for that 'SS  moment' people were worrying about though, at this point I consider that pairing more or less nonexistent. All this time Sakura's only real concern has been Naruto, and even with both Naruto and Sasuke near death, the only one Kishi's deigns to show her worrying about and tending to is Naruto, yet people still keep expecting her to go back to 'fangirling' Sasuke. I can't wrap my head around such selective reading.

 

Exactly hehehehe :))) . Hey good catch with the ObiRin parallel i didn't even thought of that things are getting better and better HELL YEAH.

 

NH delusion begins

 GO Hinata !!

1.
I love this chapter. I love the display of emotions! Putting some drama and story in the manga isnt really bad..
*SOme pairing hints.
*Sakura's possible screentime
*How I love Hinata when she kissed the ground. "Nissan, please......protect Naruto.."
*Is that Obito/Black Zetsu?? Then where is Minato and Kakashi??

Perfect Score of any scale ))

2.

No just no. (but possible huhu..)

Sakura has been so close to Naruto. But it'll be Sasuke still...
huhuhu. The situation just requires Sakura to heal naruto instead, because she is nowhere near Sasuke, and doesnt even know that he's in a bad situation..

Only Karin knows. Hurry up and save sasuke...

Oh brother they are.......i have no word for this     

 

Ignore it. It's not worth bothering with, and it's probably better to not post this stuff since it tends to invite bashing.

[Nate River]

You're right about her being a poorly handled character. She has a tragic storyline and could have real weight within the plot, but Kishimoto continues to use her solely for comedic relief. Even in scenes when she should be taken seriously or at least tug on the heart strings of readers, she misses the mark. (Although, again, I blame Kishimoto for that.) She's been so locked into comedic mode, despite her scarred backstory, that it's hard to take her seriously when it's required.
 
Which is also why I don't know if this is a hint of SK to come (as Sasuke's final pairing) or if it's just a momentary thing to illustrate the parallel between Naruto/Sasuke using Sakura/momentary-love-interest-Karin. Kishimoto has made such elaborate plans for Sasuke's story that it's hard to fit Karin into that puzzle. She's girl that seems to only be interested in herself and the only side we see of her in this story, aside from wanting to get Sasuke into bed, is the petty, comedic carrying-on she does with Suigetsu. If we've seen anything from Sasuke, it's that he demands for people to dance to his tune. And Karin still doesn't fit into his carefully crafted storyline for me, other than as a noisy distraction or as means to an end. Not as a true love.

Kishimoto's trend has been to create new characters when he needs hammer down a some kind of lesson. The weakness in that approach, aside from the unwieldy cast list, is that once used, they lose their purpose. That pretty much sums up Karin (and Taka) basic problem.

If it were just limited to that, then she would be Juugo and Suigetsu. Karin fans would hate it, but she would then be just like them: characters floating around without purpose. I don't like any of Taka because so little about them make sense. But I despise, Karin specifically, even apart from Taka because of the comedic relief. He could get away with doing that in the beginning. It had a been there, done that feel and I understand the fans being sick of female characters being enamored with Sasuke. But again, her treatment wouldn't be any worse than anyone else. What really just kills it is the actions post stabbing. The author all but pretends it didn't happen and reverts to business as usual. And you simply can't do that.

The audience isn't going to forget it and gives an additional context of the actions that reflect so poorly on the character and the author. That's why I think he handling of her is the worst of any character in the series. I

And now that I think about, Obito's handling is pretty bad too, but that has more to do with the surrounding cast's reactions than Obito's himself. I could have lived with it if he was ever called out his crap.

 

Meaning, even though it looks like SK on the surface, I'm still not sure I trust it. The only thing to me that seems mostly confirmed is that Sakura's feelings for Sasuke are a thing of the past. (Even though I'm still holding out hope that Sasuke will try to manipulate Sakura's childhood feelings into something to stoke Naruto's fury in the final showdown. A girl can dream....)

I don't think it even confirms that much. This Chapter is dramatic and I understand why pairings fans are all over it. But really, it says nothing new and I don't think he reaction to Sasuke would be significantly different. I think that whole internal conflict might be present, but I wouldn't expect to see anything that changes the status quo.

I think Sasuke's only available pairing is Karin, but yes, I think it's very possible he doesn't get one at all. His character has been involved with the romance subplot, but he has never ever been a true participate. He's there because other people are interested him, but his character has never been anything close to an actively involved and he is always focus on other issues. So, there is no reason for him to have to end up with anyone. Sasuke, more than anyone else, requires no resolution on that subplot.

I think the juxtaposition might be a sign of intent because he didn't have to do that, but it's not enough to call it a moment. It could be as simple as being a super efficient and super effective way to summarize the lay of the land. It's really well done, IMO.

[StriderC]

Lmao. She was called a crusty flat chested b-word. I mean, I can't even take that seriously because it's so damn funny. This was from a reviewer btw.

Anyway...@Saku-chan

I definitely agree. I think this is leading toward that. I actually wouldn't mind Sakura pushing her feelings and telling her to back off since it seems Hinata won't acknowledge the picture. There have been times when she likely should have, like the hug scene. We get reactions from Sakurra if she's present but hardly anything from Hinata.

[TouKen4Life3g]

Makes you wonder how Naruto would react once he wakes up. He will see Sakura in there with tears. Oh man, THE POSSIBILITY!!!

[Cherry-Bloss93]

Makes you wonder how Naruto would react once he wakes up. He will see Sakura in there with tears. Oh man, THE POSSIBILITY!!!

Ova time! (Break it down, da na na na, da na *Can't touch this*)

*by the way, did you post a review?

Edited by Cherry-Bloss93, 22 January 2014 - 06:33 PM.

[ShadowWolf]

Am I the only one who still feels uneasy about this chapter? I feel like NS just had some sort of a cheap victory over NH. Like we're supposed to feel bad for Hinata or something. She hasn't really done anything wrong this whole time. She is really attached to Naruto and has adopted his "never give up" attitude in order to get his attention, but all of this time she's tried to support him, she's been ignored and tossed around like some sort of ridiculous side show. Something just feels off...like at the end of the story he really might feel bad for her anyway. I would be really sad if that happens, for its lack of respect toward women in general and for a beautifully developed story.

 

I also did not like the fact that, at this point in the story, everyone is in complete despair once again. He's really dragging this battle out...he's making it somewhat insincere after all of the other arcs. Everyone moaning and complaining again, waiting for a savior. The bad guys are talking s**t (literally about pooping) for over three chapters and toying with everyone. Meanwhile, how could Sasuke be so stupid to get stabbed right after he received the gift from Hashi? Adding to his current status as an immortal, Sasuke will rise again. It was probably another plot device to parallel him with Naruto. Wow. Very brother. Both dying. Such passion. Spiritual connections. Wow.

 

Comparing Karin to Sakura at the end of the chapter felt like a bad soap opera. Why would you do that? We don't know Karin half as well as Sakura. She's kind of a nut case...she pines after Sasuke in the same way that Hinata pines after Naruto. Now that's a comparison.

 

I am complaining too much. This chapter did have some highlights. Like Hinata falling flat on her face. Honestly, I was a little scared that Gaara would take her, too. I enjoyed the dramatic frames of Sakura and Naruto, because although at first glance they seemed overdone, they were appropriate for the situation. I also like the idea of a Gaarataxi. 

[Kakashi-Sensei]

I dont know why but when i first saw the last page of the manga my first feeling was : Confirmation of two pairings , NaruSaku - SasuKarin

 

However, the fact that Hinata said that she had to protect Naruto because she promised it to Neji ( wich i dont remember haha ) make me suspicious. I am excepting that Sakura will save Naruto or at least keep him alive to let some time to Minato to give him the other part of the Kyubi.

 

 Sakura is pretty much out of chakra, at this point what can she do   Maybe a Chiyo style justu to heal him ( that would not imply Sakura's death since Naruto is still alive ) but she need chakra, and I think that will be the role of Hinata : She will give some of her chakra to Sakura, just like Naruto did to save Gaara ! Or maybe Gaara will do it, and Hinata will stay on the ground, who knows 

Edited by Kakashi-Sensei, 22 January 2014 - 06:35 PM.

[Cherry-Bloss93]

I wonder - what would you guys have preferred? Hinata not being present in the chapter at all, or what we got?

[StriderC]

Her presence was unnecessary but since we likely won't have to get mirror panels of her and our heroine sincd she's down for the count, it doesn't matter to me. I hope she wakes uo an uses her byakugan to see what she doesn't wanna see. :fu :)

[TouKen4Life3g]

Ova time! (Break it down, da na na na, da na *Can't touch this*)

*by the way, did you post a review?

Going to work on it now. I finally cool down from last night. I think I know everyone knows here.