Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage Chapter 4-6 Breakdown – An eye for an eye. And a whole lot more eyes…

They say that an eye for an eye makes the world go blind. But in the case of Naruto, I think it would amount to little more than a small inconvenience, considering how many eyes they seem to have going around. If you lose an eye, you just replace it. If you’re not satisfied with having just two, you can implant them all over your body just for giggles. Are you falling short of perfect 20/20 vision? Just steal your brothers eyes and achieve everlasting optical perfection.

Even now, in the new Naruto Gaiden, Doujutsu – or eye techniques – seem to be at the heart of the story yet again. Only this time it appears that we have an entire division of sharingan wielding emo people, ready to bring the world into turmoil once more.

You see kids? This is what happens to your eyes if you look directly into the sun…

Fortunately for said world, they have Naruto to help protect them, and I have to say, despite my curiosity as to how far he’s grown since he had become Hokage, I was certainly not disappointed when the results were shown.

To say Naruto was badass might be considered an understatement.

Too OP, pls nerf!

I have to say, the spread that showed Naruto donning his Chakra cloak was the epitome of awesomeness. Unlike the Naruto we’ve seen in the past, this older, more mature Naruto seems to wield a quiet confidence, showing a complete and somewhat intimidating sense of ease as he exerts full control over his power.

The fact that he can achieve a mix of both Sage Mode with his Kyuubi chakra mode in a mere instant is telling enough, but I think it’s his calm and collected demeanor that stands out as most striking. It’s a far cry from the loud, energetic Naruto we’ve seen in the past, and it truly gives us the sense that this man is, indeed, the seventh Hokage and a force to be reckoned with for anyone who would dare to oppose him.

I think Naruto has finally acquired some fangirls…

Still, despite his more calm, mature and imposing demeanor, the old Naruto is still there, deep down inside, and it shows when he tells Sarada about Sasuke. Naruto’s humorous comparisons between them show that regardless of how much time has passed, he still sees Sasuke as a rival as well as a friend, one that he doesn’t want to lose to whether in reality, or in a story.

I think it’s quite refreshing to see this contrast between Naruto’s more laid back, somewhat childish side, and his more serious, mature side, which he adopts when upholding the mantle of Hokage.

Some things never change…

Still, despite how much Naruto might have changed, despite some parts of him remaining the same, Sasuke, on the other hand, does not seem to have shared his character growth to the same degree.

Where once was a cold, calculating and brooding emo, there is now… a cold, calculating and brooding emo.

To put it plainly it seems Sasuke is still just as much of a lone wolf now as he was in the past, and despite the fact that he seems to have allowed some closeness from both Naruto and Sakura, he still regards anyone else besides them with little trust, and a great deal of cold lethality. This fact is highlighted when his first greeting to his own daughter is under the threat of death, feigned or otherwise.

The sword may not have wounded the flesh, but it has almost certainly pierced the heart.

I said this in the comments and I’ll say it again; for someone who is hailed as a genius prodigy, Sasuke can sure as hell be dense sometimes. I mean, when you have someone appear before you with the Sharingan, hair like yours, clothes like Sakura’s and glasses like Karin’s, surely you should be able to guess at first glance that this might, per chance, be your daughter, or at the very least someone who is in some way connected to or related to you or those you know.

Perhaps Sasuke is still too embroiled in his shaky past to have fully let go of his paranoia, but it certainly does not help that even after discovering Sarada’s true nature, he still treats her coldly despite it.

Sarada rightly responds in kind, and questions Sasuke’s absence throughout her childhood, and although he is not willing to reveal the details to her, we as readers do get a small flashback explaining the situation that has lead to this otherwise less than desirable development.

The promise of cooperation, still held in memory after many years.

What I found interesting about the flashback, was that Sasuke recalled Naruto’s words from their last battle, about wanting the cooperation of all Shinobi everywhere, in order to make the world a better place. Sasuke, in his own way seems to be trying to live up to the promise of those words, by cooperating with Naruto and the other Kage, and doing his own part to help stem the tide of a new evil, one that could be greater than Kaguya.

But to me, it almost feels like Sasuke is following in Itachi’s footprints, to the extent that he’s putting his self-perceived duty as a shinobi above his own welfare and even the welfare of his family. Just like Itachi cut all ties to the Uchiha and isolated himself for the sake of Konoha, even if it meant becoming hated, it seems Sasuke is likewise cutting himself off from his own family for the sake of protecting everyone in his own way, despite the risk of his own daughter hating him as well. Whether this is a result of guilt or a sense of honor, or perhaps a mix of both, it’s hard to tell.

The fox says, NOT TODAY!

Going back to what I said earlier about Naruto’s calm confidence as Hokage, it’s something that carries through even up until chapter 6 of the Gaiden. Unfortunately, it’s in this chapter that both he and Sasuke seem to hit a bit of a snag. Perhaps it was because of the strange nature of their opponent’s abilities, or just their lack of practice since the world had entered a time of peace, but both Naruto and Sasuke got caught off their guard, much to their detriment.

It appears that the enemy’s eye power allows them to move any weapon that they’ve marked at will, using their Mangekyou Sharingan. This ability doesn’t seem to only be limited to moving weapons however, as the leader figure also used the ability to move one of his “brats” – as he calls them – in the path of Sasuke’s fireball jutsu in order to protect himself. Much like with Minato’s Hiraishin seals, it also seems the enemy is able to mark any weapon (or perhaps anything) that they touch, in order to be able to control it with the effects of their eye powers. The result is Naruto being stabbed by Sasuke’s sword, while Sasuke himself was immobilized by other chakra weapons.

So just how bad was their performance? Well, let’s put it this way. You know you’ve stuffed up really, really badly when it ends up being left to Sakura to save the day.

That awkward moment when Sakura ends up saving everyone…

All-in-all, chapter 6 was pretty strait forward, so I won’t rant on in too much detail about how anticlimactic that battle ended up being, lest I don the mantle of Captain Obvious. I would, however, like to discuss the possibilities regarding this threat of a new enemy that has now appeared.

As we saw in the flashback, Sasuke mentions that they might be faced with a threat that’s even greater than Kaguya herself, which in itself is quite hard to believe given just how powerful she was. So I ended up asking myself the question, just what being in existence could possibly pose more of a threat?

Well, I personally think it might have something to do with the Death God itself. When you consider its appearance and how similar it looks to Kaguya, it might be argued that they are both members of the same species, and, perhaps, directly linked to one another in some way. If Kaguya is indeed an incarnation of the Juubi, which was the progenitor to all life in the world, then perhaps the Death God represents the other side of the same coin, as the herald to the end of all living things.

Up until now, we’ve only ever seen the Death God called upon in what could be called a contract of exchange. At the cost of the user’s soul, the Death Gold will seal anything the user desires away for eternity. But it is also the user’s own life and soul that ends up binding the Death God to the physical world for the brief time in which it plays its part in the exchange, which suggests that it is a being that cannot manifest itself physically otherwise. Perhaps this new Akatsuki aims to find a way to permanently bring it into the physical world, to the detriment of all living things.

Still, that’s just a wild guess, and possibly no more possible than any other guess that someone could come up with. What do you guys think?

In any case, that’s all from me for now. I hope you guys enjoyed the breakdown!

Here is the winner of the last Bubbliton Contest!

Tigerpalm – Secret of the Akimichi Clan: For Love not for War

Congrats to Tigerpalm for his funny caption entry.

And here is this week’s Bubbliton!

*Insert Caption Here*

See you in the comments! ^ ^

~ by Tenrai Senshi on June 2, 2015.