Mostly? Yes.

My hope right now is that Pain does a sort of ideological rant for Naruto, and that Naruto finally "matures" in the sense that he understands that not all ninja believe in his own "will of fire" bullshit.

If Sasuke shows up, then frankly, I hope that Pain breaks his neck.

But he won't, and he won't.

Pain has accomplished more than all of the other villains in this story combined. There's not reason to doubt him or discredit him. He's the real deal.

If Sasuke plays any kind of important role in this arc I'll abandon this manga altogether.

And just to throw this out there: Exploding clone is pretty pathetic in canon. Itachi uses it once, but it doesn't seem to be that great a skill. In other words, it's wastful and lame.

My only hope is that Pain dies here, that Nagato becomes a real threat and lies low for a bit, and that Naruto matures into a realistic Hokage candidate. He's got the power, but I don't think he's got the diplomacy necessary.... yet.

 

I generally agree that Bunshin Daibakuha is a wasteful jutsu...for anyone except Naruto or another jinchuuriki with a similar bottomless well of chakra. Why give a damn about waste when there's no limit to what you can pull up for the next go? The jutsu has a fair bit of destructive potential, but can only shine when used in massed quantities, which normal ninja can't do. Naruto can, or could if he knew the technique. Obviously, it isn't worth the cost for someone who can only make a few Kage Bunshin without risking severe chakra depletion.

 

But wouldn't the more clones you have the weaker the explosion. Each clone has less chakra so I would guess with a 100 clones it would be similar to 100 firecrackers going off. Annoying but not lethal.

 

When did logic ever count in Naruto?
Karawimi or the Henge are used quite inconsequent and don't really seem to have limits besides the 'now-I-need-(...add name...)-to-pull-this-and-that-off' limit.
*shrug*
It would probably be too cool of a jutsu to pull off...
Speech of doom, here we come X.X

 

Get ready to bust out the tissues then, because from what I've seen of Pain's character and history, this guy can monologue like nobody's business.

He even has the material all ready and set to go off. He'll start with describing his painful childhood for about two chapters, angst over Yahiko's death and fap to Konan for three chapters, and finally go all emo about how he'll bring peace to the world by making everyone feel his pain and shit for about four chapters. Until at last, Kishimoto finally stretches out what could have been a concise but satisfying battle into an emo angst fest, which will naturally have the fangirls squealing about Pain's suffering......

Oh, and then Sasuke will appear and save the day by utilizing the Sharingan's ability to manifest any power according to its user's will and the demands of the situation.

God damn it......

 

Welcome to Naruto. Every villain and most characters since part one has had some kind of sob story. Except Gai, he's awesome. I personally expect an ideological talk between Naruto and Pain next chapter instead of them discussing their oh so horrible pasts.

And I very much doubt that Sasuke will show up during Naruto and Pain's fight, as Madara's likely to be incredibly pissed after being hachibirolled.

 

God, what a fail chapter.

 

Nagato has awesome robot legs.

 

I actually really liked it.

Not the gimpy Nagato part, but Pain actually made some sense to me.

I'm confused though. Who started Akatsuki now? Nagato says that he did it and obviously has been working with his own goals in mind, but Itachi stated that Madara did it and Madara is obviously not after the same thing that Nagato is, unless of course he plans to use Nagato's weapon offensively.

Very strange.

But at least the people who thought that Nagato/Pain had a legitimate god complex should be silenced by this. I've said all along that it was an act meant to emphasize the futility of standing in Pain's way and not a psychological issue, and this pretty much clears that up.

 

At least we know some ninjas in this manga utilize subterfuge and misinformation.

For speculations sake I would say Madara hinted and prodded for Pain to create Akatsuki. Madara hasn't been any kind of force for eighty years and to suddenly create an organisation and hunt tailed beasts for the sake of global domination or 'peace' seems a little outside his MO.

 

Yeah, as far as long monologues in the middle of a battle go, this one was pretty damn good.

 

And at least Naruto is sort of incapacitated, rather than them randomly stopping for a chat.

 

Well, my theory is this. Madara found Nagato, who was starting Akatsuki at the time, wooped his punk ass and started telling Pain what to do.

IMO, Kishimoto has ubered both the Sharingan and Sasuke. VotE should've ended with Sasuke's death, promise to the bitch be damned.

Also, there is no way in HELL that Naruto couldn't have wrecked some serious shit after getting back from a 2 1/2 year one-on-one training trip with Jiraiya. Sasuke couldn't EVER beat Itachi in a fight, I don't give a damn what Kishimoto says. Disease or not, Itachi is in the top 5 ninja to ever come out of Konoha, and he had more potential in his little finger than Sasuke ever will.

With how much Sasuke fanboying is going around, I wouldn't be surprised if he came back, was cleared of all charges and once again has the entire female population of Konoha throwing themselves at him.

That said, with the most recent chapter, Akatsuki!Naruto, anyone? After all, he seemed to at least agree with what Pain was saying...

 

Pg 08

Wow Konoha really was wiped out

 

I just can't find it in myself to care about Sasuke or Madara anymore. They're too stale for my tastes.

Now that Nagato has lost his potential for final villain though, I'm wondering who's going to step up to the plate. I really hope it isn't the Uchiha. Really.

This reminds me that I need to get back to writing.

 

Maybe Howdy can answer this one as I'm a little confused...

Is Nagato transmitting purely spiritual energy through those receivers to Pain, or is he transmitting chakra?

Just seems Nagato isn't exactly the outdoors type.

 

Better question, how the fuck is Nagato in Konoha. Did he somehow secretly carry all that equipment to the tallest tower in Konoha. A tower or cough-Hokage mountain cough that miraculously didn't blow up along with the rest of the village. Also that makes no sense seeing as the Pein paths ran all the way to Konoha.

Did some guy with a wheelbarrow follow the Peins with Nagato?

Also why the hell hasn't Tsunade used her rebirth technique. She could be healing a lot more people, or actually doing something worthwhile.

 

I'd probably go ahead and say that Nagato founded Akatsuki, but I'm heavily biased. I could see it being a co-effort though.

While his monologue was better than what I was expecting, I'm still nerd raging about the fact that only the non-Uchiha plot related villain looks to be out of the game. Hell, I'll even take Kabuto over those two.

And I still think it would have been better if Nagato was crippled IN the tower of Ame, not in the bloody Konoha wilderness...

 

Uh, I'm pretty sure that contraption Nagato was strapped into had legs on it, and he can probably control its movements with chakra and whatnot. As for Madara founding Akatsuki, Pain was probably just lying. It's not like he can just come out and say: "Oh by the way, Uchiha Madara, the guy who fought the Shodaime, and who you believe has been dead for decades, is actually immortal and plotting the destruction of Konoha..."

As for the pre-ultimate showdown rant, this one was actually not bad, as long as they don't get into some stupid philosophical debate over the nature of peace.

I was not pleased with Emaciated!Nagato though. Seriously, is it too much work to feed yourself? I suspect that Nagato himself doesn't actually have a lot of chakra, but is rather using the chakra networks of the bodies under his control, kinda like Sasori's human puppets.

 

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW! D: