It was before. If I'm remembering my ages correctly, Hinata was 4 years old when Kumo tried to abduct her, Sasuke was 7 when Itachi massacred the Uchiha. That's three whole years between the two, though it would make for an interesting situation if the war was still going on when the Uchiha started their revolt.

 

Hinata was 3.

Sasuke was 8.

 

Out by a year on both counts, and that means there are five years between the Kumo incident and the Uchiha massacre.

 

On the topic of Kumo's tendency towards kidnapping, for some reason I am immediately reminded of North Korea. Kumo does the occasional blatantly hostile act, but never pushes things so far that Konoha would declare war over it. Great Ninja Wars are incredibly devastating to everyone involved, even the side that ultimately wins; if Konoha was willing to wipe out the entire Uchiha clan to prevent a coup that would spawn another war, it makes sense that they would ignore a couple failed kidnappings and/or sacrifice one of thier own. Sarutobi wanted peace, even if it meant making some sacrifices.

On the topic of the chapter itself, it was a decent bit of fluff, and at least seems to have answered the question of what happened to Kushina; she died helping Minato make the seal. That might also help justify the fact that she could stop the Kyuubi so easily; Minato did not seem to have much trouble stopping the Fox when he showed up, so if the seal is made of mixture of Kushina and Minato's chakra it makes sense that she could do the same thing.

 

If Kumo really didn't want to start a war, they wouldn't have even risked it by capturing Hinata/Kushina. Considering they attempted kidnapping two times, it either means they are confident that Konoha won't retaliate, or they want a war.

If it's the first, then Konoha probably should have done something to prove their serious, or they will get labeled as pushovers. I agree they definitely shouldn't have sent a Hyuuga body, and it made them look weak, but it was needed for the plot :/

Anyway, about the chapter, did anyone else ever hear the story about the kid who got kidnapped and dropped bread crumbs so people could follow his/her trail? I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it, and if thats the case I wish Kishi would have tried to be a bit more original with Kushina's rescue. Looking forward to the next chapter

 

As stated above, I think it is the first; Kumo knows its actions are provocative, but believes that Konoha is not going to start a catastrophic war over a couple kidnappings. As a couple people also mentioned up-thread, Kumo might well have been in a state of war with Konoha at the time they attempted to grab Kushina, which rather negates any diplomatic concerns.

As for the whole Hyuuga issue, the only way I can really make sense of that entire scenario is if the Kumo ambassador's attempt to kidnap Hinata was not actually sanctioned by Kumo, and he was just doing something on his own. Since the Raikage did not know about the attempted kidnapping, he assumed that it was lie made up by Konoha to try and get away with murdering an ambassador. Going off the way the situation was presented in the manga, the only witnesses were the killer and his three-year-old daughter, which is hardly convincing. The Raikage does strike me as the sort person who, if he genuinely believed one of his people had been killed, would not hesitate to start a war over it if there were not some concessions.

 

Hansel and Gretel, IIRC. That's the one with the house made of candy and all that.

And I never really believed that the kidnapping was not authorized. It seems a lot more likely that Kumo sent him to Konoha with those instructions, especially if they thought that Sarutobi would be willing to actually absolve them of blame even if they were caught - win-win for them, right?

 

/me reads last page of new chapter.

wat.

 

Yeah, I REALLY hate that revelation. That was something that made Naruto unique, imo, and now Kishimoto threw it into the toilet.

 

Spoiler

Wait, if Kushina was the last Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi how the hell did she contribute chakra to the sealing? Last I checked the jinchuuriki had to die for the bijuu to be released.

 

yeah.... but i still what to know how Naruto is related to the Rikudo Sennin....

 

Retcon coming up. :awesome

 

What.

Did anyone actually see that coming?

 

...... At least it explains how the hell Kyuubi knows Kushina.

And wasn't Whirlpool destroyed by Kyuubi, or is that just fanfiction? If it wasn't, that could explain the sealing of Kyuubi, as well as Kushina's special Chakra.

Remember back to Gaara, when Shukaku was sealed, he was still able to manipulate sand, the same thing might have happened to Kushina, changing her chakra.

But, that's just my guess.

 

I do not like this. At all. What the fuck.

 

Fuck Kishi, the last chapters were bad but this is horrible. Kyuubi is weak as shit, Naruto used rasengan+kagebunshin combo again, kushina being the jinchuriki is stupid and makes no sense and the kyuubi looked like a total bitch against Naruto. It did nothing when naruto wailed on him.

That was the most powerful being alive? Even at half its chakra and being magically restrained by Kushina, that was all it could do?

lame and stupid

 

He still had to die for the Ichibi to be removed though, and as far as I'm aware, nobody in Konoha was known to have the ability to revive the dead at the point necessary for Kushina to die/be revived. The only people known to have/had the ability are the Rikudo Sennin, Pein, Orochimaru and Chiyo. None of those would be willing to use the jutsu and none of the famous Konoha ninja have the potential, barring Tsunade who we know cannot.

 

Did Kishi forget about Kyuubi's chakra extensions? He could have just lengthened his tails to spear or capture Naruto when he was talking to Kushina. As shown in the Naruto/ Sasuke fight, they can move on their own.

---------- Post automerged at 04:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:19 PM ----------

The special Chakra originally might have been Kyuubi. The special Chakra she is using now might be the affect of Kyuubi being released from her body.

She said it herself, she can finally see Minato now, implying that she isn't fully dead yet, thus giving her the possible Chakra change.

 

Am I the only one who liked this chapter?

Naruto using Rasengan+ clones + sage mode was lame, but overall the chapter was great.

Or were you expecting Naruto to loose?

PS
As far as I understand, this fight was more like - who has a stronger will, rather than the who is more powerful. So why are you complaining?

 

As for the (most likely) power up, I think it is a Sage Mode booster, allowing him to collect Nature Chakra while fighting without clones.

Thoughts?