Which obstacles? You mean enduring the long exposition backstory that ruined Minato's character? Or was that sarcasm that went over my head?

 

I agree on the Gai points. It's interesting to see that he's not completely deluded into thinking that his odd "youth" stuff isn't bizarre in its own way.

Makes me like his character even more.

Also, I loved Bee's expression when he came out of the waterfall at the end. Kisame is so screwed.

 

Well we know what one of the Kyuubi's powers is, sensing darkness. Kind already knew that from when the Kyuubi met with Sasuke in Naruto's mind.

 

Alright, I guess I was just confused because we don't generally see Shunshin used in a fight, even though presumably just about every upper level ninja can do it (or maybe they do and I didn't notice?), and the way Bee's statement was phrased along with the words yellow flash immediately made me think it was something like Hiraishin. You're right though, I agree that it would be rather silly for Naruto to learn something like that without explanation. On that note though, I don't remember Kishi ever showing Naruto use the Shunshin either.

 

According to canon Shunshin is a "high-speed movement technique, allowing a ninja to move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed". So I guess Naruto is just that fast or he did it instinctively which would be improbable but possible.

 

He's used it many times, but never in combat. Any time he's appeared out of nowhere, most likely with a small cloud of smoke around him, is him using shunshin. When Tenzou calls Naruto, Sai, and Sakura out of the bushes on the Tenchi Bridge is one such instance.

Combat users include Sasuke, Minato, and now Naruto.

Seems Rikudou Mode will allow Naruto to instantly detect Madara if he tries any space/time nonsense, which is a big bonus.

I'm interested to see what limitations Rikudou Mode will have. So far it seems like none, given that unlike raw Kyuubi chakra it does no harm to Naruto and Naruto controls the chakra solely without Kyuubi having any influence over it.

 

Well first he needed to persuade Killer Bee into helping him, then he fought his darkself and in the end he fought with Fox (never mind he won only because his mother helped him), so you have three obstacles against none in Sasuke case.

 

Reading this while watching the Daily Show, I was like wtf Glenn Beck strikes again!

I agree that the 'Kyuubi form' looks kinda weird, but... I actually like it. I'm also interested in seeing the limits of the Rikudou mode, given that it can't actually bring him to the level of the Rikudou Sennin. So far, though, it's an awesome powerup. I'm liking the manga after a long time, actually :awesome

 

True Howdy but IIRC, in Kakashi Gaiden even Rin refers to Minato's technique as 'Sensei's shunshin'. It looked to me like fast-movement techniques were all generally called shunshin. Also from what Bee said, even though he inferred correctly that it was a shunshin-attack-combo, all he actually saw was a yellow flash. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Somehow, I always thought that Naruto already knew all he needed to know about the Hiraishin - possible learned of it from Jiraiya. But he didn't use it because he didn't have the control to do it without messing with the Kyuubi's chakra or something. Not sure if that's fanon talking through me, though.

Edit:

It does make more sense, I guess, that its just a normal shunshin at extremely high speed. Damn. For a while there I was so excited...

 

It isn't Hiraishin, plain and simple.

First off, if he really did a space/time teleportation, then how'd he get stuck in the wall? Instant teleportation implies no momentum. Secondly, if he can teleport then why not simply space/time himself out of the wall?

And when Rin commented on Minato's shunshin, he hadn't used Hiraishin yet. He shunshined to save Kakashi and at that point planted the Hiraishin death tag on the Iwa ninja.

Just to clear it up, shunshin = teleportation technique, but it's completely different from the space/time jutsu of Minato and Madara.

 

Yeah, I got that one wrong; have to agree with you there. It was still awesome, though.

 

Awesome chapter. Gai is cool. Sage/Nine-tails Mode is incredible.

 

Naruto has just become God. A clumsy one, but still. :awesome

 

I still hold a glimer of hope it is Hirashin, due to the reference made by Tenzou, "He's not at the fourths level just yet" hopefully in reference to him using Hirashin. And we know Hirashin isn't soley used with the daggers with the special seal as per the previous few issues in Minato's fight agains the Kyuubi, the upper levels didn't use the seals and I think in the combo he did, only one of them was using the seal.

So hopefully, the three blade Kunai with the seal is to help control Hirashin. Seeing as Naruto just got the ability to use the Kyuubi chakra without it harming him, he might not fully be used to it, he Hirashin's to hit Kisame and he lands to hard on the ground, thus his foot being in a hole.

Also at this point, I do not see Sasuke beating Naruto without taking his brothers eyes, which we know is happening. Even at that point, it will be a stretch for Naruto to somehow beat that stupid bone monster arrow shooting thing that can't miss and caused Danzo to sacrifice how many Sharingan's to stop it killing him?

 

This new mode Naruto has is pretty nice, although I have a few questions about it:

1) Is this source finite? The manga depicted a great big white ball floating in the middle of four gate-like structures, with Naruto pulling from it at will. Somehow, that invokes a sense of finite-ness to me, because now it lacks that sense of an organic being powering self-regeneration of chakra. I can totally picture Naruto going, "Oh, shit!" when he tries to reach for more Kyuubi-chakra thirty years down the road and not having anymore to reach for.

2) Now that the Kyuubi's influence is separated, does that mean there'll be no more awesome fox-shroud and massive, self-aware arms? I don't know if this is the fanon in me talking, but whenever Naruto was in Kyuubi-mode before, it seemed like he was only half-driving - Naruto doing basic movements and taijutsu, as well as conscious things like the Rasengan, but the Kyuubi seemed to handle things like the fox-shroud and the arms that reached out and crushed things, like an automatic offense/defense.

Is that now gone? =/

 

This chapter made me want to start paying more attention than I have been recently. It instilled a little more humanity into the characters, with Naruto's super powers tempered by his clumsiness, or Gai's inner thoughts. Of course, this is just the high point of interest until Sasuke makes another appearance. Then I'm just going to lose nearly all interest all over again. Sigh...

 

Oh, you are right. Soooo much better and deserved than Sasuke. I can see the difference, asking a stereotyical bad rapper, having a two minute fight with no suspense or anything real at stake and having this slide-show in his head, which included fighting the fox who could be easier caught and restrained than a level 3 pokemon...

Just because we spend more time with Naruto doing nothing to gain his powers doesn't mean his are more deserved. If anything I liked Sasuke's more, at least he just got his powers and we didn't have to spend weeks going through shit to get to them.

 

Gai was the only bright spot in this chapter, the rest of it read like a bad Super!Naruto fic.

 

First he had Kyuubi mode, then he just recently got Sage mode, and now this, though? :/