While Itachi and Sasuke can both use Susanoo and its a powerful technique in its own right, Itachi's was in possession of two unique, legendary weapons (one of which Orochimaru had been seeking for a long time). The sword of Totsuka that seals anyone it touches into a dream-like genjutsu for eternity and the Yata mirror that can deflect any attack. Ultimate attack and ultimate defence.

 

That's not exactly true. The hardest opponents Itachi faced in that period were a couple of low-level Jinchuuriki, not the Raikage and Danzo, both incredibly skilled Kage level Ninjas.
Plus, there is the fact that itachi wanted to keep Susanoo a secret, while Sasuke had no such qualms.

 

Spoilers below:

Spoiler

514 Kabuto's Plan
Enraged... At an ex-pupil!!

Tsuchikage prepares some Chiriton (Clay release) jutsu in mid-air
Deidara: Things are getting worse and worse! Chiriton all of a sudden? He's gonna even more fired up! Yeah!!

Kabuto watches Deidara as he gets on the turtle

Deidara runs away by getting on a bird
Tsuchikage: I won't let you get away!!
When he releases the Chiriton, Akatsuchi stops him from behind.
Akatsuchi: If you do that, you'll kill even the island tortoise!!
Tsuchikage: Eh! How puzzling! It was so huge I could only see the scenery!!
Deidara: There's an opening!! Yeah!!
He releases a clay bird from his hand and right before Tsuchikage's eyes: Katsu!!
The bird explodes, but the attack was blocked by Akatsuchi's golem
Tsuchikage: Were you trying to get us away from this island
Deidara: Akatsuchi's golem, huh. You're just the same as ever, clinging around Tsuchikage, you hindering bastard!! Yeah!!

Manda is going on a rampage on the island
Kurotsuchi: That damned snake!!
Kabuto is squating down and doing something
Kurotsuchi: It's got to be that guy controlling the snake! He was Orochimaru's subordinate, even though he's just a bean sprout of a bastard!!
Manda tells Kabuto something using telepathy
Kabuto: I see, Naruto's somewhere on this turtle huh. In that case... Where is the entrance?

Naruto is holding his head
Yamato: (Shit, what's happening outside!?) S... Seems like there are an aw... Awful lot of earthquakes today, huh
Aoba: Ye... Yeah!
Naruto: ... Even so, that's way too many! In the first place were earthquakes ever able to reverse the ground and the sky?
Yamato: Uh... It just looks like it because it was shaking so much...
Naruto: Really...? I'm going to go out and take a quick look!!
Yamato: No, no~~ You're in the midst of an important S-rank mission, so finish your mission!
Naruto: But... I'm just going to take a quick look...
Yamato (makes a stern face): What's most important to a ninja is to complete his mission as fast as possible!! And that mission is a single mission, that was assigned to you precisely because you are you!! It is a mission only you can do!! That is why you were tasked with it... Do you understand! Naruto!
Naruto: ....
The armadillo behind them stretches out
Aoba: (As expected, even Naruto has begun to notice the abnormalities... We tricked him that this was a S-rank mission but what he is doing is just checking whether animals have a penis. Naruto isn't an idiot... He must already have figured it out...)
Naruto: Yeah! I got it! I'll focus on my mission!!
Aoba: (Good! For the time being everything is going well! It's great he's an idiot!!)

Kurotsuchi does some seals
Kabuto notices Kurotsuchi
Kurotsuchi: (Too slow!!) Youton: Sekkaikori no Jutsu (TN: melting release: hardening quicklime); he spits quicklime out of his mouth
Kabuto evades the attack: You've appeared, huh (I wonder if Aoba is here too...)
Just then, Yamato, Motoi, Aoba arrive
Kurotsuchi: Don't just come out here so nonchalantly! I can take care of him alone!! (as he is saying this...)
Aoba: You really are Tsuchikage's granddaughter...
Kabuto: Excellent... Can I have you lead me to where Naruto is?
Yamato: A snake... That voice... You couldn't be...
Kabuto removes his hood: We meet again, Yamato
Kurotsuchi: I'll send a flow over there!!Get him!! (expanding his mouth) Suiton: Mizu Rappa (water trumpet)
Aoba: That's great!
Kabuto evades
Aoba: It's no good! He read your moves!!
Kurotsuchi: (while saying "get him!")... I got him!
Yamato: This is...
Kabuto: I see
Kuro: (My Sekkaikori no Jutsu is instant cement! By spilling some water around, I expand my range... And when it reacts with water, it solidifies!!) With this, you can't move any more!!
Yamato: Motoi-san, Aoba, don't step on this water!
Cement encases Yamato's body (TN: I don't know if Ohana meant Kabuto...)
Kuro: I have another plan within this plan!
Aoba: Alright! Once he gets solidified, he's mine! I'll get intel out of him!
Deidara and Tsuchikage and flying towards the sky, they are so fast Akatsuchi is lagging a little
Deidara (You've gotten even faster than when you were in your prime, haven't you, gramps)
tsuchikage: You always fought from a long distance! I don't like that!!
Deidara: Shut up! (I'll get him with C4!! yeah!)

Trees come out of Yamato's hand, Aoba rides on those trees towards where Kabuto is, solidified
Aoba: Kabuto... You sure have fallen... Becoming even more and more like Orochimaru
Kabuto: Before worrying about me, you should worry about falling from there
Yamato: Aoba, focus!
Aoba is about to reach Kabuto but Kabuto sheds his skin and becomes a snake. It slithers along Yamato's tree and nears Yamato. Aoba falls into the cement
Yamato: He shedded! Is this it!?
Yamato sends out blocks of wood from his waist, and sends Motoi flying away on them
Yamato: Motoi-san, stay away!!
Kabuto bites Yamato...
Kabuto: Kurotsuchi, I knew how your jutsu worked, so I was able to make you let down your guard
Aoba: !!?
Motoi: Yamato!!
Kuro: Shit!!
Yamato runs away

Tsuchikage: You're pretty good for flying up this high arent you!!
Deidara: Don't look down on me, gramps!! Your Chiroton and my Bakuton (exploding release), which of them is Art...?
From behind Deidara, the Edo Tensei coffins appear
Deidar: !!? What the hell? I was just at the best part!! Yeah!!
The coffin shuts and disappears.
Yamato (TN: I think Ohana meant Kabuto) takes refuge in Manda's nostrol. Manda disappears.

Tsuchikage returns
Tsuchikage: Deidara got away... How about you guys?
Motoi: Yamato, the one who used Mokuton and was keeping an eye on the Kyuubi, got captured...
Aoba: Our guy got away too!! Help me out of this situation!! I'll go right after him!! Where did Kabuto go!?
Motoi: I cant sense the enemy any more... I don't know which way he went either. It's no use.
Tsuchikage: They couldn't get as far as the Kyuubi and Hachibi huh... I don't know about that Mokuton user who probably stood out because he could be used as a hostage for interrogation...
Tsuchikage gets Aoba out of the cement
Tsuchikage: The problem now is that intel could get into their hands from that Yamato!
Aoba: Yamato-san isnt someone you can get intel out of that easily!!
Tsuchikage: That's not what I'm saying. If he's up against Madara, then he has really strong eye jutsu... He won't be able to do anything if he has those eye jutsu used against him

Yamato is tied up and falls to the ground
Yamato: Kuh!
Madara: You've brought me quite a different present, hmm?
Kabuto: That is certainly true... But this guy was the one watching over the Kyuubi and is in possession of some top-secret information. Even better, with this guy, we can make those Zetsus even stronger... Rather than doing the impossible, the minute we caught this guy, I was choosing the method that would be 4 times more efficient. For you guys, that is.
Zetsu: ...

Madara's right eye is the Sharingan; left eye is the Rinnegan
Madara: In that case, hurry up. This left eye is craving war

Nagato's Rinnegan is with Madara...!!

Naruto is on break next week because Kishimoto's doing some data collection/research.

Jon: There is a fucking spoiler tag, use it.

 

Chiriton shoul be Jinton.

Fucking translators not knowing any fucking Japanese. :/

 

As Gaara is the weakest of the Jinchuuriki, even low level Jinchuuriki are no push over. Me personally I still believe Itachi to be one of the most powerful shinobi we have seen. Maybe not quite in the Jiriaya, Minato, Nagato class but right near of the top of the class below them.

 

Up on Mangastream. This chapter was pretty cool too. A bit dissappointed that we didn't get to see the TsuchiKage's Jutsu.

Also, One of the frames of Naruto looking clueless reminded me of Pre-timeskip Naruto, which is allways an excellent thing for me. So, in remembrance (sorta), Imma make a very wild, improbable prediction. This is me hoping Naruto will come up with one of those unpredictable moments.

I predict that Naruto ( His Kage Bunshin, mebbe of a special kind) has now successfully infiltrated Madara Uchiha's base.

My reasons :

1)The three that arrived on the scene were pretty much flailing around and doing nothing. Tenzo would've atleast captured Kabuto with a wood element jutsu, not just let Aoba approach him.

2)Atleast one of the three would've stayed with Naruto, in case someone got to him.

Now I know that the combo-breaker/Anti-theory for the above is that one of them recognised the TsuchiKage's Grand daughter, but I'm hoping some excuse will come up. >_>

Here's hoping Naruto pulled something like that. >_>

 

http://mangastream.com/read/naruto/40727763/1

It's not bad.

@Jon: I did, but it didn't seem to work so I went for huge ass text

 

Unfortunately, Tenzou used a wood element technique, which Naruto can't do. Still, I'm with you on the idea that Naruto's stupidity shouldn't be used as a plot device. Surely he has something cooking.

 

He did? Damn. Musta missed it. My bad. >_>

 

I call bullshit. Not because it's a bullshit idea (besides the wood-element thing) although it does seem a little stretched. But because Kishimoto would never allow Naruto to become more than an idiot. He doesn't seem to get that Naruto is ultra-awesome right now, and giving him stupid moments is no longer funny.

But I guess that a stupid Naruto is needed for the plot, for a Naruto with half a brain would've killed Madara long ago.

 

So is the Yonbi the Tsuchikage's son/son-in-law, since the granddaughter can use Lava jutsu?

 

Yeah, the scenes with Yamato, Aoba and Naruto, in the last 2 chapters in particular, were really irritating. It looked like their pathetic attempts at hiding the situation from Naruto and his exaggerated stupidity were put in as comic relief (as usual) but I didn't find it the least bit funny.

I'll go with what Howdy said a couple of posts ago. Naruto's stupidity cannot be a plot device any longer. And also, if Naruto really were to continue being such a complete dunce, he can't really become Hokage can he? No one in that Hokage-council would vote for him.

 

No one in the council would vote for him? Yeah, that would make no sense.

But since when has this manga made sense?

I'm calling Naruto as first idiot Hokage.

 

I'll admit, I lol'd at Deidara's reaction to getting recalled.

'What the hell? It was just getting good!'

 

I don't know guys, I feel like we have been cockblocked from the one decent fight that could have happened, Naruto being dumb as a rock was a bit too disappointing and I didn't like Kabuto's appearance as Orochimaru's and Voldemorts lovechild at all.

And Yamato gets captured? What, now that Naruto can control the Kyuubi, it's okay to discard him?

The chapter wasn't that bad, but I can't see anything good in it.

 

Same old, same old, the future Hokage is retarded beyond what's reasonable- even for comic relief. I guess Kishimoto has yet to realise that, even for the age group this is targeted at, persistent exaggerated stupidity isn't nearly as funny as it was a generation ago.

I'd suspected for a bit that the Naruto in the cave was a clone and he'd already left but I fear that I'll be left disappointed keeping up that line of thinking.

What's really surprised me is the complete lack of reaction to flying Iwa ninja- I guess they're more common than I realise. You'd think such a tactical advantage would be coveted and aggressively pursued by other villages and been mentioned somewhere in the manga prior to the last two chapters. Meh

 

Hey, at least Kabuto wasn't upgraded to this ultra-awesome Shinobi who needs a couple of Kage-level Ninja to defeat. One Kage level or a few good Jounin can take him down it seems.

I was very disappointed, Naruto (or even Tsuchikage) VS Deidara or Kabuto could be awesome. We haven't a (good) fight scene since forever.

 

Naruto sucks, plain and simple!
The manga just became too epic, too flashy and lost its connection to the original concept of a ninja-world.

Remember the start of the manga ?
i.e Kakashi vs. Zabuza or the Sand-invasion (Baki vs. Hayate)
That's what the shinobi-world should look like. Silent, efficient, serious, dangerous and somewhat dirty.
That's what caught my interest, it was new, fascinating and you wanted to see how the main character (an innocent, funny, bit dumb kid) would deal with killing, fighting for your survival or maybe even espionage.

What do we get?

"Sasuke please come back"
"No, I am an avenger!"
"Then we shall die together!"

or

The whole Madara thing, 100.000 Zetsus and sage shit, who wants that ?
Remember, Naruto is still 16 maybe 17.
He will probably die some super heroic death by the age of 18 or he will be the mightiest being in the universe (Goku Uzumaki) doing paperwork in his hokage-office.

Just think about it.
Kakashi was a genius, genin by the age of 5, his whole life part of the elite and one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha. (during part 1.)
Naruto was the "deadlast" of his generation and roughly 3 years later, he's somekind of superman, because of some deus ex machina.
catch my drift???



I'm sorry for the rant, but I just read the old manga chapters of naruto (pre-timeskip) and was actually enjoying myself.
The characters were likeable (even Sasuke), the skills reasonable and Naruto showed real talent for his age and circumstances.
Then I saw the latest chapter ... congratulation, it's a boy...:facepalm
http://mangastream.com/read/naruto/40727763/6


It could be like this!!!

 

This...is not entirely correct.

While I agree that the quality and the charm of the manga has gone down, it doesn't as you call it, 'sucks'. For me, personally, its leagues better than the weird stuff that comes up in manga like Bleach ( My apologies to bleach fans, but frankly, its a mess).

And coming to your main point... Bro, Naruto (the series) was rarely, if ever, as you put it "Silent, efficient, serious, dangerous and somewhat dirty." Dangerous and definitely dirty. Silent, serious, effecient? Hardly.

Take your own examples :
Kakashi Vs Zabuza was almost a standing western duel towards the end.
I call it Extremely Flashy.
In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, but as you went higher up in the Ninja ranks, it seems to be more and more flashy. Atleast the fights we are shown. We can of course assume that all the other fights happen silently and all ninja-like, but I won't do so.

And as for Kakshi being a child Genius and all, I choose to believe its a plateau he reached at the beginning of the series. In fact, you'll actually see that even Kakashi has grown in strength as the series progressed. And I'm not talking about the Sharingan.

I don't consider Naruto's growth Dues-ex-machina. At all.

So yeah, my point is that for all the whining the fans do, Naruto still remains a solid series for a reason.

 

Ehhh, no. Naruto is still pretty bad. It's not complete shit (like it was during the Dark Ages that were the Sasuke arc), but it's still bad. I'd say Bleach and Naruto are on about the same level. Naruto has better storytelling, if barely, but Bleach is pretty much all about the cool shit, storytelling be damned.