I am kind of disappointed though, that Sakumo wasn't brought back. Would have loved to see the White Fang in action as well.

 

You say that like Nagato was a pushover. Nagato also singlehandly destoryed the leaf village something Hanzou couldn't with a village full of ninja. Aside from Naruto, Itachi, and Jiraiya no one has even been in Nagato's league. I include Itachi because it has been said that he was all but invincible with Susanoo. Jiaiya only lost because he didn't know about the six paths.

And yes Minato most likely but im going with people alive during the time of the series.

 

I know I'm almost sure to be disappointed, but I can't help but hope that Hanzou vs. Mifune has been rattling around in Kishimoto's brain for a while now.

First off, Hanzou is the first ninja in the whole series I think to bust out the kusarigama - a traditional ninja weapon. Was Kishimoto saving it for him? It's also a weapon meant to be used to great effect against samurai, so I can't help but hope that this is going to be a battle that lasts at least a few chapters.

My prediction for the fight itself is that Hanzou takes the upper hand but is eventually defeated after Mifune gets reinforcements. However, if one or more of the Kage/leaders of the army are going to die, I would have to say that Mifune is possibly the most expendable of the bunch.

Also, Kakuzu is always awesome so I look forward to reading the next few chapters.

 

First off, was it ever officially stated that Ninja > Samurai ? Or are we just assuming things, like we assumed Naruto!Ninjas are like IRL Myth Ninja? I don't remember reading a frame where it was proved Ninja pwn the samurai. The only place I've read that is fanon.

The fact that Iron country stayed neutral and the tone in whichc the original explanantion was given ( That nobody messes with them) shows that they're no pushovers, in fact it shows they might have some moves specifically against Ninja. It also points that maybe Mifune/Previous leaders might have actually faced opponents of Jiraiya/Tsunade/Orochimaru caliber. And won.

So, Yes, I expect Mifune to win. >_>

If only because of the whole good guys beat the bad guys theme Kishimoto has going on currently.

On the other hand this particular fight might be where we see the first major character death like Howdy said.

 

Chapter not up, but from spoilers..

Spoiler

Mifune beats Hanzou.

 

This was lame.

I guess Kishimoto was trying to imply that Hanzou became weaker as he became more jaded, but I expected more from him here. Mifune didn't disappoint though. You'd have to be a badass to lead the only nation of samurai for so long.

 

Very disappointing.

 

Disappointing, but expected. >_>

 

Te fight isn't over yet, but yeah, even I was dissapointed by Hanzou.

 

@ Everyone upset:

Why? We got the general idea of how Hanzo fights: with lethal poisons and paralytic gasses to incapacitate his opponents and other such dickish moves. The only counter is to know how to cure the those poisons and the ability to shut down his ninjutsu. And even then, he still seems to be a monster at close-quarters. Except as a general of a samurai nation, Mifune would be better at that sort of thing. And with his summon out of play while Mifune stopped him from doing ninjutsu, he was down to said close-combat skills. Which wasn't enough. *shrugs*

On other notes: Chiyo. Both funny and a total dick.

 

Three words. It was boring.

 

Because if Mifune can shut down a character as purportedly powerful simply by preventing him from using hand seals then it would logically follow that Mifune can beat 99.9% of all ninja simply for this reason.

Also,

Hanzou: Then why aren't you dead?

Chiyo: Because you never kill anyone you senile old bastard!

Mifune: What she said.

Hanzou: Oh. Right.

 

Face it, guys, a lot of the high tier ninja are high tier because of their ninjutsu's, and the truth is that even the best of them need at least one handseal to get the job done.

For the ones like the Jinchuriki who can generate shrouds, or the Uchiha with the art of Sharingan, he'd meet his match since his speed wouldn't mean anything.

 

... And? Iajutsu is practically the anti-ninjutsu style. Anyone who's a samurai or training hard to kill a ninja specializing in ninjutsu would go down that route. Considering that Mifune is the leader of a military of people who do this sort of thing, it's not to be surprising he could defeat hundreds of ninja who are slower at forming handseals than he is at taking his sword out and cutting them in half. Look back to Wave arc. Zabuza and Kakashi spent time making dozens of seals for the water dragon. Stuff like that is a flaw that the style is designed to take advantage of. If anything, its fridge brilliance on Kishimoto's part for incorporating it.

True. Hanzo needs to kill people and authenticate his kills. Then he wouldn't have had these problems.

 

Hanzo the Salamander = Hattori Hanzo? Anyone? Anyone? It fits.

 

What I wanted: Hanzo trolling Mifune.

What I expected: Fairly even fight. Kishimoto showcasing some samurai skills and making them somewhat even with ninja.

What I got: Mifune trolling Hanzo.

There is rage.

 

RAGE

So much rage

Fuck this manga. Can Naruto come already?

 

Not really. Incredible speed can outran the Sharingan. If you can see something but your body can't move fast enough to block it, then it's little more than useless.

 

My mistake. I mis-spoke in that sentence, using Sharingan as a whole when I was thinking of the next stage and Tsukiyomi(sp?) in particular.

 

I'm not angry like a lot of you guys are- the way it was presented makes sense, after all- but I am pretty disappointed.

I wanted a good fight that lasted a few chapters. That chapter was at least 50% flashback. How lame.