^ That. You're right, I don't imagine Sasuke being amazingly difficult to teach. His foundation was more than solid. He went to sound with Lee's speed and taijutsu, chidori, good chakra control, a good mind, a handful of fire ninjutsu and eyes that sees through techniques and copies them.

 

Remember as well that Minato couldn't have been even half Jiraiya's age (at the time of his death, when he was still arguably the strongest ninja in the world) when he died, and that Jiraiya only learned to harness sage chakra after the Sannin stopped working together. If Minato had been given more time I suspect he would have become the strongest in the world in earnest, especially once he perfected the elemental-rasengan.

 

That's something I wanted to bring up at some point actually. What the fuck is with that? Naruto after the time skip was comparatively weak after being trained by A SANNIN for THREE YEARS. I mean, what DID he learn? I understand that he must have become a more well rounded shinobi and all that, less rough around the edges, but come on! He was still useless in genjutsu, besides actually knowing what it was, had no new Ninjutsu (I do NOT consider Odama Rasengan and Clone tricks new ninjutsu) and only had better taijutsu, but still only because of clones. Seriously, what the fuck?
After graduating from the Academy and being the single worst shinobi the Village had to offer, he spent, a few months maybe? and under strenuous missions and mostly inadequate training reached Sasuke's level. Then after three years of exclusive training from arguably the strongest Ninja alive and he has learned virtually nothing new?
The guy needs stress to learn. You'd think that they'd leave him in the Village since he's shown that he has an aptitude for learning under pressure and in dangerous conditions, but NOOOOO. They had to keep him the same (comparatively) useless idiot in a taller body.

/rant.
I hope this isn't one of those cliche rants all newbies make.

 

All the training in the world wouldn't matter if he stayed dumber than a sack of bricks.

Essentially, his training was composed of a couple things: growing a brain, learning a couple techniques (not a whole lot), and working with the Kyuubi's chakra in the hopes that he might be able to control it (which he could actually do to a point, unlike before).

Sasuke didn't need half the remedial training Naruto did, so he got a lot further.

 

And yet he fought Orochimaru after time skip and made him pretty much flee. I'm pretty sure most of the 'training' he did was more of the morals and ethics type. Hokage training basically. You saw the jump he got once he came back with the clone training. That shit MORE than made up for the three years doing things the hard way. He spams some clones and perfects a move not even his father did, he finishes Sage training and then comes and WTF pwns Pain who just pretty much single handedly took out the entire leaf village himself.

There are other lessons to learn other than fighting which will come into play. I.e. talking down Sasuke to fight with him against Madara and then being Hokage and all. I'm pretty sure the trip was aimed at Naruto cementing his place as the child of prophecy. 3 years for Jiriaya to do it right and instil the morals and values that Naruto would need to be that person.

 

He might be dumber than bricks but Naruto obviously knows how to fight. Sasuke is naturally talented, but without the cursed seal Naruto would have pounded him into the dirt before the time skip. After the time skip Sasuke is way ahead but it didnt stay like that for long. Just because Naruto isnt as talented or smart as Sasuke doesnt mean he wont beat the living hell out of him in a fight.

 

Naruto would not seem so dumb (and Sakura so bitchy) if author did not use them for comic relief (poison scene for example or beatdowns in Part One).

 

That's assuming she (or rather, the translator) uses the short scale. It could also mean 600.000.000.000.000

 

Indeed; after the time-skip Naruto is usually only an idiot when it's being deliberately exaggerated and played for laughs (and gets less and less stupid prior to the timeskip). By the same token, outside of when it's being played for laughs, post-timeskip Sakura's occasional violence towards Naruto is usually a textbook example of Fear Leads to Anger.

Of course, this gets even worse whenever the anime goes into filler-mode. Any time they need to fill up a bit of space, they have Naruto act like a complete moron while Sakura beats the crap out of him for little to no reason (or have other characters act in grossly exaggerated ways, like having Hinata faint whenever Naruto so much as looks at her).

 

I always thought that Jiraiya's training wasn't about piling on flashy techniques but about building a firm foundation as a ninja for his students to build on. I don't think that Jiraiya actually trained any of his students hands on for more than 3 or so years, yet every single one of them (aside from those two on Minato's team that apparently don't exist) went on to become crazy Godzilla-ninja.

They all went on to create techniques and strategies that suited them instead of simply becoming a Jiraiya clone. The closest one to copying Jiraiya in earnest is Naruto, and that can be excused in my mind since he has to become crazy strong in no time at all.

 

And really if your base your style off someone, why not do it off the most powerful, talented, and most dangerous ninja you have ever met? So I have no problem with him copying Jiraiya.

 

Chapter is up, as usual.

I... what is this i dont even. Seriously, what the fuck was Jiraiya doing with those kids? -sigh-

Training montage, meh. Madara has a new mask? He looks kinda wicked, actually.

And we're about to finally go somewhere again.

 

This was sort of a failed attempt at what Jiraiya's death did for us, I think. I just don't really have any uplifting thoughts about Konan's death. It was sad, she was a character I would have liked to seen live, and now we're left with a more powerful Madara for a frankly stupid reason.

I mean, it's ninja 101 to destroy the body of a ninja to prevent other villages or people from gaining their secrets. We learned that in Wave Arc.

Having said that, I suppose that Madara did need a power boost. I have never really been impressed with his powers.

 

Frankly, for me, this chapter was little more than filler. -__-

Also, Madara's new getup, for some reason, reminds me of Bleach and hollows. REALLY not a good thing. :/

 

Konan is dead. Shame.

Konan and Yahiko almost kissing moment was a surprising good romance scene. It's not something we see much in Naruto.

And frog costumes? Really?

 

Is that like oil water or something? Because last time I checked water doesn't make paper black. 0_o

Besides that there wasn't much to look at this chapter besides Madara's badass new mask. Chapter definitely felt like filler, but at least we'll finally be seeing some fighting scenes with Naruto soon. I just hope to god Kishi doesn't give Madara the ability to seal his Rikudou chakra. That would be an enormous let-down.

 

I often wonder how good will be Naruto without Fox, because I'm sure that Madara will recreate Ten-Tailed Beast before end of the manga. In the beginning Naruto without Kyūbi was pretty much pathetic, but now he has few new tricks like Sage mode. I'd like to see him in fight on his own, without any jinchūriki's bonuses (enormous supply of chakra, accelerated healing etc.)

 

He's still got the chakra of the Kyuubi, it's just not connected to its consciousness any more.