Danzo is starting to become a bit too Stained Future for me, what with his uber!arm and implanted Sharingan. Kishi's giving him cool powerups to try and put him on the same level as Madara. I know Danzo will die in the end, but it's still ridiculous.

 

Urgh no

Sasuke has the DARKNESS he will tank Sakura super punches.

 

^This

If Naruto doesn't finally man the fuck up and cut Sasukes throat the next time they fight I will rage.

 

I don't get this chapter. Sakura 'admitted' she 'loved' Naruto so that he wouldn't be concerned about her killing Sasuke, which is what Naruto's 'age mates' (the word is 'peers' scanlators) want (have they really expressed this?). How exactly is this supposed to assuage Naruto's guilt when he finds out Sasuke has killed Sakura? This stuff is so contrived... I'm sure there could have been a better way to execute this part of the story.

Anyway, there are two paths to go from here:

1) Sakura confronts Sasuke and is wounded / killed, Naruto rages and kills Sasuke.
2) Sakura confronts Sasuke and is beaten, Naruto fights Sasuke but doesn't kill him because of his promise to Pain.

From there, Sasuke will either rejoin (1) Team 7 or (2) disappear from the story. Naruto will become Hokage (or possibly sacrifice himself fighting Madara).

2,1 seems the more obvious flow for the story

 

First off, Danzou doesn't have shit on Madara. He may be stronger than we were led to believe at first, but I still don't see him as being "Kage Level," as it were.

I'm actually glad for this chapter, since it will force Naruto to make a hard decision. I don't see him giving up on Sasuke, since he's an idealist and that's an important character point for him.

However, I do see him taking this situation a bit more seriously. The Kage want Sasuke dead, so Naruto now has to work a bit harder than he did before to prevent that, if he's able. Thank God for Gaara.

 

I think we're likely to end up with 2 as well, though I suspect we might end up brushing close to 1 with Naruto raging and deciding to spare Sasuke's life at the last minute. While pretty much everyone else has given up on Sasuke, "Naruto" and "give up" just don't go together, even when giving up would be the smart thing to do.

However, IMO Sasuke rejoining Team 7 shouldn't happen; after joining Akatsuki and attacking the Kage summit Sasuke's crossed the Moral Event Horizon. Personally I suspect that after the Sasuke/Naruto rematch Madara will turn up to capture Naruto while he's still exhausted from the battle, and Sasuke will pull a heroic sacrifice to take down Madara.

 

I'd rather not have Sasuke redeemed. As you said, he crossed the line when he joined Akatsuki; he can't be forgiven after admitting his desire to destroy Konoha and attacking both the Hachibi and the Kage Summit.

 

Fool, Gaara is God.

....

Actually, consider this: the Alpha and the Omega. Which in the case of the bjuu are Shukaku and Kyuubi. Whose hosts are Naruto and Gaara.

...

Huh.

 

I can handle Sasuke getting a bit of redemption so long as he dies (and stays dead) in the process, but that might be a result of the fact that I've always liked well-written heroic sacrifices.

Sasuke being forgiven if he lives, on the other hand, would be complete bullshit; after the attack on the Kage Summit no amount of regret for his crimes should save him.

 

HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA

Seriously, Sakura planning to take Sasuke by her own? LOL!

This manga gets funnier every time I read it.

And yea, I really did start to laugh my ass out on that one.

 

If Sakura were deceptive enough, she could act all meek and girlish, extend an olive branch and hug Sasuke, he could take her for what he sees her: a useless, incapable, cry baby – and then she could slit his throat like a real ninja.

zzzz of course that would never happen

 

You could say the same thing for Zabuza/Haku, but Kishi did the whole snow falling thing for their death, and had Naruto in tears. I'm pretty sure one of his themes is redemption, even in those who have fallen far. I've got little doubt that Sasuke will kill himself saving someone, and maybe give some heart-felt last few words. FML.

 

Or she could just actually hug him ... with all of her monsterous strength. You have to admit, Sasuke literally being glomped to death by Sakura would be a rather amusing way for him to kick the bucket if nothing else.

 

I disagree. The popular theory has always been that Naruto would never be able to beat Sasuke. It goes back to the old Japanese game of the snake, the toad, and the slug wherein the slug beats the snake, the snake beats the toad, and the toad can beat the slug. It works like rock, paper, and scissors.

Personally, I prefer seeing Sasuke beat the hell out of the village and die in a blind fury much in the way Zabuza died just so he could get his revenge, but I figure it will end up with something stupid like Sasuke sacrificing himself to save Sakura. Thus showing the only one able to beat him was in fact Sakura.

 

Yeah but what if Naruto got rid of his orange clothes (that scream 'kill me'), got fox ears and a tail, realised Anko was in the same situation as himself (hated by the village) so makes her a part of his harem, the Kyuubi decides that Naruto's his 'kit' and gives him his chakra, the fox's chakra and sage mode mix to give him a new bloodline, no one's seen him in ages and then a new mysterious ANBU codenamed 'Fox' is starting to gain legend status and then its later revealed to have been Naruto all along...

What if that happens!? Surely Sasuke would be no problem then...

Kishi's been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, this isn't impossible. By god... it could even happen in that exact sequence...

 

Could you verify this? I've never heard of any mythology or popular culture that backs this, and neither has the internet, apparently.

 

They have it on wikipedia. Look in the middle of the article.
It talks about it being a variation of our current rock-paper-scissors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jankenpon

Madara: Pulls sasuke out with time space technique
Sasuke: Amaterasu @ Danzou
Danzou: "My arm is released! DRAGON OF THE DARKNESS FLAME!!!!!"

 

Im not reading a whole lot into the Snake, Slug, Toad thing since Sasuke doesnt seem to have snake skills since Itachi sealed Orochimaru.

That might work for Jirayia, Tsunade, and Orochimaru but not quite so much Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto.

 

Not to mention that Sakura hasn't really shown anything slug-related despite being Tsunade's apprentice.

 

That too. Sakura is strong and has talent for getting rid of genjustu and medical justu. But I dont see her having the chakra reserves to summon the big slug whos name I cant remember at the moment.