He spent most of his time following up leads on Orochimaru, iirc. That's not quite a spy ring but it's close, so it's a logical step to say that he may, in times of need, use his contacts for other purposes. As I recall he called in a few favours to track Tsunade as well, and she was notoriously difficult to catch at that point too.

 

He originally went to the hidden rain village to gather intelligence on Akatsuki. He didnt go to fight Nagato. As Aekiel said, he kept tabs on Orochimaru for years. Most of part two he was off getting intelliegence on Akatsuki, or atleast that was my understanding.

 

True. I was just thinking that calling it spy-network or treating is as a mission he was doing for Konoha (that presumably, could be taken up by another ninja - like Naruto) was stretching things. Ah well, it was just silly nit-picking I guess.

 

It's a fair distinction to make; there is no indication that Jiraiya held any sort of official position as Konoha's spymaster. My understanding was that most of the time Jiraiya generally worked on his own pursuing his own interests and rarely even returned to Konoha, though that changed once he had Naruto as an apprentice and Tsunade as the Hokage giving him two compelling reasons to come back.

Prior to that, he seems to have been pretty much out of contact with Konoha, judging from what Ebisu says here.

 

Im not suggesting any thing like a spy ring or that it was a mission, Im saying Jiraiya would go out and gather information. No more or less than that. My original point was that since Sasuke cant realistically ever go back to Konoha, he could do something similar and have a way to comunicate it back to Konoha if he felt the need. Or keeping an eye on Konoha's enemies like Itachi(Akatsuki) and Jiraiya(Orochimaru) did. But this is going with the idea that he is somehow redeemed before Naruto snaps and kills him.

 

Wow, after wasting so much time with uber hax moves, when something finally looks like it's gonna happen, it doesn't...

 

'Looks like it's gonna happen'??? It's been happening for the last dozen damn chapters.

I rather liked this chapter, cept for the whole I thought I could do this! bullshit. It's nice to see the price of power finally catching up to Sasuke.

On the Sasuke note, I'm actually glad I read this chapter; now we know what really grinds his gears about Itachi. Now that that is cleared up, I actually hate him a little less. Though...his whole anger displacement thing is just one more nail in his coffin.

 

This is probably the first chapter in a long time I've actually liked. Sasuke got a new haxx power, kinda, but he can't use it, and now the consequences have finally come through. On top of that, the Naruto save was handled because Sakura was being a dumbass. I mean, her stopping at the last minute was retarded as hell, but this way, at least Kishi kinda acknowledged that as things stand, Kakashi would kick the living shit out of Sasuke.

 

Lol Sakura is really weak, Sasuke complains about his vision, drops out of susanoo and can still dodge her attack and pull a kunai on her, only to be saved by Naruto.

I really want Sasuke to eat a rasengan to the face, particularly the eyes. That would be rightful justice.

Also, Kakashi using his eye ability so fast is a new thing, before he had to charge it up and aim for ages like with Deidera.

 

Sasuke did not dodge her attack. She just stopped at the last second.

 

Not really, all he acknowledged was that Sasuke pushed himself way too hard in a short period of time causing a burn out of sorts. It falls back to the original legend where eventually that power comes at the cost of your vision. So nothing new really occurred. Although, I have a feeling Sasuke is going to seal an eye before this battle is over.

 

...That's exactly what I meant, Oneiros. If Sasuke fought Kakashi as things stand- that is, burnt out- he'd get ripped apart. Kishimoto seemed to acknowledge this.

 

Then he goes and transplants Itachis eye's after having them both close due to using Izanagi maybe? Then with Itachi's eye, Itachis power comes into effect, allowing Naruto to somehow counter them.

 

We don't really know what this power is, but I bet it has something to do with redeeming Sasuke either that, or we'll get Sakura somehow redeeming him like she brought him back from cursed seal madness. I feel regardless he will be redeemed no matter how much I wish to the contrary.

I like Sasuke because he is vicious. It shows exactly what a society that raises children to kill will actually produce. It is much better than the Naruto character that was somehow raised in a society that literally survives through fighting and killing and yet he is still a pussy (at least when it comes to certain people he is).

 

Wow so Sasuke really isnt all powerful. Hopefully Naruto kicks his ass in new and creative ways involving many shadow clones. Naruto doesnt need Itachi's power, much less sage to kick Sasuke's ass at the moment.

 

Naruto will develop Sharingan.

Word.

 

Not sure why Naruto's not in Sage mode when he arrives (he was in Sage mode in the earlier page), but doesn't look like he needs it, really. Sasuke's gotten himself into another huge pile of shit and is going to get pulled out of it by Madara - again.

I wouldn't say Sasuke was weak, but I guess all the fighting he's done in the last 20 or so chapters only has him spamming Mangekyou again and again. So his charater actually reads like a Sasuke from one of those bash-Sasuke fanfics where he is nothing without the Sharingan.