"Did the fox actually crap out those two?" :awesome
Lulzy quote was lulzy.

What I can't accept is a dumbass like this defeating the second Hokage. I mean, what the fuck? This guy? Least the fuckers were defeated, and by team Asuma no less.
Which reminds me, anyone wanna bet on what power-ups Asuma will get next chapter?

 

Why can't you accept him defeating the second Hokage? Kinkaku wasn't defeated by power levels, he was defeated by a weapon that's literally a win button. It's entirely possible that the Nidaime simply couldn't deal with the power levels (since he did not have the aforementioned win button of a weapon).

 

Would you accept pre-time skip Naruto (fox mode) defeating Jiraiya, simply because he had bigger raw power levels?
Plus, my point is not on power levels, it's on the fact that a fucktard like that shouldn't be allowed to beat the brother of the First Hokage.

 

Jiraiya had more power levels than part 1 Naruto, though. He's faster, stronger, and knows how to do more than one trick. Chakra is not the only power level, it's just the most important.

On top of that, Kinkaku was not alone against the second Hokage, he had Ginkaku with him. AND they had the weapons at that point, unless I'm forgetting something and those came later. Even then, these guys are legendary fucking ninjas apparently.

 

Timeline is much fucked up.

Tsunade is only 50 years old in Part 1, but we know that Hashirama was still alive when she was a toddler. Sarutobi became Hokage with the death of Tobirama when he was in his late teens or early 20s (it would seem), but he's 69 when he dies.

Someone was gunning for the brothers and struck gold in a very short period of time methinks.

Also, I think it's pretty clear that Kinkaku and Ginkaku attacked Tobirama and the second Raikage in a totally different situation from Tobirama's death. Obviously Konoha and Kumo were on the same team during the assassination attempt, but that alliance lasted about 5 minutes it seems since Kumo hunted down and killed Tobirama not much later.

Clearly, Kumo ninja are two-faced assholes (who apparently were amassing force to start another war).

 

Anyone else impressed that Shikamaru was able to hold down a six (or was it five?) tailed pseudo Jinchuuriki for even a second, much less as much as he held him?

 

Not really because I don't think a lot of thought is given to non-featured feats. Like he just needed a random character to fulfill a job and it was Shikamaru's turn. I could be wrong I suppose but he seems to be doing that a lot. But yeah if that is his "standard" level of ability that is pretty impressive.

 

It can also only seal have one sealed person/thing in it at the time. So, for now, until they release Kinkaku the second gourd is finished. I wonder if Tobi will try and steal the gourd, as, assuming he is as snart as he looks to be, he would know only 1/2 of the Kyubbi chakra resides in Naruto. Moving on, while the first set is alot more complicated, it also has advantages, such as not saying anything at all resulting in sealing and can be assumed to be a limitless amount.

Imagine the power of the two weapon sets together, one person calls out the enemys name, then they have no choice: don't speak and get sealed, speak and get sealed.

Actually the image of Tsunade and Hashirama is from the anime, it was never in the manga. It seems like they just put it in to show some of Tsunades pain from the hokage position during the first arc, now its come up to bite them in the arse 300 chapters later. I do agree though the timeline does need to be sorted out, although, then there wont be nearly as much discussion about it.

It is impressive. What I don't understand though is how Ino was able to take over Kinkakus mind, when Nagato and his chakra rods couldn't do the same.

 

Only a little bit, but then again I hate Shikimaru and his team.

 

I can understand the Ino hate, and disliking Choji, but why Shikamaru?

 

I actually dislike Choiji least out of all three. Anyway, Shikimaru was a fucking pussy back in Part 1. Go back and read his battle with Temari. He threw the fight at the end to get out of being a chunin (which Choiji said he would do earlier), tried to pretend he was asleep while his fucking village was under attack and then somehow got credited to become chunin while Naruto battled a fucking demon from the bowels of hell with a giant toad as back up and won and got squat. What did Shikimaru do? Bound 7 mid-level Oto ninja for a bit before Asuma saved his ass. Hell, at least Naruto had heart, was inspirational (see Neji) and believed in Konoha at the time. What did Shikimaru believe in? Looking at fucking clouds?

I may or may not be alone in this, but when you have someone who refuses to advance in rank because its too troublesome, is blatantly derelict when his nation is under direct attack, and is as annoying as Shikimaru, I'd line him up against the wall with a firing squad at the ready than give him a promotion.

 

To Quote German Generaloberst(4 star General) Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord

Shikamaru is the clever and lazy type, while Naruto is the stupid and diligent(In the German original, he use the word fleißig, which is in my opinion better translated as hardworking)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Hammerstein_pp_82_87_isbn_978-1906497224.pdf p. 26

 

Can't say I completely agree there. If anything I would put Shikamaru in a code-breaking team (or somewhere far away from the battlefield), his fight against Hidan and Kakuzu was enough to show that he can make incredibly stupid decisions: Had Naruto not arrived when he did (which by the way he had no way of knowing) Kakashi, Ino and Chouji would have been killed, and most likely him too once Kakuzu was finished with the others. All for his revenge against Asuma's killer, how is that any smarter than what Naruto is doing?. Don't get me wrong he is smart, he simply is no ninja material.

 

None of that changes what I said. And Chunin isn't strategic, which is what you're suggest Shikimaru should be in. It's more general grunts and small-team tactics if we learn anything from the Twenty Squads created to combat the Akatsuki. And I wouldn't trust the guy leading me into the mission if he actively didn't want the job and tried to avoid fighting for his country when it was attacked.

@Godel: More good points. He nearly got his team (not that big a loss) killed, as well as Kakashi (who would have been a serious loss to Konoha). IRL, that'd have gotten you drummed out of the military. In fact, the only reason he didn't get punished, I suspect, was because his dad's Head Jounin.

 

...But Shikamaru got promoted specifically because he utilized strategy and tactics in his fight against Temari. That's the major difference between his fight and Naruto's; Naruto just brute forced his win.

 

... Did you even bother to read my post? I'm not pissed at him using strategy, I'm pissed at him being a complete pussy, throwing the fight, dereliction of duty, a bit of misogny and still coming up smelling like roses and getting a promotion he in no way should have gotten.

And Naruto didn't just use brute force to win. He did utilize strategy during the fight with Neji. He sent clones ahead to wear him down, put himself among them (which was for the best, since Neji assumed he'd try to avoid him) and did that badass appear-from-the-ground-knockout-punch that he accomplished in moments by digging through the dirt with his hands.

 

Every great Ninja has his eccentricities. Look at Kakashi, constantly being late. That's not too professional. Look at Shikaku. Just as lazy as Shikamaru, and the Head Strategist of Konoha (recently the Shinobi Alliance too). And don't even get me started on Jiraiya.

What I mean is, crisp and clean professionalism isn't always necessary. To become great you need to step out of the norm. And Shikamaru may not yet be great, but he's getting there.
And he was a freaking Genin at the time of the Chuunin exams. He probably figured that he'd be a hindrance if he were to actually fight, forcing more capable allies to protect him, endangering both of them at the process. As proven later on, when he was about to be killed by a bunch of Chuunin grunts.
Or he could, y'know, be like any 12 year old would be in such a situation, scared.
And Naruto was in no way Chuunin material. No matter what you say, I wouldn't trust pre-time skip Naruto with my shopping list, let alone Chuunin duties and responsibilities, no matter how many Jinchuuriki he could knock out.

 

Bah, stop it with all this damn talk about Shikamaru and start talking about something more interesting.

 

Such as...? The latest chapter was about the InoShikaCho combination and a weapon that's about as big of a win button as having the Sharingan. There's not that much else to talk about.

 

... And your point? Seriously, this has nothing to do with anything I said.

Except he wasn't a hindrance. He tied down those same Chunnin grunts, and only nearly got killed was because there was one he didn't account for. And he could have had them all kill themselves if that last one wasn't there. Shikimaru was clearly capable of becoming a Chunin with his then skillset. He just didn't want to be, and actively sought to avoid it.

He was scared. Right. Which is why he played dead in the middle of a battle where kunai and Sound ninja were flying around and bothered to waste time arguing with Sakura instead of high-tailing to somewhere safer.

http://www.citymanga.com/naruto/chapter-117/07/

Well, that's your opinion.