I would love to see a flashback to that. There is precious little Minato content in the series.

I'm thinking he'd reverse the battle situation if that were the case. Sasuke Vrs. Nagato and Naruto Vs. Itachi, since both Sasuke and Naruto have proven capable of overcoming their adversaries in a straight up fight.

Though I'm getting the feeling that the Impure World Resurrection is also a distraction, meant to make you go 'whoa, what?' when Kabuto pulls out something more dangerous and insidious.

 

So if White Zetsu drains the person's chakra to death, and then copies them, how the hell did it copy Neji, yet leave him alive.

 

I don't think he needs to Drain them to death. I think death is just the most common side effect of him draining their Chakra. Neji escaped before it hit that critical point, so he was okay (sort of).

 

... Or Neji keeps an emergency store of chakra sealed in his plot armor. >.>

Also, I wouldn't mind Naruto intimidating his way out of a fight. I'd love to see him make A piss his pants with a little demonstration of how big the gap between the kyuubi and the hachibi is. Most-likely won't happen though.

 

I really do love the Itachi/Nagato interaction. I feel like these two are going to be very dangerous to Madara's plan - and it's not going to have anything to do with their very significant power.

 

Kishi dosen't like killing characters that he's spent so long developing unless it's absolutely needed- Itachi.

 

I've got a question that would be great if someone could clarify about the impure resurrection:

Nagato and Itachi both have had eyes removed. Does this affect their abilities at all as these eyes are already in use? Or are their abilities connected to their souls as well? As Itachi's abilities are eye based and Sasuke has had them implanted, are there any limits to them both basically using the same pair here?
So far, everyone resurrected has had the abilities they had in life, so I suppose I'm just bothered by the overlap.

If it does interact with the eyes that are currently in use by Sasuke and Madara, they would be quite useful for Kabuto to keep around. No idea if that is possible though.

I'd like to see a Sasuke/Itachi rematch if only because they are currently sharing the same set of eyes; might lead to some weird dialog.

 

I think it's been implied that the resurrected subject has any and all abilities that they had in life. Otherwise the jinchuuriki would be pretty strong ninja but nowhere near the level needed to impact this war in any great capacity.

From what they've been saying Itachi and Nagato should be at 100% eye-fuck power in the coming fights.

 

Maybe he'll talk A and Tsunade into killing themselves? Like he has for so many other people in his way? :awesome

Uh... Yeah. Whatever. Look, Sakura has done exactly three positive things the entire arc of Shippudden (The Second Bell Test, Curing Kankuro, and finding Impostor Neji with the stunning realization that pigs do not in fact have hands). Most of her development has to do with standing around getting hurt, poisoning teammates who trust and respect her for some reason, and lying to her teammates. I mean, fuck, Kankuro has more BAMF credit than Sakura does, and he's just as maligned for being "useless". That said, Hinata is far, far more pathetic than Sakura will ever be- in fact, we've never seen her win a fight onscreen in either arc (for the record, Sakura has won two).

No, this entire war, including this new tactic with the Zetsu, is a bluff to distract/commit most of the 5 shinobi nations and Madara's forces. The real war is for control of the Jinchuriki and their biju.
Madara: 7
Shinobi Alliance: 2

Also, the reason both sides have committed as much material has they have is to sell the bluff to the other side. The battles are entirely inconsequential in the scheme of things- either Madara pulls his crazy scheme off, killing Naruto, or is killed by Naruto.

 

The major difference between Hinata and Sakura that makes Hinata being kind of pathetic acceptable is that Sakura is a major character. Hinata really isn't. Sakura has no excuse for being so pathetic.

 

Considering that the only people she's fought are Neji and Pain, this says absolutely dick-all about her pathetic-ness or lack of one.

Eye-fuck power is all Nagato has. He can't even walk as he is, Itachi is helping him stand.

 

Yeah but considering the abilities of his eyes it doesn't really matter.

 

... And? None of that contradicts what I posted, and nor is it a new tactic. We got the hint back with Kisame versus Killer B/Raikage, remember?

Also, this war isn't inconsequential at all, because shattering the united might of the Shinobi Alliance and capturing the Daimyo still helps Madara's plan as it does Kabuto's (whatever the fuck it is), because neither one wants a Big Damn Hero rescue while they're sealing Naruto and Killer B''s bijuu into the statue.

 

It matters if he can't do anything to anyone that is outside his immediate sight. He isn't even using the Paths for whatever reason, and his techniques are useless if he just stands there.
Nagato without his paths is easy to beat, since (according the someone stating the Rinnegan's abilities) all his eyes give him is mastery over all techniques. Techniques are useless if you can't position yourself or evade the enemy. But what about Genjutsu? Does it grant the same Genjutsu prowess as with the Sharingan? If yes, good for him, if not, there's not much he could do in a fight as he is now.

 

Couldn't the Rinnegan also make the illusions of the Sharingan real? Or was that only if the two were combined or something.

 

No, it contradicts what that guy on the forum said. Specific, right? He was saying that it was part of 'Madara's plan all along, where as I kinda doubt that. I bet its simply a spur of the moment tactic to jockey for positional advantage. And if Sakura can trick the Zetsus into revealing themselves, it's a pretty shitty tactic and a waste of resources.

I suppose I should clarify. As long as the war is occupying the vast majority of both sides' resources, the war is basically irrelevant. For both sides' plans, having the enemy's army tied up is just about as good as destroying it. Keep the Zetsus and the Dead Shinobis all tied up, and they can't look for Naruto and Bee. Keep the allied forces all tied up, and they can't look for Naruto and Bee once they're captured. Likewise, they cannot look for Naruto and Bee if either army is dead.

Kabuto doesn't have a plan, he just saw an opportunity and took it. He might call it a plan, but it doesn't actually make it one.

On Hinata vs Sakura in the continual battle to see who will be more pathetic: Okay, look, there is never an excuse for being pathetic, no matter what. Yes, Sakura is pathetic for a sort of key character (I never thought I would ever call canon Sakura a 'key' character of any sort :facepalm) and Hinata is just pathetic, period, end of story.

Yes, Hinata has managed to only have two onscreen fights, and managed to lose both of them. Neji is hardly anything to write home about in the scheme of things, and Nagato was certainly pretty bad-ass. If anything, this fact makes me think Hinata is more pathetic, because even Kishimoto can't stomach showing her failure. Furthermore, if her fights are taken as examples of her judgment, then I have no doubt that she's probably more mongoloid than Sakura. On top of this, only negatives have come from her involvement in the plot. She offered for Naruto to cheat off her paper, which could have led to him being kicked out of the test for cheating as obviously that and she managed to trigger the Six Tails transformation with her apparent death, which got way out of control, used up a failsafe-no-jutsu, and could have caused untold casualties, including Naruto's death.

Sakura has managed to be involved in six fights since the beginning of canon. She's won two of them and had another won for her. We have Bell Test 1, Chunin Exams qualifier rounds, Bell Test 2, Sasori, Sasuke Fight 2, and the Zetsu-who-wears-wigs episode. She helped win with the Second Bell Test, and definitely managed to capture and question a Zetsu. She also makes a great puppet in Chiyo's hands. We'll giver her a .5 for the Bell Testv2 and Sasori each, and we'll giver a full 1 for the 'pigs don't have hands' realization. So she's roughly 2 for 6, which is only mildly pathetic. On top of this, she has had moments where she has positively interacted with the plot, like with curing Kankuro, actually trying to support Naruto emotionally more than any other female character (admittedly, no-one really tries to help Naruto in any other way than training) after the whole Kabuto debacle. And to be entirely fair, her fuckups have been comparatively minor: her worst one (The poisoning bit) only really leads to a few of her allies being knocked unconscious for a day or so.

So frankly, they are both pathetic. There is absolutely no doubt there. Both characters are wastes of paper, ink, and ideas. Of the two, Sakura, by canon evidence, even for a central facepalm) ensemble character, is the marginally less pitiful. Her known fuck ups are lesser, she has won fights under her own power and with assistance, and has some fairly useful skills. Hinata has nothing except failure under her belt, and she's a stalker who's sole redeeming factor appears to be that she makes an almost competent sentry.

That is all I have to say on Sakura vs Hinata. Never again will I waste such a valuable resource as a forum post on such worthless specimens.

TLDR: Sakura and Hinata are both inhumanly worthless. Hinata is marginally more so.

 

This is the only thing I really disagree with.
Had Hinata not interfered, and consequently been stabbed, Naruto would not have released the fox's chakra, and would have been captured. Captured, and killed after the transfer of the Bijuu, with nothing stopping Pain from going after KillerBee, promptly beating the shit out of him and sealing him too before the Hidden Villages could even understand what's going on and pull their shit together. Then comes Madara, etcetera. This would have caused untold casualties, not could.
And just like this, goodbye global free will.

 

I disagree with this Nagato is still completely capable of raping anyone outside of the Kage's, Bee, Madara, Naruto and possibly Sasuke. His body has been in this condition for years there's no way he hasn't developed any gen or ninjutsu to defend himself if the Paths aren't around. Even if he hasn't done that for some retarded reason he still has Itachi around to run interference for him. And if Kabuto is forced to it I imiagine the IWR's mind-killing ability will help Nagato get over his week body in a hurry.

As for why he's not using the Six Paths that's fairly simple. The technique is more then a couple handseals and 'Six Paths no jutsu' from what very little we've seen its an indepth process that involves converting a new body. Nagato wouldn't want to recreate it and if Kabuto is unaware of its existence he can't force him to recreate it.

 

Well when Naruto was close to him he was able to control his movements with his body until Naruto resisted it using Sage Mode and Kyuubi's chakra

 

If I understand his technique, he is basically a puppeteer. The Paths probably aren't all that different than the Kazekage puppet or the 10 puppets Chiyo used, except for being far, far more powerful. Nagato by himself really only has his eyes to work with, so I'm honestly not sure how hampered by that he is. I would guess that even so, he will be fairly dominant, probably capable of taking on everyone up to elite jonin, depending on their specialties.