Sai seems suspicious and could be thinking along those lines; he knows more about Sasuke than most of the ninjas around, can bemore objective than the rookies about his presence and is outside of the actual fighting. Everyone else, I think, would be too busy fighting and it'd be easier to assume that he's simply against the dream apocalypse. Plus there's a simple relief of having such a powerful shinobi appear on their side, alongside all the Hokage at that.

Having taken a Mokuton body, I think Orochimaru would be more interested in taking Kabuto's approach i.e. imbuing his body with the abilities of various people.

 

While I'm as leery of Sasuke's intentions as anybody else, a lot of the instinctive knee-jerk reaction that I see on the web just doesn't make sense to me.

Maybe it's because I started reading the manga post-chapter 600 and marathoned it over a week. Looked at in progression, Sasuke's choices make a lot of sense from a damaged and traumatised teenager's perspective - or how I would guess such perspective to be, since my family was not murdered in front of my eyes when I was seven. And while everybody chatters about his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder... I don't see it. I could discuss how it makes sense, but not ITT.

About people taking his help without much grumbling - when you're fighting for your life, such considerations are usually reserved for later when they'd have a realistic chance of affecting your life. Madara is so far above the Shinobi Alliance that inserting a traitor doesn't make much sense, so they can be somewhat sure Sasuke is there only for his own agenda. Which will probably be less harmful and more limited compared to... I dunno, something like a Genjutsu to cover the whole world.

About him becoming Hokage - it's an unrealistic dream at this point. But the manga tries to tell us that people change. And moving on from hatred is the only way to end it - how else will you explain Naruto forgiving Pein or Gaara of all people becoming Kazekage? The whole manga becomes a Broken Aesop if you take that line. Sasuke can become Hokage (not that I want him to - but speaking from a manga perspective he's got as much a chance as Gaara). He'll just have to work very hard - and compete with Naruto who has a much bigger advantage.

 

I don't think Sasuke will become Hokage unless Naruto dies. I think with his significant contributions against Akatsuki and Madara he could get chosen over Kiba but not Naruto.

On another note, does anyone think that Kishi made the top tier shinobi so ridiculously powerful specifically so that they could fight on par with bijuu/jinchuuriki?

 

New chapter is out.

This ...was actually a good chapter for me. Damn Kishi for constantly trolling and getting my hopes up.

I know I'm gonna be let down and disappointed again, but..

Spoiler

Looks like Sai is gonna be next gen Danzo...

 

I didn´t like the chapter. the karin thing was annoying as usual and if this wasn´t Naruto I would probably give this theory that she was "designed" to be attracted to Sasuke more credit.

On the other hand, if it is only for "comedic effect" I think it is severely misplaced here. I also sincerely hope the kages are not fully ready for combat again yet, let alone that NONE of them even died.

The only thing I DID like was seeing that Sasuke apparantly didn´t do a 180 after all and still has some sort of manic idea about what he wants to happen. At least different from Naruto.

 

Eh, we knew the Kages weren't gonna die. Madara just doesn't give a shit. Even Tsunade was like "I'll heal them first" rather than "I'll use everything I've got to heal them."

But yeah, Sasuke's bit was the only highlight. Poor comedy cluttered the chapter, Orochimaru's done a heel face turn and the last page felt tacked on.

 

Oro is confirmed to be a good guy? And since Madara just doesn't care is there even a proper big bad in this story? It should be a big finale, but right now it's rather anticlimatic to me. Maybe Juubi will finally do something interesting after he is finished with his transformations.

 

I'm not sure what Orochimaru's doing. Feels like he's become a relatively neutral observer and doesn't seem to be interested in his original goals.

 

It seems like Orochimaru is just having fun watching Sasuke fuck shit up. His ideal ending would be Sasuke becoming Hokage and royally fucking everything up.

 

I really don't like that Tsunade's alive.

 

Why won't someone just murder Karin with a rusty butter knife already ...

 

I think Sasuke is on the side of Konoha and doesn't covet the power of the bijuu, rather, he is probably aiming for a radical change within the ninja world and is going to be rather extreme about it. I think, where Naruto is aiming to liberate the bijuu and make them friends and whatnot, Sasuke is seeing something different and would rather burn them away. I honestly think if Sasuke could make away with chakra in and on itself and the whole ninja system, he would, so, might be interested to see how this all plays out.

Am glad that others are still suspicious and that Sasuke still carries a bit of his rage against the injustice that struck upon his family and others by the ninja machinations.

Don't get the Karin hate, to be honest, always rather liked her and her weird abilities. Liked Team Hebi as a whole, actually.

Didn't like the kage survival but I guess, they needed to live for the happy go lucky ending Kishi was aiming for. Am still suspecting that Gaara is going to get the Ichibi back.

Meh chapter, over all. Orochimaru as an observer is kinda weird but I guess, he still has a master plan somewhere. I mean, he probably has seen that Naruto can kick his ass so hard, his past self is going to feel it, that he doesn't think it is smart antagonizing them any more and if you can't beat them, join them.

 

People hate Karin because she's an incredibly terrible character, even among Naruto's female cast. Her abilities are interesting and weird, but it's not enough to salvage a completely worthless character.

 

I wouldn't go so far as calling him a 'good' guy. What he said amounts to - "I used to like to fuck shit up. Now I want to watch someone else fuck shit up."

 

I'm neutral towards them but I think that applies to the whole team; their abilities are interesting but the characters are not.

 

I don't see Orochimaru having a "heel face turn" because he never was a stereotypical heel in the first place. He's not a good guy or a bad guy, he mostly just doesn't care. Sarutobi did call him "(one who) has neither goals nor reasons", and I guess he'd know.

From what I read Orochimaru invaded Konoha because he tried to make an upheaval in the ninja world, though how that ties into his goals to learn all the jutsu in the world I don't know. But I can accept that he's seen how Kabuto ended up following his path to its logical conclusion and now looking for something else. Also, Madara winning means basically the end of the world, so it's logical that he'd come and help. I fully suspect he has another agenda though, but not sure if it'd be actually harmful. I don't think we've ever seen him being proactively malicious without reason.

Kishi really should've skipped the comedy act though. It... wasn't funny. At all.

 

While the experiment that produced Yamato may not have been conducted with malicious intent, I think that the very act itself should be enough to qualify for a 'bad guy' status.

 

Sure, for a definition of "Bad Guy" being a guy who does bad things - including murder, theft, and in this case human experimentation on children. I agree.

Except, painted by that brush, every adult ninja is a bad guy. Some of them, or even most of them are doing what they're told, but that doesn't excuse much. Orochimaru hasn't done much worse compared to, say, Pein. He had a goal and did what he could to achieve that. Including many very bad things. But he was never actively evil. He's more of a Mad Scientist archetype.

 

Ahahahaha, oh god, Sakura's face on page 17. That was almost as good as Hashirama and Madara.

If future chapters keep this going I'll be happy no matter what happens.

 

Famous last words.