I'd hate Karin a lot less if she wasn't a confirmed member of the Uzuamaki clan. There's also a wildly disproportionate allocation of rabid fangirls in Naruto. I'm not too snooty to admit that if Hinata had been more aggressively pro-Naruto, I probably wouldn't be as irritated that Sasuke and goddamn Shikamaru have to look over their shoulders when they walk home at night.

And even if they all do survive, it still wouldn't be as bad as Fairy Tail. I guess my standards have been skewed.

Orochimaru has always been an observer. He said as much when he fought Sarutobi. He's not in it for power or glory. He's more of a "watch the world burn" kind of villain, and always was.

It's just that, for the most part, it was him doing the burning. It's not really that big of a step for him to take a tertiary role, and poke other people into causing upheval for his amusement. I'd imagine he's backing Sasuke out of a perverse sense of enjoyment. He wants to see where this particular train is going.

 

I personally hate Kari because she is a much, much worse version of Sakura. And that's saying something, considering how bad Sakura is.
Both Karin and Sakura have taken their Sasuke obsession to psychological problem-levels, but Karin is worse. At least Sakura recognizes that Sasuke did some bad things, even if she is eager as fuck to ignore them. If you think about it, Karin must have some serious issues, hence the latching onto Sasuke at this level.

And Karin is useless. Her only usefulness comes from being a sensor and having the freaky ability to heal people who bite her (how the fuck does that make sense, by the way?), both of them innate talents.
The fact that most of her panels have her disproportionally, comically drawn as she says something extremely stupid (usually about Sasuke) must have also helped. At least Sakura has had her cool moments, and has, sporadically, actually achieved something. Every time Karin opens her mouth, I just want someone to murder her.
Karin has little dignity, little ability, and little personality. Most other female characters, while faded into obscurity, have that shroud of badassery around them (Temari, Ten-Ten, Kurenai, Tsunade, Mei, etc). She doesn't even have that.
She could have been interesting, but Kishi :/

 

Shroud of badassery? Ten-ten? Blasphemer!

 

Tenten did that one thing with the kunai once. That was pretty badass. Kind of. For, you know. The time.

[SIZE=-2][SIZE=-8]

Spoiler

~shamelessly fills the gaps in people's skills with parts of their movesets from the fighting games~[/SIZE][/SIZE]

Her blood has healing properties. They aren't sucking her skin, they're drinking her blood. All of the bites break the skin. That's why it leaves scars and scabs in the shape of teethmarks. Hickies don't last for years. Scars do.

Her trick would be more efficient if she used a really sharp knife to (correctly) cut herself for them, or better yet, drew her own blood during downtime and sealed it in vials for use in the field.

Karen just isn't smart enough to think that far ahead, apparently. Or the blood has to be fresh to work, but she could still use a knife to help that along even if that were the case.

 

He was always an observer but he also had an agenda with the immortality and the jutsu. Sure, he liked to watch the world burn while doing it, but he did have plans he was working towards.

As to Fairy Tail, I disagree, for a specific reason. Fairy Tails knows what it is. A mushy friendship manga that is all about fun, fights, friendship and way too much fanservice. It doesn't try to be deep or philosophical, the story isn't really all that important. It's not like Naruto which tries to be so many things and fails. It knows it is cheap and shallow in a lot of things and it doesn't try to aim for more. Friendship is literally magic there, as it can power spells and whatnot.

So, when it pulls out some sappy friendship stuff, I can't really be mad at it since it was that way from day one and never tried to pretend to be something else. The only real problem I have with that manga is the annoying amount of unnecessary and really kinda offending fanserve.

When Naruto does the same when it pretends that it tackles some more profound issues and subject matters but really, doesn't bring anything new or any kind of solution or discussion to the table outside of friendship and I believe slogans, yeah, that is bad.

It's more like MLP or Spongebob or Fairly Odd Parents, in that way.

As to Karin, well, no shit does she have some major problems. You don't start working for Orochimaru when you are mentally save and sound, after all. Still, while she is annoying and yeah, another fangirl, of which there are way too many, I still like her more than Sakura. At least she is entertaining at times. Not in my favourite characters list or anything but never really appeared enough to make me hate her or invest that much energy in her. Just another character that Kishi didn't develop enough in favour or cramming more power ups and friendship lessons into his main characters.

 

Her chakra, not her blood. They bite down hard enough to break the skin so they can suck her chakra out since most people can't absorb it. The blood they'd draw out may be a factor but the main point (as noted by B and Juugo) is that her chakra is being taken and used to heal.

 

It's not the mushy friendship part I'm annoyed with.

It's the part where nobody ever answers for the bad things they do. At least half the villains in Fairy Tail haven't just been bad guys; they've been pure unmitigated dick weasels, and yet some of them arbitrarily get a fucking walk on it because suddenly something bad happens to them and they're all repentant and shit.

At least have a fucking realistic progression of character for your face heel turns. At least reserve the true dickweaselrey for the people who aren't going to be forgiven, instead of spreading it all over the place so we've got no idea who is really evil and who is just torturing children and kicking puppies because they're fucking bored or weren't taught the true meaning of Christmas or something.

 

New chapter up.

All in all, not a bad chapter.

 

Obito vs. Kakashi was disappointing and predictable, especially after Obito started acknowledging Naruto. The Kumite flashback was pretty cool, though. Minato looks like a cross of Naruto and Drag Queen, and what Madara is doing now is looking very promising.

 

Err, it was Kakashi comparing Obito and Naruto, I thought.

What Madara is doing now doesn't look Promising, it looks like more Hax Uchiha Bullshit.

"Oh, btw, I can control you with just a seal, too. Cause I'm UCHIHA Madara. "

 

This one can be looked through the fingers, considering he was the one who created Obito's body.

 

Indeed. It's the same as when he infused his will with Zetsu; it makes sense for him to have added a fail-safe when he 'rebuilt' Obito since he wanted him as a part of his plans.

 

Half his Body, and that doesn't mean he can force Chakra molding. Which has an entirely spiritual/mental component.

And yet, it seems to be happening anyway.

 

Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seemed to me Madara impaled Obito with chakra spikes, like the ones Nagato used.

 

Actually, this is something that makes sense. Remember the flashback:
http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/606/16

Madara was the one that created those black rods that Nagato used, and which Obito has implanted inside his body, and has had all along. Note how when Obito goes totally insane, the rods which contain the will of Madara manifest: http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/605/6

Those rods are the mind/will of Madara made into physical form using some yin-yang technique of old!Madara. That means that those pierced/influenced by those rods, contain the Will of Madara and can be influenced and even controlled by Madara. So for example, Sasuke has no rods within him, so Madara has no technique to control Sasuke. However if the paths of pain were still around, Madara could presumably have instantly controlled them (and Nagato too), since they had those rods and by extension a portion of Madaras very self within them.

Its also interesting that the same rods appear and pierce Nagato after Yahiko dies. Before that, Nagato was a pretty decent guy. This is Nagato after the rods (Madaras will!) go through him:
http://www.mangapanda.com/93-452-13/naruto/chapter-447.html

Now, note that white Zetsus are basically clones of Hashirama, but a black zetsu is infused with the Will of Madara, meaning that as Madara said, it is as though that Zetsu IS Madara, just far far weaker one (obviously).

Now take a look at what is happening to Obito:
http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/636/17
The rods containing Madaras will have emerged, and one half of Obito is beginning to turn black, just as the Zetsu turned black when Madaras will overwhelmed it. What is happening is that Madara placed those rods in Obito right at the start, and they have been his ace in the hole all along, to manipulate or outright control Obito if he gets too uppity.

Now how Madara created the rods is unclear, but I would presume he used a technique similar to the original sages Creation of All Things or equivalent, which old!Madara can now use that he has fully mastered rinnegan.

So yeah, not only does all of this make perfect sense, its been quite nicely foreshadowed too.

Infact right now, the only question I have is whether or not its really Madaras Will, or Juubis Will. The original rod is created from the husk of Juubis corpse afterall, and it is interesting how all those affected by the rods become obsessed one way or another at capturing all the bijuu and resurrecting Juubi. I would say that at this point, either Madara will be the FV, or in an ultimate irony we learn that Madara was a puppet just as much as Obito was, and Juubi has been subtly influencing him ever since Madara summoned the corpse and broke whatever seal Rikudou Sennin had placed around it:
http://www.mangapanda.com/naruto/606/14

I think truthfully, Madara has gone too far in the "I am cool, I am best, Ill just sit here and ignore the entire world. Oh Hashirama, I love you so. Yaddayadad". Unless he REALLY shapes up, I don't want this guy as the final villain. At this point, I would actually prefer a twist where after Juubi regains its final form, we learn that not only does its complete form come up with a powerboost, but with a significant intelligence boost aswell, and it turns out Juubi is far more than a beast and has superhuman intelligence and the ability to be a fullblown FV on its own right. Would explain why RS was so afraid of it, when what it has showed us so far in this fight has been pretty medioce compared to the hype.

 

Datakim: Too long, did read. I didn't remember offhand any of the scenes you brought up, I admit, but I'm stumped as to why you think the black rods sprouting from Nagato are from Madara - I rather thought they were another ability of the Rinnegan. Nagato used this technique to control his paths, and Madara is doing the same with Obito.

Also, I remember Naruto shrugging off this technique when Nagato tried it on him in the cave. Wonder if that was foreshadowing something too - I did think it odd at the time, how cavalierly it was treated.

 

Because Madara CREATED the rods and SAID they were infused with his will. Yes, they can be used to do other things such as create the 6 paths, but the rods used by Obito and Nagato atleast are originally from Madara, meaning they contain his will. That is why their manifestation during Obitos berserk rage implies that Madara may have been subtly influencing Obito. It is possible that a rinnegan that evolved totally separately, could use the rod based techniques without such problems, but the eyes possessed by Nagato and (now) Obito are both the same eyes. They are implants that come FROM Madara.

As for when Naruto was struck, Nagato was using the rod to transmit his chakra to try and control Naruto. So there was essentually two invading presences in Naruto. The rod itself, by design, contained the will of Madara. And it was being used as a chakra transmitter, so Nagato was trying to disable Naruto. Naruto used a never before seen and never seen since method of combined SM and Kurama transformation to overwhelm Nagato.

Could the Will of Madara have influenced Naruto during that scene? Unlikely. While it might well be possible, it was a very short scene and then the rod was removed, and Naruto is pretty strong willed. Could Madara try something by stabbing Naruto with a rod to try and control him? Maybe, but I figure once he becomes Juubi Jin, such tricks won't be worth it anymore.

Nagato and Obito however both had those rods implanted in their bodies PERMANENTLY. And now, edo!Madara is activating the ones inside Obito to force Obito into his will.

 

Naruto updated.

And while we all knew it was going to happen, the exact sequence of events still surprised me.

 

Yeah, me too. Now enter Obito's monster 101.

 

Err. I hadn't guessed Obito was going to

Spoiler

become the Juubi Jinchuuriki.

OHHH SHIITTT.