Ninja'ing it old school
IS ANYONE STILL READING NARUTO? I finally caught up and dude, this shit turned gay. Even more than the Sai arc!
WOW, who would've thought that 400 chapters later we would discover that Itachi had more function than simply making Sasuke into the perfect emo kid!!! Despite the dramaticized (bondage? seriously?) storytelling and Madara's SUPER PEDO-VIBES (how creepy, no wonder Itachi didn't want him near his little brother), my heart flutters for Uchiha-cest (brother complexes! ♥♥) and the whole arc even made me shed a few tears. Well, when I wasn't too busy laughing over how Kishimoto-sensei had to resort to using Sasuke's 10-ft ROPE belt (tres chic) and Itachi's avant-garde (hey the floating clouds are very modern art) Akatsuki cloak to distinguish the two of them in their battle. All that spiky black hair and hateful kaleidoscope eyes begin to look awfully identical after they've exchanged a few punches.
I know Zetsu recorded the Uchiha battle for Madara's viewing pleasure, but the first half was literally all in their heads, with Itachi and Sasuke faced off across the room while staring (soulfully??) into each other's eyes. I can only speculate how Madara patiently (or maybe lustfully??) watched the many minutes of the two brothers locked in their ~genjutsu~ battle. Maybe Madara filled in his own storyline and dialogue? Uchiha family fueds! Only for imaginative minds!
(Thank god we're finally finished with Orochimaru; his time was over after Kimimaro turned into a nature sculpture. His cameo in the Uchiha battle was so forced that it nearly exposed Itachi's real intentions. Though. . . there's always Kabuto. . .)
Also laughing so hard at Akatsuki losing so many of their members that they've resorted to recruiting Sasuke's busted-up Team 7, which includes a baby Kisame (those teeth don't lie), Sakura version 2.0 (now with stylish geek glasses!), and. . . Gaara when he still had the Shukaku, only uglier and without the adorable 愛-tattoo charm. (Well, Akatsuki has a shedding tree and camoflauge plant as members already, not like they can do much worse.) Speaking of the most lovable boy in the series, I miss Hidden Sand. :( Even Shino got a solo! Against Madara, no less! Not that I don't appreciate Shino's badassery, but, you know. Not the same.
Sasuke still fails to impress me. He's so empty! No direction, no personal ambitions. From Itachi to Orochimaru to Madara, he acts only to how other people want him to act. He's such a puppet. :( Difference from now and the beginning of the series is that he now has puppets of his own, but that still doesn't ignore the strings holding up his own arms.
Despite that I've now read the series three (3) times, I. . . still don't not see the Naruto & Sasuke OTP / brotherly / rivals-for-life connection, particularly from Sasuke's end. I understand that Kishimoto is setting up an epic Naruto vs Sasuke fight for Hidden Leaf; the prophecy's been in the works since Chapter 1. But the bigger that Naruto's obsession over Sasuke grows, the less and less that Sasuke seems to think about Naruto. It's the exact same problem as when the series started; Sasuke has goals (usually shaped by someone else) and Naruto doesn't factor into any of them. And even though Naruto wants to be part of it, part of Sasuke's life, I don't. . . see. . . why. . . I talked to Cathy about this, and we both can't recall a lot of solidifying Naruto/Sasuke moments in the series. Yes, they were on Team 7 together, but Kishimoto gave that like, half an arc before Orochimaru gave Sasuke his little lovebite. There's a breakthrough when Sasuke tried to kill Naruto, because that signifies that he considered Naruto his best friend, but now we see after Itachi's death and Sasuke's acquiring of the Mangekyou Sharigan that Itachi was ultimately the person closest to Sasuke. I just feel like if Kishimoto still wants to play the eternal rivals card, he should give Naruto and Sasuke more screen time together. Or at least give Sasuke a couple bubble thoughts about Naruto, no matter how small. As it is, there's no indication that Sasuke would remember Naruto over, say, Sakura or Kakashi or even Shikamaru.
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one_if_by_land) wrote,
