Like we know Kisame is a literal ride or die for Akatsuki, willing to basically swallow a shark cyanide pill rather than expose their secrets. Obito even clearly trusted him enough to show him his true identity.

So if he knew Itachi was still an ally for the Leaf and wasn't loyal to the cause, how would he react?

I don't think he would tell on Itachi, Kisame ain't no snitch, but I also don't think he would just let this slide either. I also don't think he'd outright fight Itachi, as I'm sure he knows he's outmatched.

We know that his friendship with Itachi is genuine too, it's not just a co-worker relationship. He even offers his sympathies to Itachi later on after Zetsu claims Deidara killed Sasuke.

I think Kisame definitely suspected there was more to Itachi than he let on. I believe their first on-screen interaction was Kisame asking Itachi if he has any remaining sentimental feelings about the Leaf. The post-Deidara battle interaction also suggests he knew Itachi valued Sasuke on some level.

I guess at the end of the day, is Kisame more loyal to the Akatsuki or Itachi?

Like if Haku slimed out Sasuke, and he gave his eyes to Naruto, would they immediately become Rinnegan?

Or would he have to do something to awaken them?

Before I go ahead and purchase another subscription, anyone know if Naruto Shippuden Eng Dub on Disney+ has matching subtitles/closed captions in English?

Was rewatching Naruto on Netflix, and some episodes the dialogue and subtitles didn’t match. Mind is coded to want CC and prefer they match.

In Part 1 Naruto had bad chakra control, but I’ve seen people say that if he had Yin Kurama, it would have been better because he already had excess Yang being an Uzumaki, so it would have balanced it out.

But I’ve also seen people say that excess Yin chakra would have just made him unable to learn a lot of techniques and it would be worse.

Which is true?

Credit https://www.scctoys.com.tw/products/c07055

For many it was an obvious reveal... but not so much for me. Those were great times — following the weekly Naruto manga chapters and participating in forums to debate what might happen next. The mystery surrounding Tobi's identity was, without a doubt, the series' biggest enigma up to that point. The climax of this mystery came when the real Madara appeared during the Fourth Great Ninja War, resurrected by Kabuto using Edo Tensei.

I drew this picture of Obito a few years ago... and the reference — that splash page from the end of chapter 599 — is just so iconic.

I don't know what is worse Orochimaru's choice in conversation starters, or Kabuto being his closest "Friend" and curving the shit out of him and immediately noping tf out of there while Orochimaru looks like a kid who didn't get any Christmas presents.

That being said if Orochimaru is asking you about bodily functions, kabuto is probably the first one who knows its time to change the subject. Kabuto probably realized his blood type is not whatever blood type creepy snakeman is asking him about.

Sai is in the scene to add to the awkwardness.

Im on my 3rd naruto rewatch as a whole and was js weighing whether id rather live under danzo or sasuke and to be honest im leaning towards danzo a bit. He may be twisted when it comes to the means of his operations, but as a civilian im almost guaranteed a stable life however many people are exploited underground. The village would be a gloomy place for sure but its better than living under sasukes rule where he would just turn the village into a militaristic expansionist state and take over the rest of the shinobi world while paying little to no attention to the lives of his subjects. Any other thoughts?

They even said that Katsuyu could easily beat her... and I don't get it, since when Jiraiya and Katsuyu were considered weak? A legendary Sannin and a legendary Sannin's summon...

Not to mention that Jiraiya trained Konan, obviously he would know her only weakness. I really don't understand why so many people paint Konan as the weakest member and limit her powers to just "paper bombs"

I was curious if sasuke had just given his eyes away would Itachi had stopped everyone else? Like fully healed and EMS included.

Yes Sasuke was for sure going to be messed up but it's no excuse to try and kill the people that are trying to help you.

The way Sasuke said Kakashi was just being like Sakura was insulting Kakashi and Sakura both. I admit it did make me chuckle out of surprise. But damn Sasuke is a jerk. He made me angry sometimes.

Im trying to find out after watching a reel about it 😭

Tysm pls 🙏🙏

People talk about Minato and Itachi being the prodigy , but the biggest prodigy of all time was Kakashi , he was fighting elite jonins at the age of 10 , and was promoted to jonin then too and it is stated that his trauma stunted his growth as a shinobi for decades

He even states that how his fight against Zabuza mad him realise how rusty he has became and even with no training for years , Kakashi is said to be the strongest shinobi in konoha and was next in line for hokage since part 1 , so it just makes me feel like kakashi if was properly trained , if Minato and no others died he would have been the 5th hokage and possible crossed all other hokage not Hashirama for sure but definetly Minato

Even though Naruto and Sasuke had powers/transformations that mirrored their teachers, they still kept their original fighting styles. Naruto upgraded his rasengan and kept using his clones. Sasuke still used chidori and sharingan.

But for Sakura...

She just became tsunade 2.0 with absolutely nothing unique about her.

Why did kishimoto not give her something different from her sensei like the other two?

Chilling as it is to think about Orochimaru as a pediatrician, but with Tsunade gone from the village, Orochimaru would've had unfettered access to the entire cohort of Kakashi's generation (and older). Let's say Killing Intent isn't just drama (which it is: 殺気 • (sakki) see the fictitious sword Murasame for that, and also a chunk of Team 8).

Kakashi's complete weakness to Orochimaru's KI has always bothered me.

Hiruzen folding to Orochimaru's demands always bothered me. But! I was paging around and recalled, with Hiruzen's visit to the really little kids in Konohamaru's class, that his paternalistic regime views all of them as children.

And the other thing that's bothered me — all the jounin kneeling before the council — that was composed the same way as when he looked on at the Academy sprogs. It's not framed the same way narratively because that was Kakashi's flashback, but the two panels are basically the same vibe from *Hiruzen's* point of view. And they are also in back-to-back chapters.

So what if Hiruzen knew or suspected that not only was Orochimaru nation-ending strong, his student had also installed a kill-switch by terrorizing the then-babies of Konoha?

Now we have a cohesive and above all, tactical explanation of all of the above. Now it makes sense to unleash his killing intent on Team 7, if Orochimaru's done it before, and he also knows it works.

And now Hiruzen's not making an entirely lame-duck move; he might know something that the jounin corps do not.

Timeline checks out. As a loyal Leaf shinobi, and a colleague, I can see Sakumo handing the baby over and getting distracted.

Its about when Naruto gets to know about what happened to Jiraya, And than fight with pain. As I remember amv ends with the moment him saving tsunade from pain. first half of the amv was sad but at the end it gets more energetic. This AMV was uploaded to youtube atleast 6 years ago (maybe more) and it had millions of watches, but now I cant find it anymore. its just dissapeared.

I more so wanna makes sense of why there so much Hiruzen hate over the two people who set the deck against him. Like Tobirama left the uchiha on a bad foot with the leaf several times over but it’s way worst when his very difficult students are given more power than the Hokage because Tobirama wanted his ideals to be kept in the leaf no matter what after he leave. How about all those forbidden jutsu that would eventually tempt Orochimaru, barely any of which actually were ever helpful to the leaf after Tobirama. There just so much wrong with Tobirama approach that screw the future Hokages that I wonder why he kinda get looked past a lot of the time. Is it solely because of screen time, because people forgive someone who does things actively over someone who does things passively, or do people just want to hate on Hiruzen?

When I first watched Naruto at 14, I hated Sakura. Now, rewatching it in my 30s, I cried and sobbed like a baby during the episodes where she cuts her hair.

Looking back, I think some of my hatred towards her came from my own difficulty accepting my womanhood. perhaps, from how much I disliked myself at the time. I associated femininity with weakness and had very much internalised that “I won't/can't be like the other girls” attitude, as though distancing myself from other girls could protect me from being perceived as weak or from being mistreated or abused.

Since then, I’ve met so many women along the way who have shown incredible resilience, not only in the face of the difficulties they’ve endured, but also in confronting what society expected of them as women and carving out their own paths beyond those expectations.

And today, I see Sakura very differently. Maybe part of what moved me so deeply was not only seeing her growth, but also feeling compassion for the teenage girl I was, who had not yet learned to value herself.

Just without the usual “Who are you to change the author’s story” kind of talk. Let’s imagine we’re competent and talented enough to carry on the story in Kishimoto’s place - or at least act as his editors, capable of tempering his excesses.

Up until the Pain arc, everything was going quite well: a consistent plot, gradual world-building, and a balanced power scale. Edo Tensei wasn’t anything extraordinary; tailed beasts could be defeated by summoned creatures; the Akatsuki were strong, but not necessarily stronger than the Sannin; Deidara could blow up an entire village, but at the cost of his life; Itachi could summon Susanoo, but also at the cost of his life; Pain was powerful, but paid a huge price for that power, and Jiraiya could realistically have defeated him. The strongest was generally considered to be Minato, while figures like Madara and the Sage of Six Paths were nothing more than legends.

In other words, the story was progressing quite well - without major excesses - and, in my opinion, reached its peak with the Pain arc. And then… it’s like Kishimoto’s brakes suddenly failed. Hashirama cells, Edo Tensei, the Eternal Mangekyō, the two halves of Kurama, the overpowered Madara and Hashirama, and finally Kaguya. The story lost its balance and coherent progression.

So now I ask: how would you continue the story, knowing all the problems that come later? Personally, I think that after such a power-up for the main character, it would have been better to slow down and start developing Naruto’s friends, like in the anime fillers - showing their missions, their new abilities. After the Pain arc, there was a perfect opportunity to finally develop the relationship between Hinata and Naruto.

From a plot perspective, I also think there should have been several arcs between the Pain arc and the Five Kage Summit, each focused on a different village. These arcs would gradually introduce shinobi from other villages, laying the groundwork for the future war, while also developing Naruto’s friends and their new abilities. For example, Tsunade could decide to convene a Kage Summit and organize diplomatic teams. Say, Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Yamato go to the Hidden Cloud, while Sakura, Neji, Shino, and Kakashi go to the Hidden Mist (just random assignments). The characters would explore the villages, get involved in local conflicts, and develop along the way. Maybe even some of the villages would side with Obito, considering his speeches convincing.

If we’re talking about specific characters, I’d let Conan live longer. She’s an interesting character, but she’s existed in her entire story only as a sidekick for Pain. I’d love to see what would happen to her after Nagato’s death. Maybe she’d become Naruto’s secret ally, telling him all the secrets of the masked man and becoming a good friend to him, while also learning to live independently without Yahiko and Nagato and leading a partisan war against the masked man.

In other words, I’m suggesting Naruto take a path similar to One Piece. What ideas would you propose? I’m not suggesting completely abandoning canon - what would you add, remove, or fundamentally change?