Chapter 686: People who left and people who leave something
Even after reading the chapter I am not sure what the heck the title means. Anyway, spoilers and large images below the cut!
SUMMARY
The chapter opens on the Hokages talking to the Sage of Six Paths. The Sage appears to have just caught the Hokages up on everything that's going on with Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi (but maybe the Sage doesn't know about Obito? His name isn't mentioned).
Tobirama says that, you know, it really would've been nice to be told a little earlier that only Naruto and Sasuke can actually save the world. Would've been helpful! But the Sage says that that wasn't possible: he could only appear because they found half of Madara from when he was briefly the Jyuubi Jinchuriki. It had Hyuubi chakra and Madara and Hashirama's chakra, which of course is the same as the Sage's two sons' chakra. When all those chakra mixed together, the Sage could appear.
The Sage has apparently just explained some plan to the Hokages, and says that he will make the seals, but the technique he needs will require a huge amount of chakra, which he doesn't have: he gave it all to Naruto and Sasuke! They're running out of time, so he tells the Hokages to just do as he says.
Meanwhile, in the other dimension, Kagura is bouncing around destroying tons of Naruto's clones! Black Zetsu says that the real Naruto is the one the clones are protecting. He has the Gudoudama (not sure what that is). Kagura prepares to attack...
She starts flinging those sword things everywhere! Clones are being destroyed left and right. From the ground, Kakashi watches in worry. He can't see any opening to intervene (and since they're floating high up in the air, what would he even do...?). Distressed, he wonders if he'll have no choice but to just watch, helpless to do anything. After all, even Sakura and Obito are actually contributing something! He can't be the only useless one!
Kakashi thinks of how he was kind of useless as a teacher for Team Seven, and how he made many mistakes back when he was on a team himself with Rin and Obito.
Then, Kakashi is brought out his reverie when Naruto shouts that he won't lose yet! Kakashi realizes that this is no time to be sentimental--there's got to be something he can do! Just as he thinks this, Sakura, Obito, and Sasuke warp in from the other, other dimension.
Black Zetsu is shocked! Sasuke is back, which means trouble for him and Kagura! Naruto is also pretty surprised by their appearence, and is distracted just long enough for Kagura to...grab him with her apparently prehensile hair and stab him with the swords that come out of her palms. Okay, sure, that's honestly not weirder than anything else in this manga.
For a moment everyone looks on in horror, thinking Naruto has been killed...but actually, it was just a clone! Naruto gave it the Gudoudama on purpose to trick Black Zetsu and Kagura. Black Zetsu didn't even know he was able to do that!
Unperturbed by this narrow escape, Naruto thanks Sakura and Obito, and then asks Sasuke if he also thanked them properly. Sasuke just tells him to focus on the enemy. Meanwhile, Kakashi thinks to himself that somehow, Naruto has always been weirdly smart.
Meanwhile, Black Zetsu tells Kagura that now that Sasuke and Naruto are back together, they have no choice, they have to take them out right away. This is no time to worry about saving chakra! So Kagura opens her third eye...and turns the ground into triangles, which causes gravity to intensify! Again, not really that weird in this manga.
All of Naruto's clones fall out of the sky, and everyone is brought to the ground, barely even able to get to their knees because gravity is so heavy. But it seems that this has affected Kagura too! Apparently not even she has a magical ninja spell for selective gravity. But that's cool with her it seems, she just summons more hand swords and prepares to shoot them at Sasuke and Naruto! Remember kids, throwing your sword always works.
Naruto and Sasuke try to dodge, but gravity is super heavy and Sasuke's left eye still isn't working! Could this be the end for our intrepid heoes!? Haha, no, why would you even think that, don't be silly. They duck at the last second.
Kagura thinks to herself that gravity must have deviated the path of the blades. But no matter, she'll just adjust and do it again. But before she can skewer Naruto and Sasuke, Obito and Kakashi suddenly get up and start running. Which is pretty impressive considering that the rest of characters can't even stand. Kakashi says that there's still something he can do after all!
He can become Naruto and Sasuke's shield! And judging by the top-down panel on this page, he can also run really far in super-heavy gravity, which is pretty impressive. Like, these two outran swords that were shooting through the air at high speed! And they had to go a farther distance, too!
So Obito and Kakashi rush to protect Naruto and Sasuke, and suddenly they both have like...a psychic vision of Rin pulling them forward by their hands? Which lets them get there in time?
Kakashi mentally thanks Rin and tells her that he and Obito will join her soon and they'll all talk together. While he's busy making peace with death, Obito thinks to himself that next time, he'd really like to spend some time alone with Rin without Kakashi getting in the way. Activating his Kamui one last time, he sends the sword aimed at Kakashi to his Kamui dimension and then gets stabbed by the sword aimed at Naruto.
Everyone is shocked! So shocked that we get a panel that's just a montage of their shocked faces! Kakashi realizes that Obito has once again saved him from death while leaping in the way of it himself, just like that day so long ago where he got crushed by a boulder. Obito says his last words, telling Kakashi to stay here and not follow him into death just yet. And with that, the chapter ends!
REVIEW
The plot actually advanced a tiny bit in this chapter: it seems that the Sage and the Hokages have come up with some sort of plan to stop Kagura. It seems like, based on what the Sage said about how much chakra he needs, they might be planning to go into Kagura's dimension and find Naruto and Sasuke? Since those two are the only ones with the chakra that can seal her away.
The other plot advancement is that it appears that Obito has actually died! He's been on the verge of death for some chapters now, and it looks like with one last heroic sacrifice, he's finally gone. However, the whole sequence was a bit weird to me.
First off, when the heavy gravity activates, we clearly see that the characters cannot even stand. Even Naruto and Sasuke, who at this point are like the two most powerful ninjas on the planet (except for Kagura I guess), weren't able to get up and run away from the approaching swords. And yet, just moments later, Kakashi and Obito get up and zoom across the battlefield to reach them. And we actually get a top-down picture so we can see that, yes, they went a good distance. And Obito was at death's door already! I guess it's meant to be heroic willpower or whatnot, but it just seemed a little silly to me when it came RIGHT after we had a whole page just establishing how nobody, not even the Big Bad, can move.
And then, Obito using Kamui. I guess he can only use it on one of the swords? Why not, rather than run over, use that time to first Kamui one sword and then the other? Was he just out of chakra? Or, why not take the sword in the shoulder or something rather than the center of his chest? He apparently had time to run over and use Kamui, so you'd think he could've lined himself up a little better. I realize the intention is that he couldn't do that for whatever reason, but it just felt a tad contrived, is all. It's certainly a very dramatic scene, but it just felt a little forced to me.
I also found this a little hilarious, because Kakashi gets through a whole sequence of being all, "No, there's one last thing I can do, I'll at least protect you two!" And then...Obito does the whole thing by himself. Whoops, I guess there wasn't actually anything for Kakashi to do. Well, I'm sure he'll get to do something useful next chapter instead. I cracked up at Kakashi berating himself that when even Obito and Sakura are being useful, he has GOT to find something to do as well.
I found Kakashi's comment on how he 'couldn't do much' for Team 7 as a teacher pretty ridiculous. It's more that he chose not to do much, since he taught them barely anything. Most of what they can do, they either learned from someone else or were born capable of. But it's not like Kakashi tried to teach them and failed (as couldn't do much suggests), it's more that he doesn't seem to have bothered. If you think back to when they learned to climb trees, Kakashi observes them, thinks to himself that Sasuke's problem is he used too much chakra and Naruto's problem is that he used too little...but he doesn't tell THEM that. A good trainer, teacher, etc. is able to see where the student is going wrong and then give them suggestions to improve. Kakashi is evidently observant and knowledgeable that he could do this, but he doesn't.
There were also a few things I didn't understand in this chapter. What's the Gudoudama? I'm guessing it's something we heard of before that I've just forgotten? And at the beginning of the chapter, the Sage says that Madara and Hashirama's chakra was the same as his two sons. But I thought that Naruto and Sasuke were the new reincarnations of the sons, so...does this mean that each reincarnation gets to keep that chakra, rather than it passing from person to person?
Overall, there's some plot advancement in this chapter, and it seems like we're building towards some final battle with Kagura where the Hokages, Sages, and Naruto and Sasuke work together to seal her away. That will probably be pretty epic! The chapter was a bit melodramatic and felt somewhat contrived to me, though. Yes, I realize that's the norm for shounen manga, but this felt moreso than usual, I guess.
SUMMARY
The chapter opens on the Hokages talking to the Sage of Six Paths. The Sage appears to have just caught the Hokages up on everything that's going on with Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi (but maybe the Sage doesn't know about Obito? His name isn't mentioned).
Tobirama says that, you know, it really would've been nice to be told a little earlier that only Naruto and Sasuke can actually save the world. Would've been helpful! But the Sage says that that wasn't possible: he could only appear because they found half of Madara from when he was briefly the Jyuubi Jinchuriki. It had Hyuubi chakra and Madara and Hashirama's chakra, which of course is the same as the Sage's two sons' chakra. When all those chakra mixed together, the Sage could appear.
The Sage has apparently just explained some plan to the Hokages, and says that he will make the seals, but the technique he needs will require a huge amount of chakra, which he doesn't have: he gave it all to Naruto and Sasuke! They're running out of time, so he tells the Hokages to just do as he says.
Meanwhile, in the other dimension, Kagura is bouncing around destroying tons of Naruto's clones! Black Zetsu says that the real Naruto is the one the clones are protecting. He has the Gudoudama (not sure what that is). Kagura prepares to attack...
She starts flinging those sword things everywhere! Clones are being destroyed left and right. From the ground, Kakashi watches in worry. He can't see any opening to intervene (and since they're floating high up in the air, what would he even do...?). Distressed, he wonders if he'll have no choice but to just watch, helpless to do anything. After all, even Sakura and Obito are actually contributing something! He can't be the only useless one!
Kakashi thinks of how he was kind of useless as a teacher for Team Seven, and how he made many mistakes back when he was on a team himself with Rin and Obito.
Then, Kakashi is brought out his reverie when Naruto shouts that he won't lose yet! Kakashi realizes that this is no time to be sentimental--there's got to be something he can do! Just as he thinks this, Sakura, Obito, and Sasuke warp in from the other, other dimension.
Black Zetsu is shocked! Sasuke is back, which means trouble for him and Kagura! Naruto is also pretty surprised by their appearence, and is distracted just long enough for Kagura to...grab him with her apparently prehensile hair and stab him with the swords that come out of her palms. Okay, sure, that's honestly not weirder than anything else in this manga.
For a moment everyone looks on in horror, thinking Naruto has been killed...but actually, it was just a clone! Naruto gave it the Gudoudama on purpose to trick Black Zetsu and Kagura. Black Zetsu didn't even know he was able to do that!
Unperturbed by this narrow escape, Naruto thanks Sakura and Obito, and then asks Sasuke if he also thanked them properly. Sasuke just tells him to focus on the enemy. Meanwhile, Kakashi thinks to himself that somehow, Naruto has always been weirdly smart.
Meanwhile, Black Zetsu tells Kagura that now that Sasuke and Naruto are back together, they have no choice, they have to take them out right away. This is no time to worry about saving chakra! So Kagura opens her third eye...and turns the ground into triangles, which causes gravity to intensify! Again, not really that weird in this manga.
All of Naruto's clones fall out of the sky, and everyone is brought to the ground, barely even able to get to their knees because gravity is so heavy. But it seems that this has affected Kagura too! Apparently not even she has a magical ninja spell for selective gravity. But that's cool with her it seems, she just summons more hand swords and prepares to shoot them at Sasuke and Naruto! Remember kids, throwing your sword always works.
Naruto and Sasuke try to dodge, but gravity is super heavy and Sasuke's left eye still isn't working! Could this be the end for our intrepid heoes!? Haha, no, why would you even think that, don't be silly. They duck at the last second.
Kagura thinks to herself that gravity must have deviated the path of the blades. But no matter, she'll just adjust and do it again. But before she can skewer Naruto and Sasuke, Obito and Kakashi suddenly get up and start running. Which is pretty impressive considering that the rest of characters can't even stand. Kakashi says that there's still something he can do after all!
He can become Naruto and Sasuke's shield! And judging by the top-down panel on this page, he can also run really far in super-heavy gravity, which is pretty impressive. Like, these two outran swords that were shooting through the air at high speed! And they had to go a farther distance, too!
So Obito and Kakashi rush to protect Naruto and Sasuke, and suddenly they both have like...a psychic vision of Rin pulling them forward by their hands? Which lets them get there in time?
Kakashi mentally thanks Rin and tells her that he and Obito will join her soon and they'll all talk together. While he's busy making peace with death, Obito thinks to himself that next time, he'd really like to spend some time alone with Rin without Kakashi getting in the way. Activating his Kamui one last time, he sends the sword aimed at Kakashi to his Kamui dimension and then gets stabbed by the sword aimed at Naruto.
Everyone is shocked! So shocked that we get a panel that's just a montage of their shocked faces! Kakashi realizes that Obito has once again saved him from death while leaping in the way of it himself, just like that day so long ago where he got crushed by a boulder. Obito says his last words, telling Kakashi to stay here and not follow him into death just yet. And with that, the chapter ends!
REVIEW
The plot actually advanced a tiny bit in this chapter: it seems that the Sage and the Hokages have come up with some sort of plan to stop Kagura. It seems like, based on what the Sage said about how much chakra he needs, they might be planning to go into Kagura's dimension and find Naruto and Sasuke? Since those two are the only ones with the chakra that can seal her away.
The other plot advancement is that it appears that Obito has actually died! He's been on the verge of death for some chapters now, and it looks like with one last heroic sacrifice, he's finally gone. However, the whole sequence was a bit weird to me.
First off, when the heavy gravity activates, we clearly see that the characters cannot even stand. Even Naruto and Sasuke, who at this point are like the two most powerful ninjas on the planet (except for Kagura I guess), weren't able to get up and run away from the approaching swords. And yet, just moments later, Kakashi and Obito get up and zoom across the battlefield to reach them. And we actually get a top-down picture so we can see that, yes, they went a good distance. And Obito was at death's door already! I guess it's meant to be heroic willpower or whatnot, but it just seemed a little silly to me when it came RIGHT after we had a whole page just establishing how nobody, not even the Big Bad, can move.
And then, Obito using Kamui. I guess he can only use it on one of the swords? Why not, rather than run over, use that time to first Kamui one sword and then the other? Was he just out of chakra? Or, why not take the sword in the shoulder or something rather than the center of his chest? He apparently had time to run over and use Kamui, so you'd think he could've lined himself up a little better. I realize the intention is that he couldn't do that for whatever reason, but it just felt a tad contrived, is all. It's certainly a very dramatic scene, but it just felt a little forced to me.
I also found this a little hilarious, because Kakashi gets through a whole sequence of being all, "No, there's one last thing I can do, I'll at least protect you two!" And then...Obito does the whole thing by himself. Whoops, I guess there wasn't actually anything for Kakashi to do. Well, I'm sure he'll get to do something useful next chapter instead. I cracked up at Kakashi berating himself that when even Obito and Sakura are being useful, he has GOT to find something to do as well.
I found Kakashi's comment on how he 'couldn't do much' for Team 7 as a teacher pretty ridiculous. It's more that he chose not to do much, since he taught them barely anything. Most of what they can do, they either learned from someone else or were born capable of. But it's not like Kakashi tried to teach them and failed (as couldn't do much suggests), it's more that he doesn't seem to have bothered. If you think back to when they learned to climb trees, Kakashi observes them, thinks to himself that Sasuke's problem is he used too much chakra and Naruto's problem is that he used too little...but he doesn't tell THEM that. A good trainer, teacher, etc. is able to see where the student is going wrong and then give them suggestions to improve. Kakashi is evidently observant and knowledgeable that he could do this, but he doesn't.
There were also a few things I didn't understand in this chapter. What's the Gudoudama? I'm guessing it's something we heard of before that I've just forgotten? And at the beginning of the chapter, the Sage says that Madara and Hashirama's chakra was the same as his two sons. But I thought that Naruto and Sasuke were the new reincarnations of the sons, so...does this mean that each reincarnation gets to keep that chakra, rather than it passing from person to person?
Overall, there's some plot advancement in this chapter, and it seems like we're building towards some final battle with Kagura where the Hokages, Sages, and Naruto and Sasuke work together to seal her away. That will probably be pretty epic! The chapter was a bit melodramatic and felt somewhat contrived to me, though. Yes, I realize that's the norm for shounen manga, but this felt moreso than usual, I guess.