Naruto Chapter 309 Review

Summary
A shocked Nine-Tales expresses bewilderment over Sasuke's ability to see into Naruto's thoughts, cursing the Sharingan and the Uchiha bloodline. Sasuke quickly gains composure after his shock discovery and calls Naruto out about the truth of his secret. The Nine-Tales ponders Sasuke's power, calling his chakra more cursed than his own, likening him to a Uchiha Madara. Sasuke-hime takes offense to this and dispels the demon, causing its form to break apart. The Kyūbi continues to talk, surprised that Sasuke can suppress even his chakra. It leaves Sasuke with a warning: he will regret killing Naruto. The pair return to reality with Naruto spluttering on the floor and Sasuke looming over Yamato, his sword still impaling Yamato's shoulder. Sasuke looks over to Naruto, who continues to struggle to his feet, and Yamato takes advantage of this unguarded moment, ejecting the sword using his wood jujitsu and then attempting to form a cage around both he and Sasuke. Sasuke immediately breaks through this and takes higher ground. Naruto shouts desperately that Orochimaru will soon take Sasuke's body and Sasuke-hime dismisses it as acceptable, explaining that only the combined power of he and Orochi can defeat Itachi with neither of them being strong enough to do it independently. Yamato demands that they stop talking, expressing his restraint over using violent means to capture Sasuke - something he now wants to discard and get serious. Sasuke begins to perform a jujitsu and is quickly stopped by Orochi, ordering him not to use that technique. Sasuke-hime becomes petulant and demands Orochi lets go and Kabuto reminds him of his place and insists respect. Kabuto then reasons that Team Naruto must be kept alive to cause the Akatsuki grief, and by doing so it improves the chances of Sasuke's revenge by one per cent. The princess seems to accept this and Orochi calls for their exit. Still helpless, Naruto and the gang watch as the trio disappear into smoke.

Thoughts
We get a lot of insight to the over-arching (heh) pissing contest between Naruto and Sasuke this chapter. Sasuke's encounter with the Kyūbi made it clear that he has the ability to suppress even the Kyūbi's chakra. This certainly undermines the general assumption that Naruto has the potential to be the most powerful character in the manga (again assuming he works out how to fully tap the power of Kyūbi without going apeshit as a result). But then, the Nine-Tales only admits that Sasuke can suppress the Kyūbi power, not necessarily surpass it. I think the long-term growth we'll see from Naruto will be the general 'I have to tame the beast' type situation, only with more at stake (such is the way with action manga). And anyhow, even Yamato is able to suppress the Kyūbi, so I'm not sure how highly it speaks of Sasuke. Yet, Sasuke went inside Naruto's thoughts to do it, so this could potentially mess up Naruto's abilities in a future fight.

Conversely, perhaps this will cause Naruto to completely avoid using the Kyūbi power from now on and find it by other means. Smells like a good old-fashioned Shonen Jump quest for inner-strength to me! Rockin'. Who needs demon magic when you've got self-motivation, eh. ME, GOD DAMN IT. Demon magic is fifty-times cooler than any of this self-belief bollocks!

Anyhow, it was good to see Yamato assert himself, albeit somewhat failed. Sadly it led to more Sasuke self-righteousness (and general stupidity, if we're honest) and backed up a lot of what a commenter mentioned a few reviews ago: Sasuke really has no proper sense of self beyond the need for revenge. As much as I enjoy his menace and leet skillz0r this makes Sasuke a bit two-dimensional. And not in the ironic "he's a comic book character" sort of way. Of course, he fulfills his role quite well and I happily tolerate his existence, but he doesn't warrant the fanboyish pant-spraying he gets. Just a pretty face and some cool jujitsu. Wait, what the hell am I saying? That's awesome!

Overall another enjoyable chapter. I'm glad Kishimoto pulled his shit together for the final parts of this arc - just one more chapter to go and onward to newer pastures. I'm still waiting for a Sakura pound-fest, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. I wonder how Tsunade will react to all the shocking revelations, and what will happen to Sai now he's a two-time defector? A Sakura pound-fest, we can only hope.

---

Author: Masashi Kishimoto
Scanslation: Okyatoks

Comments

[bakaboobie]

And he's still on his quest to discover the fabled Mangekyou, when all the while Kakashi had it a few chapters earlier. Kinda makes the whole "I'm willing to sacrifice everything for that power" now, doesn't it?

As for Naruto, I hate to say it, but his endless tirade for Sasuke's ass is getting tiresome. He has spend more than 2.5 years (including pre-time skip) in chasing an Uchiha, for what? As a nin, he should have realized by now that Sasuke's a lost cause, that should be dealt with by the greater powers that be. Heck, Danzou had great foresight of the matter. If it weren't for Naruto's gay speeches to Sai, we would be done over this thing already and seeing some fights with the Akatsuki.

[Lupus]

I'm guessing Madara is the "third person" that Itachi mentioned long ago, though I wonder how wise it is to insert another Uchiha at this point, considering that the story is already getting a bit too long already. If Kishimoto is wise he'll disguard a couple of the side characters *cough* Sakura *cough*, because we really don't need another (1vs1)xN arc. For all the "teamwork" that keeps sprouting from the characters's mouths, all we see are 1vs1 fights.

I also noticed something peculiar... it seems most of the characters aren't really aware of how strong others are... Orochimaru is afraid of Itachi, and here we confirm that Sasuke and Oro holds the believe that even together, they won't be able to beat Itachi; yet, earlier we see Itachi running away from Jiraiya, thinking that he wouldn't be able to best him.

So how strong are each character really? We've only really seen Oro fight at full strength against the third. The way the story is developing Naruto would never hit 'kage'/Sanin level, so the Akatsuki fights would probably be 1 team vs 1 Akatsuki member.

Oops... rambled on for too long. Finishing thoughts: I think it would've been an awesomely surprising ending to the series if Sasuke just killed Naruto right here and now. Yes I really feel that Naruto is dragging on.

[Kabitzin]

Wasn't Itachi already a bit weakened already in the fight against Jiraiya? Also, I think the reason why Itachi ran was that 1) his mission wasn't to pick a fight, and 2) Jiraiya could have held out long enough for reinforcements to come. We don't know how much more powerful Itachi is than Orochimaru, so the difference might not be that great.

I agree though, it would be nice to see some battles that involve team vs. team.

[Hige]

bakaboobie: Mmm, I agree about Naruto wasting his bloody time with Sasuke. Even Sasuke is somewhat STFU over his lack of focus on becoming Hokage. But I dread to think what this little encounter between the two will do to Naruto now. And I liked Danzou's foresight, too. Too bad for Sai, eh.

Lupus: I've totally forgotten Itachi even mentioning them. Perhaps this underpins what you're saying about the story over-running. For a boys comic Kishimoto demands a lot of the attention, doesn't he. And nooo! Sakura redeemed herself with the Sasori fight. Granted she didn't do much alone, but it was refreshing for her to actually do something for a change. I'd rather Kishimoto sort out his current characters than introduce new ones. Sai is a good example of how that can fail... Good points on the team vs. team issue, though.

Kabitzin: Yeah, I agree too. We were so teased with the possibility of a Team Naruto vs. Sasuke battle, but it pooped out like most of the action in this arc. Irritating and worryingly suggestive of Naruto's age. :/

[Me]

Really...

I think Naruto can't accept the fact that Sasuke is never going to go back to them. I mean, look at the guy! Sasuke doesn't even seem interested that his friends are here to drag him back to Konoha.

Then again, I don't really believe that even with Orochimaru and Sasuke combined, Itachi can be killed. Then again, will Orochimaru *really* kill Itachi is another issue, I think.

It would be nice to see team vs. team fights, though. That is, if Kishimoto will allow such a thing. The Akatsuki are so shady. I wish I could see Itachi fight seriously - it would be nice to see the full extent of the Uchiha prodigy's abilities.

What a pity Sasuke vanished again. Well, I can only hope that Naruto succeeds in dragging Sasuke back to Konoha or else his 2.5 years are in vain and that's a little sad to think about.

[jj hermit]

every one knows that the fourth hokage is the chief of Akatsuki also ive read spoilers that Itachi is defeated by Kakashi and naruto

[urbankid101]

id be pissed of if sasuke came back

[Sworhdo]

Hmmm... something is amiss. If orochimaru is supposed to be stronger than Jiraiya, yet he is afraid of Itachi, and Itachi is afraid to fight Jiraiya (yes he is, cuz Jiraiya is dam pwnage), then doesn't that mean at current that Jiraiya is stronger than Orochimaru? Or maybe ninjas have different match-ups of strs and wknesses... hmm.. weird.

Spoiler here if u wan to read it
A lil hint for ya, a team battle does come on. Shikamaru's team + naruto fights An akatsuki pair, I think Hidan or smth, and Asuma gets killed but shikamaru and naruto defeat the Akatsuki in the end