Chapter is out in various places, I believe. Not much happens, although it looks liek Danzou uses wind chakra of some sort. And I was wrong, the ninja's attacking him were not konoha, but actually from the Woods country that apparently Danzou attacked at some point. He goes on to say that coming out in the open is risky, but worth it if he can gain recognition at the Kage summitt, for then the Jounin will have to accept him. Gaara looked cool as usual, and the Snow country leader Mifune (how original; a samurai named Mifune) seemed nice at least. Looks like everyone is going to be in the same place, if I understood that the Lightning ninjas were going to the Kage summitt as well. Naruto, Gaara, Taka, Lightning people, Danzou, etc etc. It's going to be a party!

I thought the snow samurai guys looked kind of like Nazi's, which was a little disconcerting. Also, do you think they are as strong as ninjas? I got that sense from the fact that the ninjas leave them alone. Could they be like Lee, where they just use taijutsu (but don't call it taijutsu) and therefore aren't technically ninjas? Or are we being introduced to an entirely new form of fighting here?

Yeah, the samurai guys seemed like an interesting change from the usual ninjas. Besides that I wonder how well this next arc will play out in this snowy area

I'm hoping the samurai do indeed bring a whole new class of fighting to the mix. Nice to see that not all the warriors are ninjas. I'm also hoping that means they could wipe the floor with ninjas who challenge them with swords. That would be interesting. Say the 7 swordsmen of the mist can't even touch them in sword combat; would lead to a surprising twist in the power hierarchy.

This arc could either be epic or completely pointless. The way things are being set up, with so many different (powerful) shinobi meeting for the first time, so many new characters and other stuff being introduced, it feels sort of like the Chuunin exams. But at the moment, it's hard to work out where exactly fighting will come into it.



I don't think messing up the power hierarchy this late in the series would be a positive thing.

Some Samurai being on the same level as the the 7 swordsmen though, would make these guys not quite utter losers. Seriously, they had better have some kind of chakra application.

For this manga feeling like it was close to finished about 10 chapters ago, it's looking more likely that it'll go on for quite a bit longer.

So we see the big reveal of Danzo's right eye. But what about his right arm? No comment there that came from? Or am I missing something...

The arm has been visible (with the bandages and bolts on) in a couple of chapters recently, though because the frames were heavily toned, it wasn't really very clear in the scanlations. His eye and arm both seem to work well enough for combat at this level, anyway. But there must be something wrong if they're usually covered up or not used.

Most likely, Sasuke is easily going to beat these samurai. One has horns, the others look exactly the same. When characters lack distinction, it usually means they're fodder.

But that's cool, I don't really care about them. More importantly, this arc is actually looking good. I'm surprised; after the reveal that Danzou is another sharingan, I wasn't expecting much, but I liked everything about this chapter, excluding Konohamaru.

All I really want to see is Gaara fight again.

I'm finally excited again after the complete drain on my soul that was the entire arc of Pain (I mean everything I found it all so utterly boring).

Why has Danzo got a sharingan? Any thoughts?

Yes, every significant villain in this series now must either have a Sharingan or want one. Pain's the exception. He didn't care about the Sharingan because his Rinnegan was amazing.

You mean Winnegan, amirite?

You have a good point about the faceless samurai thing. They probably are fodder. But I would expect a few of them to have some sort of role in this arc, simply because they have been mentioned. Kishi could have just had random ninjas, but instead he opted for the samurai. Simply by virtue of being different, we can expect that something will be made of them. If nothing else, then probably Mifune will fight someone, I would imagine. And perhaps Madara's plan will go into effect while the Kage's are at the summitt, and therefore we will see some sort of response from the guards as I expect that when the plan is enacted it will be dramatic.

Unless Mifune and the samurai turn out to be bad, it's hard to see what they'd be needed for. Even if we count Danzou and his duo as villains (which they aren't really just now), there will be more good guys at the summit than there are villains in the entire series (and I don't think Madara, Zetsu and Kisame are going to show up here). If a battle errupts, we don't need any more... except as fodder.

Presumably they will be the ones to try and stop Sasuke in his bid to assasinate 1 or more of the Kages. Also, what is to stop groups similar to the ninjas that attacked Danzou from trying something similar? Also, I would be surprised if Madara doesn't try something, given that he is activating his plan now. What is he going to do, attack Konoha? It's already in ruins, its current leader is gone. I guess if he just wanted to murder people then yes, that would be a good idea. But I get the sense he has grander plans than that. I really wouldn't be surprised if he DOES attack the Kage summitt, or seek to disrupt it in some way. Therefore, I would suspect that we will see something from the samurai.

Here's a thought - who do you think are the current villians / heroes?

Where do the likes of Sasuke and Danzo fit into those categories?

The only villains I can think of are Danzou, Kabutomaru, and what's left of the Akatsuki.

Sasuke hasn't done anything to qualify him as a villain yet, if he'll ever become one. So right now, he's playing the tweener role. Not really on the side of the "good guys", and not really on the side of the Akatsuki.

In other words, just ambiguous enough that Kishi could do whatever the fuck he wants with him.

Maybe Madara (or any of the remaining antagonists) is gonna kill the samurai, disguise as them, and do some evil shit.

Well, Sasuke's an antogonist at the moment, at least when it comes to thinking about future fights - he and Taka will probably fight some good guys at some point. It's hard to really call him a villain, though, since his main target is an ambiguous character at best, and he still hasn't killed anyone other than Akatsuki members.

Danzou is hard to call. His motives sound fundamentally good, although it's hard to say just how much he's really interested in his own power. And I'm not really sure who he'll fight, other than Sasuke (who's obviously pretty grey himself). But his ruthless manner still gives the impression of a villain... so I guess he probably will be? If Sasuke doesn't kill him now, he almost certainly will.

Really, though, I think we're down to:
- Madara
- Zetsu
- Kisame
- Kabuto

And that's about it.

Making everyone else a hero?

I wouldn't neccessarily call Kisame a villain. I think he has had less bad acts attributed to him than even danzou. He was in akatsuki, yes, but on the team with Itachi. Granted, he probably didn't know anything, but I think it is telling that he is nowhere to be found in all the dealings with Madara. I doubt we will see him as a real villain, but more likely as an opponent and perhaps future mentor to suigetsu.

I would definitely expect Danzou to become a villain. Kishi had done a lot of work to make him seem power-hungry and ruthless, and to downplay his desire to help the village.

I am under the assumption that the conclusion of the series will involve a rehabilitated Sasuke teaming up with Naruto to fight Madara. I can't see him as a villain. If I were to classify the characters on a left to right scale, like politics (with right being evil of course ) then Danzou at the moment is a moderate conservative and Sasuke is a moderate liberal. I expect that we will see them become more solidified on the right and left as we go along.

He murdered a daimyo, he's shown pleasure in attempting to kill and cut off the legs of Konoha shinobi, and the only loyalty he's ever shown is to Madara, a supervillain. He was Itachi's partner, and seemed to respect his strength, but he never showed any genuine concern for him and it doesn't seem like he was very affected by Itachi's death.

He's not the same kind of ambitious villain as Madara or Orochimaru, but he still has no real 'good' attributes and seems to enjoy killing and destruction. I suppose he's comparable to Deidara, really, except without the bishounen looks and comedic moments.


That most likely will be how the series ends. But Sasuke will probably fight Naruto before that.

You mean you think there will be a naruto sasuke fight, an arc of some length, another naruto sasuke fight, sasuke redemption, and then both attack madara? I am inclined to see just one more fight between the two.

I wouldn't say Kisame is any worse than suigetsu in his attitude and general evilosity. Do you consider Suigetsu a villain?

The problem I find is I have missed a huge chunk of "Part 2" or "Shippuden" or whatever, but I am having trouble placing the likes of Sasuke, Suigetsu and Sai (all the Ss ) on the Hero/Villian scale.

Reading Keres' "politics" analogy, I wonder if there is something like this (MQ) for Naruto lying around the 'net?

Kisame's a villain, he's a flunkie villain, but a villain nontheless. Like most flunkies, he's out of the loop and his actions are nowhere near as malicious as his leaders, but also like most flunkies he shows no glimpse of compassion or morality or anything remotely positive that would make the reader think that he might eventually become heroic.

Suigetsu displayed the classic shounen willingness to sacrifice himself for his friends when nearly got himself killed against Killerbee. That act alone makes him more heroic than some of the "heroes".

None of the villains are clear cut.

Kisame might show no compassion for his enemies, but neither did Suigetsu. And no one sane would.

Zetsu appears to only be around for the show. He hasn't shown any form of cruelty or will to fight.

Madara is similarly difficult to understand. He once took action, as Mizukage, and then retracted and became a watcher, to now again take action? For what purpose? If he wants to rule over the world, it'll lead to peace, regardless of it being driven by his own ambitions. But he seems more interested to see the world war as he once did. That would be his ideal world. (? And possibly it motivates Kisame who enjoys fighting and Zetsu's eating habits.)

Danzou would already know about Madara, as Itachi was a spy for Konoha. He's driven by his own ambitions, but still appears to work in favour of konoha's interests, using any means he deems necessary, however immoral they are.

Kabuto looked mad last time we saw him. He wanted to fight against Sasuke and Naruto. Meh, he's just another casualty. And Danzou wants to find him apparently.

Sasuke is also pretty much just running around wanting to kill people. But his situation ties him far better than Kabuto to the other actors.