Naruto 333

[Augury]

For some reason I found the "raikiri pierces all!" panel to be very funny.

On the "who hopes Kazuku will die or survive": I hope that Kazuku will die (or die after escaping) because Kakashi + shikamaru have been presented as nearly the strongest and most intelligent ninjas out of the introduced characters that the village has to offer. If Kakashi is unable to defeat someone who specializes in an element that lightning is strong against, then all of these eventual Akasuki death fights will drag out or have them die together in some massive Naruto-attack.

[SK]

But I have to doubt that Kakuzu will really die from this... because Hidan is already beaten completely, and it would just be boring to end it so easily. I am 99% sure that Kakuzu will not die from that.

Or, Kakuzu could be dead and Hidan will be an informer (or forced to be one).

[Stoopider]

Don't mind Kakuzu dying. Fitting end to it I personally find. Kakuzu ain't that cool to be honest.

THis would be a good time, where either more akatsuki's join in the battle, or Akatsuki stands up and takes them seriously. Because The Leaf has already annihilated 2 Akatsuki's where all other villages had failed.

[Raven]

Oh come on, Kakuzu won't die. That would be way too quick... and besides, when does a character ever die when the final statement of a chapter is "ZOMG IS HE DEAD?!?!!?"

[conquistaDan]

Well, he could though.Even though that black stuff seems to be a creature that has a mind of its own.Kakashi put his arm through his chest,that's gotta do something to him bad.

I agree with Stoopider.I would actually like to see him do more attacks and find out what that black stuff is.But i wouldn't mind him dying.

[Parkalash]

its way to early to think that Kakuzu is dead.. sence there hasnt bean a single stong enemy that has died in one episode or charpter.. that is simly not the way naruto works and never has.. the fights are allways to long and twists there and here.. i think that naruto and sakura will come and do the finnish move or something if not on both the guys then at least one of them.. that's a Fact

[Assertn]

Thinking back to the whole "rock paper scissors" thing with elements and how people feel they were introduced rather abruptly...Actually I don't think its quite as bad as you guys think.

Reflecting back on the hokage fight, for example, the 2nd beat the 3rd's fire with water, and the 3rd countered the 2nd's water with earth.

[Sidnne]

I don't think anyone actually believes that Kakuzu is dead, we are just hoping that he is.

But as others have said, nobody ever dies this quickly in the world of Naruto, unfortunately, except for maybe Hayate.

It is very unlikely that anyone will be killed until Naruto joins the fight, which won't happen until he completes his jutsu. His jutsu probably won't be complete for, at the earliest, two more chapters, which will likely be followed by several chapters of Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Yamato rushing through the forest to aide the others, while they try their best to hang on and survive against two Akatsuki members. We can probably expect this battle to be drawn out for about two months.

The worst part about this is that we will have to endure another of Kishi's hair-brained, cop-outs as to how Kakuzu, using an earth jutsu, managed to survive against Kakashi's lightning jutsu, after he just declared that earth could be defeated by lightning. Nevermind the fact that Kakashi's arm is through Kakuzu's chest.

The one thing I am hoping to come from this battle is that we get to see Naruto actually kill someone with his own hands for the first time.

[kimbap629]

i'm thinking they might pull off another itachi-kisame thing that they just did..

like when itachi and kisame were "made" while the real ones were far off...

so if that is true, then the kakuzu and hidan konoha were fighting were fake, and one could imagine how strong they really are~

OR

they could probably replace kakuzu with another guy like what they did with replacing that akatsuki member with "tobi"

[LobsterMagnet]

Seeing as how we know jack shit about Kuzuku there's plenty of room for Kishi as a writer to pull out just about anything from his ass to justify his survival.

Honestly I'm sort of looking forward to it, seeing as we've really not gotten any sort of background on the akatsuki members yet. Only one we knowing anything concrete about is itachi and even his motivations for joining them remain unclear (my guess is that he did it out of boredom).

So if whatever dues ex machina kishi chooses to use, I'm really curious to see what it is since it'll reveal at least something about Kuzuku's background and abilities.

[Assertn]

Seeing as how we know jack shit about Kuzuku there's plenty of room for Kishi as a writer to pull out just about anything from his ass to justify his survival.

Honestly I'm sort of looking forward to it, seeing as we've really not gotten any sort of background on the akatsuki members yet. Only one we knowing anything concrete about is itachi and even his motivations for joining them remain unclear (my guess is that he did it out of boredom).

So if whatever dues ex machina kishi chooses to use, I'm really curious to see what it is since it'll reveal at least something about Kuzuku's background and abilities.

I almost know more about Sasori than Itachi

[LobsterMagnet]

Oh c'mon we never really learned that much about Sasori.

Kishi never really fleshed out those flashbacks, all we got were the recurring image of him using his puppet parents to try and hug him. We never knew why sasori killed them.

We never really knew why he was even in the akatsuki aside from the fact that he was kage killer, plus with an arsenal of 300 human puppets who knows what kind other crazy things he might have developed

Honestly I had to chose who I'd rather see survive from that arc, I would have preferred to have Diadara killed off and Sasori continue to go on.

From what we've seen Diadara seems to be nothing more then a one trick pony.

[Assertn]

Oh c'mon we never really learned that much about Sasori.

Kishi never really fleshed out those flashbacks, all we got were the recurring image of him using his puppet parents to try and hug him. We never knew why sasori killed them.

We never really knew why he was even in the akatsuki aside from the fact that he was kage killer, plus with an arsenal of 300 human puppets who knows what kind other crazy things he might have developed

Honestly I had to chose who I'd rather see survive from that arc, I would have preferred to have Diadara killed off and Sasori continue to go on.

From what we've seen Diadara seems to be nothing more then a one trick pony.

Chiyo explained the culture of the sand village, and how the ninjas of sasori's era were raised to have no emotions and learn only to kill. Sasori's whole backstory is meant to be understood that he is a product of the environment he was raised in. I actually prefer his moments in the series more than most others because there was alot of depth in it without it actually being spoonfed like so many other aspects of the show.

I also like seeing fights where a major character is defeated before his abilities are fully utilized, just because its too cliche otherwise.

Edit: Also....kimimaro and haku had much less involved backstories too. Like them, I'm sure sasori's backstory will be twice as long in the anime than in the manga.

[bxgreatone87]

on the whole kakuzu dieing thing if he survives this kakashi always has his MS waiting to be used so there is no reason for this guy to live thru a fight with kakashi.

[mage]

I guess Kakashi's hand being bandaged had nothing to do with anything, then. What was the point of drawing it on him?

[toonice714]

Dont be so sure he wont die. Kakuzu even said that he has outlasted all of his other partners except for Hidan. Maybe he will die abruptly and Hidan will freak out and unleash some hidden potential.

[ChaosK]

Hidan's kinda like a necromancer...I'm seeing a resurrection of Kakuzu...

[Super5]

C'mon guys... Kakuzu is not going to die for a couple reasons:

1. Kakashi has not used whatever it was that Shikamaru gave him in the last chapter. Kishi does not leave plot points like this unused.

2. Kakashi has indicated that Kakuzu will die. Every time a character says this, the guy they're talking about doesn't die.

3. Kakuzu has not revealed his strongest ability yet... it is unlikely Kishi will kill him off before he's used his strongest jutsu/reached his full potential. Right before Chiyo and Sasori died, they both used their strongest techniques... there was no potential for further development for them, so Kishi felt he could kill them off IMO.

I doubt Kakuzu has shown his strongest move yet. Besides, what was this "ability" that he mentioned (the turn body into steel jutsu)? Could this indicate a blood-line limit? If so, it's about time we had another one.

Anyway, this is mostly a summary of what other people mentioned in this thread.

[.noname.silent]

^ did you read the manga and pay attention to what just happened in the last few pages of it?

[tehlegend]

i can see kakuzu surviving by patching up his wound with those string thingies... hell he fixed hidans severed head... i hope that he's atleast weakened but able to draw out his "ultimate ability" whatever that may be. and they survive and proceed to spread hidan out across the entire area of the forest to prevent future trouble...

or perhaps they kill em both, but their deaths trigger a signal to the other akatsuki, who send reinforcements... i dont think thats as likely because we didnt see it with sasori and deidara, but we didnt know about that communication method at the time either...