Naruto Chapter 436

[DeathscytheVII]

It was a good chapter. Naruto didn't answer Pains question with "shounen heart" which was surprising. Something about the "I just don't know.." was pretty cool. It does show that Naruto has finally been forced to do a little thinking that could be considered "outside of the box" for him.

It was my favourite line too, shows that despite his power and being a central character, he's still a kid, not some unflawed all knowing main hero.

[FireEmblem]

Even with everything that's not so great about the manga, I think I'm starting to gain respect for how the story's told. Without using first person narrative, we're seeing the naruto world through the eyes of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. As the questions the situations they have to deal with become more complicated, the questions they have to answer become more difficult, the line between right and wrong becomes blurred, and the world matures. Notice that it's never a character like Kakashi or Jiraiya answering the questions or dealing with the situations. They're purpose has mostly been to keep track of the young ones. So basically, the young ones develop the world for us, and the mentors of the young ones speak to us about their development. That's not half bad.

I'm glad someone else came out with this.

I was thinking about what the whole story of this manga was, and why it seemed very convoluted at times. I realized that it was because in reality, the main characters in the story really DON'T know anything! Like you said, it's never Kakashi or Jiraiya really answering the tough questions. The Genin 12 which I still feel are the characters that the story revolves around, have basically lived in the sheltered image of "Konoha" and may or may not come to see that image start to fade into what the reality of things is. That's what I look forward to the most in this series.

In a sense Konoha would represent a modern-day World Power. The people of Konoha want to do good and want to be good, but in the world, not everyone can prosper at the same time. There always has to be someone suffering at the bottom for there to be a top. My guess is that Naruto's giant prophecy thing is that he is going to somehow stop that in the Ninja world.

But yeah, pretty surprising to not see him shouting at Pain. Although I do strongly feel that if Naruto didn't continuously follow his "way of the ninja" that it would hurt the potential for him to actually change anything in the Narutoverse in the future. So while it can sometimes be annoying, it is the core of his character. To not go back on his words and all that junk.

[iMUSTbeTHEdevil]

Good chapter.

I dont know if I like Naruto losing his conviction or not. Does show him growing up though and facing reality instead of blindly fighting like a child.

And it would make sense that Nagato would be frail and weak considering he has no reason to train or keep his body up when all he needs is his mind and other people's bodies

[Abdula]

I think perhaps you have it the other way around and he began utilizing others people's bodies because his own was so frail and weak, because regardless of whether he can use other bodies or not no one would render themself completely helpless. And as Jiraiya implied, of the three, Konan, Yahiko and Nagato, Nagato was by far the strongest so something must have happened to make his body the way it is.

[Dansetsu]

I think perhaps you have it the other way around and he began utilizing others people's bodies because his own was so frail and weak, because regardless of whether he can use other bodies or not no one would render themself completely helpless. And as Jiraiya implied, of the three, Konan, Yahiko and Nagato, Nagato was by far the strongest so something must have happened to make his body the way it is.

Are you saying that Nagato is the ultimate nin and genjutsu master because he's so weak and frail? I guess that could make sense.

[Patriot]

I guess Naruto could leave this arc with the ability to defend against Genjetsu, which would make sense heading into Sasuke.

[Assertn]

Doubt it. We already know that Nagato's jutsus use a lot of chakra, and that some of the truly devastating ones seriously reduce his lifespan. I'm sure he's gone over-the-top a few times and weakened his own body.

[Abdula]

I have trouble believing he did that to himself.

[Assertn]

Why? It seems so obvious to me, that I can't even imagine why you wouldn't be able to believe that.

[Kagemane_no_Jutsu]

Yeah he's the type that would think his self destructive God powers would have a lot more priority over his own personal well being for sure.

[Yukimura]

I'd think so too, Pain seems to have his mind pretty made up on what he wants to do and he strikes me as a guy with the resolve to push himself to or over the limit in order to achieve his goals. Konan is in a position to know Pain better than anyone we've seen so far and she seems to know when to be concerned by what Pain does and how it will affect him long term.

[Dansetsu]

Theory

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Naruto isn't getting out of this without some help, Deva is just too powerful.

In his current state, Naruto lacks Sage Mode, and his hands are compromised, not to mention all of his allies are out except Ma, she needs to get her ass in gear and summon the last KB to help Naruto if he has any chance of getting out of this without relying on the Kyuubi or someone else.

My money atm is Nagato is found by someone and Konan fights to protect him so we see a little more of her in action. I'd be interested to see Shika use his Shadow Jutsu on Konan and then have her disintegrate into paper, he'd be like "O, that's troublesome."

People are saying that it wold take away from everything Naruto has done if someone helps him defeat Pain, he's pushed Pain farther than anyone we have seen yet, and he's only 16 mind you. Everything he has done in last 30 chapters has been crazy and he still has more too do.

On a side note:I'm beginning to think that Madara sold poor Nagato a dream. We all know that Madara doesn't want peace at all, this is probably the reason Konan seems to have a distaste for him, she seems the more reasonable of the two.

[Assertn]

Both madara and nagato seem to share a common belief that bigger nations result in bigger wars.

[poopdeville]

Both madara and nagato seem to share a common belief that bigger nations result in bigger wars.

They're pretty much right, I'd say.

I wasn't so pumped by this chapter. Seeing that Naruto had matured was neat. But this isn't the first time he's been mature lately. Worse yet, nothing happened except for Pein's speech. And even that wasn't informative. We already knew Pein wanted the Bijuu to create a super weapon so that he could intimidate the world into peace.

I suppose the speech did introduce the theme that both Naruto and Pein are "the same" -- orphans, Jiraiya's students, seekers of peace. Even their names are similar. In other circumstances, they would see each other as brothers or friends. I think the reason why Naruto said "I don't know" is because he realizes Pein is right. Naruto was fighting to avenge Jiraiya and Kakashi and Konoha (and to protect his friends, and to save his own life...) It is perfectly natural that he would, but Naruto hadn't realized he had become a part of a cycle of violence that will continue because of his actions.

Pein clearly thinks he is a Buddha, and that he will use his Rinnegan (literally, "Samsara eye") to transcend the Samsara -- the chaotic flow of the world, and the conflict it breeds.

But in the end, nothing happened.

[rockmanj]

While re-reading this, I was reminded of Final Fantasy X...like a lot.