My theory on the manga's short term future

[RamenNoodles]

So I read 196 and was blown away by how awesome it was and I really can't wait for the next one. Anyway, I was thinking about it after I finished and my theory is that all of the Genin's will either be incapacited by the sound nins or they will die, like it seems Chouji did. It is very clear that Neji is not going to be able to pull off any type of win against this guy he's fighting at all without killing himself by extracting too much chakra or at least being left nearly dead. Whether he defeats the guy is still up in the air to me. If he does lose however and he does die, I really don't think it would be so bad because it would be a step away from going down the DBZ path. Basically I'm thinking that In the end it will be a bunch of dead or immobile genins and a bunch of dead or immobile sound nins and Sasuke and Naruto will be left to square off in a (to quote Bill and Ted) most excellent battle (possibly with the Orochimaru watching over it).

Well. either my theory will be confirmed next manga or it will be denied. I just though you'd like something to scratch your brains with until next friday.

[Insomniac]

i strongely believe that Naruto and the genins will fail this mission, it'd be stupid if they dont. They will get far but it definatly wont be a victory for them.
if it ends up being Naruto vs Sasuke - Sasuke either wont lose or will escape, theres no way Naruto will kill him or even bring him back to the leaf.
Also it seems that there are much stronger members of the sound team to contend with which brings up the issue of even if Naruto does catch up with Sasuke theres a big chance of everyone being too wounded to even do anything about it.
i wont mention anything but look closely at the last page of the recent manga, look at the stance and where a certain object is - its obvious that theres going to be a turn around in the next chapter

[KevKoN]

well he did say "naruto ... if you were me ... what would you do." so maybe neiji used bunshin no jutsu, or maybe he even learned kage bunshin. but of course he also said "since i can't avoid these attacks anymore..." which made me beleive he was gonna do something desperate like get hit on purpose, but somehow not make it kill him, then surprises the enemy somehow. i dont know, im all confused and i just wanna see 197

[Mut]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (RamenNoodles @ Dec 6 2003, 02:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> So I read 196 and was blown away by how awesome it was and I really can&#39;t wait for the next one. Anyway, I was thinking about it after I finished and my theory is that all of the Genin&#39;s will either be incapacited by the sound nins or they will die, like it seems Chouji did. It is very clear that Neji is not going to be able to pull off any type of win against this guy he&#39;s fighting at all without killing himself by extracting too much chakra or at least being left nearly dead. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
your theory fails cuz it isn&#39;t clear that &quot;Neji is not going to be able to pull off any type of win against this guy he&#39;s fighting at all without killing himself by extracting too much chakra or at least being left nearly dead.&quot;

what makes you think that this will happen when naruto and sasuke were both basically in the same situation with haku?

even though neji isn&#39;t a main character, i strongly believe that none of the genins will die cuz of the fact that they are there to support the growth of naruto&#39;s characteristics, personality, etc...naruto wouldn&#39;t be the same character if neji, shika, chouji, or whoever wasn&#39;t presented in the story.

[Chi Chi]

I&#39;m thinking that they&#39;re all going to win but be very wounded except Naruto. Kiba deals with the last of the Sound Nins while Kabuto arrives. Kiba wins but is wounded badly. Kabuto and Naruto start a fight and Naruto has to go full out (with as many Fox Chakra as in the Neji or Haku fight) The fight is even but using the ransengan, Naruto gains the upperhand. Kabuto heals himself and flees with Sasuke. Naruto then finds Kiba dying, then suddeny out of nowhere, a Konoha Medic nin appears. He heals Kiba and they track back to find all of their friends. They take them to Konoha hospital because the medic-nin doesn&#39;t have enough chakra to heal them completely. Meanwhile, Tsunade is operating Lee.

A couple of days pass and the normal life returns to Konoha. Tsunade, Kakashi, Jiray and the other jounins are studying data from what happened to Sasuke. Then we go to Kabuto and Sasuke training while Itachi is watching. He then thinks about why Oro left the Akatsuki (sp?), he goes to see him and sees that he can&#39;t do a thing. He decides not to kill him, the friendly guy he is. Then we see Lee and Neji wake up, then after a few minutes they see each other. After that it turns out Lee is okay and Neji and Lee talk about their rivalry.

That is why I think and it would give us another 30 chapters at least.

[RamenNoodles]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> your theory fails cuz it isn&#39;t clear that &quot;Neji is not going to be able to pull off any type of win against this guy he&#39;s fighting at all without killing himself by extracting too much chakra or at least being left nearly dead.&quot;</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

I don&#39;t know why everyone is always out to disprove everyone elses theory. What you wrote above claims to disprove my theory. However, What you wrote doesn&#39;t disprove it. Neji says that his &quot;chakra is nearly depleted.&quot; It is repeated a few time throughout the course of the series and the manga that when a ninja uses up all of his stamina and turns it all into chakra he will die. Neji is currently getting the crap kicked out of him and unless miraculously he manages to pull of a move that can stop the sound guy without using too much chakra, the only way he can defeat him is by using up a great deal of chakra.


</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>i wont mention anything but look closely at the last page of the recent manga, look at the stance and where a certain object is - its obvious that theres going to be a turn around in the next chapterra then he will die.</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

I did look at that last page again and I see what you mean. He&#39;s definitely about to pull out some nice moves, but I think it will kill him.

[jing]

hm... if neji dies, i quit reading naruto.

[RamenNoodles]

some fan you are.

[Mut]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (RamenNoodles @ Dec 6 2003, 04:14 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I don&#39;t know why everyone is always out to disprove everyone elses theory. What you wrote above claims to disprove my theory. However, What you wrote doesn&#39;t disprove it. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
GG HYPOCRITE.

[Jiraiy4]

i think Neji has a too much of an important role to Naruto&#39;s (the ANIME not the kid himself) future, so i dont think he will die. I mean cmon now...Neji is the reason Lee got so strong, Lee had a person to chase after which led him to working hard and achieving those accomplishments, and obviously...he will fulfill Hyuga Hizashi&#39;s dream. I bet Neji will be the one who ends the Hyuga hatred and bring a new system thats better and stuff. Thats why i dont think Neji will die, and after that Naruto flashback...i think he&#39;ll fight his ass off like naruto, lee, and hinata did. I bet he&#39;ll be knocked out after he wins but he wont DIE...if he does..den dats juss way too gay.

[RamenNoodles]

You know what Jiraiy4? You&#39;re probably right. He is an integral part of the plot and they&#39;ve invested way too much time describing his past just to kill him now. I don&#39;t know. I just wanna see a good anime where they aren&#39;t afraid to kill off a main character, like Bebop and Hellsing. Sure, they aren&#39;t even in the same genre but it sure would help it from going down the DBZ path which everyone is so afraid of.

and I&#39;m a hypocrite Dazzz? I just told you the facts man. what I said before is true, if Neji uses much more chakra he&#39;ll die. that&#39;s a fact. I certainly think it&#39;s possible that he&#39;ll survive and win, as I just wrote. I also think it&#39;s possible he&#39;ll die and win. I also think Chouji is dead, but we&#39;ll just have to wait and see if I&#39;m right. I just think people should be more open to main characters dying. You were talking about how the other characters help develop Naruto&#39;s character right? Well, Neji dying could also help develop Naruto&#39;s character by making him into a martyr. Im not trying to say you aren&#39;t right. You very well could be and are pretty likely to be. Im just trying to defend my position and say that I could be right as well.

[Nine Tailed Demon]

For a show, DBZ, to be soooooooo bad. A lot of people have watched it.....

[jing]

Why would Neji using up chakra kill himself? We <u>had</u> seen Naruto in the anime wear himself out until he has no chakra. However, he didn&#39;t die from that.
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>some fan you are. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

Dude, im Naruto fan. But it doesn&#39;t mean I always have to like what kishimoto gives me. I don&#39;t like it when everybody freaking dies all of a sudden. For me, Choji&#39;s death is good enough, he proved a point. Didn&#39;t have to go as far as Neji. Thats TOO far.

[Dragonblade]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Nine Tailed Demon @ Dec 6 2003, 08:07 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> For a show, DBZ, to be soooooooo bad. A lot of people have watched it..... </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
It&#39;s not about being bad. It&#39;s about what is cliche, over done and predictable. Or otherwise out-right boring.

[Jiraiy4]

you dont die from wasting chakra...we&#39;ve seen many ppl use up all their chakra and not die. Naruto wasted his chakra MAD TIMES, especially wen he was working on the rasengan, also Sasuke with Chidori, and Itachi with his menge sharingan. Im pretty sure Neji won&#39;t die from wasting chakra, but he can die from all that puncture on his body. Using up all ure chakra doesnt mean its over, chakra is juss inner energy, you can still use taijutsu with it.

[Immortal Boner]

If Neji dies it would just plain suck. But I could also see the point of Kishimoto doing that. By having Chouji and Neji dead (perhaps even Kiba), it would help shut the door on Sasuke&#39;s choice. Leaving him further away from any possible form of redemption.

Also, there can be a big development when Naruto learns that his companions are dead for trying to save somebody who doesn&#39;t even want to be saved. Will his vow for keeping Sasuke safe for Sakura be broken? Big drama can take place with the death of a few side characters.


And things are continuing to look grim for Neji. Somebody mentioned this on another forum but I&#39;ll state it here. The fact that the seal on Neji&#39;s forehead is revealed, could be to show him finally being free of it when he dies. That&#39;s a very clever way of making death his death seem meaningful.

Though let&#39;s say he survives. He&#39;s still going to lose an arm which would suck just as bad (how can you even heal from a big hole like that on your shoulder? Tape? Play dough?).

[RamenNoodles]

Well Jiraiy4, Since I&#39;m home from college this weekend and I have all the manga and anime there and I have none of those things here and a 56k modem to cap it off, I can&#39;t find the example I was thinking of, therefore I can&#39;t come up with a rebuttle to your argument. So... until monday.

[Delirium]

All I know, is it&#39;s a good thing Neji doesn&#39;t know about the Nine tails. Because what Naruto would do is use the Nine tails to keep going. Neji doesn&#39;t have access to that

As for Neji&#39;s arm, he won&#39;t lose it if he survives. Medic nins can heal that type of stuff. If they can heal a half paralyzed Lee, I&#39;m sure they can patch up a small hole in the arm.

Personally I thought that showing the mark was meant as more of a reminder of what the Jounin guy told Neji after Naruto beat him, and so that at the same time Neji could see the leaf forehead protector and remember stuff about his dad. The forehead mark is a great way to show if he&#39;s dead, or near enough to it to be freed of his cage though.

I want Neji to win, if only because I really don&#39;t like this spider guy, he just seems kinda stupid.

Though with the deaths of characters, what would happen to Sasuke if him and Naruto are fighting, Naruto is using the Kiyubi chakra, and then hears about Neji, Chouji, and maybe Kiba/Shikamaru&#39;s deaths? He thought Sasuke was dead and he flipped, what if he thought all of them? Would he be able to retain enough control to NOT rip Sasuke to shreds?

Oh, and the comparisons to DBZ, DBZ is a fairly good and decent show. It&#39;s major fall back is how slowly thinsg move at times, and the fact that Goku is the only one who can win apparently, but then again it&#39;s a kid show. DBZ does however have some of the BEST character development in it of all time, and it&#39;s the char development and going along the journey with them that kept a lot of people coming back for more, not the fights. Sure they wanted to see Super Saiyan Goku beat Frieza, but they wanted it as much because it looked cool, as they did because of how Frieza just wiped out Krillin (or Kuririn in japanese version). There&#39;s something to be said about connecting to characters.

Naruto is doing it to, the Neji fans really want Neji to pull through. A lot of people are pissed off at Sasuke for taking the easy way out. And so forth. Random relations to DBZ, I&#39;d say Naruto is the equivalent of Goku (Fun loving guy, eats a lot, and is able to draw on lots of strength from his convictions and desire to defend his friends.), Sasuke is Vegeta (Arrogant, thinks he&#39;s the best and has trouble getting over the fact that someone (Goku/Naruto) is better than him). Neji would be Future Trunks (doesn&#39;t really play around, just tries to end the fight. Able to realize when he&#39;s outclassed and tends to give up there (though he is fighting on now).Kiba, Shika, and Chouji would match up with Tien, Krillin, and Yamcha in that order (Though Shika obviously has advantages over Krillin, and the power-scales are a lot more balanced in Naruto).

Finishing my DBZ rant, Kishimoto has already claimed to be a huge fan of Toriyama&#39;s work and Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z. And frankly, I don&#39;t see anything wrong with him putting his own twist on a story heavily inspired by it. Lots of good in DBZ, it&#39;s just funny how many american anime fans hate DBZ because they still want to be different (not saying anyone here is like that. But I know people who hate DBZ because it&#39;s &quot;main stream&quot; they never seem to get that most anime that make it over here, is/was &quot;main stream&quot; in Japan for a while, why a company took a chance on it

[Mut]

if you don&#39;t like dbz, it means one of two things, or even both:

you are like 14 right now so you haven&#39;t watched it when you were little and your view on current anime ruins how cool dbz is (cuz dbz is so out of date).

or

you are just straight up homo.

i mean cmon, dbz has done more for this world than what you and your family did, is doin, or could ever do.

[DeathscytheVII]

If neji dies, chalk up another reason for hating Sasuke