Chapter 235 Discussion

[Winged Dancer]

Mmmh, I think Itachi may not appear in the story for a while... he's the most important member of the Akatsuki, of course, but there are nine of them to talk about, and it seems the one we'll see the sooner is plant-guy.

And I agree that Naruto, given the kind of manga it is, needs to have some light-hearted chapters, but that can be done in various ways - for instance, when Jiraiya took Naruto to find Tsunade, there were various chapters completely dedicated to learning the Rasengan even before they even found Tsunade. Those were pretty light-hearted (specially if you don't count Itachi's appareance there) but not stupid. They relaxed the tension and the plot but didn't make it annoying.

So I'm kinda hoping the next arc will start like that too - some kind of traning or a mission that starts light-hearted enough and then transforms into something serious.
But I still say "ligh-hearted, not "ooh I'll cut these weeds faster than Sasuke!!" stupid.

[kAi]

well there are still things that need to be sorted out.
naruto and sakura - which seems to be done next episode.
teams - whats going on with teams.
orochimaru and sasuke - what happens here.

[LobsterMagnet]

Nah I beg to differ. I think that the beginning of the most recent ark in the manga wasn't very light hearted. It starts off with the Naruto and Sasuke fight forcing sasuke into having a huge inferiority complex by getting his ass whopped by his brother and seeing naruto in action against Garra. I just goes down hill from there with Sasuke getting whooped by the four sound nins. Then thats followed by the very emotional plee from sakura telling Sasuke to stay. It was pretty dramatic and I liked it. New opening suited the tone of the next arc very well.

[Winged Dancer]

...you are right LobsterMagnet. I hadn't thought of it - I was clearly thinking of eh, Jiraiya, I guess (it's not my fault he's so cool, you see), and didn't think of this arc's beggining... lets also say that the last one didn't have that much of a wrap up (the wrap up was te beggining of the new one) while this one does, so who knows what to expect...?

[Raven]

My biggest concern is that Akatsuki has so many as-of-yet unintroduced members - and if they are to have any impact on the story then they will all need a relatively good level of character development otherwise they'll just seem like nobodies.

How long is this going to take? They can't all appear together simultaneously because there would be too much for the reader to comprehend at once, especially if they're all supposed to be fairly strong. Alternatively, if we meet two of them at a time then I'd imagine it'd have the effect of "oh wow, here comes another Akatsuki pair. Ho hum." Either way I think it will have a slightly negative effect no matter how it's done.

I guess the overall length of this manga will probably be that of One Piece or longer. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

[Elessar]

As far as we know, they are distributed throughout the country, so many of them appearing shouldn't happen.
Irtachi and Kisame (?) have left for "that place" and we now have an replacement team to deal with. After that, most likely some new intelligence reports will have arrived to full us in about the other members. There won't be much development for them, as they aren't major villains. Introduction with a brief background check and finished.
But over the time these short briefings will develop the "character" Akatsuki for us - the major villain that gets "screentime" (pagetime? space? dunno) and development. But I am quite sure that it will center around Itachi, for him we have the richest background and he provides a link between Naruto's Akatsuki arc and Sasuke's big revenge side arc, bringing their rivalry back into focus.

[LobsterMagnet]

I beg to differ again. Itachi is an intersting memeber of the Atsuki but I don' t think he's the most important. Why do I say this. Quite simply we don't know anything until Kishimoto says so. For all we know maybe the recently introduced venus flytrap man has a strong connection to kakashi's past and he killed Kakashi's best friend Obito? Or maybe venus flytrap man is actually naruto's father.

The point I'm trying to make is that we don't know who is the most important or the most powerful until kishimoto wants us to. So please don't go and declare that itachi is the strongest or he's the most important until all the cards are layed out on the table. The biggest question I have is what the hell is the purpose of the organization. What are they trying to acheive? Why are so many powerful ninjas agreeing to run around as errand boys? Well guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Mut]

itachi IS the most interesting and important member of akatsuki (excluding orochimaru since he not a member anymore) just for the fact that he is sasuke's brother and he is after naruto. sasuke happens to share almost half of the naruto storyline and if there is a character that is somehow related to BOTH of the two main characters of the story, how much more important can that character get?

the only way another member of the akatsuki is more interesting than itachi is if that member is directly related to naruto in some way, and i highly doubt that.

btw, itachi is the strongest character we've seen so far. no denying that.

[LobsterMagnet]

Venus fly trap man could have a connection to the Fourth. Maybe he's naruto's uncle. Or mabe he's narutos father and he had to abandon naruto in order to join the organization in the first place. How can you say that itachi the most interesting member of the atsuki when you don't know who the other members are for crying out loud.

For all we know maybe naruto has a brother or half brother who is either in the organization or maybe even the head of the organization. Maybe The Fourth is still alive and he runs the atsuki. If that was the truth something tells me peope would be a tiny bit more intersted in him then little itachi.

I've said this once and I'll say it again don't make any definite statements until ALL the cards are layed out on the table. Oh and if itachi is so damn powerful and god like someone please tell me why he is running around doing errends as opposed to taking over countries or some other activity that would be more befitting of a god like character.

[PossiblE]

Itachi is the strongest character introduced so far.
The reason why no one can tell you why he is running errands for Akatsuki is because we don't know yet.

[Mut]

Originally posted by: LobsterMagnet
Oh and if itachi is so damn powerful and god like someone please tell me why he is running around doing errends as opposed to taking over countries or some other activity that would be more befitting of a god like character.

how should anyone know that? everyone has their own objective. just because someone is very powerful that doesn't mean they are always running a huge organization or whatnot. that's just the stereotype bad guys have. itachi is so badass, he can do whatever he wants.

[Elessar]

Hey LobsterMagnet, is it so hard to understand that we take the information available at this point of time and extrapolate the future on this data?

Of course the head of akatsuki could be the fourth, Naruto his son and a time traveller who is Jiraiyas father (time predetermination paradox). The venus guy could, for all we know, even be Obito and Kakashi have an affair with Shitzune. Maybe in 237 whole Konoha is destroyed by a meteor shower and the manga ends.

It is always hard to predict something, especially the future. All the above stated is possible but reviewd at currently available information highly unlikely. Right now we have two main characters, Naruto and Sasuke, who up until now shared the same storyline. Their storyline has now split and the characters with the strongest relations to both main characters are:

- Kakashi as their former sensei and his mysterious Uchiha connection. He is on the Naruto side.
- Orochimaru, wants to kill Naruto because he could get troublesome and is now Sasuke's mentor. He is on the Sasuke side.
- Itachi, wants to abduct Naruto and is wanted dead by Sasuke. Roaming freely around the story, is on neither side but a common enemy of both. Member of the unknown Akatsuki.

Because of the least information regarding him, the strongest connection to both and the fact that he is not bound to one of the two sides gives him the biggest potential to have a major influence in the continuation of the storyline. Of course with the next chapter that could change, but right now he is a very important character because we can make a plausible mid-term prediction that he will have a big impact to the story of Sasuke (no prediction beyond the point were he reaches oro's hut) and Naruto (we can't even predict what he and Sakura will talk to each other).

Apart from some fight scenes, so far there hasn't been a single Deus Ex Machina to the big overall story, everything has built up over a rather long period of time. As this can be regarded as Kishimoto's way of doing things, a sudden appearence that changes everything completely is unlikely.

[LobsterMagnet]

Honestly I don't think were going to see sasuke for a long ass time. Most likey the next arc will play out and then we will have a time jump. One of the things we will see in the time jump is an older Sasuke with a new costume after he's spent several years training with Orchimaru. He's not going to play a big role in the story for quite some time. (On a side note IMO it would be awesome if Orchimaru makes sasuke fight and kill Kabuto to prove that his training is complete.)

Like I've said before when naruto and sasuke meet again they will most likely be mounted on Gama Bunta and Mando respectively. My point concerning itachi is that if he is the strongest most god like character why is he an underling for an organization rather then run the organization himself? It just dosen't make sense.

After we saw that huge flashback with the younger version of him showing his absolute hatred for his clan and having his destiny confined or some crap like that. Why kill the organization he was born to only to go run off and join yet another organization? Itachi's whole life has been based around rising up the ninja ladder and by thirteen he reached the top with no where else to go when he became an anbu squad leader. My guess as to why he joined the organization is because they represented a higher plateu of ninja skill level. This implies that there are members in the organization that are either as strong as him or stronger.

[Mut]

Originally posted by: LobsterMagnet
My point concerning itachi is that if he is the strongest most god like character why is he an underling for an organization rather then run the organization himself?

who cares? not all bad guys don't have to be the boss of their 'job' and they all don't have to fit a stereotype.

After we saw that huge flashback with the younger version of him showing his absolute hatred for his clan and having his destiny confined or some crap like that. Why kill the organization he was born to only to go run off and join yet another organization? Itachi's whole life has been based around rising up the ninja ladder and by thirteen he reached the top with no where else to go when he became an anbu squad leader. My guess as to why he joined the organization is because they represented a higher plateu of ninja skill level. This implies that there are members in the organization that are either as strong as him or stronger.

you have a point but you're missing one thing. Itachi doesn't see anyone who is not an uchiha with the capabilities of having mangekyou sharingan as an equal or anything above. that is the main reason why itachi is the most important character in akatsuki because he specifically said that sasuke can awaken the mangekyou sharingan.

[kAi]

we are still yet to see the powers of the akatsuki, so saying any of the members is the strongest cannot be true. but we do know they are going to be some of the strongest characters in this manga. we dont know the capabilities of this venus fly trap dude, but he seems like an interesting character to me. and why has he been brought out in the open is anyones guess.

and with saying itachi is just a peon in the organisation maybe true. but there have also been some of the baddest guys that act like a peon until they deem it necessary to show there other side and demolish the organisation or just back stab the people in it.
Itachi could be the strongest character in the akatsuki but holds his power back until he knows the right time to strike for what he wants. or he may not be the strongest and actually one of the weakest and waiting until he gets stronger. this may be a reason why he wants sasuke to get the mangekyou sharingan so he can fight him and maybe get a new level or just know how far he can go against a sharingan user who will turn out to be just or not or more powerful than himself.
to me he seems to be waiting for bigger and better challenges and maybe he not the most powerful and could be owned by someone else. but he is waiting until the right time to strike so he can have a true battle. he maybe taking naruto to the akatsuki to get him trained up so he may fight him or take the kyubi so he can become stronger there are just to many ways for something to happen to be defenit at this time.

[LobsterMagnet]

Itachi feels a little bit a guilt for killing his clan. The way he sees it if the heavens have deemed his actions unacceptable then Sasuke will kill him. Leaving sasuke alive was his way to leave room open for his own punishment. Of course if Sasuke can never develop his sharingan then what Itachi did was the right action. Thats the only reason why he left Sasuke alive. Not because he wants to further evolve his sharingan.

[Mut]

Originally posted by: LobsterMagnet
Itachi feels a little bit a guilt for killing his clan. The way he sees it if the heavens have deemed his actions unacceptable then Sasuke will kill him. Leaving sasuke alive was his way to leave room open for his own punishment. Of course if Sasuke can never develop his sharingan then what Itachi did was the right action. Thats the only reason why he left Sasuke alive. Not because he wants to further evolve his sharingan.

Okay, now you're just making stuff up. you meant to put sarcasm tags on this post, right?

[Elessar]

Well, we have to admit, Itachi is on a sinking ship against a reasonable strong and blind Shinobi ^^

[Himura_san]

Itachi is the Kyubi's gay lover if you follow the show you would know this by now!

[Assertn]

Originally posted by: CmDr_RavEn
They can't all appear together simultaneously because there would be too much for the reader to comprehend at once, especially if they're all supposed to be fairly strong.

Ever seen the series, "Get Backers," raven? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]