Naruto IX: [Epilogue Intensifies]

[Traab]

I, Madara do Susanoo with no eyes, even though it requires two eyes / mangekyou sharingan per lore.

But I, Madara get to do it anyway with no eyes. for I am [censored] [censored] Madara Uchiha (New Lore explanation, I get to do it with no eyes for I did once in the past with two eyes. Thus now my eyeless body can do it.)

Question do you have the senses of your Susano avatar?

There isnt a single thing about the sharingan that makes sense past its most basic level of monkey see monkey do. It was clearly designed by kishimotos 8 year old grandson playing a game of "Nuh UHHH! If you block this power then it can also do THIS!" for an hour. I stopped questioning it the second I heard about the mangekyos basic power set. Then they added MORE.

[Ramza00]

It's basically just a Stand so yes.

Also yeah, Madara is ****ing OP as hell and ridiculous, but they build him up across the entire damn series. It earns it.

Eyeball powers still dumb as hell.

There isnt a single thing about the sharingan that makes sense past its most basic level of monkey see monkey do. It was clearly designed by kishimotos 8 year old grandson playing a game of "Nuh UHHH! If you block this power then it can also do THIS!" for an hour. I stopped questioning it the second I heard about the mangekyos basic power set. Then they added MORE.

What is the downside of Madara going blind again? Why did he need his brother, Izuna Uchiha's, eyeballs again? Is Madara just a really big book lover and he wasn't going to learn braille?

I'm daredevil, a wizard, and a megazord rolled together!

[Rater202]

What is the downside of Madara going blind again? Why did he need his brother, Izuna Uchiha's, eyeballs again? Is Madara just a really big book lover and he wasn't going to learn braille?

I'm daredevil, a wizard, and a megazord rolled together!

Being able to Susanoo without physically having your eyes might be a property of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan(You and your borther both have Mangekyo, he willingly gives you his eyes, meaning you have your eyeball powers and his without the drawbacks of the Mangekyo) or the Rinnegan instead of just being a thing that Madara could have done all this time.

[Ramza00]

Being able to Susanoo without physically having your eyes might be a property of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan(You and your borther both have Mangekyo, he willingly gives you his eyes, meaning you have your eyeball powers and his without the drawbacks of the Mangekyo) or the Rinnegan instead of just being a thing that Madara could have done all this time.

True true. This could be logical conditions if there is a "hidden logic" system underneath it all that is static and not a fluid system where the writter says I am the author and thus I get to redo my own rules.

Good point Rater202.

[Traab]

Another theory is, I think its established that with practice you can do jutsus without handsigns right? Familiarity with the technique makes it easier to do. Maybe the same goes for shaping jutsus you have used a million times that normally require an eye? Otherwise yeah, kinda hax. But then, its madera, his middle name is Hax.

[LaZodiac]

Another theory is, I think its established that with practice you can do jutsus without handsigns right? Familiarity with the technique makes it easier to do. Maybe the same goes for shaping jutsus you have used a million times that normally require an eye? Otherwise yeah, kinda hax. But then, its madera, his middle name is Hax.

The problem with that is that the techniques literally come from the eyes. It's like being an armless man who's so good at martial arts he can still punch you.

[Lord Raziere]

The problem with that is that the techniques literally come from the eyes. It's like being an armless man who's so good at martial arts he can still punch you.

.......that is stupidest concept I've ever heard. I think I'll use it for a martial artist enemy to throw at my players in my DBZ game.

[Traab]

The problem with that is that the techniques literally come from the eyes. It's like being an armless man who's so good at martial arts he can still punch you.

Bah, the eye SOCKETS are still there. With good enough chakra control, that can bridge the gap! As a bit of potential evidence, he was using one of the more basic levels of susanoo, perhaps he couldnt pull off the perfect one without his eyes? I mean lets face it, madera IS an epic troll, but this is all 9 tailed beasts, the entire remaining army of kyuubi boosted ninja, plus naruto himself attacking at once. Using a weaker form of susanoo instead seems a bad idea if you have another option.

[Kantaki]

There isnt a single thing about the sharingan that makes sense past its most basic level of monkey see monkey do. It was clearly designed by kishimotos 8 year old grandson playing a game of "Nuh UHHH! If you block this power then it can also do THIS!" for an hour. I stopped questioning it the second I heard about the mangekyos basic power set. Then they added MORE.

To be absolutely fair, aside from the pyrokinesis and the giant warrior spirit thingy the Sharingan mostly makes sense.

Copying/analyzing techniques you can see?
Reasonable enough and not impossible without fancy eyeballs.

Casting illusions, planting suggestions and stuff like that?
Basically fancy hypnosis.

Resurrecting yourself, trapping an enemy inside a loop and the pocket dimension are stretching it, but still fall under a conceptual umbrella of „perception”, so they still fit.
Friggin op though. Even with limitations.

So getting some of those powers wouldn't be a problem.
Getting most if not all of them*, plus several unrelated advantages, plus the possibility of getting even more op eyeballs** on the other hand?
Yeah, kinda unfair that. The kinda trivial drawbacks of activating them don't make things better.

*Okay, maybe that's exaggerating it, but considering how often Sharingan users pull new powers out of nowhere...
**I mean the Rinnegan has even less to do with sight.
The only part that's related is the shared sight and as far as I remember that wasn't from the eyeballs.

[Traab]

To be absolutely fair, aside from the pyrokinesis and the giant warrior spirit thingy the Sharingan mostly makes sense.

Copying/analyzing techniques you can see?
Reasonable enough and not impossible without fancy eyeballs.

Casting illusions, planting suggestions and stuff like that?
Basically fancy hypnosis.

Resurrecting yourself, trapping an enemy inside a loop and the pocket dimension are stretching it, but still fall under a conceptual umbrella of „perception”, so they still fit.
Friggin op though. Even with limitations.

So getting some of those powers wouldn't be a problem.
Getting most if not all of them*, plus several unrelated advantages, plus the possibility of getting even more op eyeballs** on the other hand?
Yeah, kinda unfair that. The kinda trivial drawbacks of activating them don't make things better.

*Okay, maybe that's exaggerating it, but considering how often Sharingan users pull new powers out of nowhere...
**I mean the Rinnegan has even less to do with sight.
The only part that's related is the shared sight and as far as I remember that wasn't from the eyeballs.

Like I said, its basic abilities I could accept, and tsukiyomi was just a higher level illusion so that power is fine. But setting fire to whatever you want that you can see? Giant spiritual warrior form? Teleportation to another dimension? Intangibility? Being able to literally reject reality and substitute your own? Trapping someone in a morality play until they reform? Once we reached mangekyo I stopped pretending those eyes made any sense. Because it stopped trying to.

As for the rinnegan he sees through the eyes, the control rods implanted in them let him use them as flesh puppets. And yes the powers of the rinnegan are also stupid and make no sense beyond the field of vision thing.

[Rater202]

The thing to keep in mind is that the Rinnegan--The Eyes of Samsara--are the eyes of a god. Which in turn means that the Sharingan are the degraded eyes of a God.

Kaguya gained the strongest form of the eyes by eating the Fruit of the God Tree.

So think of it less as "Eyes with a bunch of unrelated powers some of which are not actually eye based" and more "I have Godly Powers becuase I have a God's eyes."

The vision related ones being the most basic ones due to those being the weakest forms of the eyes.

(The Byakugan's powers are more down to earth and consistent becuase it was an ability that Kaguya's family possessed before any of them ate God Tree Fruit. I'm not sure where the Tenseigan fits into this.)

[khadgar567]

The thing to keep in mind is that the Rinnegan--The Eyes of Samsara--are the eyes of a god. Which in turn means that the Sharingan are the degraded eyes of a God.

Kaguya gained the strongest form of the eyes by eating the Fruit of the God Tree.

So think of it less as "Eyes with a bunch of unrelated powers some of which are not actually eye based" and more "I have Godly Powers becuase I have a God's eyes."

The vision related ones being the most basic ones due to those being the weakest forms of the eyes.

(The Byakugan's powers are more down to earth and consistent becuase it was an ability that Kaguya's family possessed before any of them ate God Tree Fruit. I'm not sure where the Tenseigan fits into this.)

kaguya was a teetootler of her clan when she get op enough
So her sons seal him away. If you gents kump the last few arcs you learn things that make sasuke look like konohamaru in both power and angst.

[Aotrs Commander]

Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

A True Ending

In the first two minutes of the episode, Madara swats Gaara like a fly and yoinks the tailed beasts more and yanks Kurama right out of Naruto (though not before Kurama shouts something (we don't get to know, law of off-screen plan) to Gaara) and then absorbs all the tailed beasts.

Well.

Crap.

Madara cheerfully whomps Tobirama's attempt to take him down.

Hmm... The allied shinobi chakra cloaks are still up (4th's work)?

Meanwhile, Hashirama is pinned down and suspects trying to remove the chakra rods in he will be Bad, so he gives Sasuke - who is now everyone's last hope (oh dear) - a jutsu to take Madara down. (Smart use of sharingarn.)

Tobirama gets Madara monologuing, but pinned down by more chakra rods himself (including one through the head, because, as we have said before Madara is a glorious [Richard])... It doesn't stop Madara catching Saskue in mid-air like he was Jean Grey or something, taking Sasuke's own sword and then running him through.

Ah.

Oh!

Oh [excrement].

So, Naruto is down, Sasuke is down and the First and Second are combat neutralised.

The rest of allies are being attacked by... A big wood construct with someone (Black Zetsu?) on top of it (where'd that come from, I don't remember that before... Whatever.) But everyone is running out of chakra, leaving the only real combatant (what happened to Minato? Oh, yeah, he's with dying/dead Obito and Kakashi. GOOD TIME TO BE HAVING A CONVERSATION, GUYS) as Sarutobi, who is doing a bang-up job, but he's like, it.

Gaara comes running into try and get Naruto some healing - but they're down to Sakuar's chakra. (Hinata sees what is going on - after having to prompted to use her byankugan by Kiba (she must be KNACKERED, poor lass). Oh dear.) Gaar rushes her off, presumably to buy enough time to execute The Plan (which I would guess is drag Naruto to Minato and get him to seal the other half of Kurama in before Naruto dies) - but he's fading fast. Hinata runs after them and faceplants. That would be funny normally.

Meanwhile, Karin is breaking down because she can sense Sasuke is dying and even Roachy is starting to look worried.

Sasuke is bleeding out, and for all his "I won't die until I make the village better in Itachi's name" he just keels over and Madara just sticks his sword in the ground and walks off.

Whelp, game over.

Whelp, looks like next episode will be the last episode, Madara clearly wins and kills everyone, series over, we can all go home now..

Well.

I wasn't entirely wrong...!



MADARA WINS

FATALITY



The New Chunin Exams

What time is is it?

...

It's filler time!



Opportune time for an extended filler arc, yes?

(Actually, been looking foward to this one, because it means someone other than Naruto (and Sasuke - and, honestly, Ino) will have more than momentary relevance and also screen time for all the rest of the crew!)

Gaar and Tsunade are hosting joint chuunin exams, so that a) Tsunade can test the waters with the other villages, b) Gaara can try draw out the conspirators in his own realm and c) they can try and draw out Akatsuki using Gaara as bait.

(Also, Kankuro, I'm pretty sure that the Sand traitors are NOT more dangerous than the Akatsuki... Though I suppose you wouldn't know that yet...!)

Lightning, Mist and Stone flat-out refuse, with varying degree of silliness.

Sand is sending nine teams, unlike the ten of last time and Tsunade thinks under the circumstances, that's impressive.

Remind me how big the allied shinobi forces are again?

Right, 80,000 people.

And twenty-seven recruits (and promotions to chuunin) in an event that apparently hasn't happened for two years is a lot, is it? Even given a fraction of that number?

Leave it out guys! I mean, that's GOT to be less than 1% of the Sand's active ninja forces, hasn't it?

So, clearly the chuunin exams really ARE just a [urinating] contest between villages for PR, aren't they? Or serve several ulterior motives, as in this case.

The Chunin Exams Begin

Kakashi heads over to Rain to give an invite to Hanzo... And Pain and Konan elect to send fifteen teams of genin to keep suspicion lower. (Not that it helps...)

Also, purple-haried girl has gotten "arc antagonist" written all over her...

In Waterfall meanwhile, Fu basically demands from Lord Shibuki (hey, long time no see, dude!) that she go, and they pretty much are unable to refuse. Shibuki, mate, I thiiink you're gonna get in more trouble having two jounin disguised as genin than in sending your jinchuiriki. (Given that last time, both now-hosting villages sent theirs, plus you're fairly friendly with Leaf anyway...)

(Also, given as Fu asks why they just don't promote her anyway, it clear is that the exams are basically a diplomatic formality...)

Grass is sending a load too, but not any other minor villages we know about like... Star or Snow or whatever.

And it is at this point we learn that Tsunade has forgotten to recruit applicants from the Leaf.

*skullpalm*

(Also, interesting implication by her presense in the briefing is that Anko has a genin team. One feels almost sorry for them...)

So, job one is for Sakura to break that inferiority complex she has and join up with Ino and Chouji (and really, Ino is bang-on when she suggest Sakura as their first choice).

One lot of soul-searching and a typical "burn chakra 'til I'm unconscious saving a dude incident" later and we're ready to go.

Shikamaru stands over the top of the village (and Leaf is holding the written part, Sand the survival) and a supiciously large number of non-generic ninja characters come walking in...



Naruto basically gets nothing more than cameos of Jiraiya beating him up. (Though considering this is presumably where they had that incident where he nearly killed Jiraiya, this might get messy later...)



Promising start... And as the chunin exams were one of the best arcs in Naruto previously, can we catch lightning in a bottle twice?

[Traab]

Yeah, this is really the big low point for team good guys. Like, even the other later twists that take place dont have the same impact as this. Madera just freaking ended the whole battle by himself with barely any effort. Its the kind of outcome you expect to see at the START of a series to demonstrate how far the good guys need to go to stand a chance. Like in ff7 when you see the giant serpent sephiroth impaled on a broken tree. These same serpents will flat out slaughter you at this stage of the game, and yet the guy you are chasing down clearly had no issues reenacting his vlad biopic with 60 meter serpents.

Madera has shown himself consistently to be on a whole other level. First solo attacking the entire army and it taking a concentrated effort by the kages and naruto just to force him to use his bigger skills, then roflstomping the 5 kages all at the same time, and now of course this. This is like freaking marineford in one piece. Naruto needs another timeskip training montage after getting wtfpwned that hard. Maybe he can figure out haki. I think he needs it.

[Aotrs Commander]

Even funnier when you realise, he almost certainly could have done this anytime he liked, and the only reason he didn't was he'd been dead-set on kicking Hashirama's arse. Just for the hell of it.

It's hilarious.

[Traab]

Even funnier when you realise, he almost certainly could have done this anytime he liked, and the only reason he didn't was he'd been dead-set on kicking Hashirama's arse. Just for the hell of it.

It's hilarious.

Well yes and no. I mean, he had to be rezzed first, then he had to get his various eyes back after being truly brought back and not just an edo tensei under his own control. He could have laid the smacketh down (if I may borrow from the Rock) on everyone before then (in fact he totally had done so) but the whole ripping out of the biju part kinda had to wait till now from what I understand. I mean heck, naruto had only just ripped the biju out of obito like 10 minutes ago (or thirty hours if you include flashbacks)

[Rodin]

It's basically just a Stand so yes.

Also yeah, Madara is ****ing OP as hell and ridiculous, but they build him up across the entire damn series. It earns it.

Eyeball powers still dumb as hell.

Funnily enough, the thing that still bugs me the most about Naruto (out of all the ridiculous BS that goes on) is the easy and instantaneous transplantation of eyes. Sasuke wants Tsukuyomi powers? A quick transplanting of Itachi's eyes and he is instantly able to do it with no recuperation time shown. This instance is bad, but given that we see him going to a safe spot before doing so it's not that unreasonable in comparison with what comes later. Madara is blind and needs a new eye? YOINK! He puts it in, in the middle of a battle, and instantly has a new eye that he can use at 100% power. Each time the eyes change hands it gets less and less plausible, until by the time Madara is doing it we're at Mr. Potato Head level.

I mean, I'm also not a fan of the "it's a shonen, deal with it it" defense for the final arc. Because Naruto goes massively over the top with it. It's both sides pulling out new superpowers non-stop, with no foreshadowing, for what seems like an eternity. Compare to, say, Bleach, where Aizen only gets a couple of powerups in the final arc and Ichigo gets one (and maybe an extra half if you count Final Getsuga Tenshou as different from his form at the start of that fight). Hunter X Hunter has one super power-up each for the villains and heroes, and one of those winds up not even mattering all that much.

It's also less forgiveable than some other shows, because of how big an emphasis that Naruto in particular puts on training. The pace of the show is big fight/training/big fight/training/etc., and we're always shown what the characters are working on at the time. Then towards the end of the show this just kind of gets abandoned, and people just start whipping out new justus left and right and getting all those powerups handed to them. The progress that was previously earned feels cheapened, and you just kind of assume that the next chapter a new BS power will be whipped out.

[Rater202]

In Madara's case, Kabuto modified him with Senju Cells, which, among other things, give's Madara a massive healing factor.

Sasuke had Itachi's eyes implanted in him surgically and spent a signification amount of time resting while the surgical wounds healed enough for the eyes to actually work.

Madara, with his eyball popping, is most likily counting on his healing factor to connect the eyes to his optic nerve and heal that up to functional right quick.

[LaZodiac]

I incredibly agree, for basically everything you say there.

Personally I find it HILARIOUS that they play hot potatoes with eyeballs so much in this, and it's the dumbest thing, but so funny to just like...think about.

[Rodin]

I incredibly agree, for basically everything you say there.

Personally I find it HILARIOUS that they play hot potatoes with eyeballs so much in this, and it's the dumbest thing, but so funny to just like...think about.

It's also one of those things that makes you scratch your head the more you think about it. The various eye jutsus are bloodline traits, which makes sense - you have something different about your body that lets you make use of this additional power. Transplanting the eye should give you all sorts of problems because while the EYE has powers, your brain isn't equipped to deal with all the extra input. You can make an argument for Sasuke, Madara, and Obito - they all are at least Uchiha with the correct bloodline, even though their brain chemistry shouldn't have been able to adapt this foreign organ without years of time to learn how. This argument really fails when you start looking at Ao, who implanted a Byakugan while not being a Hyuga, and Danzo, who put a ton of Sharingan in his freaking ARM and somehow still had them work. Again: Mr. Potato Head.

I just can't take the eyes seriously no matter how hard I try. Especially the really late in the series "pluck the eye out of you and jam it in my own eye for instant sight" version. I actually started laughing out loud when Madara did it.

[Frozen_Feet]

There are parts early on suggesting that Kakashi does indeed suffer setbacks from his body being mismatched with his Sharingan and that these reasons are why he typically keeps it covered. But it gets less attention as the series progresses and is not really touched upon when it comes to other subjects of eye transplants. Some of Nagato's issues with the Rinnegan might be because he's a non-native user, but it is never confirmed.

[Rater202]

Notably, neither Kakashi nor Nagato could turn their eyes off.

Anf again, Madara explicitly had a healing factor when rezzed as a combination of merging Hsashirama's flesh into himself when alive and the modifications Kabuto made when he Edo Tensei'd him.

His eye popping not causing issues and being fast can be excused by his healing factor.

[Rodin]

Notably, neither Kakashi nor Nagato could turn their eyes off.

Anf again, Madara explicitly had a healing factor when rezzed as a combination of merging Hsashirama's flesh into himself when alive and the modifications Kabuto made when he Edo Tensei'd him.

His eye popping not causing issues and being fast can be excused by his healing factor.

Still makes it exactly zero percent less ridiculous.

[Ramza00]

Just remember Naruto like most Shounen works on idealism principles where there are "channels" and the channels allow the idealist mind to literally manipulate the materialist reality directly. Matter literally can be manipulated directly by the mind with the "channels."

In Naruto these "channels" are magic eyeballs. They are not made out of cells or something, they are just the magical, they are just special. In some ways you can think that humans are born with channels of normal eyeballs that can take in reality, but the Uchihia have special magical eyeballs that are the normal eyeball channels plus 10 other things, 10 other special ways to take in reality from the matter to the mind and the reverse making the mind manipulate reality.

-----

It is quite silly but it makes sense from a narrative standpoint and some philosophies actually hyperfocuses on this concept for it can't be proven nor disproven it is unfalsifiable.

[LaZodiac]

It's also one of those things that makes you scratch your head the more you think about it. The various eye jutsus are bloodline traits, which makes sense - you have something different about your body that lets you make use of this additional power. Transplanting the eye should give you all sorts of problems because while the EYE has powers, your brain isn't equipped to deal with all the extra input. You can make an argument for Sasuke, Madara, and Obito - they all are at least Uchiha with the correct bloodline, even though their brain chemistry shouldn't have been able to adapt this foreign organ without years of time to learn how. This argument really fails when you start looking at Ao, who implanted a Byakugan while not being a Hyuga, and Danzo, who put a ton of Sharingan in his freaking ARM and somehow still had them work. Again: Mr. Potato Head.

I just can't take the eyes seriously no matter how hard I try. Especially the really late in the series "pluck the eye out of you and jam it in my own eye for instant sight" version. I actually started laughing out loud when Madara did it.

It's also worth noting that they've made it clear the eyes aren't the source of the chakra it's their brain, something in their brain releases the specific chakra into the eye that colours them with the sharingan whenever they experience loss. So it's not even really the EYES that matter, not REALLY. The eye should basically be a can of chakra, and once it's out it's out.

Meanwhile the guy with the Byakugon has to keep it covered at all times. Just like Kakashi of course, since he was made back before the series was reasonable. Though...also I'm reminded of how Kakashi got his eye stolen and Naruto just regrew it but he regrew it with the sharingan, if I recall.

[Ramza00]

Meanwhile the guy with the Byakugon has to keep it covered at all times. Just like Kakashi of course, since he was made back before the series was reasonable. Though...also I'm reminded of how Kakashi got his eye stolen and Naruto just regrew it but he regrew it with the sharingan, if I recall.

My memory recollection is Kakashi had two normal eyes during the fight with Kaguya. But once Obito dies and then talks to Rin and then returns to the material plane and overlaps his soul onto Kakashi, then Kakashi normal eyes were temporarily two Mangekyou Sharingan and he could use Susanoo but also Full Susanoo.

Eyes are silly in Naruto.

[Aotrs Commander]

Eyes are silly in Naruto.

Nah, I just realised that, with what we've seen of chest wounds, Shinobi don't actually have organs like humans do; presumably these humans work like the ones in Dark Harvast in Invader ZIM...

...

Now I just realised I really need to hear Madara to go "ouch! My squeedlyspooch" at some point in the proceedings.




Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

The Three Questions

Bahahahahahahaha! Shikamaru, you [Richard]!

As someone who has read a LOT of Naruto fanfiction, I've seen quite a lot of takes on alternative Chunin exams - so it's nice to see canon (shut up, it's in the anime, it's canon as far as I'm concerned) manages to do something different and incredibly devious.

In that you have three questions to answer worth 30, 40 and 50 points each, but your team mates are in another room and your team has to get no more than a hundred points or you fail, and the average of the scores is taken at the end and everyone who is below the average fails. (Which basically means you have to get a hundred.) And it is more-or-less impossible to communicate between the rooms (only three teams out of all of them could manage it).

Sakura's right, Naruto would completely have fluffed this version... But on the other hand, his cameo-ing specture is helping all his mates!

Neji, of course, is the first one to come up with a plan...

One Worthy As A Leader

Shika, is of course, scribbling this down, because of course, leadership skills are usually evident in whoever stands up to take charge of a situation like this.

(I doubt will be be surprised to learn that often, that boiled down to me in situations I've come across...!)

Not ony that, but this is basically a battle of wits between Neji and Shikamaru. (Shika is clearly having the tme of his life. He's also foreshadowing his future, given he's sat with Temari...)

Neji, is of course, proving why HE made jonin when the rest were chunin. (And his loss cuts deeply once again, DAMMIT.) He deftly manages to manipulate the situation (including even dragging a hint out of Shika) so that in theory - ALL the teams should be able to pass. (Sme idoits, of course, panic and dont follow.)

The surprise forth question, is of course, a variation of the last question in the first exams, so the leaf nin pass it trivially (no man left behind...!)

Matsuri's team is straddled with the Dumb Blonde (who is a brunette in this case) - Yukata, the other half of her Comedy Kazekage-Hitting-On-Duo. One feels a bit of the Team Seven-dealing-with-Naruto dynamic there... I mean, fair's fair, the Leaf has Kiba. Zing!

Temari then basically starts a race to the Sand for the top thirty passes to get into the second round. (Once again, Neji is first out of the gate...! Though Fuu and company quickly outpace them¹.)



Yeah, this is shaping up to be everything I'd hoped. Our heroes, getting to be all awesome and such - and getting to interact in slightly different ways, because of course, they're all mates. (I'd warm my heart if I had one to see how they all sat next to each other in the exams - the fact Ino sat cheerfully next to Shino shows they'd grown proper.) This is, in my opinion, the show's greatest strength - its ensemble cast - and the biggest disservice it did itself by having Naruto outstrip everyone else. Especially as, like, the whole thing is about teamwork and stuff.

If it keeps this up, I can see that lightning is going to stay bottled.

The Night Before the Second Exam

Kankuro - and Temari's timely arrival - foils an assassination attempt on Gaara (not that it'd have worked, anyway - did they., like forget that had been tried repeatedly...?)

Tsunade, meanwhile, is starting to realise Hidden Rain has has something go horible and queitly wrong...

Our Heroes, meanwhile, have reached the Demon Desert Checkpoint (with everyone but Team Guy exhausted). Kiba and Chouji managed to derail Guy himself (who is, of course, there as a proctor) because they know him well enough to sass him. Then, over lunch, the shinobi divide across the village lines - except for Waterfall, because the pretending-to-be-genin-jonin literally chain Fuu in her room, poor lass. Our Idiots, grossed out at one of the Grass ninja's sweat (Lee delightfully and tactfully says he makes "even our slightly chubby friend Chouji look thin") manage to destroy everyone's dinner trying to stop the guy sweating all over the food, and then Kiba (because it WOULD be Kiba) makes a crack about Matsuri, who - of course - loses it and decks him (Hahahahahaha! Kiba, you suck!) and start a free for all.

This is only interrupted by Fuu bursting through the window (having borken out of her room viua the wall...!) and excitedly tries to befriend everyone, asking what they are going to do after dinner. "Cards, backgammon? Maybe we can all take a bath togther?"

(Okay, so either Waterfall has some atypical ideas about modesty... Or Fuu does. Gonna say, reckon the latter, with a blissful ignorance of either a what that sounds like or b) why boys and girls being naked together isn't appropriate of c) she knows exactly what she means, giggery giggety.)

Fuu is clearly Ninja Pinkie Pie and I am staggered, truly and honestly staggered that Our Heroes, even after drawing parallelels to Naruto, don't talk to the poor girl, who basically just came to the exams to try and make a hundred friends.

(My Lichemaster, this is a delightful but painfully tragic arc.)

Everyone tramps back to their rooms, leaving a miffed Fuu by the window.

Chouji, of course, is going spare without food and when Ino foolishly mentions the building with the senseis in it rushes off into the sandstorm, at night, to try and crib some food. Ino and Sakura follow.

And Chouji screams.

A Sand ninja hears and rushes back into the mess room and says to fuu that giant scorpions hunt outside at night, that's why you're not supposed to go outside.

Fuu delightedly rushes off like she's Aang off to ride penguins.

...

Crap.

That is a BIG scorpion. I mean. Yikes. That is a fracking MAASIVE scorpion.

What the hell do they even EAT when they're not eating human?!

Fuu cheerfully just punches the snastorm out of the way to nride the scorpion, while the three leaf nin dangle from it's... three pincers? (Okay, four claws and... Three stingers. Unholy crap, are these like summon scorpions only without the summon or what?) Sakura scream at her to kill it, so she relucantaly does. With a kunai and one hit. Yipes.

Guy, Gaara and Temari rush out (along with the rest of our heroes) to see what the fuss was. The Sand nin from before spots Sakura was cut by the scorpion claw and heals her. (Good for her, not even a thought about it.)

Guy berates the ninja for not managing to forgo a single meal and sends them back inside. This is completely undermined by his poorly-concealed passng of a big pack of some sort of baked goods, I think, to Chouji. Guy, you old softy, you. (Temarti's eye twitches, but she says nothing, likely quite familiar with both of their antics at that point. Gaara cannot possible miss this, but, of course, says nothing.)

Fuu, who is currently break-dancing ontp of the scorpion corpse, tries to make friends with the three proctors. Gaara notes she must be a good person, helping a rival. Fuu says she doesn;t care about any of that alies or rivals stuf, she just wants to make a hundred friends. (Oh, this is killing me.) Her grumpy jonin "genin" compatriots haul her off, and Gaara also draws paralellels to Naruto and says now he's looking more forward to the exams because "some interesting character taking part in it." Dude, you know half of 'em already.

Next morning, second round of the exams - second verse, same as the first but in desert, but that's okay! It should be fun anyway!


Yeah, this is a cracking arc, really fantastic, best in ages. If Fuu is absolutely horribly tragic and shame on you Leaf-nin for not trying to be her friend - she's clearly partway between Gaara and Naruto. (And relly, Neji, did you roll a 1 on your Spot check mate, surely by now you should be able to spot a jinchuriki, you know, like two personally...)



¹But then two of them are cheating by being jonin and nevermind her being a jinchuriki, Fuu's ability to fly is an open secret.

[Traab]

Didnt naruto have to actually channel some kyuubi juice for neji to notice it? And in all fairness, there are a LOT of strange ninja with a LOT of strange behavior patterns... and thats just in the leaf village. Its not unreasonable that they wouldnt make the connection between odd person and demon vessel, as if oddity was a measure of demon vessels, the entire rookie set clearly have demons sealed in them too. And just to blah blah blah some more, we dont know if there are any differences in how she is sealed as opposed to naruto or garra that might alter how neji perceives her chakra. Still a good arc though. Even if it is flashback filler.

[khadgar567]

Didnt naruto have to actually channel some kyuubi juice for neji to notice it? And in all fairness, there are a LOT of strange ninja with a LOT of strange behavior patterns... and thats just in the leaf village. Its not unreasonable that they wouldnt make the connection between odd person and demon vessel, as if oddity was a measure of demon vessels, the entire rookie set clearly have demons sealed in them too. And just to blah blah blah some more, we dont know if there are any differences in how she is sealed as opposed to naruto or garra that might alter how neji perceives her chakra. Still a good arc though. Even if it is flashback filler.

thank you for fanfiction idea mate as far as i know there is only tailed beasts sealed in regular cannon all though sumire used to cultivate a WMD by her dear old dad i think no one in cannon tried to cast summon infernal in naruto verse and make jinjuriki out of it so we are clearly in fanfiction territory and in fannon anything possible from doctor who and warhammer 40k cross over to pokemon winne the pooh cross over where good old winnie becomes pokemon trainer. so your millage may wary and all ideas are out of guarantee.

[Traab]

thank you for fanfiction idea mate as far as i know there is only tailed beasts sealed in regular cannon all though sumire used to cultivate a WMD by her dear old dad i think no one in cannon tried to cast summon infernal in naruto verse and make jinjuriki out of it so we are clearly in fanfiction territory and in fannon anything possible from doctor who and warhammer 40k cross over to pokemon winne the pooh cross over where good old winnie becomes pokemon trainer. so your millage may wary and all ideas are out of guarantee.

I.... what?