AnimeBlog

..And I have just finished reading the latest chapter of Naruto Shippuuden manga, chapter 370. Compared to the anime episode this week, as what I have reviewed previously, the manga has finally started to kick in again.

**** PROBABLY SPOILER AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T READ CHAPTER 370 ****

Honestly, after the end of the fight between Deidara and Sasuke, on chapter 363, I had thought the story had gotten pretty plain and dull. Even the most important information all the fans were longing for, the real relation between Naruto and Yondaime Hokage (and even Yondaime Hokage’s real name!), were delivered in such a plain plot. And the tickling..? o.o I thought Kishimoto had run out of ideas, or was tight on dateline so he just threw in some random plots.

Chapter 370, gladly, has made an opening to probably a much interesting story, and much likely a phenomenal fight, between Jiraiya, one of The Legendary Sannin, and Pein, the Leader of Akatsuki.

We learned before, that Uchiha Madara was the real guy behind Akatsuki. And Pein was the bridge between Uchiha Madara and Akatsuki. We also learned about Yondaime Hokage’s real name, his relation to Naruto, including a little background of Naruto’s mother. Not to forget, a little bit of Pein’s background, and how he had killed a man named Hanzou, who turned out to be the one who had given the Legendary Sannin their name.

Amongst all these information, to me the most notable part was the revelation of Pein, as the leader of Akatsuki, and the existence of Uchiha Madara behind Akatsuki, which as if confirmed the speculation that Tobi, indeed was also Uchiha Obito, by at least 78%. Why? Because if Uchiha Madara’s goal was to see how superior sharingan is, he would have tried to transfer it to someone without an Uchiha blood (that is, Kakashi!), to see and experiment of how far could the sharingan be used.

But what is more interesting on chapter 370 to me, is the revelation of how Uchiha Madara had died many years ago. He was killed by Shodai, the First Hokage, at the Valley Of The End! Now, if someone has been following Naruto since the first episode, they must have remembered Naruto had fought Sasuke (in order to take Sasuke back to the village), exactly at The Valley Of The End.

And when Kakashi came to pick up Naruto after the battle had ended, Kakashi said, that was the place where the founders of Konoha, their forefathers, who were also best friends, had fought. At the time, we didn’t really know who “these forefathers” were. We had probably thought it was just some spice that Kishimoto had put to make it more dramatic. Founders of Konoha, who were also “best friends”, just like Naruto and Sasuke, fought each other in The Valley Of The End. End of the story.

Except..

Except that, it didn’t end right there. These forefathers, were Uchiha Madara, and Shodai Hokage. Now I can’t wait for the next chapter.