Summary
War rages on, and Tobi summons his Gedo Mazou statue near Darui’s First Company, intent on claiming the pot containing Kinkaku and Ginkaku, wrecking havoc with his monster along the way. Succeeding easily, he disappears and the shinobi are left to pick up the remaining pieces of the battlefield, retiring for the night as the sun goes down. Kabuto retreats his Edo Tensei summons, leaving the total losses at around half for both sides.
Impression
We saw combat on all fronts today, on many different scales. I had actually forgotten the situation with the daimyo existed, what with everything else going on at the same time. After so much has happened, and so many emotions have overflowed, I find it even more irritating that the daimyo are still blind to the nature of the war and the risk that all the main shinobi powers in the world are taking with their lives, even having the Mizukage protect them when she could be a valuable asset on the battlefield. Though dying a violent tentacle-filled death at the hands of Black Zetsu might be a bit too overboard.
That Gedo Mazou is a fearsome, fearsome thing. Of course, it has the power of seven Bijuu trapped inside it, but even still, pushing apart mountain-sized slabs of rock and stopping a butterfly-enhanced Chouji (it’s even bigger than him!) is massively strong. I know characters in a show like Naruto don’t die so easily, but I admit I did fear for both Shikamaru and Darui’s lives before they were rescued at the last minute. No doubt Tobi can only control it because he has a Rinnegan, though I assume he doesn’t have to suffer the black chakra rods after-effect because it’s already existing physically, instead of the first summoning that Nagato performed.
It’s so obvious why Tobi suddenly appeared on the field and disappeared soon after; Akatsuki’s original goal, of collecting the nine Bijuu. I’m not above thinking that the Juubi might be able to be reformed now – true, the conditions were that the nine Bijuu had to be collected back together, but no-one ever said how much of them. It’d probably not be at full power, but it’s clear that with Killer Bee’s cut tentacle that Sasuke collected, and Kinkaku + Ginkaku in the pot, Tobi now has portions of the Hachibi and Kyuubi’s chakra. He himself realises it too, talking to himself about achieving the Tsuki no Me plan in one more day.
So night has fallen, and battle is suspended for now. I doubt it was to let the Allied forces bury their dead and reheal, which only means that Tobi and Kabuto have something even worse up their sleeves…
- Poor Tenten. Oh well, she got what was coming to her…
- Next episode is not a filler, by the way. I thought it was at first, but scenes that couldn’t be pre-Shippuden popped up, proving me wrong.