“Why me?! Why did you spare me?!”
Impression
Once again, we return to the Kage fight versus Madara, who is still happily curbstomping the Five Kage with his overpowered attacks. Look at the size of that Katon jutsu! And it’s incredibly difficult to even touch him with his Susanoo on – though I suppose they’d have to get past the giant death branches his Mokuton creates first. If you’ve developed Uchiha techniques to the level Madara has, you’ll be a tough cookie to crack already – but this guy’s got both Uchiha AND Senju. Oh, and someone thought it’d be funny to implant Hashirama’s face in there too. Ew…that’s actually slightly creepy. Madara has the face of his eternal rival stuck on his chest. Granted, it probably boosts his power level a few times as a result 😀 It looks like a direct hit with Jinton seems to work though, as Madara took a bit of damage from Oonoki’s blast. Nothing the Edo Tensei can’t fix, unfortunately. While the Kages can’t match up to Madara’s strength (and his misogynism) they’ve got lots of strength, will and determination! And we all know it’s this sort of thing which prevails in a shounen series.
Meanwhile, poor old Sasukeh does a lot of shouting at Itachi. It looks like SP aren’t beating about the bush – their inevitable meeting came pretty fast. I was sort of expecting a massive 15 minute flashback after Sasuke first saw Itachi. Anyway, it looks like what Tobi told Sasuke has been validated by the man himself – Itachi did what he did to protect the Konoha he loved. The end justifies the means here – if he can stop a coup that’ll tear apart Konoha, he’s willing to kill his family. He even recognises it’s a sin, and so letting Sasuke live wasn’t only out of love, but also has the added purpose of fuelling hate in Sasuke, which he’d exploit and nurture until Sasuke kills him in revenge. Except it sorta had the side effect of having him defect from Konoha. To be honest, Sasuke looked pretty pained there, and it’s understandable – he’s been manipulated a lot over his life. By Orochimaru, by Tobi, and by Itachi to name a few. But then again, he’s grown up a bit as well – it’s his first meeting with Itachi (after the coup) in which he didn’t declare his hatred and try to avenge his clan.
I actually think a good chunk of the people who watch this show are also manga readers, and so we don’t really have to speculate. For those who aren’t, you can probably guess – Sasuke’s following Itachi. Itachi and Sasuke are now on speaking terms. Itachi’s trying to stop Kabuto, and I doubt Sasuke likes him much either. Wouldn’t it be awesome if…
Yes. Yes it would.