Naruto Shippuden Episode 345: I’m in Hell

Impression

Is it just me, or are those Zetsu incredibly unsettling? They’re definitely creepier in the anime than they were in the manga, at least. Spiral Zetsu and his other pal seem to be among the first Zetsu created from Hashirama’s cells, and are fully autonomous artificial beings – it’s probably also worth noting that this is Zetsu’s original form (i.e. unlike what we see of him in the current timeline, he was never black and white to start off with). As they’re supposed to be Madara’s servants, I didn’t think they would decide to befriend Obito and help him through his rehab, let alone help him break out of the hideout. Although it’s true there’s not much else to do down there… a bit of clowning around is the most fun they can probably have. We had various snapshots of Obito’s training – it’s interesting that the synthetic Senju tissue stuck on him by Madara has fused completely with his body, not unlike how the current Madara has Hashirama’s face stuck on his chest. Other than the boost in abilities, it’s also useful that he doesn’t have to eat or drink (or poo, as Spiral Zetsu was only too keen to point out). Also, even after all this time he’s still fixated on returning to Rin and Kakashi – which means that at this point, he’s still a good guy.

Then stuff happened, and Rin was… killed by Kakashi (oh shit). That’s definitely a different story to what everyone involved has been implying so far – which was that Kakashi failed to protect Rin from something ambiguous, as opposed to Kakashi having killed Rin himself. I’m sure there’s a perfectly valid reason, which is probably related to the fact that Kirigakure were hell bent on kidnapping Rin for what is most likely a shady and inhumane purpose. Kakashi may very well have had no choice… but it’s not like Obito knew that. Compared to his abilities when he was a Konoha ninja, his power level has undergone a sharp rise – the combination of his newfound Mangekyou and Mokuton powers really is terrifying. This is the true power that’s unlocked when you combine Senju and Uchiha – the level of unrestrained Mokuton displayed by Obito is way more dangerous than what someone like Yamato could produce. And more importantly, this is the pivot point – the crux of it all. Rin and Kakashi (but mostly Rin) was what Obito had fixated in his mind this entire time… and he was forced to watch as she was taken away from him. It’s still rather stupid to try and destroy the world because of it, but if only slightly, now at least there’s a bit more justification floating out there.

While we’ll be getting some Ame Orphans next week, I’m sorry to say that a filler episode will be rearing its ugly head a couple of weeks from now. I’ve only seen one listed filler, so maybe it’s a short-term thing – although I doubt it, given that the past 5 months has been proper canon content. We’ll see how things go.