April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

I have all the manga (all the licensed stuff that's out, and everything after that in scanlation >_>). I'm just too lazy to wade through it while trying to avoid getting more spoiled than I am.

Manga. <3333 Is also different than the anime in certain areas. (Tea Country arc? What?)

I like the anime better because it has pretty colors, and the awesome voices and the kickass music, but the manga is...snazzy. It has an edge. It's one of those things like Planetes and Ghost in the Shell where I absolutely adore the animation, but strongly suspect that the manga is just better. And it has no lame filler. XD

In the manga she doesn't wangst about Sasuke. She wangsts about her own weakness and the fact that Naruto got the crap kicked out him and she wasn't there.

Thank god. I don't think I can take Sakura sitting around going "Sasuke-kun!" after everything that everybody else has suffered.

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ex-res-judic324.livejournal.com

I haven't watched the anime in so long, but I think it would be kinda cool to hear Tsunade's voice, because I never have, and to see some of these scenes acted out. But, yeah, as someone else noted the way the manga handles Sasuke's delve into the dark side is rather different from the anime's. He is way more aware, it seems, in the anime of what he is doing. In the manga he sort of ... freaks out.

In the manga he has been in a coma for a month reliving, over and over, the day that Itachi massacred their family. That's what Itachi did to him when he knocked Sasuke out. I think spending a month straight of reliving your family's murder would make you a bit ... loopy. And he does come out of that coma really off kilter. All the emotions and things that he has put tightly underlock have sprung loose. Because unlike Naruto, Sasuke never really dealt with his emotions, he just locked them in a box and ignored them. When Itachi hit him with that jutsu I think all those emotions just came flying out and Sasuke couldn't deal. And he took it out on everyone around him. I hate him for trying to kill Naruto. I hate him more for trying to kill Naruto's heart. But I guess he has more reason.

I think Sasuke is the example of the one who just doesn't make it. Gaara and Naruto manage to muddle through, but somehow I don't think that Sasuke will.

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I think Sasuke is the example of the one who just doesn't make it. Gaara and Naruto manage to muddle through, but somehow I don't think that Sasuke will.

I'm seriously beginning to wonder. I don't think Sasuke's story has to end tragically--not yet--but if it does, nobody can say that it wasn't laid out well in advance.

These people, they all need therapy. It's not quite as bad as Neon Genesis "no one in this show will ever make a meaningful connection with another human being" Evangelion, but sometimes I'm amazed at how much rope they give the kids to hang themselves. And no one ever tells the genins anything.

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who-shot-kr.livejournal.com

Not to sound like a total fangirl, but omg rilly? XD

This is quite possibly the best news about Sakura that I have ever heard. And that is very good since I have inexplicably liked her despite her penchant for wangst. That, I could do without.

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Start with 235. That picks up directly after 134's end.

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Ye gods, I was hoping it was farther ahead than that. Thanks!

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Nope, that's why we're gonna be getting a whole season or so of filler episodes with the Rice Country Arc, so the manga can jump ahead enough before the time skip stuff is animated.

*whines* I wanted the Kakashi Gaiden! I want YONDAIME!

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>_>

Rice Country Arc? Boo. I wanted the hot badass time skip stuff.

I will make allowances if they don't have a lame guest star I want to beat to death every time he speaks.

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Well, I have no idea what the fillers will be like, They start to air next episode or something. Anyway, I suppose they CAN make allowances. There's a three month gap between Sasuke leaving and Naruto waking up in the hospital to the time he leaves with Jiraiya at the end of the first part of the manga. Supposedly, this is when the second movie will take place, too.

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Hey, I totally forgot about the movie and the specials.

Hmm, a whole filler arc without Sasuke.

...well, Sasuke's offscreen half the time, anyway. That's sort of par for the course.

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I'd just like to say that Naruto's Magical Beatdown in this? I think he held back the WHOLE TIME. Even when he was super-charged with the Kyuubi's power, his heart wasn't into the level of violence he'd have needed to carry through his threat from 133's end. And the conclusion? Level 2 Curse Seal and freakish handwings does NOT trump Kyuubi power. I think he deliberately dispersed the Rasengan at the end and just Didn't Carry Through. (a glancing, weak-ass blow from his hand put that scratch in the hitai-ite, so what would have that Demon!Chakra Rasengan have done if he'd really had his heart in it?)

So, my theory remains Naruto could have handily beaten Sasuke's ass there, but he just wasn't really into it. It's his FRIEND, after all.

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::mulls:: Could be.

For most of the fight, Sasuke was deliberately, malice aforethought, trying to murder Naruto. He put his hand through Naruto's chest, he hit him with a fireball at point blank range, and he tried to--and I really think it's implied that he succeeded--break Naruto's neck (Sasuke's own horrified reaction--shock, vomiting--the way Naruto's body went into the water, the scene with Kyuubi, and the peculiar way Kyuubi's chakra animated Naruto's body, not to mention Naruto's own sort of shocked, disoriented reaction--all of that seems to be to be saying that Sasuke did something that should have killed Naruto. Not just "I can't believe I hit you that hard and your spine didn't break," but "I broke your neck and you healed in front of my eyes, then got up and beat on me"). Naruto was trying to, I assume, knock Sasuke unconcious. Certainly not to kill him. I can't help thinking that if Naruto was trying to kill Sasuke, it would have been a different fight.

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*nod* The manga's just odd there. In the manga, the bit where Naruto gets knocked into the water and muses "I can't beat him." is the moment when he goes Kyuubi Lvl 2. Here... he gets beat some more(there was definitely shock after the Bunshin-Whip and Sasuke roasting them and then finding that Naruto was STILL ALIVE. That, IMO, freaked Sasuke out in the 'I hit you that hard and you're still alive?' sense and he lost it as naruto was again moving to try and stop him, so Sasuke snaps, probably thinking: "What will it TAKE?" and hits with the piledriver and breaks his neck. (the way Naruto DOESN'T move or anything and his head lays tilted back makes me think that were he anyone else? He'd have been dead.

And then Kyuubi SPEAKS and there's the "Be grateful to me, brat."

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That scene was incredible. And bizarre. Because Sasuke was so shocked and scared that he forgot to be an asshole, and he was just Sasuke trying really hard to do something that happened to be stupid and wrong. When he broke Naruto's neck, I think he didn't know how to feel--and then Naruto got up again.

If it wasn't in the manga, I think it was a good addition--it's a scene I'll never forget. (And they left it so ambiguous that if it turns out that Kyuubi's not supposed to be able to heal a broken neck, they're not held to it.)

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Pffff... as long as Naruto isn't hit through the heart (or maybe through the stomach since that's where the seal is), Kyuubi can always do something. That's why Kabuto was able to nearly kill Naruto. Though, I think if anyone KNOWS who Naruto is, they wouldn't aim for the stomach. Mucking around with a seal would be too dangerous, especially since Kyuubi is uncontrollable if he gets free.

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argh! -_- Tabbed and hit enter. Oh well. Anyway. Yeah. The Be grateful bit, as I said, was implying that Kyuubi was doing MORE than just powering him up.

(the manga & anime versions of Sasuke's descent are really quite different. In the manga, Sasuke spends about a month in a COMA and then wakes up and goes off on a rampage to Orochimaru, (after the rooftop skirmish with Naruto). So he's just -reacting- out of bitterness and jealousy and having things slammed on him left and right.

In the anime? Sasuke's not reacting so much as ACTING, from having things build up left and right and just multiple things driving home that he's Not As Badass as he thought. There's festering resentment and it's less of him just storming off half-cocked as it is him CHOOSING to do this. He's going in eyes wide open, IMO, in the anime. I, personally, filler notwithstanding, like the way the anime's handling this. (but I like a lot of the manga. The Tsunade episodes right before Naruto pwns Kabuto remain some of the most heartwrenching stuff I've seen in it (I can't feel bad for Sasuke. I really can't. He's had these people trying to be his friend(whether worshipful like Ino/Sakura or what have you, like Naruto) and he craps over all of that. His closed-mindedness has crapped all over that. And he got almost everyone killed. So, no, I really can't feel sorry for him and I honestly want Naruto to administer a beatdown that makes what happened to Gaara look like NOTHING.

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*nods* I agree. I think Naruto was holding back. Afterall, he wants to bring Sasuke back to Konoha ALIVE (even if he has to break bones), which is totally different from killing someone. Naruto would have to hold back alot just to keep Kyuubi from having to choke a bitch (which was totally awesome, btw).

And anyway, the "pulling of the punches" at the end was sorta symbolic. Naruto went after Sasuke's forehead protector (which incidentally ended up with the long scratch for a Missing Nin), and Sasuke pulled his own blow to not kill Naruto. It's the realization (finally!) that Sasuke has that kicks him in the ass and tells him: "hey, Naruto means more to me than killing him for Magenkyou."

Of course, then he was stupid and didn't kiss Naruto in the rain. They should've kissed. If they did, I bet Sasuke would've stayed. Stupid Sasuke and his stupid Sasuke-ness. *kicks him*

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Of course, then he was stupid and didn't kiss Naruto in the rain. They should've kissed.

There's some suggestive Naruto/Sasuke stuff in the Bridge arc, and then about a hundred and ten episodes of nothin'. And then there's the big fight between them which basically positions them as soulmates/brothers (brothers in Texas circa 1860 something, that is), just in case anybody was under the impression they weren't totally obsessed with each other, and very, very good for each other, and very, very bad for each other at the same time.

The symbolism in Naruto is never subtle, but at lease I can understand it. ("Sasuke squashes a leaf under his boot. This symbolizes how you can kiss all hope of him acting like a responsible Konoha ninja goodbye.")

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But I still wanted the kissing. ;__; *fangirl whine*

And how did you like Chapter 259? With Sasuke becoming half of Naruto in that genjutsu? Bwah. I got the shivers with that whole sequence. I want to see that animated SOOOO badly.

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The whole sequence was incredibly creepy. Itachi has a very telegenic fighting style--the birds, and the morphing--I really like his non-mangekyou attacks. ::speculates:: I think it must have been a fuck-with-your-unconcious genjutsu, rather than a constructed illusion--unless Itachi has seen Sasuke in his stage 2 form...

Poor Naruto. He thought he could handle the genjutsu, and Itachi can still roll right over him. ::pets Naruto:: I think Itachi is a bigger Big Bad than Orochimaru.

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Me again, with more comments.

133:

1) OMFG! OMFG!
2) Did...uh...did he break his neck?
2) Who knew Kyuubi was a flying fox?
3) Stage Two does not look good on Sasuke. It looks butt-ugly.

To answer:

1. I'll take it that either refers to the Bad!Animated Beatdown or to the third Sharingan wheel.
2. I think he did. That wasn't in the manga, either, as I recall. IMO, I think it's implying that Sasuke DID kill him there. But... it didn't take. Kyuubi's dialogue makes me think that, mostly. Shinobi or not, that would BREAK YOUR NECK and you're dead. Unless you have a Kitsune in your tummy.
3. Sasuke just sucks. Period.
4. Kakashi... yeah. Kakashi pisses me off. Wait until 3 Years Later and we have the Bell Training again. Naruto utilises the SMRTest way of taking Kakashi down. (though, after 2 1/2 years with Jiraiya? I bet Naruto could take Kakashi)

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It's all starting to blur together, but I think that first one was "What the hell happened to the detail lines?" and the second one was "Big scary fighting with lots of hitting hard and Kyuubi is rilly rilly strong wow!" And stuff.

Okay, it's 3am...not a good time to go marathon the manga, right? Right? Dammit.

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who-shot-kr.livejournal.com

This is sorta pathetic, but why when I watch these episodes does Bridge Over Troubled Water keep hitting me over the head? I mean, really, that's like Naruto's freaking theme song given his character and actions and all, but I feel like one of the omgnarutosmyboyfriend!!!!!1onetwothree fangirls by pointing it out. -_-#

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You know, my dad hates that song. He's a big S&G fan in general, but whenever he hears that one, he starts grumbling about "let me be your patronizing spiritual guru" blah blah blah.

All I know is that Naruto is love. And Sasuke needs to be kicked in the head.

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I'm not coherent enough to say something intelligent, but the time skip starts at chapter 245, and the Kakashi Gaiden starts somewhere around 240. So before that would be the end of THIS arc.

*squees over the finger-locking*

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That was so much more effective than I would have thought, given what came before it.

::cries more::

OMG MANGA. Everybody is so BADASS after the time jump!

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I just want to know what Naruto's new Sexy no Jutsu technique is. Damn Sakura for stopping him. ;_;

I also want to know what THAT JUTSU is. I swear, if Naruto can suddenly pull off the Sanshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker), I will freak out and grovel before his awesomeness. *pets Naruto and his angry!teenager!ness*

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Kishimoto is a GIANT TEASE. We'll find out what THAT JUTSU is eventually, I guess--but what is this awesome new perverted jutsu?

I'm beginning to think Joosetta's "Naruto comes back from his trip with Jiraiya a giant perv who co-authors porn" fic isn't too far off...

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