Naruto 621 Review: "Run Forest Run"

Finally...the Greatest Shinobi Battle of all time has officially begun..or so we thought. So last chapter and this chapter, nothing new really..except for a few minor details. Did I say minor details? My bad.

I'm gonna try and take a weird approach to this weeks review. You'll have to forgive me. I think most of you have read these chapters attentively, so I'll just try and just point to the important points and the elements in the chapter that some may have missed or not.

Naruto 620 Tidbits of Reference:

1) Tobirama cannot break away from the Jutsu he created. Perhaps if Kabuto was the caster, it is possible he could have overpowered him but in this case, Orochimaru has Senju Wood DNA and we already know what that means..

2) Orochimaru notices that Hashirama is acting on his own accord without the bindings imposed by Orochimaru's yet again improved Edo Tensei. It's possible we will see Hashirama taking on further power ups to catch up to Madara's Rinnegan and Senju Wood DNA enhancement. (No Pun Intended)

Unless of course if somehow Hashirama is taken out of the picture which I highly doubt considering not even Orochimaru can control him now. I think from here on we will see Madara betraying Obito, Hashirama failing to change Sasuke's mind and resorting to almost wiping out Sasuke and his company, and taking control of Orochimaru and the Edo Tensei Hokages, and then leaving to the Battlefield where the Shinobi Alliance is held up.

From there on we will see Round 2 of Hashirama vs Madara, and ultimately Hashirama will take Madara with him or defeat him outright. Then we will witness the return of Sasuke with an awakened Rinnegan which he achieved from the fight with Hashirama and the decoding of Uchiha Tablet or as was customary, with obtaining Senju Wood DNA from the Sixth Zetsu.

From this,we will witness the fight between Sasuke and Naruto. Where is the Juubi you ask? I think the Juubi will eventually be subdued by the Hokages and Naruto, and Naruto will become the Host, i.e Sage of Sixth Paths.

Now for a bit of reference from this recent chapter:

                  

Holy Crap. Now this is what we've been waiting for since the beginning of our exposure to the two legendary founders of Konoha.

Madara combined his Eternal Susanoo with Kurama thus accessing the Bijuu's unlimited chakra reserves. If Hashirama is a genius then I can say no more but the same for Madara. He knew what he was doing but apparently he was not fully prepared for Hashirama's full power. He, like so many other "villains" we've seen in the series, seems to underestimate their opponents. I guess arrogance tends to get the best of even the most brilliant of minds.

After Hashirama tries (but fails) to reason with Madara as I believe will occur with Sasuke, he invokes the death of Madara's brother which goes further to infuriate him as we have already seen happen with Tobirama  simply belittling Itachi as a pawn for the village.

Hashirama goes into some sort of Senju Sage Mode and we see his ultimate technique "ShinsuuSenju":

Note: Before I forget, we see Hashi use a gate jutsu very familiar to the one Orochimaru used to deflect or block the Bijuu Bomb when Naruto went into rampage bijuu mode. So Orochimaru knows his shit.

So with the summoning of Hashirama's ultimate jutsu, we see the two charge at eachother only to be taken to   another scene with young Madara trying to skip rocks across a pond but failing miserably only to find someone throwing it across to the other side as he so desperately hope to do himself. We find out that this overachiever of course is none other than young Hashirama Senju. Thus we witness the beginning of an eternal rivalry.

Just to end with an important note; I appreciate this chapter and even last chapter in more ways than one. Kishimoto has upped the ante and I feel the progression of the plot is moving perfectly into the final stages of the story. We could have done without seeing this fight but I think Kishi knew we needed to see this fight in all of its epicness, and hopefully it will pick up after this short flashback within a flashback or story within a story. Yeah, Kishi is infamous for these.

I also appreciated the flashback to Hashi and Madara's early childhood. I've always wanted to know the full dynamic of Danzo and Hiruzen and that alone would have done wonders, but I feel this will definitely work in the place of the two great protectors of Konoha.

Overall, I give Naruto 621: 5/5.

I hoped you enjoyed the chapter and do share your thoughts on the chapter and my mini prediction on what is to come in the upcoming chapters.

Thanks for reading.

P.S Just to highlight the wonders of mistranslation, this little panel almost poetically gets that point across for me:

                     

(PUN INTENDED)

Written by Eli