Anime Overview: Naruto Shippuden Part 2

Pain's Assault

In the first series, a big thing that people liked was the invasion because of what that arc did. It brought out the best in our universe, showing the parents of the Konoha 11 as well as Naruto's fight with Gaara. Shippuden tried this with Pain's invasion of the village looking for Naruto, who unbeknownst to him was not in the village. Other than Naruto we got a good look at some other characters like Konohamaru and Ebisu, both of whom were inspired by Naruto in one form or another. The beginning of this invasion is a lot like the siege of Pyke in A Song of Ice and Fire or the White Lotus attack on Ba Sing Se Avatar the Last Airbender. It has characters that we never see together, together causing all kinds of awesome trouble. It has a lot of action to it and I feel that all it really needed was more from our lesser known character who haven’t gotten a chance to shine so far. At around the same time or sometime before Sasuke and Team Hawk go after the 8-tails Jinchuriki in Kumogakure. What ensues is possibly Sasuke’s greatest fight and like a lot of Sasuke’s best fights he ultimately loses.

This arc was really fun and not just because of what happened visually, which I felt the anime did well but also because it showed us exactly how far Naruto had come as both a ninja and a person. He shows not only how far he has mastered Sage Mode. This was Naruto vs. Gaara taken to the next level and he showed that he was ready to take on the world and Akatsuki. If there was a weak point I think it would be Hinata dropping herself into the fight. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t have happened but that ultimately it never feels like her confession was needed. Hinata could have been replaced with Sakura, Tsunade, or Iruka and would have been the same result, at least that’s what it looked like for me. It also didn’t help that Hinata didn’t die from it which made little sense since Nagato was going to bring everyone back that died anyway.

Another little parallel to Star Wars was the discussion that Naruto had with Nagato before he died. In this the main body of Pain is Vader’s armor and Nagato is the Anakin inside to Naruto’s Luke. Nagato is a product of war, of hatred being spit back at the world and he has given up on a peaceful world and wants to save the world through any means necessary. Even after hearing his back story, Naruto doesn’t give up and is able to convince Nagato to go back to who he used to be and brings back all the people who he killed in the village. Naruto, ignoring the pressure of others wanting to kill Nagato, chose a peaceful route despite what he wanted. It’s hard to tell if Naruto learned this from either his meeting with his father or if he had just learned it from Jiraiya’s book. With the village saved and everyone back all the remains is the rebuilding or is it? With Sasuke having attacked Kumogakure and “kidnapping” the Raikage’s brother the Raikage has called for a meeting of Kage’s. at the same time, the Fire Daimyo has elected Danzo Hokage as Sasuke heads to Konoha to destroy it.

·        Sasuke’s Mangekyo Sharingan takes the form of an atom,  for reasons.

·        KillerBee shows that Jinchuriki can escape genjutsu by their Biju stopping the flow of Chakra.

·        Karin shows that her ability is healing by letting people bit her and use her Chakra to heal.

·        Tsunade, like Sarutobi puts her all into the invasion but instead of fighting, she uses her medical skills to constantly heal the Shinobi while they fight.

·        Despite fighting off Pain’s summons and treating the wounded and helping people evacuate, Sakura is still considered useless.

·        The anime opening to this showed Hinata, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten fighting Konan. This never happened.

·        The Ame Orphans shows a different parallel to Team 7 than others. Honestly it feels like what would have happened to Naruto if Sakura or Sasuke died, would that be the line in the sand for his happy nature?

·        Naruto standing on Gamabunta’s head again parallels the 4^th Hokage standing on Gamabunta during the Kyuubi sealing and Naruto when he fought Gaara.

·        In his 6-8 tailed form, Naruto meets his father and reveals the existence of the masked man (Tobi) being in charge of Akatsuki. He also talks about the Ninja System, saying that so long as that exists, war and people like Pain will continue.

·        Pain creates a small moon to entrap Naruto in his Kyuubi state, we later find out that the Kyuubi is part of one big creatures whose body is in the moon. Naruto erupting from the moon was hinted at that foreshadowing

·        We find out that both Itachi and Orochimaru used the same method of sneaking into the village undetected. Considering that the two left the villages within decades of each other, it means that the security has never changed.

Kage Summit

      While fixing the village, Karui, Samui, and Omoi arrive from Kumo to alert the Hokage about the summit meeting being held in Iron Country. Added with the knowledge of Danzo putting Sasuke on the Missing Nin list and that Sasuke attacked the Raikage’s brother Naruto journeys to Iron Country to get the Raikage to forgive Sasuke. Meanwhile, Sasuke is on his way to Iron Country to kill Danzo for his crimes. With the five Kages meeting to decide what to do about Akatsuki in a country full of samurai, what transpires here will change the ninja world forever.

      This arc is really brilliant because it really expands the Naruto Universe where up until now in Shippuden we haven’t been getting that. We have been to Suna and later Ame but ultimately Ame was the only place we had been that felt knew. Iron Country and the Samurai who live there are amazing and really feels like a different world in itself. The arc itself isn't perfect but it does answer the question of what is the rest of the continent doing about Akatsuki. Each of the five great countries has had Jinchuriki that have been taken by Akatsuki and we learn a lot at this meeting with Mifune, the ruler of Iron Country serving as mediator. It's ultimately one big blame game where the Raikage accuses everyone for the Akatsuki problem.

1. Onoki the Tsuchikage for hiring Akatsuki at times for mercenary missions.

2. Mei Terumi, the Mizukage due to Akatsuki originating in Mist.

3. Danzo the sixth Hokage because more members of Akatsuki are former Konoha ninja.

This arc is good because everyone has their own reasons for why they are here and what they want to accomplish. It kind of feels like the Brethren Court in Pirates of the Caribbean: World's End. Different, powerful leaders all gathering together to figure out what is going on and what they will do. It's even better when Madara Uchiha shows up before them and declaring war on them, even blaming the Kages for failing to keep peace. His plan to reflect the Sharingan off the moon to create an ultimate illusion world brings all the Kages against him and unites them more than the diplomacy would have.

This meeting does not take away from Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's stories as they all make interesting decisions that will not only affect Team 7 but possibly the world. After talking with Sai, about Naruto and hearing that Shikamaru wants to kill Sasuke to prevent war, Sakura resolves to talk to Naruto and deal with Sasuke whereas Sasuke continues his descent into madness, attacking not only guards but anyone who gets in his way to kill Sasuke.

I want to give massive points to Naruto as a character here. When he hears that Sasuke attacked the Kage Summit and finds out not only what Sasuke did at the summit and at Kumo but also hears that war is breaking out, he hyperventilates and honestly doesn't know what to do. Sakura meanwhile resolves to relieve Naruto of the burden she has placed on Naruto, going so far as to profess love for him and knocking out the other teammates resolving to kill Sasuke only to find she ultimately can't bring herself to do it. As Team 7 meets up for the second time, Naruto resolves to take on all of Sasuke's hatred and Sasuke resolves to strike him down with it as Sakura resolve to watch on the sidelines. It seems Team 7's journey will come to an end one way or another.

• Even though Danzo has been made Hokage, Kakashi says that the Jounin still have to vote. This seems strange since the Fire Daimyo seemed to have more of a say, so can the Jounin overrule the Daimyo? Are the Jounin the Electoral College of the Ninja System?
• Inari and Tazuna return to help rebuild the village 
• We find out that Tsunade has kept Sasuke off the missing nin status and that Danzo now puts him on it. This begs the question if anyone outside of the village knew that Sasuke defected. He is later identified quite readily by Kumo so at least some people know. It would make sense that ninja villages would spy on each other to an extent.
• When Naruto begs the Raikage for forgiveness, Yamato reminds him that Konoha never sought retaliation for the attempt to kidnap Hinata. We later find out that Kumo has tried this more than once and that Kumo has the largest military of all the nations.
• Onoki mentions that the Samurai of Iron Country serve as a balance to the Shinobi nations, this explains why the meeting was held here.
• Sasuke attacking the Kage Summit meeting makes him an international criminal, he essentially attacked a U.N. meeting.
• Sai has a flashback to when he asked Naruto why he wouldn't tell Sakura he loved her, his response was that he couldn't because he couldn't keep his promises to her (bringing back Sasuke). Combining this with what Sakura said about how she can only do small things for him reveals the ultimate tragedy of NaruSaku, they don't think they are good enough for one another.
• Sakura's conversation with Naruto is often considered to be a rather forced change in the series in terms of the romances. It should be noted that Naruto says she is lying but he never says about what. Sakura says she loves Naruto and Naruto says nothing. Sakura says she doesn't care about Sasuke anymore and then Naruto says she is lying.
• Danzo reveals during his fight with Sasuke and throughout this arc, that all he wants is to protect the village from threats. He sees the previous administration as ineffective, which seems to always be the same thing from Kages 1-5.
• The Sharingan techniques are Tsukyiomi, Amaterasu, Susano, and Izanagi, all gods in Japans Mythology.
• Sasuke defeats another opponent by making them explode.
• Karin has a flashback to when she first met Sasuke during the Chunin Exams where he saved her. This is the first moment of love to have an actual moment to make it sound less childish. After he stabs her and tells Sakura to kill her, Karin gives up on Sasuke but ultimately doesn't.
• Karin notices that Sasuke's Chakra has gotten darker and colder lately and she later notices Naruto's Chakra is bright and sunny until she looks at presumably the Kyuubi.
• Madara mentions that Naruto has Hashirama's spirit/beliefs and that he wants Sasuke to fight him since he is descended from Madara.
• Naruto saves Sakura using Sage Mode but before he turns to face Sasuke he deactivates it.
• To fight Naruto, Sasuke is willing to have Itachi's eyes implanted in his own. This is also because Sasuke had essentially been spamming Amaterasu since he had gotten it so he was going blind quicker than Itachi.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown

The Fourth Shinobi World War is approaching fast. With Tsunade having woken up and taken the mantle of Hokage back, she now joins the other Kages in preparation with A as commander. At the same time, Madra meets up with Kabuto who seems to have fully fused with Orochimaru's remains and makes an offer to help. Naruto has been sent with KillerBee to learn how to get the Kyuubi under his control. But Kisame is also looking for Naruto and Bee and as Naruto uncovers secrets about controlling the Kyuubi, he will also learn more about himself and his past.

So if you've seen Empire Strikes Back, you can kind of see a unique parallel to this, or pretty much any other Star Wars story. Whether it is Luke going into the forest on Dagobah or Donatello's journey in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Naruto embarks on a journey to conquer his darkness. What makes this interesting is that Naruto comes face to face with a physical manifestation of his darkness and hatred that he has pretty much buried it deep inside. When you consider Naruto's life as a whole, you kind of feel it's a bit underdone but you get why it's manifesting now as Naruto is dealing with people who hated/ignored him in the past all of a sudden love him and want his autograph. KillerBee is more interesting here than he was before because we get more looks into his personality and we finally get that one one one Jinchuriki moment that a lot of the fans wanted.

Naruto's meeting with Kyuubi is interesting because of how big it is. They've met face to face only a couple of times but they've never departed as equals. It all seems a bit symbolic in a way as Naruto tries to tame what is almost a manifestation of hatred. But what helped make this interesting was Naruto meeting his mother Kushina, the one person Naruto always wanted to meet. She provides a lot of insight into not just her but also the circumstances of Naruto's birth and the attack on the village. With that information and the knowledge of his parent's love, Naruto is able to defeat the Kyuubi and take control, granting him a new form.

It's a bit of a shame that this isn't where the arc ends off but it continues further with Kisame being on the village trying to capture either Naruto or B or to get the information out about their location. This isn't to say that his fight with Gai isn't 8 kinds of awesome and the look into his past is just a great too. Kisame is one those characters that again remind you of how dangerous and dark the ninja world is. He is tired of the lies and backstabbing and wants to live in Madara's world because of it. The final fight with Konan and Madara over Nagato's Rinnegan is also interesting in itself as we see Madara get the closest he has to actually losing a fight and we get a nice look into Konan as a character in terms of her past. It's really touching to see a team that has been destroyed by war. Kabuto's assault on the moving island was interesting as he reanimated Manda to attack them, the best thing being how Deidara got the Tsuchikage to fight and it was awesome just seeing his war face! I do like how the last scene is seeing Madara with is new costume and army of pretty much everyone who has died in the series with an army of Zetsus.

The problem is that the training to learn to control the Kyuubi's Chakra really seemed to be something that should have happened on it's own. It's all rather classic in terms of anime and it reminds me a bit of Rurouni Kenshin or Inuyasha. Both Kenshin and Inuyasha both had moments where they were trying to learn to control darker aspects of themselves. Inuyasha made a mistake that Naruto Shippuden fixed by bringing a bit of the character's history into the training as well as his family. Kushina was a character that had only been mentioned once and she gives us so much in not just herself but also the Uzumaki Clan. 

• It's revealed that numerous people have tried to hold the 8-tails before B, this makes him similar to Garaa, who was a Jinchuriki because the village needed someone to be the host. The same is true of Kushina, added to the reveal that Hashirama gave out Biju to other villages, it stands that Naruto may be a rare case.
• The Falls of Truth is akin to the Dark Side Forest on Dagobah from Star Wars and Dark Naruto is similar to Hollow Ichigo in Bleach
• Kushina mentions that the Uzumaki Clan was feared and well known, especially in Konoha, who were close allies to Whirlpool. With that in mind, considering who Naruto looks like (the 4th Hokage) and his last name (Uzumaki), you kind of wonder why he was ignored.
• Kushina mentions that the Uzumaki were distantly related to the Senju Clan. She also mentions that Mito Uzumaki married Hashirama and she was the first Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Kushina doesn't think they are directly related but if Mito is Kushina's grandmother then Naruto is descended from the Senju through a female line as well as the Kyuubi being passed through the same family.
• Sarutobi said that Minato cut the tails off the Kyuubi and sealed them in Naruto's navel. This reveals that that did not happen. Even stranger is that the villagers thought Naruto WAS the Kyuubi so the purpose of the story was strange because it is nowhere near the truth and isn't told to cover the truth as no one knows it.
• Naruto only has half of the Kyuubi's Chakra, the light half.
• Naruto's Jinchuriki form affects the plant life and moves in a way that makes B call him a yellow flash (the nickname his father had). This makes him similar to the 1st and 4th Hokages.
• Zetsu are created from statue that contains the First Hokage's cells. Going off Zetsu's appearance and the statue, Kishimoto may have drawn from A Song of Ice and Fire which has people who live in trees, the dead rising and an army of white attacking.
• The use of the dead to fight the living makes some sense thematically. A lot what has been going and a lot of  our main villains and deaths have been from war or attempting to end it. The army of the fallen have risen against those who have failed to create or maintain peace.
• Konan's story is a lot like Aqua's in Birth By Sleep. Both Konan and Aqua are tied strongly to their teammates, one of their teammates goes the extra mile for the other and each had a teammate who attacked their master (Terra and Erauqs and Nagato controlling Yahiko's body and Jiraiya) Both even have blue hair.

Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation

The Shinobi Alliance begins their attack against the army of the dead while Naruto, who doesn't know the war has started continues to work on his new form. Amidst all the emotional turmoil of facing the dead, Kabuto, Madara, along with reanimated former Jichuriki head to the battlefield as more surprises promise to make this a battle the world will never forget. 

A "Protagonist Light" series is always interesting in itself and we've seen this with Shikamaru's arc with Naruto largely in the background. These sort of stories are primarily what a lot of fans like because we see exactly what this universe is made of, those without as much plot armor as our protagonists. ultimately is just awesome. There is a lot of good character moments as Mifune meets up with Hanzo, who spared him in battle years ago or seeing Hiashi begin to fight his reanimated brother. Kankuro vs. Sassori (two generations of Puppet Masters from the same village) and even Kakashi leading a team against Haku and Zabuza. Most of our characters, old and new get to do something whether we just now see what Darui is made of as a Kumo Shinobi or seeing Chouji show the resolve to fight his dead sensei. I do applaud the use of technology in this series with Inoichi Yamanaka and others being hooked up to machines to telepathically send info to unit captains. I can only hope this is explained a bit and not later shown in ridiculous bulk later.

The only issue with this arc is that it does try to do too much. Kakashi's fight with the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist with Sai resolves off screen. The fight between Hiashi and Hizashi never actually happens or we don't see it. The idea is that mostly all these fights are happening at around the same time. Great things like the Kage fights and Naruto, Itachi, and B are fighting Nagato while at the same time Gaara is fighting his father. It makes sense that it happens and I like it better here than in One Piece and this may be because this series rarely does this and that you aren't 100% sold that everyone could make it though they all do.

I want to give points to our antagonists for this plan because it is brilliant. The army of the dead is ultimately a distraction as the White Zetsus take the form of others to infiltrate the camps, namely the medical units. With the Dead Kages taking on the living and ultimately Kabuto then unleashes Madara Uchiha to the army as the live "Madara" ventures with his unit of dead Jinchuriki. Granted this only happened because Itachi freed himself and sealed Nagato.

• It turns out that what made the samurai so dangerous was their iado, which could cut off the hands of enemy ninja so fast that they wouldn't have time to perform a Jutsu.
• B and Hachi mention that the Tailed Beast Bomb inspired the Rasengan.
• This arc reveals that Tobi had been calling himself Madara but he wasn't with Madara being revived now. Fans weren't exactly 100% surprised and had thought that Tobi would be either Obito, Minato, or Danzo.
• Itachi reveals that the crow he put inside Naruto contained Shusui Uchiha's Sharingan (Danzo had the other one) which was originally going to be used to stop Sasuke but Itachi uses it to free him from the control of the Impure World jutsu. 
• Gaara obtains new power through his father telling him that his mother loved him. Both he and Naruto find greater strength through finding out that they were loved by their mothers.
• Onoki, apparently is old enough that he knows Madara Uchiha by appearance alone.
• Naruto's form grants him . . . . . . more Rasengans
• The Raikage and B had a fight with the 4th Hokage when he was alive and A (Raikage) thought that he was the Child of Prophecy.

Fourth Shinobi World Arc: Climax, Birth of the Ten Tails Jinchuriki, and Kaguya 

This last arc is possibly the heaviest, there is a lot going on at once and in some ways it works and in some it doesn't. Naruto finally engages Tobi and the Jinchuriki which honestly was brilliant and I feel should have been the focus of Shippuden. Meanwhile the Kages engage in a battle against Madara while Sasuke and Itachi battle Kabuto in his new Snake Sage Mode.

When anime/manga does war it's either underwhelming or too complicated and a key issue is they don't know what to do with their characters as a whole. Soul Eater had a war with the witch Aracne in the anime and reduced itself to a simple monster battle. Avatar: the Last Aribender had a season with the actual war and then had a series of smaller engagements to end the series culminating in Aang vs. Ozai and Bleach downplayed the war with Aizen and RUINED the war with the Quincy. War stories in anime are hard because the war can't be the focus unless it's something like Samurai 7 or Basilisk (two of my favorites) which use the war as the primary focus or the template. Here I feel the war was at it's highest point for  but it just kind of kept going on and on on. This isn't to say that it wasn't great but as it went on it just kind of lost it's head. 

The fight the Kages and Madara is interesting but really never hits much of thematic approach to it though Madara is an excellent villain for the series. Like in the first series and in the Pein story, Madara is a shadow from the past coming back to haunt the present and it works. Especially with Onoki who fought him before but also shows his resolve to change and to favor this new alliance over his old way of doing things. On the other side it is Kabuto vs. Sasuke and Itachi. This fight is interesting primarily because we get a lot from Kabuto as a cahracter in the form of his back story as an orphan and how being a ninja stripped him of his identity in one form or another. Sasuke feels a bit wasted here but it's Kabuto and Itachi who make it work where Sasuke really only serves to help move the plot around and gives us some of Madara's history when he has Orochimaru revive Hokages 1-4.

Naruto's battle with the Jinchuriki is possibly the missed opportunity of the series, not that is isn't good but it's one of the ideas that get lost through it never really being explored. Naruto isn't exactly connected to these other Jinchuriki because it seems they all haven't led the same lives of isolation and abandonment. Naruto only connects with one of them long enough to matter but it does create an interesting scene as he learns the names of the Jinchuriki and their Biju along with Kyuubi's (Kurama). This is honestly a big deal that some people didn't get. Naruto as a character wanted people to know his name, and he has always hated the name "Jinchuriki" as it refers to them as weapons over people. This is shown again when he asks Tobi who he really is when he finds out he isn't Madara and Tobi says it doesn't matter. To Naruto, names do matter and failing to identify a person by their name is a challenge on a personal level to Naruto. Maybe it works just as good without him knowing the other Jinchuriki personally because he just care about them regardless but this series probably could have done more with them.

The big reveal here (and there are a lot of them) is that Tobi is actually Obito who was Kakashi's teammate that died a long time ago but not before giving Kakashi one of his Sharingan eyes. Obito  and Madara were the perfect choices for bad guys. Obito pushes Naruto to his limits and it takes a lot for them to even gain some ground on him but it does lead to one of the best exchanges ever when Sasuke and Sakura team up with him, even summoning the children of their summon bosses. Madara is a larger than life enemy, representing what one would call the "Golden Age" of ninja, less flash in appearance and more power as he battles the current generation of Kages.

This then becomes a battle of everyone vs. either Madara, Obito, the Ten Tails/Obito as the Ten Tails Jinchuriki and while a bit much at times it does the job. The problem is that at this point we just kind of keep going in a circle but it isn't entirely bad. There is a lot of moments where we see what Team 7 can do together and we get to see what Naruto and Minato can do with Minato holding half of Kurama's Chakra. Even Gai gets some good moments to shine.There are even moments where we see Obito's history as he ultimately makes a choice in his own life, again facing Naruto. A LOT of this works even at the high point when both Naruto and Sasuke die and Sakura and Karin work their butts off to save them and they get new powers and forms from the Sage of Six Paths. The problem comes up when ANOTHER deity shows up but this time in real world, which is where the series take a severe nose dive for the worst.

The real problem with this arc overall comes not only from how much it tries to do but in the reveal of Kaguya and in trying to further establish a mythos in the universe. Madara talks about a tree that gave Chakra to mankind and it's the purpose of the Moon's Eye Plan of trapping everyone in a genjutsu, she turns out to have always been part of the plan by Zetsu which makes NO SENSE! The arc ultimately looses all sense of self in the great job it did cultivating Madara and Obito as villains just to reveal it was the act of some all powerful being and that's what pretty much happens as everyone but Team 7 is trapped in the tree in an eternal genjutsu. They then beat her up and while some of it is visually interesting Kaguya feels completely detached from the narrative and feels more like Kishimoto couldn't find a way to beat Madara who was essentially healing himself in his new 10 tailed form. The arc ends itself with Kaguya being defeated and Naruto and Sasuke having another eventual fight at the Valley of the End immediately. Sasuke proclaiming he is going to kill the Kages to usher in a forced peace with his rinnegan. The fight lacks any real feeling to it as Naruto says he is going to end it but doesn't really start fighting until later, essentially repeating their first fight at the Valley. The whole thing feels more a reliance on the scene with the two of them bleeding from their blasted off arms and Sasuke's dialogue. It just makes little sense.

• Obito reveals that he survived thanks to Madara finding him but he didn't join up with Madra until he saw Kakashi kill Rin (to save her from being used by Ame). This creates another parallel to Naruto, the character who gave up because he saw it meant nothing and the one person who mattered died.
• The war ends on Naruto's birthday according to Minato
• Kakashi and Obito have the same Mangekyou Sharingan
• Neji's death was a really polarizing scene, but it may have been ruined by his last words, effectively telling Naruto to get with Hinata.
• In Hashirama's story about his friendship with Madara he mentions that he wanted Madara to be Hokage both times but he was elected the first time and and second time Tobirama was elected. 
• The Uzumaki also had a house where they kept masks, this is more than likely made due to the bond between Konohagakure and Uzugakure.
• Kabuto achieves Snake Sage Mode, but neither Sakura nor Tsunade show Sluge Sage Mode.
• Kabuto reveals to us that Karin is an Uzumaki though how she is related to Naruto, Kushina, and Nagato is unknown.
• Kurama reveals in a flashback that neither Hashirama, Mito, or Kushina ever asked for his name, but Naruto does.
• Fist bumping is officially the key to everything in this series.
• Tobirama admitted to trying to keep the Uchihas out of power because he didn't trust them fully. This is a rather smart move. Tobirama doesn't trust his families greatest enemies during the war.
• Apparently the Uchiha's gain strength through hate, making them similar to the Sith
• Sakura gets to do something this arc, as a matter of fact she is on a relatively good role during this war.
• Minato compares Sakura to Kushina when she asks if she is his girlfriend.
• Black and White Zetsu are never properly explained.
• Kaguya is the mother of the Sage of Six Paths and since the Senju and Uchiha's are descendants of his sons, that makes Naruto (who is distantly related to Senju) and Sasuke (an Uchiha), Kaguya's grandchildren somehow.This is similar to Aaang being Zuko's spiritual grandfather.
• Naruto's new form, tapping in the power of the Biju now inside him grants him . . . . .  Rasengans with different functions
• Sasuke arrives in the village and stands in the same spot as Naruto but at night and says the village has changed where Naruto says the opposite.
• Throughout this arc, Tenten is carrying around legendary weapons that ultimately do nothing
• Sasuke gets to leave the village at the end with the warning of "don't go doing it again". This would honestly cause a serious incident internationally as Sasuke is still an international criminal. The argument was that because he helped save the world and Naruto put in a good word for him. Even with all that, he shouldn't have been allowed to leave the village and it seemed he's just given a total pass.

Part 2 is noticeable bigger and more grand than Part 1. The story goes from a mild 5 to a hot 10 but then sadly simmers as it goes on. It goes further in the lines of world building, taking us to the Toad World and the Kage Summit meeting in Iron Country but other than that we didn't get much but to be fair there wasn't much world building in the first series but we did get a lot from Konoha. That is also something interesting, so much of this has little to do with the actual village or the other villages, Konoha getting attacked by Akatsuki really didn't flesh the series out and gave some good ideas for potential fights but it never seemed to happen.

If I had to say there was one MAJOR problem with the series was at the end with Madara and it really got hard to write because there was so much going on (or maybe I just suck). Madara is essentially the perfect villain for the series, he represents the past, he has been in control of so many things going on and he is an Uchiha who I feel Kishimoto put too much focus on. The story with Obito, Madara, and the 10 Tails are all decent but drag on a bit too long but once Kaguya appears, we no longer have a story about ninja fighting a product of the world they created (which has been a big thing throughout the series) we are now fighting a god with really vague motivations. I'd heard that Kishimoto had no intention of the Kaguya story and that the Pein invasion was supposed to be it ultimately but I can neither confirm nor deny that with any sources so if you have any, please post in the comments.

During the Pein Invasion, Minato told Naruto that as long as a ninja system exists, more people like Pein will be created. That's an interesting idea, that so long as Ninja exists, or even military organizations, that war and death will happen. Shippuden really shows us some politics like the purpose of Jinchurki, the Kage Summit, Kisame's background, Danzo and his machinations, the Ame Orphans, all of it is a product of the ninja system essentially competing with itself. At the end it doesn't seem to resolve itself though in the epilogue it seems the Kages all meet up once in a while to discuss things and that seems odd to me. The ninja all work for their respective Daimyo whose in charge of their land so are the great ninja villages forming peace alliances, and if they are doesn't that cause problems overall for the Daimyos? Who knows?

In terms of the epilogue, the reason I didn't talk about it was because it's really not that good or that interesting. All that happens is:

Naruto is Hokage and is married to Hinata and they have two children, a boy named Boruto and a girl named Himawari. Sakura is married to Sasuke and they have a daughter named Sarada. Ino married Sai, Shikamaru married Temari, Chouji married Ino, Gaara married Matsuri, and etc. everyone got married and had babies. My problem with that ultimately is in the first two. I know that Shipping is completely SUBJECTIVE and evidence is often left to interpretation unless stated by the writer but these don't make sense. Naruto and Hinata's relationship and Sakura and Sasuke's relationship are totally reliant on Hinata and Sakura. Naruto doesn't even interact that much with Hinata and Hinata's own character overall is so focused on Naruto throughout the series that I can't even pretend to be happy for her. Sakura has been pining for a man who does not acknowledge her but has also tried to kill her and at no point do I feel it makes any sense from a narrative standpoint to have any of them get married. I feel the same way with Ino and Sai though not as much but what I am hearing is that every female in the series got what they wanted from the beginning at the end. I'll admit I wanted Naruto and Sakura to happen but for Sakura to not seem to care at all about what Sasuke has done to her and others throughout the series and just be waiting for him to come back even after they get married and have a child is just painful. It's even worse when it seemed that Naruto and Sakura were going to end up together at the end until a certain point where that entire plot point switches gears. It's like the series started saying one plus one equals two but then says it equals three. If you want these parings to work and make sense, then you need to have the story show us that it makes sense, this was the same issue I had with Harry and Ginny in Harry Potter.

From a character standpoint . . . . . .  well sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I've heard that people say Kishimoto drew off of Dragon Ball Z when it came to character interactions with Naruto as Goku, Hinata as ChiChi, Sasuke as Vegeta, and Sakura as Bulma and that only works on paper. Both Naruto and Naruto Shippuden don't have anything in common really in terms of characters overall. Yes, Naruto is the standard Shonen Character type that Goku arguably defined but he has leagues more depth to him than Goku and the same goes for most of them and some of those don't make sense either way, namely Hinata being Chichi and Sakura Bulma. Toriyama really didn't expand on characters in depth after Dragonball and by the second series only three characters got real growth and the series was rarely as character driven as Naruto. Where the DBZ franchise relies pretty much on Goku, Vegeta, and sometimes Gohan and Piccolo as their primary characters with usually single villains Naruto took another route. Kishimoto loaded his series with characters that may have not always been great but did at least look like they were trying to fit into a narrative that was about three ninja's and then reduced to two.

Sakura seemed like a waste at first and she really did get the short end of the trio though we do see a lot of progress during the war. As a character she seemed at first to be someone who really didn't seem to get what being a ninja was in terms of what she was getting into and I kind of wonder why. Regardless she grew during the Chunin Exams and by the next series we a strong and confident girl ready to help her team as she is the first of Team 7 to defeat an Akatsuki member. Then she does nothing for a while, she really just stood on the sidelines for a while as the story happened around her, she doesn't really get stronger or learn anything new, at least we don't see it. Kishimoto has been accused of not writing women well and I partially agree but I think his problem is that he couldn't figure out what to do with her as the series went on. After the fight with Sassori her story is once again tied to Naruto and Sasuke's but she doesn't play any interesting roles in it. I think it would have been better if she herself had been given the role of going to Iron Country to ask the Raikage to forgive Sasuke, everything that needed to happen in that arc would still happen (it actually will). Sakura had the potential to be one of the best female characters in modern day anime but she just kind of fell short, even her medical skills are never challenged in any sort of way and she isn't really built up in any unique way. The Kage Summit is ultimately her last personal arc as she realizes not only what Sasuke has done and the threat he represents but also in how much of a danger and burden the promise Naruto made to her has put him in. She resolves to take care of everything for both Naruto and Sasuke but ultimately finds herself unable to bring herself to kill Sasuke and has realized that she will have to leave it to Naruto.

What doesn't work is the epilogue and follow up story that goes into her relationship with her daughter and Sasuke. It really seems that her and Sasuke aren't on similar wavelengths in terms of how their relationship works, which is why it isn't like Vegeta and Bulma's relationship. It doesn't help that she and Sasuke don't have any pictures and why her daughter was so quick to believe Sakura wasn't her biological mother. Sakura is just kind of married to Sasuke because it's what she wanted in the first series but it never feels like it was earned, I'd kind of like to see her with no one, just letting her be her own person.

 

I understand that Sasuke is really popular in Japan but I just couldn't bring myself to really like him overall. I understood a lot of what he did in terms of leaving the village to join with Orochimaru, forming Team Hawk, going after Itachi but after Itachi he seemed to lose me.While his motivations to kill the village elders for having Itachi murder his own family was clear, him wanting to destroy the entire village seemed a bit much. It also didn't help that his interactions with his new team didn't reveal much into his character, though they did mirror his previous team with Suigetsu serving as Naruto, Karin as Sakura, and Jugo as Kakashi. His actions at the Kage Summit made little sense as well, instead of waiting to kill Danzo he charges full forward into foreign territory to a room full of high ranking ninjas, most of whom aren't his target. I think his problem lies in the fact that Sasuke had no real plans after he killed Itachi and had no real vent for his anger and sadness which is why he went on this avenging crusade. He also doesn't have any real interactions with anyone other than Naruto and this goes as far back as to the first series. When he hears Hashirama's story he says he wants to be Hokage but after that he goes even bigger, saying that he wants to destroy the Biju and kill all the Kages uniting the world in fear of him and then he quits after he and Naruto pass out fighting each other. He then just leaves the village and comes back pretty much because Sakura said something. I think the problem really was that Sasuke came back to the village and it would have been better if he had just traveled around the world with Team Hawk because ultimately Konoha isn't his home anymore. The idea of him and the rest of Team Hawk going around righting injustices as rogues, I think would have worked better for him.

The biggest problem is still that I've seen Sasuke's character handled better in .Hack//G.U. with Haseo who was also out looking for someone who killed a loved one(s), who also got hooked on a dangerous power, and who also found himself wrapped up in something bigger than he signed up for. In the epilogue, it seems that he is rather detached from his family and is often gone for years at a time but it is hinted at that he loves his daughter. I get that public displays of affection aren't his thing but in Bleach, Byakuya Kuchiki has the same problem but he does show it in his own way that he does care about people. I'm just saying the idea of Sasuke is better than the actual thing.

Naruto ultimately gets the best of Kishimoto which makes sense as the main character (trust me that isn't always a universal truth). He goes from a character who really is in it for himself and is really set on letting his fists do the talking but then becomes this really mature and deep character. By the time of Jiraiya's death and battle with Pein, Naruto has adopted a very pacifistic ideology. He resorts to talking with Pein because he feels that if they kill him that Ame will retaliate and that the fighting between Ame and Konoha will never stop. Naruto really wants to kill Nagato but instead talks to him and tries to understand him. When Karui demands info on Sasuke, Naruto refuses to sell Sasuke out and instead takes a beating from Karui, not fighting back when he easily could and then goes before the Raikage and begs him to forgive Sasuke because he knows that if the Raikage kills Sasuke then his friends may try to avenge him (which I doubt). When that fails and Naruto hears what Sasuke has done and what has happened he hyperventilates but finds his sense back and tells Sasuke that he will take on all his hatred and that he will stop Sasuke himself.

The entire series has Naruto facing different versions of himself like Gaara, Haku, Neji, Nagato, and Obito. As opposed to his teammates, Naruto impacts and is impacted on by the people he meets through one mean or another. It was interesting to see him meet his mother inside Kurama and it really did seem to be the high point of his growth as a character. I think if there was a problem with him, it would be that the second series never really let him interact with other people much, an example being how Naruto never really met or interacted with other Jinchuriki save Gaara and B. He was a bit too dedicated to Sakura and Sasuke, almost reminding me a bit of Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

Other than Naruto's design at the end and his marriage to Hinata, I can't find anything wrong with his epilogue as Hokage. He seems completely happy with his life and ultimately takes everything in just as much stride as always, having achieved his dreams and it does feel earned. The art however, often made Naruto look so dull and uninterested. 

This series overall is fun, but I think that the stronger series does go to the first half with Shippuden being the bigger, weaker second story. The first series really set itself and it's villains up better and ended on a really uplifting yet somber note, actually it was a lot like the beginning of Birth By Sleep. One character leaves (Sasuke), another follows (Naruto), and the third is trying to help both of them (Sakura). What made Brith By Sleep work was that all three of those characters went through arcs and they all came together at a point. The side characters also had little to do save Gaara and Shikamaru. Even Team Hawk had little to do overall and Sai and Yamato really don't do much of anything past this point.The other characters are just kind of there most of the time. I think this was ultimately what the Filler Arcs were for, fleshing out those little bits that we love, cause those arcs do answer most of my issues with the series. 

Overall Naruto and Naruto Shippuden are fun series but I feel that they could have used a good re examination or perhaps a different company to really let it be what it needed to be. It's still a fun series and I don't regret putting my time into it but by the end so little of what happened felt earned for the characters and the final battles just kind of keep going on and on. Until then, it isn't entirely bad and I think it is a great series for people to get into if they want to start or get back into watching anime or reading manga.