Naruto Chapter 472 – Once you go black, you never go back

Post Author: Bob

Chapter 472 was a really interesting chapter. I don’t think anyone could have foreseen Kisame’s sword actually turning on him for Killerbee! I actually got a good laugh when I saw Kisame punt the poor Samehada out of anger, LOL. In all, I was really glad Kishi decided to finally devote an entire chapter to this battle instead of trying to squeeze one or two other plot lines inside these 17 pages as well. Honestly, he should see this battle to its conclusion before moving on anything else, but that’s just my opinion.

From the look of the conclusion of this chapter, it seems the battle is already near its end. This is pretty disappointing as there wasn’t any real fighting between Kisame and Killerbee at all. It took all this time for Kisame to finally reveal his shark-man form, but we don’t get to see any of his new abilities before it’s all over — hence I feel a bit ripped off for having to wait a whole week for this. Also, you can’t call this a real battle since Killerbee couldn’t fight at all because the raccoon and the enka guy were in trouble. Why couldn’t we have a real fight like the one sage mode Naruto had with Pein? I would have liked to see a chess-like tactic battle of wits and jutsus between Killerbee and Kisame; they’re both powerhouses and there’s so little we know of their true powers — it would make for a really interesting battle.

But alas, all we get is this underwater game of cat and mouse. Kisame’s water dome was in effect just a super-sized version of the water prison jutsu. I guess it’s the ideal technique to keeping your enemy trapped while incapacitating them at the same time; but does anyone else think how ironic it is that a shark is trying to drown an octopus? Given all the incredible Bijuu abilities and chakra at his disposal, who would have thought that Killerbee would not have the ability to breath underwater? The other thing I couldn’t wrap my head around was how they were talking underwater. You’d think that drowning outweighs any concern about maintaining communication, but then again I guess maintaining the flow of dialogue is pretty important too.

I enjoyed the scenes where Killerbee is talking to the Hachibi on their next move, this symbiosis is another reason why I really would like Naruto to form a similar relationship with Kyuubi if that ever becomes possible. The current Kyuubi sees Naruto’s body as a prison, but if he’d willing to recognize that he would benefit from a symbiotic relationship with Naruto, I think that would be an excellent level up for his growth. That said, it could very well be impossible in Naruto’s case as well. After Killerbee underwent a partial transformation to keep Kisame at bay with his tentacles, Kisame mentions that Killerbee is known as the “perfect host” — which probably explains why Killerbee’s Bijuu powers are so much more advanced than what we’ve seen in other Jinchuuriki. If that’s so, maybe Naruto will be unable to obtain this level of power with the Kyuubi if he does not possess a “perfect host” body. I know that Naruto is already pretty powerful now that he has sage mode, but it would be such a shame to allow all the potential that is Kyuubi go to waste. Some might say that tapping into Kyuubi’s chakra is going down the path to the dark side, but it was Minato who put that beast inside Naruto in the first place; even Minato admits that he did that in order to give Naruto the power to fight Madara in the future. Therefore I still believe, regardless of whatever sage abilities Naruto may develop in the future, he must come to terms with his Kyuubi powers if he hopes to defeat Madara.

I think we all saw that ink screen Killerbee used coming when we first saw him produce ink from his mouth in the last chapter. But like a shark drawn to blood, Kisame can smell Killerbee’s charka from miles away and takes him down even in the ink cloud. I had hoped that Killerbee would use anther tentacle clone to escape, but from the Hachibi’s comments it looks like it’s the real Killerbee who is lying helplessly in front of his enemy. Furthermore, Hachibi is even saying that his chakra has almost all been stolen by Samehada, that’s quite remarkable seeing how immense Bijuu charka levels are.

The most remarkable thing, of course, comes when Kisame is about to cut of Killerbee’s legs and his own sword Samehada turn on his master. It seems that Killerbee’s octopus flavoured chakra was so delicious that Samehada has decided to go with its stomach and side with Killerbee. The scene that follows is pretty epic: like a feral dog, Samehada bites the hand of the man that used to feed him to protect his future meal ticket; so much for shark-man’s best friend. And when Samehada actually has the audacity to begin transferring charka back to Killerbee, Samehada can’t take this betrayal any longer and punts the poor thing away. Seriously, that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in Naruto in quite a while (I miss the LOL-type humor that was so common in Naruto in the old days 😛 ). Who would of thought that Samehada would become Killerbee’s unlikely ally. Kisame’s still determined to catch his prey regardless, I only hope that the small opening Samehada provided for Killerbee is enough for him to stop Kisame.

Oh, and also, can anyone explain what those things coming out of Killerbee’s chest are when he partial transformed in this pic? I thought they may have come from Kisame but I don’t see any puncture holes in the next panel. So what are they?