Naruto Chapter 477 – ZOMG! It’s Itachi-san!

Post Author: Bob

Hey now, this was a surprise, I really wasn’t expecting chapter 477 to come out this week since the buzz that week was that it would be out in two weeks. I was looking forward to a break from blogging over Christmas too, but if Kishi doesn’t take a break from pumping these chapter out I guess neither can I stop posting about them. Since it’s Christmas Eve and all, I’m sure most people will be busy (myself included) so I’ll try to keep this one short and prevent myself from going off on my usual rants.

I’ll skip the formalities and jump to the big upset in this chapter: the Return of Itachi. I’m sure Itachi fans must have been pulling their hair out and doing flips off the walls when they saw the last page of chapter 477. I’m usually not in support of bringing back dead characters, in any form, but Itachi deserves an exception. One of the reasons is that there’s no way he’d just let his little brother fall into the hands of Madara; like what Minato did for Naruto, Itachi has also done for Sasuke. It’s very unlikely that this is a full resurrection of Itachi, so we’re left with a couple of options on what he is.

1. Like with the Amaterasu, this is another ‘gift’ left by Itachi to protect Sasuke. Perhaps Itachi had predicted that Sasuke would encounter Danzo after his death and was even aware of Danzo’s Sharingan abilities. He then planted this trigger if ever Sasuke and Danzo fought.
2. This Itachi is part of a Tsukoyomi genjutsu set up by Sasuke to catch Danzo off guard. Observe Sasuke on page 16, he definitely looks like he was triggering something when he was staring at Danzo with his Mangekyou Sharingans. Sasuke has experienced Itachi’s Tsukoyomi effects plenty of times to copy them and simulate them as if the real slim shady was present. Itachi would also be a pretty useful psychological weapon to use against Danzo, besides Sasuke probably knows too little about Danzo to use someone else’s likeness.
3. This is a genjutsu (possibly Tsukoyomi) set up by Madara to give a hand to Sasuke. Maybe he observed something interested regarding Danzo’s techniques and wanted to test him out himself. This option is least likely to occur as it is rare for Madara to lend a hand in battle especially when it isn’t certain Sasuke will lose yet.

Danzo used quite a few Fuuton techniques this chapter, so even though I don’t want to make the comparison, he probably shares the same Wind element chakra that Naruto has. As for an explanation on Danzo’s jutsu that keeps bringing him back to life, it’s still up in the air — though we get a few more hints in this chapter. It certainly is not your normal clone business or else Sasuke’s Sharingans or Karin’s senses would have detected it already. And it doesn’t look to be genjutsu as Karin said in this chapter that she hasn’t detected any chakra imbalance in Sasuke or herself. So is it the real Danzo that keeps getting crushed, burnt and sliced by Sasuke yet returns back to normal every time? I was thinking it could be a space-time jutsu ability much like Madara’s own, but Danzo is clearly being physically damaged by Sasuke’s attack every time — he just reappears like nothing happened. Madara seemed to have noticed something when Danzo grabbed Sasuke’s throat on page 13, was he just surprised at Danzo’s speed or was it something else? What Karin observed about Danzo is the most revealing. First, she sees one of the eyes on Danzo’s arm close on page 10; this suggests a limit on how much Danzo can use his Sharingans. Perhaps an eye closes every time Danzo uses a Sharingan ability or maybe every time he is miraculous resurrected. The other observation Karin makes is on page 14-15 after Danzo’s arm gets cut off. Not only are the eyes closing one by one, but the entire arm just fades away. I really want to call it a space-time jutsu, but seeing as none of Danzo’s Sharingans are the Mangekyou variety, is this even possible?

Sasuke summons a hawk, how appropriate.

Hmm, even though I said this week’s post would be short, it kind of got pretty long anyways :p Anyways, I don’t expect a lot discussion since it’s the holidays so take it easy 🙂