Naruto Chapter 483 – Here We Go Again…

Post Author: Bob

I don’t really know what to say about this chapter, on the one hand I always wanted to see a serious confrontation between Sasuke and Kakashi, but on the other hand the timing of this fight couldn’t be worse. Sasuke has been on a marathon battle rampage for more chapters than I want to count right now. Kishi has been pushing Sasuke’s power level upwards ever since the Kage Summit. When he had Danzo face off against Sasuke right after that, I thought it was a little bit much considering only a brief amount of time had passed since Sasuke’s last fight. But now we have Kakashi’s arrival, I’m thinking this is getting pretty absurd.

There’s a limit to how much power and stamina a character can have, and I think Sasuke should have surpassed his limits quite a while ago. Although it is not entirely clear, judging from the chain of events since the Kage Summit, I’m guessing only one or two days have elapsed. Let’s recap: Sasuke pretty much exhausted his chakra reserves after taking on all the kages. He had a short breather when Madara warped him away and allowed Karin to heal him before being brought back to defeat Danzo. That’s five kage-level opponents in less than a day’s time, yet Sasuke is still standing and seemingly ready to fight Kakashi. So where did all this chakra and stamina come from? Throughout part 1, one thing that was clear about Sasuke and Naruto regarding their fighting levels was that while Sasuke was efficient and skilled, he lacked the huge chakra reserve Naruto possessed. After all Sasuke is no Jinchuuriki, and it’d be too unbalanced if he was given both the talent and the stamina to fight forever. Remember when Sasuke first learned the Chidori? All he could manage was about two a day — but the current Sasuke pulls off Chidori’s without a second thought. One could argue that he has become more efficient at using that jutsu through the 3 years of training, but I still find it difficult to believe he can manage to pull Chidori’s out of his ass after spamming Amaterasu and Susano’o for the last 20 chapters.

There’s two other things I don’t like about this fight happening now. One is that whatever the outcome is, nobody will be happy. If Kakashi manages to subdue Sasuke, Sasuke fans will cry foul because Sasuke is clearly not at his prime after just fighting Danzo. If Sasuke manages to kill Kakashi, Kakashi fans will cry foul because it’s insulting that a nearly exhausted Sasuke can defeat Kakashi at full strength. My other concern is that the battle will be a protracted skirmish at best. With big daddy Madara always at the ready to warp his prized possession to safety and Naruto closing in fast, it’s unlikely that this fight will end with a decisive victor. Everything about the timing indicates that this is just a teaser battle at best.

Even when Naruto gets to the scene, I’m betting it will be a repeat of their last meeting at Orochimaru’s base with Sasuke being wisked away again. But I think this encounter with the new cold-blooded Sasuke is necessary for both Sakura and Naruto. Think of it as a reality check – something to steel their resolve. I think at the moment neither of them is ready to accept what Sasuke is becoming. Sakura’s hesitation to kill Sasuke in this chapter proves that memories of the Sasuke of Team Kakashi are still strong as ever. After this encounter, both of them will have to decide what they will do in the future. No matter how you spin it, the current Sasuke is a criminal, a murderer, and a terrorist. He has crossed a fine line and the world wants him dead. Sakura has tried to face reality by coming here to kill Sasuke, but she lacks resolve. In the end, Naruto is the only one who can end Sasuke’s vendetta against Konoha, but when the moment comes, will he hesitate?

Everything else in this chapter with Sakura and Karin was pretty predictable. I just wished that Sakura could have come up with a better plan to kill Sasuke than with just a kunai. She disobeyed orders and lied to your teammates to get this close to Sasuke — but all she can think of is to stab him with a knife. I mean, she has trained under Tsunade for three years, I would have thought she‘d have something more to offer. I thought Kishi was going to develop Sakura more this year, but so far he’s still treating her as a token heroine. I think that’s all I wanted to say this week.

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