Naruto Chapter 510 – SIX HUNDRED BILLION???

Post Author: Bob

Well holy crap, I didn’t get to read this week’s chapter until just now because of life stuff, but wow did I wish I had done it sooner. This chapter was packed with info about not only Madara, but also hints at the links between the Sharingan, Rinnegan, Sage, Senju clan, Uchiha clan and who knows what else. It’s gonna take me a while to digest this all, but I’ll post what ideas popped into my head since I don’t want to delay this post if I don’t have to.

Konan’s display of raw firepower in this chapter should shut any fan boy up who has dissed about female Naruto character being weak. Sure most of them aren’t frontline fighters, but just because they’re not out there swinging their fists around every week, it doesn’t mean they’re weak shinobi. Heck, this chapter is a perfect reminder to us all to never underestimate a pissed off lady — because she’ll rip you a new one when you least expect it. Madara learned this the hard way, I guess all these years of being nearly untouchable and unchallenged has made him too conceited. For the first time ever since maybe when he fought Minato, Madara has his back against the wall since he’s forced into a situation designed specifically to counter his dimensional transfer abilities. Props ought to be given to Konan for pulling this off, but you have to wonder how she even managed to execute such a broken jutsu… I mean seriously, SIX HUNDRED BILLION explosive tags? I think we all need to take a second to fully comprehend the magnitude of that number. Well, it’s pointless to go into the logistics of getting 600 billion copies of any object in a manga, so let’s just accept it for what it is and move on. What Konan’s technique did reveal to us is a great deal about the inner workings of Madara’s dimensional phasing abilities.

So here’s what we know:
– Madara is able to absorb other objects to another dimension, but must solidify his own body before doing so.
– Madara is able to absorb himself (he must solidfy himself prior to doing this), this is how he can ‘warp’ to different locations near instantaneously.
– Madara can absorb and transport others in the same way, but always takes longer to absorb something else relative to absorbing himself.
– Madara is able to freely switch between absorbing something (solidifying himself) and making himself intangible — this occurs instantaneously.
– Madara can only remain intangible for about five minutes at a time, after which he is forced to solidify.

It seems Konan had observed Madara very closely while in Akatsuki, this is strong indication that she and Nagato never trusted him in the first place. And it appears that Madara felt the same way about Nagato and Konan, his line at the end about Nagato smirking at him even after betraying him indicates that their past cooperation fragile at best. Madara’s comment shows he may have felt belittled by Nagato at times. Nagato was probably the only Akatsuki member Madara could be fully manipulate due to the power of the Rinnegans. I trust Madara’s words from last chapter stating he was the one who gave Nagato his Rinnegans and set him on this path, but I get the feeling Nagato also became quite a thorn in Madara’s thigh when he started acting on his own accord. His betrayal after the events at Konoha must have been the last straw for Madara, but I doubt he was completely shocked at the turn of events.

After seeing how knowledgeable Madara was about Danzou’s Izanagi, it probably didn’t come as a surprise to many of us that he could pull one off too. Madara’s revelation of his second Sharigan was a surprise move, otherwise using the Izanagi in that situation would just pull him out of the fire but leave him permanently blind. But then again, after seeing his huge Sharingan collection, was there any doubt he would have more than one operational eye? Madara boosted about his Izanagi being the more complete form compared to Danzo’s jerry rigged version, he adds that this is because he possess the combined powers of the Uchiha and Senju — essentially obtaining the power of the Sage of Six Paths. However, I doubt the Sage had to suffer the handicap of having his eyes blinded every time he used Izanagi, so Madara is not quite to that level yet. Madara claims he fought Hashirama Senju to obtain the power of the Senju clan (now I Really want to know exactly what happened in that epic fight), but clearly that was the only the first step of his plan as his goal hasn’t come to fruition even after so many generations. He mentions that two of the paths (Uchiha and Senju) are now one, and refers to Nagato (his Rinnegan) as the third path to the sages of the six paths. Obtaining the combined power of all the Bijuu in the form of the Ten-tails must be another path — that leaves us with two more paths, ie. two more objectives Madara must complete before his Moon’s Eyes Plan comes to pass. I get the feeling that Naruto and Sasuke are each at the center of one of the remaining paths…

I just have a few minor points to make so I’ll just summarize them here:
– Madara’s anger at having Konan call him ‘the darkness/evil’ was an interesting scene that shines some light on the dynamics of his character. It shows that despite all the sacrifices and suffering he’s caused to the world, Madara still believes he is doing the right thing for the world. I guess one can do no evil if one believes his cause is just.
– Nagato… orange hair… an Uzumaki… what? Stop the presses! Okay, this just opens up a whole new realm of theory possibilities, but I’ll leave that for you guys in the comments. I can see people trying to link every orange/red haired character in the Naruverse to the Uzumaki clans now, lol, let the fun begin.
– I know Madara said he would kill Konan after learning Nagato’s body’s location, but something in the back of my mind tells me she might be still alive since she wasn’t shown actually being killed (physically or mentally). My fear though is that she might return as one of Kabuto’s undead summons — which I really hope doesn’t happen.
– Why did Konan leave Nagato’s body in the open like that? *Face-palm*, score another point for the bad guys 😦