Naruto IX: [Epilogue Intensifies]

[Aotrs Commander]

Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

Got another volume on the way, and the next one is in January (Vol 35); by my reckoning, the series should finish at volume 38 (we're halfway through 32, I think, at this point), so at... some point later this year, I may actually have done! (I imagine there's a fiar chance that I'll actually have caught to to the DVD releases before volume 36 comes around, so you might be spared this blither quite as regularly...!)

The Imprisoned Pair

Tenten does a surprisingly good Naruto on the Rain nin she's trapped with, dryly suggesting that maybe they shouldn't fight down here and then trying to make friends or at least polite conversation. The other kunoichi is not hugely receptive, but reasonable in the end.

And then Giant Ants. Lots of Giant Ants. Tenten's kunai pings off one, so she just summons a massive great axe and splatters it.

Meanwhile, Neji and Lee are failing to find a way into the ruins, but they do spot some Leaf ninja we saw last episode than the Rain girls were avoiding. The Leaf nin scent victory, ad that goes south very fast when Neji and Lee come to help and Neji shows he has no qualms about teaming up WITH the Rain ninja on his fellow Leaf ninja if he has to. The Leaf nin leg it and they let them go.

Tenten and Rain Lass find the giant ant nest and manage to get them chasing them. Fortunately, the two teams converge (Lee is fighting giant ants while the other enter the ruins, Lee having spotted an entrace just before the ants attacked).

Problem - umpteen meters of rock fall between Tentan and the way out. Neji stops the Rain ninja from using an explosive tag, just to use Air Palm - hopng the concentrated blast will work it doesn't (Neji ruefully admits is was nearly as bad as the tag would have been).

Rain Lass meanwhile, summons a giant panda to fight the ants while she basically attempts to seal the rock fall away in to her cards with her transporation jutsu. She begs Tenten to do the same, but Tenten doesn't know how. Tenten is feeling a bit extraneous at this point, but as the other girl flags, she has another flashback, remembering Guy's words about hw she could seal a whole sea if she did it well enough. We see her get soaked several times failing to do so.

The panda goes down and desummons, and with the last of the chakra exhorts Tenten one more time.

Tenten finally says "frack it" gets her scroll out and fracking summons the SEA. Complete with sea life. This certainly gets them out, knobbles the ants and carries both teams off into the desert in a flow of water, because, as previously mentioned, Tenten is fricking awesome.

The two teams elect to part under truce and go their seperate ways.



The Place Where I Belong

New intro...

And we find out - finally - what Sakura, Ino and Chouji have been up to this entire time!

Bickering!

Chouji managed to break their water canteen during a fight (which it is implied they won, getting the their scroll) and Sakura headed them towards an oasis. (Not realising there is a Dan team - with a med-nin - because of course this arc) lurking there.

In the meantime, a giant socrpin attacks again, tis time in the daylight, breaking up the fight. Ino can't hit it with a mind jutsu (would that even have worked...?) Chouji manages to expand and grab two tails and stomp on the thrd... Befire it inexplicably spawns two more for some reason. Just whe I was starting to think it was some sort of genjutsu, Sakura falls out of the sky and pulverisies it.

Ino patches Sakura's hand up and has a long flashback about how she wasn't sure of her place (thing this arc...) and ended up becomign Tsunade's second student. This whole sequence is rather charming, with Sakura and Ino's bickering (and apparently Chouji has a thing for nurses and assumes it's unilateral...) Ino gets an octopus to resurrect (I gues Tsunade was either channellign Madara or just wanted a laugh) and Sakura has to read All Of The Books. While Tsunade clearly uses this all to slack off and have a good snooze, interspersed with some mild genin terrorisation.

Ino ends up even more determined to get stronger and not be left behind, because this arc cannot bludgeon that into our heads quite hard enough...!

New outro, which is a bit meh (I liked the last one a lot, actually), but Madara very cheerfully kicking the crap out of people and being Evil while the rather jaunty, cheerful tune plays kind of drags it up.



The Yamanaka Clan: Secret Ninjutsu

Our heroes run right iunto the Sand medical ninja's team. Sakura recognises her as the one who healed them after that run in with the first scorpion before the second part of the exam. The Sand nin very generously offer to let our heres past to the water if they hand their scrolls over. Else they'll beta them up (and the medical ninja promises to heal them up afterwards).

Ino immediately leps into attack and gets promptly knocked out.

*skullpalm*

Good job, Ino!

The medical ninja can make water preying mantic arms as sharp as chakra scapals, the the other dude can make really hard sand weapons and armour - but it isn't really enough until their other mate turns them invisible.

(And at no point does is occur to miss super smart Sakua to, I dunno, use the copious amounts of sand around to make visible...)

As Sakura and Chouji get kicked about, Ino is conscious and Does A Flashback. Turns out, she was trying to become a sensory ninja as well, but she can't do it without lots of time and concentration. But something Shikamaruy said gave her an idea so...

Huh.

I owe you an apology, Ino - she's been faking the whole time and her warning allows Sakura and Chouji to perfectly counter-attack.

Unforunately, because the medical ninja put magic water jelly fish on them earier (?) they get immediately healed, so that whole plan was just no-sold. Bugger.

So dude three pins Ino down and disrupts her sensory jutsu with a tiger-y thing, and the other pair go back to whaling on Sakura and Chouji.

Inochi, meanwhile is pacing around in front of Tsunade, worried sick because Ino never did master that Clan jutsu he was trying to teach her. But Tsunade says not to worry...

Ino, meanwhile, basically brute-will-power forces telepathy with self-same jutsu, to directly share thoughts between Chouji and Sakura - as the enemy invisiblity fails just as they attack, each can see the other's blind spot and instantly know where to punch.

And down goes medic-nin and sand guy. Teammate three craps himself, and Ino, Sakura and Chouji charge at him.

And then all the ninja are at the oasis, with all three girls patching up the three lads with medical jutsu, because this exam, unlike the previous one, is almost ridiculously civilised. (That said, of course, Sand and Leaf are proper, actual allies and mates now, so maybe this isn't that shocking in the first place.) Chouji flirts to the point of just barely stoppng short of actually hitting on the Sand med-nin lass (she seems amused and takes it in good humour, which makes a change, I suppose), and the two other lads clearly share the sentient that medic ninja are hot. (Apparently.)

Tsunade explains actually... Ino isn't going to be a medic-nin after all. It's useful for her to have the skills, sure, but what is also did was sharpen up her other skills.

...

Which means, ahahahaha, Ino is actually the character that is trying very hard to do the min-max multiclass build, while everyone else single-classes. Damn shame she's up against people who just have so much better stats than her, else she would blow 'em out of the water eventually...!