Naruto’s battle against Tobi and his tailed beast allies continues this week, and we finally see a little more about the tailed beasts as well. With that in mind, did the chapter itself turn out well or was it another disappointing week for Naruto?
Thankfully, to answer the above question, it’s the former. This chapter, although still slow paced, turned out to be quite enjoyable all the same. After battling with the tailed beasts for the past few chapters, Naruto (with some help from Kurama and his power of course) was finally able to remove and destroy all the chakra recievers that gave Tobi the power to control them. After doing so, Naruto finds himself suddenly surrounded by the other 7 tailed beasts and their respective Jinchuriki in a different plane. Naruto is informed that Tobi cannot reach this place, so they will be safe to talk for a while. Naruto finds out that the reason he is being greeted in such a way is because of Son Goku (aka the Yonbi) informing the other tailed beasts of how Naruto had helped him and wanted to be friends.
Naruto is welcomed by the former Mizukage – Yagura, who (after trying to get Naruto to actually pay attention) explains what was going on. Afterwards, Son Goku asks the other tailed beasts if they remember what the last words of the Sage of Six Paths had been, and that was that someday someone would visit them in this realm trying to help, and that when the day arrives, they should help him. Before Goku can say anything else, it is sucked away by the power of Tobi’s Gedo Mazo on the outside. When he is pulled back in to the statue, the two tails calls Naruto over and tells him to stick his hand out so that he can keep the promise he made to Son Goku.
When Naruto does so, all of the tailed beasts and their respective Jinchuriki tell him their names. Kurama thinks back to when the Sage of Six Paths had last gathered them together. When he did so, all of the tailed beasts were much smaller (as you can see from the picture above) and were told that one day they would no longer be together and would be split up, and would also be renamed, but ultimately they would be able to go down the right path which they couldn’t when they were all sealed inside of himself.
The group of tailed beasts realise that the person the Sage had been speaking of so long ago was Naruto, before they all end up being pulled back in to the Gedo Mazo statue. With Naruto now returned to the real world, Tobi is surprised that Naruto was able to control the Kyuubi’s power like that, but claims it won’t make any difference, only for Naruto to say that something has changed – he just learned a bunch of difficult names.
That was the content of the chapter, and I rather enjoyed it. It was nice to see the Sage of Six Paths again, especially surrounded by younger versions of the tailed beasts. We also ended up finding out the individual names of the tailed beasts, while also having confirmation that the hero from the prophecy is in fact Naruto. While I have been one of the first people to criticise Naruto in the past, these last few chapters has seen my opinion of him changing to be a bit more positive much like back when he fought Pain (which now seems so long ago). He is still far from my favourite character, but as he becomes more and more like the hero of the prophecy (and in the process seems more mature than before) I feel myself beginning to like him more as a character too.
So anyway, moving on, the chapter was again slower paced than some may like, but now with the tailed beasts defeated it leaves the door open for an awesome battle between Tobi (and the Gedo Mazo Statue) versus Naruto, Bee, Kakashi and Guy next week. Who knows, we may even get to go back to the Kage vs Madara with any luck, so next week is definitely a chapter to look forward to regardless.
Posted by Tokyo Mao 
Tokyo Gazette 