Naruto Chapter 561 - Reactions

[alliancesjr]

I might start doing this every week. It'd get me regularly writing, and it's something I can do. Besides, I GOT OPINIONS. I might go back and do things in a ten-chapter stretch, too.

Spoilers behind the cut.

Madara. Madara Madara Madara.

Here's the thing about the two Madaras, and this might only be conjecture here, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's a matter of Fake-Madara and Real-Madara. Sure, the Real Madara body was resurrected with Edo Tensei, which obviously means that Madara did, in some fashion, die - it's clear now that was the corpse Kabutorochimaru summoned - but Fake-Madara has all of Madara's memories. Though it's now coming into question if Fake-Madara has any of Madara's powers, since he has yet to use the Meteor spell, or any of the Mangekyou Sharingan abilities besides Kakashi's, the Kamui.

In any case, there are two possible theories I have. Fake-Madara is an advanced clone/copy/splitform thing, like the old Mummy Tsuchikage can do. Which means that Fake-Madara is not fake, and simply continuing his own legacy as a sort of twisted and perverted take on the Inheriting the Will of Fire.

Second theory, and probably the most plausible, is that Fake-Madara is a Zetsu copy, or even the other half of Black Zetsu. We know the White Zetsus can copy chakra signatures and even exclusive jutsus, and we know that Zetsu keeps getting more powerful with the Senju biomatter in the Gedo Mazo statue. We also know very little about Zetsu himself, only what some of his abilities are, he was the one to introduce Tobi/Madara to the readers and - most telling - he has been an integral part of Tobi-Madara's plans from almost the beginning.

My theory (that will likely get Jossed in a couple chapters) is thus: Tobi-Madara isn't using Zetsu. Zetsu is using Tobi-Madara, to the extent that he copied the real Uchiha Madara.

Also: Looks like Kyuubi no Youko is finally starting to work with Naruto. He started to talk of his own free will not long ago, and this is the first time he's not only offering freely of his power, but actively cheering Naruto on. Sure, it's against Uchiha Madara, the Kyuubi's most hated enemy (aside from Yondaime Hokage, that is), but it's a turning point. It's something that never happened before, and is most likely the stepping stone to being on "good terms" with his jinchuuriki. Yet again, Naruto clobbering people over the head and making them friends with him.

Granted, the "good terms" we may get might still be an antagonistic relationship, because the Kyuubi is a smug bastard, but hey.

Comments

[westonian.livejournal.com]

I have been waiting to talk about this forEVer. Or for two weeks.

The person who's been calling himself Madara sure seems to have a lot of history with the Uchiha clan. Or he says he does. The stories he's told have a lot of emotional content to them, particularly that of his brother Izuna - either they're his stories, or he's a fantastic liar. Given the time he spent as Tobi, I can't discount the second.

Uchiha Itachi seems to think that it's really Madara. Now that he's alive again, I suspect they'll have a decently long conversation before trying to kill each other.

There was a conversation between SpiralMask!Madara and Zetsu when Kabutorochimaru was joining up with Akatsuki, but I can't remember exactly what was said. Seemed vaguely important in this context.

For my part, I'm going to guess that Original!Madara used something like Orochimaru's Fushi Tensei (Living Corpse Reincarnation, eew) technique to move his soul into another body. His original body died while he continued to live. If he moved into another Uchiha, it could explain why he still has a Sharingan.

...speaking of Sharingans, how does Itachi still have his eyes after they were implanted into Sasuke? Did he really get Itachi's, or did Tobi-SpiralMask-guywho'sbeenclaimingtobe-Madara give him someone else's?

And why the hell has he been collecting eyes?

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

As far as Itachi's eyes, Kabuto did say that the Edo Tensei zombies were reconstituted from biomass and genetic information, and that a whole body was not required. The eyes were grown back with the rest of the body, same with Nagato's Rinnegans.

The soul transfer option is also a good working theory, I'll add it to my list.

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

Actually, no, it couldn't have been Fushi Tensei because then Edo Tensei would have failed, since you can't grab a soul that's been sealed into something else, and his soul couldn't have been copied that way.

That's why the Hokages couldn't be brought back, and why Orochimaru failed to grab Minato way back when, and why Kabuto is still Kabuto and not Orochimaru, since the soul moved into Sasuke (and was subsequently sealed by Itachi).

[westonian.livejournal.com]

Ah, right, yeah. Hm.

So who the bloody hell is behind the mask?

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

Oooh, here's a nasty thought. What if it's the Sage of Six Paths's son? The one who was spurned and paved the way for the Uchiha Clan? CENTURIES-OLD HATRED. Plus his stated goal is to revive the Ten Tails and become its Jinchuuriki, like the Sage was.

Maybe it's a whole plan to recoup the power he always believed was his.

[westonian.livejournal.com]

The one who inherited the eyes? I-hi-hinteresting. That'd be kinda kickass. Rebuilding the Juubi to bind it? Daaang.

That'd be kinda awesome. Of course, he'd see Naruto as a natural enemy, being the epitome of his brother's philosophy.

Wonder how Sasuke would work in to it, being his natural successor.

Also! Didn't comment on the Kyuubi working with Naruto. OMG? OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. Kickass. The kid's actually working his natural 20 Charisma on the hate-monster. ...okay, the beast is working for mutual self-interest, but it's progress.

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

I honestly believed Tobi when he told Naruto that he wanted to have the two of them fight. If he is the Sage's son, he considers himself far more powerful than anyone else alive, so a fight with Naruto wouldn't prove anything. He'd want the descendants of the Senju and the Uchiha to fight on even footing, to prove to the world that his stance was right.

[westonian.livejournal.com]

On that note, Naruto's heritage. What happened to the rest of the Uzumaki family (which includes, apparently, red-haired Nagato) and how far back does their line go?

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

That'd be fantastic to know. We know they're offshoots of the Senju, and they were mostly in Hidden Whirlpool, which was...what, destroyed?

[westonian.livejournal.com]

Destroyed in one of the Great Ninja Wars, yeah.

[westonian.livejournal.com]

Possibly related note: Why does the elder son's eye pattern resemble the crest of the Uzumaki?

[alliancesjr.livejournal.com]

Oooh.