-NARUTO ADDICT-

Naruto Chapter 308 Review
Summary
Sasuke-hime draws his sword for Naruto (we giggle) and Sai jumps in, grabbing his hand and seemingly halting the attack. Sasuke compliments Sai's defense and Naruto, after a nifty backflip, puts Sasuke into a cripple-hold. Yamoto sees a chance to shoot a root from his palm, but this is abruptly deflected as Sasuke explodes with Chidori Nagashi - a new attack that Sakura describes as a Chidori coming from his entire body. This disables both Naruto and Sai, and only Sakura is left to watch, recounting her promise to actively help bring Sasuke home. With this she makes a run at him and Sasuke-hime stares coldly at her, readying his fancy new Kusanagi sword. Yamato, still conscious, clocks Sasuke's intention and jumps to protect Sakura using a kunai to deflect the sword. Sasuke's Kusanagi cuts through it with ease and he pins Yamato to a rock, his sword impaling Yamato's elbow and numbing his body by channeling chidori through it. Naruto struggles to his feet, approaching Sasuke partly transformed into his human Kyūbi state. The scene switches to Naruto's internal thoughts as we see the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon taunt and jibe him to break the final seal and gain the power he needs to kill. Naruto rejects him, stating he no longer needs the Kyūbi power. The demon mocks Naruto, reminding him of his constant reliance on its power in his times of need and Naruto defiantly raises his hand. The Kyūbi is shocked, though not originally from the obvious. A hand touches its snout and it is revealed to be Sasuke, who is evidently able to see into Naruto's consciousness. Sasuke turns to Naruto and exclaims at his discovery; shocked that such a power has been inside Naruto all this time.
Thoughts
After writing that summary the old innuendo lobe of my brain is having a riot. Sasuke's new phallus; a Sai-Sasuke-Naruto three-way; Yamoto and his wood. The fangirls will revel in this chapter's homoerotic subtext - assuming it actually ever existed in the first place, which is just a silly slashfic fantasy and we all know it.
No, this was actually a really enjoyable chapter. Sasuke-hime gets to show off his new gift from Orochimaru, as well as some powerful tricks, and Naruto has another Kyūbi confrontation, which I always enjoy. The shock of Sasuke somehow witnessing this internal battle was a nice surprise, perhaps suggesting a new level of advancement for the Sharingan. All in all I had a good time reading this installment and was particularly glad Orochi didn't show up to ruin the fun.

It was disappointing to see Sakura's wee attempt at smacking Sasuke down flouted by Yamato's valiant defense, however. Granted I'd rather have that than Saruka eviscerated, but assuming she could actually make contact I think the girl could bitchslap Sasuke into place. Really, just the whole notion of Sakura pounding Sasuke is loaded with redeeming qualities. And yet no, we're not given that kind of satisfaction. I genuinely hope Sakura isn't relegated to annoying pining whinger now Sasuke is back. She was doing so well in Part Two.
Sai seems to only exist in the first few pages of each chapter these days. I was glad he stopped Sasuke's attempt on Naruto's life - his swift defense telling of his supposed ANBU creds. And if he was ever going to die a martyr it would have been then. I'd be interested in seeing what kind of place Sai holds in the coming chapters. Perhaps Danzou won't take his betrayal lightly and have him assassinated. I suppose it's probably a bit unfair to keep theorising his death so often, but he doesn't really accommodate much discussion beyond it. It's Sai, people. Even Kishimoto has shown awareness of his lame stand-in position. Still, the lad grows on me with each passing chapter. I wouldn't be annoyed if he became a proper regular of the series, though his place is hard to predict.
The artwork is at its usual high standard. It led me to wonder about Kishimoto's next project after Naruto - the generally restrained mature style suiting something similar in tone/characters. Of course, I want Naruto to go on forever but I'd love to see Kishimoto pen a series like Death Note or something using Shonen Jump's 'older teens' philosophy. His character designs are so simple but beautifully appealing. The more I see of his cleanly scanned work the more I rate him as my favourite mangaka along with Sadamoto. I've ordered the latest three tankobon from Amazon Japan, so I'll be seeing his lovely line work IRL very shortly. The man needs to start designing for anime or video games. Who needs bloody Toriyama