Chapter 699: The Seal of Reconciliation
I...uh...may have gone a little picture-happy with this one.
We begin where we left off last chapter, with Naruto and Sasuke laying on the ground with their hands cut off. Except they're not on the ground--they're on the hands of the Hashirama and Madara statues, which have fallen so that their fingers are clasped in the gesture of reconciliation.
After Sakura closes Naruto and Sasuke's wounds, Sasuke apologizes to her for everything he's done and begins to reminisce about his relationship with Naruto. With his thoughts in the background, we see the various characters beginning to emerge from the Mugen Tsukiyomi, which Naruto and Sasuke have dispelled with the reconciliation seal.
Sasuke muses that, just as he absorbed his family's dreams and emotions, perhaps he's been gaining insight into Naruto's feelings all throughout their association. As he frees the bijuu from the Chibaku Tensei mini-moons, he thanks Naruto for never giving up on him.
It's not all happy, of course--the shinobi of Konoha hold a funeral for their deceased comrades, including Neji. But they move forward, choosing Kakashi as their Rokudaime Hokage.
Kakashi pardons Sasuke, who leaves to travel the world, hoping to learn things he never paid attention to while on his single-minded quest for revenge. As she did when he left Konoha three years ago, Sakura offers to go with him. Sasuke refuses, but says that he'll see her again soon, and gives her a very familiar-looking forehead poke.
On his way out of the village, Sasuke encounters Naruto, who gives him back his old hitai-ate, which got scratched during their (first) fight at the Valley of the End.
There was a lot of nice symbolism at the beginning of this chapter--not only are Naruto and Sasuke lying on top of giant statue-hands clasped in the Seal of Reconciliation, it is this seal they must make to release the Mugen Tsukiyomi. This reflects the original writing on Hagoromo's tablet: that when two people with conflicting ideals work together, true peace can be born.
I liked that most of the interior monologue in this chapter was from Sasuke's POV--we finally got some direct insight into his mind and thoughts.
I was happy with Kakashi being the next Hokage, as he's always been one of my favorite characters. It would have been cool, though, to see him showing up on time to a meeting as an indication that he no longer feels the need to emulate Obito's habits.
Sasuke going on a journey was interesting. A spoiler I saw described it as a "journey of atonement", but the dialogue in the actual scene seemed more along the lines of Sasuke learning to appreciate all the good things in the world he'd ignored because they didn't directly advance his vengeance. The forehead-poke was a bit odd to me, because that's always been a brotherly gesture and I doubt Sakura wants Sasuke to see her as a younger sibling! (Insert joke about Cersei and Jaime Lannister here.)
Finally, Naruto and Sasuke have one last meeting. Sasuke accepting his old forehead protector back seems to indicate that he's intending to return to Konoha one day, though of course one could also imagine him being moved by the way it's scratched in exactly the same way as Itachi's. I also liked him thinking, "That's what makes us shinobi," since one way to read the kanji for the word shinobi is "one who endures"--and they certainly have endured a lot to get to this point!
...Whew. After 700, which I'm sure rouge_angle will have lots of good insights on, the manga is over. It's been an awesome ride, in large part due to the fandom community. Thanks to all of you for making the dicussions of the chapters so interesting! And especially thanks to senior_witch for being the founder and leader of narutoforadults.
We begin where we left off last chapter, with Naruto and Sasuke laying on the ground with their hands cut off. Except they're not on the ground--they're on the hands of the Hashirama and Madara statues, which have fallen so that their fingers are clasped in the gesture of reconciliation.
After Sakura closes Naruto and Sasuke's wounds, Sasuke apologizes to her for everything he's done and begins to reminisce about his relationship with Naruto. With his thoughts in the background, we see the various characters beginning to emerge from the Mugen Tsukiyomi, which Naruto and Sasuke have dispelled with the reconciliation seal.
Sasuke muses that, just as he absorbed his family's dreams and emotions, perhaps he's been gaining insight into Naruto's feelings all throughout their association. As he frees the bijuu from the Chibaku Tensei mini-moons, he thanks Naruto for never giving up on him.
It's not all happy, of course--the shinobi of Konoha hold a funeral for their deceased comrades, including Neji. But they move forward, choosing Kakashi as their Rokudaime Hokage.
Kakashi pardons Sasuke, who leaves to travel the world, hoping to learn things he never paid attention to while on his single-minded quest for revenge. As she did when he left Konoha three years ago, Sakura offers to go with him. Sasuke refuses, but says that he'll see her again soon, and gives her a very familiar-looking forehead poke.
On his way out of the village, Sasuke encounters Naruto, who gives him back his old hitai-ate, which got scratched during their (first) fight at the Valley of the End.
There was a lot of nice symbolism at the beginning of this chapter--not only are Naruto and Sasuke lying on top of giant statue-hands clasped in the Seal of Reconciliation, it is this seal they must make to release the Mugen Tsukiyomi. This reflects the original writing on Hagoromo's tablet: that when two people with conflicting ideals work together, true peace can be born.
I liked that most of the interior monologue in this chapter was from Sasuke's POV--we finally got some direct insight into his mind and thoughts.
I was happy with Kakashi being the next Hokage, as he's always been one of my favorite characters. It would have been cool, though, to see him showing up on time to a meeting as an indication that he no longer feels the need to emulate Obito's habits.
Sasuke going on a journey was interesting. A spoiler I saw described it as a "journey of atonement", but the dialogue in the actual scene seemed more along the lines of Sasuke learning to appreciate all the good things in the world he'd ignored because they didn't directly advance his vengeance. The forehead-poke was a bit odd to me, because that's always been a brotherly gesture and I doubt Sakura wants Sasuke to see her as a younger sibling! (Insert joke about Cersei and Jaime Lannister here.)
Finally, Naruto and Sasuke have one last meeting. Sasuke accepting his old forehead protector back seems to indicate that he's intending to return to Konoha one day, though of course one could also imagine him being moved by the way it's scratched in exactly the same way as Itachi's. I also liked him thinking, "That's what makes us shinobi," since one way to read the kanji for the word shinobi is "one who endures"--and they certainly have endured a lot to get to this point!
...Whew. After 700, which I'm sure rouge_angle will have lots of good insights on, the manga is over. It's been an awesome ride, in large part due to the fandom community. Thanks to all of you for making the dicussions of the chapters so interesting! And especially thanks to senior_witch for being the founder and leader of narutoforadults.