Chapter 515 Review
Chapter 515: The War Begins!
The chapter opens with the Tsuchikage and his team flying back to rendezvous with the joint shinobi alliance. He carries the giant turtle-and Naruto inside-on his back.
I love this opening artwork, depicting most of the young Konohans of Naruto’s generation gearing up for war-as well as the new look Naruto has recently earned.
Inside the turtle, Naruto is starting to suspect something is amiss. He’s also anxious to return home so he can continue looking out for his next opportunity to face off with Sasuke. Sasuke, meanwhile, is still recovering from his eye transplant, and is just as anxious as Naruto is for things to move forward. Black Zetsu urges him to be patient.
Naruto and Sasuke are both anxious for their next meeting.
Outside Madara’s lair, Anko’s team is still lurking. An Aburame and a Hyuuga use their tracking skills to gather more intelligence. The bugs have reported a huge number of living beings and the Hyuuga activates his Byakugan to get a better look.
Back in the turtle, Naruto is anxious to go back outside, but Bee convinces him to stay and continue training to control the Kyuubi’s chakra, so that it becomes like an extension of his own. He sets Naruto the task of stacking some large blocks of stone using a fist-like extension of the beast’s chakra. Naruto struggles to use the power of the Kyuubi with enough delicacy so as not to break the blocks. He seems to be seeing signs of success by the time they arrive at the joint army’s base, but the force of their landing topples the tower of blocks Naruto is working on. Outside, Tsuchikage’s team is greeted by the Mizukage. They report the capture of Yamato and she laments the possible loss of valuable intelligence to the enemy.
Indeed, back at Madara’s lair, Kabuto and Madara are discussing the means be which they will extract information from Yamato. However, Kabuto is anxious not to kill Yamato, as he intends to use the wood element ability to enhance Zetsu’s power. Madara notices a snake with its fangs sunk into Yamato and realizes Kabuto is using poison to keep the wood element power suppressed. Kabuto assures him he won’t use this advantage against the Zetsus, but Madara is suspicious of how much Orochimaru, and now Kabuto, may have uncovered regarding his plans. Poor Yamato listens to all this as his panic grows. He seems to have no plan or hope for putting up a resistance. Kabuto suggests they use a combination of truth serum and the Sharingan to crack him.
This map shows the location of Madara’s hideout in relation to Cloud Country, where the joint army is mustering. Several other familiar locations can also be seen.
Back at the joint alliance, the kages discuss the latest intelligence. The enemy hideout is located on a nearby peninsula, separated from Cloud Country by the Hidden Mist and Hidden Hot Spring villages. The kages rush to the decision that the best defense will be a good offense, and begin to mobilize. They each shout out orders to their subordinates, and Gaara holds up for display a shiny new forehead protector with the character for “shinobi” etched on it, a symbol of the joint army.
Gaara displays the new forehead protector, a powerful symbol of the unprecedented unity among the shinobi villages brought about by this crisis.
A montage of various characters and divisions begins, showing virtually all the important characters from the series and their positions in the upcoming battle. The young Konoha and Sand shinobi are among those represented in the joint army, and several familiar characters hold positions of leadership, with Gaara acting as the commander general.
My inner ShikaTema shipper rejoiced at seeing this particular team.
Meanwhile, in the shadows of Madara’s hideout, the enemy army also musters. The montage thus continues and takes on a heartbreaking tenor, as we see many characters who have died-including several who are beloved by those fighting on the opposite side-being brought out for battle via Kabuto’s reanimation jutsu. The montage also includes an image of Yamato half-absorbed in the same part of the statue as the first Hokage.
Kabuto’s evil knows no bounds. Among his army of reanimated dead are Neji’s father, Tsunade’s lover, and Team 10’s mentor.
The chapter ends with Madara and Kabuto marching to war, with their army of Zetsu clones and reanimated dead behind them.
Thoughts on the chapter
This chapter has many of the elements that I tend to love in storytelling. It is a transitional chapter that brings us from the previous mini-storyline back into the main story, and throughout there is a powerful sense that the stakes are being raised, and a major climax is on the way. I’m not sure if I’m prepared to call this the climax of Naruto’s story, as I think the real climax-the confrontation between him and Sasuke-is still a little way off. But this battle will probably be a major mountain peak in the plot arc, and I think it is a signal that the end is near. The chapter opener adds to this feeling of a finale, with the specter of Madara hovering above all the young and relatively untested shinobi of Konoha in their battle gear. The young shinobi form a cloud of proud, determined faces around the blazing hero.
And then there is the montage at the end, featuring the return of almost every major character in the series, which gives the impression of something like a curtain call at the end of the play (although the end of the story has not quite happened yet). Very few characters who have ever been important at any point in the story are missing from this chapter, and though some may find it cheesy or contrived, I’m pleased-for the purposes of a good story, that is-that Kabuto’s evil has made possible the return even of most of the dead characters in the story, both friends and enemies.
As to some of the specific questions raised by this chapter-the fate of Yamato and his wood element power, the mysteries of Madara’s and Kabuto’s respective motives, the unity of the shinobi army brought about by a common enemy, and how Naruto and Sasuke seem to be above it all, each apparently shut out of the upcoming clash of armies, and instead left virtually alone to anticipate their private battle-I will leave that to you, dear readers, to discuss. ;)
Joie