Either Kishimoto is a genius storyteller or I just fail at predictions. Who would have thought Madara would team up with Obito?!

——

Madara shouldn’t have been at the battlefield with Naruto and Obito. He ought to have still been fighting with the kage. However, what most of us overlooked was the fact that this was Madara; the Madara Uchiha, wielder of a Sharigan with many years of battle experience and large amounts of chakra. The exhausted hokage stood no chance, even after posing gallantly. Going against the five kage was probably a simple warm up match for him.

The kage revelation was good, yet disappointing at the same time. I’m always an opponent of manga in which major characters are defeated off panel. Would it have really hurt Kishimoto to have drawn their fight, as one-sided as it may have been, instead of just showing us their defeated or split bodies amid rocks/trees? I do not think so. This is a long running manga, so one more chapter may not have been disadvantageous for storytelling. 

Madara didn’t spill the details of that battlefield and instead focused on that which was taking place at hand. I believe he will be quite a formidable challenge for Naruto.  Madara just seems powerful, and I can not imagine that even with Guy-sensei or Kakashi-sensei who both seem exhausted, that they can win through teamwork. In fact, I think the only way to win is if Naruto teams up with Sasuke. Bee may be of some help, but he seemed easily distracted by the chakra bars from Obito. Maybe he could work towards distracting Obito and keeping him from linking up with Madara. Madara versus Naruto alone though seems too one sided in Madara’s favor. 

Overall, the chapter was decent. Although most of the time was on Madara getting acquainted and caught up on what happened with Obito, such as the defection of Nagato, events occuring at the wrong time, it was good having an actual antagonist in place. He feels like he is more nefarious than Obito and with a better reason than revenge just for the death of a companion. Even more, we had hints of how Obito may have survived. Kishimoto succeeded in maintaining our attention for the next chapter by showing that Madara may have saved him in the past, how this played out, hopefully it is explored at the start of the next chapter.

GO Rating: 3.5/5

[mangastream]