Manga Review: Naruto Volume 66

This is rather deep foreshadowing, isn’t it?

Spoilers Below!

Volume 66 of Naruto has a lot going on, containing chapters 628 through 637. There’s a lot going on in each chapter ever since the Fourth Great Ninja War started, and there has been a lot of deaths, and the list of names only get larger. Then Madara unleashed the Ten-Tails, and that’s when everything goes awry.

Starting with Chapter 628. Madara and Obito are preparing their attack on the Allied Ninja, but Naruto’s chakra protects them all. Naruto has another friendship speech, while Obito goads Naruto into attacking. This gives Kakashi his opening to use Kamui, unfortunately, Obito was waiting for that, as well. They end up being transported away from the battle. Further along, Madara uses Susano’o to protect himself from the oncoming Ten-Tails attack. Luckily for the Ninja Alliance, Naruto’s chakra protected the army from the attack. Unfortunately, the chakra soon falters, and his chakra fades from everyone.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Obito are transported to the same dimension Obito used to have Sasuke rest up after the fight with Danzo. It makes for a really nice storage spot. Kakashi goes in for an attack with his Lightning Blade, but stops just before landing it. He could have killed Obito many times over, but Kakashi still cares for him. Obito then taunts Kakashi, and walks into Kakashi’s attack. He then explains that he knew what happened to Rin, and it was her choice to die. Obito steps back, revealing a whole where his heart should be. Obito tells Kakashi that he has no heart, and he doesn’t feel any pain.

Obito then taunts him some more with this Genjutsu world, using Rin and Kakashi’s ideal vision of Obito. Kakashi calls Obito delusional, that none of this can fill his heart. Back to the fight, the Ten-Tails is transforming again. Bee and the Eight-Tails take the lead to give time for Naruto and Kurama to recharge. Sakura inspires the army to protect her and Naruto so Naruto can get fully healed. Shikamaru has a plan, and he gets in touch with Kitsuchi so Kitsuchi can teach everyone a simple Earth barrier wall jutsu. If Madara has a cannon, Shikamaru will overwhelm him with sheer quantity. Shikamaru then has Ino contact everyone in the fight so they can be taught this jutsu.

Back inside the genjutsu world, Obito is still trying to convince Kakashi to stay there, but Kakashi refuses to believe it. This is going to get a little confusing, because the chapter keeps going back and forth between the Ten-Tails and the genjutsu world. Just in time, Minato shows up to help Naruto by transporting the Ten-Tails’s attack out to sea. Minato asks Sakura and Naruto if they’re dating, and Naruto says yes. That just gets Naruto into some more shit, with Sakura beating him. The rest of the Hokage show up, including Hashirama. Hashirama’s presence drives Madara into a bit of a craze.

The Hokage set up a red barrier, which is the most powerful barrier, and can only be performed by four Hokage level ninja. This seems like the perfect time for someone else to show up, and that person is Sasuke himself. He has almost all of the Leaf Ninja coming down on him, but he says he decided to protect the Leaf, and he will go on to become Hokage. Naruto has Sasuke’s back and vouches for him. Naruto underestimates Sakura’s abilities, and she gives Naruto a lesson on how to get trained by one of the three Legendary Sannin. Everyone begrudgingly lets Sasuke in to help, just as the Ten-tails unleashes another attack. The barrier holds, and Hashirama unleashes his wood clones.

The wood clones open holes on each side of the barrier for the shinobi to get in. Meanwhile, Hashirama sends a clone to fight Madara, but he’s going to wait until the real one shows up. Back at the barrier, the Ten-Tails splits itself, protecting its main body with the mini Ten-Tails.

Let it forever be known, that Chapter 632 will be the only chapter as of now that shows Sakura as a badass. Sakura has been the most useless character, even having an old lady control her every move. However, she finally lays waste to some of the mini Ten-Tails. The three Sannin disciples finally touch ground, and get ready for their next attack. Sakura lies to herself by saying she caught up to Naruto and Sasuke. Come on now.

Minato is in awe of his son, because Naruto was able to take the Rasengan one step further. Hinata’s team won’t be undone, and they get in on the fight as well. Everyone has their new abilities, but what impressed me most was that Hinata was able to use the Eight Trigrams: 64 Palms technique as good as Neji. She takes it one step further, calling it Hakke 64 Fists. Team Ten takes a try at being badasses. Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji are the ultimate in teamwork, with everyone using their strengths to their best. The idiot award goes to Sai, who tries to attack from above. That doesn’t work too well, because he gets shot out of the sky. Sai does get some advice to Naruto, telling him that they need to take the big enemies out first, and then attacking the main body. They aren’t able to make it there fast, so they each summon their animals. Sakura summons Katsuyu, Naruto summons Gamakichi, and Sasuke summons Aoda.

Katsuyu splits herself to help everyone in the Alliance, Gamakichi jumps in towards the main Ten-Tails, and Sasuke just slithers past everything in his path. Naruto uses his Rasen-Shuriken, while Sasuke uses Susano’o while approaching the Ten-Tails. They combine the arrow from Susano’o and the Rasen-Shuriken, to make an overpowered strike on the Ten-Tails. The Ten-Tails is hurting, and Sasuke goes to burn the entire field down of all of the mini Ten-Tails. And just like clockwork, Orochimaru, Karin, and Suigetsu show up to the Kage.

Of course, Karin and Suigetsu are arguing, and Orochimaru has to direct them to help. First is Tsunade, who needs a lot of help, considering she is in two pieces. Suigetsu and Karin keep arguing about whether she likes Sasuke, and she lets slip that she does. Orochimaru threatens them again, and they get to business. Tsunade recovers, and she has no idea why Orochimaru would help. He explains it, and she has no idea how to understand riddle-speak.

On the battlefield, Naruto wants to pull out the other tailed beasts, but Sasuke is ignoring him. He still wants to burn it to the ground. Sai manages to talk to Sakura, saying he has faith in Sasuke, but he doesn’t trust him very much. In simple words, Sakura tells him to stop with the fake smiling, even if the words are true.  Over where Tsunade is, the other Kage are now revived, and ready to head back to the battlefield.

In the genjutsu world, Kakashi and Obito keep trying to outdo each other, but it keeps ending in a stalemate. So, they finally decide to duel for real. After what can only be a quick battle, Kakashi goes for the same maneuvers that Kakashi used in a prior sparring match, except this time it ends with what could be a fatal blow to Obito. Obito concedes defeat, but he won’t let Kakashi help win the war. So, he bails back to the real world.

As soon as Madara realizes this, he manipulates Obito using his chakra. The alliance realizes what he is trying to do, and all of the forces fall on him to prevent his revival. Sasuke and Naruto focus on Obito, and the rest go after Madara. Minato manages to reach Obito to slice his arm off. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop Madara from becoming the Ten-Tails’s Jinchuriki, and he manages to fuse with it just as chapter 637 comes to a close.

Ten chapters in this volume, and we covered a shit ton of stuff. Even though there was a lot going on, it didn’t feel like I needed to retread everything. I loved the fact that Naruto had limited focus in this volume, instead the Kage, Obito, Sasuke, the zombie Hokage, and Madara all got the light.

This could be my favorite set of chapters, because this could be considered the beginning of the end for the series. Everyone that can possibly be at the battlefield is there. Even Orochimaru, who was able to help the past Hokage. This was a really great mix of exposition and action. If you’ve watched the series, or watched the manga, you know there’s a terrible pattern of not being able to keep that balance. We got it here.

This is a must have, even if you don’t collect the entire series. This is a testament of how far Kishimoto has come, not only in story telling, but being able to craft characters besides the main three. Everyone now has motivation and reason to show their new powers besides, “just because.” There is nothing wrong with showing off every so often, but it was bad earlier. Now, it’s showing off, while slaying enemies. Buy this book, it’s worth the money.

We are giving away a copy of Naruto vol. 66! Just be the first to comment below, and be a US resident. Make sure your email address is valid on the Disqus thread, and I will email the winner.