Naruto 455: They're Giving Out Sharingans Left & Right Nowadays

So Danko's making plans to start traveling to the Kage conference. He
sends some of his minions to find Kabuto. He then selects his two guards
that will protect and accompany him to the Kage conference. They demand
that no one wear masks, so these 2 creepy looking dudes take off their
Anbu masks. Danko tells them they can do what they like with arming
themselves, trusting their judgment. He then tells one of them (they did
name them both, but didn't say which one was whom) to order some people
to watch Naruto. It's not that he doesn't trust Sai, but just in case.
Also, Naruto is NOT to leave the village.
Speaking of the over-active ninja, his face is severely jacked up. The
Cloud Ninja woman (Karui) is redefining butt-whooping all over him. And
he stands there and takes it. Finally as she swings again, Sai steps in
and blocks it. She asks why he's interfering and he has a flashback. He
was asking Kakashi why Naruto and Sakura were so loyal to Sasuke even
though he's a missing-nin. Kakashi told him he knew about Sai being sent to spy on Naruto.
Karui was just about to swing as Sai, when Omoi interrupted her. He told
her that she wasn't going to get any information out of Naruto. He
seemed like the type that stuck to his word, and he likes that about
Naruto. Just then their leader-lady Samui showed up and asked them what
they're doing. Karui looked embarrassed that she'd been beating someone
up. Samui said she needed Omoi and Karui's help to transcribe all the
information on Sasuke down, then she wants to take it back to the
Raikage. Naruto says he wants to meet the Raikage and explain to him why
he shouldn't go after Sasuke. Samui tells him that he shouldn't go near
the Raikage while he's heading to the conference. She's actually worried
for the Raikage, because she'd been hearing whispers about Naruto being
super-strong and that he should've been the one promoted to Hokage.
Sai takes Naruto off to be bandaged up. He suggests they call Sakura,
but Naruto doesn't want to have to explain the injuries to her. Yamato
and Kakashi are there. Naruto tells them he wants to go after the
Raikage. Yamato recommends against it, because Naruto's just lucky his
seal didn't break all the way when he let 8 of the 9 tails loose.
Then Naruto drops the bombshell. He saw his dad. Kakashi explained that
the 4th must have left a bit of his energy in Naruto in case of
emergency. Naruto informed them that the masked guy (Tobi) was really
Madara and he was behind all of this, including Pain. He was probably
even manipulating Sasuke the same way. Kakashi asked if the 4th said
anything else to him. Naruto smiled thinking of the fatherly comments
his dad made.
Kakashi tells Sai to go tell the Hokage about Madara being behind the last attacks. Then he tells
Naruto that he and Yamato will help him find the Raikage.
We then flash to Danzo and his two bodyguards. Some other ninja jump out
of some water nearby, and Danzo says something about finally getting
some exercise. He tells his bodyguards to leave the attackers alone,
he's going to handle them. Then he pulls back his bandages over his
right eye to reveal... THE SHARINGAN. *Cue dramatic music*
I wonder who he stole that from, and who all knew he even had it. Chances are his inside ninjas were aware of his power, else they wouldn't follow him so loyally. I hope Kakashi and Yamato are successful
in helping Naruto get out of the village. They will have to be ultra-sneaky, or pick a fight with other (misguided) Konoha ninjas.
Makes me wonder how far Danzo's ninjas would go to keep Naruto in the village...

No Excuses

SQUIRREL!!!!

Disney and Pixar have struck again, this time with a gemstone of a film
simply titled "Up". In this stunning film for all ages, a cranky old man
and an overeager Wilderness Explorer fly to South America in a house
suspended by thousands of helium balloons. On their adventures they meet
up with Dug, a talking dog, and a giant bird affectionately named Kevin.
I truly didn't know what to expect when I went to see this film. I had
heard early critics of the movie show concern that Pixar might alienate
children by having the main character be an old guy with real-world
problems. But I must say (despite not checking with any of the kids
leaving the theater) that I think they pulled it off beautifully. As my
future wife stated, "In the way that Shrek had jokes for kids with dirty
jokes going over the kids' heads for parents to laugh at, Up had jokes
kids and adults could laugh at and serious moments adults could connect
with." Expect if you have a heart to at least tear up during this film.
Typically it takes things like the end of Saving Private Ryan to get me
to shed a tear. This film did it with way less killing.
But the funny parts! Oh it had so many hilarious moments. The title of
this post was inspired by the dogs you probably saw in the previews and
their fascination with squirrels. Since they have collars that allow
them to speak English, you get to hear how they think and their ability
to be INSTANTLY distracted by movement out of the corner of their eye,
which is always a squirrel. On a side note, while squirrels are
adorable, they are also very evil. I just did a search for "squirrel
knocks out power", and got back over 81,000 results. They apparently go
on kamikaze missions to knock out the electricity in entire
neighborhoods. One story actually had 2 squirrels in neighboring states
killing power within an hour of each other. Which would imply to me
they're organizing... Be watchful.
But I digress.
I hope you guys enjoyed this movie as much as I did. It's a great
combination that I hope many other movie-makers start taking advantage
of. We keep hearing about how we're being desensitized by violence on TV
and in video games, and even I appreciated being reminded that there is
a heart still beating within.
"A time to laugh and a time to cry." Ecclesiastes 3:4a

Click here to see the official trailer. Unfortunately they decided to disable embedding, so I can't just paste it in here. SORRY. Also, future wife stated plainly "Up's way is better than Shrek's way."

Naruto 454: Picture Tutorial of Village Leaders

This week's volume was mostly an introduction to the different Kages as they head to their meeting from their respective villages. So let's go through some pics and make note of them all.

First one introduced to us is the Tsuchikage named Ōnoki. He's the little dude on the right. He's the leader of the Village hidden in the Rocks. He's very old, but very stubborn. He tries to carry his own bag, and throws his back out. Then the big dude behind him picks the guy AND his bag up and says they're ready to go.

Next we have the Mizukage, the leader of the Village hidden in the Mist. She'd be the attractive female in the center of the picture above. She's one of only two female Kages currently known, the other being Tsunade. Her name's not mentioned, but as we'd expect from anyone coming from this village, she's a little crazy. The big bodyguard on the right told the kid on the left to act like a man. Just saying the word 'man' set her off. Apparently some people have been telling her that she needs to marry a good man, and she's sick of it. She walked up to the big guy and said with a smile "Shut up or I'll kill you". The kid, to his credit, has apparently been promoted to one of the seven swordsmen of the mist. We all remember (or should) Zabuza, an early bad guy in the Naruto series who also held this title.

Last to be shown (since we already know the other two) is the Raikage. He's the leader of the Village hidden in the Clouds. We saw him before when his brother Kirabi (the host of the 8 tailed beast) fought and was supposedly captured by Sasuke and his team. He's crazy strong and likes to break things when he gets cranky. He seems to be upset they haven't heard word back from the ninja team they sent to Konoha about why Sasuke attacked his brother. He was hoping to hear something before heading out for the meeting.

Last but not least, remember this crazy chick shown above. She's one of the three ninjas from the Cloud Village sent to Konoha. She's... a little cranky right now. She was shown shoving Naruto into a wall demanding he tell her information about Sasuke. Naruto, in an effort not to perpetuate the chain of hatred that feeds the ninja world, refuses to rat out Sasuke in any way. She wants to know how they should deal with his lack of sharing. Naruto says "hit me all you want". So she starts wailing on him, and he lies there and takes it. Sai is watching this, and not helping. Knowing him he's probably just trying to figure out why Naruto's so devoted to Sasuke.

Oh, then at the end some Anbu are reporting to Danzo about their attempts to track down Anko (I didn't even know she was missing) and Kabuto. Danzo's concerned Kabuto knew about him keeping in touch with Orochimaru, and he also says he wants to know about Orochimaru's experiments. They may be helpful in fixing his right arm and right eye...

Gosh I hate Danzo. After Orochimaru did all that human experimentation, all Danzo can think about is "well, let's not waste that. fix me at any cost!" What a turd.

Oh, and crazy-girl above's name is Karui. Omoi is the other dark-skinned ninja that was asking about Sasuke. He's just standing there while she wails on Naruto.

Hope someone appreciates me typing these up when I can. These posts are a pain to spell-check. It highlights every ninja name and ninja village and ninja term. VERY tough to sort through.

FAIL