The Four-eyed Journal

It seems that guest-blogger is Shikahake7 is abit busy so I’ll be the one to write something about the latest chapter of the Naruto manga series.

Chapter 367 entitled Itachi and Sasuke marks the beginning of the what seems to be the final conflict between the infamous Uchiha Itachi and his little brother Uchiha Sasuke. The two finally meet face to face, or Sharingan to Sharingan in a cave somewhere. Though the brothers saw action against each other, Itachi being out maneouvered by Sasuke’s lightning-fast moves only to escape with an illusion and instructing the latter to meet him up at their clan’s hideout to finally settle things once and for all.

Something is aloof with Itachi’s behavior of late. He appeared before Naruto in Chapter 365 not to attack or capture him, but rather to talk to him about Sasuke. Could it be that Itachi has gone soft and is now considering to make amends with his little brother? Highly unlikely but still possible. Though my hunch is Itachi is doing all this according to some sort of design by him. It’s all part of a master plan. That master plan involves why he spared Sasuke during his mass murdering spree on his own clan, joining Akatsuki, and Tobi or Uchiha Madara being revealed as the true leader of the group. Of course it involves Naruto and to be exact, the Kyuubi sealed in him.

Speaking of Naruto, Chapter 367 has also dropped one of the biggest bombshells in the series ever. It has finally revealed the identity of the legendary Fourth Hokage and confirmed him as Uzumaki Naruto’s own father. To complete the whole revelation, the name of Naruto’s mother was also mentioned. All thanks to Tsunade and Jiraiya having too much Saki they end up all mushy and nostalgic. See the clipping below:

There you have it. Namikaze Minato. The name of the Fourth Hokage who was regarded as the finest ninja Konoha ever produced. The shinobi who sacrificed himself just to save his own village. But he ended up giving a world of trouble for his orphaned son, Uzumaki Naruto by sealing the Kyuubi within him.

Now I know you’re wondering if the Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato is the real father of Naruto, why is he using Uzumaki as his given family name? In the next pages of Chapter 367 Tsunade notes that Naruto may have an uncanny resemblance with his father, he got his personality from his mother, Uzumaki Kushina.

My guess is that, since ninjas who become Kages take on the title itself as their given name, like Sandaime Hokage for the Third Hokage whose real name was Sarutobi, Minato stopped using his real name when he became the Fourth Hokage as he has always been referred to as Yondaime Hokage since the beginning of the manga and anime up until now. Let’s remember that when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, Naruto was just still a baby at that time, probably just a newborn. Unlucky for him, his father who has just been chosen as the Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life in order to save the village by sealing the Kyuubi inside his body. With the villagers resenting and despising the Kyuubi so much because of the death and destruction is caused, they also hated anything associated with it, which none or no other than the container, Naruto himself.

A sad and tragic irony isn’t it? Naruto’s father was hailed so much as the finest shinobi Konoha has ever produced, he even sacrificed his own life for their sake, but at the cost of the villagers resenting and hating his own son who became the innocent and unwilling instrument of their salvation from the Kyuubi’s wrath.

Much will be reconcilled by the end of the series, I’m excited though as to what would be Naruto’s reaction once he finds out that his father is the Fourth Hokage. What’s equally exciting is the finaly confrontation between Itachi and Sasuke and what would happen to Jiraiya now that he’s been detected by Akatsuki tresspassing into his country.

All of these in the up coming Chapter 368. Until then!

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