NARUTO 518 Review

The status of the war.

Well the first fight begun between two ambush squads, everything was looking great for team Kabuto at the beginning but the role changed greatly in this chapter, however there's a big question... is this really over? Or we are about to see a counterattack from the mist shinobi? At this point Deidara and Sasori have been captured inside sanshouuo, however considering the experience of Sasori, we can expect a possible escape from this puppet or at least being released by mist shinobi.

There are thing that worries me about Kabuto, honestly I've never seen Kabuto being a genius as strategist, but as someone who can't be read and can be really tricky, we don't know yet what he is really after, neither what he is planning to do at the moment... why would he involve himself in a war that could last years like the previous shinobi wars, why would he wait quietly for Madara to hand over Sasuke, when it's clear that he can deal with Madara, or not?

Kankuro
Honestly I never expected Kankuro to become this good as character, this a clear sign of how good Kishimoto can makes character off-screen, he is good coordinating his troops and also did an amazing job with hiding Sanshouuo, still however the question remains, will it be enough against Edo Tensei?, are they just planning to restrain every ET till they find Kabuto?

Kankuro have done a great job, he have been reacting quickly to the situation and also performing greatly in this battle, not just as Captain, but also as fighter, however like in the Opera, is not over till the lady sings.

Sai
Sai is really an amazing fighter, maybe the best fighter in terms of techniques among the 12 current konoha rookies (and that's counting him in). I'm talking about hand to hand techniques, obviously you would say, what about lee?... well Sai is quite skilled in that area showing to deal properly with really powerful shinobi, like Sasuke.

However he was mentally affected by Shin's presence... in both ways positively and negatively. When he was fighting him he couldn't stop a second thinking that he was in fact fighting the real shin and that caused him to go into defensive mode, instead of offensive mode... but when Shin was gone, it cause him to show rage, maybe for first time ever in the manga, as most of the time he is expressionless.

Omoi's cloud style
Omoi has changed, there's not much time to think in war, at least no when you are in battle. I found the cloud style, like a reference to Konoha's wind style, the one used against Yuura... however it was quite cool that he was able to cut chakra threads.

The big question is here, is that a special knife, a chakra knife or something?, that should be explained in the next chapter.

Sasori and Deidara-ni
It was a bad day for Deidara and Sasori, they were doing really great in the previous chapter and had the control of the situation, for some of us maybe the fight were too quick (or at least it seems so far), but it was supposed to be like this when it comes about so many characters fighting at the same times, it had to be different.

Deidara and Sasori both had an advantage and a disadvantage. Their techniques and abilities are known... and so their weaknesses, but also they know how to deal with ET when Needed. The only advantage they have is the immortality granted by Edo Tensei.

1. Requires dust from the tomb or place of death of the soul to be summoned
2. It grants immortality to the summon as long the techniques remains active
3. The only ways to totally defeat the technique is by extracting and sealing the summoned soul or by forcing the caster to release the jutsu.
4. Edo Tensei can stay active even if the caster dies.

However it seems that if you don't erase the personality of the summoned, it can actually release the jutsu by a strong emotions. This could be another weakness of Edo Tensei in general or maybe of the Talisman Kabuto is used. If is one on one battle leaving the feelings might result effective, but in squad vs squad situations like this could show up.