(no subject)

[askerian]

Just in case anyone hasn't found the scanlations for 344 yet, here they are:
http://mangahelpers.com/forum/index.php?topic=16106.0



askerian: *flails at*
askerian: SASUKE *_*
sarolynne: YES!
askerian: ... what a fucking ego XD
sarolynne: Yes. XD
askerian: it's gonna get popped at some point. >D
sarolynne: It really is going too, yes. XD And it will be awesome. ...This chapter put me in my happy Sasuke fan place. u.u
sarolynne: ....Especially his damn arm guards. For I am shallow like a mad, shallow thing, apparently.
askerian: mmmh
askerian: XDD
askerian: i loved his feet when he walks in
askerian: mmmhprettysandals
sarolynne: ♥♥♥
askerian: and the curse seal!
askerian: but. he really has gotten fat.
askerian: i think kishi forgot how to draw naked men -__-;:
sarolynne: ...I don't see it. :/ Not fat. His freaking whatever the hell it is around his waist isn't doing him any favors, but he didn't look fat to me. I think Kishimoto's anatomy in general can be a little all over the place. :p
askerian: hahaha sasuke with his flowy clothes dancing on oro's bed
askerian: his arms are too thin and his waist a little too thick, but mostly kishi isn't drawing the muscle definition right
askerian: as in, he doesn't have any ;_;
sarolynne: XD
askerian: go and study dragonball again, kishi, damn it ;;
sarolynne: I was going to say... oh god, don't. Dragon ball has muscles where muscles were never meant to be.
sarolynne: ..One word, not two. But the point remains. XD
askerian: *snerk*
askerian: that's dragonball z. XD the original one was much less with the muscly
askerian: NNNGH SASUKE SO HOT.
sarolynne: Ahhh. Well, that's most of what I've seen of Dragonball, so... I have no idea about the original. XD
askerian: heh
sarolynne: Ah well, I'm fine being alone in my corner, thinking that Sasuke didn't look that bad. I figured that he didn't have much on muscle definition because fifteen year olds generally don't. Either that, or my expectations for Kishimoto are happily low, and I was too happy squeeing. XD
askerian: LOL
askerian: oh god the glovethings *_*
sarolynne: *purrs*
askerian: it's mostly on the transformed picture that he looks wrong, cause on that getting nakie pic...ohyeeeah
sarolynne: XD Oh. In that case... eh. I figured it was just one more WTF thing about the level 2 thing. To go with the giant goblin hands, maybe.
askerian: XDD
sarolynne: Seriously, when you have giant, thick hands on your back? All bets are off. I have no idea how he's supposed to be able to fly with those. Apparently, no one bothered to point out to him how light and thin animal's wings tend to be. Or that you don't make airplanes out of cement.
sarolynne: ...Maybe that's why he's thicker. He wouldn't be able to stand with the wings, otherwise. He'd be crushed under their weight.
askerian: XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
askerian: yes, that's it u.u
askerian: woobie oro
askerian: scary
sarolynne: XD
sarolynne: I guess he deserved something to make up for being turned into Orochimaru the Most Phallic Thing Since Ever.
askerian: :3
sarolynne: I was a little confused how anyone could have energy to mock pudge with that in the chapter. I mean... snake rape just went to a whole new level. And he's threatening to take Sasuke's body again. Like that.
sarolynne: I may have laughed very, very hard.
askerian: mmmmhyes

And now for stripedpetunia's real-time reactions...

stripedpetunia: sasuke... is standing on oro's bed... and oro is like... 'give me your body'....
stripedpetunia: *brain melts*
stripedpetunia: he should have gone the hydra route. that'd be fucking hardcore
stripedpetunia: ...probably in more ways than one EW BRAIN STOP NOW NO
stripedpetunia: there is bleach in my closet, maybe I could use it

stripedpetunia: now sasuke is stripping. go team
stripedpetunia: mmm developed pectorals
stripedpetunia: ♥ timeskipness
stripedpetunia: I can perv on characters without feeling like a pedo

stripedpetunia: OH MAN I like that one moment in sasuke's transformation there where he looks like cruella deville XD
stripedpetunia: well, his hair totally does anyway
stripedpetunia: his wings are so gross. they're like... goose feet. with feathers on.

stripedpetunia: wow, way to ruin some perfectly good pwning with your goddamn childhood angst, orochimaru
stripedpetunia: THANKS FOR NOTHING, LOSER



Seriously. I'm a bit worried about the childhood flashbacks, because it might mean that Oro's going to die and Kishi is trying to rake up sympathy point for the snakewoobie because a longstanding villain shouldn't get to go byebye without the fight invoking SOME emotional reaction from the readers.

In the other hand, I LIKED Orochimaru as an ambitious, manipulating, megalomaniac psycho who just wasn't gonna die ever. Not sure how I'll feel if it was all a smokescreen for his desire to see mommy and daddy agaiiiiin. I'm hoping it was just the jumpstart of his personal obsession with not-dying, not the real, long-lasting reason.

Besides, it was good for Sasuke that he rebel against Orochimaru, as well as consistent with his character development (he DID leave behind all friends and his village when they couldn't teach him fast enough anymore, and he has this precedent to base his decision on, plus no emotional connection to Orochimaru to slow him down), but it's not gonna be good for him if he gets away with it, especially easily ('sides Oro is a sannin damn it, there should be NO easily anything). He's way too high on himself right now, and if Itachi bitchslaps him down again like this I'm a little scared he'll break. Again. But harder. ;__;

So I'm kinda hoping that either Kabuto will intervene or that Oro will go all RARRR NO CANNOT DIE NOW HAVEN'T FOUND MOMMY YET and pull out something totally desperate and angry out of his ass and pwn Sasuke out of rage and survival instinct.

And then I hope Sasuke will get possessed. Because the idea makes me all happy in my OW ANGST place. *_* Also because the threat was dangled under Naruto's nose for so long, it makes no sense if he doesn't get to save Sasuke from it. 'sides, if Sasuke manages to escape and then goes on traipsing around like an idiot on his own, where will he go? There was no setting up of another, even more badass villain he could learn from, and he's still not good enough for Itachi, not with that attitude and his teammates too far away to induce a good, hard paradigm shift. (though he could always go to Itachi, get pwned and then get picked up by Kabuto, brought back to Oro and possessed, I guess. XD)

Comments

[snake-aes.livejournal.com]

... what a fucking ego XD

I figure he's just talking trash. Should hit a few of Oro's nerves, especially the shot about Itachi being too damn scary for him.
Of course, I imagine Sasuke still looks up to his clan - after all, they died before he could a proper go at their imperfections. So maybe it's a little from column A, little from column B.

I like where this is going.

[askerian]

Oh yeah, he's saying it to rile up Orochimaru (mm psychological warfare), but there's a sense of him really believing what he says. It's the haughty looks. XD I'm pretty sure he's really buying into the hype, especially because he needs to believe they were so fucking special. Being an Uchiha is so tied into his self-worth. ♥

Mmh, me too. *_*

[snake-aes.livejournal.com]

Man, you could probably write a book about how important being special is to Sasuke. I mean, look at his early upbringing, the Itachi trauma, his experiences at the academy, it's all there.
And, of course, what drives him off the edge is being told he isn't special, or least not special enough. How he reacts to Naruto's powerups is the main example of this, I think.

[proanon.livejournal.com]

I don't see him being quite so much haughty right now as emotionless - which was, after all, rather the main zinger of the last chapter. And I'll admit that all the Uchiha talk was annoying at first - until you get around to seeing Orochimaru's reaction. He does not like hearing this. Which changed my perception of the speechifying into less "little boy talking big" to "deliberately taking a jab at a known weak point."

It's also interesting that he doesn't say that he's strong - he says that Orochimaru is weak. Subtle, but pretty telling difference. Then again, as I read him, Sasuke has pretty much zilch in the way of self-esteem.

Personally, I would like to see Sasuke break free on his own, without needing to be rescued - I have my reasons, but it basically boils down to maintaining the balance of power between him and Naruto, and also to his eventual return to the village - none of the underlying problems we uncovered when we learned about Sai's mission are going to be solved by bringing Sasuke back by force.

Doesn't mean I want Orochimaru dead, though. He's too useful as a villain, and it would definitely add to the suspense to have Sasuke MIA, with Orochimaru and Naruto both looking for him, and him presumably going after Akatsuki, who are going after Naruto. ^_~ Drama ahoy!

[amaiko.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, he's saying it to rile up Orochimaru (mm psychological warfare), but there's a sense of him really believing what he says. It's the haughty looks. XD I'm pretty sure he's really buying into the hype, especially because he needs to believe they were so fucking special. Being an Uchiha is so tied into his self-worth.

Though (and has been pointed out a few times already in other places, by people faster on the draw than I am) for all his blather about Orochimaru's weakness and the intrinsic superiority of the Uchiha bloodline, Sasu-kins decided to wait until Orochimaru was practically at the point of death and laying in bed before attacking him.

Good job, Sasuke. You're doing a real great job of convincing me about your superior strength by beating up on bed-ridden old men. *grin*

[ayonoi.livejournal.com]

I think Sasuke takes after Fugaku, I remember him being stocky like that, although I am enjoying Sasuke shirtless more than i would have enjoyed Fugaku shirtles (ROFL, I now need to clean my brain from such an image).

I personally also want Orochimaru to bring him down a peg, and not die, noooo, he can't die just yet. I thought the flashback was OMG so cute and kinda sad. Yes, I wonder if he has not found his mommy, well, who knows, Kabuto might be mommy for all I know XD.

I thought when he took down his shirt was so samurai like, I have seen that move so many times, it was a super Japanese gesture, very old and proud. I thought that when he went to level 2, Sasuke looked like a jrocker and and I could say was "Malice Mizer" "visual kei". XD

I love Sasukins, it makes me happy to see him.

[askerian]

Hmm, dunno, even Sai is thick around the waist -- hell, even Ino and Kurenai are thick around the waist. I think it's just his drawing style that makes him unable to draw people with a marked waist. XD

Hahaha Kabuto his mommy. So THIS is their connection! XDDD

Oooh Samurai-like. *has shiny shiny thoughts* *___*

♥ yessss. ♥

[des-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Sasuke taking after his father? No way. Do we have to get out the "guess which picture is Mikoto and which is Sasuke" board again? XDDD

Sasu-pants totally takes after his mom in the facial features. Itachi is more like Fugaku with his jawline and such.

I'm pretty certain that Orochimaru won't die in the next chapter, because it doesn't make sense for a Sannon fight to take less page time then an Akatsuki fight. I'm waiting for Kabuto to come back and bring the smackdown.

[book-people.livejournal.com]

Mmh. Maybe his mom's face, his dad's build?

[askerian]

I can tell every time! cause i've totally memorized those panels.

Itachi's a little more like Fugaku than Sasuke is, yeah, but they're still both over 70% Mikoto. XD Sasuke is like Mikoto's female version, except his hair spikes up instead of being pretty and lay flat.

Yeah. XD 'sides Kabuto's expression in that corridor... I'd be surprised if he didn't do anything at all.

[nothri.livejournal.com]

Gotta be more to Oro's ambition than waiting for his folks to come back. Why would he have any interest in Sasuke's eyes at all if all he really wants to do is stay alive? He definitely has more ambitions than that, even if his greatest fear is death.

Also....Orochimaru is officially RETARDED if he "saw this coming" and yet allowed Sasuke to become so strong and learn so many of his techniques that Sasuke is now on Oro's level. No, see, the smart thing to do in this situation is play make like that storytelling chick from 1001 Nights and leave Sasuke always wanting something, always leaving hints that there is still one more jutsu to learn, a little more power to gain. You NEVER allow yourself to appear as anything other than the brilliant teacher with loads more wisdom to impart. Conversely, no matter what you teach him, you always save the truly badass shit for yourself, just in case he does pull the very thing he's pulling now. You don't let the bitch get uppity unless you have one sure fire way to slap him back down.

[askerian]

Hee. ^^ yeah, it's not that likely, thank god kishi.


Hmm, not necessarily. If Sasuke hadn't been ambitious Orochimaru couldn't have tempted him. He was walking a dangerous line between offering enough to Sasuke that he would stay and not offering him too much. He took a gamble that Sasuke wouldn't progress faster than he could handle. Sasuke's smart, though, and he probably learned more at Oro's court than jutsus. He learned deceit, too, what with the fact that Orochimaru seemed to be fine with Sasuke's little "of course i'll let him use my body cause it's the only way" speech. Orochimaru was still suspicious that he was lying, but he must have done everything in his power to convince Sasuke, so that the possibility that Sasuke WAS convinced was very strong.

Besides, Sasuke was smart enough to hide his own experiments, so Orochimaru might very well have hidden the best jutsus away from him and kept only giving him crumbs, but since Sasuke used the bases he was still getting to build in his own direction, he progressed too fast anyway. I'm still thinking that Sasuke is acting very arrogant, because he has no way to tell if Orochimaru doesn't have an ace up his sleeve that he doesn't know about, and if Kishi follows his usual pattern, there will be several turnings of the tides and narrow misses in this fight before we see the end.

[lukita.livejournal.com]

Doesn't doing the happy dance equals SOME emotional reaction from the readers?

[askerian]

XD;;; I guess it must.

[book-people.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I think the flashback was kinda another way for Kishi to go "LOOK! They're, like, totally the NEXT SANNIN!!!!!!!!!!11~!eleventy-one!" I mean, come on. Sasuke's looking for his last remaining family (to kill him, but still), Oro's looking for his mommy. OKAY! WE GET IT! MOVE ON, ALREADY!

There is a small part of me that wants possession, too, but only if it ends up actually being like all the other possessions in the series and not like "I'ma gonna kill Sasuke's soul and take over, kthnxbai" because there really isn't any coming back from that... My ow angst place is sort of hoping Sasuke's on such a power kick that he gets away (without killing Oro, of course), goes after Itachi now, and gets bitchslapped so hard his ears ring. Leave our boyo wondering what he gave up everything for if he still can't beat his big brother. >D

And now that I've left the comment from hell, I'll go. ^_^;

Adi

[askerian]

If Oro possesses him, I doubt Sasuke will really be erased from it, because Naruto needs to save him. Oh, it might happen over time since oro does say that he keeps bits and traces of the host's mind (that's hoping that Oro's obsession is stronger than Sasuke's because the end result might have more of Sasuke than Orochimaru in it XD) but if Naruto saves him fast enough we get to have the NOOO angst and he should still be himself when he gets out. XDD

♥

[phoenix-melody.livejournal.com]

I would love for this fight to end in one of three ways:

1. Sasuke gets beaten down and possessed.
2. Kabuto comes back and helps Orochimaru beat down Sasuke.
3. Kabuto comes back and helps Sasuke beat down Orochimaru.

So what, I love Kabuto and he's gotta do something cool again. >.>

My personal perfect ending for Naruto (which will never happen in a million years) would to have Akatsuki start a war of doom before they get taken down. And in the midst of all of this destruction and death, Naruto and Sakura keep chasing after Sasuke, but in the end, Sasuke's been possessed, and Naruto and Sakura have no choice but to kill him. And then, once this war is over, Naruto becomes the Rokudaime and starts rebuilding what's left of Konoha. And Kabuto either disappears or is killed, but only after he's revealed all his secrets. >\


Yes, I do like tragedies, why do you ask?

[askerian]

Kabuto helping Sasuke? Hee. If Kishi doesn't go that way I hope some fanfics will. It sounds shiny.

... ;_____________; *sobinates* noooooooooooo.

Nuuuhh. T_T that's likely enough. alas I like evilangst only as long as it ends well. *is a wuss*

[crazy-toffee.livejournal.com]

it was good for Sasuke that he rebel against Orochimaru, as well as consistent with his character development

Hmm... actually, that brief Itachi-flashback has made me wonder if another possible reason for Sasuke's rebelling is the fact that he's begun to find Orochimaru's methods too similar to Itachi's. The flasback seemed to indicate that, to me. :) It would also be consistent with the basic premise of his development, since he allegedly vowed to reach Itachi's levels without stooping as low as Itachi's methodology. If Orochimaru is doing more or less the same thing, and he can learn nothing more from him... allowing him to transfer into his body would make Sasuke a bit too much like his brother. Maybe?

[askerian]

Hee. Nice! That "oro's methods really are too alike itachi's" is definitely another factor. ^_________^ I'm not sure Sasuke would think that the soul transfer made Oro similar to Itachi, but there was plenty more that he could draw unfavorable comparisons to. Especially Oro's insistence that he start killing people he had no good reason to kill.

[snake-aes.livejournal.com]

I made that connection too, and there's irony of a sort at work here. Though he despises Itachi and Orochimaru's respective goals, I think, mostly for the incredible selfishness - and killing your entire clan to test your capibilities/using anything and anyone in your mad quest for immortality definately count as selfish - he's doing much the same sort of thing in his own quest. He's abandoned his friends and village, he's dabbled in forbidden jutsu, and now he's killing his teacher ebcause he's learnt everything he could from him. The fact that said teacher wants to, in essence, kill him is entirely beside the point. :P

You could probably relate this quite easily to the extended genius/hardworker/anchor theme, and I think I will, whenever I get round to it. This definately deserves a write-up.

[rayemars.livejournal.com]

I got that impression from the flashback, too. I think that it is consistant with his character to rebel, for the reasons Asuka listed, but I wouldn't be surprised if a good portion of it was driven by Orochimaru and Itachi starting to blend to much together in his mind.

Or, given the way he was denigrating himself as being 'weak' for going to Orochimaru in the first place and how much he seems to value the Uchiha, he might thinking that taking out Orochimaru is a good way to test himself to see if he's ready for Itachi--there were a couple small indications to that end, and he does have the advantage that Orochimaru can't kill him. Or even mutilate him. Either way, I think it's a fair guess that Sasuke's drawn some parallels between the two of them in his mind.

[gothicstargrl.livejournal.com]

You know, I always had a vague suspicion that Oro was missing his deceased mommy and daddy. Even if it wasn't the biggest motivation for all his Evil Deeds, I thought it was at least the starting point for his immortality-complex thing.

...I keep hearing Kabuto's voice saying, "I leave you alone for five minutes, and look what happens!" Poor Kabuto, having to act as a maid, nanny, doctor, spy, and evil assistant. XD

[askerian]

Hee. Yeah, starting point I can see^^

ahaha. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

you must draw that. FOR GREAT JUSTICE.

[midnigh-unicorn.livejournal.com]

I definately see the sudden thickness at curse level two. Did you notice that even though his face and torso were swarthy (and kind of swirly) his hands and feet were still pale? Not that it means anything, but I thought it was funny.
Also, Orochimaru's new hair style kind of reminds me of--I think his name is--Karasu, one of Kankuro's puppets, the killer one. Another probably means nothing, but I noticed, and Sasori did work with Orochimaru once and made Karasu, so...whatever.
Sasuke makes me think of a pimple right now, all full of pussy pride and someone is going to come along and pop it. And it'll be gross but kind of funny. I'm almost seriously hoping Sasuke gets possessed now and we have a (sort of) Damaetas(-tes?)-type ending.
No matter what, this is not going to end pretty.
And that was way more than I meant to say.