I remember this whole Uchiha back story came out right around Harlan's graduation in upstate New York, where I didn't have a steady internet connection. Bill Clinton was the commencement speaker, and never more in my life did I want him to shut up so I could finish this whole ordeal and get a computer.

That's how many kids were in Naruto's class? I'm impressed that idiot was able to beat all those kids and actually become a ninja considering he didn't even know what chakra was when the series began.

I really like these shots of characters' bedrooms because it gives a little window on the daily lives outside of all the fighting. For example, I now know people in the Naruto universe have televisions in their rooms. I wonder what programs ninja kids enjoy watching? Swat Cats?

God, that is still terrible years later.

What happens to Naruto during these sequences? He's definitely conscious and the dominant personality, but Kyuubi is influencing him in some way. Like, it's not natural for him to be in that position, it's Kyuubi who's doing that. Is the chakra itself physically pushing him into that position? Does Naruto realize he's relinquishing some control?

Dammit Sasuke, only you could acquire something cool like wings and then fuck it up by making them really hideous and bizarre looking and completely useless.

People disliked this fight because up to this point, a lot of Naruto depended on trickery and strategy in an attempt to remain a ninja manga. Yeah, you have people like Lee or Gaara who just fight head on, but the battles were still interesting because it wasn't just a clash of muscle and people had to think their way through. This one wasn't. It was just powering up and powering up, which was particularly disappointing because it's the climax of the arc.

Isn't it everyone's?

Everyone thought Zetsu was freaky when he first appeared, and it's nice to know he remained that way.

Oh shit, I forgot about the time an alchemy circle saved Neji's life.

He'd probably say something along the lines of, "Don't worry about it, I'm going to create this secret society to collect these giant creatures so that I can summon this moon to make everything better."

Hmmm... it took me a bit to be able to identify people here. I think from left to right it's Kisame, Kakuzu, Konan, either Itachi or Hidan, Deidara, Sasori, either Itachi or Hidan, Nagato, and Zetsu.

Man, remember when we saw that "part 1 completed" and wondered how many parts there'd be? I wonder if Kishimoto originally had something planned beyond just the two.