Although it looks as if Naruto was gonna be burn to a crisp, he somehow manages to leap out of the binding of the wire and give Sasuke a few good knocks to the face. But despite his best efforts, Naruto can’t seem to knock Sasuke out, and Sasuke continues on his rampage by kicking Naruto down to the ground with some well placed bicycle kicks.
The rest of the episode takes a look back into the past while Sasuke was still chibi and Itachi ruled the roost of the Uchiha clan. Despite any impressions you may have of Itachi before, Itachi seemed to care very much for his little brother as he carried Sasuke back when Sasuke failed to emulate his brother’s ability to hit the kunai targets. However, the father of both brothers seemed very demanding on Itachi, always praising him for his accomplishments and pushing him here and there to be involved in various Konoha missions. Despite his talents, Itachi seemed to want to live a grounded life and watch over his little brother, but the constant effort of having to uphold the Uchiha clan seemed to wear at him slowly. Also, Sasuke wanted to be accepted just like his older brother, but his father seemed to push any priorities on Sasuke off to the side. Later in the episode, three Uchiha police officers confront Itachi about the suicide of another Uchiha member named Shisui, who Itachi had looked up to. When the police began to imply that Itachi may have had something to do with the suicide, Itachi went a mini-rampage and easily disposed of the three officers, but his father managed to come back in time before he could do more damage. Itachi continued to ramble about how the Uchiha clan only focused on the clan and perhaps not on the humanity of life and living, but his father would not have any of it, and the police members, after getting up from the beatdown they received, threatened to arrest him. Only a cry out from Sasuke, who was watching the events unfold, managed to calm down Itachi and make him apologize. Itachi’s father said he would assume responsibility of looking over Itachi, and we all see the evil glare Itachi gives later 
Although this was a flashback, this episode is probably the best presented flashback of all the Naruto flashback episodes. Since there was little info given before about the relations in Sasuke’s family in the past, it was fresh to see how Itachi and chibi Sasuke interacted with each other and how stern the father was on Itachi and how ignorant he was to Sasuke. You really had to feel for Itachi as everyone seems to want a piece of you if you’re either rich or powerful or extraordinary in any way. The animation was also top notch too!
Some comments on the new openers and ending. I like the animation of the new opener but I’m not overly fond of the song, but maybe it’ll grow on me after a while. The art and animation for the new ending is top notch, and the song fits it rather well as well.
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10 Comments
You doctored the Konoha police symbol didn’t you? Cause I don’t remember it being in this episode (but if you did notice this from the actual episode itself, tell me)
Haha, I actually saw this at a Naruto forum and I couldn’t pass up not posting it :P
It’s nice to see Pierrot spent their budget wisely and gave all the best animation to the most important part of this arc. I’m also glad to see that they’re getting right to the Utachi family history, which when complete should leave the fight between Naruto and Sasuke relatively uninterrupted by flashback. Love the Poke-police symbol haha.
Lol, that was a good edit. The real uchiha symbol is very similar in color to a pokeball, but it’s actually a fan.
Heh…It always looked like a ping pong paddle to me :P
the new opener’s awesome! chouji and neiji are notably absent… final nails in the coffin, eh? at least we can expect to see shino get more screen time, i’m happy to hope.
one of my fav shots in the opener is the one with shika and his shadow shifting behind him. i think of him as a potentially powerful shinobi. we have a sand guy, bug guy, etc… many characters with specific themed jutsus seem to be quite strong; a shadow guy could as well. from his last fight, obviously he can freely control his shadow in creative ways e.g. to break his finger. someday he should be able to hold a target’s arms/legs down, which would allow a “checkmate” blow. maybe even drag a target across the ground. i’d think shika wouldn’t even have a problem against sharingan genjustu, simply by blindfolding the user with shadow!
sasuke is using naruto as a freaking kicking bag! LOL! come on naruto,we all you can do better than this!! sasuke wants to get stronger,not weaker!
OH SHIT! itachi showed the mangekyou sharingan to sasuke on purpose! sasuke was scared but now he is all tough.he wants revenge!
mangekyou sharingan rules!!!!
For those who haven’t watched it, there’s a blog which broadcasts this episode. It also allows you to watch other TV shows and movies. Have fun!
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[...] days, I’m really quite shameless, so I thought some of you may enjoy this piece inspired by Kungfucius’ post on Naruto episode 129. I know we all decided that we’d stop listening to him after he caused the fall of Rome and [...]