scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/7wfebp.md

## [RT][FF] Naruto. The Need to Become Stronger, Chapter 34: Blood and Sand

* Author: u/Sophronius  *The Need to Become Stronger**
* URL: https://needtobecomestronger.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/chapter-34/
* Score: 50

* Created: 2018-02-09T18:17:07

### Post:

[Link to content](https://needtobecomestronger.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/chapter-34/)

### Comments:

> **u/sicutumbo** [+11]  (10 hours later)
> 
> I think some of the smarter ninja will freak out a bit at Naruto being able to teleport someone against their will into sword range, especially when said sword can cut through a jinchuriki's defenses.

>> **u/RynnisOne** [+10]  (10 hours later)
>> 
>> Nah, it has limitations.
>> 
>> You have to have some of their blood.
>> 
>> You have to both know and be capable of the summoning jutsu.  You also have to find some point where you can put their blood and symbols onto the scroll prior to attempting the summoning.
>> 
>> You have to have sufficient chakra to do it *and* catch them by surprise.  If they know you are trying it, they can offer up resistance.
>> 
>> The sword is like a *sharingan* focus.  Instead of being a ball of random cutting bits of wind, it's all focused along the edge of the sword.  You have to have an affinity for *Wind* (as Naruto does) to use it without requiring hideous amounts of chakra.
>> 
>> Putting all that together, to pull of this trick, you need to have access to a large amount of chakra (say, by being already very powerful and experienced with many other techniques, or by being the host of a Tailed Beast), you have to be able to be in multiple locations at once (ie: Shadow Clones, not the usual illusion kind), you have to have access to a summoning scroll, you have to have access to the target's blood, you have to have spare time to apply said blood to the summoning scroll, you have to have a way to enchant your weapon with a large amount of a very specific type of chakra to cut through the defenses while simultaneously being able to use a large amount of chakra to summon someone against their will.
>> 
>> In short, *very* few people could reliably pull it off.  In fact, unless you're Naruto, you pretty much have to be a Kage or Sanin to even stand a chance.  
>> 
>> Also, if you know you're going to fight Rational Naruto, know that you get one shot and you'd better not bleed.
>> 
>> Finally, the Shadow Clone is itself a counter, if we're running off similar mechanics to the show.  At one point Naruto was reverse-summoned when he had a Shadow Clone out and he chose to have the clone go in his stead.

>>> **u/sicutumbo** [+13]  (11 hours later)
>>> 
>>> > Nah, it has limitations.
>>> 
>>> Yes, it does. And we know that. The thing is, no one in story knows it. Naruto used shadow clones to hide what he was doing generally, and a transformation to hide from the Byakugan. No one knows what Naruto did, or how, with the possible exception of Gaara who's dead now anyways. What everyone else saw was Naruto fighting, talking, and then near the end he decides that he can suddenly teleport other people out of all their defenses and eviscerate them. Everyone worth mentioning probably knows that whatever he did has limitations, but that's academic if no one knows what those limitations *are*. As it stands right now, it looks like Naruto could teleport anyone he doesn't like onto the point of a sword, and no one knows how to defend against it. That's fucking terrifying for anyone not affiliated with Konoha.
>>> 
>>> The wind blade thing isn't terribly unique, but the counter to it is to not engage in melee while the other guy wastes chakra maintaining it. Blocking such an attack is infeasible for opponents of similar skill levels.

>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+4]  (11 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Yeah, but the thing is... this is *rationalist* fiction.  So we assume that the world has an element of common sense and that the people that inhabit it aren't stupid.
>>>> 
>>>> Everyone can see that he used a summoning jutsu, a Wind-charged sword, and shadow clones to create the effect.
>>>> 
>>>> People see that there were *two* Narutos that pulled off the effect.  One did the summon, the other did the sword.  While the Shadow Clone jutsu is fairly rare, to the point of learning it practically being a State secret, the effects of it are obvious, as we've seen through numerous battles in the arena.  About five seconds in, even the most untrained, chakra-less mortal can tell that they actually affect the physical world, unlike the illusion 'standard' Clone jutsu.  Thus, anyone who has seen it knows that Shadow Clones are involved.  If the other guy can't do Shadow Clones, likely you're not going to have to worry.  If you only see *one* opponent, chances are he's not using Shadow Clones.
>>>> 
>>>> People who don't know about summoning jutsu are sort of left in the dark.  However, has a distinctive effect that can be seen at a fairly decent distance, and once someone has seen it, they simply talk with the majority of ninja who know of the technique, because the effects of that sort of thing (even if not the specifics of how to accomplish it) are taught at the low-level ninja academies.  So the bit about the blood and the pact and such is fairly common knowledge.  
>>>> 
>>>>   The Wind-infused blade is a lot more specific.  This is one of those things where knowledge and deduction can lead you to the truth.  For people unaware of the blade, they are equally unaware of Gaara's use of infused sand as an armor.  As far as they can tell, it's a kid with a sword cutting open another unarmored kid.  For those with sufficient knowledge, experience, or some bloodline trick (Sharingan, for instance), they can either figure it out on their own or have seen such a thing before.  Gaara demonstrated his defense earlier, so seeing it here after others have failed to break through it and then seeing Naruto pull it off narrows down the possibilities.  The sand didn't get ripped loose, it didn't get scorched or drenched, there was no obvious light or darkness effects present.  The only other alternative is Wind-infused chakra weapons.  The ability to use such a thing is fairly rare, and would likely be limited to specific individuals and perhaps a certain Village that focuses on it.  In most cases, you can tell a person's elemental affinity by the attacks they use.  If things tend to get cut without anything visible touching them, or in this case if they have a blade that can cut through infused sand armor, it's a fair bet they are using Wind.  If they also have a sword, well... you should know that very few forms of armor or defense are going to matter.
>>>> 
>>>> So, to sum it up, most people can see the effects and, if they have even a basic level of knowledge about ninja jutsu and techniques, they can put the pieces together.  Being able to figure out *what* he's doing versus *how* he did it is another story, and another level again more difficult to actually copy it unless you are randomly blessed with a series of *very specific* gifts or are already stupidly powerful and experience.
>>>> 
>>>> As for defending against a *Teleport*-based attack, if you've watched enough anime, you generally know that if the other guy is a teleporter, he's going to appear behind you.  And if he's can teleport *you*, he's likely going to pull you into melee range.  In either case, the defense is fairly straightforward--stay moving, and have your weapon in a 'guard' position in front of you.  If you get teleported, surge forward.  You will either close into melee range with the other guy and it's a normal fight (hey, he saved you time getting close!) or the guy who teleported behind you is now chasing you at a distance and has wasted power to do it.

>>>>> **u/None** [+10]  (16 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> but the important part isn't the wind-sword, it's the teleporting, and the fact that's it's possible. If you're fighting more than one opponent, then suddently it's a possiblity.
>>>>> 
>>>>> And they could just as easily teleport you into a trap. There was nothing but time/dramatics stopping Naruto from covering an area in exploding tags, and then using a clone to teleport Gaara into that and immediately blowing it up. Keeping moving is not really the counter to someone who can teleport you against your will, and has shadow clones. You could be teleported into any kind of dangerous trap, because the clone doing the summoning is expendable, and your real body is not; the wind-fused chakra weapon is not the issue an opponent would face.
>>>>> 
>>>>> And I've already posted something above about how teams of shinobi would love to use this, pooling specialties to gain the necessary effect.
>>>>> 
>>>>> So I still think that while Naruto's move did require a lot of set up and maybe isn't a game breaker on the individual scale, it definitely changes things on a wider scale (what a Village, or even a team can do to an individual enemy), and isn't countered by what you've suggested here.

>>>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+4]  (22 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The wind sword is important as it cuts through the chakra-infused material armor.  Note that even when teleported, Rational Gaara *still had his sand armor*.  The opponent does, indeed, keep several forms of defense, they aren't just teleported naked next to you to be slaughtered at will.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> It's a possibility that requires several *very specific* steps I listed, that you conveniently ignored.  Acquisition of the blood, putting it on the scroll, use of the jutsu which itself requires the user to expend large amounts of chakra and focus on something *other* than fighting for the time necessary to employ it, etc.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Actually, there was plenty stopping Naruto from doing that.  For one, he had already expended a large amount of chakra trying *just that*, minus the teleportation.  For another, it was his first time fighting the guy.  If he didn't have Shadow Clones and already place his 'real' body outside the arena it wouldn't have worked.  Which means any potential user has to go through some crazy setup before a fight and get lucky enough *not to be attacked* before their Clone can Clone itself... you know, like be in an arena fight where you don't attack until a neutral third party says "fight".
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Sure, keeping moving is a solution.  Because in a normal fight, keeping your head and not standing there going "Whaaaat?" is usually a good plan.  Speed is life, as it were.  See, for your 'super trap' to work where it's teleported in by a clone, you have to have had an encounter where you acquired some of their blood previously, as well as having gone through the ritual summon binding process.  Then you have to setup this trap.  Then you have to put your clone in it.  Then your clone has to have enough chakra to pull off the summoning.  *Then* the target has to be caught by surprise and not resist it, or be using a shadow clone of their own, *or* have another way of smashing a path out with some jutsu, *or* have a teleportation jutsu of their own.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> See, once these tactics become known, people quickly find ways to counter or at least reduce their effectiveness.  At least, in a rational world, anyway.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Yes, teams of shinobi might be able to pull this off.  But if it's a team going after *one target*, there are many other effective ways they can pull that off too.  This would just be one tool in an arsenal.

>>>>> **u/Veedrac** [+5]  (17 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> > While the Shadow Clone jutsu is fairly rare, to the point of learning it practically being a State secret
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not sure about this fanfiction, but actually it's only the Multiple Shadow Clone that's secret.

>>>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+3]  (22 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Sure, I'll bite.  Show me the "Single Shadow Clone" jutsu that's *different* from the Shadow Clone used by Naruto.

>>>>>>> **u/Veedrac** [+8]  (22 hours later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> If you're just asking for sources,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Clone_Technique  
>>>>>>> http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Multiple_Shadow_Clone_Technique

>>>>>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+6]  (a day later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> So, lemme get this straight... according to that wiki, the Multiple Shadow Clone is on the secret scroll... *but* Naruto reads it and uses the *standard* Shadow Clone technique when he doesn't make 'hundreds' of copies of himself.  But it's a separate technique to just make one or two, the technique is not on the scroll, and yet Naruto can do it without ever having studied it.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Yeah, I'm going to go with the rational deduction that it's the *same technique*, different only in how many clones you attempt to create in one go.  You're free to call that fanfiction if you like.

>>>>>>>>> **u/Veedrac** [+6]  (a day later)
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Never said it was sane, just that it was canon ;).

>>>>>>>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+4]  (a day later)
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> *Raises finger*...
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> *Has realization face*
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> *Lowers finger*...
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Well, you're not wrong.

>>>>>>>>>>> **u/kaukamieli** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Ackhtually Naruto shouts both randomly, but the wikipage of the mass version says:
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> >Sometimes Naruto simply refers to this technique as just the "Shadow Clone Technique", regardless of how many clones he creates.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> >Naruto learned the technique from the scroll of forbidden seals.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> So he learned the multiple thing, but can also obviously use it to make single clones too.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Probably there is a single clone tech that better optimized for chakra, but Naruto doesn't care.

>>>>>>>>>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+3]  (3 days later)
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Or, you know, it's just the same technique with an effect that is like:
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> *"Create X Shadow Clones.  Each will have 1/X of your chakra."*
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Sane people are like: "Well, I *could* make X = 100, but that would be silly as it would kill me, or at least knock me out."
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Naruto is like: "1/X?  I'm just gonna make 1,000 Shadow Clones!  **Believe it!**"

>>>>>>>>>>>>> **u/kaukamieli** [+1]  (3 days later)
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> The tech was in a sealed scroll of superpowers or something and figuratively literally everyone knows the basic shadow clone.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+1]  (3 days later)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Literally everyone knows the *non*-Shadow clone.  It's required for entry into the lower level ninja exams.  His inability to learn it is what drove Naruto to steal the scroll to begin with.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> **u/kaukamieli** [+2]  (3 days later)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Yes, that's why I have the figurative there. To imply that the literally wasn't to be taken literally.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> But if I remember correctly lot of people use kage bunshin in Naruto.

>>> **u/None** [+8]  (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Or you could get around all of these limitations by being a Village, rather than one person.
>>> 
>>> This is the kind of technique that an assassination or kill/capture squad would love. From Shino giving Naruto chakra with his bugs we know that it is possible to share energy between people. And in any fight it is definitely easier to cut somebody once with your sword than it is to kill them. And then only one person needs to know the summoning technique/have a scroll to make it work. We don't know if this is the kind of technique that can be resisted normally, or that requires a specific countermeasure or technique to stop (like you can't just 'flare your chakra' or something; you have to be carrying a counterseal, or be performing something like shushin or something to 'dodge' it); either way, both could make the brief distraction offered by genjutsu a lot more deadly.
>>> 
>>> Anyway, what I'm really trying to say is that, from the looks of what Naruto just did, the ninja world should never quite be the same (unless it really is different in a way Naruto hasn't seen yet). If Naruto is the first person to have put his puzzle, then the world will change slightly in his wake. And if not, than the whole Cloud trying to kidnap Hinata incident must have gone down a lot differently. It'd be a lot easier for a kidnapping team to just acquire some of her blood and then teleport her just outside the village walls, rather than try to carry her out physically. In fact it would have been very easy for Hizashi to get that blood. 
>>> 
>>> Either way, this technique opens up so many doors for teams of weaker ninja to catch stronger ones by surprise, and bypasses almost every kind of security we've seen so far if done correctly.

>>>> **u/RynnisOne** [+5]  (22 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> I completely agree with most of your post, and completely disagree with the last paragraph/sentence.
>>>> 
>>>> Rational Naruto appears to be the first to *publicly* pull this stunt.  He may have been the absolute first, for all we know, but all we've *seen* is this part.
>>>> 
>>>> Once it becomes public knowledge, it's not all that difficult to begin designing countermeasures for it.  The fact that it requires a very specific set of circumstances for a single user to pull off means that it pretty much *requires* specific assassin teams to pull it off.
>>>> 
>>>> True, the lower level people will look on in amazement at first.  They might suddenly know a kind of fear they didn't before, and be very careful about what happens with their blood.  The really high level types will already either know about the technique or already know numerous countermeasures to deal with it.  Likely they would go for a political solution, putting it on the same level of nuclear weapons in the real world, a Mutually Assured Destruction sort of thing--if a team from your village uses this, everyone else will use it on you to re-establish the status quo.  Because if they don't, and *if* it's as easy to pull off as some posters like to think, then it can't be anything other than the spark of the next Ninja World War.
>>>> 
>>>> Now, the big question is, in this Rational Naruto World, do many things from the series carry over?  Summoning a person or other powerful chakra being can actually be resisted, with the technique failing or pulling in a different creature entirely.  Shadow Clones can be sent instead of the original, for those who know the technique.  For those who attempt a summon without having a contract, they are "summoned" to the land of the animals to which they share the greatest affinity.  The Summon works in reverse where the *other* party can summon the one who is normally the summoner.  (This latter one, in particular, could be very bad news for would-be assassins as their summoner gets pulled in and splattered by someone more powerful.)  Finally, aside from those with a very specific ability, you can only have one 'type' of summon active at a time as the pact is considered 'active'.  IE: If you are already bound to a summon, you summon the smallest, least chakra-intensive form of creature to maintain on your person to prevent others from summoning you.  Alternatively, you work out a deal where the more powerful ones summon *you* so you can sleep in their land and not get bushwhacked.
>>>> 
>>>> All of that, however, is based on the OC and not the rational fiction we're reading, so we don't know if any of that actually applies or if its all misconception.

> **u/None** [+10]  (an hour later)
> 
> OK so I haven't really properly read this in a while, so I think I'm forgetting a few details. I knew that summoners could be summoned by their spirit animals (how the toads summoned Naruto to the mountain in canon), and I get the Naruto added Gaara's name to the Toad contract, using a bit of Gaara's stolen blood.
> 
> But I don't quite understand how he used that to summon Gaara himself. I'll admit I kind of skimmed that chapters on summoning; how exactly did that work?

>> **u/RynnisOne** [+8]  (2 hours later)
>> 
>> The way I see it is this:
>> 
>> The contract is two-way, requiring the blood of the users bound to it.  Usually it's a bond between a ninja and a "spirit animal".
>> 
>> Spirit animals are mutant chakra animals.
>> 
>> Ninja are mutant chakra humans.  Humans are animals.
>> 
>> Ergo, logically, two ninja could be bound to the contract as well and summon each other.  It's just probably not done for some reason or another (likely being a trust issue or a secret that a few keep to have advantage over others).  It works because Gaara would never *think* of binding himself to another creature (a weaker one is a pointless tool, a more powerful one is a threat).
>> 
>> In a certain RPG campaign of mine I have a similar setup, where there is a sort of 'feudal system' of oaths from weaker to more powerful individuals, so that when some higher power individuals not part of the sytem (ie: rogue players) decide to go on a killing spree, the 'inferior' leaders can summon higher-power help to deal with the threat.
>> 
>> If Rational Naruto ever gets friends he can honestly trust, they might work out a similar system amongst themselves to call on the others when they are needed in combat, when one is abducted, or simply for fast travel between locations.  Could easily see some individuals basically being 'travel hubs' and their job being to make these contracts with people willing to pay, and just charge them for quick transfer to their location.

>> **u/Sophronius** [+6]  *The Need to Become Stronger* (a day later)
>> 
>> I realize this was still a bit vague, so I went ahead an edited the Spirits chapter to make it a bit clearer how this works:
>> 
>> >He frowned, considering the issue. *Chakra has to be in contact with the thing you change… but in the case of the summoning technique, you’re not influencing the toad but space itself, making it so that the distance between you and the toad is effectively zero. Could it be that the space just… snaps back after a while?* 
>> 
>> >He tapped the sealing scroll thoughtfully. “Dad, you said you need this contract because otherwise the toads wouldn’t agree to come, right? But we managed to summon Iruka without even knowing it would happen, so does that mean it’s the contract seal itself that determines who you summon? Like, since my blood is in there now along with the toads’, does that mean I could be summoned as well?”
>> 
>> >“Sure,” said Jiraiya, “that’s called the reverse summoning technique. Well, truth be told it’s really just the same technique but with the destination and origin swapped. Won’t do you much good unless you somehow were to find a toad that can cast it for you though, since there’s really not much point in you summoning yourself to your own location. Plus the more powerful your target is the more chakra you need, and so to summon yourself you’d need to be stronger than yourself, which is kind of impossible.”
>> 
>> >Naruto nodded slowly. Jiraiya was clearly still thinking of the technique as being a literal contract between ninjas and spirits, but what he said matched with Naruto’s understanding: If the technique really just bent space so as to set the distance between the caster and the target to zero, then it made perfect sense that you’d be able to summon yourself to your target as well – though apparently the cost depended on how much chakra was being moved around, somehow? That was weird. 
>> 
>> >The theory seemed plausible, but he remembered Kakashi’s lesson about always looking underneath the underneath, and so he kept on thinking. *What else could make the summoned animal teleport back like that? Maybe the technique itself is designed to do that? But why would it do that, and even if that’s the case, how could I tell?*
>> 
>> I hope that makes things a bit clearer. I'm always reluctant to give too much exposition like this since it can cause the scene to just go on and on and lose all momentum as a result, but in this case I think it's kind of necessary to make the resolution in this chapter 'fair'.
>> 
>> Next chapter will also explain how Naruto summoned Gaara even though, in accordance with the above, that should have cost a stupidly impossible amount of chakra. (Hint: Naruto figured out the real reason for the "that was weird" bit)

>> **u/absolute-black** [+1]  (2 hours later)
>> 
>> Either there was another frog involved (he was hiding a tadpole again?), or I'm forgetting something and Jiraiya and Naruto can summon each other now.
>> 
>> edit: or maybe people just count as a class of chakra entity, and he added 'Gaara' to the Frog scroll. Or maybe only jinchuuriki do, or the Tailed Beast itself once it was unleashed.

>>> **u/kaukamieli** [+3]  (2 days later)
>>> 
>>> If they can summon each other, Naruto could have cheated by summoning Jiraya who is transformed into an animal. :D

>> **u/MaddoScientisto** [+1]  (8 hours later)
>> 
>> But wait, it doesn't end here: how did real Naruto get the blood from the arena for the contract if he wasn't there when gaara was wounded?

>>> **u/bacontime** [+12]  (10 hours later)
>>> 
>>> > Cloned scrolls access the same storage space, he thought triumphantly

>>>> **u/MaddoScientisto** [+1]  (18 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> I was lead to believe that putting things inside seals is more hard than taking them out

>>>>> **u/Sophronius** [+7]  *The Need to Become Stronger* (2 days later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yup, it is - unsealing only takes an infusion of chakra, sealing requires actual sealing expertise. That's not what Naruto did here, though: He grabbed the bloody sand of the arena, summoned a tadpole, had the tadpole swallow the vial with blood, unsummoned the tadpole, resummoned it with his real body in Jiraiya's bedroom and recovered the vial.
>>>>> 
>>>>> (Other reason why the cloned scroll trick wouldn't work: You can't seal chakra, and blood definitely contains chakra)

> **u/Flashbunny** [+8]  (10 hours later)
> 
> So Naruto is pretty much guaranteed to be a Chunnin now - even if the Hokage took umbrage to his attitude at the end, it would probably be an insult to Sand not to do so.
> 
> Also, that bit about cloned seals sharing dimensional storage space sounds like foreshadowing to figuring out how the Hiraishin works, but I could be reading too much into it.

> **u/kaukamieli** [+8]  (19 hours later)
> 
> I really enjoyed this, even though I missed important stuff on the first reading. The ending was great and I'm here thinking how will Naruto take this all.

> **u/4t0m** [+9]  *Chaos Legion* (a day later)
> 
> Okay, this fight scene was awesome, and the camaraderie beforehand was heartwarming.  I was glad to see that there is a limitation to how many explosive-Narutos he can field (at least I interpreted the text as saying that a clone's chakra is used up in the explosion rather than returned to him).  I'm undecided regarding how I feel about this development on a thematic or character level.  I think I will be a little unsatisfied if this is the emotional / dramatic climax of this Arc, even though it was very enjoyable as a chapter and did a bunch of good things (e.g. payoff of Naruto's training, relationship development along the Konoha 12, Naruto revealing himself as a genius in a way that could change things going forward).  I think this is because the characters' philosophies/motivations were not fully "in contact".  
> 
> Also, I have no idea how Sasuke could keep up with this Naruto.  I guess I wouldn't have expected Sakura to perform as well as she did though.

>> **u/Sophronius** [+8]  *The Need to Become Stronger* (a day later)
>> 
>> Well, it's true that Sasuke has a disadvantage relative to canon since in NTBS they're both brilliant, but you have to remember that Naruto's brand of rationality revolves around showing off his uber sekkrit techniques in front of the entire world while nobody ever actually saw Sasuke beat Neji. So I wouldn't count him out.
>> 
>> You have a point about the character's philosophies not being 'in contact' - I kind of oscilated between wanting Gaara to represent insanity and wanting him to be this deadly anti-rationalist, and I guess the end result just isn't as interesting to a rationalist audience.
>> 
>> Oh well, the villains are only going to get smarter and more rational as the story progresses, so there should be plenty of fun conflict down the line.

> **u/AlliaxAndromeda** [+6]  (5 hours later)
> 
> Perhaps I missed it, but was Lee the only member of the Konoha 12 that didn't speak with Naruto prior to the match?

> **u/the_steroider** [+2]  *Trascending Humanity* (17 hours later)
> 
> Any chance to have an .epub of this?

> **u/SkyTroupe** [+2]  (5 days later)
> 
> Easily my favorite chapter of the story so far. The way Gaara had techniques to use and wasnt an idiot about fighting was phenomenal. Loved the way Naruto ended the fight.

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