Naruto wakes up in the morning with the help of a Cloud Village piece of technology- an alarm clock that uses a jolt of electricity to silently wake up the ninja using it. It’s an interesting idea, although one has to wonder how the Leaf Village would get a technology from another village, which would likely be a somewhat carefully guarded secret.
Naruto thinks about his friends, and worries about whether they will ultimately “wake up” and start seeing him differently. It’s somewhat possible that he would worry about that, but not only do his friends barely react to hearing about him being a Jinchuuriki in canon, but Naruto still seems overly angsty and whiny.
A few hours of brutal and exhausting taijutsu training pass, and Naruto still remains puzzled at Guy and Lee’s demeanors. It’s fairly interesting seeing those two helping Naruto with his training, as well as more about their own methods.
Naruto goes to Ichiraku Ramen, and is informed about his teammates stepping up to defend him after he left, leaving him quite touched. Interestingly enough, in canon, a lot of the people didn’t necessarily compliment him to his face- for example, Kakashi told Inari about how Naruto’s harsh attitude toward Inari’s self-pity was born from having to deal with a difficult childhood and deciding to do something about it- so it seems slightly unlike Naruto to be completely surprised that people think more of him than they let on.
Elsewhere, Kurenai ponders the status of the team, as well as her own progress toward her goals of enabling Naruto to protect the others, while helping establish Team 8 as a safe haven for Hinata.
Hinata approaches Kurenai, and asks about her saying that she can’t help him with his taijutsu, prompting her to explain her arrangement, which is again described as unconventional; the frequency at which it is quickly approaches the point of redundancy.
Kurenai praises Hinata for handling Team 7, and remarks on how shallow Sakura seems. I agree that Sakura doesn’t understand Naruto nearly as well as Hinata does at this point in the story, especially her canonical comments to Sasuke on how he’s a troublemaker because he doesn’t have any parents to discipline him, but it does seem as though many characters are going out of their way to bash her.
Shino arrives, and pre-emptively defends his actions before hearing that Kurenai approves of them.
Naruto then follows, using genjutsu to pretend to have altered his outfit at Guy’s suggestion, getting a good laugh at Kurenai’s expense. After Kurenai recovers and realizes what Naruto has done, she discusses how to weaponize this; it’s a good touch to take into account that Naruto’s greatest strength is his unpredictability.
Kurenai draws parallels between her genin team and her previous teammates, determining who each person reflects- Hinata is the younger Kurenai, Shino is Nomaru, and Naruto is Mattai. These are some interesting insights, similar to how Naruto reminds many people of various determined and idealistic individuals, although it might be nice to see the individuals in question.
Naruto and the others finish two D-rank missions per afternoon, which seems implausibly fast, since by the time of the Chunin Exams, Teams 7 and 10 have one C-rank and seven D-rank missions under their belts, while Team 8 has the same grand total, but with three C-ranks and five D-ranks.
Naruto continues sparring with Lee, and notices, among other things, that he doesn’t get scar tissue or calluses, presumably as a result of his Healing Factor, which is an interesting take on it. Naruto makes some improvements, but has difficulty catching up to Lee’s speed. The gains he’s made are useful against Shino, however.
Naruto hears that Team 7 got a C-rank mission as a result of Kiba complaining. Naruto isn’t sad that the males of the team are out of the village, but has mixed feelings about Sakura’s absence. He also realizes that there are things that Hinata is not telling him.
The team goes to Moritake’s, and Shino starts asking about Naruto’s training, and suggests he could benefit from additional taijutsu training. Hinata also makes a similar request, but Kurenai tells her that her taijutsu form is too different for her to benefit, and Kurenai also suggests Hinata’s father might not approve.
Kurenai proposes an alternative- having Hinata and Naruto train together, and both are willing. The likelihood of Hiashi interfering is dismissed, since he is more involved with Hanabi’s training, and cannot interfere with a sensei training her genin.
The next day, Team 8 holds a joint training session with Tenten and Lee. Tenten is in awe of Kurenai and Kurenai can’t understand why. She considers letting Tenten know in no uncertain terms how scarred she is from the incident that claimed the lives of her teammates, but realizes that the one responsible would likely be greatly happy to hear it.
Kurenai then talks about disrupting genjutsu, including the “chakra pulse” necessary to dispel it, concluding that with the fox hindering his chakra control, Naruto has difficulty dispelling himself, but can dispel many others with a strong enough pulse. As far as I know, the way the genjutsu release technique is altering the flow of one’s own chakra and resetting it to normal levels, and while it’s possible to help someone else, it’s impossible to do over a wide range.
Kurenai reports in to the Third Hokage, and after mentioning the progress of Naruto’s relationships, pointedly criticizes the secrecy law, saying that it leaves Naruto unable to confront the problem, and that someone- preferably Hinata- needs to confront him about this problem and let him know that they accept him.
The Third Hokage acknowledges Kurenai’s points, and wonders if Naruto will ever forgive him. It’s clear that he’s less than happy with the secrecy law in canon, but it seems as though he’s too easily ceding the argument to Kurenai. Hinata stays after the genjutsu training session finishes to talk with Naruto, and after some awkwardness, they begin sparring with each other. Hinata becomes depressed at how much better Naruto is than she is at the moment.
As Naruto practices standing on the water, Hinata views Naruto’s chakra coils, which, for some reason, are thick, and notices red chakra with the blue (technically, chakra is yellow, but that’s a difference between the manga and anime that not everyone knows about).
Naruto praises Hinata’s food, saying that she would be a good cook, which she unfortunately manages to take as a suggestion that she should be one rather than a ninja, until she recalls what Kurenai told her about Naruto. This tendency is almost comical, but it’s also quite depressing to see that Hinata has this little confidence, even less than in canon.
The training continues, with Hinata acquiring leg weights. Shortly thereafter, however, a ninja infiltrates the village, and Kurenai plans to deal with him, only to find that her students have already engaged him.
After Naruto and Shino injure the ninja, Hinata manages to intercept him, per a plan they had discussed in a scene that has not been shown, and after a moment of hesitation, takes him down, which is a nice change.
After the interloper is arrested, Kurenai has mixed feelings about her subordinates’ intervention, glad that it turned out well for them but wishing that they had stood down. The Hokage congratulates them and rewards them equivalent to the pay from a C-rank mission, ending the chapter.
What I liked
- The fight with the missing-nin is a good Warm-Up Boss for the series, in Mizuki and the Demon Brothers' absence.
What I didn’t like
- Kurenai winning the argument too easily
- It being driven home how different and better Kurenai’s methods are.
- Hinata still being overly depressed and unconfident.
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