Quote Originally Posted by Assertn View Post
I feel like shikamaru's dad reaching to the kids was like Kishimoto trying to reach into his own story and bring on board some ninjas that can actually utilize some clever strategies. Even if it still involves another cheesy as hell artifact.
I liked the chapter, and appreciate that the strategy was an effective surprise for the Kyuubi-eater, but the strategy was not clever. It was just a minor variation on what I-S-C have always done. Chouji starts off with a physical attack to distract the target. Shikamaru does the shadow bind to stop the target's movement. Ino does her mind swap. Didn't they try this plan on Hidan and again on Kakuzu? Naruto's usual plan of distracting the enemy with dozens/hundreds of clones doing taijutsu and then hitting the target with a rasengan is way better, even though we've seen it about 20 times now.

We better see Madara actually do something soon, or this arc really is going nowhere. Killing off a few Kages is a start. Tsunade and the Raikage need to go if Naruto is going to lead the international unified army to victory.