Bail o' Lies

China seem to be making a lot of popular games recently. Where Winds Meet seems to be a well received mmo.

Apparently, it been so long since there has been a standard male romance in the West. That when the video game Dispatch had one, people assumed it was influence by Japanese harem stories.

Summary Time: Chapter 28. New Powers...where we will see the unearned powers that Ikemoto will try to convince the readers are cool. Likely he will fail.

Cover page is the Clone caressing Bolt's sword...obvious innuendo.

Chapter starts off showing Blond Sai has nearly mastered the jutsu CJ taught him in under a day...remember when the Naruto franchise used to go on about hard work? Well, clearly Ikemoto doesn't. Bolt compliments him and he is rebuffed by Blond Sai that he isn't his teammate...well he wasn't on your genin team translator probably should have used "comrade." Bolt acts the protective older brother due to Blond Sai's feelings towards the daughter. He makes a joke about shaving off Blond Sai awful mop haircut...Ikemoto it is your fault for making that character have that haircut due to your giving the characters "realistic haircuts." He is suppose to have hair like Sai. Is he trying to make the anime, if it comes back, actually have the characters have his haircuts? Because they were ignoring them before and just making look like Kishimoto's style.

Cups goes into the interrogation room for his questioning...wait, I thought we flashed forward a week to the battle; did the story backtrack and decided to cover what they could have skip?! Sai contacts the sensory division and ask for their records for any communication Konohamaru had...god I hate the telepathic hotline stuff. The story feels like it both skipped the week for Bolt's sword to be repaired and yet it didn't for the interrogation and Blond Sai's training. This might actually be the worse structured chapter in the entire manga so far. As I am actually confused on what is happening and when events are happening. Dear God. Ikemoto can't even handle something as simple as a time skip/jump ahead. 

When Ikemoto did the time skip to the battle at the end of the last chapter. That means the interrogations should have been over, and Sai should've address his suspicions after the battle. Or was Konohamaru really interrogated for 7 straight days? But even then he asked for transmissions Konohamaru received a "few minutes ago" which would have been a week ago. 

Bolt gets his upgraded sword from the Clone who explains how it was improved...wait it can now activate the mana sword by just him gripping it? How? OK I do want that explained. Other than the sword is absorbing some of his chakra to do this they don't. Unless the Hagoromo is just pour chakra into the blade there should be more to it. Also, she was somehow able to add a safety feature where only she, Bolt and Sasuke can use the sword anyone else and it will drain more chakra than necessary...How? And How was she able to registered Sasuke's signature? Stupid Scientific Ninja Tool Bull-Shit.

Shikamaru talks with his son about the upcoming attack and they are working with Bolt...it is more of the same "we got to work with Bolt"/"but we hate him due to the perspective flip" that I feel everyone should be sick of at this point. Like if a conversation is had between to people in the village assume this is brought up and I generally won't cover because I am sick of read those conversation as they don't go anywhere.

Blode Sai talks with CJ about his prediction powers and CJ explains why he can't give people more details. The more people know that future the more it can change outside his control and he is working with narrow margins due to how overpowered Ikemoto makes his villains. A page where Hime is trapped in a tree and the daughter is dead.

Shikamaru gives an announcement to the cast through Blond Sai. Thank god none of the Kishimoto characters shall be used or be useful. Even though this battle is taking place in the village.

Tree-bug enters the village and the battle starts.

Few thoughts.

Hime and Moe are pretty much never going to be the villains or be in danger of being killed. Unfortunately. They are Ikemoto's characters and he is not getting rid of them...despite the fact that no one likes them, not even Boruto fans. Remember, these characters were unchanged by the time skip so he likes how they are, and its clear Hime's job as battle commenter is really important to Ikemoto.

Fighting in Konoha. Nearly every fight has been in the village. I think I have gone over this before but let me go over it again. Beside getting sick of this story almost never leaving the blasted village. The other problem is power scale and other ninjas. In Naruto, battles rarely happened in the village, as shown when the Teams Sensei battle Itachi. Long battles tend to run the risk of other ninja sensing the battle happening and coming over to help their fellows. It also happened when Naruto and Sasuke fought on top of the hospital, Jiraiya and Kakashi both sensed it and rushed over. So, any fight needs to either be quick so the intruder isn't swarmed or you need someone so strong that it doesn't matter a la Pein. So, by constantly having the battles this theory runs the risk that the old cast should sense what's happening and get involved. And they should still be in theory stronger then the current cast. So any fight the get involved with should be quickly resolved. However, Ikemoto doesn't want their involvement as he wants to focus on his own cast. So it leads to questions of are where are the adults and why are they so useless when they get involved? 

CJ's machinations. Now from what I understand he is slowly trying to increase the Boruto's cast powers by giving them the upgrades they would have learned later on to try to give the cast an edge. But at the same time try to keep it minor enough so Tree-Jenga doesn't feel threaten enough to stop kittening around and just kill everyone already. He let Blond-D die and was willing to let Konohamaru die was well because Salad's Gravity Ball power was so important. (Granted she unlocked those eyes at the end of part one and they still haven't given a good reason why couldn't they just tell her.) But now that has passed he can just give out the powers to the cast who will benefit that most in the upcoming fight. Of course there is a problem of this isn't very satisfying. The cast isn't training to discover and unlock new powers, they are been given cheat sheets. So when Bolt reveals his new sword and Blond Sai reveals his new mind power it isn't as satisfying or impressive. Also this can hamper their growth because they aren't learning or discovering on their own.

Explaining the powers. Normally, a manga would hint at what gimmick abilities someone uses so their opponent can show how smart they are for figuring out the gimmick mid fight and find a way to counter it. Both the hero and the villain can do it and in Naruto, especially in part one, both sides did. However, Ikemoto is terrible at anything that is standard for those fights. He does not know how to set up or limit powers so they become broken (until they are fixed later on.) For example, Moe's counter power was invincible when first introduced. Later on Ikemoto was order to add the requirement of contact for it to work. Second, is that normally the main character spends half the fight slowly trying to figure out the gimmick. You know in increments. "Ok, they are doing x. I see they can only do X with in a certain range. Oh they have a recharge rate of y many seconds. Oh they can't affect something or it has some sort of limit." Sometime it will be, "wait I got it their power isn't X its Z." In Boruto, anytime someone reveals a foe's powers it all at once and is accurate to the letter. It doesn't feel like they figured out their opponents power as much as they been given the script. So they don't come off as smart. Then, once they figure it out they have to come up with a way to counter it to defeat their foes. Which shows of the character's creativity, ingenuity, and adaptability. In Boruto, they just keep fighting till they win, at best they get a power up. I swear most fight end in part one with and Bolt activates his karma seal and it one-shots the enemy.

So, this revealing a power early is normally done because the opponents power is so strong or tricky; that the main character needs time to think of a way to beat it. Here, its so Ikemoto understands what the power is so he doesn't overhype it or make Tree-Bug unbeatable, because normally he gives them some powers that makes them dominate the first half of the fight till the contrivance happens (normally the karma seal activates and becomes an instant win.) Now, he as at least laid out how the fight will go. They have wait till Tree-Bug spams copies till their about 25 of them. Blond Sai will use his mind powers to screw with them. Bolt will combine his new super cool sword with Uzuhiko to one shot them or something.

I swear this site keeps freezing. And at time there seems to be constantly 6000 guest at once; probably the cause not sure if the issue with joining is still an issue but if it isn't might as well join guests so you can discuss instead of just reading. I'm not oppose to answering question or giving views; just don't make me constantly repeat myself. So people think the new Pokémon game is slop and Digimon had one of its best games they have ever produce this month.

Oh some streamer named Hasan something was found shocking his dog so it would sit on a bed for 8 hours to improve his streams view count. 

Summary Time: Chapter 27. Bet Your Life on it...hopefully no one reading this bet on this manga being successful as the original.

Cover page is Blond Sai pulling out a blade Sai had in Shippuden. At least it isn't just posing to show off the clothes, he is doing something.

Moe has his hands on both the girls necks. Then he lets them go as this was all to show that he could kill them in an instant anytime he wanted...good god his design is awful.

So Hime makes it clear she asked her brother to scare but not kill them so she could ask how they are immune to her power. She brings up their feelings for Bolt but points out that alone shouldn't have been enough as true love would have made a lot more people immune...guess that is address and dismiss the issues I've been bring up for years now. If true love made people immune does that mean the story is saying that Naruto Shikamaru and Sai don't truly love their wives? She says that somehow for some reason she excluded them both...what because she wanted girl friends to talk to?...Oh God. That might actually be the case. Ah, it is. OK. Why them specifically? Why were they made immune when she cast it? Did her powers read the script and know these two would be her friends? Hime makes it clear she doesn't mind if they are the ones to kill her, and the girls all hug and declare each other friends.

Ok. So Clone Jiraiya explains the next tree person's power to Shikamaru. So Mamushi/Tree-Bug power is Division. So cloning but no dissipating, they are real, and they don't have the reduced power clones have. Except it reduces his intelligence, and if you destroy the eyes they can't duplicate. They need him to reach between 20-30 for him to be dumb enough to defeat but not swarm them with sheer numbers.

Does anyone else remember Shaolin Showdown?

Shikamaru actually brings up a smart point. I am shocked. That with those weaknesses one Tree-Bug should be left at their base and just send out the duplicates so they can never truly die. CJ says that due to the decrease intelligence they want to group up so once its starts dividing it too stupid to do something that smart, as the one left behind will just join them...its sad that something this basic is impressive for this manga. Explaining the power, pointing out an obvious weakness, thinking of a solution to said weakness, and how that will be addressed/how to counter that. Granted Tree-Bug is too stupid but all that needs to happen is Tree-Jenga stay near the one left behind and keep it in place.

God Damn It! Again, they are going to fight in the village using the justification the Tree-Jenga won't attack the village for contrived reason, and apparently Tree-Bug fears him so much he won't destroy the village.

Huh. Turns out CJ brought Blond Sai here for another reason beyond just being a psychic phone. He is going to teach him an improve version of the mind transfer jutsu. Turns out he invented it to avenge the death of the daughter. Bolt just sit around like a jackass, probably wanting to question CJ as he doesn't trust him.

On to Madoc and Nail. They are reviewing the fight with Tree-Jenga. They don't think he has any weaknesses, Nail wants more power, Madoc warns his body can't tolerate much more, Nail threatens Madoc.

And the Chamberlain is questioning Konohamaru. Shikamaru mentally contacts Konohamaru, in the middle of the questioning, and joins him in on the conspiracy. Sai watches, I'm not sure if he was in on it or not yet. So expecting some drama from that.

The Clone leaves Salad and Hime to girl talk and meets Bolt outside. Bolt shows off a jutsu Sasuke apparently taught him. The Uchiha Flowing Blade Jutsu: Hagoromo (feather garment)...ah its named after the Six Path Sage. If you read any Korean manga, its the mana/aura blade that makes the sword super sharp and super tough. It was chipped in the last battle and he is asking her to repair it...what is she now, a blacksmith!? Bolt hands her a scroll with advanced Ninja tech schematics from CJ that she apparently develops in the future. Her request for doing this, is for him to also stop calling her Class rep.

The chapter ends with Tree-Bug attacking a week later. Huh, a lot of things happened this chapter. Granted it was prep for this upcoming fight.

Haven't done this in a while. 

Had a stray thought relevant to this topic so wanted to write this down. So Therece clearly has views of the main cast that differ from the manga and even the Last interpretation of them. Which honestly is a reflection on her character.

So before continuing that line of thought lets first go into the different views the manga, the anime through the last, and Therece have of the main cast relationships.

Naruto:

Manga: He was in love with Sakura. It probably like MK, JT, and OR started out in the academy, likely due to some action Sakura took like helping him once when no one else would, and blossomed throughout the years. While he loves Sakura deeply he wants her happiness more than he wants her. So at the end, when it was clear Sakura would not let go of her feelings for Sasuke and Sasuke was willing to be with her; he backs down for his two friends happiness. So he married Hinata to honor Neji's sacrifice.

The Last: He never had any feelings for Sakura or anyone else for that matter as he is incapable of understanding or experiencing love. He only pretended to love Sakura because he understood Sasuke had feelings for her, somehow, so decided to be a third wheel to screw with their relationship. The worst scumbag. Only gets with Hinata because everyone tells him to.

Therece: His feelings don't matter, though he doesn't love Sakura because he isn't worthy of loving her. Men like him exist to do Therece I mean Sakura's bidding. Which is bringing her boytoy Sasuke back to her and if he dies trying to do so? Who cares.

Sasuke:

Manga: He doesn't have feelings for Sakura but feels guilty for constantly rejecting her when she has been so devoted to him. So ends up with her as part of his atonement. Did he ever fall in love with her? Well...he loves his daughter, Sarada.

The Last: Surprisingly. Actually did love Sakura all along and may have gotten together with her sooner if Naruto wasn't acting like a third wheel anytime they could have bonded.

Therece: His feelings don't matter. He is pretty much a sextoy. He must love Sakura because she loves him.

Sakura:

Manga: Her crush turned into love due to the forehead comment. She never learned the truth so she never stopped loving Sasuke. She has feelings for Naruto, but they could never make that final push into a love that surpasses her feelings for Sasuke as long as the truth about the forehead comment remained hidden.

The Last: At some point, she realized that Sasuke did always love her. It was just Naruto acting like a third wheel that prevented them from getting together sooner and could have prevented some of the damage Sasuke leaving the village caused. Instead of hating Naruto for it, she rises above it, and decides to help Hinata get together with him. In hopes, that her eternal love might actually reach the heart of that emotionless scumbag.

Therece: Sakura is entitled to Sasuke because his sexy dreamy bad boy she can fix. His feelings on the matter are unimportant, he must love her. She is willing to use, abuse, and finally discard Naruto once she gets wants because she doesn't care for him in the slightest. She only willing to amuse herself with the notion of ending up with him if Sasuke isn't around.

Right, incase no one has ever talk to someone about the Naruto franchise in their entire life. The last interpretation of Sakura is generally one that people that utterly hate her have of her. For example that V-Tuber Ouro Kronii, sees Sakura as an utterly vile kitten for using and abusing Naruto when he is so devoted toward her, pathetic for her obsession towards Sasuke despite him making it as clear as day he doesn't have feelings for her, and useless because all she does is cry while refusing to fight. Most of it is misunderstanding or exaggeration of her flaws. Therece on the other hand thinks this interpretation makes Sakura the perfect woman. Now does that not reflect on Therece's character?