Naruto Gaiden – Naruto x 703 Review: A Chance Meeting

I’m loving Masashi Kishimoto’s latest offering. The focus on the new generation of ninjas, especially Salad, is definitely a plus in my book. I keep anticipating the release of the next manga and this week’s instalment titled Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage – A Chance Meeting was no different.

The Naruto spin-off makes it obvious that Kishimoto can write interesting female characters without relying on giving them male love interests. I wish he had used his skills to write Sakura Haruno better and not give some fans excuse to think of her as just a useless love interest. Even now Sakura is still unconscious and I do hope Kishimoto gives us an explanation for her condition.

I loved Chocho and Salad’s friendship in the previous issue and we got a lot more of that this week. Those two are my favorite characters from the new generation of ninjas. One of the best panels of this issue was when Chocho said she couldn’t run any further and Salad suggested she should roll to their destination. I was expecting Chocho to be angry at Salad but instead she thought it was a good idea.

As far as the plot is concerned it was revealed that the mysterious figure in the Akatsuki hood was after Salad. I don’t know what their intentions are yet but I do know for sure they aren’t good. My guess is that they want to kidnap the young ninja to lure Sasuke into a trap and entrust the responsibility of resurrecting the Uchiha clan on Salad after killing him.

Before Salad and Chocho could follow Naruto there was a very interesting part involving Boruto and Mitsuki. I really think that Naruto should’ve waited a few more seconds for Boruto to arrive with the lunch Hinata made for him. Salad understood Boruto’s annoyance with his father and that’s why I like her. She seems mature compared to the rest of the kids in her class. Not having Sasuke, her father, be a part of her life has made her grow up sooner.

The fight between the mysterious kid with the Sharingan, Chocho and Salad was short but fun. I wasn’t expecting Salad and Chocho to be so good during battle because they haven’t graduated from the academy yet.

While Salad didn’t use any special techniques Chocho used her clan’s secret body expansion jutsu. Though the two girls had to be saved by Naruto in the end it was good to see they weren’t the kind of female characters to back out of a fight.

Speaking of Naruto I knew he could sense the two girls following him, however, I was surprised to see that he didn’t decide to meet them sooner and send them back to the village.

My prediction for the next issue is that Naruto will allow Salad and Chocho to tag along with him to meet Sasuke now that he knows she’s in danger. I’m also expecting Chocho to make a comment about how good-looking Sasuke is to Salad.

Did you read Naruto Gaiden : The Seventh Hokage – A Chance Meeting? Who do you think is the mysterious Akatsuki person? Let us know!

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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