165. Naruto's Death

Worth watching as a manga-standard episode? Bah.
Worth watching for the lulz? Meh.

Never has an ep been so blatant about its desperation for ratings. At least in 'Gaara Dies!' in Shippuuden, he does actually die. You didn't really think Kakashi was going to abandon Naruto, did you? Shame on you, thinking something interesting might happen. So, after setting us up with that hum-dinger of a title, Kakashi yells out "PSYCHE!" and Tenten and Neji roll around laughing. Boy, did he fool them. But seriously, they're being followed by one of the Ceiling People and those cats are just messed up. Observing them before attacking, the enemy gets suspicious because Tenten wins a fight against Kakashi and Neji:


chucks some shuriken in their direction:


and sure enough, they're apes.


I love Naruto logic.

One of Dumbledore's dudes reports back that the Konoha posse are no longer a threat:

SERIOUSLY GUYS, WHAT IS UP WITH THIS HOUSE.

And Dumbledore fishes out his most splendid hat for Snape's seppuku ceremony. Snape is led out to the committing-seppuku-where-everyone-can-watch grounds and Dumbledore reads out his crimes. One of which is the following:


Now, I don't remember any of this being mentioned. This sounds vaguely interesting! I would like to hear more about this! Do we have some kind of Headless Horseman dealy going on? Or perhaps Ron's dad flopped out of a tv Ring-style? Alas, the world may never know, as just as Snape is about to paint the floor with his intestines, a mist descends. The Noroimusha appears in the confusion and yanks Snape up and away. Kakashi, Neji and Tenten show they were henged guards, which is a nice touch but doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Everyone runs/kites to safety. Tenten wants to unmask the Noroimusha because we haven't done it yet this episode, but Kakashi is as fed up of that as we are and sends everyone away. He always feels like somebody's watching him and he has no privacy. Sadly, no bass-heavy music starts playing, but one of the Ceiling People emerges. Kakashi is also revealed to have some less than sexy heels that have presumably been lobbed off in a mission:


We then have a flashback to the nightly visit of the Noroimusha to Snape. This thrilling scene of suspense and terror has the ghost standing there for half an hour before...doing nothing.

You know, if we weren't filler characters, they'd write fanfic about this.

Anyway, the Noroimusha who saved Snape was Naruto; Neji says he knew it all along and Tenten moans about getting left out of everything. You think she'd be used to it by now.

Kakashi fights the Ceiling Dude, who proves to be trickier than he first suspected. He's perhaps overpowered as he's not your usual elemental standard: he steals jutsus – one of which is Gaara's sand coffin. But this makes for interesting viewing and wondering why all ninja don't go for the 'Attack Prevention' jutsu. It sounds a handy catch-all for when your day is filled with people coming at you with pointy things. Naruto and co meet up with Ron, who tells them Harry’s undergoing treatment for his injuries-

Oh yeah, wasn't Naruto supposed to die this episode?

But no, Ron and Naru are best buds after Harry swung by Naruto's jail cell to say Snape is innocent and Dumbledore is the real baddie who killed Ron's father and sister. Ron was ready to sacrifice Snape so Dumbledore didn't realise he knew the skinny, but Naruto came up with a plan to save him by dressing up as the Noroimusha. I know, Naruto came up with a plan, and it didn't even involve farting.

No one's wearing shoes and Ron ends the ep with a line that could teach Sasuke a thing or two about being emo:



Annnnnngst.

Team members: Naruto, Neji and Tenten
Number of kage bunshin no jutsus: 0!
Number of rasengans: 0!
Next week: Two episode updates in one go. That's right: two. A Raging Dattebayo Special has never been this raging!