Naruto 625

Well, well, that turned out a lot more interesting than I expected. For one, I definitely wasn’t expect Madara to actually jump in and prevent Hashirama from killing himself, let alone actually agree to the truce shortly afterwards. I guess after seeing someone do nothing but negative things really makes you a bit pessimistic eh? In the end though, I guess if there’s one thing this moment shows, it’s that the Uchiha aren’t exactly people that are guaranteed to succumb to the power of their Sharingan per se. There seems to be a bit of leeway depending on the situation and the person involved, and given the context with which this story is being told, it’s quite interesting in how it could potentially be a kind of foreshadowing in terms of Sasuke’s future role. On that note though, it also shows not only that even Madara himself had some semblance of sanity before (and was in many ways, just another ninja), but also why Hashirama would ultimately make the best choice of Hokage…
…which brings us to the other development of note this chapter: the fact that Hashirama actually wanted to make Madara the Hokage. As such, there was actually a chance Madara could’ve been the one whose face was carved into that wall as the first Hokage, which really makes you wonder how things would’ve turned out if that actually happened. It’s admittedly strange to think about it now, but one can’t help but think that if Madara actually was given the chance to lead, and was supported in doing so by the people in his clan and Konoha — whom incidentally, he was the one who actually gave the name to — showed their support, it’s possible that Madara would’ve never ended up the way he did — regardless of the Sharingan’s curse. Of course, there’s a chance it would’ve ended up similarly either way, but hmm… definitely worth a moment’s thought.
Regardless, it looks like the story’s finally come full circle, and we’re finally at a point we can pretty much say we know virtually everything that we’ve needed to know about. As such, I couldn’t help but feel a kind of finality with this chapter — a kind of atmosphere that just said: “Look, here we are. Look how far we’ve come. After all these years and all these chapters, the pieces of the puzzle are finally all together, and what’s left is just to wrap up the final battle and the story.” Indeed, the chapter just hammers in the fact that the series seems to be “fast” approaching its conclusion, and it’s something that has me admittedly pondering how strange it’d be not to have a weekly Naruto chapter to read. Though, I suppose it’s something that just had to come eventually.
In any case, that’s about it. This chapter likely wraps up the flashback into Konoha’s founding and I reckon we’ll get shifted back to the present day sometime in the next few chapters. Until then, I’ll catch ya guys around.