Naruto 696 review.

So the latest Naruto chapter just came out, Naruto 696 and it has about as many Kaijuus as Pacific Rim 2. Well I suppose it has some other things as well so let's talk about that too.

Firstly I am so happy that we get a flashback to Sasuke's speech about two Ninjas understanding each other after fisting, I made it one of my predictions and I just love it when it comes true. To be fair though predicting that Kishi will use flashbacks is a pretty safe bet.
The chapter starts with Naruto and Sasuke still in the white zone, some people predicted that since the last time they fought it ended when they reached the white zone then this fight is over but nope.

As much as I like to make fun of Sasuke's logic, this panel is actually very accurate, one of the best ways to get people to work together is to give them a common goal, and one of the best goals to give them is mutual survival, if some crazy person (Madara, Kaguya, now Sasuke) wishes to kill everyone else then it is in everyone's benefit to work together to bring them down, once that evil is taken care of though...

Naruto rightfully asks what happens once Sasuke dies? both Kaguya and Madara were defeated so how about Sasuke? Sasuke says he can achieve immortality and my first thought on how he did it was the following....

Darn, well the Rinnengan requires Uchiha and Senju powers so I am sort of right....sort of. Still an eternity of being hated? doesn't sound like much fun to be honest, plus how will Sasuke revive his clan? if everybody hates him he will never get a girlfriend or does he expect Uchiha babies to be delivered by storks?

Dream world no jutsu finally ends and the battle continues, Last chapter fans were arguing that Naruto is holding back as he is only fighting defensive in the fight so far, Naruto says he isn't trying to kill Sasuke which by itself shows that he is holding back, fighting with the intent to capture rather than kill is much more difficult.

Cause you have been in the light so far.

Really? from this moment on? Hasn't Sasuke been in darkness for a while now actually?

Anyways back to the fight and this is interesting, Sasuke uses the Bijuus somehow and combines it with his Susannoo, giving birth to some form of armored Susannoo, it's visually very impressive yet I'm already bored with this pattern of bigger susannoo's followed by bigger bijuu modes. When Naruto sees this new form of Susannoo he uses his classic Shadow clone technique which oddly enough makes Sasuke tell him that's why Naruto is lonely, I don't quite get that since it's hard to call the person who is loved by the entire shinobi world as lonely, plus maybe if Sasuke hadn't left then Naruto wouldn't be so lonely, eh Sasuke?

Naruto tries to land a blow on this new and improved Susannoo form but it's to no avail and Naruto loses most of his chakra, and that's when the half of Kurama that's inside Naruto saves him by giving him all the natural energy. We saw this a couple of times back when they fought against the Jyuubi so it's nice of Kishi to bring it up again in this fight.

Another nice callback is Naruto's current Bijuu form and how we saw it quite some time ago.

When I first saw the Chuunin exam I was so hopeful for a Naruto vs Sasuke fight in the finals, it didn't happen but the fight at the valley of the end was great, although not quite what I had hoped for since it was much more serious.

This chapter ends with Sasuke's giant arrow colliding with Naruto's two balls.... yeah Kishi that's not genitalia at all.

Predictions

1- As always with this manga I expect the two projectiles to explode in mid air and nobody gets hurt, making this cliffhanger a total waste in my opinion.

2- Still waiting for Hashirama's power that he gave to Sasuke to somehow appear.

3- Eh, Hard to make predictions with Naruto so close to it's end, before I might have suspected we see the important of Akatsuki's rings or something but with the ending in 3 chapters I am not sure how Kishi will wrap this up.

Rating 

Am I the only one who is....bored this chapter? I kind of expected this giant monster show but I didn't think I'd be bored with it, I much prefer the original fight at the valley of the end because it had some awesome action that involved punches and ninjutsu, here both shinobi just unleash their biggest form so far and try to expand on it.

There isn't much talk this chapter aside from the first few pages and the fight is in general rather boring, I am sure some people will enjoy seeing this fight so far and it will probably be better in the anime but so far this manga fight has been very underwhelming and I dislike Kishi's method of solving fights so far by simply giving each fighter more chakra the longer the fight goes on.

I'll give this chapter a 2 out of 5 and really hope we see a punch next week.