Source: Wikipedia
“The Dark Creeping Clouds”
“With Raiga seemingly dead, the gang heads back to find Karashi waiting for them. It turns out to be a trap as the Kurosuki family ambushes them. Luckily, Naruto fools them not once, but twice, with his clones. With the enemies defeated, the villagers focus their anger on Karashi. Rock Lee intercepts them and says that Karashi is still young and weak and that it is partially his fault that Karashi joined the Kurosuki family. Lee begs them to let him return to his mother, promising to punish Karashi himself if he should fall from grace. The villagers agree, and the group heads back, but not before picking up Ranmaru. They head back to the Curry of Life shop for a meal, where Naruto tries to retrieve information from Ranmaru. Ranmaru has Karashi take him to the canyon where Raiga fell and use his chakra to revive him.”
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Analysis
The following analysis will look at the technique used by the Kurosuki family, more details about Ranmaru’s past, and the relevance of the episode’s title.
With Raiga seemingly dead, the gang heads back to find Karashi waiting for them. It turns out to be a trap as the Kurosuki family ambushes them. When one of the villagers tried to warn the genin, Karashi closed his mouth and said to him, “If you value your life, you keep your mouth shut.” Karashi’s actions are questionable since the villagers thought that he had repented. In the process, huge boulders are tossed at the genin by the Kurosuki family. As a result, it seems that the boulders crushed the genin.
Luckily, Naruto fools them not once, but twice, with his clones. With the enemies defeated, the villagers focus their anger on Karashi. After realising that they were deceived, the Kurosuki family takes action. In the background, intense music with a mix of electric guitar and drums plays. The Kurosuki family used a technique known as Ninja Art: Flag Tornado. As asserted by the Narutopedia website, all members are armed with gloves with retractable blades. With the blades out, the members can use the Black Tornado Technique. To add on, they climb on top of each other’s shoulders and form a tornado to destroy the genin. However, the genin used shadow clones.
Triumphant music starts to play in the background with a mix of Japanese guitar and Japanese flute as the genin defeat the family with their different techniques. Tenten summons one of her ninja tools; Rock Lee uses his Leaf Hurricane technique; and Neji activates his Byakugan using 8 trigrams: 64 palms. Before Naruto could use his Shadow Clones, the enemies were already defeated. This shows that Team 3 has improved their techniques as shinobi without needing help from Naruto.
Rock Lee intercepts them and says that Karashi is still young and weak and that it is partially his fault that Karashi joined the Kurosuki family. Lee begs them to let him return to his mother, promising to punish Karashi himself if he should fall from grace. The villagers agree, and the group heads back, but not before picking up Ranmaru. After convincing the villagers to forgive Karashi, the old man said that since Karashi was just an underling of the Kurosuki family, it’s not like he attacked the village himself. Therefore, Rock Lee took Karashi under his wing instead.
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More details about Ranmaru’s past
Before the Genin can pick up Ranmaru, he tells them about his past. Afterwards, sad music with a low-pitched piano and violin plays in the background as he begins telling them about his story. Ranmaru said, “Since the day I was born, I’ve always been frail, and for almost my entire life, the shabby cabin was my entire world. I have no memory of my parents; I survived only because the villagers took pity on me and brought me small amounts of food from time to time. But even as fragile as I was, I had a special power no one else did. As time went on, everyone feared me because, without leaving my room, I could see what was happening outside. From then on, I had no more visitors bringing me food; all I could do was wait to die. If it weren’t for Raiga, I wouldn’t be alive. Raiga took me out beyond those walls, showing me a world I’d never experienced. If Raiga isn’t here to care for me, it’s the same as losing my own body.”
From his past, we learn that he was always crippled for most of his life, and since he has no memory of his parents, it means that he is an orphan. Moreover, his story is somehow like Naruto in the sense that the villagers feared Ranmaru because of his power, which is the same as the Hidden Leaf Village feared Naruto because he has the nine-tailed fox inside of him. Therefore, Ranmaru and Naruto are similar in the sense that they are both orphans and both experienced ridicule from the villagers.
Furthermore, Ranmaru is like Haku. Ranmaru was heavily dependent on Raiga because he was the first person to take notice of him. On the other hand, Haku was dependent on Zabuza because he was the first person to take notice of him. Both seemed to have been depressed and needed help. Ranmaru and Haku are also similar in the sense that they are both considered to be tools for their masters. Haku considered himself a tool to the extent that he died to save Zabuza’s life. Moreover, Ranmaru said, “Yes, he might have been using me; it’s possible, but whether good or bad, either way, it doesn’t matter to me because I’m just a tool to sense things out anyway.” Their purpose was to satisfy their master’s needs, even at the expense of their lives.
After finishing his story, Neji made a crucial statement by saying, “I think I see. Raiga was able to become one of the famous Seven Swordsmen because he was able to borrow power from Ranmaru.” Therefore, if it weren’t for Ranmaru, Raiga wouldn’t have become one of the famous Seven Swordsmen. In other words, Ranmaru played a part in contributing to Raiga’s achievements. Moreover, Raiga and Ranmaru helped each other to survive; hence, Ranmaru asked if he could see Raiga at the cliff. In response, they leave to see Raiga, who was crushed and buried by boulders. Therefore, Neji activates his Byakugan to sense if Raiga is alive, but there’s nothing; Raiga seems to be dead.
They head back to the Curry of Life shop for a meal, where Naruto tries to retrieve information from Ranmaru.
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The dialogue between Ranmaru and Naruto
Uplifting music plays in the background with a Japanese flute as the genin arrive at the curry shop with Karashi and Ranmaru. Grandma Sanshō is thrilled to have her grandson, Karashi, back. After finishing dinner, Naruto tries to retrieve information from Ranmaru:
Naruto: Hey, by the way, when you were travelling with Raiga, you were with the seven ninja swordsmen, weren’t you? Did you ever meet a guy named Zabuza?
Ranmaru: Ah, Zabuza, no, I...
Naruto: Oh, I got it! There was this one guy with a huge sword wrapped in some bandage thing, and he had these fish eyes.
Ranmaru: Oh yeah, you must mean Kisame
Naruto: Yeah, right! Kisame! So, do you happen to know where that guy is or what he is up to?
Ranmaru said no and then said, I heard that he slipped away from the Mist Village. I know his face, but I don’t know anything more than that.
Naruto was hoping that if he could find Kisame, he might link him to Itachi, who would then hopefully lead to Sasuke. However, there is no luck in the information; therefore, we are still left in the mystery.
Ranmaru has Karashi take him to the canyon where Raiga fell and use his chakra to revive him. The relevance of the title of the episode is shown in this scene. As the title suggests, there are dark, creeping clouds in the sky, which signify that something bad is about to happen. While they are outside, Neji is worried about Karashi and Ranmaru, who are alone at the shop. So, he asks Tenten to check on them. However, when she gets to the shop, they are gone. This is not good since what they were about to do would lead to chaos.
Meanwhile, Karashi carries Ranmaru on his back, and a dialogue takes place between them as they go to the cliff.
Karashi: Do you mean the boss is still alive?
Ranmaru: He is; that Neji person didn’t seem to sense it back there, but I could pick up signs of life.
As they reach their destination, Ranmaru starts to revive Raiga. Before he can finish, he falls off Karashi’s back and lands on the ground. Ranmaru starts to speak to Raiga while he is still dead.
Ranmaru: Raiga, you meant everything to me. I was just waiting to die, but you told me we could survive together. For me, Raiga, being together with you was the only time I lived. Don’t be gone; no matter what, I can’t hold a funeral for you. I won’t let you perish like this, even if I have to give you my life.”
Afterwards, Ranmaru is unconscious, while Raiga has now risen back to life. This means that things are about to get serious in the next episode.
The lesson from this episode is that when you consider someone precious to you, you will do questionable things for that person, just like Ranmaru, who just revived Raiga!
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and then Add to home screen.