Source: Wikipedia
“The Remembered Lullaby”
“With the star stolen, the group has no leads on the mysterious thief who can use chakra to fly. Naruto learns that Sumaru’s parents died defending the star from foreign ninjas. Tenten and Lee attempt to track two of Akahoshi’s men but are discovered and find no answers. Sumaru and some of his friends find a masked ninja and restrain him, but he renders them unconscious and kidnaps Sumaru.”,
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Analysis
This episode unfolds with a lot of events, revealing more details about the star village and their possession of the star they hold so dearly. We also get to understand why Sumaru has a huge distrust of foreigners. Lastly, towards the end, I will give a possible explanation about the identity of the star thief.
The episode starts when Neji’s team arrives at the training building where the star is enshrined. When they saw Naruto and Sumeru, Rock Lee told them that they had received a distress call in the training room and asked them what had happened. Naruto then informed them that the star was stolen by a masked ninja who flew off using purple chakra wings.
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Tsunade mentioned the rumours going around at the Hidden Star Village
At the Hokage’s headquarters, Shizune reads a report about the Star Village and starts conversing with Tsunade in the office. A dialogue took place between them where they mentioned more crucial details about the star village:
Shizune: So, the star that their village was founded on, this says, is a meteorite.
Tsunade: That’s right, it dates to the first Hoshikage who established the village. He discovered that by training near the star, his chakra was strengthened. Ever since then, they have held a unique position among the hidden villages.
Shizune: Yes, but our records show that form of training has been suspended for 10 years now.
Tsunade: After the third Hoshikage came to power, he chose to put an end to it, but then a year ago, he passed away sadly, and the village lifted the ban.
Shizune: It’s curious, isn’t it? I wonder what moved him to forbid it.
Tsunade: Hard to say; only the village hidden in the stars is privy to that. Although there have been a few rumours on the wind,
Shizune: What do you mean?
Tsunade: Well, details are spotty, but most of the ninjas who underwent the training died from it.
Shizune (shocked): Huh?!
Tsunade: Whatever this thing is, we do know it forcibly strengthens the chakra. That gift likely comes with adverse effects on the body.
The dialogue possibly explains how the third Hoshikage died. It is safe to assume that when he was training in proximity to the star, it had adverse effects on his body. It’s probably why he banned the use of the star in the village, because he knew the side effects. However, after his death, the village lifted the ban because they were trying to be one of the best villages in the land.
Moreover, since the star was a meteorite, it was already dangerous from the start, to the extent that most of the ninjas who underwent training died from it. Therefore, it may strengthen one’s chakra, but it comes with a heavy price. It’s more like selling your soul in exchange for power. Therefore, Tsunade and Shizune played an important role in understanding more about the star village’s predicament. This situation makes one wonder: what if the star thief stole the star because they knew the side effects of the star, and, since they are from the star village, perhaps they wanted to save the village from losing more lives? As I go through the analysis, I will mention the possible identity of the star thief.
Meanwhile, after Naruto informs Neji’s team about the star thief, they all head off to the Hoshikage’s residence. When they informed Akahoshi about what happened and that the thief used the ninja technique of Kujaku, it seemed for a moment that he knew who the star thief was. Kujaku is a jutsu unique to the village hidden in the stars, which is part of their heritage. It’s probably why he was quick to stop Sumaru from telling the leaf ninja about their jutsu, but it could also be that he knew the side effects of the jutsu and didn’t want foreigners to know their weaknesses.
Although Sumaru was insistent on finding the star himself due to his distrust of foreigners, Akahoshi gave Neji’s team the go-ahead to look for the star instead. He also instructed Sumaru to keep an eye on his injured friends at the training building.
With the star stolen, the group has no leads on the mysterious thief, who can use chakra to fly. After Sumaru leaves the Hoshikage’s residence, Naruto and Neji’s team start conversing outside, where Tenten and Rock Lee say they don’t have leads to find the star thief. Neji, however, said they do have a lead in the sense that he suspects Akahoshi is hiding something; hence, a dialogue takes place between them:
Tenten: Neji, I know you’re trying to go by the books and all, but we weren’t even there.
Rock Lee: She is right, and we do not have any leads.
Neji: Actually, we do...
Naruto, Rock Lee, and Tenten: Huh?
Neji: ... that none of you pick up on it; their leader, Akahoshi, is hiding something.
Naruto: Hiding? What are you talking about?
Tenten: Come to think of it, when Sumaru said the word “kujaku,” Akahoshi got upset.
Rock Lee: Well, where there is smoke, there is fire. Is that an inside job, then?
Naruto: You’re moving too fast for me, guys; what’s going on?
Neji’s team was ignoring Naruto as Neji proceeded to say:
Neji: I’m going to look around the village and see if I can find a trail to follow. Tenten, I want you and Lee on Akahoshi; keep an eye on him.
Rock Lee: Right! Very well, then.
Tenten: Just leave it to us.
Naruto (complaining): Wait a second! What the heck does that leave for me to do?!
Neji had completely forgotten about Naruto, so he gave him an instruction to keep a close eye on Sumaru.
Neji: Oh, well, umm... Well ... Umm... Why don’t you tail Sumaru for a while?
Naruto (hyper): You got it! I’ll be on Sumaru like a flea on a dog; I’ll meet up with you later!
Naruto leaves
Neji has pointed out that Akahoshi is hiding something, and so far, we know that he was trying to hide the secret of the jutsu, “kujaku,” from the Leaf ninja. It’s safe to assume that he is aware of the deadly side effects of the jutsu and was trying to sweep it under the rug. This makes one wonder why he would support a jutsu that could put his villagers’ lives in danger. What’s his story? Only time will tell after some episodes.
Naruto learns that Sumaru’s parents died defending the star from foreign ninjas. Before Naruto learned about the death of Sumaru’s parents, Sumaru had a vivid flashback that was recurring vividly in his mind. After Sumaru left the Hoshikage’s residence, he was in the woods, where he was standing on top of a cliff. It was almost sunset when he was looking at the night sky and took out a purple necklace from his chest. He started singing a lullaby, and while he sang, he remembered how his mother held him when he was a baby. Moreover, we are shown that a kid is anxiously running, surrounded by a white area. While he was still running, a circle formed around the white area where he saw his parents’ backsides as they were looking at the night sky. When young Sumaru tried to run after them, the circle kept getting further away from him.
As the scene shifts back to the present, Naruto appears. It is important to note that the use of the flashback technique in Sumeru’s memories as a kid helps to build the plot about what happened to his parents. The purple necklace is the one that caused those flashbacks; hence, it is symbolic in unfolding more about his parents’ deaths. Moreover, his parents play a role in guiding the storyline, where they die defending the star from foreign ninjas.
Naruto learned about the deaths of Sumaru’s parents through a friend of his named Hokuto. At the training building where the star was enshrined, Hokuto mentioned why Sumaru has a huge distrust of foreigners. She said to Naruto, “It happened; it happened about 10 years ago. Sumaru’s parents were guarding the star when they were killed by a ninja from another village seeking to steal it. That’s why he’s so ...“. After learning the truth about Sumaru’s parents, Naruto understood why Sumaru was cold toward him. Moreover, he asked Hokuto about the whereabouts of Sumaru and the rest of the other star ninjas. When Hokuto said that they had gone after the star, he immediately left to look for Sumaru. While Naruto left, Hokuto stayed behind to look after her friend, Mizura, who got sick due to training close to the star and is now suffering the side effects. Hokuto played a role in understanding why Sumaru is the way he is now.
Tenten and Lee attempt to track two of Akahoshi’s men but are discovered and find no answers.
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Akahoshi is hiding something.
Before Tenten and Lee were tracking two of Akahoshi’s men, a disturbing conversation took place between Akahoshi and Akahoshi’s men. A dialogue took place in a small room:
Akahoshi: There’s no doubt about it.
First guy: So, the Shinobi who made off with the star, are you saying it was really...
Second guy: How could they even be alive?
Akahoshi’s men anxiously look at each other while Akahoshi stares outside.
First guy: We don’t stand a chance. They were the last to ever complete the full training of the star, which means that...
Second guy: We are no match with our level of jutsu
Akahoshi smiles a bit: I wouldn’t worry. If they are the culprit, don’t forget we already possess their kin here.
Akahoshi’s men get cocky.
First Guy: I suppose so.
Second guy: That’s right, what are we waiting for? Let’s go round them up.
Before they head out, Akahoshi stops them because he notices he is being spied on by a Leaf Ninja.
Akahoshi: Hold on. First things first, we need to distract these annoying little flies.
The dialogue shows that Akahoshi knew who the star thief was. Moreover, when Akahoshi’s men got anxious after Akahoshi mentioned who the star thief was, it was suspicious. It seems the people they are referring to have already passed, so it makes one wonder who they are. Moreover, when Akahoshi said they already had an akin here, it was even more suspicious. A kin is related by blood, so it means that the star thief is related to one of the star villagers, but who is it? These questions leave the audience wondering and curious to know what will happen next.
After they realised that they were being followed by the genin at the Hoshikage’s residence, Akahoshi’s men made plans to distract them. So, when Tenten and Rock Lee were hiding in the bushes and proceeded to hide under a wooden basin to follow them, after some time, the genin realised that they were following shadow clones. When they come to that realisation, they get attacked by various shuriken.
To block their attacks, Tenten deflected the attacks by summoning the ninja tools, while Rock Lee used the wood basin to block the attacks. When Akahoshi’s men appeared, Tenten and Rock Lee tried to explain to them that they were from the Leaf Village and were sent to protect the star, so they were trying to find clues. Akahashi’s team retorted, saying that if they wanted to help, they should mind their own business because they would get the star back themselves. Afterwards, they left, leaving Tenten and Rock Lee. Rock Lee notes that Neji was right about Akahoshi hiding something.
Sumaru and some of his friends find a masked ninja and restrain him, but he renders them unconscious and kidnaps Sumaru. During the night, as they were travelling in the woods, Sumaru and his friends stopped and landed on top of a rock. They joined hands and formed a circle, looking for the star’s chakra that they all carry. So, when they joined hands, the purple chakra started to emanate out of their bodies, where their chakra pointed in the direction of the star thief’s location. The masked star thief was standing on top of the canyon that had the yellow poisonous gas. When Sumeru and his friends arrived, they restrained him with purple chakra threads that couldn’t be cut. Sumaru demanded that the thief return the star.
Meanwhile, while Neji activated his Byakugan around the Hoshikage’s residence, Naruto appeared and informed him that Sumaru had gone with the others to look for the star. At that moment, Neji could sense huge amounts of chakra close, so he used his Byakugan to track it, where he saw Sumaru and his friends who had captured the star thief. After seeing what was happening, he said to Naruto, “There is a massive amount of chakra at the valley of death.” Afterwards, Neji and Naruto head off to that area.
Dramatic music plays in the background with an intense guitar. Sumaru and his friends managed to restrain the enemy with their chakra threads, but their chakra threads faded out. This caused all of them to pass out. While Sumaru is still awake and trying to get up, the thief gets close to him and seems to want to hit Sumaru with purple chakra from his hand. However, before he could inflict damage, Naruto and Neji arrived, tossing a kunai at him. Moreover, they tossed shuriken at him, but he deflected their attacks using Ninja Art: Kujaku, where the shuriken hit them back. Afterwards, he kidnaps Sumaru, using his purple chakra wings to fly away and retreat.
When Naruto wanted to pursue him, Neji stopped Naruto because of the yellow poisonous gas in the canyon, so they covered their faces to avoid inhaling the gas. Thereafter, a dialogue takes place between Neji and Naruto, where Naruto confirms to Neji that this is the star thief:
Neji: But why go so far as to take Sumaru with him? He already had the star.
Naruto: Someone tried to steal it 10 years ago; this might be connected somehow. Sumaru’s parents were guarding it and managed to fend off the attack, but they didn’t make it.
Neji: What?
The episode ended in suspense as one wondered about the identity of the star thief and whether Akahoshi’s secret would be revealed soon.
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Possible explanations about the death of the third Hoshikage and the identity of the star thief
When Tsunade mentions the rumours going around the Star Village, the mystery slowly starts to unravel. So far, we know that the third Hoshikage died and that before his death, he had banned star training. This is probably because he noticed the deadly side effects of the star and didn’t want to risk the lives of the villagers. Yet when he died, the village lifted the ban and resumed star training. The third Hoshikage dies suddenly, probably because of the star training or because he was killed by someone close to the village. My assumption is Akahoshi because he supports star training, and already, he and his men are trying to get the star back, even though they seem aware of the dangers of it. To them, it’s all about having power.
The identity of the star thief could be Sumaru’s parents. I am basing this on a dialogue between Akahoshi and his men where one of them said, “How could they even be alive?” and the other said, “They were the last to ever complete full training of the star.” Sumaru’s parents were fine Shinobi, who seemingly died defending the star from foreign ninjas. It is safe to assume that since they completed full training with the star, they know the deadly consequences of relying on its power. Therefore, in this episode, it seems the masked ninja was Sumaru’s father since his demeanour seemed masculine.
Moreover, when he saw his son using purple chakra infused from the star and passing out, he felt it was necessary to “kidnap” him, probably to protect him from using his purple chakra, and he knew that if he didn’t “kidnap,” he would get sick and probably die. Moreover, I think in the previous episode, Sumaru encountered his mother because her demeanour seemed feminine to me when I watched it. Therefore, they stole the star to protect the village from losing any more lives. This leaves the question: if they are alive, why are they hiding their identities? Could it be that it wasn’t a foreign ninja who tried to kill them? Could it be that someone in the star village tried to kill them? Only time will tell as the plot continues to progress in other episodes.
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and then Add to home screen.