Source: Wikipedia
“The ANBU Gives Up? Naruto’s Recollection”
“The ANBU agents use reverse hypnosis on Naruto, but realise that he remembers nothing of importance. Some of the group researched Gennou but found little except for him being a mediocre carpenter who did little out of the ordinary. However, it is revealed that his letter of introduction was forged, and an investigation of the scene of his suicide bombing and the corpse in the hospital suggests that Gennou staged his death.”
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Analysis
The episode showed a resolution where all the plot's mysteries were unravelled, thanks to Shikamaru and the rest of the group. It also revealed the close bond between Naruto and Gennou and the strengths and weaknesses of other characters. Other details will be revealed in the analysis.
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The close bond between Naruto and Gennou
The ANBU agents use reverse hypnosis on Naruto, but realise that he remembers nothing of importance. In the previous episode, the ANBU were looking for Naruto, and now in this episode, they took him for interrogation in a dark room with a lit candle. Afterwards, they started to ask Naruto questions about Gennou in hopes that they might determine who Gennou was working for. However, Naruto could not remember anything, so the ANBU decided to put him through regressive hypnosis because hypnosis recovers lost memories from his subconscious. As a result, one of the ANBU activated the back-to-the-past jutsu on Naruto, which caused him to answer their questions as he remembered his interactions with Gennou.
The memories give better clarity on how he met the old man and help the viewer understand the nature of the relationship. For instance, Naruto said to the ANBU while in hypnosis, “I’m in the woods; I was out there training on my own when it was lunchtime, so I headed for Ichiraku, and that’s when I saw him.” While outside of Ramen Ichiraku, Gennou was trying to decide whether he should get inside the restaurant or not, and afterwards, he introduced himself to Naruto as a freelance carpenter. In response, Naruto convinced him that Ichiraku Ramen is the best ramen in the whole universe. As a result, they get inside the restaurant and eat the ramen, and since Naruto finished his bowl of ramen first, Gennou feels compelled to share the rest of his ramen with Naruto; hence, this is the start of a friendship. In other words, a close relationship was like a grandson and a grandfather. To support the nature of the friendship, positive music plays in the background with a mix of high-pitched Japanese flutes.
Moreover, the second time they met at Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto said to the ANBU while in hypnosis that Gennou showed him a photograph, a picture of some kid who looked around his age. Naruto goes on to say, “It was right after I asked the old guy why he was being so nice to me.” It is crucial to note that the picture of Gennou’s grandson was a spitting image of Naruto with the same smile, so Gennou didn’t feel like Naruto was a stranger since it felt like he was speaking to his grandson. Furthermore, Gennou said, “Someday after I retire, my grandson and I are going to go off and live the life of treasure hunters.“. This just proves the caring nature he has for his grandson; hence, he is a round character who seems like a real person who cares about his grandson. Afterwards, the old man gave Naruto his share of the ramen after Naruto finished his bowl. While giving Naruto the ramen, Naruto noticed his hand had a scar, so Naruto asked him how he got it, and the old man responded by saying I got this scar when I cut myself with a saw. This clue about his hand is crucial to solving the mystery, as I will mention later in the analysis.
After the ANBU heard Naruto’s memories, they said that Gennou had no relatives and assumed that the story of his grandson was a lie since they had been following him for a while. Moreover, they also said they doubted that Gennou would have been careless enough to divulge anything important, even to Genin. After some time, another ANBU arrived to inform them about an emergency communication from Lady Tsunade, so they decided to release Naruto and let him go. At that moment, one starts to have questions such as, Is Gennou’s grandson still alive? Is the grandson dead, and if he is, is that why he spent most of his time hanging out with Naruto, since he is a spitting image of his grandson? This brings out a sense of mystery, as it will be revealed later in the plot, but one thing is for sure: Gennou did care about Naruto like he were his grandson.
To support this, when Naruto got out of the interrogation room, he went into the village and stood outside Ichiraku Ramen. He contemplated in his thoughts, saying to himself, “Come to think of it, I never actually saw that guy finish his single bowl of ramen; there’s no way he hated ramen the entire time, is there? But then why was he hanging out at Ichiraku so much?” The reason he hung out with Naruto is that Naruto is the spitting image of his grandson, so whenever he was with Naruto, he felt a sense of peace. Since the summary reveals that he is alive, will their relationship ever be rekindled, or will it remain strained? Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, in the woods, Neji and Rock Lee are looking for any possibility of traps. So, Neji activated his Byakugan to find the traps, but there was nothing; hence, Rock Lee checked out the list on his board. Furthermore, Tenten and Hinata are outside the Leaf Village, looking for any possibility of traps. So, Hinata activated her Byakugan to find the traps, but there was nothing; hence, Tenten checked out the list on her board.
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Shino starts to have suspicions concerning Gennou’s death.
Shino and Kiba walked on the roofs of the village, with Akamaru walking in front to sniff for traps, but there was nothing. Afterwards, Kiba assumes that Gennou used some kind of odour-neutralising element in last night’s smoke screen; hence, he came prepared. In response, Shino gets suspicious, asking why he got caught; hence, a dialogue takes place:
Shino: Then why did he get caught?
Kiba: Huh, I guess the ANBU were just too intelligent for him.
Shino: Of course, they are intelligent, but he must have foreseen that going in. So then why didn’t he have another escape route planned out in advance?
Kiba: You know, you’re right. It doesn’t make any sense, but there’s no way to find out now.
Shino (low voice): Deadman says no tales.
The dialogue shows that Shino serves as a starting point in unravelling the mystery behind Gennou’s so-called death. He knew it was fishy from the get-go; hence, he played a crucial role in the mystery to be solved. In other words, he is presented as a character with great analytical skills, analysing the situation from deep within.
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The contrast of characters between Ino and Sakura.
We see a contrast of characters when Sakura is presented as being strong while Ino is presented as being weak. For instance, Ino and Sakura head to the medical centre in the morgue to check on Gennou’s dead body. When they get there, they find the medic ninjas putting his body back together because he was in very bad shape due to the paper bombs he had from head to toe. In response to seeing this, Ino wanted to wait outside until they were done because she feared seeing the dead body. However, Sakura said with such conviction that she would stay behind, which shows the change in Sakura’s character. She went from being scared and always depending on others to having courage and being independent to face tough situations. In other words, ever since she started her medical training, she has been a dynamic character who continues to grow as a ninja. To support this, while Ino was waiting outside the room, Ino said to herself, “You’re stronger than I am, Sakura,” since Sakura stayed inside the room where the medics were putting his body together.
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Shikamaru, Choji, Tenten, Hinata, Neji and Rock Lee meet at a certain restaurant.
Some of the group researched Gennou but found little except for him being a mediocre carpenter who did little out of the ordinary. The group had Choji, Shikamaru, Tenten, Hinata, Neji, and Rock Lee sitting at a certain restaurant in the Leaf Village. At the table, Neji informs Shikamaru that there was nothing unusual in any of the buildings since they were all built according to the blueprints, so there were no signs of any traps or sabotage. In response, Shikamaru said if he came to just steal those plans, then there was no reason for him to pretend to be a carpenter. He went on to say that he, Choji, and Naruto talked to some of the carpenters down at the site and started checking a list of all the places that they said he frequented, but so far, there were no clues. The funny thing is that the list is just restaurants—the restaurants where he spent time with Naruto, hence proving that he did care about Naruto. Moreover, Shikamaru instructed Hinata to check on Ino and Sakura over at the medical centre, and Shikamaru instructed Neji and Rock Lee to go check on Kiba and Shino. Afterwards, Tenten, Hinata, Neji, and Rock Lee leave, while Choji and Shikamaru stay behind and plan to leave as well. However, as they were about to leave, Shizune arrived to inform Shikamaru that he had been summoned by Tsunade, so he headed to the Hokage headquarters.
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Shikamaru starts to unravel the mystery behind Gennou’s death.
When he arrived at Tsunade’s office, Tsunade said to Shikamaru that the village hidden in the waterfalls had moved all their ninja into battle-ready positions, and the village claimed that it was just a normal training exercise. However, Tsunade wasn’t buying it, believing that they were going to plan an invasion of the Leaf Village. Therefore, she mobilised most of the Leaf Village ninja to the waterfall village. She also instructed them that if they see anyone from the village hidden in the waterfalls crossing the border, they should treat it as a full-scale enemy invasion. So, she wanted Shikamaru to take his group and head over to the border to assist, but then Shikamaru said there was no reason to go since it wouldn’t make a difference, because something was not quite right. As a result, tense music starts playing in the background, where a dialogue takes place among them:
Shikamaru: We’re missing something about this guy, Gennou, and I think I figured out what it is. All we’ve learned about his life is that he was remarkably unremarkable. He was an average carpenter; he did his work, never stood out, never made any big mistakes, didn’t have any friends, and didn’t have any enemies either. If he disappeared one day, nobody would miss him; they wouldn’t think twice about him. He was the kind of person who could just fade away. His undercover technique was so good it ought to be in the Shinobi textbooks, which is why it’s so odd that a brilliant Shinobi like that would let himself get pegged by the ANBU so easily. Doesn’t it seem a little strange to you?
Tsunade (nods): Yes, that’s true.
Shikamaru: And then, when he was trying to escape, he had no problem evading the black corps before, but this time they caught him. For a trap expert, it was a pretty pathetic way to go. Not to mention the fact that he just gave up all those blueprints; it doesn’t make any sense unless…
Tsunade: Well...
Shikamaru: Unless everything that’s happened was part of the plan from the beginning,
After hearing this, Tsunade and Shizune are shocked.
Shizune (shocked): Could it be?
Shikamaru: His identity is revealed, and he dies right in front of the ANBU guys. What if it was all part of an elaborate plot? What if he knew we would be worried about the hidden waterfall village and that we would send everyone away to face that threat? Leaving our village defenceless like that, we might just be dancing in the palm of his hands.
Tsunade: Interesting theory, but all the hard evidence says we need to protect ourselves from this invasion.
Shikamaru: That’s true, but still.
Tsunade: I hear you, sending in a bunch of lightweights like ten genin and one chunin wouldn’t change the outcome of the battle now, would it?
Shikamaru: Huh?
Tsunade: All right, Shikamaru, I’ll have you and your group continue investigating the Gennou incident.
Shikamaru (nods): Understood.
The dialogue shows why Shikamaru was promoted to become a chunin. His eye for detail and situations is impeccable. He even challenges Tsunade’s order to go to the waterfall village, which shows he is bold and brave enough to stick to listening to his gut instincts. There is clear growth in Shikamaru’s character. From my point of view, he probably didn’t want to make the same mistake of failing a mission as what happened with the Sasuke situation. Therefore, he is a dynamic character who learns from his mistakes and continues to grow as a fine shinobi.
However, it is revealed that his letter of introduction was forged, and an investigation of the scene of his suicide bombing and the corpse in the hospital suggests that Gennou staged his death. Shikamaru and Choji meet up with Naruto to go to the foreman’s carpenter’s house to look through the books for research. When they went there, the foreman couldn’t find the forged letter of recommendation, which made Shikamaru wonder if Gennou deliberately made it disappear. Only time will tell.
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Kiba, Shino, Neji, Hinata, Tenten, and Rock Lee unravel how Gennou faked his death.
A moderate acoustic guitar plays in the background as Kiba, Shino, Neji, Hinata, Tenten, and Rock Lee are at the scene where Gennou explodes himself with paper bombs. In that area, they found out that the ANBU had already collected the physical evidence, which resulted in a dialogue among them:
Rock Lee: This is the spot where the explosion occurred.
Neji: It looks like somebody has already collected the physical evidence.
Shino: Yeah, ANBU leaves nothing behind.
Tenten and Akamaru find a tree burned on both sides, which is odd, and it compels Tenten to call everyone.
Tenten (shouts): Everyone looks!
Afterwards, they all rush to where Tenten is standing with a burnt tree.
Tenten: Check out this tree; it’s burned on both sides.
Kiba: With all the paper bombs, it went off, and of course, it got burned.
Tenten: Yeah, but why is it burned on both sides?
Neji: She’s right; if the blast came from one direction, there wouldn’t be marks on the back of it.
Tenten: With these kinds of burns, the explosion would have had to come from multiple sources.
Rock Lee: But the ANBU saw it happen, and they reported that all the paper bombs were wrapped around the man’s body when they went off.
Shino: Don’t be so sure about that. After all, the ANBU had to take cover to protect themselves from the blast. I doubt any of them witnessed the actual explosion.
Afterwards, they scatter to check for more clues in the area. First, Tenten finds another tree that has burns on both sides, too. Second, Akamaru sees the same pattern on another tree.
Tenten: Hey, this one got burns on both sides, too.
Akamaru checked another tree, and Kiba said,
Kiba: Same pattern on this tree.
Tenten: Wait a sec, what if a ring of bombs on the surrounding trees were set off first, then the huge explosion at the centre? If he timed the explosions close enough to each other, then it might have seemed like one blast.
Rock Lee: This is a good point.
Neji: But to do that, he would have needed time to set it up before he made it here. Gennou was being chased by the ANBU, and they had him cornered right when the bombs went off.
Shino: Maybe they chased him, or maybe he was leading them here.
Afterwards, they are all stunned as Kiba begins to say:
Kiba: So, all along, he wasn’t trying to get away from them; he was drawing them to this spot.
Shino (nods): It’s possible.
Rock Lee: If that is true, then it is safe to assume that there were other elements to his plan.
Neji: Can we be sure those paper bombs took him out?
Afterwards, the music stops playing in the background, and they are all stunned because of the possibility that Gennou is alive.
The dialogue presented some strengths from characters such as Tenten, Shino, and Neji. Thanks to Tenten pointing out the burns on both sides of the tree, the other group members, like Neji and Shino, helped fill in the gaps to solve the mystery. Therefore, Tenten played a crucial role here, and she has the gift of analysing the situation; she just needs to train more to harness her ninja skills. Moreover, Neji and Shino are gifted when it comes to analysing situations, and they harness great ninja skills. Last, Rock Lee and Kiba are skilled in combat, but when it comes to analysing the situation, they don’t look at it with great emphasis on analysis.
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Ino and Hinata solve the mystery of whether Gennou is alive.
Ino and Hinata wait outside the medical centre until Sakura calls them to get inside the morgue to check on Gennou’s body. Ino gets in, but before Hinata can get in, she overhears the medic ninjas who are heading out, saying that they are confused about Gennou’s identity. This just hinted that the body in the morgue wasn’t Gennou. Moreover, as they get inside the morgue, one would think that Sakura, a medic ninja, would have noticed something unusual. Instead, it was Ino who noticed something was amiss because she noticed his hand was way too clean and soft to be a carpenter. According to Ino, carpenter hands are much rougher than this with scraps and cuts, and a trap ninja hand could never be that squeaky clean. Thanks to Ino’s observation, this compelled Hinata to activate her Byakugan to check the chakra network, and she noticed there was no trace of a developed chakra network. In other words, this man has never infused his chakra, and Hinata informed Ino and Sakura about what she heard from the medics, who also had doubts about his identity; hence, this person is not a ninja.
Although Ino was scared to stay inside the morgue when the medic ninja was putting his body together, she proved to have great observation skills, which helped them solve the mystery. Hinata is gifted when it comes to her eye for detail, and if she works on her weakness of not believing in herself sometimes, she will be on the right path as a fine shinobi. Sakura, on the other hand, has shown growth not to run away when things get intense; however, she still has a long way to go as a medic ninja since she couldn’t even notice the dead body wasn’t Gennou.
Meanwhile, the leaf ninja led by Might Guy is waiting for the village hidden in the waterfalls to launch their attack. However, they eventually find out that, indeed, they were just training all this time.
Towards the end of the episode, while Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto are still doing research at the foreman’s carpenter’s house, they hear an eagle outside. So, when they go outside, they find an eagle holding on to the blueprints and then letting go of all the blueprints as they fall on the village. Shikamaru holds one of the blueprints and sees a blueprint of his house and finds that, for security reasons, they were drawn up using a complex code that’s tough to break. Shikamaru still wonders why the plans Gennou stole are falling from the sky. Afterwards, the episode ends with Naruto, Choji, and Shikamaru looking up at the sky. This leaves the episode in suspense until the next episode.
The lesson from this episode is that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, as is evident with the genin.
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and then Add to home screen.