#naruto the whorl within the spiral

[blue-gypsophila]

Smile

[demifiendrsa]

Masashi Kishimoto's new one-shot manga, NARUTO Gaiden ~Uzu no Naka no Tsumujikaze~ , featuring Naruto Uzumaki's father Minato Namikaze will run in  Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump 2023 magazine issue #33 on July 18, 2023. The new one-shot will have color pages to commemorate the results of NARUTOP99 and the 55th Anniversary of the magazine.

Minato Namikaze won the worldwide character popularity poll "Narutop 99" that was held in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Naruto franchise earlier in 2023.

[narutosway]

I couldn't resist ❤️

[armadawathes]

new headcanon time! previously the redness of an uzumaki's hair was connected (or believed to be connected) to their special chakras and sealing prowess.

[fafi-shal]

I'm 7 pages in and I'm squealing already

Ahhhhhhh they were training togetherrrrr. Just like in the fanfiction "the girl from whirlpool". I'm so exciteddd

[borutotwobluevortex]

NARUTO Anime Special Episodes

Announcement Video! 4 completely new anime episodes will begin airing from September 3rd at 5:30pm (JST).

This is a special project to

commemorate the 20th anniversary of the broadcast of #NARUTO! What kind of a story will it be?!

Cred: @Abdul_S17 on Twitter

[r0semultiverse]

How does it feel to have predicted the new one-shot Minato X Kushina manga fight scene?

Minato… run.

And now for something totally different. I have never drawn anything horror related so this was fun and new. I think I love it, haha. This is a prompt from the MinaKushi week. I won’t tag it yet since I did it wrong on the last post. I really want to participate so I’m trying to do these prompt between everything else I have going on. Enjoy and follow for more 😘

[manganami]

[srs-deep-dives]

Minato & Kushina: A "Deep Dive" Analysis (Section A, Part III)

Today we will conclude Section A on Minato and Kushina as each other's anchors. (Parts I and II here.)

Picking up where we left off in Gaiden, we have Kushina’s coming-to…

…and the climaxing showdown with Kurama.

(Section A) III. Minato and Kushina as unified anchors

Now it must be emphasized that, as the manga has shown all along, Minato and Kushina rival Kurama together. There is no ‘Minato fights Kurama’ or ‘Minato wins ‘with Kushina’s help,’ as many fans have misread. The two are a duo, a uniform team; two equal halves of ONE. And ONLY against these two equal halves of one TOGETHER is Kurama overcome. That is how it is here. That is how it is the night they save the village. And that is how it is with Kurama’s redemption (the baby born of their love, half-Minato-half-Kushina, fulfilling their legacy).

To make this abundantly clear, Kishimoto filled the oneshot with notes to Kushina’s prowess. So let us consider the showdown within its proper context.

The chapter opens with Iwa’s two jinchūriki saying to an outmatched Team Jiraiya, “If you really wanna fight us you better bring Nine Tails’ jinchūriki.” Their use of Bijū Bombs tells us they would be rivaled by Kurama’s power. And it tells us Minato is no match for Son and Kokuō’s, who, put together, are weaker than Kurama by himself. Thus Minato by himself (let alone with a Sannin) cannot match two Bombs weaker than one from Kurama. “...you better bring Nine Tails’ jinchūriki.” The very opening line foreshadows Minato and Kushina fighting together.

A few pages later, Kushina meets her keepers, saying she has “sealing jutsu training with Namikaze Minato.” The next page reveals she is teaching Minato Uzumaki fūinjutsu. When Minato augments her seal in his own style, he is adding to and enhancing a jutsu he learned from Kushina. “I promise to go all out again today!” (Kushina has been giving these lessons her all and Minato has more than kept up.) “You pick up things real quick, Minato. And there are still tons of Uzumaki clan sealing jutsu WE haven’t covered yet, so...” (They have been doing this together for quite a while.)

Skipping forward (in flashback), Mito remarks that Kushina has “much more lustrous hair” (strength) than her – i.e. Kushina will surpass the woman who sealed the full Nine Tails inside of herself. This flashbacks takes place a few years ago. And we have seen a 24-year-old Kushina give birth, have Kurama extracted, subdue him while at death’s door, and offer to fully seal him back and drag him with her into death all within the same hour. At death’s door. Are we for a moment to assume she didn’t have even a portion of this power as a teenager? Why is this emphasis of Kushina surpassing Mito important? Because it is a mirror parallel: Minato has “a most powerful shinobi ranking alongside First Hokage Hashirama;” Kushina is “a strong child” with “much more lustrous hair than [First Hokage Hashirama’s wife Uzumaki Mito].”

While Minato is creating the Rasengan, Kushina with implied ease binds her ANBU guards (two of the top jōnin in the village) with both unable to break free. One thinks to himself how her binding power is getting stronger with age – implying that it may not be the first time she has done this.

The jutsu common to dying-Kushina, the ANBU-binding, and the present fight against Kurama is her Adamantine Sealing Chains. What do these Chains seal? Chakra. What is Nine Tails? A breathing mass of chakra. Where is she currently sealing him? Inside the seal binding him inside her. He is not at his full fighting capacity.

So we are inside Kushina’s seal by which Kurama is already bound. He has struck and stabbed Minato (we’ll get to Minato’s nerfing in a moment) and is wrestling Kushina for control – i.e. Minato and Kushina are also not at their full fighting capacity. Kurama is forming a Bijū Bomb in his (breaking) binds while Kushina is further binding him with her Chains. Our weakened Minato uses Rasengan against Kurama’s weakened Bijū Bomb and manages to match it enough to fix Kushina’s seal in a double knockout.

Minato is seriously underrated. But let us not forget: so is Kushina. And it is their combined, two-halves-as-one power that defeats Kurama. Just like their final fight which saves Konoha.

Now onto Minato’s nerfing. Kushina is knocked down and he is stabbed in her seven-tailed bijūfication. Kushina screams for him to leave her and save himself, but he refuses. If this isn’t a display of utter, unwavering devotion I don’t know what is. With a literal hole through his stomach, Minato tells her that he will never leave her.

But let us backtrack even further. First, Minato has been training all day. Since he returned from the battlefield. Creating his A-rank jutsu. The training grounds are covered in craters he made, and he promised Jiraiya he would rest. This is no run-of-the-mill practice session. He is exhausted. (Similar, to note, as he is the night of Naruto’s birth. He – excruciatingly – keeps Kushina’s seal together throughout her entire labor.)

Second, the wound Minato has already received – from chakra tail one – was no run-of-the-mill slap. Recall a parallel when Naruto bijūfies and Sakura, trying to call him back, takes a similar hit. It effectively poisons her; Kurama’s chakra seeping through her wound and numbing her body. Even after she heals herself with medical ninjutsu and is later healing Naruto.

Sakura was struck by a manifesting half-Kurama. But Kushina, unlike her son, had the full Kurama inside her. Take the damage that Sakura – the Hokage’s apprentice and a medic-nin more adept than anyone in the whole Sand Village – took, and double it. That is Minato’s blow.

Poisoned (essentially) and stabbed (foreshadowing his future death), our man is facing losing odds. On top of having worked on his jutsu all day, expending a considerable amount of chakra. Yet in his endurance FOR Kushina (inspired BY Kushina's endurance as we noted last post) he realizes a way through. What a man. And thus, we have the climaxing resolution of the vessel motif: Kurama proclaims Kushina as his “pillar” – that, in effect, he has filled her vessel. Minato, sensing his own love inside her, tells him that he is wrong.

Here we play into the ninshū lore of people sharing chakra and emotions. We’ve seen it with the Sage bestowing ninjutsu. We’ve seen it with Naruto and the Allied Shinobi. Here at last, Kushina realizes her vessel full, and Minato, feeling those feelings, projects himself into the seal. This can also be viewed in terms of being a seal itself. Kurama is literally sealed, permanently, within Kushina. The exact same can be said for Minato’s love. Note his language, present tense: “I exist inside Kushina at all times!!”

Finally, persisting in their love and endurance, they muster the mental and physical power to together defeat Kurama.

This parallels Naruto’s overcoming – again right to the angle – where Kushina also uses her Chains and Naruto his father's jutsu. Put together thus, this moment in Gaiden foreshadows Kurama’s defeat – where his arc will shift from vengeful monster to redeemed friend of Konoha. Moreover, it foreshadows the climax of Minato and Kushina’s arcs: their legacy as fulfilled in Naruto, for both Naruto and the village.

So in summary so far, Kushina is Minato’s anchor and Minato is Kushina’s. Each sees the other as the stronger one, while simultaneously strengthening the other. They change each other for the better, and endure, embodying what ‘Hokage’ stands for. Which brings us now to our next section concerning the wider narrative: their dream of Hokage.

Section B, Part I here.

[blue-gypsophila]

Minato⚡

[docexe-mx]

The amount of symbolism and world building in this one-shot is just incredible.

Honestly, the guy still has it after all.

kishimoto came back one more time to let us know....

he gets it... he really gets it.....

[demifiendrsa]

Naruto: The Whorl Within the Spiral special one-shot color pages

[narutosway]

Naruto got his surprised/shock from Minato and his pouty(ness) from Kushina 🧡

[armadawathes]

this is so cute!! i love it so much!!

[ollyvoile]

So, many of us have seen the little Gai/Kakashi/Obito cameo in the new Naruto spin off manga, right?

But what about…

1.) Very small Gai and Kakashi walking together?

2.) Very small lower half of Obito walking toward them?

3.) Small Obito feet walking away with Kakashi and Gai?

Just thought this was really cute. Had to post.

[gahhhb]

Yellow Flash and Red Hot Habanero💖