Noblesse Oblige.

This week in Naruto we learn that Kirabi has complete control over his Hachibi powers. He attacks Kisame with 7 tails with full consciousness and then proceeds to critically damage Kisame with 8 tailed level 2 form of the Hachibi cloak. Despite this, Kisame reveals that he is called the Tailed Beast without a tail because he can transmute the absorbed chakra from Samehada to heal himself. This, coupled with his massive chakra reserve and unyielding stamina makes him practically invincible. Ponta deduces that Kisame's strength lies within his sword and tells Kirabi to disarm Kisame. However, just as he says that, Kisame fuses with Samehada into a monster that is pretty much a shark-human hybrid. He engulfs a kilometer radius area with a Suiton Jutsu which acts as a miniature lake for his fish form to swim in.
The other thing that happened this chapter was Ao vs Fu. Fu's puppet trap enables him to switch his consciousness with the enemy who touches the puppet, which Ao did. Now that Ao is helpless in the puppet trap, Fu attempts to stab out the Byakugan eye because its property of Konoha. However, Kirigakure set a seal that protects the eye when its in danger. Fu improvises by trying to decapitate Ao's body and planning to switch out his consciousness right before the decapitation. Ao warns him that if he pulls out too early Ao will block the blade and then kill Fu.

Thoughts:
Kirabi's tries with several different chakra forms against Kisame helped him deduce that Samehada maxes out at absorbing six tails' equivalent of chakra at a time (which is disgustingly unbalanced). Even when attacking Kisame with 8 tails in level 2 form, Samehada managed to bring him back down to 8 tails level 1 form. This says a lot about Samehada and Bijou chakra.Concerning Kisame's sword, Samehada, it gets bigger and bigger every time it absorbs more chakra. But its size probably normalizes after the fights because when Kisame fought the 4-Tails Jinchuuriki, his sword was normal when we saw him post-battle. Also, the reason why Kisame is so overpowered against Bijou hosts is because Jinchuuriki utilize pure chakra in overwhelming amounts, which unfortunates makes Samehada super happy. I wonder how Samehada does against ninjutsu though - would it absorb the chakra-based ninjutsu like Pain's Hungry Ghost Realm or have little effect because ninjutsu is chakra transmuted by hand seals and genetics (Kekkei Genkai)? The only previous fight we can refer to is Kisame vs Gai, but Gai doesn't use chakra. We do know now taijutsu and high speed works well against Kisame.
As for Bijou chakra levels and forms, I have always thought tails 1-3 is the translucent chakra cloak that bubbles (resembling water); 4-5 is the dense, black/red chakra cloak (resembling blood); 6-7 is the previous form with exoskeletal armor (resembling bone); 8 is the previous form with ligaments and muscle (resembling muscle); and hypothetically 9 tails fully revives the Kyuubi. However, Kirabi revealed this week that he can go up at least to 7 tails with the translucent chakra cloak (which he calls level 1) and 8 tails with the dense chakra cloak (which he calls level 2). This either indicates that the chakra forms differ among hosts or its not as clearly defined as I thought it to be. In addition, Samehada reverted Kirabi from 8 tails level 2 form to 8 tails level 1 form. This shows that the difference between level 1 and 2 chakra form is roughly 6 Bjiou tails' worth of chakra.
Finally, my thoughts on Kisame's new shark form is very negative. Judging by its appearance, Kisame now looks really weak. First, his webbed hands make it hard to form hand seals aka do ninjutsu. Second, the lack of a sword means his range is decreased. And third, he looks ugly as hell. We all know that in anime, attractiveness/coolness is directly proportional to strength and power. Kisame pretty much just sealed his own fate >.<

Labels: Manga, Naruto