This volume should have ended at chapter 511: We shall return. We get the end of the beautiful tragedy that is the Amegakure trio after Kisame's end, the Akatsuki as we know it is basically finished, we should have ended it there to give us time to process. Instead, we're back to watching Kabuto's creepy obsessive shenanigans.
Like with most villains, we get Kisame's background and goals right at the end. Can't say I'm sad to see him go but it was a good fight. Good in that I love Gai and any opportunity to see him shine is alright with me. The fact that his moves have an apparently old school name just sits right with me. He's all about youth, but he's got no jutsu, he fights with good ol' fists. A classic.
Kisame was just a soldier, a shinobi. He does what his nation tells him to do even if it seems conflicting. This means killing his teammates with no remorse and killing his mentor for a sword. Maybe because he had the great misfortune of looking like that, Kisame has based entire personality off sharks. Which doesn't go well with Itachi. That look of actual distaste is some of the most emotion we see from Itachu. He wipes this away in favour of his usual serene blankness. Kisame lives in a world of dishonesty, where he kills both enemies and allies, where he didn't really have much of an existence beyond being a tool. Madara offers him plain truth, he takes it. In these scenes, Naruto gets quite serious and dark. Although it's a common theme, the extravagance of the rest of the story distracts you from the basis of this entire story. This is a heavily militaristic world and dark politics drives everything everyone does and has to do.
Given the situation, killing yourself to protect the secrets of your comrades as you had previously killed comrades to protect the secrets of your land, is honourable, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes you even a "decent" human being.
The best part of this volume is the ending of the OG Akatsuki. I do not care what Madara has to say about his own involvement, the Akatsuki IS Yahiko, Konan and Nagato. As much as it fits the repeated story of well meaning kids being manipulated by people who are stuck in the past, dragged into their sh*t over and over again, the Akatsuki should be the Ame trio's. They did all the work, it was their dream that powered it in the beginning. That red cloud is theirs! Even after Yahiko's demise, Konan and Nagato were working for themselves and their endings were their choice. I find it odd that the rinnegan was just implanted in Nagato. Although it gives more credence to the fact that a chosen one is made through other people's decisions. Needing Senju and Uchiha chakra seems like a retcon. Why couldn't the rinnegan have arisen in Madara and then arose again 70 years later in Nagato? I would've been willing to believe it. Konan's right, the Akatsuki was theirs, even if Madara was manipulating in the background, they chose their own paths and made their own decisions. Even in, and especially in, their deaths. They all died putting their hopes in another to carry their dreams forward.
It was fitting that in this land that always cried, where the people were always weak and weakened, the rain finally clears up as its final guardian dies and entrusts all their hopes to the final hero. It was also quite cheesy. The rain ending and the sun shining was beautiful, it was the rainbow that brought it over into the realm of too much. But it was Nagato from the grave apparently so I'm letting it go. The volume cover is hideous, but I loved the story so, whatever.
Konan fights Madara by filling the sea with paper and parting it like Moses. It's a spectacle of a fight, a last ditch effort from a legacy fighter. Although it did almost work, it was never going to work. For the story at least. It's a shame we never got to see more of Konan's fighting. It's a cool and unique technique. She was an icon, an angel.
The flashback and those damn flip tiles got me. They got me every time I saw it. They all returned home. Yahiko, Konan, Nagato and Jiraiya are all home. Where they learnt, loved, had fun and dressed up as frogs [why did he have those costumes]. It was paper coloured red in her blood! Of course I cried! And that shrine for Yahika and Nagato was gorgeous. I hope they all can rest there together once it's all done.
Naruto is the only Naruto that makes it in this story. Several other Narutos tried and failed to make the dream happen. He's fighting for everyone's legacy. Chosen one chosen by every other Naruto's loved ones left in the world.
Naruto's obsession with Sasuke actually pales in comparison to Madara's obsession with Hashirama and Kabuto's obsession with Orochimaru. They've both tried to take the other INTO them. Naruto idolises Sasuke, but Kabuto really wants TO BE Orochimaru and Madara has reproduced/respawned Hashirama after death to become part of himself. It's just so weird and screams of desperation.
Oh yeah, the nine tails chakra being full of life energy is very sad. They lock up this supposed monster when it's actually at its very core, in its very essence, just a bundle of life. But I suppose the sun is also the source of all life and a flaming ball of fire that burns everything.