Summary
Naruto’s Sasuke Recovery arc is the climactic turning point whereNarutogives way to the impending priorities and plot structure ofNarutoShippuden.It also shows a major problem that willfundamentally sever the two series. Appearing right at their junction, the arc follows Sasuke after he first leaves Konoha in order to receive training from Orochimaru, who had previously invaded Konoha during the Konoha Crush arc.
In this way, it establishes one overarching, underlying premise ofNaruto Shippuden: Naruto’s promise to Sakura that he will bring Sasuke back to Konoha. Ninja from multiple teams band together in order to keep Sasuke from joining Orochimaru.
This degree of spirited participationwould hardly be shown again, much to the detriment ofNaruto Shippudenand Konoha itself.
Naruto’s First Major Arc Is Secretly One Of Its Most Important For A Few Reasons That Are Easy To Miss
Skipping Naruto’s first major arc, The Land of Waves mission, robs newer fans of several vital character moments that dramatically improve the story.
The Sasuke Recovery Arc Sees All Hands On Deck
Naruto’s Best Arc Assembles Shinobi From All Teams
After Sasuke intends to leave Konoha with Orochimaru’s Sound Four, Shikamaru (who had just been promoted to chunin) receives his first assignment to prevent Sasuke’s defection. He pulls together people from multiple teams: Choji (Team 10), Neji (Team Guy), Kiba (Team 8), and Naruto (Team 7). Their mission is to track him down, defeat the Sound Four if necessary, and bring Sasuke back. The battles which ensue are brutal, andthey demonstrate incredible care and trustamong not just every member of the task force, but later Rock Lee and Gaara too.
A final face-off between Naruto and Sasuke ends with Sasuke’s victory after a long and climactic sequence. Kakashi is later debriefed, and the mission is declared a failure, to Shikamaru’s dismay. Finally,things are set in place forNaruto Shippudenas Naruto reaffirms his promise to Sakura despite the mission’s outcome.
What Makes The Sasuke Recovery Arc Work?
One Of Naruto’s Greatest Arcs Earned Its Status By Emphasizing Everybody
The Sasuke Recovery arc comes at the tail end ofNaruto. Viewers who had been following the series would have spent countless episodes watching the young shinobi of the Hidden Leaf tirelessly train and compete against one another in order to progress. That innately buildsa very deep and irreplaceable bond, even with one’s competitors.The arc rises amongNaruto’s bestby showing all of these shinobi classmates banding together.
Because of this sense of culmination,the struggles of the Sasuke Recovery arc feel uniquely personal. Sasuke had left the Hidden Leaf, but his fellow ninja-in-training still refused to call him a traitor - yet, anyway. It also shows everybody’s dedication to Konoha, rather than just Naruto or Team 7. This sense of unity feels like a natural evolution from the many events which came in the arcs before.
How the Sasuke Recovery Arc Shows Where Shippuden Falls Short
Naruto Shows How Great Its Other Teams Are Just To Forget Them
Although alliances sporadically form inNaruto Shippuden, it’s almost never the same in its presentation of the side teams. This signifies one important way thatNaruto’s perspective shifts andits world-building starts to become more problematic. The original series is focusedalmost entirely on affairs and relationships within Konoha. The Sound Four battles capping off the canon of the originalNarutoreflects this perfectly by emphasizing multiple different characters.
In the Naruto anime only, an alliance formed of the same shinobi teams Shikamaru drew members from would form, called the Konoha 11. They eventually would seek to kill Sasuke to prevent catastrophe from his defection. Naruto talks them out of it, saying he would handle it himself. While this helps to explain why this same alliance doesn’t continue to work together for Sasuke’s recovery, it doesn’t explain why similar alliances don’t really form for the other challenges Konoha faces.
Generally speaking, Konoha’s shinobi forces feel more fractured inShippudenthan in the original series, acting mostly independently. They’re alsolargely out of sight, with only a handful of exceptions, like the confrontations with Akatsuki’s Hidan and Kakuzu. It’s salt in the wound that two very emotional near-deaths inNaruto— Choji and Neji — are miraculously reversed, only for their characters to become non-factors in the plot. (Not to mention forNeji to be controversially and unceremoniously killed againlater.)
It leads the viewer to feel like creator Kishimoto’s original intention was to kill them off, but for one reason or another, he relented — leaving him with no plans for the pair inShippuden. In reality, the likely reason for the exclusion of Konoha’s many shinobi inShippudenis the very subtle power creep. InNaruto,the shinobi of Konoha had a relatively minor power gap (as seen in the Chunin Exam arc among others).Shippudenseesthe overall skill floor rise for any sort of battle presence.
This has the effect that the other shinobi feel very specialized, appearing only for battles created and structured so that their niche skills are advantageous against specific enemies. In other words, their appearance becomes very intentional — which more often than notmeans being forgotten. It’s not that other characters never appear, but that they rarely come together or appear so organically.
The fact that Konoha seems so tight-knit by comparison toShippudenis essential to giving this plot line the hero-making cohesionNarutopossesses.
The biggest trouble is that, although Naruto’s driving motivation becomes to retrieve Sasuke in this arc,his primary ideal is still becoming Hokage.Narutomakes a compelling emotional case for this, watching Naruto’s growth and seeing his detached, isolated upbringing. The fact that Konoha seems so tight-knit by comparison toShippudenis essential to giving this plot line the hero-making cohesionNarutopossesses.
As the other shinobi become less present, Konoha starts feeling, by extension, like more of an idea and ideological mandate as opposed to a living, breathing place.NarutoShippudenhas an amazing, sprawling plot, and the intention isn’t to detract from that. However, the Sasuke Recovery arc is an amazing sequence fromNarutothatshows why undervaluing the other teams inShippudenwas a mistake.
Naruto
Cast
Naruto is an action-adventure anime series based on the manga series created by Masashi Kishimoto. The titular Naruto Uzumaki is a fearsome Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit sealed inside him, which once wreaked havoc on his village. Shunned by his community yet determined to earn their respect, Naruto dreams of becoming the greatest ninja, the Hokage. This series follows his journey through the Ninja Academy as he continues to train and grow, hoping to prove himself to his peers- and himself.
