The Background Of Naruto Shippuden Explained

Author: Gabriel Adams
On February 15, 2007, Naruto Shippuden began airing on TV Tokyo in Japan. It was like a breath of fresh air, considering that the fans had to suffer through all too many filler Naruto episodes for the better part of the previous year. The Naruto fans had to put up with non-canon episodes where Naruto performs rasengans and kage-bunshins faster than he can say dattebayo.

It was all rather depressing - that filler episodes would blotch up the great story that Kishimoto-sensei wrote. Some fans gave up the moment the fillers started, some gave up halfway, and some remarkably stuck to the anime until the very end, all of them fervently praying for the end of those hellish fillers. Well, there answer came in the form of Naruto Shippuden.

Naruto Shippuden

In the manga, Shippuden is simply known as Part 2. Shippuden, means "Whirlwind Chronicles", obviously an allusion to Naruto's power to manipulate wind (e.g. Rasengan). It happens after some sort of time-skip, it takes place two and half years after Sasuke's defection from Konoha.

Now, if you try to recall, Orochimaru would have done his body-transfer jutsu on Sasuke two years ago had he not been unlucky and had to perform an emergency body transfer on someone else. His acquisition of the sharingan eye would have to wait for three years. After the time-skip, the body transfer is no longer 3 years away, but a scant 6 months. And of course, this means that Sasuke has to be rescued and quick, because if not, he'd be taken by Orochimaru and Naruto would lose his friend.

Shippuden starts with a sneak preview of a scene that has yet to be shown in the naruto episodes thus far. It is the fateful team 7 reunion where Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke meet up, not as friends but as enemies. But before more of the plot is revealed, the scene cuts and changes to the actual start of Shippuden - Naruto's return to Konoha.

Actual Start of Part II

Naruto returns to Konoha after two and a half years of training with Jiraiya. He meets up with Sakura, who has also trained with a legendary Sannin, Tsunade, for the past two and a half years. She has grown a lot from that girl who was always left behind to a ninja who has inherited the inhuman strength and the medical prowess of her mentor. If you've noticed, all the members of team 7 have trained with a legendary sannin, including Sasuke, who has succumbed to evil by joining Orochimaru.

After meeting up with Sakura, they are summoned to the Hokage tower where Tsunade, the Hokage, reunites them with Kakashi. They are grouped together to form a team, but they are no longer called Team 7 but Team Kakashi. The first episode is a nostalgic remake of the Bell Test, only this time, Sasuke's not there and Naruto and Sakura actually win by threatening to spoil the ending of Icha-icha paradise for Kakashi.

Afterwards, the series starts getting serious, as Gaara, the new Kazekage, gets kidnapped by a member of the Akatsuki. The story starts from there and, after a series of events, progresses finally to Team Kakashi's Sasuke retrieval mission.

The first part of Naruto was great and it was surely a tough act to follow. But fortunately, Naruto Shippuden can cope. The anime series is still as interesting as ever, if not even more, what with the deepening of the plot.

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