10 Second Anime - Naruto Shippuuden - Episode 353 - 354

Naruto Shippuuden - Episode 353 - 354

Kakashi Shippuuden rolls on. The Leaf ninja escape the Iburi clan with Yukimi, only to have to bring her back to confront Orochimaru, who gets what he came for.

The two ANBU ninja have cross purposes, but Kinoe/Tenzo doesn't tell Kakashi that. Kakashi found the fallback base by following footsteps, and Kinoe/Tenzo intervenes as the Iburi smoke attack was going to kill Kakashi. I had expected some interesting solidification-vaporization techniques, but invading an opponent's body through their orifices? Whoa. After learning the two Leaf ninja are on the same side after all, the youngest Iburi, Yukimi, picks up both Kakashi and Tenzo, and leaves the safety of the windless caves.

Once outside, Yukimi shows off another application of the smoke invasion: overtaking a body's actions. This way she's safe from wind currents if she's caught in her smoky form. Kakashi's fight with the Iburi clan elder shows what happens in that case. If even some part of the smoke cloud is separated from the rest, it's like an amputation, but a really messy mixed up one. No wonder they fear the open air, and were hopeful and respectful of Orochimaru's help.

Well, the second half of the double episode turns into a monster movie. With Tenzo's flashbacks of being stuck in a lab, watching his friends die one by one, and Orochimaru literally out for blood, we're reminded of what Orochimaru was becoming in the years before the show started. Tenzo lets us into his motivations for helping Yukimi, whether she's actually his sister or not. While referencing his harsh situation as a test subject, he says:

If you're alone, all you can think of is dying. But if you're together with someone, all you can think of is surviving.

Yukimi reminds him of his last friend in the lab, and so he wants to help her survive, which means escaping Orochimaru. It turns out the curse marks did not help the Iburi clan at all, but were placed there to make sure they would be incapacitated if they ever tried to attack him. And the only blood that mattered to him was the young unstable blood of the children. Yukimi is the only one left, and she soon becomes the only one left of the clan as Orochimaru kills everyone in trying to take their blood, and verifying that only a child's blood could grant him the temporary smoke effect. He needs that to get across the border unseen.

Orochimaru gets his blood, and a weakened Yukimi in smoke form begins wafting through a hole in the ceiling after Kakashi caused a partial collapse. Tenzo tries to contain her using his wood style jutsu, but he's not quick enough and is running out of chakra. Somehow the Iburi clan are not dead-dead, and their smoke forms gather up Yukimi's smoke and turn Tenzo's make-shift chimney into a tree, with Yukimi protected at the base of the trunk. Smoke clan with Hashirama's cells really were compatible. Also somehow, the tree's transformation caused Yukimi's body to become much more stable, so that she can leave the Iburi caves, and find her own fortune. Well, that's filler logic and continuity for you. Orochimaru's on the run, and Kakashi and Tenzo now share a bond, but being from different factions of ANBU mean we still got a whole bunch of filler left to go. More Kakashi Shippuuden next week.