10 Second Anime - Naruto Shippuuden - Episode 456

Itachi Shippuuden continues. Itachi learns Akatsuki's methods and what they work for. He meets new and familiar faces along the way.

Episode 456 - "Itachi's Story: Light and Darkness - The Darkness of the Akatsuki"

Meh.

Any kind of filler that takes place in the past is going to attempt retroactive continuity, or ret-con, but the story we see of Itachi joining Akatsuki and immediately being present for the moment the Hidden Mist sword gets returned to its village and being the proximate cause for Orochimaru leaving Akatsuki seems a bit much.

Heh.

I did like how Juzo had to ask Itachi about Guy's father taking out so many of the Seven Swordsmen at once. At least Itachi remembered Guy...

Sasori wanted to change partners away from Orochimaru too. Compatibility, he said! It became clear later why Orochimaru was jonesing for Itachi so bad. He wanted that Uchiha hotness! I suppose that idea never left him, which is why he targeted Sasuke.

It's nice that we saw the remote conference call thing that Akatsuki's main feature and how small the meeting used to be without the Gedo statue holding the tailed beasts.

The Hidden Leaf was always the most idealistic of the ninja villages. It didn't have a rogue ninja tracking unit like the Mist because they always hoped the rogues would come back. They treated Orochimaru, Itachi and Sasuke like that. In the end, the Hidden Leaf was right about those three. There's no loyalty like Konoha loyalty.

That was cool to see the Mizukage do a full beast cloak with total control. This must be what Jiraiya was aiming for with Naruto, but the 9-Tails, being the strongest and the darkest, wasn't going to be subjugated by a young man who didn't even know himself. I notice that the 8-Tails didn't do a beast cloak with Killer B either. They had formed a partnership so that B just took on the 8-Tail's form, similar to what Naruto did with Kurama and his sage nature chakra. Every Jinchuriki relationship is different, I suppose.

This was the first time Itachi used the Amaterasu flames with his Mangekyo Sharingan. It isn't just for controlling the 9-Tailed beast.

Next time, the two "artists" Sasori and Deidara team up to go after Orochimaru, who shows them his reanimation jutsu and probably ends up having to use his host body transfer technique. Yay, more filler ret-con!