Naruto Shippuuden Episode 129 and 130: Jiraiya Has Landed But…Meets “God” Instead

The Fat Toad has begun to croak for our favorite Sage, Jiraiya, as it seems to have for my internet connection (the reason this was so late).   Problem is, he’s got some work to do first:  who or what is “Pain.”

This is Penny (TsunadesTwin) with the weekly rundown on the Naruto anime. We get two episodes this week, along with a new intro and ending that shows the battles for both Jiraiya and Sasuke/Itachi.  Even Kurenai is shown…Huh? God, I hope that doesn’t mean we get a filler. >_<  Having all new stuff is wonderful!

Episode 129 is “Infiltrate!   The Village Hidden in the Rain” (otherwise translated into Amegakure, which is the name I will use from here on) and Episode 130 is “The Man Who Became God.”  Both are canon manga material with very little added to them to make the story flow.  Oh, how I love that!

Remember that when we last saw Jiraiya, he was saying an emotional goodbye to Tsunade…ok, she was emotional and he was a jackass, as ever -which means that for Jiraiya, he was being emotional.  Huh?  Oh well, anyway…we see him make his landfall on the shores of Amekagure; inside of a toad, of course.  Given there is no visible opposition, he thinks he’s nailed this infiltration.    He should have stayed inside of that toad.

I've seen all of your entrances, Jiraiya, but this one tops them all...

As always, things are too good to be true.   Turns out that there are two (?) people watching him closely and know that an intruder has arrived.  With the words, “Someone is disturbing my rain,” we get an idea of what is happening. The rain, itself, is a nasty jutsu to keep out “all enemies foreign and domestic.”

Now that's a scary jutsu...knowing who goes in and goes out. Sounds like a totalitarian state to me.

The two people are “Pain” and “Lady Angel.”  Huh? Well, that’s who the “locals” know them by.   Pain is no less than “God” to them. Why, you ask?  He:

• made the war end,
• annihilated his enemies…along with their innocent families,
• brought peace and prosperity,
• made the (very wet) streets safer for everyone,
• made the grass and crops grow,
• ensured pork buns in every bowl of rice,
• made cats and dogs live together in harmony,
• ensured the construction industry revived by having it build all of those weird-ass designed buildings with tongues, noses, faces and other intriguing designs,
• instituted an anti-crime/good luck decree that all windows have at least one origami “Lady Angel” hanging in them and…
• decreed that  the “official” religion was the gospel of Pain – “We’re the best.  The rest suck and deserve retribution for all they did to us.”

That Pain has been a busy guy, that’s for sure.  He’s been instituting his version of extreme totalitarianism to wage world peace his way while running a group of rogue ninja that ranged from a converted puppet, a bomb-blasting artist, Konoha’s most notorious son, a shark with a butcher knife, two humorous foul-mouthed “immortals”, a cannibalistic plant with farsightedness and, later,  a one-eyed masked Joker.  Their mission:  to collect bijuu chakra.  Hmmmm…how are these two sides of Pain related? Hard to keep up that second job of ensuring your version of society expands if your underlings keep dying like they have been.   Akatsuki members tend to have shorter (ok, not if you count Kakuzu and Hidan) life spans.

Have origami angel, have good luck...and be considered a model citizen by Pain.

To ensure his grip on power, he also decreed that the locals must report intruders or even their family and friends if they hear that they are enemies of “God” – especially if the name “Hanzo” is mentioned.   Gee, sounds like another version of “the Blood Mist” if you ask me.  Amekagure doesn’t sound like a leisurely destination for the weary traveler.

Um...Jiraiya? It's time to make a hasty exit - preferably back to Konoha.

Pain also has another feature that is rather interesting…he can exchange bodies.  Say what?!? Just think of this:  if you don’t like the body that you are in for today, just put it away and take out another one more to your liking or fits your mood.  So…that means, when Pain is spotted by himself, you never know who you are going to see.  Now that ensures that things stay peaceful – on HIS terms.

Now, trust me. There ARE six bodies here; one for each mood that Pain has...all of them involving killing.

Oh, and then there is the lady that is at his side all of the time…Lady Angel. She’s got some issues/quirks of her own.  She has this issue with paper…in fact, she becomes paper as her form of jutsu.  Just think, you don’t need to tear down the trees of Konoha to make paper – just get that “Lady Angel” to make some up for you.  And, when you need to recycle them, let Lady Angel take care of that, too!  Actually, Pain uses her abilities for reconnaissance which works great as long as no one suspects that an origami butterfly is actually there as another form of “intruder alert.” In fact, Pain requests such a service from Konan as it becomes clear that the intruder is a very strong and powerful one.  Her job:  locate this intruder so that Pain can prepare for annihilating this infiltrator.

And you think you have paper clutter...take a look at THIS.

In the meantime, Jiraiya, in checking out the local scenery – dark, gray and not much to it – happens upon a, what do you expect, a girlie bar.  Just up Jiraiya’s alley.  And, he sure finds a bit of home in that place…and a girl who reminds him of his long-time love of his life, Tsunade (ok, maybe in the boobs department).  Tazuna, this lovely lady, inquires about Jiraiya’s purpose in being in town and then he mentions that forbidden name again, “Hanzo.”  For the first time, thanks to Tazuna, he discovers that “Hanzo’s” mention is strictly forbidden.  Ok, another clue – flashbacks occur to Hanzo and his dubbing Jiraiya as one of the Sannin.  Tazuna disappears to find a note from her hubby saying “he’ll be home for dinner,” which she believes about as much as Tsunade believes that Jiraiya will stop womanizing.

An intense battle, eh? I think the only thing intense is...well, we can skip that.

Meanwhile, Tazuna’s hubby, a lowly Genin is trying to escape from the rain, along with a fellow comrade.  Both want to find a bar but can’t find one until…

This place just happened to appear out of nowhere. Funny how it ressembles a frog, doesn't it?

This mysterious pub appears at a level of the city that is not known for places like this. But, hey, Miller Time is Miller Time, right.  And, so they arrive to find an empty place and an interesting looking bartender.  After demanding service – while talking about Pain’s comings and goings – Jiraiya appears and the “pub” turns back into a frog…and jumps off into the ocean yet again to avoid the rainfall, which Jiraiya has figured out is a huge Rain Alert System set to bag guys like him.

But, what is his purpose?  Well, to find out information on Pain, of course. And, how do ninja obtain information but through interrogation.  But, this is Jiraiya we’re talking about here.  Can you imagine him inflicting torture on the order of Ibiki Morino?  Nah. So he makes due with…tickling with a feather? Ok, now for some of us, that is the equivalent of Ibiki scaring the daylights out of us. Tickling can cause death just as easily as anything Ibiki can do.

An interesting form of torture from Jiraiya. For some of us, this can be just as bad as death.

Well, our first victim on the right above, decided to not cooperate and as a result is now feasting on flies for all of eternity.  And, our other character on the left, not wanting to grow webbed feet, not only “rats” out Pain but adds TMI (too much information in IM-speak); enough to give Jiraiya a sense that he was going to face the battle of his life.

Interesting how seeing a friend being turned into a frog makes an informant oh so cooperative...

After Jiraiya realizes he isn’t going to get any more information, he is off into a different dimension inside the same toad.  It is a part of the episode where a lot of secrets are revealed…

Ok, now tell me exactly where in the toad this is. Stomach? Intestines? Ah, skip it...

Jiraiya summons another toad who is in the odd shape of a scroll.  Huh? Turns out this particular toad is of extreme importance…to Naruto.

What's the big idea? See, Jiraiya has a big problem. It is called "Pain."

It is a key of some kind and Jiraiya wishes to release it in the event that something should happen to him.  However, where he wishes for it to go is not only shocking but it makes a number of outstanding questions become resolved…he wishes for it to be stored inside of Naruto’s body.  Whoa!  Time out!  Huh?  What this toad holds is the key for the Death Reaper Seal inscribed on Naruto’s belly – the one that sealed the Kyuubi’s yang (the good) chakra inside of him for access to its power and the yin (the bad) permanently inaccessible.  In other words, it was to prevent Naruto from completely becoming the Kyuubi should the power be released.  WTH is he thinking?!? Our Toad Lock wants to know if Jiraiya is smoking something…

Jiraiya, now sign where indicated by the blue circle and we're good to go.

So, why the key?  Turns out that the seal can be tightened – or loosened – at the users command and after consultation with this toad.  Hmmmm….yes, we see “that” incident; the one where Naruto grows to four tails and attacks Jiraiya nearly killing him in the process.  This was due to Jiraiya loosening the seal so that Naruto could access more of the Kyuubi’s chakra during his 2 1/2 years of training. Of course, Jiraiya isn’t going to be going around and advertising that (however, I am certain that Tsunade, as his comrade and Hokage, knows…).  The reason?  Simple:  he wanted to teach Naruto how to tap into the vast chakra strength of the Kyuubi…but why?

And, Naruto felt guilty about this one all this time. It was YOU, Jiraiya, who did this! BAKA!

In addition, Jiraiya begins to explain his reasoning…and his suspicions about the world at large.  As we manga-junkies know, he, unfortunately, turns out to be 100% accurate. Jiraiya knew his most famous student, Yondaime Hokage, VERY well.  His personality was one of caution and one of doing things for a purpose.  His actions are calculated very carefully – interestingly, unlike his son, Naruto, who has a “go for it” mentality.  Jiraiya’s theory:  Yondaime knew something that prompted him to seal the power within his own son to tap at will for…that “something.”  But, what was it?

"That jutsu?" And, what do you mean, Jiraiya? Care to clue us in?

In addition, “that jutsu” is mentioned.  What is “that jutsu?”  There has been a lot of theories as to what this meant.  If you recall, in one of the first Shippuuden episodes, when Naruto was sent to save Gaara, Jiraiya counseled his student.  Jiraiya counseled Naruto to not use “that power.”  I initially thought it was the power of the Kyuubi, as did probably everyone else.  Now, I wonder if that comment plus the “that jutsu” comment are related.   Although a number of viable possibilities are out there – from perfecting teleportation (“Thunder God”) to the further development of the Rasengan to it’s fullest potential,  my guess is it is for Naruto to develop a jutsu to allow him to control the Kyuubi by being able to assume its form and revert back to human form again with no damage to him (i.e. Yugito Nii and the Nibi). Jiraiya thinks Naruto can do this in only a way that the son of Yondaime Hokage can.  Interesting when all Naruto got from his Master was “you need more work, kid.”

Ok, so now why would Naruto need “that jutsu,” whatever it may be?  Well, Jiraiya has some issues with that also.  It has always been said that the Kyuubi was a “natural” disaster but now…Jiraiya thinks it was manually summoned 16 years prior.  The name of Madara Uchiha is mentioned, convincing our Scroll Toad, that Jiraiya was not only smoking, but drinking, something.   But, still…Jiraiya’s gut is really nagging at him.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya still has to find out who is targeting him and uses a special jutsu that allows him to mimic/shadow an actual human as if he were that person to begin with. Unfortunately…it doesn’t work very well.  Why?  Well…

Jiraiya-sensei? Tag, you're it...

As any loyal comrade would, our favorite paper ninja, Konan reports to Pain that it is their former sensei, Jiraiya, that has “interrrupted” the rainfall.  By this time, Pain’s new body has been revealed…and it does, indeed, have a very different appearance.

Ok, Pain. You must have had a drastic change in mood to drag this body out of the vault.

The order for Konan is…”hold that guy down until I get there” and off the two of them go; one at paper light speed and one at human speed.  Man, this chick’s jutsu is something else.  As there is with origami, her styles of “folding” is so vast in number it is stunning.

This chick never ceases to amaze me with the "origami jutsu" she uses.

Now, normally, I wouldn’t be intimidated by a bunch of paper floating through the air towards me.  I’d be more annoyed that someone let litter or trash float out of their car or fall out of the back of their truck.  However, when it is Konan, there is reason to be terrified.  Jiraiya openly wondered if his shadowing tech would work.  He immediately got his answer…

Now that's a lot of recyclable paper being used in this attack. Jiraiya? In answer to your question, I don't think this shadow tech worked for you, pal.

Well, well, well.  We have the first of two reunions between Master and Student.  Jiraiya sees his only female student, Konan, for the first time since he left her tossing paper shuriken at his Kage Bunshin so long ago.   At that time, he thought that Konan would be a stunning woman – and he was not incorrect in that comment.  In addition, he had thought that she had died, along with the other two boys, Nagato and Yahiko but now is wondering what really happened.  In addition, he finds out that she is the “Lady Angel” messenger of “god,” which really amuses him.  After an initial attack of paper (that just sounds hilarious), Toad Oil puts a damper on the reunion just a tad.

One flaw with paper - once it's wet, it's all over.

Jiraiya then demands to know what happened to the boys, Nagato and Yahiko.  With Konan’s “no answer” answer, he figures out that one of the two boys is “Pain.” Question is…which one?  What really is riling Jiraiya up is the fact that his students are the founders of Akatsuki, an organization that has its sights on another student of his, Naruto Uzumaki.  And that is something he won’t stand for.  Nor will he stand for his students, even the first three he had, to go down a path of evil, as they seem to have done.

I can't imagine what he's thinking. Knowing that the students YOU taught are now responsible for the ruthless and savage killing of others to obtain the chakra of bijuu must be heartbreaking.

Upon that realization, Pain appears…but which boy was it?  By merely looking at the eyes, Jiraiya realizes that it is Nagato who is “Pain.”  When Jiraiya mentions his real name, Pain realizes that Jiraiya is a threat to the entire scheme that Akatsuki has been plotting and attacks by performing his first Kuchyose no Jutsu – a funky salamander that spews foam that dispels the toad oil from Konan.

To Jiraiya, this is the boy known as Nagato, despite the appearances. Now this has to be gut-wrenching.

After being soaked in foam, the beast reappears and Jiraiya’s hair takes on a Lion’s Mane appearance, destroying the beast and traps Nagato.  However, Jiraiya has some other things on his mind…

First question: Where'd you get that body? Second question: Where's Yahiko? Third Question: Can I go home now?

Upon Nagato’s rather blase reaction to the question of “where in the world is Yahiko,” Jiraiya is stunned…his conversation when Nagato stated that he wanted to protect his two friends no matter what the cost rings in his head. This, along with the possible murder of Yahiko, riles him up to no end.

This just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn't it?

Yup, it keeps getting worse.  Jiraiya becomes the student and no longer the sensei.  His now-demented, twisted, psychotic student, Nagato now thinks he’s “a god” and wants to end war – period.   Jiraiya must have thought he had heard everything until that moment. Having your own student proclaim himself a god simply because he knows about pain and suffering; the absolute-ness of words and actions…along with receiving the adoration of his fellow citizens wasn’t exactly heartwarming to our moral Sannin.   It was disgusting, I am certain.

As if it weren’t bad enough, Jiraiya has the nerve to ask the next question: what are the plans of Akatsuki.  He probably thought he needed a Valium tablet when he heard the answer – to end all war by creating the equivalent of the atomic bomb using the chakra of all nine bijuu and giving one of these weapons to any nation that wants it.  On top of that, Nagato, rightly assumes that any nation that has one of these bijuu-atomic bombs will use it…only to find that it can annihilate an entire country in an instant.  With that consequence, and with other nations seeing/knowing that consequence, war will end and peace will reign.   You may think you have never heard this argument before but, actually, most of us have.   It is the classic, “peace through strength” argument; the more powerful (and lethal/absolute) the weapons a nation has – and with other nations knowing that nation has such horrendous weapons, the more likely peace will reign. Yes, it is Kishi making a huge political statement…as we manga-nerds out there know.  It is a “peace through strength” versus “peace through understanding” argument.  Akatsuki is on one side and Jiraiya on the other with his first students being with Akatsuki.

Akatsuki's way of peace. However, it isn't the way of Jiraiya...

By this time, Jiraiya has heard about enough of this crap and, in response to Nagato’s second summoning, Jiraiya summons a toad just as clumsy as he is…Gamaken.  The battle of Jiraiya’s life has begun…

Fitting that the clumsy Jiraiya summons the clumsy toad, Gamaken

Upcoming Episodes:

Naruto Shippuuden Episode 131:  “Honored Sage Mode” (Hatsudō! Sennin Mōdo); Air Date – October 15, 2009

Naruto Shippuuden Episode 132:  “Meeting the Six Paths of Pain” (Pein Rikudō, kenzan); Air Date – October 22, 2009

Naruto Shippuuden Episode 133: “The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya” (Jiraiya gōketsu monogatari); Air Date – October 29, 2009

Naruto Shippuuden Episode 134: “Invitation to the Party” (Utage e no izanai); Air Date – November 5, 2009

With that, I’ll leave you with the thought of Jiraiya facing the battle of his life, taking on his most powerful form:  Sage Mode.

Ja,

Penny

~ by 綱手-Tsunades Twin on October 13, 2009.