Hmm, Pein sure seems to have a thing for piercings (The arm balls are a bit much for me; looks like he has holes of missing flesh).

But now we need to find out who it is that ACTUALLY controls Akatsuki, or, if it is another party simply employing Akatsuki to assassinate Naruto.

Either way, at least something interesting finally came out of all of those "That jutsu" segments I waded through. :)

Yeah, it's been a long wait for something substantial to show up in Naruto lately. I'm surprised Deidara managed to beat Sasuke up so badly before he died. If Sasuke can't clobber Deidara, how in the hell does he expect to kill Itachi? That's what I want to know. And that look on Itachi's face when Kisame mentioned Sasuke was dead...hmmm...Remorse, maybe?

And I'm beginning to wonder--what if Itachi is like undercover deep? This isn't the first time he's seemed unhappy about what he's doing. I'm placing my doubts in his alliance to the Akatsuki. I think there's more to his story that just wanting to be the strongest Uchiha.

I think this Pein character is going to be a problem for Naruto. Other than Sasuke, who has Naruto really got down and dirty with? I guess there was that fight with Oro, but Kyuubi took over then and Naruto still had help. I think it's time he finish a serious fight on his own. I don't know if he can do it, without the help of the Kyuubi. I mean, it's been said several times that Naruto would be an average, if not below average, ninja if it weren't for being a Jinchuuriki.

At anyrate, Naruto is getting interesting. Now if they could only speed up the anime a bit more. Is it just me, or is it crawling along at a snail's pace?