Naruto, Volume 35 by Masashi Kishimoto

Naruto has once again met Sasuke, and failed to defeat him, and he's devastated. Reduced to tears while his teammates look on, Sakura tells him that crying is weak, and they have to be strong if they want to defeat Sasuke and hope to save him. Naruto takes heart from that, and from Sai's telling him that they still have six months before Sasuke is taken over. So there's time to help him.

Naruto agrees, and that makes him happy. He tells Tsunade this, and she smiles and tells the group she's going to give them another mission right away. Sai has been touched by Naruto and Sakura, and wants to keep his persona and stay with them for a while, but his "father" warns him that emotional attatchment only leads to pain. Sai may not agree any longer, however.

Sai tries to make up for his lack of people skills by reading books, but when he tries giving Sakura the nickname "Homely", he pays for it. They go visit Kakashi in the hospital, and Kakashi reveals he has an idea for how to train Naruto more quickly, but when Naruto asks what it is, they are interrupted by another set of Shinobi come to visit him.

Meanwhile, the Akatsuki are taking down the other Jinchuruki, starting with the two-tails, who falls easily to the two Akatsuki stalking her. After her defeat, they prepare her body to be subsumed, and travel on to the Fire Nation Temple, where they defeat a powerful holy man with a price on his head. And another Akatsuki team takes on the three-tails.

Naruto discovers that Kakashi means to teach him to change both the form and the Nature of his Chakra. To do this takes a very long time, but if he uses Naruto's multi-shadow Doppleganger form, he can compress the learning. The more Shadow Dopplegangers Naruto can summon, the more their separate experiences can add to his store of knowledge and experience, allowing him to compress time and learn new techniques in a fraction of the time. Because of the great power in the nine-tailed fox spirit inside him, he can create more Shadow Dopplegangers than anyone else, which means he is the only one who can train this way.

Naruto discovers that his Chakra Element is Wind, and he trains to master and control it, along with Kakashi and Captain Yamato. By using one of his Shadow Dopplegangers to ask the only other Shinobi in the village for advice on using Wind Chakra, he is able to gift this knowledge to all his Shadow Dopplegangers at once, allowing them to succeed. But even as his knowledge and power increase exponentially, so does his exhaustion when he finally disperses his dopplegangers, which can make him faint.

The question is, even as fast as Naruto is learning, he's doing it to defeat Sasuke. But will he be able to grow strong enough to defeat Sasuke in time? And will he be able to prevent Orochimaru from absorbing Sasuke, body and soul?

I have to admit, this book surprised me and made me smile. I never would have thought of training Naruto using his Shadow Dopplegangers. And it looks like Naruto, through this technique, will someday get his wish and be able to become Konohakugure's Hikage, the protector of the village.

Naruto remains himself, straightforward, loyal, and very powerful, but with a power he has to be careful when he draws on it or he can lose himself. We also get to see the kind of powers it takes to advance in Shinobi society: being able to manipulate and control two different kinds of Chakra power to create an entirely new one: Water and Earth make wood, and Naruto's power is wind. If he can use fire, would it increase both sets of powers? Wow, now there's a thought! And earth and fire would make Metal. Wind and Lightning, Spirit? Hard to tell, but its worth remembering that the Elements in the West (fire, water, earth, air, spirit) are not the same as those in the east.

Not much fighting goes on in this one, as we never get to see the techniques that take down the two-tails or three-tails (or the monk), leaving us in the dark as to the abilities of the Akatsuki who took them down. But they are a contrast to Naruto's training and the political and strategy meetings of Tsunade. All in all, a well-rounded volume and recommended.