Naruto, Volume 36 by Masashi Kishimoto

Naruto continues to train while Asuma's team tracks down the Akatsuki team that killed the Monk at the temple. The Two Akatsuki members aren't friends, as one of them is more interested in money, while the other is some kind of priest and obsessed with killing for his faith.

Naruto masters the Wind Chakra, with the help of Kakashi and the Captain, but linking it to the Rasengan is hard, and even with all his Shadow Dopplegagngers, it takes Naruto a while. Kakashi reveals that the Rasengan is a broken jutsu, because even the Third Hokage was unable to complete it. However, Kakashi believes that if anyone can do it, it's Naruto.

Meanwhile, Asuma's new team, Cell Number 10, track down the slayers of the Monk and the Two-tails. But we find out that one of the Akatsuki team, the priest named Hidan, literally cannot be killed. You can chop his head off, and he only complains of the pain. But unlike his teammate Kakuzu, Hidan enjoys killing and hurting people. Kakuzu only joined the Akatsuki to become rich.

So while Asuma is able to cut off Hidan's head, his deathlessness means that his team is ultimately defeated. The others all live, but Asuma is too badly hurt and dies as a Shinobi. Meanwhile, however, Naruto is frustrated at constantly hitting a dead end with combining his wind Chakra and the Rasengan. Kakashi might be able to provide a clue that Naruto has been missing, but can Naruto find a way to make it work?

And, after all this time, we finally find out what the Akatsuki really want and what they are really up to. Each member wants something different, but can they all get what they want?

This was again an issue where the battles go on in the background, while Naruto is struggling to master an entirely new Jutsu, a Jutsu possessed by no one else. But will even this, a Wind Chakra Rasengan, be enough to give Naruto a leg up on his friend snd Rival Sasuke?

The question is whether Sasuke can even really be redeemed in the eyes of the readers. I'm not sure he can be- the stuff he's done to his (supposed) friends and village is very bad- he nearly killed Naruto, and now he's gone off to kill his brother after studying under Orochimaru. But will he be able to walk away from the Devil's bargain he's made? Naruto and Sakura may have loyalty to him, but what of his loyalty to them?

This volume also feels strange in that Naruto always seems to be in the brunt of the battles, but now he's just training while others do the battling. It lends a strange feel to the book when Naruto is hanging out in the background. And a story thread seems to have been dropped. Where are Sakura and Sai while all this is going on? Weren't they just given a mission together?

I'm willing to stay with the story for now, but Sasuke's redemption can't all be on the backs of Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke is going to have to do something, and something pretty deep and amazing, to be able to wipe out the memories and actions of how he left Konoha in the first place. And it's going to have to be a pretty bitchin' story to make me forget what he did.