Naruto: Volume 42 by Masashi Kishimoto

Naruto's mentor Jiraiya has gone after the Shinobi called Pain of the Akatsuki, wondering if the "Child of Prophecy" everyone has been seeking. He was supposed to merely spy on Pain, but the creature is split up into 7 bodies, and Pain catches Jiraiya. Not only that, but some of Pain's bodies resemble Shinobi that Jiraiya has fought before, one of them resembles a former student of his, Yahiko.

So Jiraiya leaves off spying and attacks Pain, but even with his two frog allies, he's unable fo overcome Pain. Jiraiya ia able to ensure that both of his frog allies get away, but at the cost of his own life. Unbeknownst to Pain and the rest of the Akatsuki, though, he managed to inscribe a coded message to the rest of his allies in Konoha Village on the back of the second frog, telling them that the child of Prophecy is not to be found among the Akatsuki.

Meanwhile, Sasuke has tracked down his older brother, Itachi, and is determined to finish him off. Itachi shows Sasuke the powers of his Sharingan eyes, which he has upgraded to Mangekyo eyes. There's a problem that increasing the powers of the Sharingan means that the owner will eventually lose his eyesight completely, and so Itachi needs his own brother's eyes to be grafted in place of his own, which will completely restore his own sight, but at the cost of Sasuke's life and eyes.

Needless to say, Sasuke isn't willing to give up his eyes to his brother, but fights him to the end of his Chakra energy and beyond, using the power of Orochimaru. But can he ever defeat Itachi, his older brother, now that his brother has had just as long as Sasuke to grow powerful?

Ah, here it comes- Sasuke's fight against his older brother, which he has been looking forward to for so long. At this point, I doubt Sasuke can be saved, that he would even want to be saved. But I do wonder if he ever thought about what he'd do after (if) he could defeat Itachi? Did he ever even think that far? And I have no idea, but my guess is no. He focussed all his energies on winning, with never a thought to what might come afterwards.

Needless to say, lots of stuff goes on, and once again, Naruto is relegated to a background role. He may want to redeem Sasuke, but I don't think he can be redeemed. I don't even think he'll ever want to be redeemed because he's passed too many mileposts on his way to "Bad-ass" and not enough on his way to "Friendship". Sasuke seems to think he has to be the best, the strongest, the most bad-ass, and that's not an attitude conducive to being a true friend.

Still, it's a solid episode in the Narutoverse, but I have a feeling that the things that are coming for Naruto and Konoha are not going to be good. Will Naruto lose his youthful enthusiasm for being a Shinobi? Who can tell? But more tests are coming, and they don't look to be fun ones.