Naruto Vol. 11
- ISBN
- 9781421502410
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 91–99
- Anime
- Season 2 (2nd Stage) ep. 36–83
The month between the preliminaries and the finals, and a book made almost entirely of preparation. Chapters 91 to 99 are training, rumor and positioning: Jiraiya takes Naruto on, Konohagakure begins hearing that the Sound and Sand villages mean to invade during the finals, and the tournament does not restart until the last chapter. Nothing is decided here. It is the slowest of the first twelve books, and the honest thing to say is that it is bought for what comes after it rather than for itself. What it does supply is the reason Naruto is able to fight at all in Vol. 12, which is not nothing. Viz lists 192 pages at $11.99, and 3-in-1 book 4 holds it with Vols. 10 and 12.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
The interesting decision in the training is one Jiraiya makes and does not explain. He finds Orochimaru's seal from Vol. 6, removes it, and then declines to teach Naruto to husband his own chakra, teaching him to draw on the fox's instead. That is a mentor deliberately building his student around the thing the village has punished him for since chapter 1, and the volume does not treat it as reckless. The product is summoning, and Gamabunta, who is too large to work as a technique and functions instead as a second character. Around that the book lays out the invasion: Otogakure and Sunagakure are moving on Konohagakure and the finals are the cover. Chapter 92 is printed as 'Konoha. vs. Sound vs. Sand', full stop and all. The volume ends on the arena filling up. Everything it builds is spent in Vol. 12 and after, which is the case for owning it and also the reason it reads thin on its own.
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