Naruto Vol. 14
- ISBN
- 9781421510880
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 184
- Chapters
- 118–126
- Anime
- Season 2 (2nd Stage) ep. 36–83
Chapters 118 to 126 are the middle of the Konoha invasion, and the spine of the book is a single duel between the Third Hokage and Orochimaru. Three smaller fights run around it: Shikamaru stalling the pursuers behind him, Shino against Kankuro, and Sasuke still chasing Gaara. Nothing here opens and nothing here closes. The invasion starts in Vol. 13 and is not settled until Vol. 16, and this is the stretch that reads worst one chapter at a time. At 184 pages it is shorter than the 192 that most of these books run. Season 2 of the anime covers chapters 62 to 144, so a viewer who finished it has been through all four volumes of the invasion.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
The duel is a history lesson staged as a fight. Orochimaru brings back the First and Second Hokage, the men who taught the Third, and makes the current Hokage fight the founders of the village he is defending. The Third seals the two of them away and then fails to complete the same seal on Orochimaru, because he is stabbed before he can finish it. That failure is the reason the invasion needs four volumes. Kishimoto fills the rest with the subplots that pay later: Shikamaru holds off pursuers on what his match with Temari left him, and Shino beats Kankuro and then goes down from the poison he took doing it. Serialized in 2002, this was nine weeks of a fight with no visible end. Collected, it is the setup volume for Vol. 16, which is the one with the consequence in it.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links on this page are affiliate links, which cost you nothing extra. They never influence what appears on this site or what the commentary says about it.