Naruto Vol. 20
- ISBN
- 9781421516554
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 172–180
- Anime
- Season 3 (3rd Stage) ep. 84–131
The Tsunade arc finished in the previous book; this one opens the run that closes Part I, and it does not let go for seven more volumes. Chapters 172 to 180 spend their first half on what the Chunin Exam cost: Tsunade working through the injured, and Rock Lee being told to give up being a ninja and refusing. The second half is Sasuke deciding that he is behind. A rooftop fight between him and Naruto settles which of them is stronger today, and then Orochimaru's Sound Four arrive with an offer. Nothing here closes. A reader looking for a clean place to stop should take the end of Vol. 19 instead, because this book begins something with no exit. Nothing here falls outside season 3, which stops at chapter 225. Viz does not print which standard volumes any 3-in-1 book after the sixth holds.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
The rooftop fight is the pivot the rest of Part I turns on. Naruto's Rasengan beats Sasuke's Chidori, and a series that spent nineteen volumes establishing Sasuke as the one with the talent now has to deal with what happens to a boy whose only measure of himself is being ahead. The Sound Four are sent for exactly that opening, which makes the defection a recruitment rather than a decision. The volume sets Lee beside him on purpose. Both are offered something dangerous that might make them capable again: Lee takes an operation Tsunade advises him against, and Sasuke takes Orochimaru, who wants his body. The difference the book draws is in what they want back. Lee wants the work. Sasuke wants the lead. Whether that reading survives Part II is arguable, and it is still the reading this volume is built for. Tsunade's first act as Hokage is triage, which introduces the office better than a speech would have.
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