Naruto Vol. 52
- ISBN
- 9781421539577
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 484–494
- Anime
- Season 10: Five Kage Summit 「五影集結の章」 ep. 197–221; Season 11: Paradise Life on a Boat 「船上のパラダイスライフ」 ep. 222–242; Season 12: The Taming of Nine-Tails and Fateful Encounters 「九尾掌握と因果なる邂逅の章」 ep. 243–275
Three seasons of Shippuden touch this one book, and a viewer who stopped after any of them resumes in a different place inside it. Chapters 484 to 494 open with Naruto reaching Sakura before Sasuke does, and the conversation that follows sets the terms for the rest of the series. Season 10 stops at chapter 489, the sixth of the eleven chapters here. Season 11 then adapts chapters 490 and 491 in its first episode and is anime-original for the remaining twenty, so a viewer who finished it starts at chapter 492, the ninth of the eleven here. Season 12 begins there. Season 11 is easy to write off as pure filler, and those two chapters are the reason not to: the where-to-start form answers chapter 492 for its last episode.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
The rescue premise ends here. Naruto tells Sasuke that they will meet on a battlefield and that both of them will die there, and Sasuke accepts the terms. Chapter 485, 'Near Yet Far', is named for that conversation. The back half of the book then changes genre without warning: Tsunade wakes from her coma, agrees with the other Kage to hide the two remaining hosts, and Naruto is shipped to an island with Killer Bee, which converts the war build-up into a training story. Bee's answer to the request for help is a condition rather than a refusal: nobody tames a tailed beast while there is still something inside them for it to use.
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