Naruto Anime Analysis (Season 5)

Season 5: Episode 200

Source: Wikipedia

"The Powerful Helper"

"The group sets out to disarm the traps without Gennou finding out. The research then concludes that Gennou set the traps 30 years ago, as part of a mission for the Hidden Heat Devil Village, which was destroyed by another village shortly after he completed his mission, resulting in his son's death. Naruto comes to terms with the fact that the old man he befriended attempted to destroy the village and finds a lead that Gennou is in the mountains behind the village."

Analysis

The episode was mainly focused on Gennou's past experiences, hence the resolution where all the mysteries of the plot are solved. Other details will be mentioned in the analysis.

The group sets out to disarm the traps without Gennou finding out. The episode starts by showing Genin disarming the traps under the Kunai target while Hinata and Neji are out in the woods, making sure no one is watching them disarm the traps. After disarming the traps from under the kunai target, they put everything back to the way it was because Shikamaru said if Gennou found out that they discovered the trap and deactivated it, he might find a way to set off all those other paper bombs before they can do anything about them.

Afterwards, Shikamaru headed off to the Hokage's office, informing her about a giant nest of paper bombs covering the whole leaf village. In response, Shizune suggested to Lady Tsunade that they should evacuate everyone as soon as possible. Shikamaru responded to Shizune by saying that if they did that, Gennou would blow up the leaf village. Therefore, Shikamaru said Naruto and the others were searching for the paper bombs, so they had to wait and see if they made any progress.

Since the situation proved to be threatening, the genin were divided into pairs:

1. Sakura and Kiba were looking for traps around the leaf village outside. So Akamaru dug into the ground with his paws and found one paper bomb hidden underground.

2. Shino and Tenten were also looking for the traps around the leaf village. So, Shino's insects found the paper bomb hidden in one of the houses, and Tenten cut the fuse with her kunai.

3. Naruto and Hinata were also looking for traps around the leaf village. So, thanks to Hinata's Byakugan, Naruto found a paper bomb stuck in a certain building. He then picked up the fuse that was hidden between the walls and removed the paper bomb.

4. Neji was standing on a tree using his Byakugan to make sure the paper bomb disposal was progressing smoothly and to see any sign of Gennou. After some time, Rock Lee arrived and Neji informed him that he couldn't see any sign of Gennou

5. Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino were all at the Hokage's office, briefing Tsunade about what happened and what solutions they could find to tackle this situation. Shikamaru suggested that they needed more manpower since it would take the Genin forever to find the traps if they were the only ones looking for them. However, since there were no other shinobi left in the village, the two village elders (Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane) barged into the office to give Tsunade advice, and this compelled Tsunade to look for paper bombs on the outskirts of the village. Shikamaru still wonders how one man could put all the giant nests of paper bombs in the village; hence, there is more to the story—something important.

6. Might Guy and the rest of the Shinobi are in the woods and are on their way back to the village.

The amount of teamwork with which everyone is working to protect the village shows that they have the will of fire. Everyone, including the village elders, is willing to protect the village, which shows that Gennou is proving to be a pest that needs to be eliminated. In other words, the episode highlights the message everyone in the village follows, which is the will of fire.

The research then concludes that Gennou set the traps 30 years ago, as part of a mission for the Hidden Heat Devil Village, which was destroyed by another village shortly after he completed his mission, resulting in his son's death. When the two elders travelled to the outskirts of the village, they found an old paper bomb strapped inside an abandoned building. Homura noted that the place was supposed to have an expensive new shopping district over 30 years ago, but it never came to fruition. So, when the elders headed back to the Hokage and showed everyone present the paper bomb, it was revealed that the jutsu had been written differently because it was a paper bomb from over 30 years ago. Moreover, hardly any of them have been planted in the most densely populated residential areas, and at the same time, the empty outline areas where no one lives were crawling with them. In other words, the traps were hidden in the village for over 30 years, and no one could have noticed unless one had a Byakugan.

The significance of the first letter of recommendation

While Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji were still conversing with Tsunade and the village elders, he thought about the disappearance of the first letter of recommendation. He had an idea what might have happened to it, so he rushed out of the office with Ino and Choji rushing after him. When they get to the foreman's carpenter's house, he says to the foreman and everyone present, "There's one thing that's been bugging me this whole time. You see, I think it was Gennou who made that recommendation disappear, but then why would he feel he had to do that? And the only explanation that I can come up with is that the first recommendation was phony too." Second, he said, "I think Gennou himself is the one who used that letter 30 years ago when he first came to work here. At least I think so. The first one was a good fortune, indistinguishable from the real thing. The second referral was much clumsier, almost like he wanted it to look like a fake compared to the first one." Last, he said, "He wasn't concerned about whether we found out he was an imposter this time, but he didn't want us to start getting suspicious about that referral letter from 30 years ago. That's why he got rid of it—to conceal the fact that he was here then too. It was him; it was Gennou who went around planting all those paper bombs here 30 years ago."

The information above shows that Shikamaru has solved the mystery about Gennou. It's not his first time at the village, but his second time, as I will mention in the details below:

Naruto comes to terms with the fact that the old man he befriended attempted to destroy the village and finds out that Gennou is in the mountains behind the village. When Hinata was with Naruto, she was feeling a bit tired because she had used her Byakugan for a long time. So, Naruto leaves her behind to rest while he heads to Tsunade's office to show her the paper bombs they collected. Along the way, he was rushing to get to her office until he stopped at the Ramen Ichiraku shop. At that moment, he starts reminiscing about the first time he met the old man looking at Hokage Mountain, which compelled Naruto to rush over there. When Naruto gets inside the mountain, he finds a hidden paper bomb and meets the old man, Gennou. Gennou started to reveal his past life at the Heat Devil Village, which was in the land of mountains.

In the episode, it is explained that 30 years ago, Heat Devil Village and the Leaf Village were at war with each other, and the Leaf Village launched a sneak attack against their village with one strike and won the war. Moreover, they expected the heat devil village to retaliate, but it seems they never did. However, they already had plans to destroy the village by sending Gennou to infiltrate the village as a freelance carpenter. However, when Gennou finished setting those paper bombs 30 years ago, his comrades never came because the warlord of Heat Devil Village at that time died in a tragic hunting accident. So, the man who took his place was one of those who preferred peace; hence, Gennou had to abort the mission and return home, which meant no more missions for him. However, due to the Heat Devil village being weak because of the leaf village forces defeating them, another village decided to attack them, which resulted in his son's death. Therefore, Gennou was the only survivor, and decades later (after doing work in the Land of Sand), with his life failing, Gennou decided to resurface his last mission from his village. He said to Naruto that he didn't want to die and waste time not fulfilling this mission without anyone knowing what he did.

The episode ends when Shikamaru lets Ino, Choji, and Rock Lee know that the paper bomb set is just a diversion because Gennou is after something else. This took place outside the foreman's carpenter's house. Therefore, is Naruto in danger at Hokage's mountain with Gennou there? This will be revealed in the next episode.