tesk

Case in point: Yakushi Kabuto

I am late, I know. It’s not like I have not been following NARUTO. I never forget to look up the Thursday spoilers. I just had to have my hopes absolutely crushed, because I am a stubborn (read: stupid) one and thought that despite all the anvil-sized hints, things might not be as bad as they looked like.

For the n’th time, they really are.
I mean, I was one of those that saw Kabuto being pro-Orochimaru as one of the worst possible nightmares ever. Lucky me. Life seems to never be short of disappointments here, how exciting.

From now on, spoilers all over!

If I wanted to follow the pattern, I should now try to analyze why on earth Kabuto has been the way he is lately. Or rather not, not even that lately. It took him ages to appear again.
I must admit that the moment Kabuto told ill Orochimaru that he (Kabuto) was leaving only for a minute and would immediately return, I could have sworn upon my life that he was giving Uchiha Sasuke (or whoever took any liking in the idea) opportunity to do it the easy way.
Or that he was trying to feed Orochimaru some medicine that would have ended any health-related problems the latter had. Forever. Yes, that kind of „medicine“.

But no. He probably was really trying to be a good lapdog and was suddenly infected with a huge amount of stupidity so he could possibly not feel any strange chakras floating around or any scary killer intent or any genjutsu somewhere over there....in the next room, I mean.

But regardless, it seems he was just trolling around at the now-abandoned Otogakure for days(maybe weeks) and then suddenly felt the urge to give a notebook to a random Konoha-nin.

Okay. Despite the fact that nothing in canon has supported this interpretation so far, let’s assume that from now on it’s official that Kabuto had always Orochimaru’s best interests at heart. Orochimaru was such a nice person, what’s not to like, anyways, right?

Now that I have written down the two sentences above I want to shoot myself. It does not make any sense. At all. What are the readers supposed to make of it?
I feel like I cannot analyze Kabuto anymore. I have read (long time ago) a really good summary of Kabuto’s appearances in the manga with all the pros and cons and the author made an excellent analyzis. Whoever you were, take credit.
Now nothing seems right.
I liked to think that Kabuto was just a really creepy person and when he helped Hinata Hyuga, he really wasn’t concerned about the girl’s well-being. The fandom seems to agree that at that time he didn’t gain much (if anything) from healing the girl. And I have no counter-arguments.
But. Occasionally Yakushi Kabuto has shown some of the most mean strikes I have encountered among the characters of NARUTO. At least, in my opinion. Which, as you know, is not all that humble, but I try. I really try.
Orochimaru, who had a little town-corps of prisoners whom he used for lethal experiments, told Kabuto that in his (Orochimaru’s) opinion the glasses-boy was a bit cruel.
And I had to agree with him there. Which says something.

And what’s with that change of attitude towards the jinchuuriki? Didn’t Kabuto just RESENT them? It sure seemed like that when he called Naruto monster and showed hostility on personal level. Up to almost killing Naruto (I am not making things up, he blocked chakra from flowing to Naruto’s heart and Tsunade saved the Kyuubi-prat).
But obviously this was not the case. You see, actually (as it’s been revealed) Naruto inspired Kabuto to become a better person and whatnot. Yes, you heard that right.
And thanks to Naruto Kabuto was able to find himself again, after he had been mourning over the remains of beloved Orochimaru-sama.
Not that he has met Naruto recently or anything. And not that Orochimaru has ever been in the list of Kabuto’s favourite people.
But now you heard it, the manga’s been wrong all along. And the databook probably, too.
We should only regard the latest chapters as correct, if we, by any miracle, would like the story to make any sense.

Yes, I know. It is not impossible for me to use the argument that everything we have seen lately is an act. A crazy act, but nonetheless.
Crazy because it does not make sense, either. As I said, I loved to think of Kabuto as a mean guy with relatively less human characteristics than other characters.
But I never wanted him to be a dependent freak(and idiot). Well, who cares.
The point about his acting can be proven right or wrong, however, only when we’ll see him the next time. When he antagonizes Uchiha Sasuke, that is. He claimed he would do that (you know, willingly antagonize a bit robot-like bloke who just wiped the floor with Orochimaru). And not even then firm conclusions can be made.

In a way I shouldn’t be complaining so much. Unlike with another issue I have been complaining about, regarding Kabuto everything remains the same for me, in a way.
Not really, but I said once that I found him really enigmatic.
I still do. Not in a good way though, sadly enough.