Ep 215: The Past I Want to Erase

(shown with ep 215)

The man recalls the attack and how he fought with a thief. He tore his robe which revealed blue stripes. Tenten notes that the mark was not in the medical report. Neji uses his byakugan to observe that it is a special characteristic that only appears when he perspires. The guy wants to kill him, but Naruto says he doesn't have any memories. Neji says it’s meaningless to kill someone who doesn't remember his crimes. Tenten says they can use Menma to forge a deal. The guy agrees to treat his injuries, none too gently, and Menma passes out from the pain.

Neji keeps watch at night while Naruto and Tenten sleep. Menma gets up to work on the wall despite his injuries. Fuki and the other villagers throw rocks at him but Naruto protects him. Neji and Tenten join in but the villagers continue to pelt them. Suddenly arrows rain down. Naruto deflects them with kunai. The enemies attack. They raise the drawbridge. The enemy try using explosive tags but there’s no damage to the wall.

Menma leads the villages to hide. The enemy uses the sound of the wind to trap them in an illusion, and then a flute to bind them. Menma plays his flute to counter it. The team is now free to deflect kunai. Naruto uses kage bunshin but his clones are destroyed by the leader with his whip. Real Naruto sneaks up from behind and takes his flute. Neji uses kaiten and Tenten uses her nunchucks to defeat the others.

Fuki lost her necklace and runs out to get it. Menma saves her from being caught and returns the necklace. She remembers Menma from before and shouts out to warn him from an attack from behind. Menma kicks back and takes the enemy out but he has over stressed his body. Menma realizes that the leader Shin will use his last resort.

There’s a dam upstream with enough water stored there to last a year. Destroying the dam will cause a flashflood that will wash the village away. Naruto mentions moving a mountain. Menma says that blowing up the mine will create large number of rocks that should stop the flood.

As Naruto carries Menma on his back, Menma admits he never lost his memories. He lost his parents at a young age and was raised by the Shin clan, a small shinobi clan in Rice country with high ideals. A year ago, a shinobi village was founded in Rice Country - Hidden Sound Village. All the clan's skilled members went to join Hidden Sound. Requests from the feudal lord stopped. Then the clan leader set his sights on the gold mine.

They were supposed to just scare the villages away, but things changed. Menma got scared and tried to run away. He used a technique that caused memory loss but it didn't work well and his memory came back a few days later. He faked it to bring Konoha shinobi to save the village. He gives Naruto his flute and tells him to stop Shin while he sets off the explosives from the inside. He pushes Naruto into the gorge to prevent him from protesting.

Neji and villagers hear far off explosions. Water rushes in. Menma sets off the tags in the mine. The collapsed mountain stops the flood.

Naruto sees Shin and pursues him with kage bunshin. The kunai on a rope takes out the front line but Naruto rasengans the kunai as it comes toward him. His rasengan continues until he hits Shin. The team captures the rest of the enemy.

Weeks later, Naruto eats ramen with fermented bamboo shoots while talking to Menma's flute. Tsunade and Shizune look on and discuss how he’s gained hard experience from losing a friend.

Review: Should be sad and touching but something it wasn’t.

Notes:
Sousai no ne: counterbalancing sound
Shin = leader
Ran = girl
Fuki = girl
? = uncle

Thoughts:
Why can’t a clone set off the tags in the mine?