What the piss was this tripe
So this is what being an established mangaka- I mean, "super rookie" lets you get away with huh? I know this is a spinoff gaiden thing, but this is still the first chapter of a new serialization. 'Tis supposed do draw in readers and encourage them to read on and shit.
And despite the magazine cover showing Naruto and his Mini-Me clone, and despite the friggin title of the Gaiden, we get…Salad moping over deadbeat dad Sasuke. So exciting. So engaging. Truly, this seems like a story that needed to be told. Oh, and I'm so glad we got the "Sasu-kuya wanders alone in the woods and looks up just as his daughter is thinking of him" scene. I mean, that was the best scene in the epilogue, so I'm glad we could see the exact same thing again.
Between comments on Sakuras penchant for fail-I mean, fainting, and on the kids being veritable clones of the old generation the chapter seems borderline self-aware, but then again, this is Kishimoto we're talking about and the "And then they have kids who are just like them and the scenario from chapter 1 repeats, FULL CIRCLE BITCHES!" ending is such an uninspired cliche that I've no doubt it was all in earnest.
Speaking of, might as well quickly comment on the epilogue since I never got around to that. Basically it was garbage that displayed the worst aspects of the "new generation, FULL CIRLCE!!!!!" ending. When you do a time-skip epilogue to a 700 chapter series, I'd like to see updates and sendoffs to the characters I've gotten to know and love, and to see how the world has evolved. Why the hell am I reading about a bunch of new characters, while the old ones are in the background doing pretty much fuck all? I don't know these kids. I don't care about them, I cared about the parents. And no, the kids having inherited looks, fashion sense, status and indeed entire personalities from their parents doesn't count.
And they're still running around the same old ninja town training to become child soldiers, because the whole debate about that topic amounted to [Insert Naruto Philosophy Here], so thats why ninjas still seem to be just about the only occupation available, since we still need ninjas to fight [undisclosed], after all, the inter-village relations are [Value Missing] now, and the free Bijuus have affected the world by [N/A]. Oh, and its "more peaceful", and theres laptops and skyscrapers now! Brave new world.
A bit late, but that^ stuff was sitting around. Really, of all things in the epilogue, the fact that it features Sais clone-spawn still going to ninja school with giant swords on his back just about sums up the whole thing.