I’m going to call this the chapter that changed everything…if it weren’t for Sasuke, Naruto wouldn’t have a rival and the series probably would not have gotten as far as it has.
This chapter doesn’t have that much character development/philosophy either, except for the conversation in front of the bench, so I’m just going to give the little tidbits of trivia that I gleaned.
I didn’t notice it the first time I read this chapter, but the little black bird in the cover that’s wearing a headband? It’s pretty cute!
Of course everyone saw the Masashi Kishimoto sign on page 4. Pretty hard to miss
Konoha’s grocery store must be an interesting place…given that there is an angry cow on Naruto’s milk carton. It kind of looks like inner Sakura, doesn’t it? 
Sakura’s skirt was short in the manga, with her pants long. I really liked the anime version better, with the shorts and longer skirt, it seems more balanced.
p. 7 Those 3 girls? Temari, Neji and Ino…it’s not, but that girl really looks like Neji…
For 12, Sasuke has a serious issues…no really, I love him to death, but he has problems. (Deep problems, as you’ll find out later, but we’re not going to go into that yet).
I’m not going to go into the infamous scene too much since the whole thing is awkward, but that guy has a really strong elbow (and he’s completely clueless).
Is the balance on the teams a universal; “smart” “useless” and “so-so” Combo? [sorry Sakura] Because I kind of want to know how team 8 balanced out. I don’t dislike Hinata, and I’m not trying to pick on her, but she was not that good in part one…whatever they did, it seemed to work out pretty well, the chemistry in the team was pretty good.
Page 14: Let me pick on Sasuke for a moment (since you all know that’s who I love to talk about)…if He’s so smart, how on earth did he fall for the simple rope trick? Then again, it was an ambush…with shadow clones. Speaking of which, a lot of Sasuke’s lines in the English dub are hilarious. For example; in the 3rd episode (the one corresponding with this chapter) when he and Naruto had their encounter in front of the bathroom, he counters Naruto’s use of Shadow clone Jutsu with a quite annoyed “Ugh, That Jutsu again?”…yes, sometimes Sasuke does act like the pre-teen he actually is.
Does Sakura remember “Fake Sasuke” as “Real Sasuke”? because if she does…awkward…for both of them, even though Sasuke doesn’t know what happened, it’s still decidedly awkward.
When it comes to love, Naruto must be as dense as Sakura. She clearly DOES NOT LIKE HIM, and yet he STILL is going after her. And this is Sakura we’re talking about…she’s known to be violent.
Sasuke actually went to tell the rest of his team that it was time to go, for a guy who was saying “that’s way too many people” several minutes ago, why did he even bother? that was the moment he could be like; if I go to class and they’re not there, maybe I’ll get advanced special training. Does he think about that? Nope.
p.21 I think this scene was one of the major “Naruto and Sasuke Friendship” development moments…This is where Sasuke acknowledges the similarities between his and Naruto’s pain which results in Sakura deciding to change her attitude towards Naruto. (The anime scene goes into a little more conversation, but the manga makes sense.) You could almost say it was the first step in team 7 uniting…or rather, the first thing that showed potential of them uniting.
This concludes this weeks review, stay tuned for the next one (and the Konoha High School post that will be coming soon!)
-The Narutoologist
Talk about life and Manga 
