Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-1181222-20180221094645/@comment-11891028-20180222090907

So after all the work they put in, all the Byakuya gang wanted; or at least what Gekko wanted, was a scroll from the Scientific Ninja Weapons Team eh? They sure took the long way round to get it, I guess the Hidden Leaf must have learned from the multiple times people have broken into the Hokage residence to steal or read scrolls (most notably Naruto for Mizuki), either that or they didn't consider/couldn't find a suitable scapegoat from the leaf to steal it for them.

Seems like Ryogi was taking advantage of his games with Shikadai the whole time. The shougi strategy was a nice reference, and it was good to see Shikadai actually picking up on the little details like this in order to find where the Byakuya gang were really targeting.

I think the angry mob could have been handled a bit better, surely if they were all just under a genjutsu then Sarada or any of the Hyuga clan could have identified that rather than having to identify the cursed seals they had first. Not to mention, if all it took was to release the genjutsu for each individual person, surely Naruto could have created loads of shadow clones to surround the crowd and dispel the genjutsu from the outside in. I get that the Hidden Leaf Ninja didn't want to use any ninjutsu that could see them as being oppressive, but I wouldn't have thought that they knew if a protest like that could get violent or not so going to each citizen one by one to dispel the genjutsu could have been dangerous, I think one of the nara clan (ie Shikamaru) should have just used the giant shadow created by the angry mob (additional chakra supplied by Naruto if needs be, or just have the entire Nara clan come at them from all sides) to put them all in a shadow possession jutsu whilst the ninja went round dispelling the genjutsu.

Anyway, angry mob aside. It seems like most of the Byakuya gang are useless, as I mentioned in the previous episode discussion, seeing as they were beaten by a pair of genin. Shikamaru showing up to take out the last guy was good, it makes me want to see more action from Naruto's generation (Kakashi, Guy, Yamato etc had a fair few fights, so surely the Konoha 11 (substituting Neji with Sai) should get some action in, they shouldn't just have to rely on the next generation's kids to deal with all the problems in the village; especially if those particular genin are just supposed to be on guard and report duty anyway). If the ninja were more efficient in dealing with the angry mob then they could have gone in pursuit of the Byakuya gang whilst the crowd just stayed by the Kaminarimon Company to listen to Naruto's speech (Talk no jutsu en masse).

It seems like the Hidden Leaf's sensory/barrier unit were on their lunch break or something during the protest if they didn't sense the Byakuya gang leaving the village along with Team Moegi and Boruto (I assume they had left the village once they were on the train the headed to the border, though with the Leaf's recent expansion I'm assuming they had to increase the barrier's size). It's episodes like this that make me want Inojin to learn some more Yamanaka clan techniques so at least he could have contacted other people for assistance telepathically. Seems to me like the Konoha 11 had a decent variety of sensory ninja, whilst the current Leaf genin are lacking in this field. Himawari, become a ninja and join your brother! That way we Sharingan, Byakugan and Boruto's dojutsu out in the field.

Also, Denki still seems pretty useless as a ninja to me. I get that he can't really do any signature ninjutsu right now (excluding the collaboration ninjutsu he did with his academy classmates, since he probably just learned that from the academy) but it seems all he can do at the moment is use a computer (which I doubt will be very effective during battle). At the very least he could brush up on his Taijutsu, maybe learn some lessons from the Lee clan.