Naruto Anime Analysis

Season 4: Episode 181

Source: Wikipedia

"Hoshikage: The Buried Truth"

"Akahoshi says that the mission for the Konoha Shinobi is over, but Neji says that as the star has not been recovered, the mission will go on. Neji, Lee, and Tenten reveal the truth about Akahoshi to the trainees. Naruto awakens and hears about Natsuhi and her husband seeing the horrors of the star training and trying to steal the star. After they were caught, the Third Hoshikage agreed to end the star training if they left the village and watched from afar to prevent it from resuming. Natsuhi and her husband accepted, asking the Hoshikage to tell Sumaru that they had died. Akahoshi tracks down the star and reveals that he assassinated the Hoshikage to resume the star training. He fights Natsuhi and absorbs his subordinates' chakra to grow stronger, but Naruto's teammates and the star trainees arrive."

Analysis

The relevance of title of the episode is relevant in the sense that we finally know about Akahoshi's evil secret. As supported by my possible explanation in Season 4: Episode 179, I was right to assume that Akahoshi was the one who killed the third hoshikage because he was an obstacle in terms of blocking Akahoshi's selfish ambitions. Moreover, from the title of the episode, the element of death is also present. Throughout the episode, everyone starts to realize that Akahoshi is nothing but a villain.

Akahoshi says that the mission for the Konoha Shinobi is over, but Neji says that as the star has not been recovered, the mission will go on. At the start of the episode, tense music started playing in the background. After Neji witnessed the fall of Naruto off the cliff, he ran close to the edge of the Valley of Death to check for any sign of Naruto. So, he activated his Byakugan, but he could not see any trace of Naruto or the shinobi, Natsuhi. Afterwards, Neji asked Akahoshi why he hit Naruto, and Akahoshi just gave an excuse that it was an accident and that it was a tragic loss since Naruto was the first one to defeat the ninja art of kujaku. As a result, he "thanked" Neji, and that's when he said the mission for the leaf Shinobi was over. Moreover, when Neji said that the star had not been recovered, Akahoshi said that the star village would handle it. Afterwards, Akahoshi leaves with his men, while Neji stays behind, watching them leave.

Despite Akahoshi's attempt to kill Natsuhi and hurt Naruto, they both survived. They are at Natsuhi's hideout, taking shelter in her cave. When Naruto fell off the cliff, Natsuhi saved him by using her purple chakra and then proceeded to use her purple chakra to form wings. Afterwards, she flew away and got out of that poisonous gas. As they proceeded to converse with each other, that's when Naruto found out that she was Sumaru's mother.

Meanwhile, when Akahoshi and his men got back to the residence, they found out that Sumaru was gone and knew that the leaf shinobi had taken him. Therefore, they made plans to silence them permanently once they got the star back. Once they silence them, they plan to lie to the leaf village that the genin died while trying to fulfil a mission. Moreover, to find the star, Akahoshi said that he had burned Natsuhi's chakra in his memory, and he would follow the remnant trail of her chakra that would lead them straight to the star. His plans are not going to work because the need to pursue power at the expense of others always ends up not working out.

Neji, Lee, and Tenten reveal the truth about Akahoshi to the trainees. While Neji was telling them about what happened to Naruto, Tenten and Lee appeared with Sumaru. Moreover, after Neji's team informed the trainees about Akahoshi and how he kidnapped Sumaru, Neji pointed out that the shinobi who took the star was the only one who could explain what was going on. Therefore, their next step was to find the shinobi in the forest, in the land of bears. Neji's team and trainees leave while they leave Mizura behind to rest since his chakra was weakened from star training.