The following contains spoilers for Chapter 10 of Naruto: Sasuke’s Story — The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust, by Masashi Kishimoto, Jun Esaka, Shingo Kimura and Snir Aharon, now available in English from Viz Media.
One of the scariest aspects of Naruto: Sasuke’s Story — The Uchiha and the Heavenly Stardust has been the introduction of a new villain akin to Orochimaru. This is none other than the prison warden at Redaku, Zansuru. Sasuke Uchiha, on a mission to find the cure for an ailing Naruto, has realized that Zansuru was making dinosaurs to peddle as soldiers of war.
Interestingly, when Zansuru figured out Sasuke’s ruse, the ninja couldn’t take the villain down. This painted a terrifying picture, especially because it’s been shown that Sasuke could have physically defeated Orochimaru in the Konoha wars. Sadly, as Chapter 10 brings this spinoff to an end, it totally squanders the potential of Zansuru and the fright factor that was initially promised.
Sasuke’s Story Kills Zansuru in Comedic Fashion
Zansuru was actually using Jiji’s new Edo Tensei to revive dinosaurs to tell. However, when Zansuru was riding a pterodactyl, it got confused as it could only take one order at a time. Its boss simply fell off and died in the process, smacking into the ground. This was hugely disappointing because it seemed like Zansuru would have been a powerful threat in battle.
Zansuru already had an artificial eye that rendered him impervious to Sasuke’s genjutsu and the Sharingan, so many readers thought he was harboring more secret talents. This set the scientist up to unveil ninjutsu and taijutsu, which could have outdone Naruto‘s Orochimaru even more.
Sadly, it’s laughable how Sasuke’s Story’s villain exits stage left. Jiji doesn’t even use his power to resurrect the fiend — all so Sasuke can convince Jiji to atone. Given Jiji was duped by Zansuru, it would have made sense for him to even attack the boss for tricking Jiji into thinking he had his wife’s corpse. Jiji finding out Margo was alive all along created the platform for the new alliance to attack, while still being surprised by the villain’s power. Sadly, the warden is nothing more than a goofball who can’t command his dino, and who never gets admonished for his deceit.
Sasuke’s Story’s Zansuru Could Have Been a Longstanding Enemy
The criminal Orochimaru wreaked havoc in an intimidating fashion before he became good. Whether it be personal projects and abominations, armies with Kabuto or sadistic missions with the Akatsuki, he took his knowledge everywhere to get revenge on Konoha. Thus, had Zansuru fled and lived to fight another day, he could have used his own tools, research and whatever else he gleaned from Jiji to resurrect another legion in time.
Apart from dinos, Zansuru could have revived Kages and shinobi from past wars, nodding to how Kaguya had Madara and Obito reviving heroes and villains for her brainwashed team. This could have led to Naruto‘s alliance hunting them down, with these figures expanding on backstories the Naruto era never went into. Such an approach would have made Zansuru a shadowy villain, puppet-mastering folks akin to what Isshiki did with Kara.
It would have also crafted an overlord for Sasuke and Sakura to pursue. Sarada, Team 7 and other Konoha-nin could have sought the tyrant out for offering monsters and warped soldiers as mercenaries. Ultimately, killing Zansuru off so quickly feels like a big mistake for Sasuke’s Story, which doesn’t help the franchise in long-term storytelling.
