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I'll admit that at the very least instead of just retconning a one chapter background in and the killing Kabuto, Kishi is taking his time with this one and the flashback of Kabuto's past at least is handled in earnest.
However, I still stand by my not likeing the background that he is given, AT ALL.
So lemme flashback, too: At first I was annoyed with Kabuto for getting more and more screentime and power over the course of the war. The whole Edo-Tensei business had this whiff of asspull... And then later it seemed only a matter of time till either Itachi or Sasuske show up to end him.
And there Kishi suprised us nicely by staying coherent with Kabuto's powergain, he pitted both Itachi and Sasuske against him and yet he seems a decent match. And I rly like how he explained that enormous powerup via Snakesage, that was good in many a ways: Naruto's sage mode is less exceptional, but still is a cool thing. The very notion that a "sage" doesn't have to be inherently good, but that there can also be somebody using natural energy at so high a level precisley for being a sage of evil I thought was great.
And I felt that Kabuto's character as I read him mixed well with that: Whatever psychfuck had happened to him in the past under Oro or Sasori, he had passed through and left behind his state of emotional trauma and trying to emulate Oro's greatness and instead decided to pursue his own, surpassing his former mentor. And being the snake sage fits that so nicely. He had discarded emotion for power completely, or so it seemed, to become the cold calculating snake. And that would have added to the manga imho as one of the main villains not having the villain face cause he had a hard childhood but rather because after a troubled live, he conciously threw all that human shit away and married power itself instead in the guise of the path of the evil sage.
Like that, I was willing to accept him as a potential wench in the plans of either of the other main players. Like that he could have moved on to seriously interfere with the Kages, with Naruto, with Sasuske and even with Madara himself ... because like that he would ahve shown a dedication to raw power itself like few others.
But no, in the end a point has to be made that there is no such thing as the conscious choice to be evil - people only ever get fucked over by life which in turn makes them sad, then empty, and then ultimately evil. So basically he's turning into Sasuske 2.0 after a promising start as the opposing sage.
And that's why I don't like it one bit even if for once Kishi invests some time and tries hard to make it compelling. Tries so hards he has to make Danzo and Oro additional sources of Kabuto's pains ... and it's nice to see Oro being an ass but a brilliant one back then in root, but does it all have to lead back to him??? I thought Kabuto had emancipated himself from Oro but instead it seems it all leads back to him and keeps on doing so
As for those who say this is not a real flashback, it's just Itachi messing with his mind via Izahax, all good and well on a plot internal level, maybe that is the case... but ultimately it is Kishi who decides what Itachi makes Kabuto remember or see, so...same issue still.... He could have warped Kabuto's reality in all kinds of different ways.
Now maybe I am wrong and Kishi is doing all this precisley because kabuto will NOT die, and as a latecomer to the main antagonists needs more story. and maybe that will still work out as things progress, after all I dunno where he will go with this in the next three chaps...
But what I really fear now is that he gets the emo flashback before dying as is cannon, and that doesn't get any better just cause he takes the time to put some thought into the flashback and stretch it out a couple of chaps longer than one normally would expect.
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