Today I just picked up the latest volume of the American Shounen Jump magazine and all I can say is I'm greatly dissapointed(sp?) on how they're handling Naruto!

I just wish they would stop trying to catch up to the Japanese version already! I know Naruto is popular and all, I'm a huge fan myself! (if you can't tell already) But it just feels like they're committing some kind of readership suicide by doing this! Think about it! America seems to have a love affair with the characters Kakashi and Hinata, (I, personally, am part of the Hinata team) but what could happen to the number of readers when they come to the recent chapters of *spoiler* Kakashi and Hinata's deaths? (although I personally refuse to believe it) *spoiler* Yeah sure, there are readers (like me) who use the internet and read all the chapters the moment they come out of Japan, but what about the readers who don't? What about the ones who only know about the Viz released versions?

And why can't they do the same thing with One Piece? That's another Jump series that's popular here in the states and they're still stuck in Alabasta(sp?) in the Viz Jump version! Right now in Japan, they're miles away from Alabasta and already have two new crew members! Wouldn't that be worth at least a small time jump?

So yeah, I do love the U.S. Jump, I really do! But they need to slow down on Naruto for a bit, especially since the series may come to an end sometime in the near future!