Seriously, he's been out of the manga forever. They left him on a major cliff hanger, too. All the other stuff going on is all well and good, but Kabuto is my favorite character and I want to see him again. So I hope he'll be brought back soon and that Kishi didn't just totally forget about him and his Orofication. I think that they already did an injustice that his eyes changing colored were never explained (though I'm not sure if that happened in the manga or not) and it seems like it's too late for them to explore that. So I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that they don't just have Sasuke kill him off and end it at that.

Well every character has its participation when time is needed and of course, if they placed kabuto like pasted there, it wouldnt have any importance in the time line.
My Advice, patience.

I don't want him to be pasted in, but I do wish his part would come soon AND be good. I don't think I'm being impatient, I got into the Naruto fandom last July because I liked Kabuto and Oro. I knew about what happened to him from the beginning, because I was spoiled. I've been waiting for nearly a year to find out what happened to him. D: So far nothing, and it doesn't seem like anything is coming up soon.

Kabuto? The Pokemon? Kabutops > Kabuto.

Though in all seriousness, who now?

Okay, okay. Seriously now. I don't think anyone really cares about Kabuto, no offense of course. There's no real need for him. Nobody really wants Orochimaru to come back and the series has moved way beyond Orochimaru. You saw how weak Itachi made him look so why would the creator go back to Kabuto and continue building on Orochimaru ver. 2 in an arc revolved around him when he has bigger fish to deal with?

I'd rather see the conclusion to this messy Sasuke-Naruto rivalry already to be quite honest.

Nobody? :P Well, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I'm somebody who wants him back. And there are plenty of others who do too. (They exist, honest! I've spoken to them myself. XD) Yes, I saw how weak Itachi made him, but that was just Kishi godmodding with the Uchiha again, what else is new? "Oh, uh, I'm bored of Oro being in Sasuke, so um, I'm going to have him come out for two seconds and then put him in a dreamlike jutsu with a sword that no one has ever heard of before now. Good plan! :D"

To me, Akatsuki is boring. I liked it better when they focused on Oro as the villain. Besides, even if no one did want him back (which is untrue) it shows weak writing and planning to deal with someone who was a major villain for so long like that. It makes me feel like Kishi is just making this up as he goes along. If he doesn't want to use Kabuto for anything, then he should have just killed him off to begin with back when Oro died, and been done with it. Not to mention that would have killed off Oro completely too (if he decided not to put him in Sasuke), and then he wouldn't have to deal with him later, and then we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

I would like to see a resolution to the Sasuke Naruto thing too, but I think that should come as the series finale, because it's been one of the major themes of the story. It wouldn't be good if that ended too soon.

I personally see Kabuto as nothing more than a comic relief villain now. You know, as in, "hey look there's Kabuto again, what's he doing this time! =P Looks like he's turning into a snake, oh that silly Kabuto!". I think the only reason Orochimaru pops in and out still is because he was a major villain throughout part one and at the beginning of part two he was still a foe to the good guys but I personally see no comeback for him or Kabuto. Like I said before, Sasuke has made him look weak, Itachi has made him look weak, hell, Naruto has made him look weak. If you're lucky, you might get a cameo towards the end where Kabuto tries to kill Sasuke before being killed by Sharingan hax.

As for Kishi, yep, it's poor writing, I noticed that some time ago when Naruto came a bit character despite the name of the series being his name (Hmmm). I quite honestly think he's making the whole thing on the fly, there's really no consistency to his writing. I think he draws a big outline for a major arc and as he gets stuck into it, he forgets about the particulars and it all becomes very messy. Quite honestly, this Itachi thing of late, to me, has felt very rushed and poorly-explained and his fight with Sasuke was just plain out awful towards the end. Probably because Uchiha's godmodding each other to death isn't my idea of fun.

At least Pein's godmodding was interesting.

Yeah, I feel bad for what happened to Naruto. Maybe he should have just renamed the series "Sasuke." For a while it was like "Naruto? Who is that?" It could be that Kishi is just getting bored of writing for the series. He said he wanted to write a series about gangsters, right? That could be the reason why his writing has been so poorly planned lately.

RitaBita

Yeah, I feel bad for what happened to Naruto. Maybe he should have just renamed the series "Sasuke." For a while it was like "Naruto? Who is that?" It could be that Kishi is just getting bored of writing for the series. He said he wanted to write a series about gangsters, right? That could be the reason why his writing has been so poorly planned lately.

Hm, I never heard about that. Did he say that in an interview?

Deerstalker, I guess I see your point. Maybe Kabuto will be comic relief. I wouldn't mind, I would just be happy to see him again. XD And yeah, I do agree that Kishi does get in over his head with plots. Sometimes it's like he's just spinning his wheels and has no idea what to do, so he's just stalling.

Kishi should just begin wrapping things up if you ask me. Things are getting a bit puzzling. It looks like he's about to fan the flames of Sasuke so he can continue being emo which is... great...

Would rather see Kabuto eat an orange for 25 minutes than another boring predictable Sasuke-Naruto confrontation.

I think Orochimaru's cells rest in Kabuto who just simply ran away from Naruto a few months ago... ddidn't Kabuto mention to Naruto that Orochimaru's cells live in him?

What if Orochimaru had something to do with Pain? Or Uchiha Madara?

Maxi-Ryu99

What if Orochimaru had something to do with Pain? Or Uchiha Madara?

But... he doesn't. >_> I think most-to-all connections between characters have been made. Orochimaru is nothing but manga-filler now.

^agreed, tho, I think Oro's roll will be of great importance in the future, since right now, and yeahz im waiting so hard for a battle between akatsuki and orochimaru

RyukZilla

I think Oro's roll will be of great importance in the future, since right now, and yeahz im waiting so hard for a battle between akatsuki and orochimaru

Got to disagree there buddy. I don't think he has any importance anymore. No character has any ties for a future story with him anymore. Sasuke ended it when he beat him, Naruto has no ties with him as Sasuke has nothing to do with him, Tsunade will probably be more concentrated on Pein now. The only person who'd hate him still would be Asuma and well... yeah.

The most decent way to bring back Kabuto would be if he joined Akatsuki or prove to be some threat to Konoha and the world in another way; I doubt any scenario will happen, though, because that would be just... another lame plot twist. I liked his character, too, but the story moved beyond that.

Eh, I wouldn't want him to join Akatsuki. I don't like the Akatsuki, and I think Naruto needs some non-Akatsuki villains. I don't think he'd want to go back either. He and Oro were against Akatsuki, and besides that, back when he was in Akatsuki he got made into a puppet by one of their members. On Akatsuki's side, I don't think they'd trust him much because he betrayed them. I think it would be kind of cool if he teamed up with Konoha against Akatsuki, but I don't think that will happen either.