火影

Decoding the Message

Mount Myōboku, the land of toads.

After the failed mission to find Sasuke or Itachi, Naruto remembered his encounter with Itachi. Itachi asked Naruto why he insisted on trying to save Sasuke who doesn't want to be saved, and Naruto replied he was more a brother to him than he ever was. Satisfied with his answer, Itachi departs, but not before performing a technique on Naruto, to prepare him for the chance that Sasuke attacks Konoha. Soon after, Naruto is called to the Hokage office where he is told by Fukasaku, that Jiraiya was killed in Amegakure by Pain. Naruto, devastated, left to mourn while Tsunade, who was equally hurt, has the decoders decode Jiraiya's dying message on Fukasaku's back.

Devastated and unable to focus even after encouraging words from Iruka Umino, Naruto was taken byShikamaru Nara to the hospital to see a pregnant Kurenai Yūhi, whose child Shikamaru will instruct. Shikamaru reminded Naruto that there will come a time where all their masters will be gone and they will be the new masters of new students. With this in mind, Naruto opts to help the decoders decode the message, and saw that the message was written in Jiraiya's unique, if somewhat sloppy katakana script. With this knowledge, they discover Pain's secret that "The real one isn't there". After deciphering the code, Fukasaku asks that Naruto come with him to learn senjutsu like Jiraiya.

After a Reverse Summon sent Naruto and Fukasaku to Mount Myōboku, the two began the difficult senjutsu training. The training required Naruto to first be completely still so to allow himself to mould the natural chakra surrounding him. To speed up the process, special frog oil was smeared on Naruto that would allow him to use natural chakra, but at a higher risk of turning into a toad statue. After several days to weeks, Naruto successfully learned how to remain perfectly still in order to mould enough natural chakra to enter Sage Mode, and even trained himself in secret to master his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. However, when time came to learn Sage Art: Amphibian Technique to allow Shima and Fukasaku to gather the natural chakra while in combat, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox prevented the fusion requiring Naruto to come up with an alternativemethod of entering Sage Mode in battle.

Sasuke vs. the Eight-Tails

Killer B's first appearance.

Meanwhile, Sasuke decided to not take Itachi's eyes to awaken his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, opting to restore their clan his own way. Tobi ordered Takato find the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, Killer B of Kumogakure. They find him at the Valley of Clouds and Lightning and begin to battle. Killer B easily disarmsSuigetsu Hōzuki, and defeats Jūgo with Suigetsu's own sword. Sasuke challenges him alone, and despite using his Mangekyō Sharingan, Killer B is able fatally injure Sasuke twice: first when he was stabbed multiple times by Killer B's swords, from which he was saved by sucking Karin's chakra, and later by a hit from a three-tailed Killer B'sLariat, blowing open his chest, which Jūgo restored, infusing his own flesh in Sasuke's body.

Annoyed, Killer B fully transformed into the Eight-Tails. Suigetsu tried to blow Killer B away with a giant wave, but was easily repelled by a Tailed Beast Ball. Out of desperation, and seeing Taka resemble his former team, Sasuke used Amaterasu to stop the giant ox. Sasuke cut off one of the beasts tentacles when it almost crushed Karin, but she was hit by another one, igniting her with Amaterasu. Sasuke managed to put the flames out on her and on Killer B. After collecting the injured and their captive, Sasuke and Jūgo head back to Akatsuki's base.

Killer B fully transformed.

When Sasuke delivered Killer B to Tobi, he informed him that his true intentions was to not destroy Konoha's elders, but the entire village for making the Uchiha destroy themselves, vowing to destroy anyone who gets in his way. His task completed, Sasuke departs to a hideout, not knowing that they were being followed by Kumo-nin J. When he was discovered, he was attacked by Taka before he could retreat.

During the sealing of the Eight-Tails, which was taking longer due to losing most Akatsuki members, Killer B's body turns back into a tentacle. Killer B, still at the battlefield, climbs out of a tentacle at the bottom of the lake, relieved that Akatsuki "kidnapped" him and allowed him a chance to leave the village. The Eight-Tails cautions that Akatsuki will still be pursuing him and asks why B used up nearly all his energy going all out, to which B responds he got carried away because Sasuke was one of the strongest opponents he'd ever faced.

Pain's Invasion

The new Six Paths of Pain.

Upon reaching Konoha, Pain discussed the battle plans for the invasion. TheAnimal Path, Asura Path, and Preta Path will act as diversions while the Deva Path, Naraka Path, Human Path, and Konan interrogated villagers on the whereabouts of Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Foxeither through mind reading or threat of death. Once preparations were complete, the Asura Path threw the Animal Path into the village where it summoned the other Six Paths of Pain and the invasion began.

Because Konoha only expected one invader, the multiple points of attack made it difficult for Konoha react. TheFifth Hokage called for Naruto to return to the village to aid in its defence, but the messenger toad Kōsuke was killed by Danzō before he could leave, to prevent Akatsuki a chance at capturing the Nine-Tails. Meanwhile Tsunade remained at the Ninja Academy to summon and use Katsuyu to heal any villager who was injured during the attack.

Pain destroys Konoha.

Kakashi Hatake engaged the Deva Path, who was quickly backed up by the Asura Path. Chōza and his team of shinobi along with his son, Chōji Akimichi came to Kakashi's aid and discovered the Deva Path's unique gravity manipulation has a five second window. Despite discovering this secret and the Asura Path defeated, Chōza along with his team were critically wounded and Kakashi incapacitated, leaving only Chōji to deliver the information to Tsunade.Konohamaru Sarutobi engaged and defeated the Naraka Path, while Tsume andKiba Inuzuka engaged the Preta Path.

As the invasion continued, Konan interrogated several Konoha shinobi on Naruto's whereabouts. However, by this time Naruto had earned the respect of every single Konoha shinobi to the point that not one shinobi was willing to give away Naruto's location and would rather be killed. One such shinobi told Konan to "go to hell" with a smile on his face, despite the hopeless situation he was in. As the Deva Path confronted Tsunade to question her about Naruto, Shizune, Inoichi and Ino Yamanaka discovered the secret of Pain's Six Paths. Thechakra receivers planted in the body of the body Jiraiya sent back revealed that each body was merely a animated corpse powered by chakra, and that Pain's real body was elsewhere. As Shizune summarised their analysis, the Human Path found and read her mind discovering Naruto was at Mount Myōboku. Upon finding out and angered by Tsunade's perceived lack of pain, the Deva Path recalled Konan and the other five Paths out of the village where he detonated a powerful Shinra Tensei, destroying most of the village.

Naruto vs. Pain

Naruto arrives at Konoha.

Having caught word of Pain's attack, the toads at Mount Myōboku prepared for the counter-attack. Shima, who was at Konoha at the time, was told to prepare areverse summoning to bring Naruto, Fukasaku, Gamabunta, Gamaken, Gamahiro, and Gamakichi to Konoha, moments after the Shinra Tensei levelled the village. After using the Naraka Path to repair the destroyed Asura Path, the Animal was launched back into the village and re-summoned the rest of the paths back into the village to fight the jinchūriki.

Using his newly learned senjutsu techniques and a perfected Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, Naruto defeated the Asura, Human, Animal, and Naraka Paths, before the Deva Path regained enough strength to fight on its own again. When he was finally caught and held by the energy-absorbing Preta Path, Naruto used the senjutsu chakra to disrupt the Preta Path's chakra flow, turning it into a frog statue, before finally facing the Deva Path, Pain's last and most often used body. Pain quickly dispatched the giant toads and gained the upper hand, killing Fukasaku in the process. Using another gravity manipulation technique to grab and immobilise Naruto, Pain then pinned him to the ground with his Chakra Disruption Blades in order to take him away. Before departing, Naruto asked Pain why he had done everything, to which Pain replied that the world could never have the peace Jiraiya fought for because the world was too full of hatred, and, therefore, the only way to create world peace was through force. By using the tailed beasts, Pain planned on making a weapon strong enough to destroy a country, and the fear of that weapon would prevent more fighting.

Shikamaru Nara, having survived the destruction of Konoha, met with the Yamanaka group carrying Shizune's body. When they were told what information she knew, Shikamaru concluded that Pain's real body was somewhere close to the village, at a high enough place that he could send his chakra across a large enough distance to control the Six Paths with no difficulty. As Pain was describing his quest for world peace, his true body, Nagato, emaciated and with several chakra blades sticking out of his back, was shown in his and Konan's hiding place, a makeshift tree on a high mountain close to the village.

Hinata comes to Naruto's rescue.

Hinata Hyūga came to his rescue after confessing her love for Naruto, but was quickly struck down and critically wounded. Believing that Pain had killed her, Naruto lost control of his anger and slipped into his six-tailed transformation. The First Hokage's necklace reacted to this and tried to suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra, but was removed and destroyed. With the Nine-Tails in control of Naruto's body, it fought and overwhelmed Pain, causing him to retreat from the village in order to get close enough to Nagato to use Chibaku Tensei. With the Nine-Tails controlling Naruto, and Pain out of the village, Sakura Haruno ordered all who could help to tend to the wounded and for a team, including herself, to help the critically wounded Hinata. Team Guy, who was returning from a mission, passed the injured Gamabunta, who informed them that Konoha was in danger. Elsewhere, Yamato, who was with Sai and Anko Mitarashi on a mission hunting Kabuto Yakushi, sensed that Naruto had released six tails of the Nine-Tails, and headed back to find and stop Naruto.

Naruto in his eight-tailed transformation.

While still being pursued by the Nine-Tails, Pain, through the great strain of Nagato, used the Chibaku Tensei to create a giant miniature moon in an attempt to capture the Nine-Tails. During this time, Naruto, locked in his own subconscious and lost in despair, called out for help to a response of Pain's visions of peace. In the end, while the apparently evil Pain had a plan to deal with the hatred in the world, Naruto did not. Taking advantage of his pain, the Nine-Tails convinced Naruto to destroy everything in the world by releasing the seal. This caused the seal to distort. Despite the strength of the miniature moon, the distorted seal allowed the eighth-tail to grow, partially breaking free of the sphere.

In his mind, just as he was about to remove the seal to release the ninth tail, Minato Namikaze, the FourthHokage, appeared, and spoke with Naruto. Minato revealed to Naruto that he was his father, and he sealed the Nine-Tails into him because he too felt that the Nine-Tails was forced to come to Konoha, and believed amasked being within Akatsuki was behind the attack. After easing Naruto's fears that he couldn't change the world, Minato repaired the seal and sent Naruto back to finish his battle with Pain.

With the Nine-Tails' chakra suppressed, Naruto and Pain resumed their battle, with Naruto tricking Pain into using a Shinra Tensei on dozens of shadow clones, giving Naruto enough time to strike him with a Rasenganduring the five second window. The last body of Pain was defeated, and Naruto used its chakra receivers to track down and confront Nagato himself.

The Talk with Nagato

Naruto confronts Konan and Nagato.

Having reached the makeshift tree, Naruto asked Nagato why he hated Konoha, and what had made him the way he was. Nagato, still wanting to know Naruto's reply to his question, answered with two stories. The first was how his parents were killed during the Second Shinobi World War, which led to the activation of his Rinnegan. The second he began with how he met his friends Konan andYahiko, the boy whose body would later become the Deva Path. Yahiko had revealed to the small makeshift family that he wanted to rule the world, to stop the world's wars. After their dog, Chibi, was killed by an explosive tag as collateral damage from the Sannin's battle with Salamander Hanzō, Yahiko declared he wouldn't just rule the world, but would become a god, a dream that sparked the same desire in Nagato.

Nagato then revealed how Yahiko approached Jiraiya to ask him to train himself, Nagato and Konan to be ninja. During the training, Nagato had used the Rinnegan to save Yahiko. Seeing this, Jiraiya told Nagato about the time of never-ending wars, when a "messiah", the Sage of the Six Paths, appeared, and spread his religion across the world, which came to be the ninja techniques that the shinobi used today. Jiraiya thought the Sage had been "reborn" as Nagato, and entrusted him to find the "answer" and spread peace in the world, before leaving the three orphans. Years later, the three formed a gang in Amegakure, led by Yahiko, to abolish wars and bring peace to the world. Their fame captured the attention of Hanzō, who approached Yahiko to join hands and work together to bring peace among the war-torn countries of Earth, Fire and Wind. But this association turned out to be a trap laid by Hanzō, as he feared that Yahiko's group would take over the leadership of Amegakure. He lured Yahiko and Nagato to an area which was surrounded by many KonohaANBU Root shinobi, with Danzō leading them. Hanzō had kidnapped Konan, and then proposed for Yahiko to die to save Konan's life. He threw a kunai in Nagato's direction, and ordered him to kill Yahiko. Yahiko agreed to die, but Nagato refused to kill him. Seeing this, Yahiko forcibly held Nagato's hand with the kunai and slit his own throat with it. A dying Yahiko told Nagato that he had to live, as he was the "messiah". Nagato told Naruto that Yahiko's death was the second great source of pain for him. This incident led Nagato to go berserk, as he used his Rinnegan's abilities to subdue and backfire all attacks on him by Hanzō's men. But in the midst of all this, Nagato's legs were horribly burnt by Hanzō's Fire Release technique while he was saving Konan. He ultimately summoned a large, animated statue for battle, which imbued several chakra rods from its body into Nagato's back in order to use the latter's chakra. The statue then released a soul removing dragon which killed many of Hanzō's men, but as Nagato was about to target Hanzō himself, he fled the scene with the Body Flicker Technique. Nagato told Naruto that he had become the leader of their gang, and had carried on Yahiko's agenda to bring peace to the world.

Nagato resurrecting the people of Konoha.

After hearing Nagato's story, Naruto reflected on everything he had heard. Naruto agreed that some of the things Nagato mentioned were true, but he also said that Jiraiya had believed in him, and that he would believe in what Jiraiya had believed in, and that was why he would not kill Nagato. Nagato questioned this, and Naruto pulled out the book that Jiraiya had written. He began reading from it, and told Nagato the main character's name was Naruto. Naruto then said that he would become Hokage, and he promised peace for Amegakure as well. Nagato then stated that Naruto was like him when he was younger. He said that he would believe in Naruto, and prepared to use a technique.

Konan gives Naruto the "flowers of hope".

Upon using the technique, Nagato used his Outer Path to release all the souls that had been captured, and used it to also revive those who had died, including Kakashi, Fukasaku and Shizune. At Mount Myōboku, the Great Toad Sage was shown telling Gamabunta that everyone had been revived, and that he found it surprising that it was two of Jiraiya's pupils that would bring about the revolution to the Ninja World. Nagato then entrusted his will to Naruto, and passed away. Konan decided to leave the Akatsuki, and took both Nagato and Yahiko's bodies, telling Naruto that she would believe in him. She then used her paper to create a bouquet of flowers as a sign of peace, and gave them to Naruto.

Hero of Konoha

The village greets Naruto upon his return.

Naruto erected a shrine in the forest in honour of his sensei and started to make his way back to the ruins of Konoha. He almost succumbed to exhaustion, but was caught by a newly revived Kakashi, who carried Naruto on his back to the border of the village. Awaiting them were his friends and companions. As the villagers congratulated Naruto, Ebisu and Iruka thought about how their opinion of Naruto had undergone an immense change over the years; he was once considered a nuisance and a demon, but as his deeds were recognised he became a true hero through the eyes of many. Naruto's ultimate dream of acknowledgement seemed to have come true at last.