Asuma supervises Naruto and Sora's wind chakra training, and notices that Sora, like Naruto, has very powerful chakra. Tsunade and Yamato learn from Chiriku that Sora was inadvertently responsible for an incident in which the Temple of Fire was destroyed. Later, Asuma gives Sora a claw made from the same materials as his chakra blades. It is revealed that Asuma killed Sora's father Kazuma, who had planned to kill the Hokage. Furido then approaches Sora, telling him that Asuma is responsible for his father's death and passing him two "king" pieces from a Shogi set for Asuma. Danzo mysteriously disappears. Naruto approaches a furious Sora in the training grounds, who easily throws a chakra-powered kunai through a tree and destroys the stone behind it.

With Konoha in complete darkness, the village struggles to defend against the four attackers who have sealed the entire village behind a barrier. The entire village is in a state of emergency. Asuma, commanded by Tsunade to follow Sora and Naruto, finally catches up to them. Asuma realizes that the four invaders plan to annihilate the entire village using the lightning powers of the corpses that they stole. The revelation shocks Sora. As Asuma leaves to help hold off the attackers, he instructs Naruto to continue pursuing Sora.

Sora refuses to let Furido destroy the village despite his grudge against Asuma and the Hokage. He is beaten up by Furido, who claims that his father had a similar flaw. Asuma gets trapped by Kitane in a force field of lightning. Meanwhile, Yamato and Sakura kill their opponents, and Shikamaru heads to the battlefield with a plan to defeat the zombies. Just as he puts it into motion, however, Fuen's barrier falls and Fudo's revival technique ends, and the zombies turn to dust.

Furido releases Sora's seal, and tells him the truth: Sora is a pseudo-Jinchuuriki. The chakra that had leaked from the Nine Tailed Fox when it attacked Konoha 15 and a half years ago was harvested and implanted into Sora. Just then, Asuma arrives at the scene with Naruto. Asuma recognizes Furido and it is revealed that he is Kazuma, Sora's father. Yamato, Sakura, Kiba, Lee, Ino, Choji and Shikamaru also turn up. Enraged, Sora wants to destroy everything, and turns into the Three-Tailed form of the Nine-tails. However, Yamato is unable to restrain him, because he does not have the First's necklace on him.

Asuma apologizes at the grave of the Third Hokage for not understanding his advice concerning what the "king" of the Fire Country is. At the hospital, Naruto and Sai recover, despite Naruto's desire to resume his training. Tsunade receives a report from Kakashi that Akatsuki is on the move. Elsewhere, Yugito Nii, the Two Tails Jinchūriki, struggles against Hidan and Kakuzu and unleashes the Two Tails, but is defeated and captured. Hidan and Kakuzu then turn their attention to the Fire Country for their next target.

Naruto proceeds to the next step of his training, the cutting of a waterfall. Hidan and Kakuzu reach the Fire Temple and fight Chiriku, so as to obtain the bounty on his head. After defeating him, they move out to claim the bounty and thereafter target the Nine Tails Jinchūriki Naruto.

The second stage of Naruto's training continues, while Tsunade sends out twenty teams composed of four ninja each to deal with the Akatsuki members in the Fire Country. Shikamaru leaves with Asuma, Izumo and Kotetsu, whereas Ino and Choji leave with Raido and Aoba. After putting in considerable effort, Naruto clears the second stage of his training, but collapses from hunger and exhaustion almost immediately afterward.

Asuma’s team reaches the bounty station and ambushes Hidan. Izumo and Kotetsu attack Hidan, but are unable to kill him despite stabbing his vital organs. Asuma tells his teammates that if they retreat they will be killed and Konoha will be endangered. Shikamaru realizes that Asuma is considering sacrificing himself to help defeat the enemy, based on what he knows of Asuma's shogi strategy. Asuma begins fighting Hidan, while Shikamaru distracts him by forcing him to dodge Shadow Sewing. Hidan cuts Asuma on the cheek and steps into a circle of blood as Asuma uses a jutsu to engulf Hidan in a cloud of ash. Asuma then sets the cloud ablaze, supposedly killing Hidan.

Asuma’s fire jutsu strikes Hidan, but much to the team's surprise, Asuma is also burned. Hidan reveals his ability: By ingesting an opponent’s blood and standing in a ritual circle drawn with blood, the "curse" links him to his opponent and all damage inflicted on him is also inflicted on the opponent. Asuma rushes at Hidan but collapses after Hidan stabs himself in the leg. Shikamaru realizes Hidan needs to be in the circle for the curse to take effect, and uses his shadow possession jutsu to force Hidan to step out of it. Asuma forces himself to stand up and beheads the restrained Hidan.

Team Asuma continues their battle with Akatsuki's Hiden and Kakuzu.

A call from the Akatsuki leader forces Hidan and Kakuzu to fall back, but in the wake of the aftermath, not everyone makes it back to Konoha alive.

While Akatsuki discusses the true goals of their organization, Naruto continues his training. Meanwhile, Tsunade receives the tragic news.

Kakashi leads Kiba, Hinata, and Shino on a mission to infiltrate Orochimaru's lair. What horrors and traps await them?

The sealing unit prepares the sealing barrier and the other two teams go into battle with Guren and her henchmen. Kakashi, Naruto and Sai stall Guren and Gozu while Shino prepares to go against Guren's crystal style. Meanwhile, Lee goes against Guren's other henchmen and gets trapped in their smokescreen. Can Lee find a way to defeat them?

Yūkimaru falters and the Three-Tails injures Guren. Rinji tells Yūkimaru to suppress the beast to save her, but he is unable to do so. Guren leaves her position and protects Yūkimaru with a Crystal Style shield. Naruto goes out to find Yūkimaru, but ends up fighting the Three-Tails with Guren. Despite their efforts to defeat it, the beast overpowers the two of them, and then it proceeds to swallow them. Meanwhile, Kakashi, Shino and Sai find Yūkimaru unconcious and flee with him, leaving Kabuto frustrated.

Orochimaru's body has reached its limit and the time for the ritual has come. Sasuke has other plans, however, and seeks to target a bedridden Orochimaru.

Orochimaru reveals the true, hideous form his body has taken from years of experimenting on his body. Can Sasuke defeat this menacing form, or does Orochimaru still have a few tricks up his sleeves?

As Sasuke rests from his battle with Deidara, the Leaf ninja pick up on his trail. Noticing that they're being followed, Karin tries to send them in the wrong direction while the members of Team Hebi head to the nearest Akatsuki hideout in hopes of finding Itachi. What will happen when Naruto and Sasuke have separate encounters with Itachi?

Sasuke's long awaited battle with Itachi begins with the Uchiha brothers throwing genjutsu after genjutsu at each other. Sasuke seems to have Itachi cornered and asks him a few questions of the Uchiha massacre. Is Itachi not the only one involved in the Uchiha massacre? And does Sasuke still not possess enough hatred to defeat Itachi?

Sasuke thinks that he's finally killed Itachi with the help of his most powerful technique, Kirin, but Itachi still has one final trick up his sleeve. Having used both Tsukiyomi and Amaterasu, Itachi calls upon the power of his third and final Mangekyo ability, Susano'o. Itachi has turned the tide of the battle against Sasuke, but the latter receives aid from an unexpected source. The battle between the Uchiha brothers is nearing its shocking conclusion!

Naruto manages to find Shiranami's location but he discovers that the Shiranami he found was actually the ninja bandits disguised as him. Hotaru finds the real Shiranami where the latter convinces Hotaru not to have the forbidden jutsu removed, and takes her back to the Tsuchigumo Village. After Naruto is saved by Utakata from the ninja bandits, the two return to the Tsuchigumo Village, where they find that Shiranami has everyone in the village under his control.

The Akatsuki Leader, Pain, begins his invasion of the Hidden Leaf Village. The Leaf ninja assemble to protect Naruto's whereabouts, but when Pain targets Iruka, Kakashi must face off against him.

Ebisu protects Konohamaru from Pain and refuses to divulge any information about Naruto. Ebisu is willing to give up his life in order to protect both Naruto and Konohamaru. Konohamaru isn't about to let his teacher throw his life away, but what can he possibly do against Pain?

Naruto returns and discovers that the village has been devastated by Pain's Shinra Tensei attack. Naruto requests that everyone stays back as he prepares to take on all six paths of Pain at once.

The Fourth Hokage appears in Naruto's mind and prevents him from foolishly setting the Kyubi free. Will this confrontation between father and son give Naruto the confidence he needs to stop Pain once and for all?

Nagato reveals the truth about what happened to Yahiko and what made him disregard Jiraiya's ideals. With his story done, he demands to hear Naruto's answers. Will Naruto's answer be enough to convince Nagato to stop his evil plans, or will Naruto be forced to kill Nagato?

After hearing the news about Akatsuki's attack on the Hidden Leaf Village, Gaara worries about Naruto's well-being. He remembers a time in the past where Team 7 was assigned to help him out with a problem, and how nobody, especially Naruto, was eager to trust him. Yet, when his life was put in danger by people he had wronged, Naruto was the first to come to his rescue.

In the past, Naruto and Sakura joined Sasuke on a mission to collect the paw print of Nekomata, a large and powerful two-tailed ninja cat that ruled over all of the ninja cats.

Shikamaru remembers the time when Teams 7 and 10 joined together to flush out a band of bandits who were terrorizing a nearby village and had kidnapped the headman's granddaughter. With no assistance available from Kakashi or Asuma, Shikamaru was forced to lead the team of genin to the bandits' fort and come up with a plan to rescue the headman's granddaughter.

The four Kage are startled by the sudden appearance of Madara Uchiha. Having sent Sasuke away to safety using the Transportation Technique, Madara unveils to the Kage his “Project Tsuki no Me.”

Kakashi rescues Sakura from certain death at Sasuke's hands and takes over the fight. After healing Karin, Sakura again decides to take on Sasuke, but her resolve fails her. Just as she comes close to death a second time, Naruto intervenes and saves her. After so long, the original Team 7 is reunited.

At Mount Myoboku, Naruto prepares to store Gerotora within himself, but hesitates as it also holds the potential risk of unleashing the Nine Tails on the world.

As they continue their voyage towards the Land of Lightning, Naruto, Aoba, Guy and Yamato sail through a thick fog. To pass the time, Yamato tells Aoba and Naruto some ghost stories (much to Naruto's dislike).

Might Guy recalls their "visualization" training with Lee in order to avoid learning the Drunken Fist and forgetting an incident which Might Guy apologizes to the restaurant owner with humiliation. Lee, who is determined to train to be stronger than Naruto, follows Might Guy's orders and resemble animal fighting styles which represent on a restaurant menu. However they failed, until they tried on training on a moving boat. Like Guy who has seasickness, Lee also suffers from seasickness but he uses it to balance the boat which resembles exactly as the Drunken Fist fighting style. Guy lately realizes that Lee is also aware of the restaurant incident and Lee was only protecting Guy from a drunk man which causes the restaurant to be totally damaged.

As Team Asuma considers the impending war, they encounter Kosuke Maruboshi who reminds them of the time that they rescued him while they were still genin. With this, Kosuke retells the tale of the time their fathers saved him during the Invasion of Konoha with their Formation Ino–Shika–Chō. Somewhat rattled by this story, Kosuke reminds them that great shinobi weren't made in a day. As the team contemplates everything, they decide to perfect their own formation, insisting that they'd be fine because they were not alone.

Guy arrives at the Waterfall of Truth to help Naruto with his training. Instead he encounters Kisame, who has infiltrated the island to locate Naruto and Killer Bee.

Fourth Great Ninja War is about to begin, ninjas are going through their formations, medical supplies are being checked and restocked. The title of this Naruto Episode is "Assemble Allied Shinobi Forces". The headbands are done. Let's go! Tsuchinage saves Nine Tails and Eight Tails, but Yamato gets captured.

The Allied Shinobi Forces are on standby, ready to confront Madara’s army of reanimated shinobi and 100,000 White Zetsu. But distrust still exists among the Allied Shinobi Forces, who were once sworn enemies until recently.

The Akatsuki dispatch an army of powerful reanimated shinobi and White Zetsu across the war zone, causing chaos within the Allied Shinobi Forces’ chain of command.

As Darui and his First Company engage an army of White Zetsu, the remaining forces must deal with reanimated shinobi.

Atsui, Samui, and Darui face off against Kinkaku and Ginkaku, the legendary brothers from the Hidden Cloud, feared even by the Raikage.

Darui manages to seal away Ginkaku. Fueled by the rage of losing his brother, Kinkaku transforms into a monster that resembles a jinchuriki’s Tailed Beast State.

Naruto and Killer Bee rush to the battlefield when Nine Tails suddenly speaks to Naruto inside his mind. The Nine Tails questions Naruto’s intent to end the hatred in the world and reminds him of how he was unable to save Sasuke.

Tsunade and the Raikage arrive to prevent Naruto and Killer Bee from joining the battle. But the two Kage fail to convince the Jinchuriki to turn back, forcing the Raikage to use extreme force.

Fourth Raikage Ay attacks Naruto in an attempt to prevent the Jinchuriki from falling into Madara’s hands. Ay is unwilling to listen to either Tsunade or Killer Bee’s pleas to change his mind.

Kakashi races to the scene where the Seven Ninja Swordsmen Kushimaru Kuriarare and Jinpachi Munashi were last sighted. Enraged by the carnage they’ve left behind, Kakashi teams up with Might Guy.

Temari leads the attack on the Third Raikage using Wind Style, but even her strongest jutsu is not enough to penetrate the Raikage’s invincible armor.

Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Kiba find themselves up against some familiar faces from the past. The Sound Ninja Four have been brought back by Kabuto’s Reanimation Jutsu, and they are ready to seek vengeance.

Shikamaru, Neji, Choji, and Kiba succeed in defeating the Sound Ninja Four. But the enemy uses the Underworld Transfer Jutsu to trap the Leaf shinobi’s souls inside a barrier.

Time is running out for the Leaf shinobi whose souls are trapped inside the Sound Four’s barrier. Ino and Shino exhaust their own chakra to keep their friends alive.

A reanimated Granny Chiyo attacks Kankuro and Mifune’s team. Kankuro fights back by using the human puppet of Sasori. The sight of Sasori causes Granny Chiyo to recall the painful memories that led her grandson to create his human puppets.

The tide of battle is slowly shifting in the Allied Forces’ favor, but many are uncertain that they really stand a chance against Madara Uchiha. To help boost their spirits, Shikaku orders Inoichi to send out a message to every member of the forces.

Kabuto’s past is finally revealed. As child, a woman named Nonou raised Kabuto at an orphanage in the Leaf Village. One day, Danzo and Orochimaru visit the orphanage to provide financial aid under the condition that Nonou work as their spy.

Casting aside Itachi's lectures to him, Kabuto reveals to the siblings that he had injected himself with the DNA of various shinobi, namely the Sound Five, also including Orochimaru.

With Izanami activated, and Kabuto trapped within its infinite loop, Sasuke uses this time to question his brother about the technique. Itachi tells Sasuke about the history behind Izanami's creation as well as the Uchiha clan's use of the technique.

Kakashi discovers a strange connection between the masked man’s Transportation Technique and his own Kamui Jutsu. Naruto throws everything he’s got against the masked man and breaks his mask, finally revealing his identity!

Hiruzen relieves Kakashi of his ANBU duties and assigns him a new position as a Jonin Leader. Reflecting on his past mistakes, Kakashi decides to use the same test that Minato once used to measure one’s teamwork.

Hiruzen assigns Kakashi to be in charge of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, three genin that bear a striking resemblance to the former Team Minato.

Sasuke returns to the Hidden Leaf Village seeking answers, and standing before him are First Hokage Hashirama, Second Hokage Tobirama, Third Hokage Hiruzen, and Fourth Hokage Minato, all reanimated.

The Senju and Uchiha clans join together to build a shinobi village and fulfill their dreams.

After listening to what Hashirama and the rest of the former Hokage have to say, Sasuke finally understands how the Leaf Village and its shinobi came to be.

The Ten Tails morphs into its final form, "The Divine Tree," and attacks the shinobi, absorbing their chakra one after another.

All the Tailed Beasts are freed, and old friends Kakashi and Obito come face to face with each other. What will Obito's response be? Meanwhile, the Tailed Beasts and the Allied Shinobi Forces shift their focus onto their greatest foe, Madara Uchiha. Gaara is reunited with his former Tailed Beast, Shukaku. When Gaara asks Shukaku to lend his power to seal Madara, he refuses. Will their history of animosity prevent them from working together?

Ino, Sakura and Choji trudge across a desert under the blazing sun without any provisions. Ino and Sakura are arguing when a giant scorpion attacks and injures Sakura.

As Ino and her team head toward an oasis, they are attacked by a team of Sand Shinobi comprised of Ameno, Shishio, and Kouji.

Upon graduating from the Academy, Itachi becomes a genin and joins a team that includes Tenma, Shinko, and their Jonin Leader, Minazuki Sensei. They accept a mission from Granny Cat to look for a missing feline who's a skilled Ninja Cat!

Itachi accompanies his friend Shisui on a three-part training exercise. The two come across a battle between the Hokage’s ANBU and the Foundation. Itachi is confused by their motives and can't discern which side is right or wrong. But Shisui is unwavering in his determination to stop the fighting.

Kaguya Otsutsuki suddenly emerges from Madara’s body. She is the mother of Hagoromo, the Sage of the Six Paths who entrusted his powers to Naruto and Sasuke. Kaguya’s power is immense and instantly sends Naruto and Sasuke to an alternate dimension. Naruto and Sasuke are the only ones who can seal away Kaguya, but they can’t find a jutsu that works against her!

Black Zetsu reveals that he masterminded and influenced all the events from the end of Ashura and Indra's era to the current Fourth Great Ninja War. Naruto rejects Black Zetsu’s claim that the entire history of shinobi was solely for the resurrection of his mother, Kaguya. Naruto and Sasuke work together to seal away Kaguya, but they can't find a way to counter her.

Team 7 joins forces and succeeds in sealing away Kaguya, and the Tailed Beasts that Kaguya absorbed are also freed. Black Zetsu escapes the seal to lie in wait for another time to resurrect his mother, but Naruto is not about to let him go!