A figure passes through the gates. It's an older Naruto, who has returned from a long training journey with Jiraiya. Naruto Uzumaki is back!

On her way to the Sand Village, Temari encounters Kakashi and his team. Kakashi admonishes Naruto when he tries to rush ahead…

Teams Kakashi and Guy take a short rest. Granny Chiyo watches Naruto dozing off and is reminded of Sasori as a child. The pursuit resumes, and when Chiyo wonders why Naruto puts such effort into...

Sakura destroys the Third Kazekage puppet thanks to a secret antidote she had taken.

Sakura and Granny Chiyo are engaged in a fierce battle with Sasori, who is able turn himself into a human puppet. They somehow bring Sasori down within the time limit, but he ends up reviving.

Teams Kakashi and Guy return home to Konoha. As Kakashi rests in the infirmary, Sakura tells Tsunade about the information Sasori gave her as a reward for defeating him. Sasori had a meeting scheduled with a spy from within Orochimaru's ranks in 10 days. 4 days have passed since Sakura received this information, and now Naruto and Sakura need to recruit a new team member to go and investigate. As Naruto searches Konoha for a willing recruit, he meets some of his old friends. Just as Choji agrees to help, Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto are attacked by a Konoha shinobi unknown to them, Sai.

Naruto continues to get even more enraged and easily counters Kabuto's attack, flinging him away. Naruto's counter throws Kabuto into Sakura, knocking her unconscious. Orochimaru continues to watch Naruto become more enraged, eventually destroying the Bridge of Heaven and Earth. As the bridge collapses, Sakura slides off the edge. Sai draws a bird to fly, but chooses to follow Naruto and Orochimaru instead of saving Sakura. Yamato saves her at the last second, and creates a wood clone to catch up to the battle. Eventually the fourth tail appears, allowing the vile chakra to completely control Naruto's body, forming him into a miniature Nine-Tailed Fox.

As Team Kakashi continues their search for Sasuke, Sai approaches Sasuke's room and awakens him. Shaken by the image of Sasuke's Sharingan from earlier, Sai attempts to restrain him. A large explosion occurs and Sakura, Naruto and Yamato catch up. At first Sakura tries to restrain Sai in order to find out his true objective, but she stops, stunned at seeing her former comrade. Contrary to what the rest of the team assumed to be his mission, Sai tells them that he wishes to bring Sasuke back to Konoha.

Tsunade suspects that Danzou is plotting something and orders an investigation of him. Team Kakashi, Chiriku and Sora notice the coffins moving on their own, but fail to intercept them. The coffins emerge on a cliff, where the leader of the enemy ninja orders his subordinates to deal with their foes. The ninjas turn the area into a maze of rocky canyons and pits, full of deadly traps. The team members are separated from each other, and begin facing off against the enemy. Yamato speculates that the ninja may have orchestrated the theft in order to target someone on his team.

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.

The struggle between Naruto and Sora continues. Asuma and Kazuma fight. Sai arrives, having snuck out of hospital, and binds Kazuma with an ink snake. Kazuma breaks out of Sai's jutsu and charges Asuma, but is killed. Naruto eventually reaches Sora, who manages to release the Nine Tails's chakra. Sora then leaves the village to travel the world. Asuma and Shikamaru play shogi and discuss who the king of Konoha is. Elsewhere, two Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu, appear chasing the Two Tails Jinchūriki.

Asuma mourns Chiriku's death, and realizes that Hidan and Kakuzu are trying to claim the bounty on his head. Meanwhile, Hidan and Kakuzu take Chiriku in for their payment. Meanwhile, Kakashi shows Naruto what the true goal of his training will be.

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

Obito ignores Kakashi’s order to continue with the mission and leaves to save Rin, who was kidnapped by the Rock ninja. But the enemies detect Obito’s arrival and defeat him. Kakashi arrives at the last minute and saves Obito…

While the members of Team Hebi head towards Itachi's location, Jiraiya infiltrates the Hidden Rain Village in hopes of gathering information on the Akatsuki leader. Jiraiya captures two Rain ninja and interrogates them about Pain, but what he learns shocks even him.

After Madara finishes telling Sasuke about his past, he reveals the unfathomable truth about Itachi's massacre of the Uchiha Clan. What really happened on that night? Why did Itachi join Akatsuki? And for what reason did he really spare Sasuke's life?

After failing to bring back Sasuke, the Leaf ninja start heading back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Tsunade, however, sends Katsuyu to inform them that the barrier of Mount Katsunagi of the Tsuchigumo Clan, which holds a powerful forbidden jutsu, is broken. While Kakashi and Team 8 head back to the Leaf Village, Team 7, lead by Yamato, must check out what events are taking place.

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.

Shikamaru tries to decipher the dying message Jiraiya left before his death but cannot figure out what it says. Shikamaru asks for Naruto's help, thinking he might know the code. Can the saddened Naruto decipher Jiraiya's dying message?

Pain confronts Tsunade and questions her about Naruto's whereabouts. Tsunade argues with Pain about his motives, but Pain soon gets the info he needs from another source. Before preparing to depart, Pain unleashes a devastating attack on the village! Meanwhile, Naruto prepares to return to the Leaf Village, but he may be too late.

During the two-and-a-half-year time period in which Naruto was training under Jiraiya, the latter decided that it was time for Naruto to learn how to repel genjutsu. During this training session, the two traveled to a village which Jiraiya had previously been associated with, but they discovered that something dark was amidst.

Naruto and Sakura learn that Danzo has been made Hokage and that his first order is to eliminate Sasuke. The two go to Sai and inquire about Danzo, but Sai reveals that a curse mark given to all members of the Foundation prevent him from revealing anything about the new Hokage. Soon afterward, Karui and Darui attack them, demanding information about Sasuke.

As Naruto and Sasuke clash, their Rasengan and Chidori explode, sending them both flying. When Zetsu and Madara appear to aid Sasuke, they decide to retreat to the Akastuki headquarters. Before they leave, however, Naruto has one last thing to say to Sasuke; something that will have an impact on both of their lives.

Hinata’s father Hiashi summons the Hyuga clan to discuss the role they will be playing in the upcoming Fourth Great Ninja War.

Kiba trains hard to catch up to Naruto, who is now hailed as the hero of the Leaf Village, but with little success. Feeling desperate, Kiba asks Kakashi if he could train him.

The Nine Tails, having been released from Madara's control, continues to wreck havoc in the city. The Third Hokage summons the Monkey King Enma and drives the Nine Tails away from the city. Minato then returns to the city and with the help of the toad Gamabunta is able to restrain the Nine Tails long enough for him to teleport it along with his family to the outskirts of the village. Kushina binds the Nine Tails and as Minato prepares to do the Reaper Death Seal to seal away half of the Nine Tails Chakra and seal the rest inside Naruto using the Eight Trigrams Seal. He also seals a bit of Kushina's chakra to help Naruto tame the Nine Tails. All of this is witnessed by the Third Hokage and a few other ninja.

Kankuro’s commando unit enters enemy territory to set up a stronghold for the Allied Shinobi Forces. They are immediately ambushed by the Akatsuki’s own commando unit comprised of the reanimated Deidara and Sasori.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio is ordered by Shikaku to take down the reanimated Asuma. Remembering Asuma’s final words, Shikamaru and Ino are determined to stop their former teacher.

The reborn Team Kakashi continues to investigate the recent attack by Kabuto and the reincarnated shinobi when Naruto gets swallowed by a giant snake, but manages to escape using shadow clones, and accidentally ingests snakes that were present in the pond which Kabuto uses to summon Hidan.

The Leaf Shinobi succeed in bringing young lord Shu into custody, placing a disguised Naruto as his double. But Tatewaki soon uncovers Naruto’s identity and surrounds the intruder with his men.

Naruto wants to bring Sasuke back to the village, but Sasuke burns with a desire to bring Naruto down. Why is Sasuke so confrontational, and how did his feelings toward Naruto develop? The truth rises to the surface during Sasuke’s relentless attack. Where will this battle lead? Find out in the conclusion of the “Jiraiya Ninja Scrolls.”

The shinobi under Madara’s Infinite Tsukuyomi continue to slumber and have pleasant dreams. Meanwhile, Naruto and the others have escaped the genjutsu, thanks to Sasuke’s protective Susano’o. As Sasuke starts remembering the death of Itachi, his Sharingan starts to resonate and show him the truth that Itachi never spoke a word of.

Kaguya Otsutsuki suddenly descends from the heavens as the people of the Land of Sou look on in surprise and suspicion. But their king, Tenji, is enthralled by her and takes her for his concubine. In this age of endless war, Kaguya wishes for nothing but peace. But as the self-proclaimed protector of the Divine Tree, she soon finds herself engulfed by the tides of chaos and war.

Hagoromo's two sons, Ashura and Indra, share a happy childhood, training and playing together. Indra is naturally gifted with great talent, and at a tender age is nicknamed the “genius of Ninshu.” On the other hand, Ashura has no aptitude for Ninshu. Still, the two boys are very close. But Hagoromo is unaware of the malevolent power stirring in the shadows…

Ashura sets out on a journey, intending never to return. He ends up in a village where the people suffer from a mysterious illness.

"I'll be a better shinobi than Lord Hokage! Then all the villagers will have to acknowledge my existence at last!" True to his word, Naruto has walked his own path until there are none who do not recognize that he's become a great shinobi and a hero who has saved the world. But what path will Naruto take now? How will the world of the shinobi change? This is the story of the boy who blew through the hearts of all like a "shippu," an irresistible gale. This is the story of Naruto Uzumaki.

The Tsuchikage and Raikage, who are in the Leaf Village to attend the Five Kage Summit, mention that they have already prepared wedding gifts for Naruto. Gaara finds himself in a dilemma. He's advised that the gift should be something that befits the Kazekage. He also learns that the Raikage is planning to perform a dance. Kankuro chimes in and suggests Gaara should dance as well—further plunging Gaara into indecision.