This is it! The final two, and biggest moments in Naruto! Find out what they were after the jump!

 

Here we are! We have reached the end of our journey through the most memorable points in Naruto! For those who missed it, Here are numbers three through eight:

#3 and #4

#5 and #6

#7 and #8

#9 and #10

With that said, let’s get on with number 2. The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konoha, has been a bit of a hot bed when it comes to invasions. Itachi did it, with relative ease, because all he wanted was tea and to say hi to Danzo. #2 was the first to be presented, but definitely not the last.

#2: Orochimaru Invades Konoha!

Naruto Episodes 68-80

The Sound ninja leader and former member of the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, made it to the Chunin Exams with his flock of Sound trainees. His plan was to get Sasuke, and give him a cursed mark. That plan worked swimmingly, especially when you attack a kid with a giant fucking snake! It gets even worse after the preliminaries.

The Kazekage and Hokage are chilling in their VIP seats, where Naruto surprises the world when he defeats Neji. Sasuke and Gaara were supposed to fight, but Kakashi and Sasuke were nowhere to be found. They skipped forward to the next fight, Shino vs. Kankuro, but Kankuro withdrew. Next was Temari vs. Shikamaru, where Temari won because Skikamaru just ran out of gas. In a nick of time, Sasuke shows up, and the fight between him and Gaara begins.

That is where the shit hit the fan. During the fight, Gaara couldn’t keep his sanity. Sukaku, the one tail beast, started to take over. This is where Orochimaru’s plan begins. Orochimaru unveils himself to be under the disguise of the Kazekage, who is found dead after this. He takes Sarutobi hostage, and they go to the roof, while the Sound Ninja 4 use a barrier jutsu to keep Orochimaru and Sarutobi in. Meanwhile, a powerful genjutsu puts the vast majority of people in the stands to sleep, except for Kakashi, Guy, and Sakura. They release Naruto, and Shikamaru plays asleep. Kakashi and Guy are attacked by both Sand and Sound ninja. Then, Kakashi summons his hounds to assist Naruto on his next mission: locate Sasuke and Gaara. They head off, but there’s still the shit storm still going on in the arena.

Orochimaru uses the Summon: Impure World Reincarnation on the previous Hokage, Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, and tries to summon the Fourth, but it seems that the summons was blocked by the Hokage. Later on, we find out that it was because Minato was sealed by the Reaper Death Seal. So, the Hokage battle begins, with Hashirama and Tobirama bringing the boom from the get go. Hashirama uses his wood element to create a forest inside the barrier, and Tobirama unleashes the water with his wall of water. Desperate, Sarutobi used the Reaper Death Seal on both Senjus, using shadow clones as sacrifices. That left just Orochimaru, who mortally wounds the Hokage, but not before he seals off Orochimaru’s ability to use jutsu with his own soul.

Meanwhile, Sasuke is still in pursuit of Gaara, with Naruto and the others not far behind. Sasuke catches up, as does the others, with Kankuro fighting Shino, who managed to follow everybody. Temari stopped to face Sasuke, but he defeated her with ease. Sasuke then started to fight Gaara, who lasted all of five minutes before Gaara fully transforms into Shukaku. Just as Sasuke was about to be killed, Naruto saves his ass, at the expense of Sakura almost dying. He saves her, and the two Jinchuriki begin to fight.  In a fight that has demons, flying sand, summoned giant toads and clones, it’s a simple headbutt and punch that Naruto uses to win. However, all of those sure helped.

This was the big railroad spike in the coffin that started Sasuke’s insecure descent. He was so bent on being the strongest that the idea of losing to anyone, especially someone who’s an outsider, was ludicrous. The fact that he had his ass handed to him by Gaara, Naruto saving him, and Naruto defeating Gaara all put his worth at zero. Going forward, this just drives him to get even stronger. Because if he can’t defeat “weaklings” like Naruto and Gaara, how can he defeat Itachi?

This was a really elaborate plan by Orochimaru. Unfortunately, with as many moving parts has this had, it was doomed to failure. A fake alliance with the Sand Village, the Sound ninja, killing Sarutobi, killing the real Kazekage, and having Gaara incapacitate Sasuke without killing him were all really laborious. When one part failed, it had dominoed down into the other parts to where Orochimaru can’t use his arms, he was found to be manipulating the Sand Village, and lost Sasuke for the time being. He had to resort to going to Tsunade, which failed as well. So, Orochimaru turned into a failbomb from the word go. At least he still has that going for him.

This sets things motion for stories going forward, like Tsunade coming in as the fifth Hokage, Orochimaru getting Sasuke, and the Sand Village working to be allies of the Leaf. Want to know what else it sets up? See number one.

#1: The Annihilation of Konoha!

Naruto Shippuden Episodes 157-175

If Final Fantasy has ever told me anything, anything named Shinra is a hell of a deal. That is the aftermath of Pain’s Shinra Tensei, otherwise known as Almighty Push. It clears a circumference with Pain at the center. That was Konoha,  the setting of most of the story. This took place after Itachi’s death, and was the third “What the fuck” moment in about 40 episodes. This is also the result of Jiraiya’s failure to stop Pain, therefore stopping the Akatsuki’s plan for the Jinchuriki.

Pain starts out by summoning the other Pains. The village was only expecting one, so they were caught entirely off guard when the 6 paths and Konan started interrogating villagers as to where Naruto was. Kakashi engaged in battle with Deva Path, who has been the acting “main” Pain. Kakashi was eventually defeated, but not killed. Choji was tasked with getting information about Pain back to Tsunade, and was attacked, but Kakashi used what chakra he had left, and caught the projectile in Kamui, his Mangenkyo Sharingan ability.

It was about here where Tsunade called Naruto back from his training on Mt. Myobuku, but as the frog was about to leave, Danzo killed him, to ensure that Pain couldn’t get him.  One thing of note: during the course of the show, Naruto won over the respect of everyone in the village, and no one would sell him out. This angered Pain, who went to confront Tsunade. He was angered even more, saying Tsunade doesn’t know Pain. This is where the destruction happens.

Deva Path called back the other paths, and prepared Shina Tensei. In the matter of seconds, the entire village was a crater, with bodies strewn about. Seconds later, Naruto finally came back, but 10 seconds too late. This set up the fight of the series, where he took on the six paths of Pain at once! He called in all three toads, who got kicked out of the fight rather quickly. Naruto took out five of the paths really quickly. Things took a real quick turn for the worse when Deva Path took over, neutralizing Naruto quickly. Hinata, motivated by her undying love of Naruto, jumped in to hopefully save her. Yeah, that lasted all of 6 seconds, when Deva Path beat her senseless, killing her. This sends Naruto into a rage.

He ended up losing all of the nature chakra, and the fox demon chakra takes over. He gets enveloped in his Fox Demon cloak, and soon goes to 8 tails. Deva Path uses hisChibaku Tensei  (Catastrophic Planetary Construction)  to create a Mo0n prison, which Naruto almost breaks out of. This causes Deva Path to create a bigger one. At this time, we find Naruto desperate, and ready to break the seal to the Fox Demon. Just in time to save the day, Minato shows up. We talked about Minato earlier, so there isn’t really much else to say, except he reinforces Naruto’s seal on the Kyubbi, and gives him confidence that he can defeat Pain.

The prison explodes, but there wasn’t the Fox Demon sitting there, just Naruto. He tricks Deva Path into using the Shinra Tensei on a bunch of shadow clones, until the real one destroys the Deva Path. He uses one of the chakra receivers to reverse track where the real Pain was.  Naruto has his talk with Pain, who turns out to be Nagato, the first Child of Prophecy. He then tells how Jiraiya saved them, and subsequently left them.  The death of Yahiko triggered Pain, who had the drive of being Jiraiya’s Child of Prophecy, and the leader of the Akatsuki.

Naruto heard this story, reflects, and tells Nagato that Jiraiya believed in him also. That is why he won’t kill him. They go back and forth, and Nagato tells Naruto that he was like him when he was younger. Nagato uses his outer path to release all of the souls he captured, and ressurecting all of the fallen Leaf, including Kakashi, Fukusaku, and Shizune. Konan then decided to leave the Akatsuki, and took Yahiko and Nagato back home to be in peace. Naruto inherited the will of Nagato, as well as Jiraiya.

Outside the village, he made a shrine to Jiraiya, and then collapsed. Coming back to the village, Kakashi carried Naruto on his back, where he was welcomed back as a hero, essentially for the first time. He was the savior of the village, and a hero to all. His dream came true.

This was significant for three reasons.

1. Naruto became a significant force, finally.

2. He was able to gain the adulation and admiration of the people, gaining the respect he craved as a kid.

3. It gave the fans a brief insight as to what the Sage of the Six Paths can do, and how he can either be the most destructive, or the most gentile being in the world.

This story also gave a huge bit of backstory and plot.  Also, it told us that the story behind the Kyuubi attack wasn’t as originally depicted. This is another story that gets no justice by me talking about it. Watch the episodes, and watch what this show is all about. It begins to show what a badass Naruto’s father is, establishes Tobi as someone not totally as he seems. The first thought after this arc was, “Wow, Jiraiya was a fucking good teacher. Minato, Nagato & gang, and Naruto all became fantastic ninjas.”

For a long time, I fell off the grid when it came to anime. I came back when Toonami started airing Naruto, and was hooked. Granted, it was the only show I cared about, but still. My friend told me what was going on later on (which is Shippuden), and I had to get in on it. I plowed through the manga, and the first current chapter was when Pain blew up the village. For the first time in years, this made me anxious to find out what was going to happen next. The Five Kage Summit was going to be nuts, and I could only imagine how nuts it was going to be. Let’s not even talk about what happens after that!

Thanks for reading this series of articles! Don’t forget to comment and tell us what you thought your top moments in Naruto were! Also, Stay tuned this weekend for the beginning of our Naruto coverage!