Episode 326: After killing White Zetsu using his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan's Susanoo, Sasuke Uchiha sets off to destroy Konoha. Back at the battlefield, as Kakashi and Guy learn that Tobi is using a large amount of chakra to assert full control over the Tailed Beasts, they hear the voice of the Five Tails as Tobi subjugates the creature. Voicing his disdain for humans' treatment of them, the Nine Tails recaps his own subjugation under Madara and then by the Uzumaki Clan from Hashirama's wife Mito to Naruto's mother Kushina. After being swallowed by Roshi after he fully transformed into the Four Tails, Naruto meets the Tailed Beast himself, who insists that he be called by his actual name: Son Goku. After brief discussion about the humans' treatment of the Tailed Beasts, upon which Naruto learned the Nine-Tailed Fox's true name is Kurama, Son sees Naruto to be an exception. Wanting to know if Naruto's desire to aid him and the other Tailed Beasts would not waver, Son asks the youth to free him from his chains.
Episode 327: Before revealing the method by which to stop him, Son verbally states his distrust of Naruto especially after Jinchuriki have mistreated him in the past. As the Nine Tailed Fox listens to their dialogue, he relates to Son's distrust after he himself was simply used and sealed by many ninja in the past. Losing himself into thought, the Nine-Tails recalls how he sought to weaken Minato's Eight-Trigram seal and hence free himself by influencing Naruto with his own chakra on many occasions. Eventually after experiencing many trials and battles, Naruto frees himself from his own hatred with Killer Bee's help and successfully takes control of the Nine-Tails' chakra, leaving the latter to ponder just what type of person Naruto actually is.
Episode 328: With the battle receding at their end, Sakura Haruno and Shizune depart to assist Naruto and Bee. Elsewhere, realizing that Naruto is inside the Four-Tails, Tobi tries absorbing them both, although Naruto exits the Four-Tails' body by having him regurgitate due to his Multi-Shadow Clone Technique. Inside his subconscious, Son reveals to Naruto that the chakra rod is stuck at the base of his neck while in Tailed-Beast form and Naruto locates and starts pulling it out, with resistance from Tobi. Silently observing all that transpires, Kurama recalls Naruto's past achievements by his willingness to never give up and accepts that if Naruto truly wishes to help the Tailed-Beasts from the bottom of his heart, then as he always has, his actions would speak far louder than his words. Finally, Naruto uses a clone in Sage Mode he left inside the Four-Tails' body to find the exact spot the rod is located in relation to its position outside and uses Frog Strike to successfully push the rod out of the Four-Tails.
Episode 329: Though he succeeds in freeing Son Goku from Tobi's control, receiving a gift from the Four Tails for his compassion, Naruto is upset upon learning the Tailed Beast is still bound to the Gedo Statue. Once Son is sealed back into the Gedo Statue, Tobi has all the other Jinchūriki fully transform into their Tailed Beasts for an all out attack. Silently proud of Naruto's victory of winning Son over, Kurama offers to lend the youth more power. Though annoyed of being thanked for helping Naruto during his encounter with Madara, Kurama suggests melding their chakra together. Declaring Kurama as a friend as he removes the seal, causing their chakra to meld, Naruto assumes a stronger version of his Nine Tails Chakra Mode. In his new Tailed Beast Mode, saving Kakashi and Guy, Naruto uses his remaining time in the form to battle the five Tailed Beasts while his clone locates their chakra receivers. The five Tailed Beasts make a collaborative Tailed Beast Ball, which Naruto matches with one of his own, sending the attacks into the sky. He sends clones through Kurama's chakra arms to remove the chakra receivers. Upon touching them, Naruto finds himself in a mental plane, along with Kurama, the other Jinchuriki and their Tailed Beasts. After the Jinchuriki and the Tailed Beasts give Naruto their names, they reveal the relationship between Roshi and Son to the youth. Watching his fellow Tailed Beasts each gift Naruto with a bit of their chakra like Son had, Kurama recalls their last moments with the Sage of the Six Paths at the time of their creation long ago. As Naruto removes the chakra receivers, Kurama is assured by the others' agreement with him that Naruto is the one the Sage foretold to show them the way. Forced to seal the Tailed Beasts back into the Gedo Statue, Tobi tells a reverted Naruto that his victory changes nothing despite the youth insisting that it has after learning a lot of difficult names.
Episode 330: Tobi is confused by Naruto's claim of learning difficult names, which Naruto teases him for. Guy and Kakashi discuss now Naruto's progress is making them feel old, though not that old. Tobi begins to sweat, but believes it to be the rain that's starting to fall. Tobi gets a strange feeling from Naruto, and concludes that the war will make everything irrelevant. At the Allied Shinobi's HQ, Naruto's use of Kurama's chakra was felt, though they also feel something else. Ao relays to events to Shikaku, who wants to use it to raise the army's morale all at once, despite the strain it would cause to communications by Inoichi. Naruto's friends all rush towards his direction, intent on supporting him. Elsewhere, Sasuke also walks towards the battlefield as a thunderstorm begins.
Episode 331: Having escaped from the Mountains' Graveyard, Sasuke wanders through a small town to discover that it is deserted, leading him to be confused. Meanwhile in the Hidden Leaf, Konohamaru and his team-mates patrol through the village in order to watch out for the enemy when they heard an angry voice of a prisoner from the Leaf's Intelligence Division. It is revealed to be Karin, who is feigning her mental instability to lessen the guards' attention and begins to plot her escape. At the same time, Jūgo and Suigetsu continue their search for Sasuke, arriving at one of Orochimaru's hideouts. The two walk in as Jūgo asks Suigetsu of his intention of joining Team Taka while suddenly Jūgo goes on a rampage and attacks Suigetsu. Suigetsu simply reforms and drowns Jūgo in order to subdue him. After this, he discovers a secret room revealed by Jūgo's rampage and finds a scroll containing important information. Sasuke is confronted by a group of White Zetsu Army clones. He actives his Susano'o and incinerates them. With the clones defeated, he interrogates one of them with a Sharingan genjutsu, through which the clone reveals information about the war. Elsewhere, Itachi is on the move.
Episode 332: The intense battle between Madara and the five Kage continues as Ōnoki attacks Madara with a gigantic rock golem. However, Madara counters with his Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom, shattering the golem into pieces. Tsunade remembers the jutsu being her grandfather's and as the jutsu released its pollen, she instructs the Kage not to inhale. Gaara suspends the Kage and Ōnoki levitates A. Kabuto muses on how people thought no other shinobi is as powerful as Hashirama Senju, just like how people consider the powers of the Sage of the Six Paths a myth. Elsewhere, the Hokage Guard Platoon along with Dodai and Sagan continue to pursue Mū. While the Kage are distracted, Madara unleashes his Susanoo, causing them to fall through the trees. Madara proceeds to set the forest ablaze and not long after, the five Kage became unconscious. Ōnoki, continuously losing his consciousness, remembers of his talk with the First Tsuchikage about the strong will of the Iwa shinobi. Refusing to give up, Ōnoki destroys the forest created by Madara with his Particle Style and as a result, the Kage regained their consciousness. As Madara's body is reforming from Ōnoki's attack, to the Kage's horror, the face formed from the DNA of Hashirama appeared on Madara's chest. Meanwhile, Itachi continues his search for Kabuto, as Sasuke detects the latter. Sasuke follows him but his brother refused to talk to him. With no choice, Sasuke attempts to catch Itachi with his Susanoo, only for Itachi to counter with his own. The two begin to have a conversation. Meanwhile at the battlefield, Madara decides to take out Tsunade first after realising she was a Senju and also deemed her a weak woman, pathetic compared to the likes of her grandfather. Tsunade stated that she inherited something more than power from her grandfather the Will of Fire, something that Madara should not take so lightly.
Episode 333: Madara questioned Tsunade if the Will of Fire is enough to take him down. Tsunade states the three rules of a medical-nin as she releases her seal. She then reveals a fourth rule — that only a medical-nin who has mastered the One Hundred Healings Jutsu are allowed to break the three rules. The other Kage are stunned to hear this while Madara remains unimpressed with Tsunade's abilities. He activates his Susanoo ribcage as Tsunade attacked him, slightly cracking the Susanoo. Madara tries immolating Tsunade but is stopped by Mei, who also attacks. A and Onoki deals a heavy blow on Madara while Tsunade lands a kick on the latter. Madara commented on Tsunade's abilities. Madara noted that all that remains of Hashirama is his cells inside of him and all that's left of Izuna was his eyes that belong to him now. He further stated that the only thing that could be passed on is hatred. Meanwhile, at the other battlefield, Chōza reveals to Dan that Madara Uchiha has been reanimated and that the five Kage are dealing with him. Dan was shocked to learn that Tsunade was now the Hokage. Dan expressed concern that they should instead, find the caster of the technique, noting that Hashirama is the only shinobi capable of defeating Madara. At the same time, Tsunade landed a devastating attack on Madara as his body begins to reform. Gaara attempted to bind and seal him although it was revealed to be a clone. Though the real Madara stabs Tsunade with his Susanoo Sword from below, he finds that Tsunade is able to heal without hand seals. Onoki attacks Madara with Particle Style but, Madara absorbs it through the Preta Path. Tsunade questions Madara's confidence, stating that the Kage forced him to use a wood clone. Madara admits five on one is a good match-up, thus creating twenty five wood cloones, with five each to battle each of the Kage. Meanwhile in the forest, after evading Sasuke with his crows, Itachi finds Kabuto. However, Sasuke managed to follow his brother while he mistook Kabuto for Orochimaru. Kabuto attempted to manipulate Sasuke, only for him to note that he is his enemy. Sasuke attempts to kill Kabuto but is stopped by Itachi who noted that they need to not kill him in order to stop the technique. As Sasuke agrees to cooperate but for Itachi to answer his questions later, the two Uchiha brothers and Kabuto prepared themselves for a dynamic battle that is to come.
Episode 334: Kabuto blocks his vision with his hood as a means of evading the Uchiha's visual genjutsu, then starts the fight by unleashing multiple snakes at the two brothers. Both Itachi and Sasuke evade the snakes, then used their Susano'os to grab hold of them. As the fight continues, Kabuto tells Sasuke that he is underestimating him before reveals that he possesses similar variations of some of the abilities of Taka: Suigetsu's flesh-liquid transformations, Karin's accelerated healing abilities, and Jugo's ability to utilize nature energy. Kabuto then reveals Jugo's lineage and how Orochimaru developed the Cursed Marks when his study on Jugo's DNA led him to the legendary Ryūchi Cave where the White Snake Sage lives. Though Orochimaru could not use Sage Jutsu as his host bodies couldn't tolerate nature energy, Kabuto semi-mastered it as he unveils his Sage Mode, as to fully be able to master sage mode means not taking on the appearance of the animal you learned it from. Sasuke says that his new form is nothing different from Orochimaru, but Kabuto explains that he exceeded his former master and considers himself as a snake transformed into a dragon. Kabuto proceeds to overwhelm the Uchiha before Itachi manages to counter at the last moment. Asking Sasuke if he remembered the plan they used while on a mission hunting a wild boar, Itachi uses his brother's aid to manage to cuts off one of Kabuto's horns. Meanwhile, battling twenty five wood clones, the Five Kage find themselves at a greater disadvantage when Madara has his clones conjure Susano'os of their own.
Episode 335: Kabuto is amused at the fact that Sasuke is now getting along well with his late brother, despite his intent to kill him in the past. Attempting to manipulate him over to his side by saying both their goals are to destroy the Hidden Leaf, Sasuke remains unconvinced as the young man denied his and Kabuto's goals are mutual. Recalling his life as a spy working for Konoha, Kabuto notes that he and Itachi are the same — both worked for the village and yet received dishonour in return. Itachi, however, declares that he is still Konoha's Itachi Uchiha, regardless of its dark side and inconsistencies. Casting the conversation aside, Itachi tells Sasuke about a technique that decides destiny — Izanami, which he will use to stop Kabuto and the Reanimation jutsu. Wasting no time, Kabuto attacks the brothers once more with his Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation, causing the cave formations to attack them. Kabuto attempts to rewrite Itachi's mind with the talisman but is thwarted by Sasuke. Kabuto begins to boast about his current abilities and that he is closer than anyone in the world to the Sage of the Six Paths. Criticising the Uchiha name in the process, he was stopped by Sasuke before he could say anything more as Itachi noted Kabuto reminded him of his old self. Kabuto recalls his childhood as an orphan, being raised by Nonō in the Leaf Orphanage, while stating that from the very beginning, he was not aware of his identity and had nothing for life.
Episode 336: Kabuto remembers when he first met Orochimaru when he and the rest of the Leaf Orphanage aided several wounded Hidden Leaf Ninja, the Sannin member seeing potential in the child despite not interested in becoming a ninja. But that night, when Nonō is blackmailed by Danzo into an intelligence gathering mission in the Hidden Stone Village, Kabuto also ends up in Root's services as he spend much of his childhood infiltrating the villages of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. It was only while on a mission in the Stone Village to take out an enemy, Kabuto is attacked by who he quickly learned to be Nonō when he gravely wounded her. Attempting to heal her, Kabuto is shocked that she did not recognize him as he is forced to run away. Pondering this, Kabuto is once again approached by Orochimaru who bring him to his secret laboratory where he reveals that Root orchestrated Kabuto and Nonō to kill each other to silence them. Though he admits that he was supposed to kill any survivor, reminding the child of his lack of individuality due to Root, Orochimaru instead offers Kabuto a position as his right hand with the promise of true identity of his very own. Years later, after Orochimaru's later defeat by Sasuke, Kabuto injected himself with his former mentor's blood to achieve his quest to find his "true self".
Episode 337: Casting aside Itachi's lectures to him, Kabuto reveals he assimilated more than just Orochimaru's DNA as he creates a construct of Sakon from the base of his navel snake through which he can use the signature attacks of the Sound Five. Although easily countering Kabuto's attacks at first, Itachi and Sasuke find themselves trapped in Tayuya's genjutsu so he can finish them off with an white snake Orochimaru construct. However, though a combined effort, Sasuke and Itachi escape the genjutsu and fend the snake off by casting genjutsu on each other. Kabuto, however, appears from the mouth of the snake with a surprise attack and bisects Itachi, tearfully stating his superiority before attempting to regain control over the reanimated ninja. As his body reforms, Itachi called out to Sasuke as he threw his sword at Kabuto, only for the snake sage to block and then counter. Kabuto then attacks Itachi with the sword and claimed that his genjutsu cannot affect him. But upon realizing a sense of déjá vu in the brothers' attack pattern, having claimed to be immune to such a trick, Kabuto learns that he is trapped with his mind via the endless loop of the Uchiha Clan's genjutsu Izanami.
Episode 338: 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. Itachi ultimately reveals to Sasuke that Izanami was created with the sole purpose of stopping the users of the technique's counterpart: Izanagi so that they would accept their fate — which is also the way to escape the infinite loop. Angered by the fact that Itachi would cast a technique that has an escape route, Sasuke questions his motives to which Itachi says that he wished to give Kabuto an opportunity to accept his fate. Sasuke, however, claims that Itachi is perfect and rather different from Kabuto but the elder Uchiha refuses this claim. Elsewhere, somewhere in a forest seemingly some distance away, a grown-up Urushi tells his comrade that he hoped by the time he gets home, Kabuto will be there. Back at the cave, Itachi prepares to put an end to the Reanimation jutsu.
Rating: 9/10(Average)
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