Naruto Shippuden · Pain's Assault

Naruto learns that Jiraiya is dead and sinks into grief. Shikamaru cracks the code carved on Fukasaku's back: the real Pain is not one of the six. Naruto goes to Mount Myōboku and learns Sage Mode from the toads. Meanwhile, Pain invades Konoha looking for him. Kakashi falls in battle, and the Deva Path levels the entire village with a single blow. Naruto arrives and takes down Pain's bodies one by one. Hinata throws herself in front of him, confesses her love, and gets struck down, and Naruto loses control, going to six and then eight tails. Minato appears inside him and restores the seal. Naruto wins, talks with Nagato, who revives the dead and dies. Konoha welcomes Naruto as a hero.

1. ReferenceThe Six Paths are Buddhist

   Pain's bodies are named after Buddhism's six realms of rebirth: Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta and Naraka. Nagato's Rinnegan also takes its name from the cycle of rebirth, samsara.

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2. Behind the scenesPiercings that hurt himself

   The piercings on every Pain body are how Nagato controls them. Kishimoto said they're also a metaphor for how he inflicts pain on himself.

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3. SetupWhat Minato tells Naruto

   In ep. 168, the Fourth Hokage appears inside Naruto and reveals who he is. He also says a masked man was behind the Nine-Tailed Fox attack. That clue drives much of what comes next.

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