Search for Tsunade

This Part I storyline marks the debut of the Akatsuki and pits Jiraiya against Orochimaru as each tries to reach Tsunade first. It stretches across volumes 16 to 19, spanning manga chapters 139 to 171 and anime episodes 81 to 100. The Konoha Crush comes before it. The manga leads straight into the Sasuke Recovery Mission, while the anime detours through the Land of Tea escort. Rated a B-rank mission, it launches Naruto on the road to mastering the Rasengan.

With Konoha reeling from the failed invasion and mourning the Third Hokage, the elders ask Jiraiya to take up the mantle. He refuses, nominating his fellow pupil Tsunade, and heads out to find her with Naruto in tow after promising to teach the boy a new technique. Meanwhile two Akatsuki operatives, Kisame and Itachi, slip into the village. They overpower Asuma and Kurenai, and even Kakashi falls to Itachi's Tsukuyomi before Might Guy drives the pair off. Their aim, it emerges, is the Nine-Tails sealed inside Naruto.

When Sasuke discovers his brother has resurfaced, he tears off after Naruto, desperate to settle their feud. Itachi and Kisame corner Naruto at an inn, but Jiraiya, freed from a genjutsu meant to lure him away, blocks their attack. Sasuke throws himself at Itachi and is thrashed and left mentally broken by another Tsukuyomi. The assassins flee rather than face Jiraiya directly, and Guy carries the shattered Sasuke home, convincing Jiraiya that only Tsunade can mend both Sasuke and Kakashi.

As they travel, Jiraiya begins drilling Naruto in the Rasengan. Orochimaru, his arms crippled after slaying the Third, is likewise chasing Tsunade, the one medic who might restore them. He reaches her first and, knowing her fear of blood and her grief over a lost brother and lover, dangles the promise of resurrecting them in exchange for her help, giving her a week to decide. Jiraiya and Naruto catch up and wager the First Hokage's necklace on whether Naruto can perfect the Rasengan within that same week.

Torn between temptation and conscience, Tsunade ultimately rejects Orochimaru, and a fight erupts once his aide Kabuto senses the killing intent behind her healing. Kabuto proves a punishing foe, exploiting Tsunade's blood phobia, until Naruto lands a fully formed Rasengan on him and collapses from a crippling counter to his heart. Moved by the boy's resemblance to her dead loved ones and his refusal to abandon his dream, Tsunade revives him and finally hangs the necklace around his neck. When Orochimaru lunges to kill the weakened Naruto, she takes the blade herself, conquers her terror of blood, and claims the title of Fifth Hokage. The three Sannin then summon Manda, Katsuyu, and Gamabunta for a titanic clash that ends with Orochimaru beaten and forced to withdraw.

Back in Konoha, Tsunade heals Sasuke and Kakashi of the damage Itachi inflicted. She examines Rock Lee's spinal injuries and warns that the corrective surgery only she can perform carries even odds of curing or killing him, though her private calculations quietly improve those chances. In the anime, the Third Hokage's grandson Konohamaru resents the idea of a new leader until he overhears Tsunade's genuine concern for Lee, which wins him over. Just before her inauguration, Shizune glimpses a chart on the desk where the survival estimate has been revised upward, and she can only smile.