Ninshu: The Ninja Creed

Hagoromo tells the four resurrected Hokage that Naruto and Sasuke carry the reincarnated souls of his own sons, and that the pair now stand against his mother. To help them grasp the stakes, he recounts how Ninshu began. After Kaguya was sealed, Hagoromo roamed the land to heal the devastation left by the Ten-Tails and to find homes for the tailed beasts. The toad sage Gamamaru shares one more prophecy, foretelling a blue-eyed youth tied to the beasts, then parts ways with him.

Hagoromo reaches a wrecked bridge and sets about repairing it, over the objections of Futami, a swindler who relies on the broken crossing to trick travelers. When Hagoromo warns off one of the man's marks, Futami's anger flares. Yet after watching the sage labor day after day, Futami pitches in to speed his departure, planning to tear the bridge down once he leaves. Others, seeing the work, join in, and by the time it is finished Futami has changed his heart and travels on alongside Hagoromo.

As the two grow close, Hagoromo shares his chakra with Futami, who asks to become his student, and the sage discovers a new calling in linking people through chakra. They meet another ruined bridge and another thief, and the pattern repeats, drawing ever more followers. Finding fitting places to release the tailed beasts, Hagoromo eventually spreads disciples across the world. On his deathbed he frees the beasts to those chosen sites, then returns to the Land of Ancestors, where he marries and fathers two sons, losing his wife after Asura's birth. Unseen by him, Black Zetsu quietly fixes its gaze on the boys.

Hagoromo reveals Naruto and Sasuke as the reincarnations of his sons and explains the birth of Ninshu. He rebuilds a broken bridge and reforms the thief Futami, who becomes his first disciple. Sharing chakra with others, Hagoromo gathers followers who scatter to spread his creed. On his deathbed he releases the tailed beasts to homes across the land. He later fathers two children, and Black Zetsu begins scheming against them.

The episode sits in the Kaguya Otsutsuki Strikes arc, opening with Blood Circulator and ending on Blue Lullaby. Minato appears with normal sclerae rather than the darkened eyes typical of reincarnated shinobi, and a recolored flashback reuses footage from Shippuden episode 329 to give Hagoromo his correct appearance.