The Two Students

Sakura tends Hinata's injuries and reflects on the depth of her love for Naruto, who finishes the Deva Path with a Rasengan. After tearing the black chakra receivers from Yahiko's borrowed body, Naruto resolves to find the true Pain and speak with him, asking Katsuyu to warn the others against following. The slug passes his message to Sakura, Hinata, Kō, and Team Guy, reporting that the Six Paths are beaten and that Naruto means to confront the last Pain alone. Neji and Guy want to lend support, but they honor his wish to go by himself.

Along the way, Inoichi, Shikaku, and a Hyūga clansman notice him. Inoichi wants the group to help finish Pain and bristles when Naruto explains he intends only to talk, not to kill. Shikaku settles Inoichi and lets Naruto pass, revealing that his son Shikamaru once described Naruto's knack for drawing others to his cause and predicted he would matter greatly to Konoha; coming from someone so sparing with praise, that judgment moves Shikaku to place the same trust in him.

Naruto slips into Sage Mode, pinpoints the real Pain, and enters a hideout housed within an enormous tree to find Nagato and Konan. Nagato spears him with a chakra receiver, deliberately sparing vital points because he needs the jinchūriki alive, but Naruto funnels the Nine-Tails' chakra back through the rod while holding Sage Mode, leaving Nagato helpless. Asked whether he hates him, Naruto remembers Nagato killing Jiraiya and Kakashi and lunges to kill, only for Konan to shield her friend. Recalling Jiraiya's hope of ending the cycle of hatred and his father's warning that such a system only breeds more men like Pain, Naruto halts, releases both the Nine-Tails' power and Sage Mode, and asks to hear their story, and Nagato agrees to tell it.

Naruto destroys the Deva Path and sets out to confront the true Pain in person. Shikaku persuades Inoichi to let Naruto go alone, citing Shikamaru's faith in him. Naruto uses Sage Mode to locate Nagato and Konan, survives Nagato's chakra receiver, and incapacitates him. On the verge of killing Nagato, Naruto chooses restraint and asks to hear his and Konan's past, which Nagato agrees to share.

The episode adapts manga chapters 442 through 444 during Pain's Assault and sets up Nagato's flashback that follows. It airs under the opening A World That Was Transparent and the ending Transient Fireworks. The two students of the title are Naruto and Nagato, both pupils of Jiraiya taking opposite paths toward the same question of hatred.