
The fifth Naruto film and second in the Shippūden run, Bonds pits Konoha against sky-riding ninja from the Land of the Sky. As Naruto escorts a young medic home, the plot ties into Orochimaru, Sasuke, and a scholar obsessed with the power of darkness.
Naruto Shippūden the Movie: Bonds is the fifth Naruto film overall and the second set in the Shippūden period. It premiered in Japanese theatres in August 2008 and arrived on English home video in October 2011. Home Made Kazoku performs its theme, NO RAIN NO RAINBOW.
Ninja from the Land of the Sky launch a surprise aerial raid on Konoha, retaliating for near-destruction during an earlier war and bombing the village from winged machines. A boy named Amaru arrives seeking his teacher to help his own ravaged village, so Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata are sent to escort Amaru and the doctor Shinnō home. During the journey Naruto discovers that Amaru is a girl and that she harbours feelings for her mentor.
While Konoha sends a second squad to find the raiders' base, Orochimaru, weakening as his host body nears its limit, orders Sasuke to capture a man who can perfect his reincarnation technique. Amaru's village lies in ruins, and Shinnō appears to die shielding her from a trap. Grief opens Amaru to a creature called the Zero-Tails, which feeds on the darkness in human hearts and possesses her, taunting Naruto into his four-tailed fox state before a seal from Jiraiya pulls him back.
Shinnō turns out to be alive and villainous, having spent years chasing the power of darkness and now needing a reincarnation scroll. He assumes a youthful, muscular form and outmatches Naruto until Sasuke arrives and forces him back to normal. Shinnō hands Sasuke a scroll, then flees and fuses with a chakra-absorbing cocoon, rendering the pair's jutsu useless until they combine Naruto's fox chakra with Sasuke's cursed seal to break its power.
With the beast rampaging after absorbing Shinnō, Amaru frees the captured villagers and sends them off in a flying lifeboat. Naruto forces Sasuke aboard as well, whispering a promise to bring him back to Konoha, then levels the ruins with a barrage of Rasengan clones. He falls toward the sea, and Jiraiya, riding Gamabunta, catches him and Amaru. Sasuke returns the scroll to Orochimaru while Naruto's vow lingers in his mind.
The film was announced in Weekly Shōnen Jump alongside the DVD date for the first Shippūden feature, with teasers running during the anime's broadcast. It later saw ani-manga and light novel editions, the latter written by Masatoshi Kusakabe. The movie introduced two fresh Rasengan variations, the Tornado Rasengan and the Guts Rasengan, and marked the first time Naruto forms a standard Rasengan without shadow clones.

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In Naruto Shippūden the Movie: Bonds, Konoha is attacked by aerial raiders from the Land of the Sky while Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata escort a boy named Amaru and the doctor Shinnō home, uncovering a plot tied to a dark chakra-based demon called the Zero-Tails.
The main antagonist of Bonds is Shinnō, a doctor who fakes his own death, pursues the power of darkness for years, and later needs a reincarnation scroll that Orochimaru sent Sasuke to retrieve.
Amaru, a girl disguised as a boy who idolizes her mentor Shinnō, becomes possessed by the Zero-Tails after grieving his apparent death, but she later frees the captured villagers and escapes with them in a flying lifeboat.
Naruto Shippūden the Movie: Bonds introduces two new Rasengan variations, the Tornado Rasengan and the Guts Rasengan, and marks the first time Naruto forms a standard Rasengan without using shadow clones.
Naruto Shippūden the Movie: Bonds is the fifth film in the overall Naruto series and the second set during the Shippūden era, released in Japanese theaters in August 2008.
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